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COPYRIGHT  DEPOSIT. 


GOVERNOR    SMITH. 

AGE  50    YEARS. 
WHEN    GOVERNOR    FIRST    TERM. 


AUTOCRAPH    AT    50. 


1 


DEDICATION 

TO    THE    PEOPLE    OF    VIRGINIA, 

Whose  sublime  devotion  to  Government — Constitutional  and 
Republican — was  stimulated  and  illustrated  by  the  unceasing 
and  heroic  exertions  of  the  subject  of  these  Memoirs,  for  full 
half  a  century,  by  precept  and  example  ;  whose  love  and 
admiration  for  him  through  all  his  stormy  contests  on  the 
Hustings,  in  the  Cabinet  and  on  the  Field,  was  not  surpassed 
by  the  depth  of  his  political  convictions,  and  his  patriotism 
and   love    for   the    American    Republic, 

These  pages  are  dedicated  by 

The  Author. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


i.   William  Smith,  aged  fifty  (50)  ;  when  Governor  first  term.      With  auto- 
graph.      Frontispiece. 

2.  Governor  Smith's  Residence,   at  Warrenton,  Virginia. 

3.  Barn  and  Farm  Yard,   at  Governor  Smith's  Residence. 

4.  Diagram  of  Grounds  at  Fairfax    Fight. 

5.  Executive  Mansion,   at  Richmond,   Virginia. 

6.  Mrs.   E.   H.   Smith  ;  age,   eighty. 

7.  Governor  Smith,   when  Governor  second  term  ;  age,   sixty-sevea 

8.  Florida  and  Virginia  Flags. — Scene  at  Battle  of  Seven  Pines. 

9.  Ex-Governor  Smith,   of  Virginia,  with  autograph  ;  age,   ninety. 

10.  Rules  of  Debate — autographic,  p.  73. 

11.  Bust  of  Ex-Governor  Smith  ;  age,   ninety. 

12.  Tombs  of  Governor  Smith,  wife  and  sons  at  Hollywood.  Richmond. 

13.  Memorial  Cottage,   at  the  Soldiers'  Home,   Richmond. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

GENEALOGY   AND   EARLY  LIFE. 

The  Doniphans  (A.  W.  and  John) — Their  Ancestors,  Commanded  Spanish  Troops — 
Fled  to  Scotland  —  One  Son  Settled  at  Jamestown — Grants  of  Land  from 
Charles  II.— Fought  in  the  Revolution  in  John  Marshall's  Company — Father  of 
A.  W.  Doniphan,  at  Yorktown — Justice  of  the  Peace  at  Alexandria — Judgments 
in  Favor  of  Gen.  Washington — Win.  Smith's  Birth — Col.  Caleb  Smith — His  Sons 
and  Daughters — William's  School  Days  in  Connecticut — Return  to  Virginia — At 
School  at  Nelson's — Studied  Law — Success  as  Lawyer — Marriage.  .Pages  i-6. 

CHAPTER  II. 

Contracts  with  the  United  States  Government — Pioneer  of  the  South — Countrv  Im- 
proved— His  Stage  and  Boat  Lines — Great  Competition — Free  Passage  and  a 
Bottle  of  Wine — Brocks  Virginians Pages  6-8 . 

CHAPTER  III. 

Mr.  Smith's  Initiation  into  Political  Life — His  Political  Principles — His  Admiration  of 
Jefferson  and  Madison — First  Election  to  the  Legislature  of  Virginia — Election  of 
United  States  Senator — W.  C.  Rives — The  Conservative,  Whig  and  Democratic 
Parties — Mr.  Rives  a  Candidate  for  U.  S.  Senator — Mr.  Smith's  Determined 
Opposition  to  Him — The  Reason  Why — Senator  Smith's  Speech  against  Him — 
Distinguished  Whigs   of  that  Day Pages  8-12. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Mr.  Smith's  Second  Term  in  the  Senate — Without  Opposition — His  Resignation — Pres- 
idential Election — Mr.  Rives  Again — His  Discussion  with  Mr.  Smith — The  "Hard 
Cider  Campaign" — Henry  Wilson's  Log  Cabin — Mr.  Smith's  Great  Discussion 
with  Governor  Barbour  at  Staunton,  Va Pages  12-14. 

CHAPTER  V. 
Vacancy  in  Congress — Col.  Banks  Becomes  a  Candidate — Mr.  Smith  Urged  to  Run 
— Declines — His  Letter  on  the  Subject — The  People  Determined  to  Nominate 
Him — Elected  to  Congress — His  Course  in  Congress — Speeches  on  the  Tariff — 
"Attalus"  Congressional  District  Re -arranged — Extract  from  his  Letter  to 
Col.  Parker Pages  15-18. 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Mr.  Smith  Neutral  between  Mr.  Calhoun  and  President  Van  Buren — Appointed  Demo- 
cratic State  Elector — Hon.  R.  E.  Scott  Whig  Elector — Traversed  the  State  as  Dem- 
ocratic Elector — Mr.  Rives  once  More — Discussion  at  Culpeper  with  Mr.  Smith. 

Pages  18-21. 
CHAPTER  VII. 

Mr.  Smith's  Election  of  Governor  of  Virginia  for  Three  Years  by  the  Legislature — 
His  Nomination  for  the  Senate  of  the  United  States — His  Defeat  by  a  Combina- 
tion of  the  Whigs  and  Conservatives — Extracts  from  His  Letter  to  Col.  Parker  as 
to  His  Election  of  Governor — His  Administration  as  Governor — His  Visit  to  and 
Sojourn  in  California Pages  21-24. 


VI  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Gov.  Smith's  Return  from  California — His  Candidacy  for  Congress — The  Failure  of  a 
Convention  to  Nominate  a  Candidate  against  Him — A  Triangular  Contest — His 
Election  to  Congress  over  a  Democrat  and  a  Whig — His  Election  to  Congress  in 
1853,  1855,  1857  and  1859— His  Visit  to  Washington  in  the  Winter  of  i86o-'6i—  Pro- 
cured three  Maynard  Rifles — Brought  two  out  of  the  City  with  the  aid  of  a  Lady's 
Dress Pages  24-28. 

CHAPTER  IX. 
The  Ex-Governor's  Visit  to  Fairfax  Court  House — The  Surprise  by  the  Federals  and 
Fight  on  the  Night  of  the  31st  of  May,  '61 — Company  B  United  States  Dragoons — 
Capt.  Marr's  Company — Marr  Killed — Col.  Ewell  Wounded  and  Turned  over  the 
Command  to  Smith — The  Enemy  Routed — Gov.  Smith  Raised  a  Regiment — Was 
Commissioned  Colonel  by  Gov.  Letcher— First  Battle  of  Manassas — His  Gallant 
Conduct  there — Singular  Order  by  Col.  Smith  to  the  49th  Virginia — Major  Smith 
Severely  Wounded — Col.  Smith's  Horse  Shot  Under  Him — His  Humane  Treat- 
ment of  a  Federal  Officer Pages  28-37. 

CHAPTER  X. 
Col.  Smith's  Report  of  date  July,  1862,  of  the  Battle  of  Seven  Pines  of  25th  June,  1862, 
to  Gen.  Mahone — Extracts  from  Gen.  Mahone's  Report  Relative  to  49th  Virginia 
Volunteers,  and  Col.  Smith,  at  Battle  of  Seven  Pines — Extracts  from  his  Report 
of  June  30th,  1862— Gen.  D.  H.  Hill's  Report  of  Battle  of  Seven  Pines  of  31st 
May,  1862,  as  to  Conduct  of  49th  Virginia — Gen.  Huger's  Report  of  July  21st,  1862, 
as  to  same — Inscription  on  its  Banner  for  Distinguished  Gallantry  in  a  Fight 
at  "  Kings  School  House,"  Seven  Pines  and  at  French's  Field — Col.  Smith's 
Report  to  Col.  B.  G.  Anderson,  Commanding  Brigade  of  same  fight  of  31st 
May,  1862 — Extract  from  Report  of  Col.  Anderson,  Commanding  Gen.  Feather- 
stone's  Brigade — A  Florida  Flag  Found  in  the  Brush— Col.  Smith  Bears  it  at  the 
Head  of  his  own  Regiment — Ordered  by  Commanding  Officers  to  give  it  up — 
Seized  by  a  Florida  boy  who  bravely  bears  it  through  the  fight — The  Colonel  and 
Lieut.-Colonel  Severely  Wounded— Three  Captains  and  six  Lieutenants  Wounded, 
and  one  Killed — Col.  Smith's  Horse  Fatally  Shot  Under  him — Extract  from  Dr. 
Horseley's  Letter  to  Col.  Smith Pages  37-44. 

CHAPTER  XL 
Col.  Smith's  Election  to  the  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States — Took  his  Seat  in 
Congress,  February,  1862 — Gen.  Johnston  falls  back  from  Manassas,  9th  March, 
1862,  to  Clark's  Mountain — Thither  moved  his  Army  to  Yorktown — 49th  in  charge 
of  Lieut.-Col.  Murray — Congress  adjourned — Col.  Smith  rejoins  his  Regiment  at 
Yorktown  and  took  command — Elected  Colonel  by  the  Officers  of  the  Companies, 
under  Act  of  Congress — Resigned  his  Seat  in  Congress — Evacuation  of  York- 
town — The  Seven  Pines  again — The  Colonel's  Celebrated  Order  to  "Flush  the 
Game." Pages  44-46 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Battle  of  Sharpsburg — Col.  Smith  Assigned  to  the  Command  of  Early's  Brigade  tem- 
porarily, by  Gen.  Early — Receives  thre«  Wounds  in  one  Volley — Promoted 
Brigadier-General,  and  Assigned  to  Command  of  Fourth  Brigade — Casualties  in 
this  Fight  in  the  49th  Virginia— Gen.  J.  E.  B.  Stuart  and  Gen.  Early's  Reports  of 
Col.  Smith's  Conduct  in  this  Fight — Candidate  for  Governor — Made  no  Canvass — 
Did  not  leave  his  Brigade — Elected  by  a  Large  Majority — Retained  Command  of 
his  Brigade  in  the  Gettysburg  Campaign— Promoted  to  Major-General — Agreed 
to  Qualify  as  Governor — Entered  the  Recruiting  Service — Inaugurated  Governor 
on  the  first  day  of  January,  1864 — Delivered  his  Inaugural  in  the  Hall  of  the 
House  of  Delegates Pages  47-55. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  Vll 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Governor  Smith's  Administration  of  the  State  Government—  His  Bold  and  Energetic 
Executive  Measures — Creation  of  the  Home  Guard  — History  of  this  Extraordinary 
Measure — Suspected  Mutiny  among  the  Troops — His  Visit  and  Address  to  them — 
His  Firm  and  Decisive  Action  on  this  Occasion — Effect  upon  them — Asks  for  an 
Appropriation  to  Purchase  Supplies  for  Army  and  People  of  the  City  and  Country 
— Bill  Fails — Organized  a  Plan  Despite  its  Failure,  to  Furnish  them — Raised 
Large  Sums  of  Money  to  Purchase  Supplies— Organized  and  Procured  a  Railroad 
Train  to  Transport  them  to  Richmond — Signal  Success  of  the  Plan — Reduced 
Prices  for  Necessaries  of  Life — Loaned  Liberally  to  the  Confederate  Government 
in  1864— Great  Relief  to  the  People  of  the  City  and  Country Pages  55-59. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
The  Eventful  Sabbath  Day  in  Richmond— President  Davis  in  Church— Dispatch  from 
General  Lee — The  President  Sends  for  Governor  Smith — The  President  and  Gov- 
ernor Leave  the  City — Mrs.  Smith's  Demeanor — The  President  Opens  the  Confed- 
erate Government  at  Danville,  Va. — The  Governor  Opens  the  State  Government 
there,  also — The  President  Proceeds  to  Greensboro,  N.  C. — Trying  Scenes  at 
Danville — Governor's  Speech  to  the  Troops — Its  Effect  on  Them— Outbreak  Sup- 
pressed— Guerilla  Policy  Adandoned — Peace  Resolutions  at  Staunton — He  Deter- 
mines to  Surrender  Himself — $25,000  Offered  for  his  Arrest — The  Governor 
Leaves  the  Valley — Entreated  not  to  Return  to  Richmond — His  Sojourn  at  Charles 
W.  Dabney's,  Esq. — Safe  Conduct  to  Richmond  from  General  Patrick — Manner 
of  his  Reception — His  Recall  by  the  President  of  the  United  States — The  Gov- 
ernor's Proclamation Pages  60-66. 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Gov.  Smith  at  Home — Still  Standing  by  the  South — Precepts  to  his  People — "A 
Bundle  of  Good  Habits  " — His  determination  to  Remain  in  Virginia — Coinci- 
dence of  Feeling  and  Judgment  with  Gen.  Lee — Extension  of  his  Parole — Proc- 
lamation of  the  President  29th  May,  1865 — Reconstruction — Mingles  Warmly  in 
the  Election  for  First  Governor,  Under  New  Constitution — Again  Elected  to  the 
Legislature — Election  for  United  States  Senator — Devotion  to  his  Wife  and  Chil- 
dren— Extracts  on  this  Subject — Anecdote  related  by  himself. .  .Pages  66-71. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Gov.  Smith's  Manners — His  Habits,  Public  and  Private — His  Uniform  Abstinence 
from  Liquor  and  Tobacco — His  Great  Aversion  to  a  Drunken  Man — Temperance 
Speeches — His  Abhorrence  of  Purchasing  Votes  with  Money  or  Liquor— His 
Cheap  Canvasses  for  Congress  and  the  Legislature — Some  Maxims  or  Rules  of 
Debate — His  Religious^Faith — Last  Attack  and  Illness — His  Death. 

Pages  72-75. 
CHAPTER  XVII. 

Funeral  Obsequies  at  Warrenton — Guard  of  Honor — Body  lies  in  State — Bethel  Cadets 

Body  at  the  Church — Address  of  Rev.  Lindsay— Cortege  Leaves  Warrenton — 

Proceedings  at  Richmond — Body  in  the  Capitol,  in  State— Message  of  Governor 
Lee Proceedings  of  the  Legislature— Judge  Christian's  Funeral  Oration — Pro- 
cession to  Hollywood — Eulogies  on  Governor  Smith,  by  Captain  Payne,  Colonel 
Stribling  and  Major  Heaton,  in  the  Legislature  of  Virginia. .  .Pages  76-122. 


INDEX  TO  THE   MEMOIRS. 


A. 

Anderson,  Sir  Walter,  of  Wales 2 

Anderson,  Sir  Joseph,  of  Wales 104 

Alhambra,  W.  Irving's 3 

Academy,  Waverley 4 

Amherst,  Co.  House,  Va 6 

Adams,  J.  Q.,  Election  of  P.  of  U.  S.  .     8 

Attalus 17 

Archer,  Wm.  S 22 

Anderson,  Col.  B.  G.,  Report  of  .37,  42  46 

Anderson,  James  M.,  Lieutenant 39 

Anderson,  General  Joseph 83,  84,  87 

Atkins,  S.  B.  Gunner 88 

Alliance  of  Va.,  Temperance 93 

Appornatox,  Surrender  at 95 

Antietam,  Gen.  Smith,  wounded  at. 98,  99 

August,  Col.  Tom,  Anecdote  of 107 

Appornatox,  Surrender  at 117 


Brandywine,  Battle  of 1 

Boonesborough,  Ky 1 

British  Navy 2 

Brock,  Dr.  R.  A.,  of  Richmond,  Va 27 

Bell,    William 4 

Blackford,  John 4 

Baltimore,  City  of, 5,  51 

Bell,  J.  M,. 6,  88,  91,  104 

Bell,  Amelia 6,  91 

Bell,  Elizabeth  H 6,  90 

Bell,  Parke, 

Baltimore,  City  of 7,  90,  98,  100 

Barbour,    Ex-Governor,  Va 10,  14 

Barbour,  John  S.   M.  C 10,  14,  106 

Baldwin,  Judge  B.  G 10,  14 

Botts,  J.  M.,  M.  Congress 10,  19 

Banks,  Col.  Lynn,  M.  C.    15,  16 

Bernard,  A.  H.  H 19 

Bedinger,   Henry,  M.  C 19 

Beauregard,  General 29,  30,  32,  36 

Bull  Run 30 

Brothers 31,  32 

Baggs,  Private,   49th   Va 34 

Boya,    Lieutenant 41 

Bristol,  Engagement  at 44 

Bates,  Federal  Historian., 52 

Balcony  Falls 64 

Bethell  Cadets,  Capt.  Mclntyre 76 

Bridgeport,  Connecticut 76 

Brooke,  Hon.  J.  V., 78,  79,  80,  81 

Bell,  Judge,  J.   W 82 

Bowles,  Capt.  T.J 87 

Brower,  Major  J.  J.  H 87 

Bosher,  Lieutenant .88 

Ball,  W.   B.   Gunner 88 

Barry,  Wm.T.,  P.  M.General  U.  S.,97,  100 

Blue  Book 97,  101 

Broderick,  David 97,  100 

Bull  Run,  the  Second 99 

Blue  Ridge 99 

Burnside,  General,  put  in  command — 
McClellan,  Gen.,  removed 99 


Buchanan,   James,    President  of    the 

United  States 101 

Bloomsburg,   Pennsylvania 101 

Barr,  Tom's,  Hotel,  in  Limestone,  Pa  101 
Bristol  News,  Va.,  on  Gov.  Smith.  . .  .103 

Harbour,  James,  of  Culpeper 105 

Broadus,  Edmund 106 

"  Baltimore  Sun,"  on  Gov.  Smith.  . .  .108 
Broderick,  Senator,  from  California. .  109 

Burkesville  Junction,  Va     112 

Blackwell,   J.  D.,  Poem    dedicated    to 
Gov.  Smith,  by,  of  Fauq.  Co 114 


Charles  I.  and  II 1 

Cavaliers 3 

Culpeper,    Va 4 

Connecticut,    Plainfield 5 

Culpeper,  C.  Ho 6,  90 

Carolina,  South 6,  30 

Carolina,  North 7,  13 

Champion,  Steamer 7 

Courts,  U.  S.  at  Washington 8 

Clay,  H.  Election  of,8,  12,  17,  18,  19,  20/21 

Crawford,  Wm.  H.,  Election  of 8 

Calhoun  J.  C 12,  18 

Caskie,  John  S.,  of  Richmond 19 

Charlottesville,  Va 22 

Covington,    Va 22 

California 24,  25,  95,  97,  100,  104 

City,    Washington 24,  32,  34,  35 

Carey,  Assistant   Q.  M.,  U.  S.  A 35 

Cooke,  Gen.  Brigade 37 

Cabell,  James  C,  Lieutenant,  49th  Va.  39 
Christian,  R.  K.,  Lieutenant  49th.  ..39,  40 

Cabell,  R.  S.,  Lieutenant,  49th  Va 39 

Curry,  Sergeant,  49th  Va.  Reg 39 

Colbert,  Lieutenant,  49th  Va 41 

Clarke's   Mountain,  Orange  Co 44 

Chilton,  Col.  R.  H.,  Chief  of  Staff.  ...  49 

"  Culps   Hill" 51 

Claiborne,  Major.  49th  Va.  Reg 58 

Church,  St.  Paul's 60 

Cartersville,  Va 65 

California,  State  of 67,  95,  98 

Christian,  Judge  Joseph 82,  83,  84,  85 

Core,  B.  D 87 

Camp,  R.  F.,  Gunner 88 

Cole,  J.  H 88 

Chilton,  Hon.  Samuel  M.  C 90,  105 

Culpeper,  Congressional  District 90 

Culpeper,  Ct.  Ho.,  Va.,  began  law  prac- 
tice  97,  100 

Casserly 24 

Cedar  Mountain,  Battle  of 99 

"Columbia  (Pa.)  Democrat"  on   Gov. 

Smith 102 

Columbia,   Pennsylvania 102 

Cambria,    Pennsylvania 102 

Capitol  Square,  Va 107 

City    Point,  Va Ill 

"  Charleston  News  and  Courier  ".  ...  120 


INDEX   TO   THE    MEMOIRS. 


D. 

Doniphan,  General  A.  W.  and  Colonel 

John    i,  2,  104 

Doniphan,  A.W.,  J.  of  P.,  Alexandria. .      1 

Doniphan,  Dr 3 

Davenport,  and  Co 7 

Daniel,  Judge  Wm 19 

Daniel,  John  W.,  Letter  of . .  19,  116,  117, 

[118,  119 

Dunnington,  Capt 32,  34,  35 

Davis,  President  C.  S.  A 43,  60,  62,  64 

Douglass,  Major,  of  Maryland 50 

DeNeuville,  Painter 53 

Danville,    62,  63,  64 

Danville,  Escape  to 95 

Dabney,  Charles  Wm.,  Esq 65 

Demosthenes 93 

Danville,  Pennsylvania 101 

Doniphan,    Elizabeth 104 

E. 

Encyclopedia,   Hardesty's,    Historical 

and  Geographical 2,  7 

Episcopal  Seminary  at  Alexandria,  Va.     4 

Edmonds,  Davenport   &  Co 7 

Enquirer,   Richmond,  Va 10,  17 

Ewell,  Col 29,  33 

Episcopal  Church  at  Faixfax 33 

Early,  Gen.  J.  A 44,  47,  52,  78,  79,  109 

Early's,  Brigade 47 

Early's  Report  B 47,  48 

Early's  Letter  to  Major  Stiles 48,  49 

Ewell's    Division 49 

Echols,   General 65 

East,  J.  W.,  Gunner 88 

*'  Evening  Star  Lodge" 92 

Eldorado,  New,  in  California 97 

Espytown,  Pennsylvania   101 

Early,  Gen.  Jubal  A.,  Detour  'round 
Milroy's  right  flank,  by  Hays  and 
Smith's    Brigade   117 

F. 

Ferdinand,  King  of  Spain 3 

Fairfax 6,  33 

Fairfax,  Co.  Ho  ,  Va.6,  28,  32,  36,  6i,   112 

Fanquier  Co.,  Va 17,    112 

Floyd,  J.  B.,  Ex  Gov.  of  Va.,  Maj.Gen.  29 

Florence,  the  Picket 33 

Frank,  Adjutant  U.  S.  A 35 

' '  French's,    Field' ' 37 

Featherstone,  General 38 

Foot,  Captain 39 

"  French's  House  " 41 

"  Frazier's  Farm" 43 

Fredericksburg,  Va 43,  48,  50 

Forrest,    General 46 

Flournoy,  Thomas  S 50 

Fitzhugh,  Major,  Q.  Master  Va '58 

Francis,  John  A 81 

(Fredericksburg  Recorder) 105 

Fisher's  Hill 109 

Fort  Jackson 117,   118 

Farley,   John  S 120 

G. 

Grenada,  Battle  of 3 

Goose  Creek 3 

Green,  Judge,  of  Fred'kb'g,  Va.  .4,  5,  90 
Galveston,    Texas 7 


Gunnell,  Mr 29,  32 

Garland,  General 38 

Gibson,  J.    C,    Lieut.    Col.    49th   Va. 

,  Reg 39,  40-49 

Gettysburg,   Pennsylvania   ..   50,51,    117 

Gilham's  Tactics 53 

Greensboro,  North  Carolina. . .  .58,  62,  64 

Georgetown 76,  88 

Green,   Hon.    Charles,  of  Warrenton, 

Va 78,  79,  80,  81 

Gaines,  Grenville,   Major 81 

Green,  M.  M.,  of  Warrenton, 81,  82 

Gladstone,  of  England '. . .   84 

Graves,  J.  M 88 

Gwarthmey,  B.  M.,  Gunner 88 

Gatewood,  R.  C,  Gunner 88 

Gaines'  Mill 89 

Georgia,  State  of 91 

Green  and    Williams,    Law    Firm    at 

Fredericksburg,  Va 95 

Gainsville,  Fight  at 99 

Groveton,  Fight  at 99 

Gazette,  Alexandria 109,   1 10 

Grant,  General   U.  S.,  at   the   Lincoln 

Club,  Speech  of 1 1 1,    112 

Giddings,  Joshua  R.,  of   Ohio in 

Gracchi,  Mother  of 113 

H. 

Hanover,  Co.,    Va 5'   *4 

Holliday,  John  Z 19 

Hunter,  R.  M.  T 22 

Hunton,  Col.  Eppa 30",  32,  37 

Harrison's  Company 33 

Hunter,   Federal  Col 35 

Hill,  Gen.  D.  H 37,  39-  42 

Huger,  General,  Report  of 37,  42 

Horsely,  Dr.  William  A 37,  39,  43 

Hill,  .Samuel,  Lieutenant 39 

Hill,  Col.  48th  North  Carolina 41 

Hamilton's   Crossings 44,  48,  50 

Hunter,  George  (Colored  Servant)  48,  49 

Hagerstown,   Maryland   50 

Hunter,  Major  Robert  W.,  of  Va. .  .50,  51 

Howard,  General 52 

Hardee,   General 53 

Hope,  William  H 81 

Hilliary,  William  P 81 

Helm,  William  P 81 

Hunton,  Eppa,  Junior 82 

Heaton,  Hon.  Henry 82,  83,  87,   121 

Hollywood  Cemetery 83,  85,  87,   113 

Howitzers,   The 88 

Horner,  Brother,  Frederick,  M.  D  92 

Hope  James  Barron  on  Gen.  Smith.  .102 

Henry,  Patrick 105 

Hunton,  General  Eppa,  of  Va. . .  105,   109 

Halifax,  Virginia 105 

Heaton,  Henry,  Resolution    by 121 

I. 

Irving,  Washington 3 

J. 

Jamestown,  Va 1 

[ohnson,    Dr.        

Jackson,  A.,  Election  of 8,  59,   103 

fffferson,    Thomas 8,  27,   74 

Johnson,  Gen.  Joseph  E 36,  37,  44,  45 


INDEX   TO   THE    MEMOIRS. 


Jacobs,  Captain 39 

Jewell,    Corporal 39 

Jackson,  General 48,  52,   103 

Johnson,    Gen.  Edward 50,  51,  52  53 

Jones,  J.  M..  Brigade,  General 51 

Jeffries,   J.  P.... 81 

Jackson,  Rev.  H.  M.,  of  R 85,  88 

Johnson,     Dr.,   Chaplain    Hampton's 

Brigade 100 

Jones,  Col.  Hilary 117 

K. 

King  George,  Co.  Va 2,  25 

Keech,   Alexander 4 

Kid  well,  Mr 36 

"King's  School  House  " 37 

Kincheloe,  Lieutenant 40 

Keith,  Hon.  James,  Judge 82 

Killam,  E.  S.,  Gunner 88 

King  George,  County,  Va.  . .  .89,  98,  104 
King  and  Queen,  Co.,  Va 105 

L. 

Land,  Grant,  from  Charles  II 1 

Loudon,  Co.,  of  Va 3 

Lomax,  Judge,  John    Tayloe 3 

Lyons,  James 10 

Leigh,  B.  W,  10,  97,  U.  S.  Senator.  . . .  100 

Leake,  Shelton  F.,  M.  Congress 19 

Lee,  Gen.  R.  E..29,  51,  52,  58,  60,  61,  62 

[68,  69 

Letcher,  Governor  of  Va 29,  95,  107 

Lewis    House 30 

Lynch,  Private 34 

Lynn,  H.  F 35 

Larkin,  Wm.    W.,  Lieutenant 39 

Leigh,    Major 50 

Longstreet,  General 52 

Lee,  Stephen  D 52 

Lucknow 52 

Lynchburg,  Va 61 

Lincoln,  President  of  the  U.  S. . .  .67,  m 
Lindsay,  Rev.  John  S.,  D.  D.  .  .76,  80,  88 

[82,  85,  81 

Lightfoot,    Col.  E.  C 80.  82 

Latham,  John  S  81 

Lee,   Julian  P 81 

Lee,  Gov.   Fitzhugh 82,  83,  85,  87 

Lee,  Camp 87 

Loudon  Congressional  District  of  Va.  90 
Lion  House,  A  Memorial  Meeting. ...  93 
Lexington,  Va.,  95,  Escape  to 95 

M. 

Moors  in  the  Sixteenth  Century 1 

Marshall,  John's,  Company. . .    I 

Mason  Co.,  Kentucky 2 

Moor   in  Chains 3 

Marengo 3 

Moore,   Hon.  Thomas  L 5,  90,  95 

Milledgeville,  Georgia 7,  91,  96 

Madison,  James 8 

Madison  County 15,  22 

Mexican  Star 22 

Madison,  Co.  Ho.,  Va 28 

Marr,  Captain..  .28,  29,  32,  33,  34,  35,  112 
Manassas,   Battles  of... 28,  30,  36,  44,  52 

Moss,  Mr 29 

Murray,    Lieut.  Col 30,  44 


McDowell,  General 32,  34,  99 

Max,    Corporal 34 

Marders,  F.  W 35 

Mahone,  General  Wm 37,  40,  42 

Maddox,  Corporal 39 

Mechanicsville 44 

Marye's  Hill 44 

Millroy,  General 44 

Munford,  Col.  George  Wythe 50 

Meade,  General 52 

McKimp,    Randolph 52 

Meissioner,    Painter 53 

McFarland,  William  H 57 

Minnegerode,  Rev.  Dr.  of  Richmond.   60 

Monterosa,  Warrenton,  Va 66 

Maryland,  State   of 69 

Mclntyre,  Capt.  Bethel   Cadets 76 

McKay,    L 81 

McKenney,  Col.  J.  B 87 

Macfarlane,  C.  W.,  Sergeant 88- 

Meades,  B.  L.,  Gunner 88 

Manassas,    1st  Battle 90 

Marathon 93 

Montezumas,  Walls  of 93 

Madison  Chronicle,  Nebraska 98- 

Maryland 99 

McClellan,  Gen.,  Headquarters 99 

Mordansville,  Mt.  Pleasant  Co.,  Pa. .  .101 
McCaul,  Patrick  H,  of  Pulaski,  Va. .  .103. 

Mott,  Margaret,  (a  Scotch  Lady) 104 

Martinelli's,  Lincoln  Club  at 1 1 1 

Meade,  General 1 13. 

McGroirarty   of    Springfield.  Anecdote 

of,  by  President  Lincoln 112 

Memorial,  Gov.  Smith,  and  Resolution 

of  the  Va.  Legislature 121 

Magna,  Charta  of  England 121 

Medallion  of 121 

N. 

Nelson,  Rev.  Thomas,  School  of 1,  5 

Nichols,  General 51 

New  York,  State  of 69 

Newman,    George 81 

Nelson,  Mayor  of  Warrenton 82 

Nicarauga,  South  America 88 

Ne?u   York  Sun,  on    Gov.  Smith 98 

New    York    Herald,    Sketch    of   Gov. 

Smith 100 

New   Mexico 100 

ATational  Farm  and   Fireside,  by  Wed- 

derburn,  on  Gov.  Smith 108 

o. 

Orange   Co.,  Ho 6 

Ohio,  State  of 13 

Orangeville,  Pennsylvania 101 

Ohio  River 105 

P. 

Philip  of  Spain 1 

Pierce,  President  U.  States 4 

Piedmont,    Va 6,  67 

Pensacola,    Florida 7 

Pendleton,  J.  S 10,   105 

Pennsylvania, 13,  50,  53,  55,  69 

Patton,  J.  M   15,   16 

Parker,  Col.  Jno.  A.  15,  17,  21,  25,  no,  in 
Polk,   J.  K,  President  U.  S 19 


INDEX   TO   THE   MEMOIRS. 


XI 


Pitt  William 27 

Pines,  Seven,  Battle  of 37 

Peninsula 45 

Payne,   Capt.  A.  D.  .48,  82,  83,  85,  86,  87 

Petersburg,    Va 5^ 

Packenham,  General  British 59 

Patrick,    General 66 

Pollock,  Rev.  A.  D,  of  Warrenton 75 

Payne,  Capt.  J.  S 80,   81 

Payne,   M.  B 81 

Payne,  Alexander 81 

Payne,  Inman  H 81 

Payne,  J.  Scott 82 

Phillips,  Col.  A.  L 87 

Place,  George  D 88 

Pitt,  H.  L 88 

Perkins,  J.    L 88 

Plainfield,  Connecticut 90,   100 

Platoea,  Heroes  of 93 

Pilcher,  J.  A.,  Chairman  of  Meeting  of 

49th  Va.  Regiment 94 

Pope,  General 98,  99 

Point  of  Rocks,  Va 99 

Potomac 99 

Pollard,  John 103,    104 

Pleasants,  John  Hampden,  105,  Editor 

of  R.  Whig 105 

Pennybaker,    Judge    of  Shenandoah- 

Circuit 105 

Payne,    Gen.    Wm.  H.,  Letter   to  Col. 

T.  Smith,  of  Va 115,   116 

R. 

Revolutionary  Struggle I 

Richmond    County 2 

Richmond,  City  of .  .  .7,  22.  36,  45,  55,  58 

[59,  64,  65,  69 

Rives,  Wm.  C,  Election  of..  .8,  9,  10,   11 

[13,  18,  19,  20,  21 

Ritchie,  Thomas 10,  1 10,   1 1 1 

Richmond  Enquirer 10 

Rockingham,  Co.  of 13 

Rail  Road,  Richmond  and  Louisa,  Va. .   23 

Rail  Road,  Chesapeake  &  Ohio 23 

Ryan,  John  W   35 

Randolph,  Captain 39 

Rapid  Ann  River 44 

River,   James 45 

Rhodes,  General 52 

River,  James,  Valley  of 64 

Rosenberger,  C.  W 81 

Richmond  Whig 83 

Rust,  A.   S 88 

Robinson,    T.  H.,  Address  of 93 

Richmond   Dispatch,  Eulogy  on  Gov. 

Smith 94 

Richmond  Howitzers 95 

Rambler  of  the  "'State"  96,  Anecdote  in 
Rappahanock     River,     Engagements 

along 99 

Rohrsburg,  Pennsylvania 101 

Richmond,  D.  &  Western  Rail  Road..  112 
Richmond  Fell-[See,  Daniel's  Letter].  118 
Resolutions  on  death  of  Gov.  Smith. .  100 

s. 

Spanish  Troops 1 

Scotland I 

Scotch  Heiress 1 

Smith,  Caleb 1,  2,  3,  89 


Smith,  William 2 

Smith,  Joseph 2 

Smith,  Sir  Sidney 2,   104 

Smith,  Thomas 2,     3 

Smith,  Martha 2,     3 

Smith,  James  Madison 4 

Smith,  Maria 4 

Smith,  Col.  Wm.  R.,  of  Fanquier 4 

Scott,  Rob't  E.,  of  Fanquier. . .  .4,  10,  18, 

[44,   105 

Summers,   Judge 10,    13 

Stuart,    A.  H .  H 10,    14 

Slaughter,  Daniel    F 16,  25 

Seddon,  James  A 19 

Shacklef ord,  Judge 25 

Scott,  Gen.  Winfield   S 26,  34 

Smith,    Major  Caleb 28 

Saintclair,  Private 34 

Star,  Evening,  Newspaper 34 

Sullivan,  Private 34 

Spier,    R.  M.,  Lieutenant 39 

Stone,  Corporal 39 

Spencer,  Sergeant 39 

Savage  Station 44 

Spotsylvania  County 44 

Seven  Pines,  Battle  of 46 

Sharpsburg,  Battle  of 47,  49,  117 

Stewart,  Gen.  J.  E.  B.'s  Report.  .  .  .47,  49 

Stiles,   Major  Robert 48,  49,  53,  54 

Smith,  Miss  Mary  A 49,  91,    121 

Stewart,  General 51 

Slocum,   General 51 

Stonewall  Brigade 51 

Swinton,    General 52 

Smith,  Lieutenant  Colonel 61 

Smith,  Mrs.  E.  H 61,  88,  89 

Staun  ton,  Va 64 

Smith,  Col.  Bell.  .    .    .65,  66,  88,  104,   109 

Springs,  Fanquier  White  Sulpher 67 

Smith,  Col.  Tom 70,  91,  105,    109 

Scott,  John,   Major 78,  81 

Spilman,  John  A 79,  80,  81,   82 

Spilman,  John  R 81,  82 

Smith,  C.  W 81 

Smith,  Major  A.  G 81,  82 

Smith,  A.  D 82 

Stilling,  Col.  Artillery 82,  83,  84,  85 

[86,  87 

Stuart   Horse  Guards 87 

Siegel,    H.  L 88 

Starke,   H.  M.,  Sergeant 88 

Smith,  J.  F.,  Gunner 88 

Smith,  Wm.  Henry 88,  104,   109 

Smith,  Judge  James  Caleb. . .  .88,  97,   100 

[104,   109 

San  Franciso,  City  of 88,  104,   106 

Smith,  Austin  C,  Lieut.  Col.  on  Gen. 

Whiting's    Staff 89,  100,  104,   109 

Smith,  Mary  Waugh 89 

South  Mountain 99 

Smith,    Col.    Tom,  U.    S.  District  At- 
torney   100,   109 

Sandwich  Islands 105 

Scott,  John,  Judge 105 

Shackelford,  John ,    ....  105 

Smith,  Frank,  Alexandria,  Va   105 

Sacramento,  California 109 

Smith,  Col.  Austin,  Death  of,  by  John 

S.  Farley 120 

Smith,  F.  W 136 


INDEX   TO   THE    MEMOIRS. 


Seal,    State  of  Virginia 121 

Scott,  Major  Taylor 112,  113 

T. 

Troops,    Spanish I 

Toledo,  Ohio 2 

Tyler,  John 9,  10,  13,  14 

Tippacanoe 13 

Thomas,   Judge 25 

Tucker,  Professor 28 

Tebbs,  Col 30 

Tompkins,  Lieutenant 33,  34 

Townsend,    Col 34 

Turner,  Corporal   34 

Trelawney 52 

Thomas,    Henry  W.,  Judge 61 

"True  Index,"  Warrenton,  Va 91 

Templars,  Lodge  of   Good 92 

"  Temperance  Advocate  " 93 

Tompkins,  W.  B.,  Secretary  of    Meet- 
ing of  49th  Va.  Regiment 94 

Texas  Newspaper 96 

u. 

Upton,  Tactics  Military 53 

V. 

Virginia,  General  Assembly  of 3 

Van  Buren,    Martin 12,  18 

Virginia,  West, 19,  69 

Virginia 19,  69 

Vienna  Road 33 

Vineyard    House 33 

Virginia  Military  Institute 61 

Valentine,  the  Sculptor,of  Richmond.  84 

Virginia  Volunteers,  49th  Va.  Regt.  .  .  98 

w. 

Washington,  Gen.  Geo.    1,  2,  Statue  of  83 


Waugh,  Mary 2 

William  and  Mary,  5th  year  of,  1693.  .2,  3 

Westmoreland,  Clerk's  Office  of 3 

Waverly  Academy   Maryland 4 

Winder,  Gen.  of  Baltimore.  .5,  90,  95,  100 
Warrenton,  Va.  . .  .5,  6,  32,  65,  67,  76,  83 
Washington,  City  of . .  .6,  7,  27,  32,  34,  69 

[91,  96 

Wise,  Gov.  Henry  A 10,  29,    106 

Webster,    Daniel 11 

Wilson,  Henry,  of  Mass 13,   14 

Wells 53,  69 

Washington,  Charles  F 35 

Wright,  Brig.  General 41 

Winchester,    Va 44 

Wilderness,   Va 44 

Williamsburg,  Va 45 

Walker,  Gilbert  C 69 

Warrenton  Index 79 

Wyer,  John  P 81 

Williamson,    W.  W 82 

Whig,  Richmond 83 

Wickham,  Gen.  Wm.  C 83,  87 

White,  Col.  J.  W 87 

Watkins,    Captain  B.  M 87 

Warrenton  Index,  Newspaper,  Va  .89,  90 

Warrenton,  Town   of 90,  95,  99,  104 

"  Warrenton,  Virginia, " 91,98,  103 

Death  of  Gov.  Smith 

Warrenton,  Va.,  Board   of   Aldermen 

passed  Resolutions  on  death  of  Gov. 

Smith 100 

Ward,    R.    D.,    in    Richmond     Whig, 

Sketch  of  Gov.  Smith,  by 

Willis,  Col.  John 105 

Wager,  Charles,  H.,  Tribute    to    Gov. 

Smith  at  Confederate  Cemetery  67,  113 

Y. 

Yorktown 44,  45 


INDEX    TO    THE    APPENDIX. 


In  compiling  the  Index  for  the  Appendix  to  this  volume,  the  Author 
deems  it  unnecessary  to  do  so  to  any  considerable  extent  in  the  detail  of  names 
and  places.  The  reader  will  be  able  readily  to  satisfy  himself  in  whatever  of 
interest  or  curiosity  he  may  feel,  at  a  glance  of  the  eye  over  any  page,  to 
discover  the  name  of  his  friend,  or  acquaintance,  or  any  locality  or  incident 
relative  to  the  subject  of  this  work. 

Any  other  than  a  general  reference  to  such,  would  be  but  a  repetition  of 
the  Index  to  the  main  body  of  the  Memoirs,  except  during  the  period  of  the 
Congressional  life  of  Governor  Smith.  To  particularize  all  the  scenes  and 
events  and  incidents  in  discussion  with  his  numerous  competitors  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  mention  their  names,  would  be  a  profitless  and 
well-nigh  endless  task.  the   author. 


Appendix — Introduction  to  pp.  123, 124, 125 
Tracing  in  a  , compendious  and  rapid 
form,  Gov.  Smith's  political  life  for  forty 
years,  from  1836  to  1876.  His  persistent 
adhesion  to  Democratic  principles,  his 
many  heated  and  bitter  contests  with  the 
old,  able  and  distinguished  Whigs  of 
Virginia,  his  prominence  and  distinction 
in  Federal  and  State  Legislation,  his 
masterly  discussion  of  the  U.  S.  Bank 
Tariff  and  Internal  Improvements  by  the 
General  Government,  &c.  — 123,  124,  125. 

A. 

Arlington,  Gen.  McDowell's  Report  of 
the  Fairfax  Fight,  dated,  June  1st, 
1861 138 

Address,  Inaugural  of  William  Smith, 
Governor  of  Virginia,  on  1st  day  of 
January,  1864 152  to  168 

Articles  of  Confederation  inadequate 
for  the  essential  purposes  of  Gov- 
ernment  154 

Argues  the  rights  of  States  and  the 
right  of   Secession 152 

Amity,  Spirit  of,  was  indispensible. .  .155 

Act  of  1793,  or  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act.  156 

Auction  System  Reprobated 163 

Alcoholic  Liquors,  urges  their  prohib- 
ition on  the  Legislature 163 

Army,  to  put  Slaves  into 194 

Anderson,  Gen.  Joseph  R.,  Letter  to, 
from  Judge  Campbell 204,  205 

Agreement,  Synopsis  of,  between  Gen 
Johnston  (Jos.  E.)  and  Gen.  Sherman 
as  to  the  Surrender  of  Confederate 
Forces 208,  209 

Address  of  Members  of  Va.  Legisla- 
ture, yet  in  Richmond. . .  .237/238,  239 

Anderson,  Gen.  Jos.  R.,  Ckni.,  &c. . .  .242 

B. 

Brock,  R.  A.,  Secretary  to  the  Va.  His- 
torical  Society 127  to  136 

Tracing  the  descent,  the  direct  and 
collateral  kindred  of  William  Smith, 
his  paternal  and  maternal  kindred, 
his  own  immediate  family  &c .  127  to  136 

Bonham,  Gen.,  Report   of „ 138 


Beauregard,  Gen 144,  145,   146 

Battery,   Rogers 145 

§a!!ery'  r  Cffiett>S'  \  ^e    Enemy's'  ■  -'g 
Battery,  Griffin's  j  J     ....149 

Bull    Run 14S 

Ball's  Ford 145 

Bee's,  Gen.  Brigade 149 

Blockade  running  by  private  men  or 
private  enterprise  to  be  prohibited 

by  law 

Buchanan,  President  U.  S.,   Gov.  S.'s 

letter  to 201,   202 

Bennett,  J.  M.,  Auditor,  &c.,Va.,  Gov. 

S.'s  order  to  him  to  issue  warrant, &c. 225 
Brock,  R.  A.,  Sec'y  Va.  Historical  So- 
ciety, to  J.  W.  Bell,  Letter  of.  .244,  245 
Bell,  J.  W.,  Letter  to,  by  Thos.  Ellett, 

Esq.,  Sec'y  of  Mechanics'  Institute. 245 
Brown's,   John,  Will 408 

c. 

Cocke,   General 144 

Cub-Run    Brigade 148 

Carolina,  South,  Companies 146 

Compromise  of  1850 157 

Conscription  into  the  Military  Service 

urged  on  the  Legislature 164 

Currency,  its  reformation  urged  by 
the   Governor   on    the    Legislature, 

his  scheme 164,    165 

Confederate  Money,  Table  Showing 
Value  of  in  Gold,  in  Richmond,  dur- 
ing the  war 179 

Currency  to  be  improved,  urges  the 
Va.  Legislature  to   take   immediate 

steps  to  effect  it 197 

Co-operation  with  the  Confederate 
Congress  on   the  subject,    197,  and 

submits  a  plan  for  the  purpose 197 

Congressional  District,  (Seventh)  Ad- 
dress to  the  Voters  of 200,  201 

Campbell,  Judge  J.  A.,  Letter  from.  .205 
Campbell,  Judge,  His  conference  with 

President  Lincoln 213 

Campbell,  Judge,  His  interview  with 
President  Davis,  Secretaries   Breck- 

enridge  and  Benjamin 213 

Campbell,  Judge,  Letter  to  President 
Lincoln 213-216 


INDEX   TO   THE  APPENDIX. 


Congress  of  U.T,S.,  Resolution  of  22d 
July,  1861,  Vote  in  favor  and  vote 
against 216 

Correction  as  to  the  meeting  of  the 
Members  of  Virginia  Legislature,  at 
Richmond 237 

Campbell,  Judge,  J.  A.,  His  concur- 
rence with  the  address,  issued  by 
some  members  of  the  Legislature.  .237 

Campbell,  Judge,Letter  of,  to  General 
Anderson 242,  243 

"  Call  "of  nth  April,  recalled 244 

D. 

Dragoons,   U.  S 138 

Dogan's  House,  at  Manassa.    . .  .148,  149 
Dabney,  Dr.,  Author  of  Jackson's  Me- 
moirs of 151 

Dorr  Constitution 188 

Davis,  Jefferson,  ex-President  C.  S. 
Pardon  of,  by  the  President  of  the 
Confederate  States,  spoken  of  by 
Lincoln,  President 243 

E. 

Eminent  Virginians  by  R.  A.  Brock, 

Sec'y  Va.  Historical  Society 127 

Ewell,  Lieut.  Col.  at  Fairfax  Fight 137 

Estimate  of  Forces 150,  151 

F. 

Fairfax  Co.  Ho.,  31st  May,  1861 137 

Falls,  Church  Road 137 

Fisher,  Col.,  148,  Killed  at  Manasses  1st 
Faulkner  Col.,  145,  6th  N.  C.  Reg't.. 

Federalist : 155 

France,  Her  Financial  Policy 161 

Finance,  Governor's  Plan 165,  166 

Fields,  Gen.  J.  G.,  Attorney  Gen.  Va.228 

G. 

Green,  JohnS.,  Capt.  Rapp.  Cavalry.  137 

Gordon,  David  S.,  Federal  Lieut 137 

Germantown 142 

Georgia,  Legislature  of 192 

Georgia,  Governor  of,  192,  Legislature 
passed  an  Act  in  1864  not  to  exempt 
her  officers,    members    and  agents 
therein  mentioned  from  military  ser- 
vice   192 

Governors,  Meeting  of,  on  the  subject 

of  enlisting  the  negroes  in  the  army  196 
Gold,  the  price  to  be  reduced,  197, 
Large  surplus  in  the  banks  wholly 
unproductive,  submits  a  plan  to  put 
it  in  circulation  amongst  the  peo- 
ple, on  the  State's  obligation  to  re- 
turn it  at  the  end  of  the  war 198 

Grant,  U.  S.  Gen.,  Letter  to  Gen.  Lee. 206 
Gold  Cases,  See  Col.  Munford's  letters 

of  Feb.,  1870  and  Feb.,  1880 

Gold  Cases  again,  see  Major  Stiles' 
Narrative  of  Gov.  Smith's  testimony 

in  these  cases 221,  222,  223 

Gold  Cases,  The  result  of 228 

Grant,  U.  S.  Gen.,  His  Memoirs 230 

Giddings,  Joshua  R.,  Gov.  Smith's  re- 
ply to,  in  Ho.  of  Rep 337,  343 


H. 

Harrison,  Captain 142 

Hunton,    Col.  Eppa,  at  Manassas 144 

Hampton's  Legion 150 

"  Henry  House" 145 

Heaton,   Lieutenant 145 

Henry,  Patrick 155 

Halleck,  Gen.,  Letter  to 203,  204 

Halleck,  Gen.,  offering  a  reward  of 
$25,000,  for  arrest  and  delivery  for 
trial  of  Wm.  Smith,  Rebel  Governor 
of  Virginia 208 

I. 

Independence,  Declaration  of 158 

Incidents   and  Reminiscences. . .  199,  200 

J. 

Johnston,  Jos.  E.,  Gen.,  147,  (Army).. 

Jackson's  Brigade  at  1st  Manasses.  . . .  149 

Johnson,    President   United  States,  His 
permit  to  Gov.  Smith  to  visit  Wash- 
ington City,  &c 209 

Johnson,  Andrew,  President,  His  pa- 
role to  Gov.  Smith  extended  to  Vir- 
ginia and  Maryland 209 

Johnson,  President  U.  S.,  His  parole  to 
Gov.    Smith  enlarged   to    Pennsyl- 
vania, New  York  and  West  Virginia  209 

K. 

Kemper,  of  Kemper's  Battery 148 

Kansas  and  Nebraska,  Gov.  Smith's 
speech  in  House  of  Representatives 

on 326,  337 

Kansas,  Speech,  Gov.  Smith  on  Ad- 
mission of 426,  456 

L. 

Letcher,    Gov.  Va 144 

Lee,  Gen.  Robert  E.,  Adjutant  Gen.    .144 

Leesburg,  Loudon,  Co.,  Va 144 

Lewis  House,  The 144,  145 

Latham's  Battery 145 

Lightfoot.  Lieut.  Col.,  5th  N.  C.  Regt.  148 

Losses,   Relative,  &c 150,  151 

Lincoln,  President  U.  S.,  Proclamation 

of  April  15,  1861,  for  75,000  men .  .  .  158 
Lawton,  A.  R.,  Confederate  State's 
Quartermaster  at  Richmond,  Va., 
Correspondence  with  Gov.  Smith. .  178 
Legislature  of  Virginia,  The  Governor 
urges  them  to  organize  the  whole 
male  population  to  prevent  raiding 
parties  of  the  enemy  from  depre- 
dating upon  the  people,  ravaging 
their  fields,  and  to  cooperate  in  the 
struggle,  192,  He  sends  in   a  Bill  for 

that  purpose 193 

Letcher,  John,  Gov.  of  Virginia,  His 
commission  to  Mr.  Smith  as  Col.  in 

the  C.  S.  Army 202 

Lee,  Gen.,  Order  No.  9,  April  10,  1865 

of 

Lincoln,  President  of  the  U.  S.,  His 
conference  with  Judge  Campbell. .  .213 


INDEX   TO  THE   APPENDIX. 


XV 


Lincoln,  President,  His  order  counter- 
manding the  recall  of  the  Legisla- 
ture  213,  214 

Lincoln,  President  U.  S.,  his  entry 
into  the  city  of  Richmond,  Va.  .215,  216 

Lincoln,  President  U.  S.,  his  In- 
augural, Mar.  4,  1861,  Extract  from. 217 

Lincoln,  Inaugural  sent  to  the  U.  S. 
Ministers  at  London  and  Paris 217 

Lamb,  Mrs.  Marth  J.  Magazine,   &c. .  .228 

Lincoln,  President,  his  Restoration 
Policy  for  Virginia,  by  Major  Stiles.  228 

Lincoln,  President  U.  S.,  his  soubri- 
quet of  Gov,  Smith,  "Old  Game 
Cock" 233 

Lincoln,  President  U.  S.,  Landed  in 
Richmond,  3  p.  m.  at  "Rockets" 
under  protection  of  Admiral  Porter, 

"  and  walked  to  Gen.  Weitzel's  Quar- 
ters and  returning  same  evening  to 
the  Gun  Boat  "Malvern." 236 

Lincoln,  President,  See  Major  Stiles' 
"Restoration  Policy"  as  to  the  Presi- 
dent's "Call" 241 

Loan  Bill,  Speech  of  Mr.  Smith  in  Ho. 
of   Representatives 310,  320 

M. 

Marr,  Capt.  of  Warrenton  Rifles.  137,  139 
McDonald  at  Fairfax,   Report  of  the 

Fairfax  Fight,  on  June  1,  1861 

Marr,  Captain,  found  dead 139 

McGee.  Lieutenant 140 

Marr,  Miss  Fannie  H.,  sister  of  Capt. 

Marr,  and  author  of  the  poem  "Our 

Fallen  Brave  " 143 

Manassas,  Reminiscences  of  1st  Battle 

of,  by  Gen.  William  Smith 

Murray,    Lieut.  Col.    Graduate   West 

Point 144 

Manassas,  1st  Battle 150,  151 

Mississippi  Company 146 

Missouri,  State  of,  Admission  into  the 

Union 157 

Message,  Annual,  of  Gov.  Smith  to  the 

Legislature  of   Virginia 180  to  192 

Exemption    of    State    Officers    and 

others   from  Military  Duty. .  . .  181,   182 
[183,  184,  185 

Mississippi,  Legislature  of 192 

Meade,  Gen.,  Letter  of 203 

Munford,  Gen.  Thomas  T.,  his  Stirring 

and  Eloquent  Order 21 1 

Munford,  Gen.  Thomas  T.,  his  Special 

Order  No.  6,  to  his  Division  of  Cav- 

airy 211,  212 

Munford,  Gen.,  his  Letter  to  Governor 

Smith 212 

Munford,  Geo.  Wythe,  Letter  to  Gov.; 

Smith 217,  218,  219 

Munford,  Col.  Geo.  W.,  Letter  to  Gov. 

Smith 219,  220,  221 

Missouri,  Compromise  Speech  of  Gov. 

Smith  on  Mr.  Clay's  Opinion  on  344,  350 
Minnesota,  Gov.  Smith's  Speech  on  the 

Admission  of  into  the  Union. .  .350,  354 

N. 
Nebraska  and  Kansas,  Speech  of  Gov. 
Smith  on 326,  327 


o. 

Opposition    to    Enlisting    the    Negro 
Slaves  in  the  Army  as  Soldiers.  196,  197 
Many  able  military  men  in  favorof  it 

Ordway,   Lieut.  Col.,  24th  Mass.  Vol. 
Infantry,  Provost  Marshal,  Va 209 

Organization  of  House  of  Representa- 
tives, Gov.  Smith's  Speech  on.  .355,  426 


Prince  William  Company 137 

Prices  of  bread-stuffs,  meat,  shoes,  corn 
meal,    &c,  argued    '60,  '61,  '62  &c. 
Maximum  and  Minimum  prices.  160, 161 

Peace,  Justices  of,  Exempt  from  Mili- 
tary service 190 

Proposes  to  the  Gen.  Assembly  that 
none  be  elected  under  45  yrs.  of  age.  191 

Pettigru,  Hon.  James  L.,  Address  be- 
fore the  Virginia  Historical  Society 
at   Richmond 245,  246 

Parker,  Col.  John  A.,  Letter   to.  .257,  258 

R. 

Reminiscences  of  the  War,  by  General 
Wm.  Smith,  from  the  "Historical 
Southern  Magazine,"  by  John  Wm. 
Jones,  Authorof  "Memoirs  of  Gen. 
R.  E.  Lee,"  and  Memoirs  of  Presi- 
dent Davis,  sketching  the  skirmish  at 
Fairfax  C't  House,  in  May, '61 . .  136,  142 

Rappahannock  Cavalry 141 

Robinson  House 145 

"Reserved  Forces"  of  Virginia,  urged 
by  the  Governor  on  the  Legislature 

organization  of 164 

Rhode  Island,  State    of 188 

Resolution  on  the  subject  of  enlisting 

the  Negroes  as  soldiers 196 

Richmond  City,  Evacuation  of  General 

Order  relative  to   203 

Russell,  A.  H.,  Acting  Prov.  Marshal 
at  Warrenton, Va.  his  certificate  &c.  209 

Richmond,  Surrender  of 215 

Reconstruction  Meeting,  Some  Mem- 
bers of  Virginia  Legislature,  &c. . .  .237 

s. 

"  Stevenson's  Clover  Field" 139 

Stevenson's  "  Farm  House" 139 

Shackelford,  Lieut 140 

Sudley   Mills 144 

Schenck,    General 145 

Smith,  Major  Caleb,   Wounded  at  1st 

Manasses 148 

Spirits,  Intoxicating,  urged  and  ap- 
proved their  prohibition 163 

Stock -Jobbing,  buying  and  selling  gold 
and  silver,  dealing  in  State  or  Con- 
federate   Currency,    he    urges    the 

Legislature  to  forbid  by  law 167 

Smith,  Governor's  response  to  General 
Assembly  of  Virginia,  as  to  exempt- 
ing   State      Officers     from    military 

duty 169,  170,  171,  172,  173,  174 

Specimens  of  the  prices  of  supplies 
purchased  needed  at  Richmond  for 
State  of  Virginia,  citizens  of  Rich- 
mond, and  others  174,  175,  176,  177,  178 


INDEX   TO   THE   APPENDIX. 


Slaves,  Gov.  recommends  them  to  be 
armed  and  put  into  the  field  as 
soldiers 195 

Smith,  Gov.,  Letter  from,  to  General 
Grant 203 

Smith,  Gov.,  Letter  from,  to  Gen.  Hal- 
leck 203 

Smith,  Governor,  Letter  from,  to  J.  R. 
Tucker,  Esq.,  Attorney  General  of 
Virginia 204 

Shepley,  G.  F.,  Military  Gov.  Virginia, 
order  of 207 

Smith,  Governor,  Letter  to,  from  J.  R. 
Tucker 207 

Smith,  Gov.,  Letter  from,  to  Gen  Lee. 207 

Smith,  Gov.,  Letter  from,  to  General 
Halleck 207,  208 

Smith,  Gov.,  his  Parole 209 

Smith,  Governor,  his  Proclamation  at 
Danville 210,  211 

Slaughter,  Gen.  Edwin,  his  move  vs. 
the  enemy 210 

Smith,  Gov.,  his  parole  of  Honor  by 
the   President 209 

Smith,  |Gov.,  his  parole  of  Honor  ex- 
tended   209 

Smith,  Gov.,  his  parole  of  Honor  en- 
larged   209 

Smith,  General  Kirby,  Issues  his  ap- 
peal  210 

Stiles,  Major  Robert,  his  narrative  of 
Governor  Smith's  evidence,  &c,  in 
the  gold  cases 221,  222,  223 

Smith,  Gov. ;  his  letter  to  Lieut.  Gov. 
Thomas 223 

Smith,  Gov.,  his  statement  in  the  gold 

cases  ...223,  224,  225,  226,  227,  228 

And  his  order  to  the  Auditor  to  issue 
his  warrant  on  Treasury,  &c 225 

Stiles,  Maj.  Robert,  the  Truth  brought 
to  light  as  to  "  Restoration  Policy" 
for  Virginia  by  Stanton,  Gen.  Sec'y 
of  War,  U.  S 228  10231 

Smith,  Wm.,  Address  before   the  Me- 
chanics' Institute  of  Va. .  .246,  247,  248 
[249,  250,  251,252,  253 

Smith,  ex-Gov.  of  Virginia,  Letter  of,  to 
the  President  of  the  U.  S.  .254   255,  256 

Smith,  ex-Gov.,  Letter  of,  to  "  L.  C. 
M  " 259,  260 

Smith,    ex-Gov.    of   Virginia,    Letters 

from,  to  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill 260,  261 

Thomas  Mehan,   Esq 261,  263 

L.  R.  S.,  Esq 263,  264 

Texas,  J.  M.  S.  of 261,  262 

R.    T.    Daniel,   Esq.,    Chairman   of 

Executive  Committee,  Va 264 

Afterwards  Attorney  Gen.  of  Va. 

R.  R.  Collier,  Esq 264,  265 

B.  F.  Berkley,  Esq. . .  .265,  266,  267,  268 

[269 
R.  M.  Collier,  Esq.  . .  .269,  270,  271,  272 
[273,  274,  275 
Hon.  D.  C.  Dejarrette,    ex-member 

of  Congress 

Hon.  C.  F.  Suttle,  J.  V.  Brooke,  ex- 
members  of    Va.  Legislature.  .  .    . 
Hon.  F.  McMullen,   ex-Governor  of 
Oregon 


Hon.  H.  W.  Thomas,  ex-Circuit  Court 

Judge 

Hon.  Ch.  E.  Sinclair,  member  of  Va 

Legislature 

J.  L.  Strongfellow.  .276  to  287  inclusive 

Smith,  Wm.,  his  Speech  in  House  of 
Rep.  in  1842,  on  the  Tariff. .  .289  to  310 

Smith,  Wm.,  Speech  of,  on  the  Loan 
Bill 310  to  320 

Smith,  Wm.,  Speech  of,  on  the  Pro- 
visional Tariff'  Veto  of 320  to  324 

Smith,  Wm.,  Speech  on  Tariff.  .324  to  326 

Smith,  Wm.,  Speech  on  Kansas  and 
Nebraska 326  to  337 

Smith,  Wm.,  his  Speech  in  House  of 
Rep.  in  reply  to  J.  R.  Giddings  of 
Ohio 337  to  343 

Smith,  Wm.,  Speech  on  Mr.  Clay's 
opinion  on  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise  344  to  350 

Smith,  Wm.,  Speech  on  the  Admission 
of  Minnesota  into  the  Union.  .350  to  354 

Smith,  Wm.,  Speech  on  the  Organiza- 
tion of  the  House  of  Rep. .  .  .355  to  426 

Smith,  Wm.,  Speech  on  the  Admission 
of   Kansas 426  to  456 

T. 

Tompkins,  Federal  Lieut.,  Report  of 
the  Fairfax   Fight  in  May,  1861,    to 

General   McDowell 138 

Thornton,  Captain    Company 137 

Thomas,  Col.  F.  J..  (Johnson's  StafF).  .147 

Tucker,  J.  R.,  Letters  from 207 

Thomas,  Judge  H.   W.,   His   letter  to 

Judge  J.  W.  Bell 224 

Tariff,  Speech  of  Mr.  Smith  on,  in  the 
House  of   Rep.   in   1842,  from   page 

[2S0  to  page  310 
Tariff,  Speech  of  Mr.  Smith  on,  in  the 

House  of  Rep.  on  the  Veto  of.  .310,  324 
Tariff,   Speech  on     324,  326 

V. 

Virginia,  Secession  of,  17  April,  1S61 . 
Veto  of  the  President  U.  S.  of  the  Pro- 
visional Tariff  Bill 320 

w. 

Wickham,    Captain 142 

Ward,H.Clay,Capt.in  the49thVa.Regt. 
killed  at  1st  Battle  of  Manasses 

Washington  Artillery 146 

Wells,  James,  Shot  through  the  lungs, 
but  survived 

Wells,    John 147 

Washington,  President  of  U.  S.  denied 
the  benefit  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Act  of  1793,  was  the  first  to  claim 
the  benefitof  it,  but  yielded  his  right.  156 

War,  between  the  States,  see  Inaugural 
unexpectedly  protracted 194 

Weitzel,  Major-General  Godfrey,  His 
order  on  entering  Richmond  City.  .214 

Whepley,  Geo.  F.,  Brig.  Gen.,  his  or- 
der as  Military  Governor  of  >  Rich- 
mond   214,  215 

Whepley,  Gen.,  His  order  to  protect 
private   property 215 


ERRATA-MEMOIRS    OF    WM.    SMITH. 


Page  4 — 29th  line  should  read  :  "Colonel  Caleb  Smith  was  brother  of  the  late  Colonel 
William  R.  Smith." 

Page  10 — 19th  line  should  read  :   "  he  would  fall  to  cursing  like  a  very  Drab." 

Page  10 — 26th  line  should  read  :   "  they  are  trusty  and  well  beloved  cousins  all." 

Page  16 — 29th  line  should  read  :   "  many  had  no  confidence  in  his  strength." 

Page  16 — 38th  line,   "semi-colon  after  canvass." 

Page  19 — 19th  line,  change  initial  to  Shelton  F.  Leake. 

Page  19 — 22d  line,  change  name  to  Hon.  James  A.  Seddon. 

Page  19 — 4th  line  quotation  should  read  :   "heard  so  oft  in  worst  extremes." 

Page  23 — 2d  line  should  read  :   "  old  Richmond  and  Louisa  Railroad." 

Page  26 — 27th  line  should  read  :  "two  of  which  were  brought  out  under  a  lady's 
dress." 

Page  29 — 5th  line  should  read  :   "  if  they  were  all  trumps." 

Page  35 — nth  line,  "John  "  should  be  "James"  McDowell. 

Page  37 — Last  line,  Chapter  IX,  )  parenthesis  at  end. 

Page  45 — 2d  paragraph  should  read  :  "  This  was  a  rare  instance,  if  not  the  only  one 
in  the  whole  army,  where  a  man  holding  a  high  civic  position,  relinguished 
it  for  a  military  command  in  the  field  when  exempt  from  military  duty, 
and  received  only  his  salary  as  Colonel  of  his  regiment." 

Page  48 — 30th  line  from  top,  change  asiduous  to  assiduous. 

Page  49 — Casualties  49th  Va.  Infantry  change  total  to  "88." 

Page  54 — 7th  line  of  Stiles  letter,  change  "sixty-six"  to  "sixty-seven." 

In  same  letter,   second  paragraph  of  4th  line  change  to    "so  that  often- 
times." 

Page  56 — 3d  paragraph,  1st  line  insert  word  "even"  so  as  to  read  "Surrounded  by 
emergencies  which,  at  this  distant  day,  even  can  be  well  understood  and 
appreciated." 

Page  65 — 14th  line  from  bottom,  insert  initial  P,  so  as  to  read  :  Lieut.  Col.  P.  Bell. 

Page  66 — Same  change  as  on  page  65. 

Page  68 — nth  line  from  bottom  change  to  read  :  "each  labored  with  tongue  and  pen 
to  pronounce,"  &c. 

Page  69 — 2d  line  from  top  add  ]  bracket  at  end  of  sentence. 

Page  69 — 4th  paragraph,  8th  line,  comma  after  confidence. 

Page  70 — Last  paragraph  should  read  :  "  Age  could  not  weaken  nor  sorrow  dim  the 
glow  of  his  early  vow  ;  in  his  eyes  she  was  always  young  and  beautiful." 

Page  82 — In  10th  line  from  top,  following  the  name  of  Judge  Bell  insert  "Lieut. 
Thomas  S.  Bell  of  Washington  City." 

Page  85— In  letter  "To  the  Legislature,"  10th  line,  change  to  read  :  "he  has  ever 
discharged  the  duties  of  his  position  with  great  fidelity,"  &c. 

Page  99 — "  The  writer  of  this  article  is  mistaken.  General  Smith  never,  during  the 
whole  war,  put  foot  under  his  own  roof  after  the  abandonment  of  Manassas 
by  the  Confederates  in  1861.  He  would  not  have  compromised  himself  as 
soldier  by  placing  himself  within  easy  capture  by  the  Federals,  even  for 
the  tenderness  and  attention  of  wife  and  family,  though  dangerously  and 
it  was  believed  mortally  wounded." 

Page  99— The  last  paragraph  should  be  read  before  the  extract  from  N.  Y.  Sun  to 
page  98. 


PREFACE. 

In  presenting  these  Memoirs  of  a  man  who  had  for  a  half  century  filled 
a  large  space  in  the  public  eye  and  whose  history  is  in  reality  an  important 
part  of  the  history  of  his  State,  the  author  was  fully  sensible  of  the  difficulties 
of  the  task,  as  well  as  of  the  criticisms  his  adventure  would  incur. 

The  few  fragmentary  records  found  among  the  papers  of  Governor  Smith 
furnish  but  meagre  types  of  his  individuality,  and  but  little  data  on  which  the 
historian  might  found  a  biography.  His  letters  to  his  friends  and  contempo- 
raries, a  large  number  of  which  was  stamped  from  the  originals,  can  never  be 
recovered,  nor  can  the  copies  be  utilized,  by  reason  of  their  indistinctness. 
Doubtless  they  would  make  a  volume  of  themselves  of  most  interesting  and 
instructive  matter.  Some  of  more  recent  date  may  be  found  in  the  appendix 
to  this  volume. 

The  nervous  activity  and  restless  energy  of  his  nature  rendered  him  adverse 
to  sedentary  occupation  ;  and  after  the  severe  wounds  received  at  Sharpsburg, 
his  right  hand  was  rendered  powerless  to  wield  his  pen. 

To  find  the  inner  life  of  the  man  whose  nature  was  cast  in  no  common 
mould,  we  must  mark  the  restless  aspirations  of  his  youth,  the  brilliant 
political  triumphs  of  maturer  manhood,  and  above  all,  the  conspicuous  part 
borne  by  him  in  that  stern  drama  which  enacted  the  birth  and  death  of  a 
nation. 

When  the  author  revives  his  recollections  of  the  thousand  romantic  inci- 
dents, the  battles  and  the  storms  through  which  the  subject  of  these  Memoirs 
had  passed,  it  is  a  cause  of  the  deepest  regret  that  he  left  such  meagre  and 
unsatisfactory  records  of  his  eventful  life. 

When  the  few  of  his  contemporaries  now  living,  and  the  many  who  have 
risen  and  flourished  since  he  has  retired  from  the  political  arena,  shall  con- 
template his  history,  they  will  acknowledge  how  signally  he  triumphed  over 
all  personal  hostility  and  political  hate,  and  the  calm  judgment  of  future  years 
will  proclaim  his  unselfish  devotion  and  fealty  to  that  fair  land, 

"The  page  of  whose  story 
The  brightest  or  darkest  is  linked  with  his  fame." 

J.    W.    B. 


Note. — It  is  proper,  though,  as  the  author  was  partly  the  writer,  not  strictly  necessary,   to  give  credit  for 
the  use  of  an  article  published  in  the  Democratic  Review. 


MEMOIRS    OF 

Governor  William  Smith,  of  Virginia. 


CHAPTER    I. 

GENEALOGY    AND    EARLY    LIFE. 

The  Doniphans  (A.  W.  and  John) — Their  Ancestors,  Commanded  Spanish  Troops- 
Fled  to  Scotland — -One  Son  Settled  at  Jamestown — Grants  of  Land  from 
Charles  II. — Fought  in  the  Revolution  in  John  Marshall's  Company — Father  of 
A.  W.  Doniphan,  at  Yorktown — Justice  of  the  Peace  at  Alexandria — Inogments 
in  Favor  of  Gen.  Washington — Win.  Smith's  Birth — Col.  Caleb  Smith — His  Sons 

and  Daughters — William's  School  Days  in  Connecticut — Return  to  Virginia At 

School  at  Nelson's — Studied  Law — Success  as  Lawyer — Marriage. 

Gen.  A.  W.  and  Col.  John  Doniphan  came  of  a  proud 
Spanish  ancestry.  Their  primitive  ancestor  commanded  the 
Spanish  troops  in  the  wars  against  the  Moors  in  the  Six- 
teenth century.  Failing  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  cruel 
Phillip,  to  destroy  the  Moorish  towns  which  he  captured,  he 
fell  into  disfavor  with  the  king  and  fled  to  Scotland,  where  he 
married  a  Scotch  heiress,  and  came  into  possession  of  valu- 
able estates. 

One  of  his  sons  shared  in  the  first  settlement  of  James- 
town. His  family  had  a  large  grant  of  land  from  Charles  II., 
on  account  of  loyalty  to  Charles  I. 

From  the  Jamestown  Doniphan  descended  three  Doni- 
phans who  fought  in  the  Revolutionary  struggle  in  the  com- 
pany commanded  by  John  Marshall,  afterwards  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  the  United  States.  In  the  battle  of  Brandywine  one 
of  these  brothers  was  killed.  Another,  the  father  of  General 
A.  W.  Doniphan,  being  mustered  out,  went  to  Boones- 
borough,  Ky.,  where,  in  1779,  he  taught  the  first  school  in 
that  state,  composed  of  the  children  of  the  fort.  He  after- 
wards returned  to  Virginia,  and  was  present  with  the  conti- 
nental army  at  the  surrender  of  Yorktown.  He  then  married 
and  was  appointed  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  at  Alexandria.  His 
old  docket  is  still  in  existence,  in  which  several  judgments  are 


rendered  in  favor  of  George  Washington,  against  his  tenants, 
for  so  many  pounds  of  tobacco,  being  the  amount  of  rent  due 
for  the  land  rented  of  the  "  Father  of  his  Country." 

In  1 79 1  he  again  moved  to  Mason  county,  Kentucky,  where 
General  A.  W.  Doniphan  was  born  ;  also  the  father  of  Colo- 
nel John  Doniphan.  Colonel  Doniphan's  father  was  a  surgeon 
in  the  war  of  1812,  and  spent  the  winters  of  18 10  and  181  2 
three  miles  from  the  present  site  of  Toledo,  Ohio,  then  an 
unbroken  wilderness. 

General  A.  W.  Doniphan,  for  whom  the  county  of  Doni- 
phan was  named,  was,  during  his  career,  tendered  many  high 
positions  of  trust  and  profit ;  but  refused  them  all.  for  private 
reasons.  He  died  on  the  8th  of  last  August,  in  the  80th  year 
of  his  age. 

William  Smith,  the  subject  of  the  following  biographical 
sketch,  was  the  direct  descendant  of  Alexander  Doniphan,  a 
Spaniard  who,  during  the  seventeenth  century,  emigrated  to 
England  and  thence  to  Virginia  in  pursuit  of  religious  free- 
dom. Alexander,  second  son  of  Alexander  Doniphan,  senior, 
married,  first,  Mary  Waugh,  and  was  the  lineal  head  of  the 
Smith  branch  of  the  family*.  The  Doniphans'  are  mentioned 
in  deeds  in  King  George  county,  Virginia,  in  5th  year  of 
William  and  Mary — 1693 — with  Gent,  attached.  Genealogy 
is  only  a  subject  of  pride  when  it  traces  the  course  of  honest 
and  chivalric  blood  ;  and  to  his  Castilian  descent  William 
Smith  may  have  been  in  part  indebted  for  his  dauntless  cour- 
age in  war,  his  wisdom  in  council  and  knightly  courtesy  in 
the  domestic  circle. 

Joseph  Smith,  born  in  1741.  in  Richmond  count)-,  Virginia, 
son  of  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  married  a  daughter  of  Sir  Walter 
Anderson,  of  Wales,  an  officer  of  the  British  navy.  The 
grandfather  of  the  subject  of  these  memoirs  was  issue  of 
this  marriage.  They  had  issue  Thomas,  who  was  the  father 
of  Col.  Caleb  Smith,  the  father  of  William,  afterwards  the 
Governor  of  Virginia.  The  above  names  are  still  favorites 
with    each    generation.     A  very   interesting   account    of  the 

•  Vide  special  Virginia  ediiion  of  Hardesty's  Historical  and  Geographical  Encyclopaedia,  written  by  1  >r.  K 
A.  Brock,  Secretary  Virginia  Historical  Society,  under  the  head  of"  Eminent  Virginians,"— Appendix. 


gallantry  of  the  Cavaliers — especial  body-guard  of  Ferdinand, 
King  of  Spain,  at  the  battle  of  Grenada,  is  given  by  Wash- 
ington Irving  in  his  "  Alhambra."  For  their  great  services, 
Ferdinand  knighted  all  who  were  not  already  knighted,  and 
presented  each  a  medal,  bearing  upon  its  face,  a  Moor,  in 
chains.  One  of  these  medals  was  still  in  the  possession  of 
Dr.  Doniphan,  of  Lexington,  Ky.,  about  sixty  years  ago. 

The  Records  of  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  county  of 
Westmoreland,  show  deeds  to  many  thousands  acres  of  land 
to  the  ancestors  of  the  Smith's,  in  the  reign  of  William  and 
Mary.  One  of  them  sold  forty  thousand  acres  lyino-  on 
Goose  Creek,  in  Loudoun  county,  for  forty  thousand  pounds 
of  tobacco,  which  was  then  the  currency  of  the  Colony  of 
Virginia. 

William,  the  third  child  of  Colonel  Caleb  Smith,  was  born 
at  Marengo,  the  old  homestead  of  his  father,  in  King  George 
county,  Virginia,  on  the  sixth  day  of  September,  1797. 
Col.  Caleb  Smith  was  one  of  a  numerous  and  wealthy  family, 
and  wielded  for  many  years  an  extraordinary  influence  over 
the  people  of  his  county.  He  acquired  and  maintained, 
through  a  long  and  useful  life,  the  personal  esteem  and  politi- 
cal confidence  of  his  fellow  citizens.  He  frequently  occupied 
places  of  honor  and  profit  voluntarily  conferred  on  him  by  the 
people.  The  honor  of  a  seat  in  the  General  Assembly  of 
Virginia  was  repeatedly  awarded  him,  unsought  and  unbidden. 

He  amassed  considerable  wealth  and  was  thereby  enabled 
to  afford  his  children  superior  educational  facilities.  He  was 
blessed  with  a  numerous  familv  of  sons  and  dauehters. 
Thomas,  the  second  son,  was  bred  a  lawyer,  and  rose  to  dis- 
tinction in  his  section  of  the  state.  So  expert  and  successful 
did  he  become  in  the  practice  of  the  law  that  Judge  John  Tay- 
loe  Lomax,  of  the  Fredericksburg  circuit,  appointed  him  his 
prosecuting  attorney,  and  Thomas  accompanied  him  as  such, 
to  most  of  the  courts  in  his  judicial  circuit.  He  accumulated  a 
considerable  fortune  from  the  practice  of  the  law;  but  preferring 

Note — The  author  regrets  that  the  interesting  sketch  of  his  family  on  his  paternal  side  and  their  genealogy, 
which  the  Governor,  in  his  last  years,  became  much  interested  in  tracing,  was  destroyed  by  fire  at  Culpeper 
one  year  ago.     This  had  resulted  in  reaching  as  far  back  as  1663. 


a  more  congenial  and  higher  profession,  graduated  in  the  minis- 
try at  the  Episcopal  Seminary  at  Alexandria,  Virginia,  and  fol- 
lowed assiduously  that  sacred  calling  to  the  time  of  his  death. 

James  Madison,  the  third  son,  was  also  a  lawyer  ;  graduated 
at  the  University  of  Virginia  ;  became  a  brilliant  essayist 
and  journalist,  and  in  behalf  of  the  Democratic  party,  took  an 
active  and  aggressive  part  in  the  politics  of  the  state.  Later 
in  life  he  emigrated  to  the  West  to  fill  a  federal  appointment 
conferred  on  him  by  President  Pierce,  and  there  died. 

Colonel  Smith's  daughters  were  of  superior  intelligence  and 
several  of  them  of  masculine  minds. 

Frances  married  Alexander  Keech,  of  Maryland,  who  be- 
came a  well-known  and  distinguished  scholar  and  educator  at 
Waverly  Academy,  near  Washington  City. 

Maria,  married  the  Rev.  Dr.  Johnson,  of  Georgia,  a  learned 
and  well-known  Episcopal  minister  of  that  state.  He  was 
chaplain  in  the  army  and  won  the  soubriquet  of  "  the  Fighting 
Parson." 

Martha  married  William  Bell,  of  Culpeper,  Va.,  who  for 
many  years  held  the  responsible  office  of  disbursing  clerk  of 
the  U.  S.  Post  Office  at  Washington.  Refusing  to  take  the 
additional  oath  of  orifice  required  immediately  anterior  to  the 
war,  he  abandoned  his  commission  and  vacated  his  office. 
He  afterwards  became  one  of  the  most  expert  and  efficient 
prosecuting  attorneys  of  claims  against  the  government  of 
the  United  States. 

Catharine  married  John  Blackford,  of  Shenandoah  county, 
Virginia. 

Colonel  Caleb  Smith  was  brother-in-law  of  the  late  Colonel 
Wm.  R.  Smith,- a  venerable  and  esteemed  citizen  of  Fauquier 
county.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  here  and  literally  true,  that 
the  lamented  Robert  E.  Scott  and  himself,  antipodal  to  each 
other  in  the  politics  of  that  day,  were  the  only  two  men  who 
could  be  elected  to  the  Legislature  at  their  volition  without 
opposition. 

William,  the  distinguished  subject  of  these  memoirs,  at  the 
age  of  ten  years  was  sent  by  his  father  to  remain  a  short  time 
in    the   family  of  Judge   John    W.  Green,  of  Fredericksburg, 


Virginia,  who  was  then  a  lawyer  of  extensive  practice  in  that 
city  and  section,  that  he  might  be  prepared  to  give  his  father 
an  opinion  with  respect  to  the  mental  capacity  of  his  son, 
and  his  ability  to  receive  a  classical  education. 

The  opinion  of  Judge  Green  was  very  favorable. 

In  1 8 r  i  William  was  sent  to  the  town  of  Plainfield,  Conn., 
then  bearing  some  academic  repute,  to  commence  his  studies 
of  English  and  the  classics.  At  this  early  age  he  is  said  to 
have  been  distinguished  for  zeal  and  mental  vigor  in  the  pros- 
ecution of  his  studies.  But  at  this  institution  he  was  destined 
to  remain  a  short  time.  When  the  war  of  1812  was  declared, 
the  condition  of  things  became  more  unsettled.  Youncr  Wil- 
liam  became  fired  by  that  ardent  and  generous  spirit  of  pa- 
triotism, which  in  his  subsequent  life  formed  a  distinguishing 
trait  in  his  character.  He  immediately  and  earnestly  be- 
sought his  father  to  procure  for  him  a  midshipman's  warrant. 
In  this  perturbed  condition  of  the  country  and  the  agitation 
of  the  public  mind  in  which  the  ardent  and  enthusiastic  youth 
greatly  shared,  it  was  deemed  best  by  his  father  to  recall  him 
to  his  home.  His  father  disapproving  his  ambition  to  enter  the 
navy  and  deeming  him  too  young  for  the  army,  determined 
to  give  his  son  the  best  education  the  country  could  then 
afford.  Accordingly  he  entered  William  at  the  then  cele- 
brated English  and  Classical  School  of  Thomas  Nelson,  in 
Hanover  County,  Va.  Here,  and  at  a  private  school  at  his 
father's  house,  established  expressly  for  the  tuition  of  his  own 
children,  William  acquired  a  liberal  English  and  classical 
education. 

Encouraged  by  the  flattering  opinion  theretofore  expressed 
and  destined  for  the  profession  of  the  law,  he  commenced  its 
study  in  the  office  of  Judge  Green  ;  continued  it  with  Hon. 
Thomas  L.  Moore,  a  lawyer  of  high  reputation  of  the  town  of 
Warrenton,  Va.,  and  concluded  it  in  the  law  office  of  General 
Winder,  of  Baltimore.  He  commenced  the  practice  of  the 
law  in  the  County  of  Culpeper  and  resided  at  the  County 
seat,  in  the  month  of  August,  18 18,  at  twenty-one  years  of 
age.  Endowed  with  a  robust  frame  and  vigorous  constitution, 
zealous  and   enthusiastic  in  its  prosecution,  he   soon   satisfied 


the  Courts  of  his  legal  acumen— the;  juries  of  his  great  powers 
as  an  advocate,  and  the  public  with  his  fideltiy  to  his  clients. 
The  result  was  an  increasing  business  and  reputation  in  all 
the  courts  in  which  he  practiced. 

Sometime  thereafter,  young  Mr.  Smith  was  united  in  mar- 
riage to  Elizabeth  H.,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  late  James 
M.  and  Amelia  Bell  of  Bell  Parke.  Capt.  Bell  was  a  wealthy 
and  prominent  citizen  of  Culpeper,  who  dispensed  a 
"  Virginia  hospitality,"  well  noted  at  that  day  for  its  uniform 
courtesy  and  affluence. 

Thus  the  young  attorney  found  himself  in  the  hey-day  of 
prosperity  and  success.  But  that  exhuberance  of  spirits  and 
active  mental  energy  that  accompanied  him  through  life,  and 
which,  if  confined  to  his  profession,  must  have  contributed 
greatly  to  eminent  success  as  a  lawyer,  would  not  suffer  him  to 
remain  "  cribbed,  cabined  and  confined  "  in  a  dull  country  vil- 
lage. The  little  village  of  Culpeper  sixty  years  ago — then 
called  Fairfax — the  home  of  Mr.  Smith's  adoption,  was  liter- 
ally in  the  "  mountain  fastnesses."  With  great  natural  ad- 
vantages of  soil,  beauty,  scenery,  much  wealth  and  talent  and 
a  hard)-,  spirited  and  intelligent  yeomanry,  that,  in  common 
with  the  whole  Piedmont  region,  demanded  an  outlet  to  mar- 
ket and  rapid  communication  with  the  world. 

CHAPTER   II. 

Contracts  with  the  United  States  Government  Pioneer  <>l  the  South  Country  Im- 
proved—His Stage  ami  Boat  Lines  Great  Competition — Free  Passage  ami  a 
Bottle  "I  Wine     Brocks  Virginians. 

Partly  to  improve  his  own  fortunes  ami  partly  to  accommo- 
date the  people,  Mr.  Smith  contracted  with  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  to  establish  a  line  of  United  States  mail 
and  passenger  post  coaches  from  Washington  city  to  Lynch- 
burg, touching  the  towns  of  Fairfax,  Warrenton,  Culpeper, 
Orange  Court  House  and  Amherst  Court  Mouse  \'a.  This 
line  proved  to  be  a  great  advantage  to  the  country  through 
which  it  passed,  and  remunerative  to  the  contractor. 

'.'leased   with   this  result,    he  soon    enlarged   his    contracts 


with  the  Government,  and  extended  his  lines  of  mail  and  pas- 
senger coaches  through  the  States  of  Virginia,  North  and 
South  Carolina,  to  Milledgeville,  Ga.,  a  distance  of  65o  miles. 
All  along  this  line  between  the  different  termini,  were  estab- 
lished at  points  about  equidistant,  relay  houses,  hotels,  stores, 
blacksmith  shops,  stables,  etc.,  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
traveling  public. 

The  consequence  was,  the  whole  country  rapidly  advanced 
in  material  improvement,  and  developed  its  resources  to  a 
wonderful  degree.  At  that  day  there  were  no  railroads  in 
these  States,  and  Mr.  Smith  was  emphatically  called  the  Pio- 
neer of  the  South.  January  i,  1835,  Mr.  Smith  was  the  suc- 
cessful bidder  for  the  mail  contract  by  steamboat  and  coach 
line  between  Washington  and  Richmond.  Messrs.  Edmonds, 
Davenport  &  Co.,  started  a  passenger  line  in  opposition  to 
the  regular  main  line,  and  for  a  short  time  the  opposition  was 
so  strong  that  free  passage  was  offered  on  both  lines,  until 
finally  the  tradition  was,  that  an  additional  inducement  of  a 
bottle  of  wine  was  presented  to  the  passengers. 

This  ruinous  competition  was  soon  terminated  by  the  trans- 
fer of  the  latter  contract  to  the  former  contractors. 

Mr.  Smith  also  ran  a  line  of  steamers  between  Baltimore 
and  Norfolk.  This,  however,  was  of  temporary  existence. 
But  his  restless  and  progressive  temper  would  not  let  him 
stop  here.  His  next  enterprise  of  like  character  was  to  estab- 
lish a  semi-weekly  steamer  called  the  "  Champion "  which 
ran  from  Pensacola,  Fla..  to  Galveston,  Tex.  This  also  was 
of  temporary  duration. 

For  the  general  incidents  and  anecdotes  occurring  in  the 
'early  part  of  the  life  of  this  remarkable  man,  the  reader  is  re- 
ferred to  a  sketch  of  his  life  in  Hardesty's  Historical  and 
Geographical  Encyclopaedia,  under  the  head  of  "  Eminent 
Virginians,"  by  R.  A.  Brock,  Esq.,  of  Richmond,  Va.,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Virginia  Historical  Society.  This  is  a  special  Vir- 
ginia edition,  giving  a  history  of  the  two  Virginias  and  bio- 
graphical sketches  of  the  distinguished  men  of  the  States 
from  a  very  early  day  in  their  history.  It  is  an  intensely  in- 
teresting and  valuable  work,  especially  to  all  Virginians. 


Pending  the  prosecution  of  these  different  enterprises,  Mr. 
Smith  labored  under  an  enforced  absence  from  home,  and 
hence,  greatly  to  the  neglect  and  detriment  of  his  legal  busi- 
ness and  profession.  Despite  his  protracted  absence  from 
the  bar,  when  he  did  return  to  it  and  offered  himself  again  a 
candidate  for  practice,  his  old  clients  and  friends  rallied  to  his 
support,  and  freely  trusted  him  again  with  their  dearest  per- 
sonal and  property  rights.  So  great  was  their  confidence  in 
his  ability  as  a  lawyer  and  advocate  at  the  bar,  that  he  was 
often  called  to  distant  parts  of  the  State,  and  to  the  United 
States  Courts  at  Washington,  in  the  line  of  his  profession. 

CHAPTER  III. 

Mr.  Smith's  Initiation  into  Political  Life — His  Political  Principles — His  Admiration  of 
Jefferson  and  Madison — First  Election  to  the  Legislature  of  Virginia — Election  of 
United  States  Senator — W.  C.  Rives — The  Conservative,  Whig  and  Democratic 
Parties — Mr.  Rives  a  Candidate — Mr.  Smith's  Determined  Opposition  to  Him — 
The  Reason  Why — Senator  Smith's  Speech  against  Him — Distinguished  Whigs  of 
that  Day. 

Some  years  before  his  entrance  regularly  into  political  life, 
Mr.  Smith  had  been  a  bold  and  outspoken  co-laborer  in  the 
Democratic-Republican  party.  In  1824  he  opposed  the  elec- 
tion of  Clay  and  Adams,  and  preferred  the  election  of  Craw- 
ford over  Gen.  Jackson.  In  1828  he  warmly  supported  Gen. 
Jackson  for  the  presidency.  After  his  election  he  was  a 
warm  adherent  of  his  administration  in  the  main.  He  op- 
posed the  proclamation  and  the  Force  bill  however,  and  was 
very  pronounced  in  his  disapproval  of  the  doctrines  set  forth 
in  those  State  papers.  He  warmly  approved  the  veto  of  the 
bill  for  re-charter  of  the  United  States  Bank,  and  the  removal 
of  the  deposits,  and  took  bold  and  decided  position  on  the 
French  Indemnity  question,  sustaining  the  administration  in 
its  measures  and  policy  on  that  delicate  and  dangerous 
subject. 

Mr.  Smith  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  resolution  of  'qS-'qo. 
as  expounded  by  President  Madison  and  Jefferson  ;  and  on 
all  questions  of  government  polity  closely  adhered  to  the 
fundamental    principles  that,  all    powers  not  granted  to  the 


Government  of  the  United  States  and  not  necessary  to  carry- 
out  those  that  are  granted,  are  reserved  to  the  States  or  to 
the  people  respectively. 

In  1836  Mr.  Smith  was  elected  to  the  Senate  of  Virginia 
for  four  years.  This  body  was  then  composed  of  experienced 
and  talented  members  and  who  were  among  the  best  debaters 
in  the  State.  He  soon  took  the  front  in  the  Democratic 
party  ;  and  on  all  questions  of  finance  and  banking  and  State 
internal  improvements,  showed  himself  thoroughly  conversant 
and  an  able  and  ready  debater.  He  was  a  bold  and  fearless 
thinker  and  became  the  master-spirit  of  the  Senate.  He 
waged  a  bold  and  determined  war  against  the  banks  of  the 
State,  and  denounced  the  whole  banking  system  as  inefficient 
and  inherently  corrupt.  By  reason  of  this  radical  and  aggres- 
sive spirit,  Mr.  Smith  was  regarded  by  the  Whig  party  as  a 
dangerous  politician  and  ahead  of  the  age  in  which  he 
lived. 

In  March,  1839,  the  term  of  service  of  the  Hon.  W.  C. 
Rives,  a  Senator  of  the  United  States  from  Virginia,  would 
expire.  Several  gentlemen  of  distinction  were  spoken  of 
besides  himself  to  supply  his  place.  Senator  Rives  was  an  able 
and  rising  democratic  statesman  in  the  country,  and  was  in 
fact  the  most  popular  public  man  in  the  State.  But  he  had 
offended  many  of  his  friends  and  admirers  by  reason  of  a 
more  defined  disaffection  towards  the  then  Federal  adminis- 
tration ;  and  doubtless  his  own  party  by  its  own  action  had 
eiven  offense  to  him.  The  contest  was  absorbings  and  the 
election  was  an  exciting  one.  Senator  Rives's  disaffection 
culminated  in  the  formation  of  the  Conservative  party. 
There  were  three  candidates  for  that  high  office.  The  Con- 
servatives were  about  fifteen  in  number.  The  Whigs  counted 
about  eighty.  The  Democrats  were  therefore  in  a  minority. 
The  policy,  perhaps  the  plan,  was  for  the  Whigs  to  vote  for 
Mr.  Tyler,  afterwards  President  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
Conservatives  for  Mr.  Rives.  The  Democrats  of  course  sup- 
ported their  own  candidate.  Then  all  rules  of  party  action 
were  to  be  reversed  and  the  majority  must  give  way  to  the 
minority.     Party  bitterness  and  factional  animosity  ran  high. 


10 

This  was  an  anomalous  condition  of  things  at  that  day.      In  a 
speech  of  great  power  and  force,  Mr.  Smith  said  : 

"  Mr.  Speaker — What  train  of  reflection  ought  this  extraordinary  state  of  things  to 
excite?  Ought  we  to  look  at  it  as  a  subject  of  ridicule  or  regret?  Ought  we  to  laugh 
at  the  vows  which  the  tongue  utters  'when  the  blood  burns, '  or  mourn  over  the  frailty 
of  our  nature  which  makes  us  forget  them?  You  recollect,  sir,  how  Mr.  Rives  was 
denounced.  The  human  wit  ranged  the  whole  held  of  language  to  file  the  tongue 
with  words  of  bitterness.  You,  sir,  have  no  doubt  often  witnessed  his  revilers  stretch 
out  their  arms  to  yon  bright  vault,  and  call  God  to  witness  their  oath  of  eternal  hatred 
to  him.  Sir,  often  have  I  heard  one  of  his  most  eloquent  champions  now  abuse  him 
in  highways  and  in  byways  in  season  and  out  of  season — from  the  bar-room  to  the 
rostrum,  in  terms  of  bitterness  only  limited  by  his  own  happy  powers  of  denunciation 
and  the  poverty  of  his  mother  tongue.      Yes,  sir, 

■•  •  He  would  drown  the  stage  with  tears, 

And  cleave  the  general  ear  with  horrid  speech  ; 
Make  mad  the  guilty  and  appal  the  free  ; 
Confound  the  ignorant,  and  amaze,  indeed, 
'The  very  faculties  of  eyes  and  ears.' 

"At  another  time,  and  in  another  mood,  he  would  '  fall  a  cursing  like  a  very 
Arab.'  Yes,  sir,  I  have  heard  it  declared  by  this  eloquent  Whig,  that  lie  preferred  Mr. 
Rives  to  any  man  living  or  dead — to  Mr.  Madison,  if  he  were  on  earth,  in  the  zenith  of 
his  fame,  and  in  full  possession  of  all  his  noble  faculties.  What  a  change  has  come 
over  the  spirit  of  his  dream  !  No  more  do  we  see  the  smile  of  scorn,  or  hear  the  howl 
of  indignation  for  imputed  sins  yet  unrepented.  No  more  do  we  see  the  disposition 
to  cut  him  oft",  even  in  the  blossoms  of  his  sins,  '  unhouseled,  unanointed  and  uiian- 
nealed;  '  but  now,  to  use  a  quotation  of  Mr.  Rives  himself,  '  they  are  trusted  and  well- 
beloved  cousins  all.'  "  * 

This  election  gave  rise  to  much  angry  discussion  and  bitter 
heart-burninorS  between  the  two  great  Whijj  and  Democratic 
parties  of  that  day.  The  Whig  party  was  represented  and 
led  in  Virginia  by  the  larger  proportion  of  wealth  and  power, 
education  and  social  family  distinction.  It  had  Leigh  and 
Tyler  ;  the  two  Harbours,  ex- Governor  and  John  S.,  both  bril- 
liant men  and  splendid  orators.  Judge  Baldwin,  Judge  Sum- 
mers, A.  H.  H.  Stuart,  Henry  A.  Wise,  R.  E.  Scott.  J.  M. 
Botts  and  that  unique  platform  orator,  John  S.  Pendleton. 
Senator  Lyons,  an  elegant  gentleman  and  distinguished  law- 
yer, with  several  others,  led  the  Whig  part}-  in  the  Senate. 

Unaided  and  undaunted  by  the  allied  powers  against  him  on 
this  occasion,  Senator    Smith's   genius  and   courage   did    not 

*  The  Hon.  John  S.  Pen  J  let  on  was  the  gentleman  alluded  to.  He  was  .a  that  time  a  member  of  the  Virginia 
House  oi  I)  ..'legates  from  the  County  of  Rappahannock.  He  was  a  devoted  Whig  and  greal  admirer  of  Mr. 
Rives.  Of  him,  it  was  said  by  the  celebrated  ["homas  Ritchie  in  the  Richmond  Inquirer,  of  that  date,  that 
he  leil  off  in  that  elei  tii  in  in  .1  nominating  speech  of  Mr.  Rives  of  "  surpassing  eloquence,  and  1  overed  himself 
with  glory."  Mr.  Ritchie  was  de  idedly  opposed  to  the  re-election  of  Mr.  Rives,  Mr.  Pendleton  was  after- 
wards a  member  of  Congress  and  Charge  </<'  Affairs  to  Chili, 


11 

forsake  him.  The  line  of  his  duty  was  marked  out  plainly 
before  him.  He  did  not  believe  that  Mr.  Rives  ought  to  be 
re-elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  He  continued 
in  the  following  graphic  and  eloquent  strain  : 

"  Mr.  Speaker,"  said  Mr.  Smith,  "  Let  me  here  pause  and  for  a  brief  space  con- 
template the  moral  grandeur  of  our  position.  While  the  Whigs,  greatly  stronger  than 
the  party  with  which  we  act,  are,  as  is  supposed,  about  to  commit  an  extraordinary 
act  of  political  prostitution;  while  the  Conservatives  are  ready  and  anxious  for  that 
unholy  embrace  from  which  no  good  can  come,  we,  deficient  in  numbers,  yet  firmly 
stand  upon  our  principles,  recognizing  no  necessity  for  their  abandonment.  Conscious 
that  our  destiny  may  be  defeat,  and  deeply  anxious  to  conquer,  yet  we  sternly  resist 
all  the  seductions  of  temptation,  confiding  in  the  justice  of  our  cause  and  the  wisdom 
of  the  people,  we  fear  not  defeat,  satisfied  that  it  will  enrich  that  victory,  which, 
sooner  or  later,  we  must  certainly  achieve. 

'•Our  principle,  sir,  the  Democratic  principle,  must  win  favor  as  it  is  understood. 
It  is  a  principle  of  humanity,  benevolence  and  love.  It  seeks  to  abuse  no  man,  but 
to  elevate  all.  It  seeks  to  alleviate  human  suffering,  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted, 
and  to  make  us  love  one  another  as  ourselves.  It  labors  to  purify  the  affections  and 
expel  from  the  human  heart  that  selfishness  which  is  the  source  of  such  innumerable 
woes.  It  teaches  without  ceasing,  the  lofty  principles  of  unadulterated  philosophy  in 
order  that  man  may  be  all  that  the  creature  should  be  who  is  made  after  God's  own 
image.  It  is  a  principle  of  veneration  and  change,  with  ceaseless  efforts  for  the  hap- 
piness of  man,  and  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  moral,  that  the  Christian  principle 
does  to  the  religious  world.  The  principles  of  both  are  love;  for  both  seek  the  hap- 
piness of  man.  The  one  seeks  to  perfect  the  character  of  man  here  below;  the 
other,  in  addition  thereto,  seeks  to  make  him  fit  company  for  the  society  of  just 
men  made  perfect.  In  fact,  the  only  difference  between  these  vital  and  glorious  prin- 
ciples is,  that  the  one  is  of  earth,  the  other  of  heaven.  Our  principles  teach  us  that 
all  mankind  are  free  and  equal.  Impress  this  doctrine  upon  the  heart,  and  we  must  love 
our  brother  as  ourself.  Let  us  do  this,  and  we  must  have  charity  and  humility;  and 
then  sir,  with  our  hearts  thus  purified  and  attuned  to  love,  the  Christian  laborer  has 
naught  to  do,  but  to  invoke  the  regenerating  principles  of  Divine  grace.  The  Demo- 
cratic principle  is  the  grand  moral  adjunct  of  the  Christian  principle;  and  it  is  the 
bounden  duty  of  every  son  of  heaven  to  spread  it  far  and  wide.  Sir,  the  foe  of  the 
Democratic  principle,  is  the  aristocratic  principle. 

"What  are  its  characteristics?  Pride,  vain  glory  and  ambition.  It  turns  with  loath- 
ing and  disgust  from  the  laboring  millions.  It  considers  the  many  as  only  fit  to  be 
'hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water.'  Its  affections  are  only  of  this  world,  and 
it  goes  up  into  high  places,  and  thanks  the  Lord  it  is  not  as  that  poor  publican. 
What  chance  has  the  Christian  laborer  here  ? 

"  And  such  sir,  is  the  principle  which  regulates  the  political  conduct  of  a  very  large 
portion  of  our  adversaries.  Is  it  then  wonderful,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  our  principles 
should  have  borne  us  on  conquering  and  to  conquer  ?  Is  it  wonderful  that  under  its 
rule  we  should  have  determined  to  bear  our  banner  aloft,  resolved  as,  I  have  before  re- 
marked, 'to  conquer  or  die'  beneath  its  ample  and  imperishable  folds." 

The  purity  of  the  principles  and  political  tenets  of  the  two 
great  Democratic  and  Whig  parties  of  former  days  are  not 
to  be  discussed  or  passed  on  here. 

The  relative  merits  of  each  were  submitted  to  the  great  ar- 


12 

bitrament  of  the  people,  and  their  judgment  has  passed  into 
history.  About  the  causes  of  its  (the  Whig  party's)  organi- 
zation and  formation  in  this  country,  there  could  be  many 
opinions  and  much  discussion.  Its  organization  was  solid  and 
compact.  Its  management  was  able  and  dexterous.  Certain  it 
is  that,  it  was  for  years  led  and  directed  by  some  of  the  ablest 
men  in  America.  The  great  Clay  was  the  master  spirit  and 
genius  of  the  Whig  party  ;  and  even  the  incomparable  Web- 
ster and  Calhoun  would  sometimes  follow  in  his  wake  in  op- 
position to  the  alleged  usurpations  of  Presidents  Jackson  and 
Van  Buren.  They  stood  like  a  stone  wall  against  the  en- 
croachments of  the  Democratic  party — and  as  has  been  said 
of  the  old  Whig  party  of  England,  "  with  the  steadiness  of  a 
great  oligarchy,"  the  Whigs  "  combined  their  characteristic 
immobility." 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Mr.  Smith's  Second  Term  in  the  Senate — Without  Opposition— His  Resignation — Pres- 
idential Election — Mr.  Rives  Again — His  Discussion  with  Mr.  Smith — The  "  Hard 
Cider  Campaign" — Henry  Wilson's  Log  Cabin — Mr.  Smith's  Great  Discussion 
with  Governor  Barbour  at  Staunton,  Va. 

So  wide-spread  was  the  distinction  that  Senator  Smith  had 
achieved  in  the  legislature  of  Virginia  during  his  first  term, 
that  he  was  unanimously  nominated  again  for  re-election  in 
every  county  in  his  district  in  1840,  and  was  again  elected 
without  opposition.  The  Presidential  election  was  soon  to 
take  place,  and  formidable  opposition  to  the  Democratic  nom- 
inee was  threatened  by  the  Whigs.  In  consequence,  Mr. 
Smith  consented  to  be  a  candidate  again,  but  on  condition 
that  he  could  resign  at  discretion.  He  served  one  term  and 
did  resign  at  the  expiration  of  the  first  year  of  his  second 
term.  This  was,  in  fact,  an  enforced  resignation.  It  was  in 
deference  to  the  earnest  demands  of  his  profession  as  a  law- 
yer, and  the  condition  of  his  private  affairs. 

In  1840  the  Whig  party  had  greatly  increased  in  numbers, 
buoyancy  and  boldness.  The  people  had  tired  of  Van  Bu- 
ren's  administration,  and  the  war-cry  of  the  party  was 
"change,"    "  change  " — change  of  men,  and  change  of  meas- 


DO 
> 

> 
2 
D 

> 


> 

30 
D 

> 
H 

O 

o 

< 


13 

ures.  In  the  excess  of  their  confidence,  the  Whigs  boasted 
that  they  would  carry  the  old  Tenth  Legion  of  Democracy, 
and  actually  sent  out  a  challenge  from  old  Rockingham,  then 
the  Gibralter  of  the  Democratic  party  of  Virginia,  to  meet 
them  on  a  day  fixed  for  the  discussion  of  the  great  issues  in- 
volved in  the  canvass.  The  Democrats  of  course  accepted 
the  challenge  at  once.  This  was  just  what  such  a  bold  and 
daring  spirit  as  animated  Mr.  Smith's  bosom  desired. 

Mr.  Rives  by  this  time  had  left  the  Democratic  party  and 
given  in  his  adhesion  to  Mr.  Clay  and  the  Whig  party.  He 
had  traversed  a  portion  of  the  State,  addressing  the  people 
from  the  stump  and  bitterly  denouncing  President  Van  Buren 
and  all  the  measures  of  his  administration.  He  was  an  able, 
adroit,  and  fearless  debater.  He  was  a  Senator  of  the  United 
States,  had  been  a  minister  to  the  Court  of  France,  and  his 
prestige  and  popularity  were  elements  hard  to  withstand. 
Some  Democrats  became  demoralized,  and  quailed  before  his 
coming.  Then  all  eyes  were  turned  to  William  Smith. 
Fearless,  unflinching  and  intrepid,  Mr.  Smith,  on  different 
occasions,  measured  lances  with  Mr.  Rives,  and  displayed  an 
eloquence  and  ability  theretofore  unequaled  by  himself,  and 
exciting  the  admiration  and  pride  of  friend  and  foe. 

In  this  great  contest  of  1840,  Mr.  Smith  had  acquired  a 
fame  and  celebrity  which  impelled  the  people  of  the  neigh- 
boring States  of  Ohio,  Pennsylvania  and  North  Carolina,  to 
press  him  to  visit  them,  and  address  them  on  the  same  issues. 
He  was  not  a  man  to  be  confined  to  a  sinele  State.  He  met 
their  best  men  in  those  States,  and  lost  nothing  in  his  tilts 
with  them  wherever  he  was  invited  to  appear  ;  and  for  six 
months,  toiled  in  the  Democratic  vineyard  in  those  States,  as 
well  as  in  his  own. 

This  was  the  fiercest  and  bitterest  contest  save  one,  that 
ever  took  place  in  the  United  States.  It  was  known  as  the 
"Hard  Cider  Campaign" — "  Tippacanoe  and  Tyler  too!" 
was  the  refrain  sun^  throughout  the  United  States.  "  'Twas 
in  that  campaign  that  Henry  Wilson  of  Massachusetts,  a 
shoemaker  by  trade,  constructed  a  coarse  ox-wagon,  loaded 
it  with  barrels  of  hard  cider,  and  traversed  his  State,  advocat- 


14 

ing  the  claims  of  Harrison  and  Tyler.  'Twas  in  that  campaign 
that  Wilson  conceived  he  possessed  a  "  speaking"  talent,"  drove 
his  own  wagon  and  made  his  own  speeches,  and  afterwards 
became  Senator  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Smith  frequently  encountered  such  men  as  Ex-Gov. 
Barbour,  J.  S.  Barbour,  senior,  Judge  Summers,  Judge  Bald- 
win, Hon.  A.  H.  H.  Stuart,  afterwards  President  Tyler's  Sec- 
retary of  the  Interior,  and  other  distinguished  Whigs  of  Vir- 
ginia. The  writer  has  often  heard  Governor  Smith  relate  and 
comment  with  pleasure,  upon  the  celebrated  discussion  he 
had  with  Gov.  Barbour  at  Staunton,  Va.  He  said,  among 
other  things  of  much  interest,  that  Gov.  Barbour  spoke  on 
that  occasion  for  five  hours,  and  made  the  ablest  speech  he 
ever  heard  from  the  lips  of  any  man. 

Gov.  Barbour  had  been  the  Governor  of  Virginia  in  the 
War  of  1812,  and  Minister  to  the  Court  of  St.  James.  He 
was  called  from  his  retirement  on  this  occasion  especially  to 
combat  with  Mr.  Smith  and  discuss  the  exciting  and  vital 
issues  of  the  contest.  Gov.  Barbour  was  then  about  seventy- 
five  years  of  age.  He  presented  an  imposing  presence,  with 
a  striking  face,  long  shaggy  eyebrows,  and  head  covered  with 
silvery  flowing  locks  ;  with  a  majestic  and  sonorous  voice,  he 
filled  one's  conception  of  the  grandeur  of  a  Roman  Senator 
in  the  best  days  of  the  Republic. 

But  no  fears  entered  the  hearts  of  the  Democrats  when 
William  Smith  was  at  hand.  With  cool,  calm,  lofty  bearing, 
with  a  magazine  of  facts  at  his  command;  with  infinite  dex- 
terity  and  resistless  eloquence,  he  met  the  Ex-Governor  at 
every  point  of  attack,  and  gained  bright  laurels  as  one  of  the 
foremost  debaters  in  the  State.  Although  the  Whig  candi- 
dates (Harrison  and  Tyler)  were  elected,  Virginia  was  saved 
to  the  Democracy.  It  was  declared  then  and  will  be  acknowl- 
edged now,  that  this  result  in  Virginia  was  mainly  due  to  the 
unresting  energy  and   powerful  influence  of  William  Smith. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Vacancy  in  Congress— Col.  Banks  Becomes  a  Candidate — Mr.  Smith  Urged  to  Run 
— Declines — His  Letter  on  the  Subject — The  People  Determined  to  Nominate 
Him — Elected  to  Congress — His  Course  in  Congress — Speech  on  the  Tariff — 
"Attalus"  Congressional  District  Re -arranged  —  Extract  of  his  Letter  to 
Col.  Parker. 

Hon.  J.  M.  Pattern,  who  then  represented  the  Culpeper 
Congressional  District,  resigned  his  seat  in  the  House  of 
Representatives.  Mr.  Smith  was  still  a  member  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Senate.  Col.  Lynn  Banks,  who  had  been  Speaker  of  the 
House  ot  Delegates  for  twenty-six  years  consecutively,  an- 
nounced himseli  immediately  alter  Mr.  Patton's  resignation 
independent  of  a  convention,  a  candidate  to  supply  the  vacancy. 
He  had  always  been  a  consistent  Democrat  from  that  brave 
old  fortress  of  democracy,  the  County  of  Madison,  then  one 
of  the  counties  of  Senator  Smith's  district.  Senator  Smith 
was  warmly  urged  to  become  a  candidate  also.  A  popular 
Whig  had  declared  himself  a  candidate.  Under  these  circum- 
stances Mr.  Smith  declined  to  run.  He  addressed  a  letter  to 
the  people  urging  concession  and  harmony,  which,  to  some 
extent,  allayed  the  dissatisfaction.  Unfortunately  this  letter 
cannot  be  found;  but,  at  a  much  later  date,  he  wrote  a  letter 
to  his  friend  Col.  Parker,  in  which,  among  other  things,  he 
makes  the  following  statement  : 

Warrenton,  Va.,  Dec    i,  1873. 
Col.  J.  A.  Parker,  Tappahannock,  Essex  County. 

My  Dear  Sir:  Although  you  may  be  familiar  with  the  leading  facts  of  my  life, 
yet  hoping  to  have  your  active  support,  I  deem  it  proper  to  possess  you  of  my  state- 
ment, upon  which  you  may  implicitly  rely. 

I  was  educated  for  the  law,  and  commenced  my  professional  career  in  the  county 
of  Culpeper,  in  August,  1818,  and  soon  took  part  in  the  politics  of  the  State,  but 
never  even  desired  to  be  a  candidate.  At  length  in  1836  a  convention  for  our  Senato- 
rial District  was  convened  to  select  a  candidate,  and  the  choice  fell  upon  me.  I  pro- 
tested I  could  not  be  a  candidate  ;  that  I  was  deeply  in  debt,  and  to  enter  public  life 
would  be  my  ruin,  and  so  declined  the  nomination.  It  was  then  renewed,  and  my  ac- 
ceptance demanded  as  a  party  duty,  and  I  yielded.  After  an  active  canvass  I  was 
handsomely  elected;  so  I  commenced  public  life. 

Having  served  out  my  four  years  with  some  credit,  I  proposed  to  retire,  but  it 
was  again  insisted  that  I  should  run,  which  I  finally  agreed  to  do,  with  the  under- 
standing that  I  might  retire  after  serving  the  first  year  of  my  renewed  term.  I  was 
elected  without  opposition,  and  as  agreed,  resigned.  And  this  is  my  whole  service  in 
the  Legislature  of  our  State  (five  years.) 


16 

"  In  the  meantime  Mr.  Pattern  having  been  elected  a  member  of  our  State  Coun- 
cil, resigned  his  seat  in  Congress,  and  Col.  Lynn  Banks  announced  himself  a  candi- 
date for  the  unexpired  portion  of  Mr.  Patton's  term  .  Many  of  my  friends  insisted  that 
I  should  run,  and  proposed  to  settle  the  difficulty  through  a  convention,  but  Col. 
Banks  declined,  and  insisted  that  he  was  in  the  field  and  would  submit  to  no  arbitra- 
ment whatever.  This  very  naturally  produced  great  dissatisfaction,  taking  advantage 
of  which  Mr.  Slaughter,  a  Whig,  announced  himself  a  candidate.  My  friends  urged 
that  I  too  should  announce  myself  a  candidate,  insisting  that  I  could  beat  them  both. 
This,  however,  I  declined,  reminding  my  friends  that  our  Democratic  majority  in  the 
district  was  600  only;  that  our  defeat  would  be  inevitable,  and  that  I  would  be 
held  responsible  for  it.  We,  however,  finally  settled  the  question,  and  in  some  degree 
allayed  dissatisfaction  by  my  agreeing  to  run  whenever  the  Whigs  would  not  run  a 
candidate.  The  contest  was  then  left  between  Banks  and  Slaughter.  I  took  an  active 
part  for  Col.  Banks,  and  notwithstanding  all  my  efforts  he  was  elected  by  a  majority 
of,  I  think,  only  sixteen.  The  regular  election  coming  off  between  the  same  candi- 
dates, Banks  was  elected  by  some  three  hundred  majority. 

"  It  thus  became  evident  to  the  Whigs  that  the  effect  of  their  policy  was  to  fasten 
Col.  Banks  upon  the  district  indefinitely.  And  the  next  election  approaching,  a  num- 
ber of  prominent  Whig  gentlemen  called  upon  me  to  know  if  I  did  not  intend  to  become 
a  candidate.  I  replied,  you  gentlemen  know  the  situation.  Your  party  can  make  or 
prevent  me  from  being  one.  Therefore  they  pledged  themselves  to  me  that  if  I  would 
become  a  candidate  no  Whig  would.  This  pledge  embraced  on  the  part  of  the  Whigs 
no  obligation  to  support  me;  they  were  to  be  left  to  their  own  pleasure  as  to  the  part 
they  might  take  in  the  election,  their  policy  being  to  try  the  effect  of  a  family  quarrel. 
Satisfied  with  the  honor  and  influence  of  those  who  gave  the  pledge,  and  in  compliance 
with  my  promise  to  do  so  when  I  could  without  endangering  Democratic  ascendency 
in  the  district,  I  announced  myself.  It  produced  quite  a  sensation.  Three  years  of 
acceptable  service  by  Col.  Banks  had  subdued  much  of  the  active  opposition  to  him, 
which  his  conduct  in  the  beginning  had  provoked;  many  had  no  confidence  in  his  faith, 
and  considered  all  was  lost,  while  my  ardent  friends  considered  my  election  an  assured 
fact,  and  thus  relaxed  their  vigilance  and  exertions,  which,  on  such  occasions,  nothing 
can  excuse.  The  result  was  that  Col.  Banks  got  the  return  by  four  votes.  I  contested 
the  election  and  without  waiting  for  the  judgment  of  the  House,  we  agreed  to  run  it 
over.  It  took  place  in  November,  and  was  morally  only  a  continuance  of  the  spring 
election.  But  my  friend  Slaughter  thought  otherwise,  and  considering  the  Whig 
pledge  exhausted,  declared  himself  a  candidate.  I  was  nothing  daunted.  Fully  sen- 
sible of  the  peril  of  my  position,  that  I  would  be  held  responsible  for  Democratic  de- 
feat, I  boldly  entered  the  canvass,  asked  if  I  were  a  Virginian  anion-  Virginians,  that 
any  should  be  so  bold  as  to  call  upon  our  people  to  become  aiders  and  abettors  of  the 
foul  wrong  now  being  attempted  in  this  district,  etc.  The  result  was  my  triumphant 
election. 

At  the  next  election  for  Congress  the  same  circumstances 
confronted  Mr.  Smith,  and  he  again  refused  to  imperil  the 
unity  or  harmony  of  his  party,  and  declined  to  become  a  can- 
didate. A  third  election  coming  around,  the  people's  anxiety 
had  ripened  into  a  well-settled  determination  to  nominate 
Mr.  Smith  and  run  him  for  Congress.  This  determination,  it 
was  plain,  could  not  be  restrained.  A  Whig  and  a  Democrat 
were  still  in  the  field,  but  Mr.  Smith  became  a  candidate,  made 
a  short,  but  energetic  and  powerful   canvass,  and   triumphed 


17 

over  both  competitors  by  over  400  majority.  This  election 
clearly  tested  his  great  popularity  and  power  among  the 
people. 

This  was  his  first  term  in  Congress.  The  Tariff  Bank  Dis- 
tribution of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  among 
the  States,  Internal  Improvement  by  the  General  Govern- 
ment and  the  Loan  Bill,  were  the  absorbing  topics  of  discussion 
in  Congress  and  amongst  the  people.  They  were  great  ques- 
tions of  Government  policy.  Mr.  Clay  was  the  author  of  the 
American  System,  and  advocated  all  these  measures  with 
great  ability  and  had  acquired  a  tremendous  following  in  the 
country. 

The  questions  of  Banks,  Banking  and  the  Tariff  were  Mr. 
Smith's  specialties.  His  speech  on  the  Tariff  was  one  of 
masterly  ability.  This  speech  was  used  in  the  celebrated 
contests  of  '44  in  Virginia  and  other  States,  as  one  of  the 
principal  campaign  documents  in  these  elections. 

Mr.  Smith  was  the  author  of  a  series  of  articles  which 
appeared  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer  over  the  signature  of 
"  Attalus,"  advocating  the  establishment  of  the  Independent 
Treasury  Scheme.  His  active  participation  in  the  discussion 
of  these  measures  was  enough  to  show  that  he  was  as  able 
and  efficient  in  the  Councils  of  the  country,  as  he  was  power- 
ful before  the  people. 

To  prevent  his  re-election  and  to  effect  his  exclusion  from 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  the  next  and  future  Con- 
gresses, the  Whig-  Legislature  re-arranged  his  Congressional 
district,  so  as  to  ensure  a  Whig  majority  of  900.  Upon  this 
point  Mr.  Smith  thus  speaks  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Parker, 
under  the  aforesaid  date  : 

"It  was  during  my  term  the  State  was  re-districted  for  Congress  and  my  district 
was  portioned  into  three  parts,  literally  made  a  Poland  of,  and  made  parts  of  three 
districts.  Under  this  arrangement  I  had  been  left  in  a  district  hopelessly  Whig,  and  I 
quickly  accepted  these  arrangements  as  the  final  close  of  my  political  career. 

"  Having  previously  concluded  to  move  to  Fauquier,  a  fine  field  for  my  profes- 
sion, and  where  superior  advantages  for  the  education  of  my  children  existed,  and 
even  before  my  arrangements  were  completed,  I  was  called  upon  to  run  for  Congress, 
in  the  district  to  which  I  have  before  referred.  I  frankly  stated  to  the  gentlemen  my 
situation,  and  that  it  would  be  almost  a  crime  against  my  family  to  think  of  it;  they 
replied  that  the  canvass  would  be  short  and  that  I  was  the  only  man  in  the  district 
•who  could  rally  the  party.     I  then  most  unexpectedly  became  a  candidate,  and  in  a 


18 

canvass  of  three  weeks  reduced  the  usual  Whig  majority  of  1,200  to  265,  exciting  a 
large  amount  of  apprehension  and  alarm. 

"  Bear  in  mind,  I  beg  you,  that  debt  had  long  borne  heavily  upon  me,  which  just 
culminated;  that  my  firmness  and  character  had  been  subjected  to  tests  from  which 
few  escape  without  injury,  and  that  at  the  most  trying  moment  of  my  troubles,  gen- 
tlemen called  upon  me  again  to  enter  the  political  arena,  stating  that  I  alone  could  or- 
ganize and  arouse  the  Democratic  vote  of  the  district,  thus  telling  me,  in  effect,  that  T 
had  not  suffered  from  the  fiery  ordeal  through  which  I  had  passed.  I  was  greatly 
gratified  at  it  and  cherish  the  memory  of  it  with  infinite  satisfaction." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Mr.  Smith  Neutral  between  Mr.  Calhoun  and  President  Van  Buren — Appointed  Demo- 
cratic State  Elector — Hon.  R.  E.  Scott  Whig  Elector — Traversed  the  State  as  Dem- 
ocratic Elector — Mr.  Rives  once   More — Discussion    at   Culpeper  with  Mr.  Smith. 

In  1843  when  Mr.  Calhoun  and  Mr.  Van  Buren  each  had 
his  warm  admirers  and  adherents  for  the  Presidency,  Mr. 
Smith  attached  himself  to  neither  side.  He  had  been  the 
warm  supporter  of  the  latter's  administration,  and  cherished 
homage  for  the  great  South  Carolinian.  Mr.  Smith  was  de- 
cidedly in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  from  the  initial 
agitation  of  that  question. 

In  1844,  Mr.  Smith  was  appointed  by  the  Democratic  State 
Convention,  presidential  elector  for  his  Congressional  District, 
the  Loudoun  district,  the  only  Whig  district  then  in  the  State. 
He  was  thus  put  in  competition  with  one  of  the  most  talented 
and  popular  Whig  electors  in  the  State,  the  Hon.  R.  E.  Scott 
of  Fauquier.  He  was  blessed  with  a  splendid  physique  and 
was  a  prodigy  in  oratory  and  power  before  courts  and  juries. 
When  they  "  locked  horns,"  it  was  indeed  the  "  war  of  the 
giants."  It  was  the  manly,  brave  old  custom  then  for  the  two 
great  parties  of  that  day  to  meet  by  appointment  on  day  and 
place,  divide  equally  the  time  and  discuss  the  great  issues  of 
the  contest— a  custom  which  should  be  now  more  honored  in 
the  observance  than  in  its  breach — a  custom  which  always 
met  with  the  approval  and  pleasure  of  William  Smith  ;  one, 
which,  on  all  occasions  generated  the  true  guadia  ccvtaminis 
in  his  bosom,  and  always  proved  him  the  great  tribune  of  the 
people. 

In  the  great  contests  of  1844  as  in  those  of  1846,  Mr.  Smith 
was  again  looked  to  by  the  people 


19 

"  As  their  liveliest  pledge 
Of  hope  in  fears  and  dangers." 

He  was  not  permitted  to  confine  himself  to  his  own  district, 
but  was  often  called  to  a  distance  to  meet  the  best  men  of  the 
Whig  party  all  over  Virginia  and  West  Virginia.  The  great 
Clay  was  again  a  candidate  versus  James  K.  Polk,  who  was 
comparatively  undistinguished  in  the  councils  of  the  country. 
The  Whigs  were  bitter  and  denunciatory  in  the  extreme,  and 
scouted  the  very  idea  of  their  great  commoner's  defeat. 

The  campaigns  of  40-44  were  very  similar  to  the  Western 
campaigns  in  song  and  revelry,  in  wassail  and  spectacular. 
The  Whig  banners  were  emblazoned  in  capital  letters  with 
the  couplet  : 

"Walk  along  John,  you  can't  stay, 
The  people's  choice  is  Harry  Clay." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Democrats  sported  the  refrain : 

"Walk  along  John,  you  can't  stay, 
The  people's  choice  is  Jimmy  K." 

In  the  meantime  the  Democratic  party  had  recovered  from 
their  disastrous  defeat  of  1 840.  They  were  able  to  bring  to 
the  front  some  of  the  most  brilliant  and  talented  debaters  in 
the  State.  There  was  William  Daniel,  afterwards  Judge  of 
the  Court  of  Appeals  of  Virginia,  and  father  of  the  great  ora- 
tor, John  W.  Daniel,  at  present  Senator  of  the  United  States. 
Shelton  H.  Leake,  afterwards  member  of  Congress  ;  John  S. 
Caskie,*  afterwards  Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Richmond, 
Va.,  and  member  of  Congress  ;  John  Z.  Holliday,  A.  H.  Ber- 
nard. Henry  Bedinger,  Hon.  James  A.  Leddon,  afterwards 
Secretary  of  War  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  others  on 
the  Democratic  electorial  ticket  not  now  remembered.  But  to 
William  Smith,  whose  voice  had  been 

"heard  so  oft 
In  most  extremes," 

they  again  looked, 

"In  all  assaults  their  surest  signal." 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  1844  when  Mr.  Rives's  defection  to 


*Judge   Caskie  beat  J.  M.  Botts  for  Congress,  from  the  Richmond  district.     Mr.  Botts  was  one  of  the 
most  consistent  and  powerful  Whig  orators  in  Virginia. 


20 

the  Democratic  party  had  become  known  of  all  men.  He 
had  by  this  time  openly  and  boldly  espoused  the  nomination 
and  election  of  Mr.  Clay  to  the  presidency.  They  were  then 
both  in  the  "  firmament  of  their  power."  The  Whig  leaders 
of  Virginia  were  radiant  with  confidence;  and  the  advocacy 
of  their  Henry  of  Navarre  by  the  ablest  and  most  popular 
man  in  the  State,  was  a  valuable  accession  to  their  strength 
as  well  as  to  their  audacity  and  aggressiveness. 

Mr.  Rives  had  invaded  the  territory  of  the  old  Tenth  Le- 
gion of  Democracy — had  as  was  represented,  made  a  great 
speech  to  the  Democrats  of  Rockingham,  at  the  town  of  Har- 
risonburg without  opposition  or  response.  The  effect  upon 
the  Whigs  was  exhilarating,  upon  the  Democrats  it  was  de- 
pressing. He  was  called  at  once  to  Culpeper  to  repeat  his 
speech.  His  conquest  it  was  declared,  would  be  easy  and  but 
a  repetition  of  what  had  attended  his  effort  at   Harrisonburg. 

Mr.  Rives  came  according  to  appointment.  Arrangements 
were  made  for  the  discussion.  It  was  the  old  Culpeper 
County  Court  day.  The  crowd  was  very  great.  Intense  in- 
terest was  felt  by  both  Whigs  and  Democrats.  Party  spirit 
rose  upon  the  crest  of  the  wave.  Great  issues  were  involved, 
and  ereat  men  were  to  discuss  them  before  that  tribunal  that 
at  last  must  hold  the  destinies  of  our  Republican  government 
in  the  hollow  of  its  hand. 

Mr.  Rives  arrived  in  the  morning.  A  large  deputation  im- 
mediately waited  on  Mr.  Smith,  and  both  gentlemen  were 
conducted  to  the  platform.  The  crowd  being  so  large,  a 
stand  was  at  once  improvised  in  the  rear  of  the  old  Court 
House.  Both  gentlemen  were  fully  prepared  and  the  people 
"  eager  for  the  fray."  At  that  day,  all  parties  were  invited 
and  free  to  attend,  and  reap  what  advantages  they  could  from 
a  bold,  brave  and  manly  discussion  of  men  and  measures. 

What  a  sad  contrast  at  this  day  !  and  how  it  grated  upon 
the  feelings  of  the  grand  old  commoner,  before  his  death,  that 
a  large  portion  of  his  old  friends,  whom  he  had  so  often 
taught  the  first  principles  of  government,  and  on  whose  elo- 
quent and  persuasive  lips  they  had  so  often  hung,  should  be 
deprived  of  that  popular  privilege  and  right. 


21 

Mr.  Rives  being  a  stranger  to  the  people  and  non-resident 
of  Culpeper,  was  introduced  by  Hon.  John  S.  Pendleton  in  a 
laudatory  and  unusually  eloquent  style.  The  discussion  was 
able  and  courteous,  and  worthy  of  the  two  great  champions 
and  riveted  each  in  the  affections  and  admiration  of  their  re- 
spective parties. 

Again  the  Democratic  party  triumphed  over  the  Whigs, 
and  Virginia  passed  through  the  "  battle  and  the  storm  "  the 
"  Flag-ship  of  the  Union." 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Mr.  Smith's  Election  of  Governor  of  Virginia  for  Three  Years  by  the  Legislature — 
His  Nomination  for  the  Senate  of  the  United  States — His  Defeat  by  a  Combina- 
tion of  the  Whigs  and  Conservatives — Extracts  from  His  Letter  to  Col.  Parker  as 
to  His  Election  of  Governor — His  Administration  as  Governor — His  Visit  to  and 
Sojourn  in  California. 

In  December,  1845,  Mr.  Smith  was  chosen  Governor  by 
the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  for  three  years  from  the  1st  of 
January,  1846.      He  thus  speaks  of  that  election  ; 

"Having  accepted  my  defeat  in  perfect  resignation,  as  the  final  close  of  my  po- 
litical career,  I  devoted  myself  to  my  profession  and  was  prosecuting  it  with  ardor  and 
success,  when  walking  on  the  Main  street  of  Warrenton,  with  saddle-bags  on  my  arm, 
having  just  returned  from  Prince  William  Court,  a  friend  addressed  me  as  Governor 
Smith.  I  asked  him  what  he  meant  by  addressing  me  by  such  a  title.  He  said  he 
had  so  addressed  me,  because  I  was  the  Governor-elect  of  Virginia.  I  replied  that  I 
hoped  it  was  not  so,  for  I  at  once  saw  that  I  would  have  to  give  up  my  profession,  and 
as  the  Governor's  salary  would  barely  support  a  family  in  a  very  moderate  way,  I 
would  at  the  close  of  my  term  be  utterly  destitute.  It  turned  out  as  stated.  I  had 
been  nominated  in  caucus  the  preceding  night,  and  as  that  was  equivalent  to  an  elec- 
tion, so  I  was  duly  elected.  It  was  a  severe  trial  to  me.  To  be  elected  Governor  of 
Virginia  under  any  circumstances  was  no  light  honor,  but  to  have  that  great  distinc- 
tion tendered  me  not  only  without  request,  but  also  without  expectation,  overpowered 
me  with  emotions  I  had  no  language  to  describe.  But  the  personal  sacrifices  I  would 
have  to  make  would  be  too  great,  and  I  determined  to  decline  the  position.  This 
purpose  was  communicated  to  some  of  my  leading  friends,  who  had  been  most  active 
in  my  election;  who  stoutly  resisted  it,  representing  that  by  doing  as  I  proposed,  I 
would  delight  my  enemies  and  deeply  mortify  my  friends  who  had  staked  themselves 
upon  the  wisdom  of  my  selection.  Suffice  it  to  say,  I  yielded  to  my  friends  and  be- 
came Virginia's  Governor.  How  I  bore  myself  is  a  matter  of  history  to  which  I  fear- 
lessly refer  the  curious,  satisfied  that  they  will  find  but  little  complaint  of  my  admin- 
istration.    My  election  occurred  in  December,  1846,  and  was  for  three  years." 

Gov.  Smith  had  been  warmly  urged  by  his  friends  some 
time  before  the  next  election  for  United  States  Senator,  for  a 
seat  in  that  body.     In  a  mass  meeting  by  the  people  held  by 


22 

the  leading-  and  influential  men  of  Madison  Count}-,  Mr. 
Smith  was  nominated  for  the  next  vacancy.  In  January, 
1846,  a  day  was  fixed  by  the  Legislature  for  the  election  of  a 
Senator  to  succeed  the  Hon.  William  S.  Archer,  whose  term 
of  service  was  to  expire  on  the  4th  of  March,  1846.  Accord- 
ing- to  the  usage  of  parties,  a  caucus  of  the  Democrats  was 
held  in  the  Capitol.  In  violation  of  the  uniform  rule,  a  reso- 
lution was  passed,  requiring  the  nominee  to  receive  a  ma- 
jority of  all  the  members  present  and  the  members  of  both 
houses  who  were  absent. 

The  preference  for  Gov.  Smith  for  a  seat  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States  had  been  made  manifest  long  anterior,  in 
different  parts  of  the  State,  then  consisting  of  East  and  West 
Virginia.  Gov.  Smith  filled  even  the  requirements  of  this 
resolution.  His  friends  believed  his  election  was  assured. 
The  day  of  election  arrived  and  he  received  seventy  votes  on 
the  first  ballot ;  his  competitor  received  twenty- three.  On  a 
subsequent  ballot,  R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  with  the  aid  of  the 
"  allied  powers  "  had  increased  his  vote  from  twenty-three  to 
a  number  sufficient  to  elect  him  ;  and  through  the  aid  of  the 
Whigs  the  voice  of  a  large  majority  of  the  people  was  stifled. 
In  the  succeeding  election  of  members  of  the  Legislature,  but 
three  of  the  twenty-three  who  were  candidates  for  re-election 
were  returned. 

To  show  how  ardently  Gov.  Smith's  defeat  for  the  Senate 
was  desired  by  the  leading  Whigs  of  the  State,  it  is  worthy 
of  a  memorandum  here,  that  pending  the  canvass  and  election 
of  Senator,  a  prominent  Whig  politician  came  to  Richmond 
and  urged  his  defeat,  saying,  "  you  have  got  the  lion  chained, 
for  God's  Sake  keep  him  so." 

Gov.  Smith's  defeat  for  the  Senate  by  party  disloyalty  did 
not  abate  his  fidelity  to  and  zeal  for  his  party.  As  Governor, 
his  administration  partook  largely  of  his  characteristic  energy 
and  progressive  spirit.  The  Mexican  war  was  then  in  pro- 
gress. Gov.  Smith's  messages  to  the  General  Assembly  on 
matters  connected  with  the  war,  were  fervid  and  glowing  with 
a  characteristic  zeal  and  patriotism  worthy  the  best  and  ablest 
of  his  predecessors.     On  all  matters  of  State  policy  they  were 


23 

always  original,  bold  and  aggressive.  He  recommended  in  the 
strongest  terms  the  extension  of  the  old  Richmond  and  Lou- 
isana  Railroad,  one  of  the  first  railroads  projected  in  Virgi- 
nia, now  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Railroad,  to  the  town  of 
Charlottesville  and  across  the  Blue  Ridge,  on  to  Covington  to 
connect  Richmond  with  the  Southern  and  Western  States,  so 
as  to  ensure  the  trade  and  travel  through  Virginia  to  that  city, 
This  scheme  at  first  was  rather  coldly  received,  as  on  too 
large  a  scale  and  too  expensive.  It  was,  however,  plain  if  car- 
ried out  and  completed,  it  would  be  of  immense  advantage  to 
the  capital  city  of  the  State,  putting  her  at  once  in  competi- 
tion with  the  largest  Southern  cities.  The  Governor  was  still 
regarded  as  too  radical  and  ahead  of  the  a^e.  Of  course  it 
met  with  strong  opposition  from  the  Anti-Internal  Improve- 
ment party  in  Virginia,  of  whom  there  was  then  no  inconsid- 
erable number,  especially  in  "  Tide-Water  "  Virginia,  where 
nature  had  supplied  ample  means  of  transportation. 

But  some  years  after  Governor  Smith  had  retired  from 
office,  his  views  and  recommendations  had  obtained  a  good 
foot-hold  and  assumed  important  proportions.  The  Legisla- 
ture at  last  took  hold  of  the  subject,  and  many  years  before 
his  death,  the  Governor  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  seeing  this 
grand  work  accomplished,  and  his  loved  State  and  her  beauti- 
tiful  capital  city  receiving  into  her  lap,  daily  advantages  there- 
from. Upon  all  subjects  of  public  improvement  which  had 
been  neglected  and  permitted  to  languish,  he  was  outspoken, 
original  and  pronounced.  He  projected  and  executed  valuable 
changes  and  reforms  on  the  capitol  square  and  public  grounds, 
the  utility  and  beauty  of  which  may  be  seen  to  this  day  to 
captivate  the  eye  and  please  the  taste  of  resident  and  visitor. 

On  the  first  day  of  January,  1849,  Gov.  Smith  retired  from 
office  with  a  credit  and  eclat  not  surpassed  by  any  one  of  his 
most  distinguished  predecessors.  Although  party  rancor  had 
been  deep  and  bitter,  he  was  accorded  on  all  hands  a  degree 
of  popularity  of  the  most  flattering  and  pleasing  character. 
He  was  esteemed  a  statesman  of  broad  and  liberal  mind, 
always  ready  to  grasp  the  condition  of  things  before  him,  and 
become  master  of  the  situation. 


24 

When  his  term  expired,  he  straightway  betook  himself  to 
his  profession  again,  and  just  here,  he  speaks  for  himself  again  : 

"My  term  of  office  having  expired  on  the  31st  of  December,  1848,  I  returned  to 
my  residence  in  Fauquier.  My  situation  was  one  of  great  embarrassment  and  re- 
quired prompt  action.  With  but  little  delay  I  resolved  to  try  my  fortune  in  Califor 
nia.  But  to  do  this  a  considerable  sum  of  money  was  indispensable  to  pay  a  descrip- 
tion of  debts  which  I  could  not  leave  unadjusted — to  provide  something  for  my  family, 
and  to  defray  the  indispensable  expenses  of  my  proposed  adventure.  And  to  this 
end,  I  applied  to  my  friends,  without  hesitation,  for  small  contributions,  with  a  dis- 
tinct notice  that  they  would  lose  them  if  my  enterprise  should  prove  a  failure,  but  if 
otherwise,  that  they  would  be  returned  with  interest.  I  soon  raised  S2.000 — the 
amount  required — completed  my  arrangements,  and  leaving  my  family  behind  me, 
got  off  in  April,  1849,  for  the  land  of promise.  On  reaching  California,  in  May  follow- 
ing, I  at  once  commenced  the  practice  of  the  law  and  prosecuted  it  and  some  other 
enterprises  with  considerable  success,  and  on  the  istof  December,  1852,  left  for  home, 
which  I  happily  reached  on  the  31st  of  the  same  month.  I  had  not  fully  accomplished 
the  object  of  my  visit  to  California,  ability  to  pay  my  debts,  but  much  had  been  effected, 
and  I  had  so  arranged  matters  I  thought,  that  time  would  do  the  rest.  Besides,  I 
could  no  longer  bear  separation  from  the  endearments  of  home.  Nearly  three  years 
of  absence  I  could  but  think  would  satisfy  the  most  exacting,  and  home  I  came. 

"  I  was  received  with  cordiality  in  California.  I  was  called  to  preside  over  the 
first  Democratic  Convention  which  was  ever  convened  in  the  State.  I  was  put  in 
nomination  in  caucus  for  the  United  States  Senate,  and  was  assured  that  I  would  be 
elected,  but  as  soon  as  apprised  of  it,  I  promptly  put  a  stop  to  it,  for  I  could  not  for- 
get, that  Virginia  was  '  my  own,  my  native  land.'  Nor  was  this  all.  I  soon  found 
that  Southerners  and  Virginians  especially,  at  once  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  those 
around  them.  Sitting  one  day  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Casserly,  recently  one  of  the  United 
States  Senators  from  California,  he  remarked,  that  it  was  a  remarkable  fact  that  the 
Southern  gentlemen,  and  especially  those  from  Virginia  were,  on  their  arrival  among 
them,  received  with  cordiality  and  treated  with  confidence,  while  it  took  Northern 
men,  say  from  his  own  State,  New  York,  a  full  year  of  exemplary  conduct  to  reach 
the  same  gratifying  position.  He  said  he  could  not  understand  it,  it  fretted  him  that 
it  should  be  said;  and  yet  he  found  himself  sharing  in  a  prejudice  which  accorded  to 
Southerners,  a  trust  and  confidence  denied  to  Northern  strangers." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Gov.  Smith's  Return  from  California — His  Candidacy  for  Congress — The  Failure  of  a 
Convention  to  Nominate  a  Candidate  against  Him — A  Triangular  Contest — His 
Election  fo  Congress  over  a  Democrat  and  a  Whig — His  Election  to  Congress  in 
1853,  1855,  1857  and  1859— His  Visit  to  Washington  in  the  Winter  of  iS6o-'6i—  Pro- 
cured three  Maynard  Rifles — Brought  two  out  of  the  City  with  the  aid  of  a  Lady's 
Dress. 

The  incidents  and  events  in  this  chapter  of  Gov.  Smith's  life 
from  the  time  when  he  ceased  to  be  Governor  from  the  ist 
day  of  January,  1849,  to  the  spring  of  186 1,  were  perhaps  the 
most  exciting  and  interesting  of  his  political  career.  It  may 
be  that,  in  the  judgment  of  some,  the  two  memorable  presiden- 


25 

tial  contests  of  1840  and  1844  may  be  considered  exceptions. 

What  exemplified  the  courage  and  moral  heroism  of  the 
man  as  much  as  any  other  act  of  his  checkered  life,  was  his 
voluntary  separation  for  three  years  from  the  wife  whom  he 
worshipped.  His  removal  to  California,  to  improve  his  fortune, 
to  enable  him  to  pay  off  his  debts  (heavy  from  his  postal  op- 
erations), and  to  dispel  those  clouds  of  mortification  that  ever 
hang"  heavily  over  every  honest  and  proud  man,  were  acts  of 
self-abnegation  and  probity  of  intention,  which  must  excite 
the  admiration  of  all  unprejudiced  and  liberal  minds. 

The  following  extract  from  his  letter  to  Gol.  Parker  will  be 
read  with  interest  by  his  old  friends  and  acquaintances  in 
Virginia  : 

"Having  reached  home  hopeful  and  happy,  and  mixed  awhile  among  old  constitu- 
ents and  friends,  I  soon  found  a  disposition  rife  among  them  to  restore  me  to  my  former 
position  in  the  Federal  Congress.  It  was  not  my  wish  to  go  to  Congress.  ,  It  was  but 
little  better  than  a  bear  garden  in  the  House,  and  I  really  had  no  wish  to  share  in  its 
stormy  deliberations.  My  wish  was  our  State  Senate,  where  I  had  spent  five  years  of 
the  happiest  portion  of  my  public  life,  and  where  I  knew  I  should  have  the  society  of 
gentlemen.  But  I  was  not  left  free  to  consult  my  will,  and  the  course  of  an  interest 
hostile  to  me,  constrained  me  to  declare  myself  contingently,  a  candidate  for  Con- 
gress. About  this  time,  the  spring  of  1853,  the  Legislature  had  to  re-arrange  the  State 
into  Congressional  Districts.  My  friends  insisted  that  I  should  gp  to  Richmond  to 
provide  myself  with  a  suitable  district  as  others  were  doing.  I  declined,  however,  to 
do  so,  stating  that  if  Loudoun  was  a  part  of  the  district  it  would  be  Whig,  and  I  cer- 
tainly would  not  embarrass  an  undoubted  majority  in  the  untrammeled  right  of  se- 
lecting their  representative;  but  if  Loudoun  was  not  a  part  of  my  district  it  would  be 
Democratic,  and  no  matter  how  composed,  I  was  a  candidate.  Well,  Loudoun  not 
being  a  part  of  the  district,  I  finally  announced  myself  a  candidate.  In  the  meantime 
a  convention  had  been  called  to  nominate  a  candidate.  Out  of  ten  counties  compos- 
ing the  district  four  only  appointed  delegates,  and  one  of  them,  my  native  county, 
King  George,  instructed  their  delegates  to  withdraw  from  the  convention  after  under- 
standing I  was  a  candidate.  I  was  elected,  and  so  in  1855;  and  so  in  1857.  In  1859  I 
had  a  trying  contest.  Both  Judge  Shackleford  a  Democrat,  and  Judge  Thomas  a  Whig, 
announced  themselves.  And  as  the  Democratic  majority  in  the  district  was  only 
about  three  hundred,  many  thought  that  all  was  lost  and  that  my  star  must  now  set  to 
rise  no  more.  But  I  did  not  share  in  the  despondency  of  friends.  The  very  difficul- 
ties of  my  situation  inspired  confidence  and  aroused  exertion.  I  saw  plainly  before 
me,  a  new  edition  of  my  contest  with  Banks  and  Slaughter,  with  the  like  result.  The 
effect  of  the  Democratic  candidacy  was  to  divide  the  Democratic  party;  it  was  an  offense 
to  party  fealty  and  intelligence,  and,  of  course,  must  fail.  It  has  always  been  my  for- 
tune to  receive  a  scattering  Whig  vote,  when  a  candidate;  and  the  effort  of  Judge 
Thomas  to  unite  the  Whig  vote  upon  himself  was  greatly  embarrassed  by  the  appear- 
ance of  foul  play  which  the  canvass  necessarily  assumed.  Without  dwelling  upon  this 
subject  or  needlessly  extending  this  letter,  I  will  merely  say,  that  I  was  triumphantly 
elected,  beating  the  Democrat  by  an  overwhelming  vote,  and  Thomas  by  a  handsome 
majority.  I  thus  entered  Congress  for  the  last  time.  I  warned  the  House  of  the 
calamities  it  was  bringing  upon  the  country,  implored  it  to  pause  in  its  mad  career  be- 


2(1 

fore  it  was  too  late.  IIa<l  an  affecting  interview,  even  unto  tears,  with  Mr.  Buchanan. 
Had  quite  an  exciting  interview  with  General  Scott,  who  while  lie  did  not  say  so,  left 
me  to  infer  that  he  would  take  side  against  our  Mother  State.  And  quite  unwell  as  I 
had  been  all  the  winter,  amid  the  deep  mutterings  of  the  coming  storm,  I  took  my  de- 
parture on  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  for  home,  unalterably  resolved,  come  weal,  come 
woe,  to  share  the  fate  of  my  beloved  State. 

".My  public  life,  I  had  good  reason  to  suppose,  was  now  brought  to  a  close.  I 
had  been  called  before  the  people  in  1836,  surely  against  my  will,  and  elected  to  the 
Senate.  I  had  retired  from  my  position  the  lirst  moment  my  friends  would  permit  me  to 
do  so,  was  pressed  to  run  for  Congress,  but  positively  refused  to  do  so  as  long  as 
Democratic  ascendency  in  the  district  might  be  jeoparded  thereby — became  a  candi- 
date as  soon  as  such  danger  disappeared  and  was  triumphantly  elected — was  elected 
Governor  in  1845  without  being  a  candidate  or  even  consulted  about  it;  after  serving 
out  my  term,  went  to  California  to  mend  my  fortune— returned  in  December,  1852, 
and  in  the  following  spring  became  a  candidate  for  Congress  and  was  elected  in  1853, 
again  in  1S55.  again  in  1857  and  again  in  1859 — in  every  position  which  I  have  held 
since  the  commencement  of  my  career,  giving  satisfaction  to  my  constituents  and 
growing  in  the  estimation  of  my  State. 

"  During  the  winter  of  i860  and  1861,  I  was  very  unwell;  but  rapidly  recruited  as 
spring  approached.  Early  in  April  I  visited  Washington  city  to  settle  the  accounts  of 
my  nephew,  who  had  resigned  his  rank  in  the  Federal  army,  to  visit  my  niece  near 
Bladensburg,  and  to  look  around  me.  The  city  was  full  of  Federal  troops,  and  it  was 
considered  the  height  of  folly  for  me  to  go  among  them.  But  as  the  communication 
between  Alexandria  and  Washington  was  uninterrupted,  a  single  sentinel  only  being 
posted  at  the  northern  entrance  of  the  long  bridge,  I  determined  I  would  not  forego 
my  purpose — made  my  trip  and  accomplished  my  wishes,  including  three  beautiful 
Maynard  rifles,  two  of  which  were  brought  out  under  a  lady's  petticoat  and  all  with 
ammunition  to  suit." 

From  what  the  reader  has  seen  in  the  preceeding  pages  of 
these  imperfect  memoirs  of  this  remarkable  man,  he  must  be 
satisfied  that  Gov.  Smith's  civil  and  political  life  was  one  of 
intense  and  passionate  struggle  ;  of  upward  and  onward  pro- 
gress from  the  date  of  his  first  mail  contract  with  the  United 
States  Government  to  the  close  of  the  late  war.  Of  robust 
and  powerful  frame,  healthy  and  vigorous  constitution,  he  en- 
joyed with  one  or  two  intervals,  uninterrupted  physical  and 
mental  vigor. 

Bold,  self-reliant  and  aggressive— conscious  of  his  own  in- 
herent powers,  in  all  his  political  enterprises  and  elections, 
he  scorned  the  tricks  of  the  intriguante;  repudiated  the  man- 
agement and  finesse  of  the  demagogue  ;  and  presenting  him- 
self before  the  great  masses,  like  the  immortal  Henry  before 
him.  he  boldly  and  fearlessly  proclaimed  his  principles  and 
his  faith,  and  asked  their  free  and  unpurchased  support,  and 
like  that  incomparable  man,  was  rarely  ever  disappointed. 

Some  author  has  said   that   "  we  must  si  and  away  from  the 


27 

mountain,  if  we  would  see  its  magnitude."  Not  so  with  Gov. 
Smith.  In  his  manners  he  was  plain,  simple,  accessible  and 
courteous  to  all.  Without  parade  or  the  semblance  of  osten- 
tation, with  a  fine  descriptive  talent  and  conversational 
ability,  it  was  to  see  and  well  know  him,  to  measure  and  ad- 
mire his  charming  personal  and  domestic  qualities  and  virtues. 
On  the  hustings  before  the  people,  he  was  always  courteous 
and  polite,  and  often  deferential.  He  condemned  pomp  and 
parade — was  simple  and  inartistic,  but  as  an  English  author  has 
said  of  Pitt,  "  wielded  the  strength  of  a  resistless  eloquence." 
In  all  his  speeches  and  letters  he  adhered  closely  to  his  subject 
and  indulged  but  little  in  quotations.  As  the  same  author  says 
of  the  same  great  man,  his  was  '•  the  eloquence  of  the  states- 
man and  not  the  rhetorician." 

Gov.  Smith's  wonderful  influence  as  a  public  speaker,  rested 
not  in  Congress  nor  the  Legislature,  but  before  the  people. 
Before  the  great  masses  he  was  always  superb  and  supreme. 
He  was  literally  semper  paratus  with  his  facts  and  his  argu- 
ments. He  enjoyed  a  degree  of  popularity  and  public  favor 
never  excelled  in  the  country  by  any  public  or  representative 
man.  Superadded  to  this  he  could  now  employ  a  ceaseless 
stream  of  fluent  and  persuasive  eloquence,  and  then  when  de- 
manded, a  torrent  of  passionate  invective. 

It  is  upon  Gov.  Smith's  political  and  domestic  life  that  the 
author  of  these  memoirs  would  delight  to  dwell  and  enlarge, 
but  time  and  space  will  not  permit.  He  was  emphatically  called 
the  "  great  commoner,"  the  peoples' man.  In  political  nom- 
enclature, a  Democrat  of  the  "most  straitest  sect,"  as  well 
as  in  the  most  extended  sense  of  the  term.  He  was  the  poor 
man's  friend  at  the  bar  and  on  the  hustings.  He  was  a  Jeffer- 
sonian  Republican,  and  fought  for  the  rights  of  the  many 
against  the  few.  He  esteemed  Mr.  Jefferson  the  wisest  and 
greatest  American  statesman  that  ever  lived.  In  all  his 
speeches  and  in  all  his  colloquial  discussions  his  standing  text 
was  one  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  himself,  "  Power  is  always  stealing 
from  the  many  to  the  few." 

He  would  warn  the  people,  the  politicians  and  their  leaders, 
to  beware  of  the  centralizing-  tendencies  of  the  Federal   Gov- 


28 

ernment,  and  invoked  them  to  the  day  of  his  death,  to  adhere 
to  the  State  Rights  doctrine  of  the  Resolutions  of  '98-99  as 
set  forth  by  Madison  and  Jefferson  and  enlarged  and  treated 
of  by  Professor  Tucker  in  his  series  of  lectures  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia. 

In  his  speech  at  Madison  Court  House,  on  the  occasion  of 
his  nomination  in  mass  meeting  for  a  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  might  be  found  a  model  synopsis  of  the  articles 
of  his  political  faith — unfortunately  this  paper  cannot  be  found. 
It  was  in  tabulated  form,  and  succinctly  defined  the  respective 
rights  of  the  States  and  those  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment. It  was  the  chart  by  which  he  steered  throughout 
his  whole  political  life,  without  "  variableness  or  shadow  of 
turning." 

CHAPTER   IX. 

The  Ex-Governor's  Visit  to  Fairfax  Court  House — The  Surprise  by  the  Federals  and 
Fight  on  the  Night  of  the  31st  of  May,  '61 — Company  B  United  States  Dragoons — 
Capt.  Marr's  Company — Marr  Killed — Col.  Ewell  Wounded  and  Turned  over  the 
Command  to  Smith— The  Enemy  Routed — Gov.  Smith  Raised  a  Regiment — Was 
Commissioned  Colonel  by  Gov.  Letcher — First  Battle  of  Manassas — His  Gallant 
Conduct  there — Singular  Order  by  Col.  Smith  to  the  49th  Virginia — Major  Smith 
Severely  Wounded — Col.  Smith's  Horse  Shot  Under  Him — His  Humane  Treat- 
ment of  a  Federal  Officer. 

In  1 86 1  Gov.  Smith  had  reached  his  three-score  years  and 
four.  He  was  wholly  exempt  from  military  duty  ;  but  in  the 
vigor  of  his  manhood.  Impelled  by  that  same  ardent  patriot- 
ism of  his  youth,  and  burning  with  indignation  at  the  Presi- 
dent's Proclamation,  Gov.  Smith  at  once  determined  to  raise 
a  regiment  of  volunteers,  present  it  to  the  Governor,  and  ask 
for  his  commission  of  Colonel.  The  ex-Governor  raised  his 
regiment  and  promptly  received  his  commission.  His  own 
rehearsal  of  the  initial  fight  at  Fairfax  Court  House  and  of 
the  first  Manassas  on  Sunday  the  21st  of  July.  1S61,  will  be 
found  below  and  read  with  thrilling  interest. 

"A  company  was  raised  about  the  month  <>t  May  from  and  around  Warrenton,  by 
Capt.  J.  O.  Marr,  which  had  been  moved  to  Fairfax  Court  House,  and  was  quartered 
in  the  Methodist  church  at  that  place.  Feeling  sufficiently  well,  I  concluded  to  visit 
my  boys,  as  I  called  Marr's  company,  and  thoroughly  armed  and  mounted,  reached 
the  command  the  p.  M.  of  the  31st  of  May,  1861.    After  the  usual  interchange  of  civili- 


29 

ties,  I  went  to  a  Mr.  Gunneli's  to  spend  the  night.     I  was  aroused  the  m-xt  morning  a 
little   before  day,  by  a  scattering  fire  of  small  arms.     I  had  sprung  from  my  bed  and 
was  rapidly  dressing  when  my  host  rushed  into  my   room   informing    me    that   the 
enemy  was  upon  us — that  he  was  off  for  the  woods,  but  that  I  could  do  as  I  pleased. 
I  replied   that  I  would  see  them  out,  if   they  were  all  tramps.     I  dressed  and  fixed  my 
Maynard  with   all  despatch,  and  hurried  to  Marr's  command.     In   the  meantime  the 
enemy,  consisting  of  Company  B,  2d  United  States  Dragoons,  about  ninety  strong,  had 
charged  through  the  village,  firing  at  random,  to  the  right  and  left,  and  scattering  a 
small  body  of  our  cavalry  encamped  on  the  turnpike.    On  reaching  Marr's  command, 
I  found  only  about  forty-five  remaining,  the  balance   having  no  doubt   been  taken  off 
by   our  scattered  cavalry.     I  asked  for   their  Captain — they  replied,  that  they   knew 
nothing  about  him.      He  was  lying  about  thirty  yards  off,  in  the  clover  lot  around   his 
quarters,  where  he  had  taken  his  stand  to  receive  and  form  his  men  as  they  reported, 
and  where  he  was  killed  without  a  struggle,  by  a  concussion  over  the  heart,  by  one  of 
the  enemies  random  balls,  which  did  not,  for  I  saw  it,  disturb  the  continuity  of  the 
flesh,  as  I  am  fully  satisfied.     I  then  asked  for  his  lieutenant  and  received  the  same 
reply.     It  is  right  I  should  say  here,  that  I  subsequently  ascertained  that  he  spent  the 
night  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Moss,  no  one  entertaining  any  apprehension  of  the  enemy's 
approach.     Knowing  that  the  men  did  not  care  for    their  other  officers,  I  said  to  them 
boys,  you  know   me,  follow   me.     They   sprang  with  alacrity  over  the   fence  against 
which    they    were    leaning,  when  I,  without    the   slightest  knowledge  of   tactics,  and 
guided  by  instinct  alone,  commenced  rapidly   to  form  them  into  two  lines.     Having 
nearly  completed  this  duty,  Col.  Ewell,  without  hat  or  uniform  and  bleeding,  having 
been  struck   in  the  fleshy  part  of  the  shoulder  by  a  pistol  shot  as  he  ran  across  the 
enemy's   line  of   march,    came  up.     We   soon   completed   the   little   command   and 
moved  it  at  quick  step  to  the  turnpike;  then  wheeled  to  the  left,  and  at  a  short  distance, 
met  the  enemy  returning  from  the  run  in  a  very  disorderly  condition.     This  was  most 
fortunate  for   us — fenced  in,  both   on    the   right  and  left,  by  high  board  fences   and 
armed  only  with  carbines,  we  could  neither  escape  nor  resist  a  dragoon  charge,  ex- 
cept with  the  contents  of  our  guns.     These  we  promptly  gave  them,  which  so  stag- 
gered them    that  they  came  promptly  to  the  'about  face,'  and  returned  to  the  run  to 
reform.     Then  Col.  Ewell  said  to  me,    '  Governor  you  seem   to  have  a  taste   for  such 
matters,  take  the  men  and  move  them  forward,  while  I  dispatch  a  courier  to  bring  up 
some  cavalry  which  is  at  Fairfax  Station.'    I  moved  the  men  promptly,  and  on  reach- 
ing a  wagoner's  shop,  halted  them,  seeing  a  strong  post  and   rail  fence  on  each  side 
of  the  turnpike  over  which  the  enemy  was  expected  to  return.     I  at  once  divided  my 
command,  posting  each  half  on   the  inside  of  the  fences,  opposite  each  other,  my 
object  being  to  protect  my  men  against  a  charge  of  cavalry  and  to  concentrate  upon 
the  head  of  the  column  such  a  heavy  fire  as  to  arrest  its  forward  movement,  throw  it 
into  confusion  and  prevent  an  attempt   to  charge  by  us  in  the  darkness  and  excite- 
ment.    Our  arrangements   were  scarcely  completed   before  the  head   of  the  enemy's 
column  loomed  up  in  the  dark.     I  had  given  general  orders  that   every  man  should 
fire  at  the   head  of    the  column  when    the  command   to    fire   was   given.     At   about 
seventy  yards   the  word   was  given.     The  enemy  reeled   under  the  blow,  and  after 
three  rounds  broke  and  fled.     Thus  I  may  claim   to   have  planned  the   battle,  fought 
and  routed  the  enemy  in  the  first  fight  of  the  war,  for  Col.  Elwell  did  not  join  us  until 
the  affair  was  over. 

"My  next  movement  was  to  raise  a  mounted  company  of  old  men  for  home  de- 
fence, to  be  known  as  "The  Silver  Grays."  But  meeting  with  little  encouragement 
I  soon  gave  it  up. 

"With  fine  health  and  great  physical  vigor,  I  could  not  bear  to  be  idle,  although 
in  my  64th  year.  Wholly  unused  to  arms,  I  thought  I  knew  how  to  take  care  of  men. 
Wise  and  Floyd  already  had  brigades.  I  could  not  see  why  I  could  not  take  care  of 
a  regiment.  Accordingly,  I  applied  to  Gov.  Letcher  to  commission  me  as  Colonel  of 
the  49th.     With  my  commission  and  Gen.  Lee's  order  to  Gen.  Beauregard  to  make 


30 

up  my  regiment  out  of  the  companies  as  they  reported,  I  returned  to  Manassas  and 
commenced  earnestly  the  new  duties  I  had  undertaken.  I  had  only  been  able  to  get 
half  of  my  regiment  together  when  the  battle  of  Manassas  was  fought.  I  was  posted 
at  the  foot  of  a  bluff  with  my  companies  and  on  the  bluff"  had  two  pieces  of  artillery. 
It  was  due  north  from  the  Lewis  House  on  Bull  Run,  and  my  duty  was  to  check  any 
flank  movement  which  might  be  attempted  in  that  direction. 

"While  thus  waiting  for  events,  the  firing  being  very  heavy  at  the  front, two  regi- 
ments swept  by  us  in  order  and  to  the  rear.  I  galloped  to  their  front  and  arrested 
their  retreat,  and  had  scarcely  reached  my  position  before  they  were  again  moving. 
Again  I  stopped  them.  And  again  as  soon  as  I  left  them  they  started.  For  the  third 
and  last  time  I  stopped  them,  and  on  the  line  of  a  farm  road  brought  them  to  a  rest. 
The'enemies'  shell  were  occassionally  passing  over  us  and  the  firing  at  the  front  still 
continued  heavy. 

"  I  had  scarcely  returned  to  my  post  when  I  received  an  order  that  every  man  not 
in  front  of  an  enemy  should  move  into  action.  Promptly  forming  my  command  into 
two  lines  I  moved  them  by  the  flank  at  quick  step  to  the  front.  While  on  my  march 
a  South  Carolina  company  crossed  my  line,  I  ordered  them  to  fall  in  on  my  rear. 
Immediately  thereafter  two  companies  of  Mississippians  crossed  my  line  of  march, 
to  which  I  gave  the  same  order.  These  companies  were  lost  and  gladly  obeyed  the 
order  to  fall  in.  As  I  passed  the  woods  near  the  Lewis  House,  Lieut.  Col.  Tebbs  of 
Hunton's  regiment,  who  was  posted  with  three  companies  in  the  edge  of  the  woods, 
begged  that  I  would  let  Col.  Hunton,  who  was  posted  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
woods,  know  my  order.  Placing  my  command  in  charge  of  Col.  Murray  with  orders 
to  proceed,  I  dashed  through  the  woods  with  all  practicable  despatch,  delivered  my 
order  and  soon  overtook  my  command.  I  found  Gen.  Beauregard  not  far  from  the 
Harrison  House,  with  several  of  his  staff,  no  troops,  no  firing  near  him  and  things 
looking  unpromising.  I  reported  for  orders  with  about  600  men.  What  can  you  do, 
Colonel,  was  the  General's  reply.  I  promptly  answered,  put  us  in  position  and  we 
will  show  you.  I  then  said,  General,  Col.  Hunton  with  a  gallant  regiment  is  posted 
near  the  Lewis  House,  and  burning  with  impatience  to  join  in  the  battle.  He 
promptly  issued  the  requisite  orders,  placed  himself  by  my  side,  at  the  head  of  my 
command,  and  we  moved,  soon  reaching  our  line  of  battle,  opposite  the  Henry 
House,  and  as  I  inferred  re-forming  in  the  edge  of  the  pines,  I  know  not  why,  but 
when  we  reached  our  line  of  battle  I  announced  Gen.  Beauregard;  up  went  three 
rousing  cheers.  We  then  moved  off  to  the  left  in  the  rear  of  our  line,  and  after 
marching  some  80  yards  I  again  announced  Gen.  Beauregard,  and  again  the  cheers 
went  up.  And  again,  and  again.  And  when  we  had  nearly  reached  the  extreme  left  of 
our  line,  and  the  General  having  given  me  orders  to  form  on  the  extreme  left,  and 
had  said  that  he  must  go  to  the  right  without  further  delay,  and  had  proceeded  some 
distance,  a  confused  mass  of  soldiers  in  front  of  me  cried  out  that  they  would  see 
Gen.  Beauregard.  Therefore  I  called  the  General  back,  who  courteously  returned. 
I  announced  him  to  the  men,  up  went  the  usual  cheers,  the  men  fell  into  line,  the 
General  left  us,  and  I  formed  my  command  on  the  extreme  left,  thus  extending  our 
line  of  battle.  My  command  consisted  of  eight  companies,  five  of  Virginians,  two  of 
Mississippians  and  one  of  South  Carolinians,  and  aggregated  some  600  men.  I  may 
here  pause  and  remark  that  the  cheers  of  which  I  have  spoken  produced  quite  a  sen- 
sation in  the  enemies  lines.  At  least,  I  so  infer,  for  their  letter  writers  spread  it 
throughout  the  Northern  States  as  the  evidence  of  our  receiving  heavy  reinforce- 
ments. It  was  known  that  I  was  in  Gen.  Beauregard's  command,  and  the  cheers 
were  for  the  General  and  not  for  the  men  I  led. 

"I  had  scarcely  posted  my  men  as  ordered  in  the  edge  of  the  pines  when  I  observed 
at  a  considerable  distance  to  my  left  a  heavy  force  of  the  enemy  advancing  in  mass, 
with  colors  flying,  along  the  crest  of  the  long  hill  on  one  side  of  which  our  lines  of 
battle  rested.  As  my  part  of  the  line  would  be  the  first  the  enemy  would  reach  I 
thought  it  probable  that  1  would  have  an  excellent  chance  to  be   thoroughly  cut  up. 


31 

Rut  just  at  this  moment,  the  two  regiments  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  whose  re- 
treat I  had  stopped,  came  up  on  my  left  and  filled  the  whole  space  between  me  and 
a  distant  body  of  timber.  In  the  mean  time  the  enemy  came  on,  in  beautiful  order, 
apparently  unconscious  of  our  proximity.  And  when  he  had  passed  these  regiments 
so  that  the  head  of  his  column  was  not  more  than  80  yards  from  the  left  flank,  a  pri- 
vate in  the  North  Carolina  regiment  to  my  left,  who  doubtless  recognized  me,  called 
to  me,  saying  "  that  is  the  enemy,  shall  I  fire,"  I  replied,  "don't  fire  upon  friends, 
don't  be  in  a  hurry."  Rut,  a  puff  of  wind  at  the  same  instant,  catching  their  flag 
and  spreading  it,  I  added,  "there  can  be  no  mistake  give  them  h— 11."  And  thus  the 
battle  then  and  there  began,  near  the  bridle  way  from  the  Lewis  House  where  it 
crosses  the  ridge  to  the  Sudley  road,  a  short  distance  from  where  it  crosses  the  War- 
renton  turnpike.  The  fight  soon  became  obstinate  immediately  in  my  front.  My 
men  and  the  Stonewall's  charged  and  took  and  lost  as  often  as  three  times  as  I  re- 
member, and  finally  kept  three  pieces  of  artillery.  I  know  the  Stonewall's  take  this 
achievement  to  themselves,  but  it  is  not  right;  we  charged  together  and  I  had  two 
men,  by  the  name  of  Wells  and  Rrothers,  who  were  wounded  on  one  of  the  guns.  This 
was  about  the  last  of  the  fight;  a  number  of  my  men  had  been  wounded,  and  the 
dead  were  buried  where  they  fell.  My  Major  had  his  thigh  broken,  my  horse  was 
shot  in  the  neck.  And  after  getting  all  my  wounded  in  my  part  of  the  field  and  made 
a  Yankee  captain  as  comfortable  as  I  could,  for  he  was  badly  wounded,  by  giving 
him  my  saddle  blankets  and  leaving  with  him  my  servant,  instructed  to  remain  with 
him  and  to  get  him  off  to  the  hospital  by  the  first  wagon  that  passed.  I  then,  about 
9  o'clock  P.  M.,  having  been  in  the  saddle  since  sunrise,  left  the  field,  amid  the 
groans,  cries  for  water,  and  other  relief  of  the  wounded  and  dying  Yankees,  to  whom 
it  was  impossible  to  render  immediate  assistance. 

"This  ended  my  connection  with  this  famous  battle.  I  was  wholly  unused  to 
arms,  I  had  just  joined  the  army;  I  had  but  half  a  regiment,  andjwith  the  exception  of 
two  or  three  of  my  officers  my  command  was  as  green  as  I  was.  In  this  extremity, 
I  may  term  it,  I  saw  I  must  rely  upon  my  knowledge  of  men  and  my  own  instincts. 
Accordingly,  my  men  having  lost  a  night's  sleep  and  being  otherwise  much  fatigued, 
I  ordered  they  should  have  a  full  night's  sleep  preceding  the  expected  battle  and  a 
hearty  breakfast  before  they  were  moved  next  morning.  My  commissary  assuming 
that  we  were  to  be  defeated  enquired  of  me  if  he  should  destroy  his  stores.  I  replied, 
no,  issue  them  to  my  men  according  to  regulations.  "Rut  sir,  the  enemy  may  take 
them."  To  which  I  warmly  replied,  "  Sir,  as  long  as  you  are  a  part  of  my  command, 
never  think  of  defeat."  Having  been  posted  as  stated,  before,  I  went  upon  the  bluff 
to  see  about  the  battery  that  was  to  support  me,  I  found  but  one  gun,  "  Why,  Lieut. 
(Heaton,)  Isaid,  where  is  your  other  gun?"  "Yonder,  posted  there  by  Gen.  Cocke," 
he  replied,  pointing  to  it  some  half  mile  off  and  near  the  Lewis  House.  I  answered, 
"I  will  have  it  here  in  ten  minutes."  And  putting  spurs  to  my  horse  dashed  at  the  top 
of  his  speed  to  Cocke's  position.  As  I  passed  the  gun,  I  hollowed,  "Re  ready  to 
start  in  a  gallop  for  the  bluff,  when  you  see  me  returning  at  the  top  of  my  speed." 
Dashing  up  to  the  General  I  said,  "pardon  me,  but  I  respectfully  suggest  that,  'that 
gun,'  pointing  to  it,  would  be  of  infinitely  more  importance  by  its  mate,  than  it  can  be 
where  it  now  stands."  He  replied,  "well,  if  you  think  so."  Touching  my  hat  and 
rapidly  wheeling  my  horse,  returned  at  an  accelerated  pace.  The  gunners,  seeing 
my  speed,  was  in  motion  in  a  trice,  and  we  made  quick  time  to  the  bluffs  to  the  great 
delight  of  its  gallant  Lieutenant.     I  thus  strengthened  my  position. 

"This  duty  was  scarcely  finished  before  a  new  and  more  difficult  question  was 
before  me.  Two  regiments  in  order,  swept  by  me,  in  retreat.  I  knew  I  must  be 
junior  to  their  commanding  officers,  but  I  was  also  satisfied  that  I  must  look  to  be 
their  senior  and  I  resolved  to  save  them  for  the  exigencies  of  the  day,  if  possible. 
It  was  done-— how,  you  know. 

In  moving  to  the  front,  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  pick  up  these  companies  as 


32 

stated,  nearly  doubling  my  command  and  to  carry  them  into  the  fight,  and  also  to  get 
Gen.  Hunton's  regiment  up  in  time,  by  reporting  to  Gen.  Beauregard  its  position. 

"And  when  we  reached  the  rear  of  our  lines  of  battle,  the  impulse  which  induced 
me  to  announce  General  Beauregard  to  the  men  and  which,  successfully  brought 
forth  that  series  of  world-renowned  cheers,  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  which  un- 
doubtedly inspirited  our  own  men  and  caused  a  corresponding  depression  of  the 
enemy,  it  must  be  conceded  produced  a  happy  effect. 

"And  finally,  when  I  was  posted,  and  the  advance  of  the  enemy  threatened  me 
with  destruction,  it  seemed  to  be  an  act  of  Providence  that  the  two  regiments  whose 
retreat  I  had  stopped,  should  appear,  most  unexpectedly,  on  my  left,  interpose  be- 
tween me  and  the  enemy,  and  somewhat  equalize  the  coming  conflict,  and  stranger 
still,  recognizing  me,  that  I  should  be  called  to  form  their  ranks  to  know  if  they 
should  fire,  and  that  I  should  order  them  to  do  so. 

"  Whether  we  made  the  most  of  our  great  victory  is  a  mooted  question,  and  will 
probably  ever  remain  so;  I  think  not.  Our  cause  was  just,  our  men  were  tired  with 
enthusiasm,  our  graneries  were  full,  and  the  enemy  which  "had  lately  attached" 
us  "with  audacity,"  were  now  flying  in  terror,  before  us,  abundantly  supplied  with 
every  necessary  we  could  possibly  want.  It  would  have  been  glorious,  had  we 
known,  that  nothing  had  been  effected  while  there  remains  anything  to  be  per- 
formed. 

"Well,  we  returned  to  our  old  position,  to  complete  our  organization  and  improve 
our  decipline.  My  regiment  was  filled  and  my  organization  completed.  Doubtless 
our  drill  was  improved  and  our  knowledge  of  tactics  greatly  enlarged." 

[For  some  reason  Governor  Smith  seems  to  have  broken  off  quite  suddenly  the 
narration  of  his  experience  in  the  field,  which,  however,  he  continues  in  his  letter 
of  the  28th  of  March.— Ed.  Lance.], 

We  follow  up  this  affair  at  Fairfax  Court  House  with  an 
interesting  account  of  incidents  by  Gov.  Smith  himself; 
a  short  note  from  Capt.  Dunnington,  of  Washington  city,  a 
participant  in  the  fight,  and  who  was  captured  that  night  ; 
also,  Gen.  McDowell's  official  Report  of  same,  and  some 
details  appearing  in  a  city  paper  of  that  date.  In  the  ap- 
pendix will  be  found  a  corrected  statement  of  the  first  skirm- 
ish or  fight  of  the  war  in  Northern  Virginia,  in  consequence 
of  some  recent  publication  by  the  United  States  Government 
of  the  Official  Records  of  the  United  States  and  Confeder- 
ate Armies  : 

Warrenton,  October  23,  1881. 
If  I  understand  the  diagram  correctly,  it  makes  the  enemy  charge  entirely 
around  the  Court  House  or  jail  lot,  at  hast  it  would  appear  so,  from  the  dotted 
lines  which  indicate,  as  the  diagram  says,  the  route  of  the  enemy.  Now,  1  was 
at  Gunnells,  was  aroused  by  the  first  firing  at  our  pickets,  nearly  a  mile  below 
town;  as  soon  as  ready,  run  over  to  the  church  to  look  after  Marr's  company, 
found  a  put  <>l  it,  some  forty-five,  leaning  on  the  fence,  which  enclosed  the 
church  lot  and  at  tin'  same  time  formed,  in  part,  the  street  the  diagram  says, 
the  enemy  passed  over.  It  was  just  at  the  corner  formed  by  this  fence  and  that 
on  the  walk  leading  from  the  Church  to  the  Court  House,  that  I  commenced 
forming  Marr's  men  into  double  tiles.  I  hail  marly  finished  the  formation,  when 
I  heard  an  altercation  at  the  head  of  the  column.      1    immediately    moved    up    to 


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33 

it  to  learn  what  was  the  matter,  and  there  found  Lieut. -Col.  Ewell,  who  had  just 
come  up;  he  was  without  hat  or  uniform  coat,  bareheaded,  bald  and  bleeding, 
very  little  like  an  officer.  I  announced  him  to  the  men,  they  not  having  seen 
him  before,  and  the  trouble  ended.  Col.  Ewell  told  me  that  as  he  ran  across  the 
road  from  the  hotel  in  the  direction  of  Marr's  quarters,  iust  ahead  of  the  enemy 
as  he  charged  through  town,  and  that  Lieut.  Tompkins  had  fired  upon  him,  as 
he  had  done  so,  striking  him  on  the  fleshy  part  of  the  shoulder;  that  he  had 
jerked  off  his  uniform  and  thrown  it  over  in  a  lot,  that  the  enemy  might  not  discover  his 
rank  and  so  make  a  special  effort  to  capture  him.  So  that  it  is  plain  the  enemy 
did  not  go  around  the  Court  House  lot  as  the  dotted  lines  of  the  diagram  indi- 
cate. Besides,  Florence,  our  picket,  who  was  captured  and  made  his  escape, 
says  to  me,  through  a  letter  I  have  just  received,  that  the  enemy  charged  through  town, 
neither  turning  to  the  right  or  left,  and  firing  at  random,  he  thought,  merely  to 
alarm.  Again,  from  the  dotted  lines  it  would  seem  the  enemy  returned  and  went 
from  town  on  the  Vienna  road.  This  was  not  so.  The  enemy  after  passing 
through,  and  no  doubt  watering  their  horses  at  the  branch  west  of  the  town,  re- 
turned as  far  as  the  Court  House  lot.  In  the  meantime  having  moved  Marr's 
company  to  the  turnpike  and  Ewell  having  placed  it  under  my  charge,  while  he 
went  to  procure  a  courier  to  carry  a  dispatch  to  bring  up  Harrison's  company  at 
Fairfax  Station,  I  turned  west  and  had  just  got  cleverly  on  the  turnpike  when 
the  enemy  appeared  in  disorder,  we  fired  upon  him,  when  without  returning  the 
fire,  he  came  to  the  right-about  and  returned  to  the  branch — I  had  no  doubt  to 
re-form  and  charge  through  town,  in  order,  and  so  recover  the  road  by  which  he  had 
come.  As  Marr's  men  had  no  bayonets,  and  the  position  we  held  on  the  turnpike 
was  wholly  untenable  against  a  charge  of  cavalry,  I  followed  the  enemy  quickly 
until  I  got  to  the  wagon  shop.  I  there  found  a  strong  post  and  rail  fence  on 
each  side  of  the  turnpike,  both  of  which  I  promptly  occupied,  a  moiety  of  my 
men  in  rear  of  each  fence,  so  that  all  were  protected  against  a  charge  of  cav- 
alry. As  soon  as  the  men  were  posted,  I  told  them  the  enemy  would,  doubtless, 
soon  appear — that  all  they  would  see  would  be  the  head  of  the  enemy's  column,  a 
dark  moving  mass,  the  individuals  composing  which,  they  would  be  unable  to 
distinguish,  as  it  was  dark — that  my  object  was  to  crush  in  the  head  of  the 
column,  throw  the  enemy  into  confusion  and  get  another  deliberate  fire  upon  him 
before  he  could  become  aggressive;  that  when  I  gave  the  word  to  fire,  each  man 
must  fire  into  the  head  of  the  enemy's  column;  and  I  had  scarcely  finished  these 
directions  before  the  enemy,  as  I  had  expected,  appeared.  I  let  him,  for  awhile,  ad- 
vance; when,  a  little  east  of  the  Episcopal  church,  I  gave  the  word  to  fire.  He  was 
thrown  into  great  confusion — two  or  three  irregular  fires  were  exchanged,  when  he 
broke,  crossed  the  branch,  pulled  down  the  fence  near  the  Mt.  Vinyard  House,  crossed 
the  plantation  and  entered  the  Vienna  road.  This  ended  this  affair  between  the 
veteran  Company  B,  Second  United  States  Cavalry,  and  a  volunteer  force  of  but 
little  over  half  their  number,  and  that,  too,  without  their  officers,  and  for  the  first  time 
under  fire.  And  it  was  all  done  in  a  hurry,  and  while  Col.  Ewell  was  getting  his 
courier  and  sending  off  his  despatch  for  Harrison's  company,  and  that  without  a 
scratch  on  our  part,  in  the  fight.  It  is  true  Ewell  had  been  wounded,  as  stated,  and 
Marr  killed  by  a  spent  random  ball.  It  is  known  that  some  of  our  cavalry  fled  by 
the  road  near  which  Marr  was  found  and  took  off  quite  half  of  Marr's  men.  My 
theory  is  that  Marr  was  struggling  to  stop  the  flight  of  his  men  with  his  face  to  the 
foe  and  that  a  spent  ball,  fired  from  the  turnpike,  a  distance  in  a  straight  line  of 
some  300  yards,  either  at  random  or  at  our  fleeing  cavalry,  struck  him  upon  his  heart 
and  killed  him  instantly.  I  examined  him  carefully,  his  wound  was  over  his  heart, 
the  skin  was  not  broken  nor  a  drop  of  blood  shed,  but  there  was  a  suffusion  of  blood 
under  the  skin  of  the  full  size  of  a  Spanish  milled  dollar.  It  was  the  shock  which 
stopped  the  machinery  of  the  heart,  and  I  have  no  doubt  killed  him  instantly.  I 
make  these  hasty  remarks  to  assist  in  getting  a  correct  version  of  this  little  affair. 
Please  correct  and  return  the  enclosed. 

Yours,  very  truly,  William  Smith. 


34 

1202  F  Street,  N.  W.,  Washington,  D.  C,  Jan.  31,  1882. 
Governor  Smith: 

Dear  Sir —  I  received,  a  few  days  since,  a  postal  card  from  Cap*.  Davis,  of 
Brentsville,  asking,  for  your  use,  my  recollection  of  the  skirmish  at  Fairfax  Court 
House,  on  June  1,  1861.  I  delayed  replying  to  the  request  until  I  could  search  for 
an  extract  taken  from  the  Evening  Star  of  that  date,  which,  there  was  reason  to  be- 
lieve was  somwhere  among  my  papers.  Herewith  you  will  please  find  them,  and 
barring  some  few  corrections  which  will  at  once  be  understood  by  you,  the  ac- 
count is  reliable. 

The  loss  on  our  side  was  Capt.  Marr,  killed — and  the  four  mentioned  in 
McDowell's  report  captured.  The  treatment  received  by  the  captured  at  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  was  not  such  as  is  usual  in  so-called  civilized  warfare,  but,  con- 
sidering that  all  of  us,  at  that  time,  were  "amateurs,"  better  was  scarcely  to 
have  been  expected. 

Hoping  that  the  extracts  may  be  of  benefit  to  you,  and  with  the  best  wishes 
for  your  continued  health  and  welfare, 

I  am,   very   respectfully,  C.  A.   DUNNINGTON. 

Official  Report  of  Gen.  McDowell  of  the  Fight  at  Fairfax  Court  House. 

The  following  is  the  official  report  of  Gen.  McDowell  to  Gen.  Scott,  of  the  fight  at 
Fairfax  Court  House.  Lieut.  Tompkins,  who  commanded  the  company,  was  severly 
wounded,  so  much  so  that  he  was  unable  to  make  his  report: 

Headquarters,  Department  Eastern  Virginia,  Arlington,  June  1,  1861. 

Col.  E.  D.  Townsend,  Assistant  Adj't  General,  Headquarters  of  the  Army,  Wash- 
ington. 

Sir — The  following  facts  have  just  been  reported  to  ine  by  the  Orderly  Sergeant 
of  Company  B,  of  the  Second  Cavalry,  commanded  by  Lieut.  Tompkins,  the  com- 
manding officer  being  too  unwell  to  report  in  person. 

It  appears  that  a  company  of  the  Second  Cavalry,  commanded  by  Lieut.  Tomp- 
kins— aggregate  number  75 — left  their  camp  at  half  past  10  o'clock  last  night  on  a 
scouting  expedition.  They  reached  Fairfax  Court  House  about  3  in  the  morning, 
where  they  found  several  hundred  men  stationed — Capt.  Ewell,  late  of  the  U.  S. 
Dragoons,  said  to  be  in  command.  A  skirmish  then  took  place,  in  which  a  number 
of  the  enemy  were  killed — how  many  the  Sergeant  does  not  know.  Many  bodies 
were  seen  on  the  ground,  and  several  were  taken  into  the  Court  House,  and  seen 
there  by  one  of  our  cavalry,  who  was  a  prisoner  in  the  Court  House  for  a  short  time, 
and  afterwards  made  his  escape. 

The  following  is  the  report  by  the  Sergeant  of  our  loss  : 

KILLED. 
Private  Saintclair 1 

WOUNDED. 

Corporal  Max,  ball  through  the  hip 1 

Corporal  Turner,  ball  in  the  ankle 1 

Private  Lynch,  ball  in  the  hand 1 

Private  Baggs,  ball  in  the  foot 1 

MISSING. 

Private  Sullivan I 


Total  casualties 6 


f* 


35 

Five  prisoners  were  captured  by  our  troops,  their  names  being  as  follows  : 

John  W.  Ryan,  private  of  the  Old  Guard. 

H.  F.  Lynn,  Prince  William  Cavalry. 

Charles  A.  Dunnington,  Prince  William  Cavalry. 

F.  W.  Marders,  Prince  William  Cavalry. 

Chas.  F.  Washington,  son  of  the  late  Col.  Washington,  of  the  U.  S.  Army. 

Having  no  good  means  of  keeping  prisoners  here,  they  are  sent  to  headquarters 
for  further  disposition. 

As  soon  as  Lieut.  Tompkins  recovers,  a  less  hurried  report  than  this  will  be  sub- 
mitted by  Col.  Hunter,  commanding  the  brigade. 

John  McDowell,  Brigadier-General  commanding 

Further  Details  of  the  Fight  at  Fairfax  Court  House.— Three  Dragoons 
in  the  Hands  of  the  Secessionists.— A  Midnight  Alarm.— The  wounded  officers 
-engaged  in  the  fight  at  Fairfax  Court  House,  last  Saturday  morning,  have  been 
removed  to  the  hospital  in  this  city,  where  they  are  doing  exceedingly  well,  and  will 
be  able  to  get  out  to  their  camp  again  in  a  short  time.  The  company  left  three  pri- 
vates in  the  hands  of  the  Virginia  forces— one  wounded,  the  others  probably  dead, 
but  of  this  they  are  not  positive.  Their  names  are  Sullivan,  Hartison  and  St.  Clair. 
The  prisoners  captured  by  the  cavalry  were  armed  with  Allen's  new  revolvers, 
sabers  and  the  German  yager,  one  of  which  was  loaded  with  thirteen  pistol  balls. 

The  cavalry  lost  nine  horses,  six  shot  down  in  the  engagment  and  three  so  badly 
wounded  as  to  render  it  necessary  to  kill  them  shortly  after  leaving  the  village.  The 
shot  from  the  Union  Hotel  was  fired  by  a  man  in  his  own  room,  and  the  lighted 
candle  upon  the  floor  made  him  a  good  target  for  one  of  Uncle  Sam's  rangers. 

The  troops  at  the  Court  House  were  composed  of  the  Prince  William  Cavalry, 
Capt.  Thornton,  60  men;  Waraenton  Rifles,  Capt.  John  Q.  Marr  (arrived  the  previous 
evening),  and  a  Rappahannock  horse  company— about  40  men. 

Last  night,  about  12  o'clock,  the  pickets  discovered  several  suspicious  looking 
characters  prowling  about  their  outposts,  and  immediately  fired  upon  them.  They 
scampered  off,  and  succeeded  in  escaping  in  the  bushes.  The  report  of  the  muskets 
aroused  the  neighboring  camp,  and  the  Sixty-ninth,  together  with  a  portion  of  the 
New  York  Eighth,  with  six  field  pieces,  were  on  hand  in  a  trice.  The  Twenty-eighth 
were  under  arms  until  morning,  but  no  rebels  made  their  appearance,  and  all  quieted 

down. 

Capt.  Marr,  who  was  amongst  the  killed  in  the  skirmish,  was  one  of  the  two 
delegates  from  Fauquier  county  in  the  late  Virginia  Convention,  and  was  one  of  the 
first  and  most  popular  men  of  his  county.  He  had  been  an  Unionist  up  to  the  passage 
of  the  seccession  ordinance.  Extra  Billy  Smith  had  been  making  speeches  to  the 
men  on  the  day  previous,  and  took  command  (of  Marr's  company)  when  Marr  was 

^jhot  down. 

The  officers  say  they  could  have  easily  taken  the  field  piece,  but  as  they  had  no 
means  of  bringing  'it  with  them  they  did  not  attempt  it.  From  the  Court  House  they 
returned  to  their  camp,  having  no  difficulty  at  all  in  the  way,  the  rumor  of  an  attack 
on  Vienna  station  being  entirely  unfounded.  The  men  all  speak  very  Inghly  of 
Lieutenants  Tompkins  and  Gordon,  whose  coolness  and  bravery  alone  brought  them 
through  with  so  little  damage.  The  officers  of  the  New  York  Fifth,  Quartermaster 
Fearing,  Assistant  Quartermaster  Carey  and  Adjutant  Frank,  did  good  serv.ee,  are 
also  highly  complimented  by  Lieut.  Tompkins. 

The  prisoners  are  at  the  navy-yard  and  do  not  seem  to  realize  their  pos.tion, 
most  of  them  appearing  entirely  unconcerned,  and  having  a  jolly  time  with  cards,  etc. 
Dunnington  is  a  son  of  C.  W.  C.  Dunnington,  formerly  chief  of  the  Capitol  police. 
Washington,  son  of  the  late  Col.  Washington,  U.  S.  Army,  has  been  released,  having 
taken  the  oath  of  allegiance. 


36 

A  gentleman  coming  from  Richmond,  via  Fairfax  Court  House,  assures  us  that 
he  positively  saw  five  or  six  dead  bodies  there  on  Saturday  afternoon,  and  believes 
that  numerous  others  were  laying  dead  there. 

The  Fight  at  Fairfax  Court  House. — From  residents  of  Fairfax  county,  who 
visited  this  city  yesterday,  we  glean  the  following  further  details  of  the  fight  at  the 
Court  House  on  Saturday  morning  :  The  U.  S.  cavalry  left  the  village  just  at  daylight, 
and  proceeded  quite  leisurely  along  the  road  with  their  five  prisoners  strapped  on 
behind,  and  about  three  miles  from  the  Court  House  stopped  and  watered  their 
horses  at  a  well,  the  property  of  Mr.  Kidwell.  Here  they  shot  two  of  their  horses, 
which  had  become  much  weakened  from  loss  of  blood  occasioned  by  wounds  received 
in  the  engagement.  After  spending  a  short  time  at  this  place  to  rest,  they  came  on 
down  to  their  camp.  About  fifteen  minutes  after  they  had  left  the  Court  House,  two 
large  bodies  of  secession  cavalry  followed  out  after  them,  but  they  did  not  venture 
out  of  sight  of  the  village,  and  after  a  conference  they  returned  to  their  quarters. 
They  were  armed  with  sabers  and  fowling  pieces,  a  few  having  double-barreled  shot 
guns.  A  darkey,  who  was  at  the  Court  House  during  the  engagement,  states  that 
"  he  could  not  tell  how  many  were  killed,  but  the  dead  were  lying  around  mighty 
thick." 

It  must  be  admitted  that  this  initial  fight  or  skirmish,  of 
what  proved  soon  after,  one  of  the  most  bloody  and  gigantic 
battles  of  the  war,  was,  all  things  considered,  one  of  astonish- 
ing success. 

A  "  high  private,"  as  it  were,  with  no  other  tie  to  the  com- 
mand than  that  of  a  common  sympathy,  wholly  undisciplined 
and  undrilled  in  military  strategy,  to  be  placed  in  command  of 
companies  of  raw  volunteers,  to  beat  back  a  superior  force  of 
United  States  Dragoons  on  a  surprise  in  the  night,  was  indeed 
a  wonderful  feat.  But  it  was  a  foretaste  of  that  courage,  in- 
trepidity and  readiness  of  resource  that  were  more  fully  de- 
veloped and  conspicuous  in  his  subsequent  career  in  the  war. 

In  the  first  Battle  of  Manassas  on  the  21st  July,  1861,  he 
again  won  fresh  laurels  for  gallantry  and  courage  in  the 
adroit  management  of  his  regiment,  as  well  as  other  troops 
in  the  field.  His  daring  and  success  on  that  memorable  day, 
were  honorably  mentioned  in  the  regular  reports  of  Gens. 
J.  E.  Johnson  and  Beauregard,  to  the  War  Department,  at 
Richmond. 

In  his  report  of  August  26th,  (October  14th)  1S61,  of  the 
Battle  of  (first)  Manassas,  dated  Headquarters  First  Corps 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  General  Beauregard  says  : 

"Col.  William  Smith  was  as  efficient  as  self-possessed  and  brave.  The  influ- 
ence of  his  example  and  his  words  of  encouragement,  were  not  confined  to  his 
immediate  command  ;  the  good  conduct  of  which  is  especially  noticeable  inasmuch 
it  had  been  embodied  but  a  day  or  two  before  the  battle." 


37 

Gen.  J.  E.  Johnston  in  his  report  of  October  14th  1861, 
dated  Fairfax  Court  House,  says  : 

"Col.  (late  Governor)  Smith  with  his  Battalion,  and  Col.  Hunton  with  his  regi- 
ment, were  ordered  up  to  re-enforce  the  right.  I  have  since  learned  that  Gen. 
Beauregard  had  previously  ordered  them  into  the  battle  ;  they  belonged  to  his  corps. 
Col.  Smith's  cheerful  courage  had  a  fine  influence,  not  only  upon  the  spirit  of  his 
own  men,  but  upon  the  stragglers  of  the  troops  engaged." — (See  Official  Records  of 
the  Union  and  Confederate  Armies,  Series  i,  vol.  2,  p.p.  475,  500. 

"In  this  fight  Col.  Smith's  Battalion  lost  one  officer  and  nine  men  killed,  and  one 
officer  and  twenty-nine  men  wounded,  making  forty  men  killed  and  wounded. 

"Col.  Smith's  Battalion  at  this  time  belonged  to  Cocke's  Brigade,  Beauregard's 
Corps." — (See  page  570,  vol.  2,  Official  Records,  etc. 

CHAPTER  X. 

Col.  Smith's  Report  of  date  July,  1862,  of  the  Battle  of  Seven  Pines  of  25th  June,  1862, 
to  Gen.  Mahone — Extracts  from  Gen.  Mahone's  Report  Relative  to  49th  Virginia 
Volunteers,  and  Col.  Smith,  at  Battle  of  Seven  Pines — Extracts  from  his  Report 
of  June  30th,  1862 — Gen.  D.  H.  Hill's  Report  of  Battle  of  Seven  Pines  of  31st 
May,  1862,  as  to  Conduct  of  49th  Virginia — Gen.  Huger's  Report  of  July  21st,  1862, 
as  to  same — Inscription  on  its  Banner  for  Distinguished  Gallantry  in  a  Fight 
at  "  Kings  School  House, "  Seven  Pines  and  at  French's  Field — Col.  Smith's 
Report  to  Col.  B.  G.  Anderson,  Commanding  Brigade  of  same  fight  of  31st 
May,  1862 — Extract  from  Report  of  Col.  Anderson,  Commanding  Gen.  Feather- 
stone's  Brigade — A  Florida  Flag  Found  in  the  Brush — Col.  Smith  Bears  it  at  the 
Head  of  his  own  Regiment — Ordered  by  Commanding  Officers  to  give  it  up — 
Seized  by  a  Florida  Boy — Bravely  Bears  it  Through  the  Fight — The  Colonel  and 
Lieut. -Colonel  Severely  Wounded — Three  Captains  and  six  Lieutenants  Wounded, 
and  one  Killed— Col.  Smith's  Horse  Fatally  Shot  Under  him — Extract  from  Dr. 
Horseley's  Letter  to  Col.  Smith. 

It  is  manifest  from  the  heading  of  this  chapter,  and  the 
reports  of  the  Commanding  Generals  of  the  brigades,  that 
these  were  among  the  hottest  contested  and  bloodiest  battles 
of  the  war.  We  have  inserted  below  in  full,  the  reports  of 
Col.  Smith  to  Col.  Anderson,  commanding  Special  Brigade, 
Third  Division,  Army  of  the  Potomac,  of  the  part  he  bore  in 
the  battle  of  Seven  Pines  and  French's  Field,  and  his  report 
to  Gen.  Mahone,  to  whose  brigade  the  49th  Virginia  Volun- 
teers was  then  attached,  of  the  fight  of  June  25th,  1862,  as 
they  came  from  his  own  hands  of  that  date. 

His  alternate  successes  and  defeats  were  of  the  most  trying 
character ;  and  his  chivalrous  and  admirable  conduct  on  those 
occasions,  elicited  the  warmest  commendation  of  those  of  the 
most  distinguished  generals  of  the  army  of  Northern  Vir- 
ginia. 


38 

No.  93.    Reports  (2)  of  Colonel  William  Smith,  49th  Virginia  Regiment,  (Battles 
of  Seven  Pines  and  French's  Fields,  Virginia). 

Headquarters  49TH  Virginia  Volunteers, 

Special  Brig.  3d  Div.,  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
June  5th,   1862. 

Colonel  :  In  consequence  of  the  lamented  illness  of  our  brigade  officer,  General 
Featherstone,  it  was  your  good  fortune  to  command  our  brigade  in  the  fight  of 
May  31st.  To  you,  therefore,  and  in  compliance  with  general  orders  from  head- 
quarters of  the  division,  I  proceed  with  pleasure  to  give  you  a  narrative  of  the  part 
taken  by  my  regiment  in  the  battle  of  the  31st  ultimo,  and  of  the  1st  instant. 

On  the  morning  of  the  31st  ultimo,  I  received  your  orders  to  move  by  the  left 
flank,  file  right,  preserving  such  a  distance  from  the  4th  North  Carolina  regiment  on 
my  right,  as  would  afford  me  room,  promptly  to  form  in  line  of  battle.  I  accordingly 
moved,  and  unfortunately  had  to  make  my  way  through  a  trackless  forest,  encoun- 
tering at  almost  every  step  brush,  bramble  and  ponds,  and  after  a  most  exhausting 
march  of  upwards  of  a  mile,  we  cleared  the  woods  and  entered  the  open  field. 
Passing  through  this  field  to  the  right,  we,  with  the  previous  orders  renewed, 
entered  the  next  body  of  timber,  which  was  either  occupied  in  common  by,  or  sep- 
arated us  from  the  enemy.  The  4th  North  Carolina  was  on  my  right,  and  the  27th 
and  28th  Georgia  on  my  left.  Dressing  by  the  right,  we  were  ordered  carefully  to 
preserve  our  distances,  that  not  a  moment  might  be  lost  in  forming  in  line  of  battle  ; 
I  endeavored  to  obey  this  order  literally,  and  in  so  doing  was  brought  in  contact 
with  an  enormous  abattis,  and  with  rifle  pits,  all  right  in  front,  and  with  a  redoubt 
on  my  right  flank.  Here  I  met  with  General  Garland,  who,  stating  that  his  brigade 
had  been  cut  to  pieces,  urged  me  forward.  I  gave  the  order  and  my  gallant  boys 
dashed  into  the  abattis,  pressing  forward  with  every  possible  dispatch.  My  men 
were  falling  fast  from  the  fire  of  an  unseen  foe — indeed,  several  had  fallen  in  the 
timber  through  which  we  had  just  passed,  from  the  shell  of  the  enemy,  and  yet  they 
gallantly  pressed  forward,  and  had  more  than  half  perforated  the  abattis — had  passed 
the  rifle-pits,  and  were  under  a  galling  fire,  front  and  flank,  before  I  opened  fire. 
Never  did  men  behave  more  like  veterans  under  such  trying  circumstances.  We 
were  under  heavy  fire  upon  both  of  my  flanks,  and  direct  in  front  of  the  enemy, 
and  also  from  the  rear  by  our  friends  ;  some  of  whom  skulked  behind  the  brick 
ruins,  some  three  or  four  hundred  yards  in  my  rear,  and  some  from  the  bush,  and 
galled  us  with  their  fire,  until  finally,  I  had  to  dash  back  to  the  fellows  before  I 
could  be  relieved  of  their  annoyance.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  28th  Georgia,  by 
pressing  to  the  right  oblique,  had  entirely  lost  its  place  in  line  of  battle,  cut  through 
my  line  and  fell  in  on  my  right,  except  about  two  companies,  which  lapped  my 
right,  and  was  a  source  of  great  annoyance  and  of  some  loss  of  time.  Through  the 
activity  of  my  Adjutant  and  of  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Georgia  regiment,  whose 
name  I  do  not  know,  this  embarassment  was  removed  by  placing  it  fully  on  my 
right.  I  do  not  particularly  know  what  became  of  this  regiment  afterwards,  but, 
from  what  my  Adjutant  informs  me,  it  advanced  from  the  rifle  pits,  which  it  had 
occupied,  fell  into  line  with  my  command,  and  gallantly  for  an  hour  performed  its 
duty  until  we  fell  back.  Still  pressing  forward,  my  regiment  soon  cleared  the  abattis 
and  entered  the  open  field  ;  my  left  flank  sheltered  somewhat  by  the  woods,  and  my 
right  fully  exposed.  As  I  have  since  learned,  the  27th  Georgia  had  fallen  back, 
leaving  my  left  also  entirely  exposed. 

We  had  been  under  fire  for  three  and  a  half  hours,  a  portion  of  the  time  under 
a  combination  of  four  opposite  fires.  Our  brigade  had  promptly  relieved  Garland's 
shattered  columns,  yet  during  my  long  and  protracted  struggle  of  three  and  a  half 
hours,  I  had  received  no  succor,  and  no  command  as  to  my  progress  and  manage- 
ment. My  regiment,  which  went  into  action  three  hundred  and  ninety  strong  only, 
had  been  cut  down  to  a  mere  handful.     My  men  were  without  ammunition,  having 


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39 

exhausted  their  sixty  rounds.  We  had  no  supports  at  hand  or  in  prospect,  as  far  as 
I  saw  or  was  informed.  The  enemy  was  before  us  in  force  and  moved  with  a  cheer, 
to  turn  my  left. 

In  this  state  of  things  I  regarded  it  as  a  military  necessity  that  we  should  have 
fallen  back,  and  to  the  order  which  was  directed  by  my  gallant  Major,  I  firmly 
believe  I  am  indebted  for  the  preservation  of  the  remnant  of  my  regiment  from 
capture  and  destruction.  I  had  not  recovered  the  ground  I  had  lost  when  I  went 
back  to  suppress  the  fire  in  my  rear,  when  I  met  my  command  falling  back,  I  am 
proud  to  say,  in  perfect  order.  Finding  that  my  men  were  retiring  with  sullen 
reluctance,  and  ascertaining  that  they  were  without  ammunition,  I  ordered  my 
Adjutant  to  promptly  report  to  General  Hill,  ascertain  if  he  could  supply  us,  and  ask 
for  orders.  In  reply  I  was  informed  that  the  General  could  not  supply  us,  and  that 
we  must  fall  back  upon  my  ordinance  wagon  and  there  replenish  my  empty  boxes. 
This  was  done  in  order — most  leisurely  order.  The  boxes  were  filled,  the  pocket 
supply  secured,  and  then  I  moved  my  regiment  back  to  the  field,  and  finally  to  the 
ground  on  the  edge  of  the  battle  field,  which  was  selected  for  our  encampment  after 
it  was  clear.     The  fight  was  over  for  the  day. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  1st  instant,  your  brigade,  including  my  regiment 
as  a  part  of  it,  was  moved  and  placed  in  line  of  battle  on  a  new  and  exposed  position 
as  was  supposed,  where  it  remained  until  we  fell  back,  early  on  the  2d  instant. 

I  have  said,  Colonel,  but  little  of  my  neighbors  in  the  field,  and  what  little  I  have 
said  may  be  unjust,  for,  ordered  to  move  to  the  front,  and  having  confidence  that  my 
superiors  under  any  new  and  unexpected  combinations  would  see  that  all  was  well, 
my  attention  was  strictly  confined  to  the  duties  of  my  own  command  ;  but,  there  was 
an  incident  I  will  mention.  In  pressing  through  the  abattis,  I  crossed  a  battle  flag 
lying  in  the  brush  ;  I  took  it  to  be  my  own  ;  I  called  to  some  one  to  take  it,  but  in  the 
din  of  the  battle,  and  the  excitement  of  the  forward  movement,  I  was  unheard. 
Bidding  my  Adjutant,  who  was  near  by,  to  hand  it  to  me,  I  seized  and  bore  it  until 
your  kind  and  thoughful  consideration  transmitted  me  an  order  through  Captain 
Foot  to  give  up  the  flag.  At  the  time  a  youthful  stranger  was  hard  by,  probably  not 
twenty  years  old,  and  heard  the  message  delivered.  He  stepped  promptly  up,  stated 
that  he  belonged  to  the  2d  Florida,  had  lost  his  regiment,  and  would  like  to  join 
mine  for  the  fight,  and  with  my  permission  would  gladly  bear  the  flag,  and,  if  need 
be,  plant  it  in  the  cannons'  mouth.  Without  a  word  I  handed  it  to  him  and  nobly 
did  he  bear  it  ;  and  curiously  enough,  it  turned  out  to  be  the  flag  of  his  own  regi- 
ment, and  how  it  reached  the  spot  where  I  found  it  is  still  veiled  in  mystery,  and 
probably  will  ever  remain  so. 

I  have  said  that  we  went  in  the  battle  with  about  three  hundred  and  ninety,  rank 
and  file.  I  will  now  add  that  I  had  twenty-nine  company  officers,  and  five  field  and 
staff  officers,  also.  Of  this  number,  I  received  from  a  minie  ball,  a  severe  contusion 
of  the  thigh  ;  Lieutenant-Colonel  Gibson  received  a  very  severe  contusion  of  the 
side,  and  quite  a  severe  flesh  wound  on  the  left  forearm.  Of  the  Company  officers 
three  Captains  were  wounded.  Captain  Horsley,  supposed  mortally,  and  not  heard 
from  since  the  battle  ;  Captain  Jacobs  slightly,  and  Captain  Randolph  in  the  arm, 
severely.  Of  the  Lieutenants,  six  were  wounded,  and  one  killed,  to  wit :  1st  Lieuten- 
ant James  M.  Anderson,  commanding  Company  "A";  ist  Lieutenant  James  C. 
Cabell,  Company  "C";  2d  Lieutenant  R.  K.  Christian,  Company  "B";  2d  Lieu- 
tenant R.  M.  Spicer,  Company  "D";  3d  Lieutenant  R.  S.  Cabell,  Company  "K"; 
3d  Lieutenant  William  W.  Larkin,  Company  "F";  and  Samuel  Hill,  1st  Lieutenant, 
Company  "K"  (killed). 

The  color-sergeants  and  color-guard  consisted  of  Sergeants  Curry  and  Spencer, 
and  Corporals  Sutphin,  Stone,  Jewell  and  Maddox,  who  behaved  with  distinguished 
gallantry,  and  all  of  whom  were  either  killed  or  wounded.  Corporal  Jewell  was 
killed  in  line.     Sergeant  Curry,  it  is  (eared  is  mortally  wounded,  while  the  others  were 


40 

all  more  or  less  severely  wounded  ;  notwithstanding  all,  they  nobly  bore  the  flag  for- 
ward throughout  the  day,  never  receding  for  a  moment  until  ordered  to  fall  back 
about  5  p.m. 

Of  the  rank  and  file,  32  were  killed,  158  wounded,  and  22  missing. 

Recapitulation  : 
At  opening  of  the  fight,  my  regiment  in  rank  and  file  consisted  of  men,  390 

Company  officers  in  fight  29 

Field  officers,  commissioned  and  non-commissioned 5 

424 
KilleJ.  Wounded. 

Field  officers . .  2 

Company  officers 1  9 

Rank  and  file 32  158 

33  l69 

Total 202 

Number  in  command  at    beginning ,  424 

222 
Missing  in  action 22 


It  will  be  observed,  Colonel,  that  I  lost  of  my  regiment  in  killed,  wounded  and 
missing,  over  one-half  of  the  entire  command,  which  was  still  further  weakened  by 
the  necessary  details  to  take  off  the  wounded,  so  you  can  readily  see  how  severely 
that  portion  of  it  which  remained  in  the  field  was  cut  up,  and  when  it  is  remembered 
that  six  of  my  companies  had  never  been  under  fire  before,  that  all  steadily  advanced 
through  great  and  unusual  difficulties,  and  that,  too,  under  most  trying  circumstances, 
that  my  regiment  promptly  responded  to  every  command;  that  I  was  but  little  afflict- 
ed with  that  curse  of  an  army,  stragglers,  you  will  pardon  me  I  am  sure,  if  I  dwell 
with  some  complacency  upon  the  valor,  steadiness,  and  effective  discipline  of  my 
command,  the  49th  Regiment,  Virginia  Volunteers. 

The  more  difficult  duty  now  remains  of  specifying  those  who  have  won  the  claim 
of  special  merit.  Among  my  field  and  staff  officers  I  cannot  discriminate.  Lieut. - 
Col.  Gibson,  as  I  have  stated,  was  twice  wounded,  and  had  his  horse  shot,  but  not  so 
badly  as  to  be  unable  to  bear  him  from  the  field,  which  he  refused  to  leave  (although 
I  urged  him  to  do  so)  until  the  regiment  fell  back.  Major  Christian  had  to  dismount 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  abattis  and  proceed  on  foot  with  the  command,  which  he  did 
most  gallantly.  He  escaped  unhurt.  My  Adjutant,  Kincheloe,  always  calm  and 
collected,  yet  prompt  and  ready,  contributed  much  to  the  steadiness  of  the  command 
and  cheerfully  obeyed  all  my  orders.  He  himself  escaped,  but  had  his  horse  badly 
shot.  My  Sergeant-Major  led  the  advance,  rifle  in  hand,  displaying  the  valor,  and 
perhaps  sometimes  the  rashness  of  youth.  My  horse  was  badly  shot  and  died  about 
seven  p.  m.  on  the  day  of  battle. 

Of  my  Company  officers  I  have  no  language  or  praise  which  I  might  not  safely 
bestow,  but  I  have  no  power  to  discriminate  between  them.  Where  all  behaved  so 
well,  discrimination  is  difficult  and  would  certainly  be  unjust.  I  commend  them, 
Colonel,  most  cordially  to  your  favorable  consideration. 

Colonel,  I  close  this  report,  sending  herewith  a  list  of  the  killed  and  wounded; 
sending  also  a  list  of  those,  in  a  few  instances,  commended  for  special  merit,  and 
tendering  you  herewith  my  cordial  gratulations,  under  the  exposure  to  which  you 
were  constantly  subjected,  at  your  escape  from  the  dangers  of  this  bloody  field. 

I  am,  sir,  most  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

William    SMITH,  Colonel  40th  Virginia  Volunteers. 


41 

To  General  William  Mahone,  Akmy  of  the  Potomac. 

Headquarters,  49th  Virginia  Volunteers,      | 
2d  Brigade,   Huger's  Division,  July  1862.  j 

General  :  In  consequence  of  the  degree  of  importance  attached  to  the  battle 
of  June  25th,  within  the  lines  or  front  of  Brigadier-General  Wright,  and  of  your  order, 
I  respectfully  report  as  follows  :  On  the  morning  of  June  25th,  a  considerable  firing 
having  been  heard  on  your  left,  or  rather  on  the  right  of  General  Wright's  position, 
you  ordered  me  to  move  my  regiment,  consisting  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty, 
rank  and  file,  being  the  number  not  on  other  duty.  Approaching  the  scene  of  con- 
flict, you  ordered  me  to  take  a  position  in  the  woods,  to  arrest  a  movement  which 
you  thought  the  enemy  might  make  to  flank  one  of  our  regiments,  the  4th  Georgia, 
which  had  laid  down  in  the  wheat  near  French's  house,  or  to  flank  the  enemy, 
should  it  at  any  time  prove  judicious  to  do  so.  Having  ordered  the  41st  Virginia  to 
support  me,  I  remained  in  my  position  some  hours,  when  shortly  before  sunset  a 
large  regiment,  the  48th  North  Carolina,  Colonel  Hill,  appeared  upon  the  field  in 
line  of  battle,  and  opened  upon  the  enemy  with  spirit  and  effect.  Just  before  doing 
so,  I  received  your  order  to  flank  the  enemy.  The  order  was  promptly  obeyed  ; 
I  was  moving  by  the  left  flank,  and  ordered  the  41st  Virginia  to  keep  close  to  my 
right.  Before,  however,  my  flank  movement  was  completed,  by  being  within  a  sat- 
isfactory distance  of  the  enemy,  the  North  Carolinians  broke  and  precipitately 
retired,  the  enemy  persuing  them. 

With  but  a  fragment  of  my  own  regiment,  and  unsupported  by  the  41st  Virginia, 
which  had  been  unaccountably  (at  the  time)  detained  in  the  woods,  in  the  presence 
of  a  greatly  superior  force  of  the  enemy,  and  without  assurance  of  support  from  any 
quarter,  I  was  in  great  doubt  for  a  moment  as  to  my  line  of  duty  ;  but  it  was  for  a 
moment  only.  I  ordered  my  left  wing  to  open  upon  the  enemy,  (the  right  having 
already  secured  a  most  favorable  position)  which  was  promptly  obeyed.  The  effect 
was  magical  ;  it  arrested  the  persuit  of  the  North  Carolinians  instantly.  The  enemy 
broke  in  dismay,  with  but  little  effort  at  resistance,  and  the  field  was  soon  our  own. 
But  for  the  unfortunate  detention  of  the  41st  Virginia,  we  must  have  realized  much 
more  complete  results  ;  as  it  was,  we  recovered  all  the  ground  we  had  lost,  killed  and 
wounded  a  number  of  the  enemy,  took  a  few  prisoners,  (whom  their  guard  was 
ordered  to  report  to  you)  and  closed  the  day  very  differently  from  what  the  enemy 
anticipated  in  the  morning. 

I  had  not  time  to  give  the  field  a  close  examination  as  it  was  getting  quite  late, 
and  my  time  was  occupied  in  forming  a  new  line  of  battle  of  the  various  regiments 
as  they  came  up  to  receive  a  new  attack  of  the  enemy,  which  was  expected. 

I  am  glad  to  inform  you  that  my  loss  was  not  heavy.  Lieutenants  Boyd  and 
Colbert  were  severely  wounded.  Lieutenant  Boyd  being  permanently  disabled,  and 
six  men  were  wounded,  some  of  them  dangerously. 

All  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 

William  Smith. 
Col.  49th  Virginia  Volunteers. 

P.  S.  —I  had  commenced  my  report  before  I  received  your  order  to  prepare  it, 
hence  the  character  of  my  first  paragraph. 

W.  S. 

Enough  to  paralyze  the  stoutest  hearts  of  most  men,  he 
rose  to  the  exigency  of  the  great  occasion,  and  accomplished 
ends  and  purposes  which  none  but  a  man  of  extraordinary 
resources  could  command. 


42 

We  give  below  an  extract  of  Gen.  William  Mahone's  report 
of  an  artillery  duel  on  Monday,  June  30th,  1862,  in  which  he 
says  : 

"  The  49th  Virginia,  occupying  like  relations  to  the  Battery,  with  the  same  com- 
mendable firmness,  stimulated  by  the  characteristic  coolness  of  its  fearless  com- 
mander, Col.  William  Smith,  also  suffered  heavily  under  this  fire,  losing,  in  killed, 
two  men,  and  twenty-eight  wounded." 

Following  that,  is  Gen.  Mahone's  account  of  the  fight  on 
the  2  5th  of  June,  1862,  referred  to  in  Col.  Smith's  report  to 
him.  Speaking  of  the  Colonel  of  the  49th  Virginia  Volun- 
teers, as  well  as  the  Regiment  itself,  he  says  : 

"Meantime,  Col.  Smith,  of  the  49th,  with  that  of  the  41st  and  the  2d  Battalion  of 
the  6th,  had  been  placed  in  a  skirt  of  woods  leading  out  on  the  enemy's  left  flank, 
most  opportunely  moved  forward  and  attacked  him  upon  his  rear  and  flank.  Thus 
pressed,  simultaneously  upon  front  and  flank,  the  enemy  fled  precipitately,"  etc. 

Again,  Gen.   Mahone  says  ; 

"The  timely  appearance  of  Col.  Smith  with  his  regiment,  his  deliberate  and  judi- 
cious direction  of  his  actions,  rendered  the  combined  movement  of  our  forces  at  this 
point,  eminently  successful.  His  report  to  me  is  herewith  forwarded  as  an  interest- 
ing paper  in  connection  with  the  engagement."* 

Gen.  D.  H.  Hill,  in  his  report  of  the  battle  of  Seven 
Pines,  fought  May  31st,  1862,  says  : 

"  The  Yankee  column  was  almost  in  musket  range  of  the  gallant  Col.  William 
Smith  (ex-Governor  of  Virginia),  49th  Virginia,  and  his  noble  regiment." 

Gen.  Huger,  in  his  report  of  July  21st,  1862,  recommends 
that  the  49th  Virginia  be  authorized  to  inscribe  on  its  banner, 
"  49th  Virginia  Volunteers — King's  School  House,"  for  having 
distinguished  itself  in  the  fight  at  that  place. 

Col.  George  B.  Anderson,  of  the  4th  North  Carolina  In- 
fantry, commanding  Special  Brigade,  in  his  official  report, 
June  5th,  1862,  of  the  battle  of  Seven  Pines,  or  Fair  Oaks, 
says  : 

"Col.  William  Smith,  49th  Virginia,  was  conspicuous,  as  I  can  testify  from  my 
own  observation,  for  coolness  and  courage.  His  exposure  of  his  person  was  perhaps 
almost  a  fault." 

For  reasons  obvious  to  some  who  were  officers  and  soldiers 
in    Col.    Smith's   regiment,  then   in  the   2d  brigade,   Huo;er's 

*  See  the  Report  above,  dated  July,  1862. 


43 

division,  I  have  thought  it  appropriate  to  insert  in  these 
memoirs  a  short  extract  from  a  letter  from  Dr.  Horseley,  of 
the  49th  Virginia,  to  Col.  Smith.  The  letter  was  of  a  per- 
sonal as  well  as  of  an  official  nature,  and  speaks  for  itself.  It 
was  particularly  gratifying  to  the  old  hero  when  living,  and  is 
a  graceful  tribute  to  his  virtues  and  fidelity  as  an  officer  : 
***************       * 

"Appomattox. 

"  Gen.  William  Smith. — Your  letter,  though  unexpected,  was  not  the  less  gladly 
received.  Apart  from  that  feeling  of  attachment  which  every  soldier  must  entertain 
for  his  old  commanding  officer  in  a  struggle  like  that  of  ours,  there  exists  in  this  in- 
stance of  yourself,  an  intensified  interest  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  at  one  time, 
your  valuable  services  and  personal  sacrifices  to  our  cause  were  by  some  of  your 
command  not  pioperly  estimated;  which  want  of  appreciation  was  for  a  moment, 
through  undue  influences,  shared  by  myself.  Long,  however,  before  you  ceased  to 
be  our  regimental  commander,  I  learned  to  value  rightly  your  real  worth,  and  can 
truly  say  with  all  sincerity,  that  I  do  not  believe  that  of  all  the  many  noble  men  who 
devoted  themselves  to  the  '  lost  cause,'  that  a  single  one  labored  within  his  special 
sphere  with  greater  zeal  and  efficiency  than  yourself. 

"  I  hope  you  will  pardon  this  digression  and  possibly  inappropriate  allusion  to 
the  past,  but  cannot  fail  to  avail  myself  of  a  long  wished  for  opportunity  to  make 
known  to  you  my  regrets,  for  having  for  a  moment,  entertained  or  given  expression 
to  sentiments  which  I  believe  so  unjust. 

"lam  gratified  to  know  of  your  intention  of  writing  your  autobiography,  and 
with  numbers  of  others,  will  anxiously  await  its  forthcoming.  There  are  some  inter- 
esting incidents  in  your  military  history  that  I  am  afraid  your  modesty  will  prevent 
special  mention  to  be  made  of.  One  of  these  happened  during  the  battle  just  re- 
ferred to  (Seven  Pines),  in  which  engagement,  after  several  of  the  color-bearers  of 
our  regiment  had  been,  in  rapid  succession,  shot  down,  you  dismounted  from  your 
horse,  seized  the  colors  already  pierced  by  a  number  of  bullets,  from  the  hands  of 
the  dying  sergeant,  remounting  your  horse,  sat  waving  it  in  line  of  battle  as  long  as 
I  had  sight  of  you. 

"  Another  incident,  with  which  I  was  specially  struck,  happened  at  Sharpsburg. 
I  was  standing  by  you  in  line  of  battle  when  you  received  the  severe  wound  in  your 
shoulder,  which  afterwards  gave  you  so  much  trouble.  Though  unexpressed,  I  saw 
that  you  were  suffering  greatly  from  the  effects  of  the  wound.  I  approached,  and 
insisted  upon  your  retiring  to  the  rear,  and  allowing  a  sergeant  to  be  called  to  your 
aid;  both  of  which  you  refused  to  do,  but  remained  with  your  command  until  the 
enemy  had  been  driven  back. 

"I  remain  very  truly  and  sincerely  yours, 

"William  A.  Horseley." 

Col.  Smith's  gallantry  and  adroit  and  judicious  management 
of  his  regiment  in  the  fights  spoken  of  in  the  different  reports 
above,  had  so  impressed  his  superior  officers  and  President 
Davis,  that  his  promotion  was  determined  on  at  Richmond, 
and  it  was  only  a  question  of  time,  with  due  reference  to 
other  promotions  and  existing  circumstances  and  facts,  when 


44 

his  commission  should  be  made  out.     In  due  time  it  came, 
and  without  solicitation  from  him  directly  or  indirectly. 

Many  other  interesting  facts  and  incidents  of  this  battle  of 
the  Seven  Pines,  I  might  mention  Mechanicsville,  Savage 
Station,  Frazier's  Farm,  Marye's  Hill,  Fredericksburg,  Hamil- 
ton's Crossings,  Second  Manassas,  Engagement  at  Bristol, 
capture  of  the  Fort  at  Winchester  and  expulsion  of  Millroy 
by  Gen.  Early,  and  the  fights  in  the  Wilderness  and  Spotsyl- 
vania, and  other  minor  affairs  in  Virginia,  speak  with  emphasis 
of  the  great  efficiency  and  heroism  of  Col.  Smith  as  an  officer 
and  soldier  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  But,  that 
would  involve  more  history  of  the  War  than  is  quite  compat- 
ible with  the  original  purpose  of  these  memoirs,  and  we  will 
hasten  on  to  other  matters  and  to  the  next  grand  drama  in 
which  he  bore  a  conspicuous  part. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Col.  Smith's  Election  to  the  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States — Took  his  Seat  in 
Congress,  February,  1862 — Gen.  Johnston  falls  back  from  Manassas,  9th  March, 
1862,  to  Clark's  Mountain — Thither  moved  his  Army  to  Yorktown — 49th  in  charge 
of  Lieut. -Col.  Murray — Congress  adjourned — Col.  Smith  rejoins  his  Regiment  at 
Yorktown  and  took  command — Elected  Colonel  by  the  Officers  of  the  Companies, 
under  Act  of  Congress — Resigned  his  Seat  in  Congress — Evacuation  of  York- 
town— The  Seven  Pines  again— The  Colonel's  Celebrated  Order  to  "Flush  the 
Game." 

In  the  fall  of  1861,  while  the  army  was  stationed  at  Man- 
assas, Col.  Smith  was  elected  to  the  Congress  of  the  Confed- 
erate States,  to  assemble  at  Richmond,  then  the  Capital  of 
the  Confederacy,  over  R.  E.  Scott,  Esq.,  of  the  County  of 
Fauquier,  one  of  the  ablest  men  of  Virginia,  without  leaving 
his  regiment  for  a  single  day,  but  assiduously  performing  his 
duties  as  Colonel  of  the  49th  Virginia.  When  Congress 
met  in  February,  1S62,  Col.  Smith  qualified  as  the  member 
from  his  district,  leaving  his  regiment  in  charge  of  Lieut.-Col. 
Murray,  a  competent  drill  officer,  and  recently  an  officer  in 
the  U.  S.  Army.  On  the  9th  day  of  March,  1S62,  General 
Johnston  evacuated  Manassas  and  fell  back  to  Clarke's  Moun- 
tain, south  of  the  Rapid  Ann  River  and  thence  to  Yorktown. 
On  the  1 6th  day  of  April  following,  Congress  adjourned,  and 


45 

Col.  Smith  immediately  rejoined  and  took  command  of  his 
regiment. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  having  passed 
an  Act  turning  over  her  Volunteers  to  the  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment, to  take  effect  on  the  first  day  of  May  following,  with 
the  privilege  of  reorganizing,  it  became  necessary  for  Col. 
Smith  to  elect  which  of  the  positions  he  then  held,  he  would 
retain. 

By  the  arrangement  of  the  reorganization,  the  field  officers 
were  to  be  elected  by  the  officers  of  the  companies,  and  they 
were  chosen  by  the  men  or  privates  of  their  respective  com- 
panies. The  election  came  on  and  Col.  Smith  was  elected 
by  an  almost  unanimous  vote.  Making  his  election,  he  re- 
tained the  Colonelcy  of  his  regiment  and  immediately  resigned 
his  seat  in  Congress.  This  was  a  rare  instance,  if  not  the 
only  one  in  the  whole  army,  where  a  man  holding  a  high 
civic  position,  relinquished  it  for  a  military  command  in  the 
field. 

Col.  Smith's  Regiment  was  posted  on  the  left  wing  of  the 
army,  which  stretched  across  the  Peninsula,  its  right  wing 
resting  on  the  James  River.  The  enemy  was  in  close  prox- 
imity to  our  entire  line,  and  in  great  force.  Gen.  Johnston 
soon  determined  to  evacuate  Yorktown  and  retire  his  army 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Richmond.  This  movement,  it  was 
plain,  was  full  of  peril  and  difficulties.  To  the  49th  Virginia, 
among  other  troops  noted  for  their  steadiness  and  courage, 
was  assigned  the  onerous  duty  of  covering  the  rear.  The 
Colonel's  49th  Virginia  was,  therefore,  the  last  to  leave  York- 
town. 

The  Peninsula  narrowing  here  and  its  roads  concentrating 
at  Williamsburg,  the  left  of  the  army  at  Yorktown,  took  the 
lead  here.  The  enemy  pursued  and  made  a  fierce  attack 
upon  our  retiring  army,  and,  after  several  hours  of  severe 
fighting,  were  handsomely  repulsed.  Meanwhile,  night  ap- 
proached, and  it  being  thought  the  enemy  would  renew  their 
attack  in  the  morning,  we  were  recalled  and  again  ordered  to 
the  rear.  Then  the  49th  resumed  its  position,  and  so  close 
to  the  enemy  in  the  woods,  the  Confederates  could  hear  them 


46 

talk,  and  so  remained  the  whole  night  under  arms  and  in  a 
drenching  rain.  But  the  attack  was  not  renewed,  and  about 
day-break  our  army  resumed  their  march  undisturbed. 

On  the  31st  of  May,  1862,  the  battle  of  the  Seven  Pines 
took  place.  That  fight  has  been  sufficiently  spoken  of  in  the 
next  preceding  chapter.  It  was,  perhaps,  so  far  as  Col. 
Smith's  regiment  was  concerned,  at  that  time  a  part  of  G.  B. 
Anderson's  brgiade,  the  most  disastrous  battle  of  the  war. 
The  brigade  was  ordered  to  keep  on  the  left  of  the  Williams- 
burg road.  In  obeying  this  order,  the  49th  Virginia  was  con- 
strained to  encounter  a  formidable  abattis  of  heavy  felled  tim- 
ber a  half  mile  in  extent,  and  a  row  of  rifle  pits,  and  also  a 
formidable  earth-work,  held  by  the  unseen  enemy.  The 
enemy,  however,  could  see  the  Confederates.  It  was  on  this 
occasion,  and  in  this  embarrassing  condition  when  the  Colonel 
eave  his  celebrated  order,  to  "  flush  the  crame."  This  order 
gave  rise  to  many  pleasant  newspaper  comments  on  either 
side.  This  was  a  murderous  advantage  the  enemy  possessed; 
but,  the  brave  49th  quailed  not.  The  order  was  obeyed  at 
once — the  "  game  was  flushed."  Under  a  heavy  fire  from 
the  enemy,  our  men  steadily  advanced,  and  drove  them  from 
their  fastnesses,  and  captured  and  pillaged  their  camp. 

It  was  related  of  the  late  chivalrous  General  Forrest,  of  one 
of  the  Western  commands,  that  when  going  into  battle  he 
always  called  out  to  his  men,  "  Forward,  boys,  and  mix  with 
them ! " 

It  was  in  this  desperate  battle  of  the  Seven  Pines,  spoken 
of  in  the  next  preceding  chapter,  that  Col.  Smith  found  two 
flags  flying  at  the  head  of  the  column  at  the  same  time,  in  a 
bloody  fight  ;  a  phenomenal  occurrence  without  a  parallel  in 
the  history  of  the  war. 


GOV.   SMITH    IN   1864. 

AQE    67 
GOVERNOR    OF  VIRGINIA    SECOND    TIME. 


47 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Battle  of  Sharpsburg — Col.  Smith  Assigned  to  the  Command  of  Early's  Brigade  tem- 
porarily, by  Gen.  Early — Receives  three  Wounds  in  one  Volley — Promoted 
Brigadier-General,  and  Assigned  to  Command  of  Fourth  Brigade — Casualties  in 
this  Fight  in  the  49th  Virginia— Gen.  J.  E.  B.  Stuart  and  Gen.  Early's  Reports  of 
Col.  Smith's  Conduct  in  this  Fight — Candidate  for  Governor — Made  no  Canvass — 
Did  not  leave  his  Brigade — Elected  by  a  Large  Majority — Retained  Command  of 
his  Brigade  in  the  Gettysburg  Campaign — Promoted  to  Major-General — Agreed 
to  Qualify  as  Governor — Entered  the  Recruiting  Service — Qualified  as  Governor 
on  the  first  day  of  January,  1864 — Delivered  his  Inaugural  in  the  Hall  of  the 
House  of  Delegates. 

Early's  brigade,  of  which  Col.  Smith's  regiment  formed  a 
part,  held  the  key  of  the  position  at  Sharpsburg  on  the  i  7  th 
of  September,  1862.  The  49th  Virginia  constituted  the  right 
of  Early's  line  of  battle.  The  49th  was  at  the  foot  of  a  long 
wooded  slope  with  an  ascending  grade  from  their  position 
some  three  or  four  degrees  for  three  hundred  or  four  hundred 
yards.  The  growth  on  this  gentle  slope  was  not  such  that 
they  could  not  easily  see  every  movement  upon  it.  The 
crown  of  this  slope  was  occupied  by  the  enemy  in  great  force, 
and  seemed  moving  and  massing  upon  the  49th  with  a  slow 
step. 

At  this  movement,  a  regiment  much  superior  in  numbers  to 
our  own,  moved  out  from  the  body  of  the  enemy  at  quick 
step  to  turn  the  flank  of  the  49th,  the  main  body  moving 
slowly  as  if  desiring  first  to  see  the  effect  of  the  flanking 
movement.  In  his  own  language,  written  sometime  after  the 
war,  we  find  in  some  of  his  war  reminiscences  a  short  graphic 
narrative  of  his  movements  against  the  enemy  on  that  occa- 
sion. 

*  *  *  *  "  As  the  enemy  swept  around  my  flank,  one  of  my  men  cried  out  from 
the  ranks,  '  Colonel,  they  are  surrounding  us  !'  My  answer  was,  '  Men,  you  conquer  or 
die  where  you  stand.  I  will  not  yield  the  rascals  an  inch — but  remember,  everything 
depends  upon  steadiness  and  courage.  Obey  orders,  and  I'll  answer  for  the  result.' 
At  this  time  the  enemy  in  front  were  only  ten  or  twelve  minutes  in  time  distant,  and 
finding  that  their  flankers  had  reached  my  rear,  in  a  line  diagonal  to  my  own  line  of 
battle,  and  at  a  distance  of  seventy  or  eighty  yards,  I  gave  the  order  ;  about  face' — 
around  came  the  whole  command,  when  I  cried  out,  'take  aim — cover  your  objects — 
the  man  who  pulls  trigger  without  an  object  under  his  sight,  ought  to  be  drummed 
out  of  camp  after  this  fight  is  over — fire.'  My  great  necessity  was  a  crushing  volley, 
and  such  a  volley,  I  never  heard !  It  is  to  this  day  with  me  one  of  the  rich  memories 
of  the  war.  The  Yankees  did  not  even  return  the  fire,  but  with  quick  step  retired  on 
the  line  of  their  advance,  and  rejoined  their  advancing  columns. 


48 

"  The  temptation  to  cut  off  the  retreating  enemy  was  great,  but  the  close  prox- 
imity of  the  advancing  columns,  and  the  possible  effect  upon  the  balance  of  our  line 
of  battle,  forbade  the  attempt.  Under  the  exhilaration  of  the  moment,  I  exclaimed, 
'there  they  go,  boys,  just  as  I  expected  ;  it  is  a  sore  temptation,  but  we  must  not 
break  our  line  of  battle — about  face.'  Perceiving  before  me,  about  thirty  feet  off, 
and  immediately  between  my  regiment  and  the  advancing  enemy,  a  remarkable  out- 
cropping of  rock,  about  hip  high,  I  determined  to  avail  myself  of  the  great  advan- 
tage it  would  give  me.  I  moved  my  regiment  up  to  the  obstruction,  and  then  halting 
it,  said  :  '  Boys,  you  hold  now  an  important  position,  and  it  is  essential  you  should 
maintain  it ;  the  enemy  outnumber  you,  but  in  every  other  respect  you  have  the 
advantage.  I  repeat,  everything  depends  on  your  steadiness  and  courage.  Now 
take  your  position  ;  fire  at  will,  and  give  them  h — 11.  Dropping  down  behind  this 
line  of  rocks,  every  man,  no  doubt,  had  resolved  '  to  do  or  die.'  They  awaited  the 
enemy.  At  this  time,  Capt.  Payne  (A.  D. )  dashed  up  with  orders  from  Gen.  Jackson, 
for  our  gallant  General  (Early),  '  to  hold  his  position  at  all  hazards  !' — but  missing  our 
General,  he  delivered  this  order  to  me.  I  replied:  'Tell  General  Jackson  that  is 
just  what  we  are  going  to  do.' 

"A  few  minutes  after  this,  the  battle  began  ;  for  a  short  time  it  was  fast  and 
furious — a  few  volleys  from  our  gallant  boys,  from  their  protected  position,  at  a  rela- 
tively small  loss  to  them,  into  the  masses  of  the  enemy,  soon  covered  the  ground 
with  their  dead  and  wounded.  The  enemy  finally  broke,  leaving,  besides  their 
killed  and  wounded,  350  prisoners  on  our  hands." 

In  this  terrific  and  ever  memorable  conflict  of  arms,  the 
Colonel  and  Lieut.-Colonel  of  the  49th  Virginia  were  severely 
wounded.  Col.  Smith  received  three  wounds  in  one  volley  ; 
the  one  in  his  shoulder  being  thought  mortal  for  some  months, 
being  much  shattered,  and  three  pieces  of  the  bone  having 
been  taken  from  it.  For  some  time  these  wounds  were  con- 
sidered mortal,  and  no  one  thought  he  could  possibly  recover. 
But,  contrary  to  all  expectation,  through  the  skill  of  the  sur- 
geon and  the  asiduous  nursing  and  attention  of  his  beloved 
wife,  and  servant,  George  Hunter,  after  an  absence  of  eight 
months  from  the  army,  he  returned,  and  found  himself  pro- 
moted to  Brigadier-General,  and  assigned  to  the  command  of 
the  Fourth  Brigade,  Early's  Division,  then  resting  at  Hamil- 
ton's Crossings,  near  Fredericksburg,  Va. 

EXTRACT  FROM  LETTER  OF  GEN.   EARLY  To   MAT.   ROBERT  STILES. 

In  speaking  of  the  situation  after  the  battle,  Gen.  Early 
says : 

"  I  found  Col.  Smith  standing  by  himself  in  a  lime-stone  ledge  ;  I  rode  up  to  him 
and  said  to  him  :  '  Colonel,  get  your  men  together  and  re-form  your  regiment  as  soon 
as  possible,  the  enemy  may  come  back  again,'  He  answered,  •  General,  is  he  gone  ?' 
'Yes,'  I  said,  'but  he  may  come  again,  and  we  must  be  in  condition  to  receive  him.' 
He  replied,  'you  will  observe,  General,  I  am  very  badly  wounded,  and  can't  do  any- 
thing more.'     I  looked  at  him   and  saw  the  blood  streaming  from   his  left  shoulder, 


49 

which  indicated  a  very  serious  wound,  and  I  was  not  advised  that  he  was  shot  in 
another  place,  the  leg,  I  believe.  These  wounds  were  in  addition  to  the  one  inflicted 
by  the  ball  which  struck  him  in  the  arm,  which  was,  I  believe,  but  a  bruise.  It  was 
very  evident  he  was  very  seriously  wounded,  and  I  saw  he  was  unable  to  move, 
though  he  was  standing  up.  He  was  subsequently  carried  from  the  field  in  a  helpless 
condition,  and  was  confined  with  his  wound  for  a  considerable  time. 

11 1  have  always  said,  in  speaking  of  him,  he  was  as  brave  a  man  as  I  ever  saw,  and 
seemed  always  insensible  to  fear. 

"You  will  find  my  report  about  the  battle  of  Sharpsburg  in  the  second  volume  of 
the  Operations  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  1862,  printed  by  the  Confederate 
Government  in  1864,  pages  189- 195.  I  think  the  book  can  be  had  from  the  Archives 
of  the  Southern  Historical  Society. 

"  If  you  communicate  this  to  Miss  Mary  Smith,  I  wish  you  to  assure  her  of  my  sin- 
cere sympathy  with  her  in  the  loss  she  sustained  in  the  death  of  her  father,  and  of  my 

high  respect  for  his  memory.  tat?  >> 

"  Very  truly  yours,  J-  A,  Early. 

"Maj.  Robert  Stiles,  March  5,  1888." 

Of  this  brigade,  he  took  charge  in  April,  1863.  While 
here  his  wounds  were  still  discharging.  Here  his  faithful  col- 
ored servant,  George  Hunter,  so  often  and  feelingly  spoken 
of  by  him,  extracted  the  ball  and  the  last  piece  of  the  shattered 
bone  from  his  shoulder,  which,  from  that  moment  healed  with 
magical  quickness. 

The  casualties  in  the  49th  Virginia  Infantry  at  the  battle 
of  Sharpsburg  were  :  Killed,  8  ;  wounded,  8  officers,  64 
men  ;   missing,  8.     Total,  85. 

Major-General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  commanding  Cavalry  of 
Operations,  September  2,  20,  in  his  report  of  February  13th, 
1864,  to  Col.  R.  H.  Chilton,  Chief  of  Staff,  Army  Northern 
Virginia,  says  : 

"  Brigadier-General  Early  behaved  with  great  coolness  and  good  government,  par- 
ticularly after  he  came  into  command  of  his  division  ;  and  Colonel  (since  General) 
William  Smith,  49th  Virginia  Infantry,  was  conspicuously  brave  and  self-possessed." 

The  report  of  Brigadier-General  Early,  C.  S.  A.,  command- 
ing Ewell's  division,  September  3,  27,  of  January  12,  1863, 
says  : 

"Col.  William  Smith,  49th  Virginia,  and  Lieut. -Colonel  Gibson,  were  seriously 
wounded,  the  former  receiving  three  severe  wounds,  but  remaining  on  the  field  in 
command  of  his  regiment  after  the  close  of  the  fight." 

On  this  occasion  Gen.  Early  directed  Col.  Smith  to  take 
command  of  his  (Gen.  Early's  brigade),  and  resist  the  enemy 
at  all  hazards. 

Notk.— See  Official  Records  of  the  Union  and  Confederate  Armies,  Series  I,  Vol.  XIX.,  Part  1,  Reports. 


50 

About  this  time,  yielding  to  the  solicitations  of  friends  and 
the  exigencies  of  public  affairs  in  the  State  Government, 
which  called  for  a  vigorous  and  intrepid  executive,  General 
Smith  announced  himself  a  candidate  for  Governor  of  the 
State.  Thomas  S.  Flourney  and  Col.  George  Wythe  Mun- 
ford,  gentlemen  of  high  character,  and  great  popularity,  one 
of  whom  had  been  connected  with  the  administration  of  the 
State  Government  as  Secretary  of  State  and  Clerk  of  the 
House  for  forty  years,  and  the  other  as  a  member  of  the 
House  and  former  candidate  for  Governor,  also  declared 
themselves  candidates.  Gen.  Smith  never  entered  the  can- 
vass or  left  his  command  for  a  single  day.  His  brigade  was 
then  lying  at  Hamilton's  Crossings,  near  Fredericksburg,  Va. 
He  was  elected  over  both  competitors  by  a  very  large  ma- 
jority. 

Great  solicitude  was  then  manifested  that  Gen.  Smith 
should  retire  from  the  army,  and  thus  escape  the  casualties 
of  the  field.  Although  it  was  morally  certain  that  he  was 
elected  Governor  to  take  effect  on  the  first  day  of  January, 
1864,  no  official  returns  having  been  made,  Gen.  Smith  de- 
termined to  participate  in  the  Pennsylvania  campaign.  This 
was  against  the  earnest  protest  of  both  people  and  army. 
The  old  hero  said  that  although  he  had  suffered  many  "  hair- 
breadth escapes  "  he  could  not  "  resist  the  romance  of  the 
campaign  before  him  ;"  and  he  retained  charge  of  his  brigade 
in  the  Gettysburg  fight.  Returning  from  this  expedition,  so 
perilous  and  disastrous  to  us,  while  stationed  a  short  time  at 
Hagerstown,  Maryland,  he  received  conclusive  evidence  of 
his  election. 

The  following  brilliant  and  classical  sketch,  is  from  the 
pen  of  that  gifted  writer,  the  Hon.  Robert  \V.  Hunter,  of 
Virginia.  He  was  an  eye  witness  of  the  incidents  therein 
related,  and  cognizant  of  all  the  surroundings. 

Major  Hunter  was  appointed  on  the  staff  of  Gen.  Edward 
Johnson,  in  the  midst  of  the  battle,  after  the  death  of  Maj. 
Leigh,  and  wounding  of  Maj.  Douglass. 


TOMBS    OF    COV.    SMITH     AND    WIFE    AND    SONS 
At     Hollywood,     Richmond,     Va. 


51 
GEN.   (GOVERNOR)  WILLIAM    SMITH  AT  GETTYSBURG. 


BY    MAJOR    R.  W.   HUNTER. 


The  biographer  of  Governor  William  Smith  will  be  at  no  loss  for  rich  materials, 
if  only  a  part  of  what  is  worthy  to  be  recorded  of  him,  can  be  gathered  from  the 
different  fields  on  which  he  was  a  conspicuous  actor. 

Rich  as  our  old  Dominion  is  in  historic  treasures  and  noble  names,  there  are  but- 
few  in  the  long  catalogue,  whose  careers  are  as  replete  as  his,  with  varied  and  pictur- 
esque interest. 

Achieving  prominence  at  a  very  early  peroid  of  life,  he  maintained  his  place 
among  the  foremost  public  men  of  the  State,  long  after  the  great  majority  of  his 
youthful  contemporaries,  had  been  cut  down  by  death,  or  retired  to  the  repose  of 
private  life. 

His  ardent  temperament  and  indomitable  pluck,  saved  him  from  the  enervation 
of  idleness,  while  his  temperate  habits  and  chaste  associations  made  him  proof  against 
the  ravage  of  dissipation. 

It  was  this  wonderful  reserve  of  vital  power  that  enabled  the  old  Governor  to 
"renew  his  youth  like  the  Eagles  "  and  spring  to  the  front,  as  it  were  with  a  bound, 
when  the  war-cloud  burst  over  the  land,  and  the  call  to  arms  came  to  all  the  old  and 
the  young,  who  could  bear  the  fatigue,  the  hardship  and  deprivations  of  active  service 
in  the  field.  There  is  not  less  of  value  than  interest  to  the  youth  of  the  land  in  the 
story  of  such  a  life,  and  I  am  glad  it  is  to  be  told  by  one  who  knew  and  loved  him. 

I  can  only  contribute  to  it  a  single  incident  in  his  career  as  a  Soldier,  at  the  battle 
of  Gettysburg,  which  made  an  impression  on  my  mind  that  remains  as  vivid  as  if  it 
had  occurred  but  yesterday. 

I  thought  then  in  the  midst  of  the  War,  when  deeds  of  valor  and  heroic  deaths 
were  of  daily  occurrence  ;  and  I  think  noiu  after  the  lapse  of  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
when  the  great  conflict  has  gone  into  history  with  its  unsurpassed  record  of  martial 
achievement  that  there  was  no  more  lustrous  example  of  personal  prowess  and  patri- 
otic devotion,  on  any  of  our  battle  fields,  than  Governor  Smith  exhibited  on  that 
memorable  occasion. 

It  was  on  the  morning  of  the  third  day's  battle. 

The  significance  of  the  incident,  however,  cannot  be  appreciated,  without  a 
reference  to  the  antecedent  conditions  of  the  struggle,  which  are  here  given  in  brief 
by  way  of  introduction. 

On  the  evening  of  the  second  day,  after  a  tremendous  contest  between  Andrews' 
artillery  and  that  of  the  enemy  on  the  height  opposite,  Gen.  Edward  Johnson,  whose 
division  was  on  the  extreme  left  of  our  wing  advanced  to  the  assault  of  the  East  face 
of  Culp's  Hill  a  natural  fortification,  held  by  a  strong  force,  and  rendered  more 
formidable  by  deep  intrenchments  and  thick  abattis.  Only  three  brigades,  Steuart's 
Nichols'  and  J.  M.  Jones'  participated  in  this  assault.  As  the  Stonewall  brigade  was 
about  to  advance  the  enemy  made  a  demonstration  on  our  left  flank  which  Gen. 
Walker  was  ordered  to  repulse.  The  opposing  force  was  larger,  and  the  time  con- 
sumed in  driving  it  off,  longer,  than  was  anticipated  so  that  Walker  could  not  join  the 
other  brigade  till  early  the  next  morning.  This  night  assault  was  very  spirited  and 
vigorous.     Speaking  of  it  in  his  official  report  Gen.  Lee  says  : 

"The  troops  moved  steadily  up  the  steep  and  rugged  ascent  under  a  heavy  fire, 
driving  the  enemy  into  his  intrenchments,  a  part  of  which  were  carried  by  Steuart's 
brigade  and  a  number  of  prisoners  taken." 

The  position  gained  was  of  great  strategic  importance.  Its  capture  made  a  breach 
in  the  enemy's  lines  near  the  Baltimore  pike,  within  musket  range  of  his  reserve 
artillery  and  ammunition  and  the  headquarters  of  Gen.  Slocum,  the  commander  of 
the  right  wing  of  their  army. 


52 

The  Federal  historian,  Bates,  says  the  lodgment  effected  was  "  in  dangerous  prox- 
imity to  the  very  vitals  of  the  army;"  and  Swinton  declares  "it  was  a  position,  which, 
if  held  by  him,  would  enable  him  to  take  Meade's  entire  line  in  reserve." 

It  is  probable,  as  Gen.  Howard  says,  that  owing  to  the  rough  ground  and  thick 
wouds,  our  Generals  did  not  realize  till  morning  what  they  had  gained  ;  but  it  is 
improbable,  even  if  the  situation  had  been  fully  realized,  that  anything  more  could 
have  been  accomplished  under  the  circumstances,  as  Gen.  Edward  Johnson,  one  of 
our  sturdiest  fighters, testifies  in  his  official  report  that  this  night  attack  "was  as  suc- 
cessful as  could  have  been  expected  considering  the  superiority  of  the  enemy's  force 
and  position." 

With  the  first  streaks  of  the  dawn,  however,  there  was  an  unmistakable  rev- 
elation of  what  had  been  lost  on  the  one  side  and  gained  on  the  other,  from  the 
mouths  of  a  powerful  artillery,  which  had  been  concentrated  in  our  front  during  the 
night,  with  the  double  purpose  of  resisting  the  farther  advance  of  our  troops,  or 
co-operating  with  their  infantry  in  an  effort  to  recover  their  lost  works. 

A  little  after  sunrise  the  enemy  charged  in  heavy  force  and  with  great  determin- 
ation, but  were  repulsed  with  great  slaughter.  Then,  in  accordance  with  General 
Lee's  plan  of  battle,  General  Johnson,  reinforced  by  two  brigades  from  Rodes' 
division,  again  assumed  the  offensive  and  assailed  the  enemy's  right  with  terrific 
fury.  It  was  expected  that  Longstreet,  whose  corps  was  the  right  wing  of  our  army, 
and  whose  position  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  ridge,  nearly  opposite  ours,  would 
attack  at  the  same  time  ;  but,  unfortunately,  for  reasons  which  have  never  been 
satisfactorily  explained  and  need  not  here  be  discussed,  there  was  a  failure  of  that 
concert  of  action  upon  which  General  Lee  depended  for  success. 

Johnson's  assaults  were  met  by  overwhelming  odds  and  the  splendid  valor  of  his 
troops  was  of  no  avail.  Eighteen  hundred  of  his  own  division  lay  dead  or  disabled 
upon  the  field.  Capt.  Randolph  McKim,  of  Steuart's  staff,  who  was  with  the  Mary- 
land men  in  the  fore-front  of  the  fighting,  describing  the  terrible  carnage,  says:  "It 
was  as  if  the  sickle  of  Death  had  passed  along  the  line  and  mown  down  the  noblest 
and  the  bravest." 

While    this    desperate   struggle  was  at  its   height,  a   large  force  of    the   enemy 
advanced  upon  our  left  and  rear,  of  whose  approach,  there  being  no  cavalry  at  hand 
to   give   warning,  we  were    not   aware    until   it  was   in  very   dangerous   proximity. 
Unless  it  could  be  checked  disaster  was  inevitable.     Not  a  man  could  be  spared  from 
the  front  ;  and  any  attempt  to  withdraw  men  from  there  would  precipitate  the  enemy 
upon    us    in    such    force   as   our   already  weakened   lines   could   not  possibly  resist. 
Never  was   situation  on    battle-field   more  critical.     As  a  forlorn  hope,   the  Second 
Virginia  Regiment,  which  was  on  the  extreme  left,  was  deployed  with  orders  to  arrest 
the  enemy's  advance  at  all  hazards,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  staff  officer  was  des- 
patched to  notify  General  Smith  (whose  brigade  was  at  a  considerable  distance  to  the 
right  in  reserve)  that  our  left  wing  could  only  be  saved  by  an  immediate  reinforce- 
ment.    The  men  of  the  Second  Virginia,  posted  at  wide  intervals  behind  rocks  and 
trees,  contested  stubbornly  every  inch  of  ground,  firing  with  a  rapidity  and  precision 
that  materially  delayed  and  disconcerted  the  enemy  ;   hut  there  was  no  expectation 
that  this  thin  skirmish  line  could  hold  back  for  many  minutes  the  serried  ranks  of  a 
force  fifty  times  greater  than  its  own  ;  nor  was  it  thought  possible  that  any  reinforce- 
ment could  reach  the  ground  in  time  to  prevent  a  catastrophe.     Meantime,  the  fiery 
cordon  was  contracting  its  fatal  embrace,  and  the  issue  hung,  as  it  were  upon  a  thread. 
"The  bravest  held  their  breath  for  a  while."     At  this  supreme  moment  was  heard 
the  voices  of    Smith  and  his    men  dashing    forward  to  the  rescue.     The  rumble  of 
Longstreet's  approach  and  thunder  of  Stephen  D.  Lee's  guns  were  not  more  welcome 
sounds  to  Jackson's  hard  pressed  veterans  in  the  Railroad  cut  at  Second  Manasses. 
The  Scotch  bagpipes,  heralding    relief,  were  not  sweeter  music  to  the  ears  of   the 
starving  garrison  of  beleagured  Lucknow. 

They  stood  not  upon  the  order  of  their  coming,  but  came  with  a  rush,  the  old 


53 

Governor  in  the  lead,  his  voice  rising  above  the  din  of  battle,  more  potent  than  a 
blast  from  the  bugle  horn  of  Trelawney.  Taking  the  highest  position  he  could  find, 
reckless  of  shot  and  shell,  with  bare  head  and  sword  in  hand,  pointing  to  the  enemy, 
he  harangued  each  regiment,  as  it  double-quicked  past  into  the  arena  of  blood  and 

fire. 

I  connot  recall  his  exact  words.  All  that  I  know  is  that  they  were  not  in  the  con- 
ventional forms  prescribed  by  Hardee,  Upton  or  Gilham.  Like  Wellington,  when 
the  moment  came  for  the  death-grapple  at  Waterloo,  the  old  Governor  either  could 
not  recall  the  "orders"  as  laid  down  in  the  books  on  Tactics,  or  deemed  them  too 
insipid  for  such  an  emergency.  Such,  however,  was  the  emphatic  muscularity  of  his 
military  dialect  that  there  was  never  a  moment's  doubt  or  hesitation  as  to  what  he 
meant.  His  "boys,"  as  he  affectionately  called  them,  knew  and  understood  him, 
and  off  they  dashed  with  a  spirit  and  a  vim  that  soon  drove  back  the  enemy. 

It  was  dune  so  handsomely  ;  the  old  Governor's  bearing  was  so  superbly  gallant ; 
his  voice  so  ringing  and  inspiring  ;  the  reinforcement  he  brought  so  opportune,  so 
welcome  and  so  effective,  that  the  troops  in  that  quarter,  rejoicing  in  their  deliver- 
ance, in  heartfelt  tribute  to  that  "good  grey  head  that  all  men  knew,"  and  with  a 
spontaneous  impulse  such  as  only  soldiers  in  such  a  plight  can  feel,  with  one  accord 
raised  the  shout  :  "Hurrah  for  Governor  Smith,"  which  went  along  the  lines  like  an 
electric  current,  mingling  with  the  sullen  roar  of  the  enemy's  cannon. 

The  Federal  Generals,  in  their  official  reports  of  this  engagement,  speak  of 
Johnson's  "heavy  reinforcement,"  but  the  fact  is,  that,  besides  the  two  brigades  of 
Rodes'  division,  already  spoken  of,  which  had  been  with  him  on  the  right  of  his  line 
all  the  morning,  not  a  man  came  to  his  assistance,  except  Smith's  small  brigade  of 
Early's  division.  The  impressiveness  of  the  incident  we  have  attempted  to  describe 
was  intensified  by  the  Governor's  age,  then  upwards  of  three  score  and  seven  years  ; 
by  the  fact  that  he  was  then  Governor-elect  of  Virginia  for  the  second  time  ;  and 
furthermore,  because  he  was  still  suffering  from  a  severe  wound  in  the  shoulder, 
and,  had  doubtless,  disregarded  the  injunction  of  his  Surgeon  in  exposing  himself  to 
the  hardship  and  excitement  of  such  an  active  campaign.  If  ever  a  soldier  had 
honorable  and  unquestionable  title  to  retirement  upon  his  laurels,  surely  it  was 
Governor  Smith.  His  election  as  Governor  was  a  summons  from  the  field  to  the 
Capital,  with  the  plaudit  of  "well  done "  by  his  people,  and  would  have  amply 
sufficed  for  any  man  cast  in  a  less  heroic  mould.  But  such  was  the  ardor  of  his  zeal  ; 
such  the  abounding  and  unstinted  wealth  of  his  love  for  his  State  and  people  that  he 
could  not  lag  idly  in  the  rear  while  there  was  strength  left  in  his  arm  to  wield  a  sword 
among  his  brave  boys  in  the  front. 

The  General  Assembly  of  Virginia,  recognizing  the  eminent  appropriateness  of 
the  loving  tribute  to  one  who  had  served  her  so  long  and  well,  authorized  the  plac- 
ing of  Virginia's  coat  of  arms  on  the  beautiful  bronze  shield  that  marks  his  grave  in 
Hollywood's  sacred  shades.  The  cottage  in  the  grounds  of  the  Confederate  Soldier's 
Home  at  Richmond,  will  keep  alive  memories  in  the  hearts  of  our  scarred  veterans, 
which  will  be  as  sweet  incense  to  the  departed  spirit  of  their  illustrious  comrade,  in 
whose  honor  it  was  erected.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  something  more  remains  to  be 
done.  There  ought  to  be  in  our  State  Library  (alongside  of  the  ante-bellum  portrait  of 
Governor  Smith  already  there)  a  battle-picture  by  some  artist  with  the  genius  of  a 
De  Neuville  or  Meissonnier,  which  would  represent,  in  a  way  that  words  can  at  best 
but  feebly  do,  how  a  Governor-elect  of  Virginia,  despite  the  weight  of  years  and  the 
drain  of  wounds,  dashed  at  the  head  of  his  men  into  a  storm  of  battle,  unsurpassed  in 
its  fury,  at  Gettysburg,  and  averted  what  otherwise  would  have  been  an  irretrievable 
disaster. 

The  following  is  from  Major  Robert  Stiles,  then  of  the  Con- 
federate  Army,   now  a  prominent  lawyer  of  Richmond,  V  a, 


54 

It  vividly  portrays  some  of  the  salient  points  in  Gen.  Smith's 
army  life. 

BY  MAJOR  ROBERT  STILES,  OF  RICHMOND,  VA. 

"No  one  who  ever  knewGov.  Smith,  could  fail  to  be  impressed  with  his  absolute 
fearlessness.  It  was  perhaps,  the  most  prominent  characteristic  of  the  man,  and 
distinguished  him  even  among  Confederate  officers.  That  doughty  old  soldier,  Gen. 
Earlv,  who,  as  we  all  know,  had  almost  a  monomania  on  the  subject  of  personal 
intrepidity,  and  was  himself  characterized  by  it  to  such  a  degree,  that  the  mere 
prudence  of  most  men,  savored  to  him  of  timidity,  in  a  private  letter  to  the 
writer,  after  speaking  of  the  heroism  with  which  Gen.  Smith  (then  sixty-six  years 
of  age)  received  and  bore  three  wounds  at  Sharpsburg,  adds:  'I  have  always  said 
in  speaking  of  him,  that  he  was  as  brave  a  man  as  ever  I  saw,  and  seemed  always 
to  be  insensible  to  fear.' 

"Gen.  Smith's  courage  was  not  only  marked  in  degree,  it  was  also  very  peculiar 
in  quality.  It  was  so  natural,  so  ingrained,  so  thoroughly  characteristic  of  him,  that 
it  was  never  strained,  and  seldom  passionate,  but  almost  uniformly  simple,  easy  and 
unaffected,  so  that  ofentimes  the  very  highest  exhibitions  of  it  did  not  even  break  his 
customary  manner  of  hearty  and  cheerful  courtesy.  I  recall  a  very  extreme  instance 
of  this,  when  Early  captured  Milroy's  forces  at  Winchester  in  1863,  an  instance  which, 
in  almost  any  other  man  I  ever  knew,  would  have  suggested,  from  its  very  simplic- 
itv  and  naturalness,  the  idea  of  affectation. 

"Gen.  Smith  was  standing  on  the  right  of  a  long  line  of  infantry,  lying  fiat  on 
their  faces  under  a  terrible  fire,  and  erect,  with  his  folded  arms,  securing  his  horse's 
bridle  rein,  and,  save  the  artillery  men  following  their  guns,  just  then  changing 
position  at  a  gallop,  he  was  the  only  human  being  I  saw  erect  upon  that  field. 

"As  the  cannoniers  dashed  by  with  faces  blanched,  lips  pressed  against  the  teeth, 
and  eye-balls  straining  out  of  their  sockets,  I  saw  Gen.  Smith  bow  politely,  and 
heard  him  greet  each  one  as  he  passed,  in  a  rich,  smooth,  full,  clear  voice  ;  'How  do 
you  do,  Sir!  how  are  you  to-day,  Sir!  '  and  I  noted,  too,  the  effect  upon  the  men  ; 
for  each  lifted  and  threw  back  his  head  proudly  as  if  he  felt — 'Gen.  Smith  must  have 
noticed  me,  specially  ;  I  certainly  meant  to  do  my  full  duty  in  this  fight,  at  least.' 

"  Although  sixty-seven  years  old  during  this,  the  Pennsylvania  campaign  of  1863, 
it  was  yet  a  matter  of  constant  interest  to  observe  him  on  the  march,  as  well  as  in 
battle  ;  he  was  so  brimming  over  with  life  and  spirit,  and  being  in  a  somewhat  inde- 
pendent position,  I  always  tried  to  be  somewhere  in  his  neighborhood. 

"I  remember  one  day  while  we  were  marching  north,  and  not  very  far  from  the 
Potomac,  I  heard  a  great  cackling  and  shouts  of  laughter  at  the  head  of  the  column, 
and  riding  forward  to  see  what  it  ment,  found  Gen.  Smith  dismounted  in  the  road, 
surrounded  by  a  bevy  of  pretty  girls,  every  one  of  whom  he  was  kissing,  despite 
very  vigorous  sham  resistance,  and,  as  he  performed  the  ceremony  in  each  case, 
he  would  comfort  his  blushing,  laughing  victims,  by  the  reflection,  'Never  mind  my 
dear,  its  all  right  ;  you  just  tell  your  father  it  was  Extra  Billy  did  it.  and  he'll  say  it's 
all  right.' 

"On  another  occasion,  after  we  had  crossed  into  Pennsylvania,  Gen.  Smith's 
brigade  being  in  the  advance,  as  we  approached  a  considerable  town,  with  a  smile  of 
genuine  fun  and  good  humor,  he  directed  his  son  'Fred'  to  put  the  band  in  front, 
and  order  them  to  play  'Yankee  Doodle' 

"He  himself  road  at  their  head,  and  as  the  town's-people  thronged  the  side-walks, 
he  bowed  first  to  one  side,  and  then  the  other,  saying,  '  How  do  you  like  this  mode  of 
coming  back  into  the  Union  ;  you  see  we've  come  in  force,  and,  I  hope,  come  to 
stay.  I  trust  you  enjoy  it  as  much  as  we  do.'  And  gradually  riding  more  slowly, 
and  the  band  ceasing  to  play,  his  brigade  at  last  halted,  and  resolved  itself  into  a 
sort  of  political  meeting.     The  General  was  in  his  element,  and  made  from  the  saddle, 


55 

one  of  the  raciest  stump  speeches  I  ever  heard.  His  grizzled  veterans  fraternizing 
good  naturedly  with  the  sleek  Pennsylvania  Dutch  burghers,  and  both  shouting 
wildly  at  his  many  happy  hits,  until  'Old  Jube,'  with  difficulty  forcing  a  way  for 
himself  and  his  horse  through  the  motley  crowd,  broke  up  the  love-feast,  and  the 
column  formed  again,  and  marched  laughing  through  the  town,  and  out  beyond  to 
camp. 

He  then  applied  for  and  obtained  a  leave  of  absence  for 
ninety  days.  He  repaired  at  once  to  Richmond,  when  and 
where  he  found  a  higher  compliment  than  he  had  ever  yet 
received — he  had  been  promoted  to  the  grade  of  Major- 
General  in  August,  1863.  It  was  then  determined  he  should 
accept  the  office  of  Governor,  and  in  the  meantime,  until  his 
term  should  begin,  he  should  canvass  the  State  in  aid  of  the 
recruiting  service.  These  were  pronounced  and  emphatic 
acknowledgments  to  him  for  his  °reat  services  and  talents  as 
civilian  and  soldier. 

On  the  first  day  of  January,  1864,  Gov.  Smith  qualified  as 
Governor  of  Virginia  ;  delivered  his  Inaugural  in  the  Hall  of 
the  House  of  Delegates,  and  immediately  entered  upon  the 
regular  duties  of  his  office. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Governor  Smith's  Administration  of  the  State  Government — His  Bold  and  Energetic 
Executive  Measures — Creation  of  the  Home  Guard — History  of  this  Extraordinary 
Measure — Suspected  Mutiny  among  the  Troops — His  Visit  and  Address  to  them — 
His  Firm  and  Decisive  Action  on  this  Occasion — Effect  upon  them — Asks  for  an 
Appropriation  to  Purchase  Supplies  for  Army  and  People  of  the  City  and  Country 
— Bill  Fails — Organized  a  Plan  Despite  its  Failure,  to  Furnish  them — Raised 
Large  Sums  of  Money  to  Purchase  Supplies — Organized  and  Procured  a  Railroad 
Train  to  Transport  them  to  Richmond — Signal  Success  of  the  Plan — Reduced 
Prices  for  Necessaries  of  Life — Loaned  Liberally  to  the  Confederate  Government 
in  1864 — Great  Relief  to  the  People  of  the  City  and  Country. 

I  cannot  attempt  a  minute  detail  of  his  executive  action 
during  his  brief  administration  of  the  State  Government  in 
those  stirring  and  tumultuous  times.  The  utmost  I  can  hope 
to  do  toward  that  end  is  to  gather  from  the  meaner  civil  and 
political  history  that  has  been  preserved  to  us  of  that  day,  and 
rescue  from  oblivion  a  few  of  the  leading  and  conspicuous 
measures  of  his  administration.  In  that  highly  excited  and 
reactionary  period  of  the  war,  when  great  numbers  thought 
they  were  entitled  to  exemption  from  duty,  and  the  hardships 


56 

of  the  war,  and  to  some  peculiar  privileges,  it  was  universally 
acknowledged  that  Gov.  Smith  was  the  right  man  in  the  right 
place,  and  the  choice  of  the  people  and  the  army  was  soon 
vindicated. 

The  first  great  want  was,  men  for  local  defense.  The  au- 
thor of  these  memoirs  well  remembers  with  what  boldness 
and  energy  the  Governor  applied  himself,  night  and  day,  to 
effect  this  difficult  work.  Determining  to  utilize  every  availa- 
ble means,  he  formed  two  regiments  out  of  the  exempts,  to 
wit :  those  discharged  from  military  service  for  age  and  disa- 
bility, and  those  who  had  contracts  with  the  Government, 
unnaturalized  foreigners,  etc.  To  each  of  these  regiments  he 
attached  a  small  company,  for  the  purpose  of  scouting  when 
the  regiments  were  on  duty,  and  also  to  enable  the  rank  and 
file  to  have  communication  with  their  homes.  These  regi- 
ments were  well  organized,  armed  and  equipped,  and  well 
drilled  by  their  commanding  officers  ;  but  all  orders  for  serv- 
ice emanated  from  the  Governor.  These  forces  were  well 
understood  to  be  strictly  for  home  defense. 

Surrounded  by  emergencies  which,  at  this  distant  day  can 
be  well  understood  and  appreciated,  the  Governor  saw  the 
necessity  of  exercising  exclusive  authority.  He  did  so  in  a 
parental  way,  which,  however,  would  tolerate  no  disobedience 
or  insubordination.  When  called  out  to  fill  a  gap  in  the  line 
of  circumvallation  around  the  city,  which  once  did  occur,  for 
three  weeks  continuously,  the  required  number  was  at  hand. 
The  Governor  looked  well  after  their  comfort,  and  they  un- 
derstood he  would  be  on  hand  when  a  collision  with  the  enemy 
should  take  place.  In  a  short  narrative  respecting  this  extra- 
ordinary measure,  the  Governor  best  speaks  for  himself : 

"We  had,  in  one  of  these  regiments,  about  twenty  Italian  foreigners,  unnatural- 
ized, who,  while  acknowledging  their  international  obligations,  insisted  they  were  dis- 
charging them  when  ready  to  defend  their  own  hearth-stones  ;  and  it  was  reported  to 
me  that  they  had  avowed  that  in  the  event  of  a  collision  with  the  enemy  they  would 
not  fire  upon  them.  Considering  a  crisis  had  come  involving  the  fate  of  the  whole 
command,  I  determined  to  deal  with  it  decisively.  Mounting  my  horse,  I  rode  to  the 
front,  where  my  regiments  were  then  posted,  and  ordered  them  to  turn  out  and  form 
into  line  of  battle.  This  was  promptly  done.  I  rode  up  and  down  the  line  informing 
the  men  of  what  had  been  reported  to  me.  I  told  them  the  alleged  fact  was  of  grave 
import,  and  must  be  unmistakably  ascertained,  and  when  established,  must,  in  these 
times,  be  dealt  with  promptly  and  without  delay.     All  men  in  line  then  who  had  made 


57 

up  their  minds  not  to  fire  upon  the  enemy  in  action,  will,  when  the  word  of  command 
is  given,  march  ten  paces  to  the  front,  and  then  halt;  but  not  a  man  moved,  to  my 
great  gratification.  Pausing  a  moment,  everything  profoundly  still,  I  raised  my  hat 
in  salutation  to  the  whole  line  ;  ordered  my  Colonels  to  return  to  their  former  positions, 
and  retired. 

'•  These  regiments  were  organized  shortly  after  my  inauguration.  They  rendered 
frequent  and  valuable  service,  with  ready  and  cheerful  obedience,  and  never  gave  me 
the  slightest  trouble  afterwards.  They  disappeared  from  the  scenes  of  their  patriotic 
services  when  the  fall  of  Richmond  rendered  them  no  longer  necessary." 

The  next  great  want  that  presented  itself  to  the  Governor 
was,  perhaps,  greater  than  the  first.  It  was  of  the  most  im- 
perious and  vital  character.  It  was  food  for  man  and  beast — 
supplies  of  every  description  for  citizen  and  soldier.  Desola- 
tion marked  the  march  of  the  armies  of  the  enemy.  The 
upper  and  lower  valleys  of  Virginia,  the  great  granaries  of  the 
State  had  been  laid  waste  ;  what  they  did  not  consume,  they 
wantonly  destroyed,  and  the  women  and  children  in  their 
merciless  tread  were  left  to  suffer  and  to  starve. 

To  meet  such  exigencies,  County  Committees  had  been 
formed,  whose  duty  it  was  to  supply  the  destitute  with  bread. 
But  it  frequently  happened  that  the  corn  was  not  in  the  coun- 
try— the  authorities  were  then  obliged  to  draw  from  those 
sections  which  were  better  supplied.  Then  clothing  was  in 
great  demand  for  the  State  Guard  and  our  public  charities, 
and  for  the  people  generally  ;  and  to  supply  such  wants  it  was 
necessary  to  work  up  materials  in  our  own  Penitentiary.  The 
Governor,  equal  to  this  great  occasion,  digested  a  plan  for 
such  necessities.  He  at  once  applied  to  the  Legislature,  then 
in  session,  for  an  appropriation  to  carry  it  out.  Such  an  act 
required  the  concurrence  of  both  Houses,  by  a  two-thirds 
majority  of  each.  The  House  promptly  passed  the  bill,  but  it 
failed  in  the  Senate.  That  body  gave  it  a  numerical  but  not 
a  constitutional  majority  of  two-thirds  ;  it  being  a  bill  to  ap- 
propriate money,  failed. 

"  Deeming  the  measure  of  the  greatest  consequence  and  as  sanctioned  by  a  heavy 
majority  of  the  Legislature,  I  determined  to  carry  it  out  with  such  means  as  I  could 
command.  I  drew  from  the  civic  and  military  contingent  fund  $40,000  each,  and  from 
Wm.  H.  MacFarlane,  President  of  the  Farmers'  Bank,  Virginia,  with  the  proper  ex- 
planation, $30,000 — so  that  I  started  with  a  capital  of  $110,000.  I  employed  an  agent 
to  run  the  blockade  to  procure  such  supplies  as  could  only  be  had  abroad,  supplying 
him  with  cotton  to  make  his  purchases.  I  also  organized  a  railroad  train — obtained 
from  the  Government  a  formal  protection  against  all  interference  on  the  part  of  its 
subordinates— placed  it  in  charge  of  an  efficient  agent,  with  the   necessary  funds,  with 


58 

instructions  to  proceed  South  and  purchase  corn,  rice  and  other  needful  supplies — to 
proceed  with  despatch,  and  so  continue  delivering  his  cargoes  to  my  Quartermaster  in 
Richmond,  Ya. 

"  These  operations  were  conducted  with  the  most  signal  success.  I  supplied  all 
State  institutions  with  corn,  at  $10.00  per  bushel,  and  rice  at  50  cents  per  pound,  when 
corn  could  only  be  had  from  private  hands  at  $60.00  per  bushel  and  rice  at  $3.00  per 
pound.  I  also  supplied  all  country  applications  for  the  poor  at  same  rates,  and  all 
other  recognized  claims.  Indeed,  I  put  rice  on  the  general  market  at  Richmond  at 
50  cents,  and  practically  drove  the  retailer  out  of  the  market.  At  these  prices,  I  was 
enabled  to  preserve  my  capital  and  have  a  margin  of  10  per  cent,  also,  with  which  to 
cover  losses.  My  supplies  were  such  that  I  was  enabled  to  make  occasional  loans  to 
the  Confederate  Government.  At  the  time  Richmond  was  evacuated,  that  Govern- 
ment, at  Confederate  prices,  was  indebted  to  the  State,  on  such  accounts,  at  least 
$300,000. 

"  The  last  loan  of  2,500  bushels  of  corn,  was  under  quite  exciting  circumstances. 
Sitting  in  my  office,  engaged  in  the  dispatch  of  the  public  business,  with  quite  a  crowd 
around  me,  I  saw  my  Quartermaster  step  in  ;  in  a  few  moments,  two  Confederate 
officers  stepped  in  ;  satisfied  that  there  was  something  of  more  than  ordinary  interest  on 
hand,  I  invited  them  to  seats,  saying,  they  should  have  my  attention  as  soon  as  the 
business  on  hand  was  disposed  of.  Being  soon  at  leisure,  I  said  to  the  crowd,  that  I 
was  sorry  to  postpone  them,  but  that  the  officers  who  had  just  come  in,  were  doubt- 
less on  public  business,  and  must  have  first  attention.  Turning  to  them,  I  said  to 
them,  'Gentlemen,  what  can  I  do  for  you?'  whereupon  one  of  them  drawing  his 
chair  close  to  mine,  said  in  a  low  voice,  which  was  doubtless  heard  by  all  in  the  room, 
'  I  am  Major  Clairborne  of  the  commissary  department ;  I  find  that  you  have  a  train 
of  corn  to  arrive  this  morning.'  'Yes,'  said  Major  Fitzhugh,  '  My  Quartermaster  and  I 
have  come  to  report  its  arrival,  and  to  receive  your  order  as  to  its  disposition.' 
'  Well,'  said  the  Major  in  a  low  tone  of  voice,  '  When  I  saw  it  arrive,  I  thought  it  was 
a  Godsend,  and  I  have  come  to  see  if  I  cannot  borrow  it  of  you,  promising  to 
return  it  in  a  few  days.'  '  Ah  !  Major  '  I  replied,  '  that  corn  is  for  the  starving  women 
and  children  of  Virginia.'  'Well'  replied  the  Major,  'all  I  have  to  say  is,  that  this 
day,  Lee's  Army  around  Petersburg,  has  but  a  pound  of  meat  to  the  man,  and 
to-morrow  they  will  have  none,  without  your  corn.'  Although  usually  under  self- 
control,  I  was  so  appalled  at  this  revelation,  that  I  lost  all  command  of  myself,  sprang 
from  my  seat,  walking  the  floor  in  my  wrath  and  in  fiery  indignation,  demanded  the 
management  which  had  Wrought  a  great  cause  to  such  a  crisis,  as  a  chance  arrival 
of  a  train  of  corn  !  Recovering  myself,  I  resumed  my  seat  ;  I  directed  my  secretary 
to  make  out  at  once,  an  order  to  my  Quartermaster,  in  view  of  the  exigency  of  the 
public  service,  to  turn  over  the  train  of  corn  in  question  to  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment. During  all  this  time,  not  a  word  was  spoken  except  by  myself,  and  when 
this  transaction  was  finished,  I  bowed  the  gentlemen  out,  and  resumed  the  business 
they  interrupted. 

"  This  incident  took  place  about  two  weeks  before  the  evacuation  of  Richmond. 
Having  ample  funds  with  which  to  carry  on  my  operation,  and  to  pay  all  debts  they  had 
made  necessary,  and  desirous  of  relieving  myself  of  the  personal  responsibility  I  had 
assumed,  exclusively  for  the  public  good,  as  I  feared  that  the  end  was  near,  I  con- 
cluded at  once,  to  pay  into  the  treasury  the  $So,OCO  I  had  drawn  from  my  contingent 
fund,  and  to  pay  the  Farmers'  Hank  the  $30,000  I  had  borrowed  from  it,  which  was 
done  ;  and  thus,  my  adventure  was  out  of  debt. 

"I  had  supplied  a  large  amount  of  public  and  private  wants,  controlled  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  the  rapacity  of  private  traders  ;  kept  Lee's  Army  in  the  field  as 
before,  and  at  the  collapse,  had  cleared  for  the  state,  the  large  debt  due  by  the  Con- 
federate Government  of  $75,000  in  currancy,  burnt  in  the  great  tire,  according  to  the 
Quartermaster's  report  ;  $40,000  in  the  hands  of  an  agent,  the  proceeds  of  a  sale  of 
leather,  atGreensboro,  N.  C,  besides  considerable  supplies  of  food  in  Richmond,  forthe 


59 

various  State  agencies,  most  of  which  were  destroyed  by  the  great  fire,  but  of  which 
I  can  give  no  particular  account ;  the  whole  aggregating  at  Confederate  prices  from 
three  to  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  This  large  amount  was  made  by  an 
unauthorized  enterprise  in  about  ten  months,  through  the  advance  of  ten  per  cent., 
or  cost  prices,  which  was  not  intended  for  profit,  but  to  cover  probable  losses,  as  I 
was  bound  to  preserve  my  capital  intact  ;  but  there  were  no  losses,  and  the  whole 
enterprise  was  most  actively  and  successfully  conducted.  To  this  view,  may  be 
added  the  speculative  advantages  to  suffering  destitute  humanity,  the  values  of 
which  cannot  be  estimated." 

The  bare  recital  of  the  above  facts  imprint  Gov.  Smith  as 
a  man  of  rare  administrative  and  executive  ability — of  extra- 
ordinary resources  and  originality,  courage  and  intrepidity, 
both  as  stateman  and  soldier.  These  two  last  named  conspic- 
uous measures  of  his  administration,  standing  alone,  would 
signalize  his  conduct  as  Governor,  and  hand  down  his  name 
and  fame  with  historic  glory. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  both  measures  were  of  doubtful 
authority  ;  perhaps  both  ultra  vires ;  but  the  whole  country 
was  in  the  midst  of  a  Revolution,  a  gigantic  and  bloody  War 
was  racing  between  the  North  and  the  South.  The  South 
had  staked  her  all  upon  the  result  of  the  conflict.  The  Capi- 
tal of  Virginia  and  the  Capital  of  the  Confederacy  was  be- 
sieged. If  Richmond  fell,  all  was  lost !  Gov.  Smith  fully 
appreciated  this  momentous  crisis.  He  well  knew  that  the 
spirit  of  the  times  had  grown  to  turbulence  and  insubordina- 
tion— that  there  were  some  in  the  capital  and  some  in  the 
country  who  would  fain  see  the  best  blood  of  our  people 
poured  out  freely  in  the  trenches  and  on  the  field,  whilst  they 
were  playing  the  parlor  knights  and  coining  money  out  of  the 
blood  of  the  soldier.  He  determined  to  submit  to  this  condi- 
tion of  things  no  longer,  but  following  the  splendid  example 
of  Gen.  Jackson,  at  Orleans,  when  Packenham  was  besieging 
the  city,  he  would  put  a  musket  in  every  man's  hands  who 
could  bear  arms,  and  order  him  to  defend  his  own  property. 


60 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

The  Eventful  Sabbath  Day  in  Richmond— President  Davis  in  Church — Dispatch  from 
General  Lee— The  President  Sends  for  Governor  Smith — The  President  and  Gov- 
ernor Leave  the  City — Mrs.  Smith's  Demeanor — The  President  Opens  the  Confed- 
erate Government  at  Danville,  Va. — The  Governor  Opens  the  State  Government 
there,  also — The  President  Proceeds  to  Greensboro,  N.  C. — Trying  Scenes  at 
Danville — Governor's  Speech  to  the  Troops — Its  Effect  on  Them — Outbreak  Sup- 
pressed— Guerilla  Policy  Adandoned — Peace  Resolutions  at  Staunton — He  Deter- 
mines to  Surrender  Himself — $25,000  Offered  for  his  Arrest — The  Governor 
Leaves  the  Valley — Entreated  not  to  Return  to  Richmond — His  Sojourn  at  Charles 
W.  Dabney's,  Esq. — Safe  Conduct  to  Richmond  from  General  Patrick — Manner 
of  his  Reception — His  Recall  by  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

Passing  over  other  interesting  cotemporaneous  measures  of 
his  administration,  we  are  brought  at  once  to  the  catastrophe 
in  the  great  drama  of  the  war. 

On  the  eventful  Sabbath  Day  of  April  2d,  1 865,  when  the 
people  of  the  capital  felt  comparative  repose,  and  man}'  attend- 
ing Divine  service  in  their  respective  churches,  Governor 
Smith  was  sitting  in  his  pew  in  St.  Paul's  Church,  (Rev.  Dr. 
Minnegerode),  when  a  dispatch  was  handed  to  President 
Davis  by  a  special  messenger.  Glancing  at  the  paper  for  a 
moment,  the  President  left  the  church  immediately.  All  eyes 
were  at  once  turned  to  him  ;  but  the  emotions  of  the  congrega- 
tion were  subdued  and  the  services  proceeded  without  further 
interruption.  At  their  conclusion,  the  Governor  proceeded  at 
once  to  the  Executive  Mansion.  When  arrived,  he  received 
a  message  from  the  President  requesting  his  personal  at- 
tendance at  the  President's  house,  without  delay.  On  his 
arrival,  the  President  handed  him  the  dispatch  he  had  re- 
ceived in  church.  It  was  from  Gen.  Lee,  expressing  the  fear 
that  he  would  not  be  able  to  hold  his  lines  of  defense  around 
the  city,  and  that  he  (the  President)  should  be  ready  to  move 
at  a  moment's  notice. 

After  a  brief  conversation,  the  Governor  informed  the 
President  that  he  would  be  governed  by  his  movements,  and 
that  when  he  evacuated  the  city  he,  with  the  State  Govern- 
ment, would,  as  far  as  practicable,  do  likewise.  About  this 
time,  the  President  had  ordered  a  train  to  be  in  readiness  to 
move,  and  invited  the  Governor  to  take  a  seat  in  his  car.     To 


61 

this  invitation  the  Governor  returned  thanks,  but  said  that  he 
was  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  must  share  her  fate,  and 
that  all  his  arrangements  would  have  an  eye  to  the  protrac- 
tion of  the  war,  if  practicable. 

The  Governor  then  determined  to  transfer  the  State  Gov- 
ernment to  Lynchburg,  and  ordered  all  arrangements  neces- 
sary to  that  end.  The  officials  and  public  records,  and  the 
officers  and  students  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  were 
to  proceed  up  the  canal  (James  River  and  Kanawha),  and  he 
and  Aid,  Lieut. -Colonel  Smith,  and  servant,  were  prepared  to 
go  through  the  country,  on  horseback.  The  Second  Auditor, 
H,  W.  (since  Judge)  Thomas,  of  Fairfax,  was  put  in  charge  of 
the  Capitol  and  contents,  and  other  public  buildings,  and  re- 
quested to  make  the  best  arrangements  with  the  enemy  to 
save  them  from  injury  and  destruction. 

By  this  time  night  had  fallen  in,  and  no  orders  from  Gen. 
Lee.  Repairing  to  the  War  Department,  and  finding  the 
way  open,  he  at  once  communicated  with  the  General,  and 
asked  if  the  "  City  is  to  be  evacuated  to-night  ?  "  The  reply 
was,  "  By  all  means  !"  The  President  left  by  10  o'clock  p.  m. 
on  his  train.  The  Governor  having  seen  his  boats  off,  left  at 
the  foot  of  the  canal  at  i  o'clock  that  night,  taking,  with  his 
Lieut. -Colonel  and  servant,  the  tow-path,  for  Lynchburg,  Va. 

This  condition  of  things  may  be  imagined,  but  hard  to  be 
appreciated  by  one  on  whom  rested  no  responsibility,  domes- 
tic or  public.  The  unhappy  end  of  the  Confederacy  was  at 
hand.  As  has  been  beautifully  said  by  the  author  of  Long's 
Lee,  I  beg  leave  to  reproduce  it  here  : 

"After  four  years  of  courageous  sacrifice  and  patriotic  devotion,  the  city  of  Rich- 
mond was  compelled  to  yield  to  the  decree  of  fate,  and  bow  her  proud  crest  to  the 
victor.  But  she  felt  no  shame  or  disgrace,  for  her  defense  had  been  bold  and  chival- 
rous, and  in  the  hour  of  her  adversity  her  majestic  fortitude  drew  from  her  conquerors 
respect  and  admiration." 

On  this  eventful  Sabbath  there  was,  of  course,  unusual  ac- 
tivity and  confusion.  The  Governor's  family — his  wife  and 
daughter  and  two  lady  friends — were  at  the  Executive  Mansion. 
Mrs.  Smith,  who  was  a  woman  of  marvellous  decision  of 
character,  firmness  of  purpose   and   will,    and   on    whom    her 


62 

husband  had  often  relied  in  many  a  dark  hour  before,  in  a 
tranquil  and  composed  manner  approached  him  and  said  : 
"  Smith,  I  may  feel  like  a  woman,  but  I  can  act  like  a  man. 
What  is  the  matter  ? "  There  were  no  secrets  then.  The 
dreadful  disclosure  must  be  made,  and  instantly,  as  ever  be- 
fore, she  was  his  counselor  and  help.  She  said  to  him  : 
"  Attend  to  your  public  matters,  and  I'll  make  my  own  ar- 
rangements to  evacuate  the  Governor's  house,  to-morrow 
morning." 

During-  the  whole  of  these  trying  scenes,  not  a  tear  or 
tremor  was  seen,  usually  affecting  her  sex  in  such  an  ordeal  ; 
but  she  displayed  a  calm  and  heroic  firmness,  worthy  of  all 
admiration.  After  a  thrilling  episode  in  his  journey  to  Lynch- 
burg he  reached  the  city. 

On  his  arrival  he  learned  the  President  had  halted  at 
Danville,  and  opened  the  Confederate  Government  there. 
He  proceeded  to  that  town  at  once.  Then  and  there  he 
learned  of  the  surrender  of  General  Lee,  and  found  the  Presi- 
dent preparing  to  leave  for  Greensboro,  N.  C. 

Still  confronted  with  reverses  and  revulsions,  enough  to 
depress  and  discourage  the  stoutest  heart,  yet,  true  to  his 
manhood,  to  his  own  native  resources  and  intrepidity,  he  de- 
termined to  remain  in  Danville  as  long  as  he  could,  to  exert 
all  the  power  and  influence  he  might  possess  to  preserve  the 
good  order  and  well-being  of  society  ;  and  he  met  these 
emergencies, 


On  this  occasion  the  Governor  shall  speak  for  himself: 

"  I  opened  my  office  as  Governor  of  the  state,  and  am  gratified  to  believe  that  I 
materially  contributed  to  the  peace  and  good  order  of  the  community.  On  going 
about  the  city,  I  discovered  that  the  Commissary  and  Quartermaster  Departments 
were  busily  engaged  in  shipping  their  stores  to  Greensboro  ;  I  went  to  the  officers  in 
charge,  and  remonstrated  against  it.  I  represented  that  our  men  on  their  way  to  their 
homes  in  the  South,  would,  of  course,  be  in  want  of  everything,  and  would  make  for 
Danville  as  the  nearest  railroad  point  for  transportation  and  supplies  ;  and  if  they 
did  not  find  them  here,  as  they  had  a  right  to  expect,  would,  being  in  a  bad  humor  at 
least,  more  than  likely  sack  the  town,  if  they  did  not  burn  it  to  ashes  :  and,  that  I 
hoped  that  they  would  not  only  stop  all  further  shipments,  but  would  have  their  stores 
ready  for  prompt  delivery,  upon  requisition,  according  to  army  regulations,  which, 


63 

I  would  have  them  to  insist  upon,  as  by  doing  things  in  order,  discipline  would 
insensibly  resume  its  sway,  and  with  that,  order  and  safety  would  be  assured.  These 
counsels  prevailed.  A  day  or  two  afterwards,  while  in  my  office,  the  Mayor,  in 
much  agitation  called  upon  me,  and  informed  me,  that  there  was  a  great  crowd  of 
soldiers  at  the  depot,  in  a  very  dangerous  mood,  threatening  to  burn  the  town 
because  they  were  not  supplied  with  shoes  ;  they  being  made  to  believe  that  the 
supply  was  ample,  but  that  the  citizens  had  got  them  and  hidden  them  for  their 
private  use  ;  when,  in  fact,  they  had  all  been  shipped  to  Greensboro,  under  orders, 
before  it  had  been  concluded  to  stop  the  further  shipments  of  the  public  stores  ;  and 
begged  that  I  would  go  to  the  depot  and  pacify  them,  and  thus  save  the  town  from 
its  impending  peril.  Mounting  my  horse,  I  rode  to  the  depot,  and  found  an  excited 
crowd  of  some  3,000  of  Lee's  late  army  ;  I  rode  into  their  midst  ;  I  saw,  I  was  known 
to  many  of  them.  I  addressed  them.  '  Attention,  men  !  '  The  noise  was  hushed. 
'I  am  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  your  late  compatriot  in  arms.  You  seem  to  be  in  a 
bad  humor  !  What  is  the  matter  ?  '  The  answer  came  promptly.  'We  are  barefooted — 
want  shoes,  and  can't  get  them,  the  citizens  having  proclaimed  them  to  be  for  their  own 
use.'  I  replied,  'this  is  a  grave  charge  against  a  people  heretofore  distinguished 
for  their  sacrifices  and  their  patriotism,  and  should  not  be  made  except  upon  the 
clearest  testimony — what  is  your  evidence?  (a  pause)  speak  out.'  Then,  some  one 
cried  out  from  the  crowd  ;  'We  have  evidence  which  satisfies  us  of  the  fact.'  I,  at 
once,  replied,  'speak  out,  and  do  not  leave  us  to  infer  that  you  have  been  listening 
to  the  whisperings  of  the  mischief-maker,  whose  only  aim  is  to  plunder  with  impunity 
during  the  confusion  he  may  produce.  I  say  to  you,  men,  there  are  no  shoes  in 
Danville  ;  and  her  people  are  not  to  be  found  who  would  deny  to  the  soldier  an 
article  so  essential  to  his  comfort.'  A  single  contradiction  was  heard  ;  and  thereupon, 
a  deepened  voice  came  up  from  the  crowd,  saying,  'let  no  man,  at  his  peril,  contra- 
dict General  Smith — we  know  him.'  I  then  said,  'Men,  when  I  came  here  some  days 
ago  to  do  what  I  could  in  the  performance  of  my  duties,  I  soon  saw  that  the  public 
stores  were  being  rapidly  removed  ;  knowing  that  you  would  soon  be  here,  hungry 
and  almost  naked,  I  remonstrated  against  it,  and  by  my  influence,  your  wants,  so  far, 
have  been  supplied.  Have  you  not  had  your  rations?'  'We  have  plenty  to  eat,'  was 
the  reply.  '  Have  you  not  had  your  clothing?'  I  asked.  'We  have  everything  we 
want  to  wear,  '  was  the  reply.'  And  yet,  with  this  conclusive  evidence  of  the  desire  of 
the  authorities  here  to  supply  your  wants,  you  are  ready  to  believe  that  they  connived 
at  the  pilfering  of  the  stock  of  shoes,  which  they  knew  you  would  need  so  much,  by 
the  noble  people  of  Danville.  If  there  be  a  man  among  you  who  can  name  the  base 
defamer,  let  us  bring  him  before  Judge  Lynch,  and  hang  him  as  high  as  Haman. 
But,  men,  the  shoes  are  ahead  of  you.  In  three  hours,  your  train  will  be  ready  to 
receive  you  ;  in  three  hours  more,  you  will  be  in  Greensboro,  where  shoes  will  be 
issued  to  you,  and  whence,  in  your  anxiety  to  reach  your  homes,  you  will  soon 
forget  the  fever  and  injustice  of  this  hour.  And  now  fellow  citizens  and  friends, 
fellow  soldiers  no  longer,  wishing  you  a  safe  and  speedy  trip  to  your  families  and 
friends,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell.  And  raising  my  hat  to  the  cheering  crowd, 
quietly  returned  to  my  office,  satisfied,  that  all  was  well." 

The  coup  de  main  was  truly  characteristic  of  Governor 
Smith.  It  had  the  desired  and  happy  effect  of  suppressing 
the  outbreak  by  the  troops  so  much  feared  by  the  citizens  of 
Danville. 


64 

PROCLAMATION  BY  THE  GOVERNOR. 


State  of  Virginia,  Executive  Department,  | 
Danville,  April  20,   1865.  I 

In  consequence  of  the  occupation  of  the  Capital  of  the  State  by  the  forces  of  the 
United  States  and  the  surrender  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  numerous  evil- 
disposed  persons,  associated  in  bands  and  small  parties,  embrace  the  unhappy  oppor- 
tunity  to  inflict  upon  the  persons  and  property  of  the  good  people  of  the  Common- 
wealth such  outrages  as  threaten  the  destruction  of  all  social  order.  This  deplorable 
makes  it  indispensable  that  all  good  citizens  should  thoroughly  organize 
for  the  suppression  of  lawlessness  and  for  the  enforcement  of  the  laws. 

Therefore.  I.  William  Smith,  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  do  hereby  com- 
mand the  Sheriffs  and  other  civil  officers  of  the  several  cities,  towns  and  counties  to 
proceed,  with  all  despatch,  to  organize  the  citizens  thereof,  with  a  view  to  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  laws  and  the  preservation  of  order.  It  is  enjoined  upon  all  persons  to 
be  active  in  the  performance  of  all  these  duties.  The  Sheriffs  are  authorized  and 
required  to  collect  from  citizens  and  others,  in  their  respective  counties,  such  public 
arm-,  as  they  may  tind  necessary  for  the  purposes  indicated. 

■  :.>  passing  through  the  country  are  advised  to  demean  themselves  in  a  quiet 
and  orderly  manner  and  to  return  to  their  homes  without  delay  :  there  to  await  further 
developments  and  information.  And  in  the  meanwhile,  all  citizens  are  enjoined  to 
resume  their  ordinary  avocations  and  pursue  the  same  with  energy  and  industry. 

Never  in  the  history  <>f  Virginia  have  such  claims  been  made  upon  the  fortitude, 
love  of  order,  '^ood  sense  and  courage  of  our  people,  and  it  is  hoped  and  confidently 
believed  that  those  high  qualities  will  not  be  wanting  on  the  present  trying  occasion. 

William  Smith. 

After  an  unavailing  conference  with  the  Secretary  of  War, 
at  Danville,  and  with  President  Davis,  at  Greensboro,  as  to 
the  policy  of  maintaining  a  guerilla  warfare,  the  Governor  re- 
traced his  steps.  Still  unwilling  to  yield  absolutely,  he  deter- 
mined to  go  amongst  the  people  ;  mingle  with  them,  and  as 
far  as  he  could  ascertain  their  feelings  and  sentiments  as  to 
the  guerilla  policy  and  the  further  conduct  of  the  war.  Trav- 
eling as  far  North  as  Staunton,  Va.,  he  discovered  the  people 
adverse  to  any  such  purposes,  and  they  had  a  mass  meeting 
and  passed  resolutions  counseling  the  "  policy  of  peace." 
Fully  satisfied  that  all  further  efforts  would  be  futile,  he  deter- 
mined to  make  his  way  to  Richmond,  and  there  to  surrender 
himself  to  the  Federal  authorities.  The  Governor  then,  with 
no  one  but  his  aid  and  servant,  George,  passed  into  the  James 
River  Valley,  crossed  tin-  river  at  Balcony  Falls,  and  again 
took  the  tow-path  of  the  canal,  in  which  he  came  near  losing 
his  lite  on  his  retreat  from  the  citv. 

All  along  the  line  of  his  travel,  the  Governor  was  persuaded 
and  urged  not  to  think  of  returning  to  Richmond  at  that  time. 


65 

General  Echols,  on  his  way  from  Richmond,  most  earnestly- 
remonstrated  with  him  ;  told  him  that  the  enemy  was  ex- 
tremely bitter  in  their  feelings  toward  him,  and  if  he  got  there 
in  safety,  he  would  be  "  roughly  handled."  He  also  informed 
him  that  a  reward  of  $25,ooo  had  been  offered  by  the  United 
States  authorities  for  his  arrest. 

One  Qfentleman  accosted  him  while  crossing  the  river  at 
sunrise  next  morning  near  Cartersville,  and  told  him  :  "  Gov- 
ernor, I  am  just  from  Richmond — $2  5,ooo  is  the  reward 
offered  by  the  United  States  Government  for  your  head,  and 
I  tell  you,  you  had  better  kee*p  a  sharp  look-out."  The  Gov- 
ernor replied  with  his  accustomed  nonchalance,  "  No  difficul- 
ty, my  friend,  no  difficulty,"  that  he  apprehended  no  ill-treat- 
ment at  the  hands  of  the  Federal  officers  or  soldiers  ;  and 
that  when  he  surrendered,  he  would  do  so  under  protection, 
and  would  not  be  captured  with  a  reward  of  money  thereto 
attached.  This  view  was  eminently  proper,  high-toned  and 
honorable.  Thanking  these  several  orentlemen  and  friends  for 
the  interest  they  felt  in  his  welfare,  he  resumed  his  journey 
and  duly  reached  the  Forks  of  Hanover. 

This  was  then  one  of  the  most  retired  and  secluded  por- 
tions of  that  section  of  the  State.  Here  was  the  handsome 
residence  of  his  friend  Charles  Wm.  Dabney,  Esq.  Here  the 
Governor  sojourned  for  three  weeks,  in  company  with  his 
son,  Col.  Bell  Smith,  and  servant,  who  were  treated  with  the 
greatest  hospitality,  and  of  which  the  Governor  often  spoke 
with  suitable  gratitude,  At  Col.  Dabney 's  he  was  within  23 
miles  of  Richmond  and  within  7  miles  of  the  Federal  posts. 
Many  citizens  in  this  vicinity  knew  who  he  was  and  his  local- 
ity. As  a  general  thing  the  people  were  quite  poor.  They 
knew,  also,  that  a  large  reward  was  outstanding  for  his  arrest; 
yet,  not  a  man  was  found  who  would  make  his  fortune  by  be- 
traying him  to  the  common  enemy  ;  a  rare,  phenomenal  in- 
stance of  personal  self-denial  and  patriotic  duty,  worthy  of 
the  highest  admiration  and  praise. 

Determining  to  bring  his  wanderings  to  a  close,  and  put  a 
stop  to  this  distasteful  and  disagreeable  suspense,  Governor 
Smith  addressed,  to  the  Provost  Marshal    at   Richmond.  Gen. 


66 

Patrick,  a  communication,  stating  that  it  was  his  purpose  to 
surrender  himself,  and  asked  his  written  protection  against 
arrest.  This  note  was  transmitted  and  handed  to  General 
Patrick  by  Lieut.-Colonel  Bell  Smith,  the  former  Aid  to  the 
Governor.  This  protection  paper  was  promptly  supplied  for 
ten  days  from  its  date.  The  Governor  soon  set  out  for  Rich- 
mond and  reached  the  city  without  interruption  of  any  kind — 
reported  to  Gen.  Patrick,  and  rejoined  his  family  ;  was  paroled 
from  day  to  day,  until  finally  he  was  allowed  to  return  to  his 
home  at  Warrenton,  Va.,  in  company  with  his  family,  having 
been  treated  throughout  this  trying  exigency  by  the  Federal 
authorities  with  all  proper  respect  and  consideration. 

During  his  sojourn  in  Richmond  his  demeanor  was  quiet 
and  sedate  and  characteristically  conciliatory.  He  was  re- 
ceived by  the  citizens  of  all  classes  and  grades  with  the  great- 
est cordialty.  His  conspicuous  efforts  in  their  behalf  in  de- 
fending them  from  the  incursions  of  the  enemy,  and  his 
wonderful  success  in  supplying  them  with  bread  and  meat, 
and  often  with  a  small  modicum  of  luxuries,  were  green  in 
their  memories  and  are  cherished  to  this  day.  So  manifest 
did  it  appear  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  on  his 
arrival  in  Richmond  immediately  after  the  city  was  invested, 
that  the  official  presence  of  Governor  Smith  in  the  city  was 
most  desirable  in  many  regards,  that  it  was  then  reported  and 
is  yet  believed,  that  President  Lincoln,  on  his  own  motion,  as 
Commander-in-Chief,  issued  an  order,  recalling  the  Governor 
to  his  post.  But  his  Cabinet  overruled  him,  and  the  order 
never  reached  the  Governor. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Gov.  Smith  at  Home— Still  Standing  by  the  South— Precepts  to  his  People— "  A 
Bundle  "I  Good  Habits"  His  determination  to  Remain  in  Virginia  ^Coinci- 
dence of  Feeling  and  Judgment  with  Gen.  Lee— Extension  of  his  Parole— Proc- 
lamation ..f  the  President  29th  May,  1S65—  Reconstruction— Mingles  Warmly  in 
the  Election  f..r  First  Governor,  Under  New  Constitution—  Again  Elected  to  the 
Legislature  Election  for  United  States  Senator  Devotion  to  his  Wife  and  Chil- 
dren     Extracts  on  this  Sub j ed      Anecdote  related  by  himself. 

In  June,  1S65,  Governor  Smith  returned  to  his  little  farm 
Monterosa,   near   the   town   of  Warrenton,  Va.,   after  a  con- 


MRS.    E.    H.  SMITH. 

AGE   80. 


67 

tinued  absence  of  four  years,  from  the  time  he  entered  the 
army  as  Colonel  of  a  regiment  in  the  Confederate  service,  at 
an  age  when  the  strength  of  man  is  altogether  vanity,  but 
with  that  glowing  ardor  and  elasticity  of  spirit  which  always 
attended  his  remarkable  career  through  life.  He  found  his 
little  home  unenclosed,  not  wantonly  damaged  by  the  enemy, 
but  from  time  and  neglect,  greatly  dilapidated,  and  requiring 
thorough  renovation.  A  new  system  of  labor  was  then  to  be 
inaugurated  ;  agricultural  implements  and  horse-power  sup- 
plied, and  all  things  readjusted.  Here,  again,  was  a  fair  field 
for  the  exercise  of  his  ever  suggestive  and  recuperative 
powers. 

Fortunately,  at  this  period,  he  ascertained  something  might 
be  saved  from  the  wreck  of  his  affairs  in  California.  Through 
the  business  talent  and  fidelity  of  a  friend  and  relative,  he  was 
enabled  to  realize  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  off  pressing  debts 
and  rehabilitate  his  home  to  a  considerable  extent. 

That  he  did  not  return  to  the  practice  of  his  profession  was 
always  with  him  a  subject  of  regret.  But  the  improvement 
and  restoration  of  his  farm  monopolized  his  energies,  and  he 
applied  himself  to  its  development  with  the  enthusiasm  of 
youth  and  the  judgment  of  mature  years.  The  natural  fertility 
of  the  soil,  the  excellence  of  the  society  of  Warrenton,  its 
proximity  to  the  celebrated  Fauquier  White  Sulphur,  and  its 
hourly  communication  by  rail  and  telegraph  with  the  marts  of 
the  world,  rendered  it  one  of  the  most  elegant  and  valuable 
homes  in  Piedmont,  Va.  Here  the  fiery  energies  which  had 
impelled  him  as  statesman  and  soldier,  grew  calmer  if  not  less 
potent,  and  in  the  peaceful  pursuit  of  agriculture,  he  exhibited 
that  ceaseless  activity  which  always  marked  his  eventful   life. 

Though  embarking-  in  his  new  life  with  vigor  and  enthusi- 
asm,  and  regarding  agriculture  as  the  noblest  pursuit  of  man, 
Gov.  Smith  lost  no  opportunity  of  promoting  the  material  and 
political  good  of  the  people.  His  acknowledged  abilities  and 
his  pursuasive  eloquence  were  wielded  for  the  grand  aim  of 
reconciling  and  reconstructing  the  Governments,  both  State 
and  National,  to  their  original  integrity.  Though  defeated  in 
the  great  struggle  for  political  and  property  rights  and  constitu- 


68 

tional  liberty,  his  heart  was  ever  stout  and  brave,  and  he  in- 
sisted that  all  was  not  lost.  Returning  from  the  stricken  field 
crowned  with  the  warrior's  wreath  of  splendid  daring,  he  stood 
proudly  erect,  and  in  the  gloom  which  shrouded  his  own  be- 
loved banner  of  the  South,  he  never  forgot  its  glory. 

True  to  first  principles  and  his  original  convictions,  he  soon 
became  again  the  great  Commoner  of  the  people's  rights. 
Everywhere  he  encouraged  them  to  be  of  "  good  cheer,"  to 
'•  bear  up  against  defeat  with  a  manly  pride,"  and  "  never 
despair  of  the  Republic."  He  would  invoke  his  old  friends 
and  neighbors,  and  especially  the  young  men,  to  "  go  to 
work  ;"  to  "  practice  economy  ;"  "  have  no  bad  habits  ;"  make 
"  no  bad  debts,"  and  "  live  within  their  income."  We  think 
we  can  hear  him  on  the  rostrum  and  in  the  Legislature,  quot- 
ing his  old  axiom  that  "  a  bundle  of  good  habits  was  equal  to 
a  bundle  of  good  principles." 

Gov.  Smith  had  made  up  his  mind  never  to  leave  his  native 
State,  as  so  emphatically  expressed  at  the  evacuation  of  Rich- 
mond, but  to  remain  and  share  the  fate  of  his  own  people. 
In  all  his  conversation  and  intercourse  with  them  and  in  his 
public  addresses,  he  expressed  the  same  unfaltering  and 
patriotic  love  for  his  native  Virginia. 

It  is  a  pleasing  coincidence  and  worth  recording  in  this 
connection,  that  the  ex-Governor  of  Virginia  and  the  ex- 
Chieftain  of  the  Confederate  forces,  without  knowledge  of 
each  ethers  resolves,  were  engaged  in  the  same  labor  of  love. 
Both  impressed  on  their  comrades  in  arms  the  necessity  and 
duty  of  standing  by  their  stricken  country  ;  both  labored  with 
tongue  and  pen  to  pronounce  desertion  under  such  circum- 
stances as  abhorrent  to  his  feelings. 

'  .'-n.  Lee  implored  his  tried  and  trusted  friends  then  in  vol- 
untary exile,  to  return,  and  those  who  meditated  leaving  their 
native  State  by  example  and  precept,  to  remain  in  the  South 
with  their  own  people,  who  needed  the  presence  of  her  sons 
more  than  at  any  period  of  her  history,  and  to  share  their 
fortunes,  as  the  course  indicated  by  true  patriotism.  These 
two  great  men  had  shown  themselves  soldiers  and  statesmen, 
and    read\-  to    make  the   last   sacrificial   offering  for  the    relief 


69 

and  salvation  of  their  devoted  country. — [See  Lee's  Letters 
in  Jone's   Lee. 

Under  these  convictions  Governor  Smith  procured  from  the 
President  of  the  United  States  an  extension  of  his  parole 
granted  at  Richmond  June  13th,  1865,  dated  30th  August, 
20th  September  and  9th  November,  1 865,  respectively.  He 
also  subscribed  to  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  in  his  proclamation  29th  May,  1865.  These 
extensions  permitted  him  to  visit  freely  the  States  of  Virginia, 
West  Virginia,  Maryland  Pennsylvania  and  New  York. 

Gov.  Smith  strictly  observed  the  terms  of  his  parole,  and 
attended  no  political  meetings  until  the  first  election  for  Gov- 
ernor under  our  present  Constitution.  He  was  warmly  in 
favor  of  the  "expurgation"  of  the  obnoxious  clause  therein 
which  disfranchised  so  many  thousands  of  our  best  citizens. 

This  period  formed  a  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  Virginia. 
All  things  were  in  a  state  of  dislocation,  and  the  State  was 
suffering  the  throes  and  pangs  of  reconstruction  ;  moral  and 
political  elements  were  involved  ;  right  and  wrong  were  again 
to  be  adjudicated,  and  the  patriotic  sentiments  of  the  people 
appealed  to.  Time's  rapid  march  was  making  many  and  vis- 
ible changes  in  the  political,  economic  and  social  polity  of  the 
Government.  Internal  taxes,  higfh  taxation  and  illegal  exac- 
tions  were  the  orders  of  the  National  Government. 

Superadded  to  this,  the  presence  of  "  visiting  statesmen  " 
was  well  calculated  to  exasperate  the  people  and  enhance 
their  dissatisfaction  with  their  own  situation.  In  this  unset- 
tled condition  of  the  public  mind,  Gov.  Smith's  voice  was  again 
most  skillfully  applied  to  quell  apprehension,  and  to  harmonize 
as  well  as  might  be,  "  District  No.  1  "  with  the  Government 
at  Washington.  He  intuitively  took  in  the  situation,  and  his 
knowledge  of  men,  his  firm  hold  upon  the  public  confidence 
greatly  mollified  the  general  sentiment,  and  assimilated  it  to 
the  actual  condition  of  thines. 

Gov.  Smith  entered  the  canvass  between  Walker  and 
Wells,  in  favor  of  the  former,  with  an  energy  and  enthusiasm 
only  commensurate  with  the  importance  of  securing  the  defeat 
of  the  latter. 


70 

In  the  year  1877  he  was  again  called  by  the  people  from 
his  retirement,  and  elected  to  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  for 
two  years,  after  which  he  never  entered  political  life. 

In  the  winter  of  1878  he  was  warmly  pressed  by  his  friends 
for  election  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  Several  dis- 
tinguished Virginia  statesmen  were  candidates  for  the  same 
position.  Gov.  Smith  came  within  a  few  votes  of  an  election 
in  this  obstinate  and  animated  contest.  Both  Houses,  how- 
ever, in  joint  caucus  united  in  nominating  the  incumbent. 

Love  of  agriculture  and  the  charms  of  domestic  life, 
strengthened  with  his  declining  years.  In  the  improvement 
of  his  farm  and  the  pleasures  of  his  beautiful  home,  he  spent 
a  retired  life  the  rest  of  his  days.  It  was  the  seat  of  the  most 
generous  hospitality,  and  graced  by  the  attentive  manners  of 
wife,  daughter  and  son,  Col.  T.  Smith,  was  second  to  none  in 
elegance  and  beauty. 

We  cannot  close  this  imperfect  sketch  without  adverting 
briefly  to  the  dominant  traits  of  his  nature  in  the  social  and 
domestic  circle.  Prominent  among  these  was  his  knightly 
courtesy  and  reverence  for  woman.  An  exalted  sense  of 
female  purity  and  virtue  lent  a  refinement  to  his  salutations, 
a  delicacy  to  his  attentions,  as  touching  as  it  was  sincere. 
Woe  to  the  luckless  wight  who  transgressed  these  laws  in  his 
presence.  Swift  justice,  in  stern  measures,  was  dealt  out  to 
him  on  the  spot. 

Of  his  relations  to  his  children  it  is  only  necessary  to  say, 
that  not  one  of  that  household  band  would  have  hesitated  to 
imperil  his  own  life,  nay,  to  have  poured  out  his  heart's  blood 
for  him.  Three,  of  that  once  numerous  household  yet  live, 
and  on  their  hearts  are  written  in  characters  which  cannot 
fade,  the  memorial  of  their  father's  worth.  But  the  feelino- 
which  more  than  all  else  moulded  his  ambition  and  irradiated 
his  life,  was  his  devotion  to  her  who,  through  the  storms  and 
sunshine  of  sixty  years,  had  stood  by  his  side  to  counsel  and 
to  comfort. 

Age  could  not  weaken  nor  sorrow  dim  the  glow  of  his 
early  vow,  in  his  eyes.  She  was  always  young  and  beautiful. 
And  at  last,  when  deprived  of  his   beloved   partner,  so   over- 


71 

whelming  was  his  grief,  it  seemed  for  a  time  that  death  could 
not  sever  the  perfect  union  of  their  lives,  and  that  one  grave 
would  receive  them  both. 

As  age  and  infirmities  increased,  it  was  touching  to  see  the 
white-haired  old  man,  each  Sabbath  morning,  wending  his 
way  with  faltering  footsteps  to  place  an  offering  of  fresh  flow- 
ers on  the  crave  of  her  who  he  had  loved  so  well. 

O 

No  words  of  ours  could  more  forcibly  illustrate  the  chival- 
rous nature  of  his  tenderness  for  his  wife  than  the  following, 
extracted  from  a  page  of  his  fugitive  writings  taken  from  his 
library. 

"Marrying  early  in  my  twenty-fourth  year,  I  never,  during  my  long  married 
life  of  nearly  sixty  years,  forgot  the  troth  I  plighted  to  my  dear  wife — never  failed 
to  reach  my  home  at  the  appointed  time,  except  on  three  or  four  occasions,  when 
I  was  in  a  heated  canvass.  Never  allowed  her  to  enter  the  room  in  which  I  was 
seated,  without  rising  to  receive  her,  impressing  her  with  the  sweet  conviction  that 
it  was  my  happiness  to  treat  her  always  with  the  tenderness  of  the  lover,  and  also 
the  gallantry  of  a  knight.  In  short,  that  she  was  ever  young  to  me  ;  if  she  ever 
neglected  a  duty,  it  dwells  not  in  my  memory. 

"Sometimes  she  would  come  to  the  library  door  and  say,  'Smith,  if  you  will 
keep  your  seat,  I  will  come  in.'  Springing  from  my  seat,  I  would  be  at  the  door 
in  a  trice,  and  handing  her  in,  would  playfully  rebuke  her,  by  asking  how  she  could 
have  the  heart  to  deny  me  the  luxury  of  playing  the  gallant.  Sometimes  she  would 
say,  '  Smith,  you  are  too  fond  of  the  girls.'  I  would  reply,  'not  too  fond  dear  wife, 
I  trust,  but  very  fond  I  acknowledge  ;  how  could  it  be  otherwise  with  so  fine  a 
sample  of  her  sex  ;'  putting  my  hand  tenderly  upon  her  shoulder,  or  more  likely 
giving  her  a  kiss  ;  but  notwithstanding  my  long  and  repeated  absence  from  home, 
in  consequence  of  business  demands,  she  was  always  present  to  receive  me  on  my 
return,  except,  on  occasions  when  her  health  required  me  to  take  her  to  the  Springs, 
where  I  would  sometimes  leave  her  to  attend  to  indispensible  duties  elsewhere  ;  and 
on  one  other  occasion,  when  I  reached  home  three  days  ahead  of  the  time  I  had 
fixed  for  my  return." 


72 
CHAPTER    XVI. 

Gov.  Smith's  Manners — His  Habits,  Public  and  Private — His  Uniform  Abstinence 
from  Liquor  and  Tobacco — His  Great  Aversion  to  a  Drunken  Man— Temperance 
Speeches — His  Abhorrence  of  Purchasing  Votes  with  Money  or  Liquor — His 
Cheap  Canvasses  for  Congress  and  the  Legislature — Some  Maxims  or  Rules  of 
Debate — His  Religious  Faith — Last  Attack  and  Illness — His  Death. 

It  may  be  proper  here  to  say  a  word  of  the  manners  and 
habits  of  Gov.  Smith.  Through  sixty  years  of  his  manhood, 
as  testified  to  by  his  contemporaries  and  others,  his  personal 
manners  amongst  his  fellow-citizens  were  uniformly  courteous 
and  urbane. 

Sometimes,  in  the  heat  of  discussion,  he  might  be  thought 
to  have  departed  from  that  rule  ;  but  this  was  exceptional. 
In  a  few  moments  he  would  resume  his  wonted  politeness  to 
his  competitor,  and  all  would  proceed  as   smoothly  as  before. 

His  passions  and  temper  were  strong  and  deep,  but  always 
under  the  control  of  his  judgment  and  better  feelings.  In 
discussion  at  the  Bar  and  on  the  rostrum,  he  was  always  calm 
and  self-possessed.  He  could  always  wield  complete  mastery 
of  himself.  He  never  stooped  to  petty,  vulgar  slang,  too  fre- 
quently indulged  in  in  modern  days,  and  thereby  altogether 
ignoring  the  real  matter  in  debate. 

He  was  always  an  advocate  for  open  public  discussion  be- 
fore the  people  in  all  matters  that  interested  them  directly  or 
indirectly  on  which  they  were  to  pass.  To  prejudices  he 
never  yielded.  To  defamation  and  abuse  he  would  not  con- 
descend. His  tastes  and  judgment  seemed  to  soar  above  all 
paltry  matters,  and  marched  up  directly  to  his  subject  in  hand 
and  in  that  line, 

"  He  trod  his  stately  course. 
Like  the  proud  swan  conquering  the  stream  by  force." 

He  was  gifted  with  unusual  system  and  order  of  mind. 
Sagacious  and  well  balanced,  with  great  powers  of  logic  and 
analysis,  a  versatility  and  genius  for  debate  what  the  school- 
men would  call  a  gaudium  certaminis  to  an  extraordinary  de- 
gree. It  is  fitting  just  here  to  insert  a  few  rules  of  debate 
drawn  out  and  observed  by  himself,  recently  found  in  papers 
left  in    his   library.      For   wisdom   and  sententiousness  of  ex- 


EX-COV.   SMITH    OF    VIRGINIA. 


4QE    90    YEARS 


^»vVi  •  ^^\t£3&  *\  ^ 


73 


pression  they  can  scarcely  be  surpassed.     The  following  is  a 
fac  simile : 


^^Wv^^^^^^^ 


His  habits  from  the  earliest  of  his  business  life  for  sim- 
plicity, sobriety,  economy  and  virtue,  were  simply  marvellous. 
Immersed  in  business  for  many  years,  often  of  a  multiform 
and  harrassing  character,  often  embarrassed  almost  beyond 
endurance,  mingling  with  people  of  every  grade  and  race,  in 
conflicts  and  contests  at  the  Bar,  as  stage  contractor  in  four 
States  and  one  district,  as  candidate  for  Legislature  and  Con- 
gress, as  member  of  both  for  years,  actively  engaged  in  a 
four-years  war — through  all  these  trials  of  fiery  temptation, 
Gov.  Smith  came  out  of  them  all  with  the  purity  of  his  habits 
unsullied. 

He  was  an  open  advocate  of  temperance  for  sixty-eight 
years  ;  made  temperance  speeches  repeatedly,  from  twenty- 
four  to  an  older  age.  He  abstained  from  all  intoxicants, 
tobacco  and  all  unnecessary  luxuries  through  his  whole  life. 
He  had  the  Greatest  aversion  to  a  drunken  man,  and  always 


74 

avoided  such.  He  was  inexorably  opposed  to  the  use  of 
liquors  in  elections,  and  cordially  despised  the  use  of  money 
in  purchasing  votes.  We  have  often  heard  him  declare  that 
of  his  numerous  canvasses,  he  never  purchased  a  vote  directly 
or  indirectly  in  his  life,  and  that  the  most  expensive  he  ever 
had,  was  for  necessary  traveling  expenses,  and  did  not  amount 
to  over  fifty  dollars.  He  abhorred  everything  that  tended  to 
corrupt  and  demoralize  the  yeomanry  of  the  country  ;  and 
often  he  would  exclaim,  with  burning  enthusiasm  the  old 
distich  : 

"An  honest  yeomanry,  the  country's  pride, 
When  once  destroyed  can  never  be  supplied." 

But  in  the  zeal  of  his  conviction,  upon  the  isolated  question 
of  "  total  abstinence,"  he  ever  maintained  a  liberal  tolerance 
and  conservatism  ;  but  preferred  in  this  case,  as  in  all  other 
matters  of  doubt  and  difference  of  opinion,  moral  or  political, 
the  well-known  maxim  of  Jefferson,  that  "error  ceases  to  be 
dangerous  when  reason  is  left  free  to  combat  it ;"  and  that 
other,  equally  true,  that  "  the  world  is  governed  too  much  ;" 
and  in  that  other  grand  old  religious  sentiment  of  the  Holy 
Catholic  Father,  which  he  was  so  fond  of  quoting,  "  in  non- 
essentials let  there  be  liberty  ;  in  essentials,  unity  ;  and  in  all 
things,  charity." 

Gov.  Smith,  in  early  life,  imbibed  the  precepts  and  example 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  believed  him  to  be  the  great  apostle  of 
American  liberty,  and  followed  him  and  his  precepts,  as  such, 
to  the  day  of  his  death. 

I  could  not  dare  to  enlarge  upon  the  religious  and  spiritual 
condition  of  Gov.  Smith's  mind  as  indicated  by  himself.  I 
have  therefore  remitted  that  pleasing  task  to  one  that  had 
been  intimate  in  his  family  and  far  more  able  to  give  expres- 
sion to  those  utterances  which  fell  from  his  lips  a  short  time 
anterior  to  his  death. 

"  It  was  the  voice  of  God  speaking,"  in  the  dying  appeal 
of  his  wife,  which  first  led  Governor  Smith  to  give  his 
thoughts  to  the  subject  of  revealed  religion.  How  patient 
and  constant  his  search  for  the  truth  as  taught  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures  ;   how   fervent  his   prayers   for   light,   are    attested 


75 

fully  by  those  of  his  own  household.  Of  a  mind  naturally 
combative,  and  adverse  to  receiving  any  but  demonstrable 
facts,  the  doctrine  of  a  three-fold  union  of  the  God-head,  was 
to  him  a  dark  problem.  Always  approaching  the  subject  with 
reverence,  and  realizing  that  his  footsteps  were  on  holy 
ground,  he  failed,  for  a  time,  of  that  blessing  which,  in  the  end, 
is  always  given  to  the  earnest  and  patient  seeker  after  spiritual 
truth.  But  the  answer  he  had  so  yearned  for  came  at  last ; 
and  a  short  time  before  his  death,  during  a  conversation  with 
Rev.  A.  D.  Pollock,  he  said  that  he  was  ready  to  yield  his  own 
pride  of  opinion  to  an  humble  belief  in  that  sublime  plan  by 
which  alone  Mercy  and  Justice  can  "  meet  each  other." 

But  the  shadows  were  lengthening  and  the  weary  feet  were 
nearing  eternal  rest.  Of  this  fact  he  was  calmly  aware,  and 
remarked,  a  few  days  previous  to  his  death,  "though  friends 
congratulate  me  on  my  health  and  strength,  I  feel  within  my- 
self that  I  am  now  passing  '  within  the  shadows,'  and  that  a 
few  months  at  most  are  all  that  remain  to  me  of  life." 

On  the  evening  of  May  16th,  1887,  while  occupying  his 
favorite  seat  on  the  piazza,  he  complained  of  a  congestive 
chill,  which,  after  some  hours,  was  followed  by  slight  nervous 
excitement.  Then  followed,  quickly,  an  eclipse  of  all  mental 
perception  ;  and  for  the  first  time  the  endearments  of  love 
and  the  passionate  cry  of  filial  grief  met  no  response.  At  7^ 
a.  m.,  on  the  1 8th  day  of  May,  in  the  room  which  had  been 
the  scene  of  his  happiest  hours,  among  the  books  which  had 
been  the  eloquent  companions  of  his  declining  years,  and  the 
manuscripts  which  bore  the  last  impress  of  his  pen,  the  old 
hero  lay  dead.  The  life  which  had  been  spent  amid  the  stern 
conflicts  of  the  forum  and  the  tented  field,  passed  away  as 
gently  as  "  dies  the  wave  along  the  sunset  shore." 


76 
CHAPTER  XVII. 

Funeral  Obsequies  at  Warrenton— Guard  of  Honor — Body  lies  in  State— Bethel  Cadets 
—Body  at  the  Church— Address  of  Rev.  Lindsey— Cortege  Leaves  Warrenton— 
Proceedings  at  Richmond— Body  in  the  Capitol,  in  State— Message  of  Governor 
Lee— Proceedings  of  the  Legislature— Judge  Christian's  Funeral  Oration — Pro- 
cession to  Hollywood— Eulogies  on  Governor  Smith,  by  Captain  Payne,  Colonel 
Stribling  and  Major  Ilc-aton,  in  Legislature. 

When  the  Governor's  death  was  announced,  though  not 
altogether  unexpected,  it  was  received  by  the  whole  com- 
munity with  the  deepest  feeling.  The  Town  Council  was 
convened  immediately,  and  the  solemn  tolling  of  the  church 
bells  crave  signal  that  a  great  man  and  a  leader  had  fallen. 

Warrenton,  which  had  been  the  arena  of  his  best  and 
strongest  years,  claimed  the  right  of  holding  his  body  in 
State,  and  appointed  a  Guard  of  Honor  to  bear  the  remains 
to  the  Hall,  and  to  maintain  their  vigils  beside  him  until  the 
dawn  of  the  coming  day. 

Far  into  the  night,  friends  thronged  the  building;  to  take  a 
last  look  at  the  calm,  strong  face  of  the  dead.  Early  on 
Friday,  the  Bethel  Cadets,  Capt.  Mclntyre,  who  had  so  often 
listened  to  words  of  cheer  and  warning  from  the  lips  that 
never  more  might  hail  them  the  "boys  in  gray,"  and  types  of 
those  with  whom  he  had  bled  and  suffered,  received  the 
sacred  charge  of  escorting  the  body  to  the  church.  With 
arms  reversed  and  muffled  drum,  they  slowly  and  sadly  fol- 
lowed the  bier,  while  each  young  face  bore  the  impress  of  a 
filial  grief. 

The  church  was  thronged  with  youth,  manhood  and  old 
age  ;  and  as  the  grand  words  sounded  through  the  edifice, 
"  I  am  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life,"  every  head  was  bowed 
in  sorrow.  The  beautiful,  and  true  as  beautiful,  extempore 
address  of  the  Rev.  John  S.  Lindsay,  D.D.,  his  former  Rector, 
then  of  Georgetown,  and  now  of  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  was  as 
follows  : 

ADDRESS, 
By  the  Rev.  John  s.  Lindsay,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  St.  John's  Church,  Georgetown,  D.C. 

We  pause  in  our  march  to  the  silent  city  of  the  (had.  with  the  mortal  remains 
of  our  distinguished  fellow  citizen,  to  pay  him  a  simple  tribute  ;  just  and  moderate, 
but  sincere  and  heartfelt. 


77 

There  were  salient  points  in  the  nature  and  life  of  Governor  Smith,  that  even  a 
casual  observer  would  not  fail  to  note,  and  which  deeply  impressed  all  who  knew 
him  well. 

As  his  friend,  pastor  and  neighbor  for  a  good  many  years,  I  enjoyed  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  him,  and  was  naturally  an  interested  student  of  one  who  had  been 
conspicuous  for  so  long  a  time  in  this  community,  in  this  state  and  in  the  whole 
country. 

His  abounding  health  and  vigor,  that  preserved  the  exuberant  spirits  of  youth, 
down  to  the  closing  period  of  his  life  ;  his  fine  physique,  his  temperance  and  his 
industry,  often  excited  my  admiration. 

Till  recently,  he  had  the  springy  step  of  a  boy,  and  he  hardly  ever  lost  the  ruddy 
countenance  and  the  sunny  smile  that  bespoke  health  and  happiness.  I  have  often 
seen  him,  at  an  early  morning  hour  when  many  younger  men  were  asleep,  walking 
rapidly  to  the  post  office  with  letters  that  he  had  spent  the  first  fresh  hours  of  the 
day  in  writing.  A  walk  over  his  farm,  or  several  hours  work  at  his  desk,  was  no 
unusual  prelude  to  his  breakfast. 

Devoting  his  bodily  and  mental  energies  industriously  to  the  service  of  his  people 
who  so  often  placed  him  in  responsible  positions,  he  naturally  acquired  great  pop- 
ularity. 

Conspicuous  amongst  his  virtues,  was  courage.  It  sustained  him  in  the  political 
arena,  under  the  fiery  ordeal  of  hostile  criticism,  and  it  bore  him  through  the  war, 
which  he  entered  voluntarily  when  over  three  score  years  and  a  half  of  age,  to  high 
and  honorable  distinction. 

His  was  the  courage  of  a  fine  physical  organization  ;  of  a  mind  that  perceives 
clearly  the  sharp  line  between  truth  and  error,  and  holds  its  convictions  with  a  firm 
grasp.  I  lay  stress  upon  this  characteristic,  because  no  noble  nature  can  be  without 
courage. 

I  might,  if  I  had  time,  speak  of  other  phases  of  his  moral  character.  While  i 
can  not  claim  him  as  a  communicant  of  the  church,  I  can  say,  that  he  was  not  an 
irreligious  man,  and  that  he  threw  the  weight  of  his  influence  on  the  side  of  chris- 
tanity,  as  far  as  he  could  do  it  without  identifying  himself  with  the  church.  He  ever 
spoke  with  scorn  and  contempt  of  the  men  who  sought  to  rob  society  of  the  influence 
of  the  christian  faith. 

He  was  a  thorough  believer  in  God,  he  acquired  the  teachings  of  the  Bible — its 
moral  teachings,  heartily  and  without  hesitation.  In  the  very  last  interview  that  I 
had  with  him,  he  told  me  what  he  fully  believed  as  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  and 
then  added  :  "I  suppose  we  must  take  the  rest  by  faith" — that  he  read  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  and  prayed  in  private.  I  know  you  who  are  here  to-day  remember  him 
as  a  constant  attendant  upon  the  services  of  this  church. 

It  was  certainly  at  one  time,  his  habit  to  remain  in  church  during  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  holy  communion.  I  have  often  seen  him  witnessing  that  solemn  service, 
with  his  face  bathed  in  tears.  Now  that  he  has  gone  from  among  men,  we  leave 
him  with  the  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  "sent  not  as  man  sent ;  for  man  worketh  on 
the  outward  part,  but  God  worketh  on  the  heart." 

Some  think  that  our  judgments  of  the  dead  are  too  lenient,  and  our  laudations 
fulsome.  While  it  is  true  that  the  closest  friends,  and  nearest  relatives  of  the 
departed,  may  give  them  extravagant  praise,  it  is  equally  true  that  the  justest  esti- 
mate of  a  man's  life  is  formed  when  that  life  has  closed. 

There  is  something  in  daily  contact  with  a  fellow  man,  that  makes  us  see  only 
the  commonplace  in  his  nature,  while  diverse  opinions  and  conflicting  interests 
excite  antagonisms  that  too  often  conceal  what  is  admirable  in  his  life  and  character, 
from  the  generation  of  his  cotemporaries.  Death  lifts  him  above,  and  away  from 
us,  and  we  contemplate  his  character  in  a  calmer,  clearer  light,  taking  in  its  lines 
and  its  proportions  impartially  and  completely. 

I  do  not  doubt  that  we  who  knew  Governor  Smith,  and  believed  that  we  appre- 


78 

ciated  him,  will  look  back  upon  his  long  life,  and  consider  his  remarkable  character 
with  ever  increasing  admiration  for  his  tine  sense,  his  sturdy  honesty,  his  courage, 
fidelity  and  patriotism,  and  for  those  sweet  domestic  graces  which  are  so  sacred  in 
their  manifestations,  that  I  have  not  felt  at  liberty  to  lift  the  veil  that  conceals  them 
from  your  gaze. 

As  I  look  upon  this  man  to-day,  gone  from  us  forever  on  earth,  he  rises  before 
me  like  a  pillow  of  granite,  hewn  from  the  mountains  of  his  own  native  Virginia, 
lofty,  massive  and  well  proportioned,  chiselled  by  a  firm  and  steady  hand,  rugged 
and  yet  graceful,  whose  very  strength  is  its  beauty. 

God  help  us  to  emulate  his  virtues  as  a  man,  a  citizen,  a  husband,  a  father,  and 
a  friend.  And  having  served  God  in  our  generation,  may  we  be  gathered  to  our 
fathers'  in  the  confidence  of  a  certain  faith,  in  the  comfort  of  a  reasonable,  religious 
and  holy  hope,  in  favor  with  our  God  and  in  perfect  charity  with  the  world. 

REMARKS   BY   HON.   J.    V.    BROOKE,    PREFACING   THE   OFFERING   OF   THE   RESOLUTIONS. 

LADIES  anlj  GENTLEMEN:  It  gives  me  heartfelt  pleasure,  however  sad  the 
occasion,  to  lay  an  ivy  leaf  upon  the  honored  ashes  of  my  departed  friend.  Friend 
I  am  proud  to  call  him,  and  so  he  was.  It  was  our  fortune  more  than  once  to  enter 
the  list  of  political  antagonism,  upon  opposing  sides.  It  may  have  been  that  some- 
times excitement  got  the  better  of  calmness  and  moderation  ;  but  if  these  contests 
left  in  his  heart  or  mine  any  thorn  to  rankle,  I  know  it  not.  On  the  contrary,  I 
believe  that  the  links  of  personal  friendship  were  rather  strengthened  than  weakened 
by  them,  and  grew  more  strongly  cemented  as  the  years  went  by.  His  kindly 
solicitude,  in  my  behalf,  when  a  short  time  since,  it  was  thought  that  I  was  about  "to 
cross  the  river,"  has  been  and  will  be  treasured  in  grateful  remembrance,  and  the 
tears  which  I  now  shed  about  his  honored  remains,  is  the  honest  tribute  of  a  heart 
that  could  appreciate  the  virtues  that  clustered  about  his  venerable  head. 

The  poet  has  said  : 

"Come  to  the  bridle  chamber,  Death! 

Come  to  the  mother  when  she  feels, 
For  the  first  time  her  offspring's  breath  ; 

Come  where  the  blessed  seals, 
Which  bind  the  pestilence  are  broke, 
And  crowded  cities  wait  its  stroke  ; 
Come  in  consumptive's  ghastly  form 
The  earthquake  shock,  the  ocean  storm, 
And  thou  art  terrible  !" 

But  thus  it  doea  not  seem  to  me  to  be,  when  life's  work  is  well  rounded,  and 
nothing  is  left  for  one  to  do,  save  to  watch  the  approach  of  decrepitude  and  decay. 
Then  death  comes  as  a  white-winged  messenger  of  love,  and  the  drama  of  life  seems 
to  be  fitly  and  beautifully  closed.  Such  has  been  the  experience  of  our  lamented 
friend.  So  may  we  live  that  the  sinking  sun  may  not  go  down  in  clouds  and  dark- 
ness, but  in  a  bright  refulgence,  that  shall  be  the  harbinger  of  a  dawn  of  eternal  joy! 

[  have  the  honor  to  present  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions,  and  move 
their  adoption.     ^Resolutions  drawn  by  Capt.  Brooke  to  be  found  on  page  Si.) 

RKMARKS    BY    MAJOR     JOHH    SC01  I",    01       I  III.    2 1  >    PARTISAN    RANGERS,   C.   S.   A. 

I  have  listened  with  pleasure  to  the  eulogies  passed  upon  the  career  and  charac- 
ter oi  I  k>V.  Smith,  who  li<  in  his  bier,  and  I  concur  in  every  word  which  Mr. 
Brooke  and  Mr.  Green  have  spoken.  Hut  it  seems  to  me  they  have  left  out  the  hero 
in  failing  to  view  Gov.  Smith,  in  connection  with.the State  Rights  principle  in  our 
government,  to  which  he  devoted  himself  from  his  first  manhood.     In  the  courage 

and  constancy  which  he  displayed  in  that  respect,  there  is  no  example  in  ancient 
knighthood    by  which   it    is   surpassed.      In    every  theatre  of   debate   throughout   the 


79 

length  and  breadth  of  Virginia,  lie  defended  by  argument  and  eloquence  the  cause 
which  lay  so  near  to  his  heart.  He  saw  clearly  that  unless  the  centralizing  tendency 
of  the  system  could  be  successfully  resisted  in  the  measures  of  the  government,  that 
the  fate  of  Virginia  would  be  fixed  as  a  mere  department  of  a  vast  Federal  Empire, 
instead  of  being  what  she  intended  in  the  outset  to  be,  a  Sovereign  State,  with  the 
right  to  seek  better  government  elsewhere,  if  her  sense  of  self-protection  decided  her 
so  to  act. 

But  neither  the  young  man,  nor  the  middle-age  man,  nor  the  old  man,  could 
control  the  impetuous  tide  of  Federalism  which  the  system  engendered  ;  and  he  was 
soon  limited  to  the  choice  either  to  abandon  the  contest  in  the  union,  or  secede  and 
renew  it  with  perhaps  better  success  out  of  the  union.  And  now  began  an  era  in 
this  distinguished  gentlemen's  career,  which  was  as  extraordinary  as  it  was  brilliant. 

With  no  scintilla  of  military  training,  at  the  age  of  sixty-five  he  recruited  a  Reg- 
iment of  infantry  ;  "he  who  had  never  set  squadron  in  the  field,"  and  threw  them 
into  the  first  battle  of  Manassas,  and  at  the  decisive  point  at  the  "Henry  House,'' 
fought  them  with  unsurpassed  valor  and  success. 

Col.  Smith  ordered  a  charge  of  bayonets  ;  it  was  the  first  in  the  war  ;  and  it  was 
said  there  was  never  made  a  more  gallant  charge. 

He  rose  to  the  position  of  Major-General,  winning  his  promotion  by  hard  fight- 
ing and  superior  generalship.  Gen.  Early,  with  whom  Gen.  Smith  had  served,  told 
me  that  he  "had  never  known  a  braver  man  ;"  and  no  one  knew  better,  the  metal 
of  a  soldier. 

His  cause  of  State  Rights,  was  lost  too,  in  the  field  of  war  ;  for  Gov.  Smith  could 
no  more  control  the  red  tide  of  battle,  than  the  turbid  current  of  politics.  He  fought 
life's  battle  valiantly,  and  he  was  tried  in  its  fiercest  fires  ;  but  he  came  forth  like 
a  strong  man,  glorying  in  his  strength,  and  in  taking  his  long  farewell  of  us,  and 
as  he  descends  to  the  grave,  a  dark  door  to  another  and  more  glorious  life,  he  leaves 
behind  a  character  to  cherish  and  admire,  and  a  memory  to  love. 

I  knew  Gov.  Smith  as  the  people  saw  him,  and  liked  him;  I  saw  that  he  was  a 
man  of  a  large  mould.  Until  we  are  summoned  by  the  dread  angel  to  follow  him, 
we  will  all  remember  his  bright  smiles,  and  cheerful  greeting  ;  for  he  was  too  brave 
in  life's  battle  to  allow  its  crosses  and  troubles  to  casta  shadow  on  his  brow. 

[From  the  Warrenton  Index.] 

IN  MEMORIAM. 

Wednesday,  18. — Hon.  William  Smith  died  at  his  home  this  morning.  The  news, 
preceding  salutation,  is  borne  from  lip  to  startled  ear  throughout  the  town  before  the 
breakfast  hour.  No  one  asks  who  was  this  State  Senator  of  the  olden  time,  this  grand 
Commoner,  this  citizen,  twice  filling  the  Gubernatorial  Chair,  and  four  terms  a  seat  in 
the  halls  of  Congress  ;  this  untrained  soldier,  holding  undisciplined  troops  to  posts  of 
duty  under  deadliest  fire  by  force  of  a  magnetic  presence  and  sight  of  the  snow- 
white  plume  beneath  his  chapeau.  And  why  ?  Because  he  was  ever  knightly  to 
woman,  ever  pleasing  to  childhood,  approachable  to  the  lowliest  as  well  as  the  most 
exalted — always  the  old  Virginia  gentleman  to  every  one.  Our  town  and  vicinage 
feel  moved  to  pay  honor  to  the  memory  of  this  noble  old  man.  Hence  we  find  our 
City  Fathers  promptly  assembling  and  passing  the  following  resolutions  submitted  by 
its  committee,  Messrs.  Brooke,  Campbell  and  John  A  Spilman  ; 

Whereas,  the  Council  having  been  apprised  of  the  death  of  ex-Gov.  William  Smith, 
and  having  assembled  for  the  purpose  of  voicing  the  feeling  of  our  community  upon 
this  occasion,  we  do  now  resolve  : 

That  we  recognize  in  the  long  life  now  closed  lessons  of  wisdom  and  virtue  that 
the  living  should  not  ignore  ;  that  we  recall  with  inspiring  pleasure  the  purity  that 
adorned,  and  the  ability  that  guided  his  public  service  ;  his  patriotic  devotion  to  his 
people,  to  which  the  dark  days  of  late  civil  war  bear  eloquent  testimony  ;  and  that  we 


80 

hold  up  to  the  rising  generation  his  stainless  character,  so  remarkable  for  qualities 
that  lead  to  domestic  happiness  and  public  good. 

That  the  Mayor  present  a  copy  of  the  above  resolution,  with  the  sympathy  of  this 
town,  to  his  bereaved  family,  and  that  the  same  be  published. 

The  Council  meeting  is  followed  up  at  night  by  a  meeting  of  citizens,  who  appoint 
a  committee  consisting  of  Hons.  James  V.  Brooke,  C.  T.  Green,  Col.  E.  C.  Lightfoot, 
(apt.  I.  S.  Payne  and  Mr.  John  A.  Spilman  to  report  to  an  adjourned  meeting  at 
Town  Hall  at  a  II  (/clock  to-morrow. 

THURSDAY,  19.— The  Hall  is  thronged  at  II  o'clock  this  morning  by  town  and 
country  folk,  neighbors  and  friends  of  Gov.  Smith.  Rev.  John  S.  Lindsay,  late  rector 
of  the  Episcopal  church  here  and  chaplain  to  Congress,  at  motion  from  Mr.  William- 
son, chairman  of  the  adjourned  memorial  meeting,  opens  the  proceedings  with  an 
impressive  prayer.  That  ended,  the  Chair  calls  for  report  from  the  Committee  on 
Resolution^  when  Hon.  James  V.  Brooke  advances  to  the  dais  and  reads  the  follow- 
ing paper,  eloquent  in  every  line  : 

The  Hon.  William  Smith  is  no  more!  His  familiar  form,  so  erect  beneath  the 
pressure  of  many  years,  has  vanished  from  our  sight !  His  clarion  voice,  ever  potent 
to  sway  the  impulses  of  his  follow-men,  is  hushed  in  death!  The  place  he  so  long 
filled,  with  signal  prominence  in  public  and  private  life,  is  vacant  forevcrmore  ! 

In  view  of  this  event,  si)  sad  and  startling,  it  seems  fitting  that  we,  his  surviving 
friends  and  neighbors,  should  give  expression  to  the  sentiments  it  has  awakened,  and 
unite  in  paying  some  humble  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  departed. 

Governor  Smith  (as  we  used  to  call  him),  was  no  ordinary  man.  This  fact  is 
abundantly  attested  by  a  review,  however  cursory,  of  his  long  and  varied  career. 

inning  life  without  the  external  advantages  which  often  elevate  mediocrity  into 
a  false  prominence,  he  won  his  way  to  distinction  by  the  innate  power  of  an  iron  will 
and  an  energy  of  purpose  that  recognized  no  possibility  of  failure.  And  then  in  spite 
of  obstacles  that  would  have  damped  a  less  courageous  spirit,  he  was  enabled  "to 
climb  the  heights  where  lame's  proud  temple  shines  afar,"  and  to  engrave  his  name 
in  no  mean  characters  upon  the  enduring  tablet  of  his  country's  history.  Peculiar 
gift-,  with  which  he  was  endowed  by  nature,  secured  to  him  the  fealty  and  devotion 
ot  those  who  sympathized  with  him  in  sentiment  ;  ami  early  in  life  he  was  recognized 
as  a  leader  in  the  heated  contests  so  long  waged  for  political  supremacy. 

The  hustings  were  his  favorite  arenas,  and  there  were  few  of  his  opponents  who 
did  not  find  in  him  "a  foeman  worthy  oJ  their  steel." 

Services  so  valuable  were  speedily  recognized  as  worthy  of  appropriate  reward  ; 
and  from  time  to  time,  the  voice  of  the  people  called  him  to  offices  of  honor  and  trust, 
Stat.-  ami  Federal,  and  twice  to  the  elevated  position  of  Chief  Executive  of  this  Com- 
monwealth. In  all  these  official  relations,  and  notably  during  his  last  incumbency  of 
the  Gubernatorial  Z\*axc, flagrante  /'./.'.>,  he  brought  to  the  discharge  of  his  duties  a 
tenacity  of  purpose,  a  promptness  of  action,  and  a  fidelity  to  the  obligations  of 
patriotism  which  challenged  the  respect  even  of  those  who  might  disapprove  the 
policy  of  his  measures. 

The  late  war  found  him  a  man  of  sixty-five  years,  but  at  the  first  call  of  his 
native  St..;.-  ■•  t..  arms."  h<-  sprang  int..  the  fight  with  all  the  alacrity  an  enthusiasm  of 
youth.  He  was  not  learned  in  the  art  ol  war,  but  he  found  promotion.  For  his 
courage  was  conspicuous,  his  devotion  to  duty  unswerving,  and  his  spirit  unconquer- 
able through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  suffering,  disaster  and  defeat. 

The  war  over,  he  Bought  the  quieter  scenes  ..I  domestic  lite,  and  found  in  rural 
pursuits  food  t..r  his  still  undiminished  energy  and  habitual  industry — and  to  these, 
with  slight  interruption,  he  devoted  the  remnant  of  his  life. 

He  was  a  man    of    exemplary    habits     a    stranger    to    the    vices    which    so    often 

del. .in.  the  character  oi  the  political  leader— a  champion  of  temperance— an  earnest 
advocate  ol  moral  reform  and  in  himself  a  striking  illustration  of  the  efficacy  ol  a 
virtuous  life  in  securing  to  its  votary  the  blessings  of  a  ripe  and  vigorous  old  . 


81. 

We  may  not  enter  the  sanctuary  of  domestic  life,  but  the  most  superficial  observer 
could  not  fail  to  perceive  that  in  all  its  relations  his  deportment  was  not  only  above 
reproach,  but  marked  by  an  all-pervading  sentiment  of  true  affection. 

That  the  deceased  had  his  faults  and  frailties  none  can  deny.  Who  is  without 
them?  But  whatever  they  may  have  been,  let  them  be  buried  in  his  grave — and  let 
only  that  which  was  true,  and  good,  and  beautiful,  and  brave,  survive  in  memory. 

But  the  measure  of  his  usefulness  was  full  ;  and  while  as  yet  the  grass  hopper  had 
not  become  a  burden,  while  his  eye  was  still  undimmed  and  his  natural  force 
unabated  by  the  decrepitude  of  age,  Death,  with  his  gentle  finger,  touched  him  and 
he  slept. 

And  now  that  full  of  years  and  full  of  honors  he  has  been  gathered  to  his  fathers, 
we,  his  surviving  friends  and  neighbors,  do  resolve  as  follows  : 

First,  That  while  we  bow  in  submission  to  the  will  of  Divine  Providence  in 
removing  from  our  midst  our  venerable  and  esteemed  fellow-citizen,  the  Hon. 
William  Smith,  we  cannot  fail  to  recognize  the  fact  that  in  his  death  the  country  has 
lost  one  of  its  most  distinguished  citizens,  our  State  a  truly  devoted  and  patriotic  son, 
and  the  community  in  which  he  lived,  its  oldest  resident,  one  whose  walk  in  and  out 
amongst  us  has  always  been  characterized  by  urbanity  of  manners,  constancy  of 
friendship,  cheerfulness  of  spirit,  devotion  to  duty  and  integrity  of  life. 

Second,  That  to  the  family  of  our  deceased  friend  and  neighbor,  who  will  sadly 
miss  the  presence  and  counsels  of  a  loving  and  tender  parent,  counsellor  and  guide, 
we  hereby  extend  our  cordial  sympathy  in  their  severe  bereavement. 

Lastly,  That  a  copy  of  the  foregoing  preamble  and  resolutions  be  transmitted  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased,  and  that  the  same  be  published  in  the  papers  of  the  town. 

Mr.  Brooke  follows  up  the  report  of  his  Committee  with  a  speech  most  beautiful 
in  diction  and  studiedly  true  in  every  utterance.  When  seated,  Hon.  C.  T.  Green 
will  not  let  the  occasion  pass  without  giving  expression  to  his  admiration  for  the  life 
and  character  of  the  late  living  link  between  the  fathers  of  the  Constitution  and  the 
present  generation — and  he  evidently  speaks  from  the  abundance  of  the  heart.  Mr. 
Green  is  followed  by  Major  John  Scott  in  a  pertinent  endorsation  of  all  read  and 
spoken  ;  supplements  his  remarks  by  a  call  for  "the  question"  on  the  resolutions. 
This  motion  was  put  to  a  rising  vote  and  the  vast  audience  responds  "aye."  Here 
the  Chair  said  he  was  authorized  to  state  that  the  remains  of  Gov.  Smith  might  be 
seen  at  his  residence  on  Culpeper  street  for  a  few  hours  after  3  p.  M. ;  whereupon  at 
the  suggestion  of  Mr.  John  R.  Spilman  a  motion  is  carried  that  a  committee  be 
appointed  by  the  Chair  to  confer  with  the  family  of  the  deceased  and  request  consent 
to  have  the  remains  lie  in  state  at  the  Town  Hall  in  charge  of  a  "Guard  of  Honor"  till 
removed  to  the  church.  This  committee  is  John  R.  Spilman,  J.  S.  Payne  and  James 
V.  Brooke.  The  additional  motion  is  put  and  carried  that  the  Mayor  of  Warrenton 
and  three  associates  be  appointed  by  the  Town  Council  to  accompany  the  remains  to 
Richmond.  The  family  assenting  to  the  request  of  the  meeting  of  citizens,  the 
Mayor  appointed  the  following  "Guard  of  Honor":  Major  Grenville  Gaines,  M.  B. 
Payne,  C.  W.  Smith,  L.  McKay,  John  A.  Francis,  John  S.  Latham,  J.  P.  Jeffries,  Alex. 
Payne,  C.  W.  Rosenberger,  W.  H.  Hope,  George  Newman  and  John  P.  Wyer.  The 
body  is  taken  to  the  Hall  after  5  p.  M.  and  to  a  late  hour  in  the  night  it  is  viewed  by 
friend  and  stranger. 

Friday,  May  20th. — At  an  early  hour  Bethel,  a  pet  child  of  the  dead  soldier's  age,  is 
astir.  A  march  of  4  miles  and  the  sacred  duty  is  at  the  end  of  it  before  the  cadets. 
They  take  rations  under  the  belt  and  are  off'  at  6  o'clock.  On  the  way  the  march  is 
at  will  ;  in  town  they  close  ranks  and  touch  elbows,  catch  the  stop  and  bear  them- 
selves with  the  clock-movement  of  veterans.  Thus  before  8  o'clock  the  old  com- 
mander of  volunteers  has  a  military  guard,  and  of  "boys  in  gray." 

Now  bell  answers  bell  like  minute  guns  on  sea  and  shore.  As  they  toll,  the 
following  pall-bearers  take  their  places:  M.  M.  Green,  William  P.  Hilleary,  William 
P.  Helm,  Julian  P.  Lee,  John  A.  Spilman,  Inman  H.  Payne,  Major  A.  G.  Smith,  W. 


82 

W.  Williamson,  Col.  Lightfoot  and  A.  D.  Smith.  The  procession  promptly  forms  at 
the  Hall— hearse,  pall-bearers,  cadets,  with  guns  at  reverse  arms,  and  citizens.  It 
moves  with  measured  step  along  Main  and  Culpeper  streets  to  the  church.  The 
church  is  packed;  it  cannot  accommodate  all  who  have  gathered  to  honor  themselves 
by  doing  honor  to  a  revered  fellow  citizen.  Here  funeral  service  is  read  and  a  touch- 
ing eulogy  delivered,  the  Rev.  J.  S.  Lindsay  officiating.  The  fact  is  revived  that  the 
old  Governor  was  ever  a  defender  of  the  Christian  faith  although  not  a  communicant 
of  the  church. 

The  hour  has  arrived  for  the  remains  to  be  shipped  on  the  cars  for  Richmond. 
Major  A.  G.  Smith,  Eppa  Hunton,  Jr.,  Judge  Keith.  M.  M.  Green  and  Judge  Bell  go 
as  an  escort  on  the  part  of  the  family  ;  while  Mayor  Nelson,  John  A.  Spilman,  J.  K. 
Spilman  and  Captain  J.  Scott  1'ayne  go  on  the  part  of  our  citizens. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  services,  the  body  was  escorted  by 
his  family,  the  Bethel  Cadets,  the  Guard  of  Honor,  and  a  large 
concourse  of  citizens  to  the  cars,  which,  at  8:30  a.  m.,  moved 
out  of  the  depot  for  Richmond. 

The  funeral  cortege  reached  Richmond  at  3:30  p.  m.,  where 
it  was  met  by  an  additional  Guard  of  Honor,  headed  by  Gen. 
Lee,  Governor  of  the  State,  many  members  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, then  in  Session,  and  a  lar^re  concourse  of  citizens.  The 
procession  moved  at  once  to  the  Capitol,  and  deposited  their 
sacred  charge,  where  thousands  viewed  the  body  of  the  dead 
soldier. 

He  laid  in  state,  in  the  rotunda  at  the  base  of  Washington's 
Statue,  between  the  doors  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Dele- 
gates, until  the  hour  of  the  final  obseques  arrived.  Gov.  Lee 
had  sent  a  special  message  to  the  Legislature  announcing  the 
death  of  ex-Governor  Smith.  Meanwhile  both  Houses  of 
the  Legislature  were  observing  every  honor  and  respect  to 
the  distinguished  dead  under  the  sound  of  fifteen-minute 
guns. 

Captain  A.  I).  Payne,  of  the  "  Black  Horse"  and  Colonel 
Stribling  of  "  Stribling's  Battery,"  delegates  from  Fauquier, 
and  other  members,  made  feeling  and  eloquent  speeches, 
while  the  Hon.  H.  Heaton,  of  the  Senate,  was  alike  happy  in 
the  resolutions  and  remarks  submitted  by  him  on  that  oc- 
casion. 

Though  not  a  member  of  either  House,  Judge  Christian,  in 
right  of  his  intimate  personal  relations  with  Gov.  Smith,  was 
called  on  to  pay  his  tribute  of  respect  and  esteem  to  the 
memory   of   his    dead    friend.      It   is    related   that    Pliny,  the 


83 

younger,  reckoned  it  as  the  last  addition  to  the  happiness  of 
a  great  man,  that  he  had  the  honor  to  be  praised  at  his 
funeral  by  the  most  eloquent  Tacitus,  then  Consul.  So  it 
may  be  said  of  the  subject  of  these  memoirs  that  he  had  the 
honor  to  be  eulogized  over  his  dead  body  in  the  Capitol,  by 
one  comparable  in  virtue  and  eloquence  to  Tacitus  himself. 

After  Judge  Christian's  oration,  the  procession  took  up  the 
line  of  march  to  Hollywood  in  the  order  prescribed  by  the 
military  authorities. 

The  military  companies  of  the  city,  with  furled  banners  and 
muffled  drums,  preceded  the  funeral  cortege.  As  the  shad- 
ows of  twilight  were  darkening,  the  hearse  reached  Holly- 
wood, and  as  the  sublime  words  of  the  Burial  Service  were 
spoken,  the  body  of  William  Smith  was  placed  in  its  last 
resting  place. 

After  "  life's  fitful  fever,"  he  sleeps  beneath  the  shadow  of 
his  own  Virginia's  loved  Capitol  and  by  the  waters  of  her 
historic  River.  No  fitter  grave  could  earth  furnish  the  Patriot 
and  Soldier. 


Below  will  be  found  a  faithful  narrative  of  the  proceedings 
at  the  Capitol,  and  thence  to  the  cemetery  : 


[From  the  Richmond  Whig.] 

EX-GOVERNOR     SMITH. 


LAST  HONORS  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  VIRGINIA'S  DISTINGUISHED  SON — THE  REMAINS  ARRIVE 
ON  THE  AFTERNOON  TRAIN  C.  &  O.  RAILROAD — THEY  LIE  IN  STATE  AT  THE  CAPITOL 
FROM  THREE  TO  SIX  O'CLOCK — RESOLUTIONS  OF  RESPECT  IN  THE  LEGISLATURE — 
EULOGIES    ON    THE    DECEASED — A   PLASTER   CAST   TAKEN — THE    LAST   SAD    RITES. 

As  previously  announced  would  be  done,  the  body  of  ex-Governor  William 
Smith  was  brought  to  this  city  from  Warrenton  yesterday  afternoon  on  the  3:05  train, 
Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Railroad.  It  was  accompanied  by  the  Mayor  and  a  delegation 
from  the  City  Council  of  Warrenton,  and  was  met  at  the  train  by  the  pall-bearers, 
consisting  of  Governor  Lee,  General  Anderson,  General  Wickham,  Senator  Heaton, 
and  Delegates  Payne  and  Stribling.  It  was  at  once  escorted  to  the  Capitol,  where  it 
lay  in  state  in  the  corridor  between  the  statue  of  General  Washington  and  the  Senate 
Chamber. 

VIEWING   THE   REMAINS. 

The  lid  of  the  coffin  was  removed  soon  after  its  arrival,  and  the  body  was  found 
sufficiently  well  preserved  for  the  features  to  be  exposed.  The  face  was  very 
natural,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  waxy  appearance  peculiar  to  the  dead,  was 
quite  life-like.     Thousands  viewed  the  remains  during  the  time  that  they  were  open 


84 

to  the  public  gaze,  and  many  were  the  expressions  of  regret  that  another  of  the  ante- 
bellum statesmen  of  Virginia,  who  reflected  honor,  credit  and  dignity  on  the  old  com- 
monwealth—a  race  of  men  fast  vanishing  into  the  past  — had  forever  passed  away, 
and  that  the  places  which  knew  them  so  well  on  earth  would  know  them  no  more 
again  forever. 

A    PLASTER    CAST. 

About  5  o'clock  a  plaster  cast  of  the  face  was  taken  by  Mr.  Valentine,  the  well- 
known  sculptor  of  this  city,  assisted  by  an  Italian  workman  engaged  with  Mr. 
Valentine.  While  this  was  being  done  the  doors  were  closed,  and  no  one  was  allowed 
to  be  present.  The  operation  lasted  about  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  and  is  said  to 
have  been  entirely  successful. 

THE   CEREMONIES    AT   THE   CAPITOL. 

At  6  o'clock  preparations  were  made  for  taking  the  body  to  its  last  resting  place 
at  Hollywood.  The  Capitol  grounds  and  the  Capitol  itself  were  crowded  with  an 
immense  concourse  to  do  honor  to  the  illustrious  dead.  Before  the  body  was  removed 
the  hall  of  the  House  of  Delegates  was  filled  to  repletion  with  an  audience  to  hear 
eulogistic  remarks  on  the  deceased,  to  be  delivered  by  Judge  Joseph  Christian,  an 
old  friend  of  the  ex-Governor,  and  who  had  been  familiar  with  him  for  many  years. 

JUDGE   CHRISTIAN'S  TRIBUTE. 

Dr.  Stribling,  member  from  Fauquier,  the  home  of  ex-Governor  Smith,  arose 
and  said  :  "There  is  a  distinguished  gentleman  present  who  was  a  life-long  friend  of 
Governor  Smith,"  and  he  requested  Judge  Christian,  late  President  of  the  Court  of 
Appeals,  to  address  the  audience.  Judge  Christian,  who  had  no  notice  that  he  would 
be  called  on,  promptly  came  forward  and  said  : 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  take  a  humble  part  in  these  ceremonies  commem- 
orative of  the  life  and  death  of  one  of  the  noblest  and  greatest  men  of  Virginia.  1 
am  glad  to  see  that  this  whole  city  has  turned  out  to  carry  with  civic  and  military 
honors  this  grand  old  man,  who  for  more  than  half  a  century  has  been,  in  one  way  or 
another,  connected  with  the  history  of  this  State,  and  of  the  whole  Union. 

There  are  two  men  octogenarians  who  on  both  continents  have  filled  the  public  eye 
—Gladstone,  of  England,  and  William  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Both  have  been  the  advo- 
cates and  defenders  of  civil  liberty  and  local  self-government. 

One  fought  in  a  cause  that  did  not  succeed,  but  not  the  less  honorable  for  want 
of  succc^-.  The  other,  now  about  eighty  years  of  age,  is  still  fighting  for  the  freedom 
of  Ireland.     God  spare  Gladstone  until  Ireland  is  free. 

Governor  Smith  is  a  man  whose  memory  can  never  pass  away  from  the  minds  of 
the  people  <>f  Virginia.  He  was  twice  Governor  of  the  State;  for  more  than  ten  years  in 
the  Cong:  ess  of  the  United  States.  He  was  there  when  there  were  such  men  as  Webster, 
and  Clay,  and  Benton  and  Calhoun,  and  he  was  the  peer  of  any  of  these  bright  men. 

During  the  unhappy  civil  conflict  he  took  the  side  of  his  State,  which  he  loved 
with  the  devotion  of  a  patriot,  and  although  beyond  the  military  age,  went  to  the 
front  and  fought  for  a  cause  which  he  believed  to  be  right,  and  I  say  here  in  this  pres- 
ence, that  with  all  the  civic  honors  that  have  been  heaped  upon  him,  the  greatest 
and  most  honorable  title  of  all  is  that  of  Major-General  of  the  Confederate  States  of 
America. 

Now,  what  does  the  life  and  character  of  such  a  man  teach  ?  What  does  it  say  to 
posterity  ?  What  does  it  say  to  the  youth  of  the  country?  What  would  you  put  on 
his  monument?  I  say  this :  Courage,  Fidelity,  Truth,  Integrity,  and  Here  Lies  a 
Man  who  discharged  faithfully  every  Duty,  Public  and  Private. 

The  honors  which  we  pay  to  him  to-day  are  the  honors  deserved  by  a  noble  life, 
and  that  lite,  public  and  private,  is  an  example  to  be  followed  by  those  who  still  live. 
Virginia,  in  honoring  William  Smith,  honors  herself,  and  lure  in  the  Capital  of  the 
State  he  loved  SO  well,  his  body  shall  be  guarded  and  his  tomb  be  sacred  to  all  lovers 
of  liberty  and  patriotism. 


85 

THE   MARCH    TO   THE   GRAVE. 

At  the   conclusion  of  Judge  Christian's   remarks    the  body  was   taken   from  the 
Capitol,  placed    in  the   hearse,  and   the    line    of    the  funeral    march  was   formed,  as 

f°UOWS  Squad  of  Folice.     General  Anderson  and  Staff.     Stuart  Horse  Guards. 

The  First  Regiment,  headed  by  the  Bugle  and  Drum  Corps. 

The  Richmond  Light  Infantry  Blues.     Lee  Camp  in  Carriages,  as  a  SpeC1al  Escort. 

The  Pall-Bearers,  in  Carnages. 

Carriage  containing  Rev.  Mr.  H.  M.  Jackson,  of  Grace  Church,  this  city,  and 

Rev.    John   S.    Lindsay,   formerly  Rector    of    the  Episcopal    Church    atWarrenton, 

who  accompanied  the  remains  to  Richmond. 

The  Hearse. 

Special  Friends  of  the  Deceased.     Members  of  the  Legislature. 

The  General  Line  of  Carriages. 

SERVICES    AT    HOLLYWOOD. 

The  procession  marched  up  Grace  street,  which  was  thronged  with  spectators  on 
both  sides  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  and  proceeded  on  its  mournful  way  to  Holly- 
wood.  There  the  military  formed  in  line  and  came  to  «  present  arms  as  the  body 
was  taken  from  the  hearse,  and  passed  before  them.  On  reaching  the ^  grave, the 
solemn  and  beautiful  funeral  rites  of  the  Episcopal  Church  were  read,  and  the  last  of 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  distinguished  sons  of  Virginia  was  consigned  to  the 
tomb,  in  the  Bosom  of  the  State  he  loved  so  well,  there  to  remain  until  the  sound  of 
the  last  trumpet.  The  grave  was  filled  in  solemn  silence,  and  when  the  las  clod  of 
earth  was  thrown  upon  the  mound,  the  First  Regiment  fired  a  military  salute  as  a 
farewell  to  him  who  had  served  his  State  and  Country  with  honor  and  fidelity,  both 
on  the  forum,  in  her  councils,  and  on  the  tented  field. 

ARTILLERY  SALUTES. 

As  the  train  arrived  in  the  city  with  the  remains,  a  detachment  of  the  Richmond 

Howitzers-Battery   A,  First   Battalion    Artillery-stationed   with   two    guns ,  „ _   the 

Capitol  Square,  began  firing  fifteen-minute  guns.     This  was  kept  up  until  the  body 

was  removed  from  the  Capitol,  when  the  firing  was  changed  to  two-minute  guns  for 

PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE   LEGISLATURE. 
During  the  morning  the  Governor  sent  a  communication  to  both  Houses  of  the 
General  Assembly,  officially  notifying  that  body  of  the  death  of  ex-Governor  Smith, 

as  follows  :  /-w„„™     1 

Commonwealth  of  Virginia,  Governor  s  Office,    | 

Richmond,  Va.,  May  20,  1887.  ) 

To  the  Legislature  : 

The  painful  duty  devolves  upon  me  of  officially  communicating  to  the  General 
Assembly  the  intelligence  of  the  death  of  General  William  Smith,  ex-Governor  of 
Virginia,  who  died  at  his  home  in  Warrenton,  Fauquier  county,  Va,  on  the  morning 
of  the  18th  instant.  His  funeral  will  take  place  from  the  Capitol  at  6  P  M.  his  after- 
noon The  long  public  life  and  eminent  services  of  this  distinguished  citizen  and 
soldier  has  been  closely  interwoven   with  the  history  of  his  native  State  for  over  a 

half  century.  ,   .. 

As  its  honored  Chief  Executive  for  two  separate  terms,  or  as  a  representative 
in  legislative  halls,  State  and  National,  or  upon  the  battle-field,  he  has  ever  discharged 
the  duties  of  his  position  with  great  ability,  conspicuous  courage,  and  rare  ability.    _ 

Now  when  Fame's  trumpet  is  sounding  everywhere  his  many  virtues,  it  is  emi- 
nently proper  for  the  legislative  branch  of  the  Government  to  mark,  by  appropriate 

action,  its  respect  for  the  memory  of  the  dead  hero. 

^  Fitzhugh  Lee. 


8(5 


TRIBUTES    TO   THE    DEAD. 


As  soon  as  the  above  letter  was  read.  Mr.  Payne,  of  Fauquier  county,  offered  the 
following  resolutions  : 

Whereas,  the  Governor  has  communicated  to  the  General  Assembly  the  melan- 
choly intelligence  of  the  death  of  the  venerable  William  Smith,  who  during  his  long 
public  career  served  this  Commonwealth  and  his  Country  with  distinguished  patriot- 
ism, fidelity,  and  ability,  twice  as  Governor  of  Virginia,  many  times  as  a  represent- 
ative in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  as  a  member  of  the  two  branches  of 
the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia,  and  successively  as  Colonel  of  the  Forty-ninth 
regiment  of  Virginia  volunteers,  Brigadier-General  and  Major-General  of  the  Con- 
federate States  Army  in  the  late  war  between  the  States  ;  and,  whereas,  by  his  death 
this  Commonwealth  has  lost  a  citizen  whose  eminent  services  entitle  his  memory  to 
be  revered  as  one  of  her  most  illustrious  sons,  the  qualities  of  whose  mind  and  heart 
were  commensurate  with  his  preeminent  ability  as  a  public  leader,  soldier,  and 
statesman  ;  therefore. 

Resolved,  By  the  House  of  Delegates  (the  Senate  concurring  therein), 

1.  That  he  who  has  passed  death's  portal  full  of  years  and  honors  carries  with 
him  the  love  and  reverence  of  a  grateful  people. 

2.  That  the  General  Assembly  respectfully  tenders  its  sympathy  to  his  family  in 
their  bereavement. 

3.  That  these  resolutions  be  spread  upon  the  Journal  of  each  House  and  be 
communicated  to  the  Governor,  with  the  request  that  he  impart  them  to  the  family 
of  the  deceased. 

4.  As  a  further  mark  of  respect,  that  upon  the  passage  of  these  resolutions  that 
both  Houses  of  the  General  Assembly  attend  his  funeral  in  a  body. 

The  House  unanimously  adopted  the  resolutions,  and  eulogistic  speeches  were 
made  by  Delegates  Payne  and  Stribling,  of  Fauquier. 

MK.    PAYNE'S    REMARKS. 

Mr.  Payne,  in  offering  these  resolutions,  said :  The  announcement  which  has 
just  been  communicated  by  the  Governor  will  be  heard  by  every  member  of  this 
House  with  heartfelt  regret.  At  his  home  at  Warrenton,  on  Wednesday  last,  surround- 
ed by  friends,  full  of  honors  and  in  the  consciousness  of  a  well  spent  life,  Governor 
Smith  went  to  his  long  home,  and  the  humble  tribute  which  I  shall  pay  to  his  mem- 
ory and  the  recognition  I  shall  ask  of  this  House,  is  but  due  to  one  who  in  a  long 
and  useful  life  endeared  himself  to  the  hearts  of  his  follow-citizens.  Born  in  1797, 
in  the  life-time  of  Washington,  during  the  administration  of  the  second  Adams,  and 
in  the  infancy  of  his  country,  he  would,  had  he  lived  until  the  7th  of  September,  his 
next  birth-day,  have  attained  the  age  of  ninety  years,  or  ten  years  longer  than  the 
three  score  years  and  ten  spoken  of  by  the  Psalmist  as  the  allotted  period  of  man's 
existence.  And  during  his  long  life  he  tilled  every  position  of  trust  and  honor  to 
which  he  was  called  with  unswerving  fidelity,  and  so  acceptably  as  to  command  the 
applause  of  all  classes  of  citizens.  In  1S36  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  State 
Senate,  and  was  afterwards  re-elected.  He  Served  his  State  in  Congress,  and  was 
twice  chosen  her  Chief  Executive  ;  and  during  the  dark  days  of  the  war,  after  he  had 
attained  an  age  when  must  men  would  have  sought  rest  and  retirement,  and  sought 
to  put  their  houses  in  order  tor  another  world,  he  enlisted  as  a  soldier,  and  displayed 
the  zeal  and  vigor  of  a  young  man.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the  Confederate 
Congress,  and  was  known  afterwards  as  the  War  Governor  of  Virginia.  And  when  the 
conflict  was  over  and  the  war  drum  throbbed  no  longer,  he  retired  to  private  life,  and 
pursued  his  occupation  as  a  farmer  with  the  same  energy  that  had  always  marked 
his  character.  In  the  discharge  of  his  public  duties  he  was  able,  faithful  and  honest ; 
in  war  he  combined  the  wisdom  of  age  with  the  vigor  of  youth  ;  in  private  life  he 
was  a  devoted  husband,  fond  father  and  most  exemplary  citizen.  I  now  ask  that 
these  resolutions  to  his  memory  be  adopted  by  this  House. 


87 

MR.  STRIBLING'S   EULOGY.  ' 
Mr.  Stribling,  of  Fauquier,  also   arose  at  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Payne's  remarks, 
and  said  : 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  go  into  a  history  of  the  public  career  of  the  distinguished 
dead.  That  has  already  been  outlined,  and  his  record  is  embalmed  in  the  archives 
of  the  State  and  the  hearts  of  the  people.  I  speak  because  my  fortunes  were  con- 
nected with  his  in  the  old  Forty-ninth  Regiment,  his  regiment,  and  the  regiment  he 
organized  and  led  with  distinguished  courage.  During  the  long,  protracted,  and 
desperate  struggle  which  ended  at  Appomattox,  the  Forty-ninth  regiment  never  broke, 
and  he  was  proud  of  its  record.  We  know  full  well  how  his  heart  swelled  with  pride 
whenever  he  recalled  the  deeds  of  daring  of  that  regiment,  which  he  loved  with  the 
love  of  a  father  for  his  child.  And  now  he  is  gone  to  join  his  noble  comrades  who 
passed  away  to  their  eternal  home  before  him. 

"On  Fame's  eternal  camping  ground. 

Their  silent  tents  are  spread, 
While  Glory  guards  with  solemn  sound, 
The  Bivouac  of  the  dead." 
[Applause.] 

The  resolutions  were  then  adopted  by  a  rising  vote. 

ACTION   OF   THE   SENATE. 

The  joint  resolutions  introduced  by  Mr.  Payne  in  the  House,  were  communicated 
to  the  Senate. 

Mr.  Heaton  made  a  pathetic  address  in  reference  to  the  death  of  Governor  Smith, 
reviewing  his  history  and  commenting  upon  the  many  virtues  that  made  him  beloved 
and  famed.  The  resolutions  were  adopted  by  a  unanimous  rising  vote,  and  the 
Senate  adjourned  forthwith  to  meet  the  remains  when  they  arrived  on  the  evening 
train. 

[  From  the   Richmond  Dispatch.] 

HONORARY  PALL-BEARERS. 

Gov.  Lee,  Gen.  Wickham,  Captain  A.  D.  Payne,  of  Fauquier,  Col.  R.  M.  Stribling, 
of  Fauquier,  Gen.  Joseph  R.  Anderson  and  Senator  Henry  Heaton  of  Loudoun. 
Active— Col.  A.  L.  Phillips,  Col.  J.  W.  White,  Col.  J.  B.  McKenney,  Captain  B.  M. 
Watkins,  Captain  T.  J.  Bowles,  Mr.  J.  J.  H.  Brower,  and  Mr.  B.  D.  Core. 

All  the  active  pall-bearers  were  members  of  Lee  Camp,  and  were  in  uniform. 

THE   MILITARY. 

While  the  cortege  was  forming  in  the  Square  the  military  part  of  the  procession 
was  also  getting  into  position.  Under  orders  from  Brigadier-General  Anderson,  the 
cavalry  was  to  form  with  its  right  resting  on  Ninth  street  ;  the  companies  from  the 
regiment  on  the  left  of  the  cavalry,  the  Blues  on  the  left  of  the  regiment.  The  latter 
company  was  promptly  on  the  ground,  but  the  others  were  not.  About  fifteen 
minutes  after  the  appointed  time  the  Blues  were  directed  by  the  Brigadier-General 
to  move  out  on  Grace  street  and  take  position  on  the  left  of  the  regiment,  which 
they  did. 

THE   PARADE. 

About  half  past  6  o'clock  the  procession  moved  off  in  the  following  order : 
Detachment  of  Police.     Stuart  Horse-Guards.     Regimental  Drum  Corps. 
Detachments  from  Companies  of  the  First  Regiment. 
The  Blues. 
Pall-Bearers  in  Carriages. 
Hearse. 
Friends,  Legislators  and  Citizens  in  Carriages. 
After  going  several  squares  up  Grace  street  the  procession  moved  into  Franklin 
and  thence  continued  to  Cherry  and  to  Hollywood. 'J 


88 

THE  INTERMENT. 
The  remains  were  interred  in  Gov.  Smith's  vault,  on  Midvale  avenue,  in  Holly- 
wood, where  lie  his  wife  and  several  sons.  The  services  were  conducted  according 
to  the  services  of  the  Episcopal  Church  by  Rev.  J.  S.  Lindsay,  of  St.  John's  Church, 
Georgetown,  who  used  to  be  the  Governor's  pastor  at  Warrenton,  and  Rev.  M. 
Jackson,  of  Richmond. 

FLOWERS. 
The  coffin  was  covered  with  a  mass  of  flowers  which  came  with  it  on  the  train- 
A  beautiful  Moral   harp,  from   the    members  of    the  House    of   Delegates,  was 
placed  on  the  grave. 

THE    HOWITZERS. 

All  the  afternoon  two  sections  of  the  Howitzers,  with  two  pieces,  fired  a  gun  every 
fifteen  minutes,  on  the  square.  From  the  time  the  procession  left  the  Capitol  until  it 
reached  the  cemetery  a  gun  was  fired  every  two  minutes. 

T  lie  following  men  composed  the  sections,  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant 
Bosher  :  First  -un— Sergeant,  C.  \V.  McFarlane  ;  Gunner,  R.  F.  Camp  ;  I,  A.  S.  Rust; 
2,  |.  M.  ( Graves  :  3.  1  leorge  D.  Place  ;  4.  II.  L.  Siegel  ;  5,  H.  L.  Pitts  ;  6,  J.  L.  Perkins; 
7- J-  H  '"ud   i;un-  Sergeant,   H.  M.  Starke;  Gunner,   B.   M.   Gwathmey  I 

I,  J.  W.  East  :  2.  P.  L.  Meades  ;  3,  W.  B.'Ball  ;  4,  J.  F.  Smith  ;  5,  S.  B.  Atkins  ;  6,  E. 
S.  Ktllani  ;  7.  R.  C.  (iatcwood. 

GOVERNOR   SMITH'S   VAULT. 

Gov.  Smith's  section  is  on  Midvale  avenue,  about  fifty  steps  from  the  stone 
bridge.  Most  of  the  processions  going  from  old  Hollywood  to  the  recently  added 
grounds  pass  the  spot.  Within  the  inclosure  is  a  vault  of  Virginia  granite,  and  over 
it  is  a  shaft  of  the  same  material,  thirty  feet  high.  Near-by  is  a  marble  shaft  mark- 
ing the  resting-place  of  two  sons.  The  vault  has  three  apartments  ;  in  one  is  the 
body  of  Mrs.  Smith,  in  another  I'.overnor  Smith  was  placed  yesterday  afternoon,  and 
tin-  third  is  left  for  their  daughter.  Upon  the  slab  in  the  vault  is  the  following 
inscription  : 

Elizabeth  H.   Smith, 
Porn   March   10,  1800.      Died  January  7,  1879. 

And  upon  the  granite  shaft  is  the  following: 

I  i  IZABETH    II.  Smith, 
Beloved  wife  of  ex-Governor  William  Smith,  of  Virginia, 
and   daughter   ol    Captain  James    M.    Bell,  of  Culpeper  county. 
Born  March  10,  1S00.      Died   January  7,  1879. 
One  day  of  a  long  life  brought  sorrow  to  her  friends— the  last ;  a  Christian,  sublime 
in    faith;  a   wife,   tender   in    love,  wise  in  counsel,  strong  in  support— a  woman 
of  rare  gifts  of  person  and  manners.     This  cherished  dust  waits  the  hour  when 
the  Lord  shall  make  up  His  jewels. 

On  the  right-hand  (west)  side  of  the  shaft  over  the  vault  is  : 

To  passed  Midshipman 
Wii.i.iam  Henry  and  Judge  James  Caleb, 

First  and  Second  Sons  ,,t  ex-Governor  William  and  Elizabeth  II.  Smith, 
Pom  November  5,  1822. 


William  Henry:    Post  at  Sea  September,  1850. 

A  Virginian  in  whom,  as  a  citizen,  son  and  brother,  were  blended  the  noblest 

qualities   of    lofty   manhood.     Born  June   24,    1824. 

lames  Caleb  :  Died  in  Nicaragua,  South  America,  May  2,  1856. 
Gifted  and  winning,  he  was  at  an    early  age   elevated   to  the  Supreme  Court  of 

Sail  Francisco. 
Purer  officer  never  wore  the  ermine. 


89 


The  northern  face  of  the  shaft  is  without  inscription,  and  so  is  the  western  ;  but 
on  the  base  of  the  shaft  on  the  northern  side  are  the  words  -William  Smith. 

Beneath  the  marble  shaft,  standing    near  the  vault,  rest  the  remains  of  two  of 

ex-Governor  Smith's  sons,  and  upon  it  is  the  following  inscriptions,  north  side  : 

Here  repose  the  remains  of  Austin  E.  and  P.  Bell, 

Beloved  sons  of  William  and  Elizabeth  H.  Smith,  of  Fauquier  county,  Virginia. 

To   the    memory   of  their   virtues  their   stricken  family,    in    their   deepest   sorrow, 

dedicated  this   monument. 

On  the  eastern  side  of  this  marble  shaft  is  : 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Austin  E.  Smith,  C.  S.  A.,  of  California. 
Died  on  the  27th  day  of  June,  A.  D.,  1862  ;  aged  thirty-three  years,  of  a  wound 
received  at  the  battle  of  Gaines's  Mill.  As  a  son  and  brother  he  filled  the  hearts 
and  hopes  of  his  family  ;  as  a  man  of  exalted  virtues  and  gifted  talents  he  had 
a  high  place  in  the  admiration  and  confidence  of  his  State,  and  as  a  patriot  he 
illustrated  all  the  attributes  of  the  most  elevated  devotion  to  his  native  Virginia. 

Peace  to  his  noble  soul. 
On  the  western  side  of  this  marble  shaft  is  : 

Lieutenant-Colonel  P.  Bell  Smith,  of  Virginia. 
Died  1863  ;  aged  twenty-seven  years. 
He  knew  no  emotion  above  love  for  his  family,  no  motive  but  honor  ;  and  his  life 
was  an  exemplification  of  justice  and   manliness.     With  an  able  mind  highly 
elevated,  the  fruition  of  his  future  would  have  been  useful  and  brilliant. 
Heaven  bless  his  gentle  spirit. 


SELECTIONS  FROM  EULOGIES  ON  GOVERNOR  SMITH. 


[Frum  the  Warrenton  True   Index  ] 

EX-GOVERNOR    SMITH    DEAD. 

Ex-Governor  William  Smith  passed  away  quietly  and  peacefully  on  the  morning 
of  Wednesday,  May  18th,  at  7.30.  " 

Although  his  health  was  precarious  and  he  was  subject  to  attacks  of  nervousness, 
yet  his  death  was  entirely  unexpected  because  of  his  very  favorable  condition  for 
some  weeks  past.  On  Sabbath  last  he  walked  to  church,  quite  a  distance  and  ex- 
pressed himself  as  feeling  stronger  and  better  than  for  some  time  past.  On  Monday 
he  became  chilled  from  sitting  in  his  front  porch.  On  Tuesday  morning  he  was  un- 
conscious, and  remained  so  until  his  death,  from  nervous  prostration,  at  730 
Wednesday  morning,  as  stated  above.  . 

He  will  be  buried  in  Richmond  in  the  family  vault  erected  there,  in  which  his 
wife  and  other  members  of  the  family  are  laid. 

We  cannot  content  ourselves  with  this  brief  notice  of  one  who  has  filled  so  many 
positions  of  honor  and  usefulness,  and  whose  example  and  precepts  have  ever  been 
in  favor  of  all  that  is  noble,  just  and  honorable.  It  may  well  be  said  that  his  voice 
was  never  raised  in  favor  of  anything  that  he  did  not  believe  was  for  the ^pub he  good, 
and  his  hand  was  ever  ready  to  defend  his  own  rights  and  the  rights  of  his  State 

William  Smith  was  born  in  King  George  County,  Virginia,  September  6th  1797. 
and  consequently  would  have  been  90  years  of  age  September  6th,  1887.     He  was 


90 

the  son  of  Caleb  Smith  and  Mary  Waugh  Smith,  whose  ancestry  it  is  not  our  purpose 
now  to  trace.  We  will  merely  say  he  did  them  no  discredit,  and  they  were  worthy  of 
such  a  son.  In  hia  boyhood  he  walked  several  years  six  miles  to  school.  He  was 
then  -tut  to  Judge  Greed,  of  Fredericksburg,  afterwards  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  of 
Virginia,  an  intimate  friend  of  his  father,  that  his  capacity  for  receiving  an  education 
might  be  determined.  Judge  Green  reported  favorably,  and  he  was  sent  to  Plainfield, 
Connecticut,  to  be  prepared  for  college.  The  war  with  England  occurring  about  this 
time,  the  subject  of  our  notice  was  exceedingly  anxious  to  get  into  the  navy,  but  he 
was  ordered  borne.  His  father  died  in  1815,  when  he  began  to  study  law  with  Judge 
I '  •  en.  He  next  moved  to  YVarrenton  and  became  associated  with  Thos.  L.  Moore, 
then  a  leading  lawyer  with  a  large  practice.  This  was  of  great  advantage  to  the 
young  lawyer,  as  he  had  charge,  practically,  of  all  the  office  work;  and  when  he  be- 
came an  applicant  for  business  found  himself  fully  equipped.  After  staying  a  short 
while  in  the  office  <>!  <  Jen.  Winder,  of  Baltimore,  he  returned  to  Virginia,  and  in  1818 
comment  ed  the  practice  of  law  at  Culpeper.  It  was  about  this  time  he  became  en- 
ed  in  extending  mail  facilities  fromCulpeper,  which,  in  the  end,  reached  Milledge- 
ville,  Georgia.  Every  time  the  line  was  extended  extra  pay  was  granted,  hence  the 
sobriquet  ••  Extra  Billy,"  a  name  to  which  he  never  objected,  and  a  name  which  his 
friends  used  as  a  term  of  endearment  and  pride.  Unfortunately  for  his  pecuniary 
interests,  about  this  time  he  was  brought  into  politics,  much  against  his  own  inclina- 
tions; but  true  to  the  rule  of  his  life,  never  to  flinch  from  any  duty,  he  consented  to 
Berve  hi- district  in  the  State  Senate.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  and  success- 
ful political  career,  in  all  of  which  it  was  his  boast,  that  he  never  sought  or  obtained 
votes  by  appealing  to  anything  else  than  the  reason  of  his  fellow-citizens.  He  won 
lav., 1  by  the  use  of  neither  money  nor  drink,  and  ever  scorned  the  misrepresentation 
of  fa.  t-.  In  all  his  contests  he  upheld  Democratic  doctrines  and  in  all  things  was  for 
State  Rights  and  a  strict  construction  of  the  Constitution. 

In  1838  Ik-  was  elected  to  Congress  from  the  Culpeper  District,  but  a  change 
being  made,  in  1840  he  was  an  opponent  of  Samuel  Chilton  in  the  Loudoun  District, 
and  reduced  the  1.200  majority  to  265.  He  took  an  active  part  in  the  Presidential 
campaigns  ol  lS-joand  1S44,  having  refused  to  be  a  candidate  for  Congress  in  his 
own  district  because  of  two  Whig  candidates  being  in  the  field,  giving  as  a  reason 
the  district  was  Whig  and  he  was  too  good  a  Democrat  to  seek  to  deprive  a  majority 
<-f  their  representation.  Tin's  is  strange  reading  in  view  of  the  present  condition  of 
politics.  In  1845,  without  his  Knowledge  or  consent,  he  was  elected  Governor  of  the 
State  for  three  years,  an  honor  indeed,  yet,  one  he  sought  to  avoid,  because  of  his 
very  straightened  circumstances  and  the  total  inadequacy  of  the  salary  to  support  the 
'on.  While  Governor  he  was  the  caucus  nominee  of  the  Democratic  party  for 
Senator,  but  was  defeated  by  a  coalition  of  Hunter  Democrats  and  the  entire  Whig. 
vote.  Having  served  his  term,  he  returned  to  his  home  in  Warrenton  in  1849.  Dis- 
satisfied with  the  prospects  of  recovering  from  the  sacrifices  he  had  made  for  his  party 
in  time  and  money,  he  went  to  California  in  1S51,  where  he  presided  at  the  first  Dem- 
OCratic  Mate  <  onvention  ever  held  there.  He  was  very  successful  in  his  law  practice 
and  returned  to  Virginia  in  1853,  with  enough  to  make  him  comfortable  for  life.  He 
*raa   '  "  '  ;'  "  l853.  again  in  1855,  and  again   in    1S57,  the   last  Congress 

ioua  to  the  war.     In  the  debates  and  trying  times  in  Congress  he  was  firm,  con- 
servative  and  1  onsistent,  ami  when  it  was  seen  that  a  war  must  come,  he  retired  with 
the  Southern  members  who  had  not  before  done  so.    Although  sixty-four  years  of  age  he 
was  at  the  first  skirmish  upon  Virginia  soil  at  Fairfax  Court   House,    became  Colonel 
40th   Regiment,  remarkable  for  its  discipline  and  efficiency.      He  was  made 
Brigadier  G  neral  shortly  before  he  was  called  from  the  field  to  again  become  Gov- 
which   position    he   held    at    the  close  „!  ,1K-   war.      He  was  complimented  for 
the  cheerful  courage  and  efficiency  at  the  first  Manassas;  he  held  position  of  honor 
treme  Kit  at  Sharpsburg,  where  he  was  severely  wounded,  and  in  all  things 
proved  himself  as  valuable  in  war  as  he  had  been  in  the  councils  of  his  State  and 


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Country.  Thus  we  might  fill  pages  in  giving  an  account  of  his  public  life;  yet,  he  was 
best  known  and  most  admired  as  husband,  father  and  friend. 

In  1821  he  married  Miss  Elizabeth  H.  Bell,  daughter  of  the  late  Captain  James  M. 
and  Amelia  Bell,  of  Culpeper;  raised  a  family  of  twelve  children,  and  all  of  them 
who  reached  maturity  showed  the  same  indomitable  will,  gallantry  and  fearlessness 
of  danger  in  the  discharge  of  duty.  Of  all  this  numerous  family  but  three  survive  : 
Miss  Mary  Amelia,  the  comfort  of  his  manhood's  life  and  the  solace  of  his  declining 
years,  his  wife  having  preceded  him  several  years  ago;  Col.  Thomas  Smith,  and 
Capt.  Fred.  Smith,  both  of  which  sons  are  now  in  the  Southwest,  filling  responsible 
positions. 

Governor  Smith  was  noted  for  his  gallantry  and  high  appreciation  of  the  female 
sex.  Age  could  not  dim  either,  and  the  former  added  greatly  to  his  interest  in  young 
men.  For  fifteen  years  or  more  he  attended  the  Bethel  Academy  Final  Exercises, 
distributed  the  honors  among  the  students,  and  always  accompanied  awards  with 
words  of  cheer  and  good  advice.  The  last  words  ever  uttered  to  the  writer  were 
"  that  he  had  never  done  anything  he  knew  to  be  wrong,  nor  had  he  ever  avoided 
the  discharge  of  a  known  duty."  Another  fixed  principle  was,  "  never  to  create  a 
want ;"  and  he  never  did,  thus  keeping  clear  of  all  the  bad  habits  which  incur  expense 
and  too  often  embitter  life.  We  would  say  more  but  time  and  space  forbid.  Shall 
we  ever  look  upon  his  like  again,  and  who  will  supply  the  place  once  filled  by  him? 

[From  the  Warrenton  Virginian.] 

DEATH    OF    GOVERNOR     SMITH. 

On  Wednesday  morning,  May  18th,  1887,  at  twenty  minutes  of  eight  o'clock, 
ex-Governor  William  Smith  departed  this  life  at  his  home,  in  Warrenton,  after  an 
illness  of  only  two  days.  He  was  born  in  the  year  1797,  and  early  in  life  commenced 
the  practice  of  law. 

It  was  before  the  age  of  steam,  when  all  the  coach  lines  ran  east  and  west,  that 
he  conceived  the  idea  of  opening  a  line  that  would  run  north  and  south,  crossing 
those  that  went  from  the  Blue  Ridge  eastward.  The  line  at  first  extended  from  Wash- 
ington city  to  Culpeper.  He  increased  its  distance  from  time  to  time  until  it  reached 
Milledgeville,  Georgia,  and  was  for  its  day  and  generation  as  important  a  route  as 
that  of  any  railroad  at  the  present  time.  He  had  a  contract  for  carrying  the  United 
States  mail.  As  he  increased  the  length  of  his  route  he  was  entitled  to  extra  pay. 
and  his  application  to  Congress  for  extra  pay  became  frequent  and  won  for  him  the 
sobriquet  of  "Extra  Billy." 

With  the  advent  of  steam  cars  his  coach  line,  with  others,  faded  from  sight,  as 
it  has  since  nearly  faded  from  memory,  and  his  restless,  active  nature  found  relief  in 
the  practice  of  law  and  in  politics.  He  was  elected  four  times  to  Congress  and  was 
twice  made  Governor  of  Virginia.  On  the  hustings  he  was  invincible.  He  made 
hosts  of  friends,  true  and  warm,  who  stood  by  him  in  every  emergency. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  entered  the  Confederate  service  and  rose  to  the 
rank  of  General.  The  lack  of  military  training  was  made  up  by  personal  bravery 
that  never  paled  in  the  face  of  the  foe. 

Let  it  be  said  to  his  credit  that  during  his  long  and  eventful  life,  money  was  never 
an  object  to  him.     He  lived  on  what  he  made  and  died  comparatively  poor. 

Of  all  that  can  truly  be  said  in  his  honor,  the  most  beautiful  lines  that  will  record 
the  history  of  his  life,  will  be  those  that  describe  his  admiration  of  and  his  chivalrous 
bearing  towards  the  opposite  sex.  He  looked  upon  woman  as  she  deserves  to  be, 
the  equal  of  man  in  all  things,  and  his  superior  in  most.  Even  when  age  had  made 
his  step  unsteady  and  his  hand  scarcely  able  to  reach  his  head,  he  lifted  his  hat  and 
bowed  with  gallantry  alike  to  the  aged  woman  and  the  rosy-cheeked  school  girls  that 
he  met  in  his  walks.     Of  the  stormy  scenes  that  he  often  encountered  not  a  trace  re- 


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mained  in  his  countenance  when  he  entered  the  precincts  of  home.  Of  the  fierceness 
with  which  he  could  turn  on  a  foe,  his  wife  and  children  saw  nothing.  They  knew 
him  only  as  tender  and  loving.  If  nothing  else  could  be  said  of  him  this  would  be 
enough  to  make  his  death  lamented  and  his  memory  cherished  by  all. 

A  mass  meeting  of  our  citizens  is  being  held  to  pay  respect  to  his  memory  at  the 
time  of  this  writing. 

We  also  extract  the  following  from  The  True  Index, 
a  paper  published  in  his  own  town  : 

EX-GOVERNOR    SMITH. 

Ex-Governor  Smith  was  laid  to  rest  with  the  setting  sun  of  the  beautiful  20th  of 
May,  after  having  received  the  highest  civic  and  military  honors  at  the  hands  of  the 
noble  people  <>t  Fauquier,  and  the  noble  city  of  Richmond.  It  will  be  gratifying  to  his 
friends,  the  people  of  Fauquier,  indeed,  the  people  of  the  State  generally,  but  espe- 
cially his  comrades  of  the  gallant  old  49th,  whom  he  led  and  so  loved,  to  learn  that 
every  attention  was  paid  him  :  that  the  Governor  and  other  good  citizens  were  hon- 
orary pall-bearers,  that  gallant  Confederates  in  full  uniform  tenderly  handled  the 
casket,  that  both  houses  of  the  Legislature  adjourned  out  of  respect  for  one  so  worthy; 
that  eulogies  were  pronounced  in  the  Hall  of  the  House,  and  that  his  remains  lay  in 
State  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol,  and  were  visited  by  thousands  ;  that  the  cavalry 
and  a  large  body  of  infantry  furnished  an  escort  to  the  cemetery,  followed  by  a  long 
procession  of  carriages,  while  the  houses  and  the  side  walks  from  the  Capitol  to 
Hollywood  were  tilled  with  respectful,  sympathizing  friends  and  admirers,  among 
the  women  and  children  whom,  as  war  Governor,  he  had  made  every  effort  to  feed, 
not  being  able  to  withstand  their  cry  for  bread  ;  that  the  Richmond  Howitzers  from 
the  time  his  remains  reached  Richmond  until  placed  in  the  vault,  boomed  at  intervals 
in  honor  of  one  who  had  so  often  smelled  the  smoke  of  battle  ;  and  that  when  laid 
away,  the  last  sad  Christian  rites  of  burial  having  been  performed,  the  soldiers  fired 
over  his  resting  place  the  parting  volley,  and  all  returned  to  their  homes,  having 
thus  honored  themselves  in  honoring  one  who  had  never  other  than  the  highest 
motives  of  patriotism,  and  who  had  spent  a  long  life  in  the  service  of  his  Country 
and  State.  The  entire  proceedings  were  most  gratifying  to  his  friends  and  relations, 
for  having  been  out  of  public  so  long,  it  was  feared  that  his  services  might  have  been 
forgotten  ;  but  a  grateful  people  could  never  so  far  forget  themselves,  and  the  recep- 
tion was  as  heart-felt  and  spontaneous  as  inspiring.  The  fact  remains  impressed 
upon  the  people  that  it  is  well  to  do  well  for  one's  country.  If  we  may  suggest  any- 
thing it  would  be  that  the  old  40th.  with  whom  he  fought  and  so  often  won,  pass 
some  resolutions  that  may  be  treasured  among  the  relics  of  their  old  Chief,  who  ever 
spoke  of  them  with  pride  and  doted  upon  them  with  the  fondest  affection.  Too  much 
praise  cannot  be  given  those  who  had  charge  of  the  ceremonies,  everything  being 
conducted  as  quietly  as  gracefully. 

Also,  the  following  from  the   Temperance  Advocate : 
EX-Gl  IVERNi  »R    SMITH. 

Resolutions  offered  by  Bro.  Frederick  Horner,  M.  I).,  and  adopted  by  District 
Lodge  ■  !   Good  Templars,  in  session  with  "Evening  Star"  Lodge,  June  7th,  1887: 

WHEREAS,  in  the  decease  of  ex-Governor  William  Smith,  of  Virginia,  the  Inde- 
pendent Order  01  Good  Templars  and  the  Friends  ..f  Temperance  of  this  county,  have 
lost  an  able  advocate  <>t  the  principles  of  total  abstinence,  and  one  who  never  failed 
to  raise  his  voice  against   the    iniquities  of   the   liquor   traffic,  and  also  one  of  the 


93 

founders  of  the  Temperance  Alliance  of  Virginia,  and  often  plead  eloquently  in  this 
behalf  at  the  annual  Bush  Meetings  of  Good  Templars  of  Fauquier  county;  therefore 
be  it 

Resolved,  That  we  would  earnestly  commend  to  our  fellow-citizens  of  Virginia 
to  imitate  the  example,  and  to  heed  the  teachings  of  the  illustrious  dead  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  dire  consequences  of  drunkenness  and  the  importance  of  the  total  prohi- 
bition of  the  liquor  traffic,  and  that  we  shall  ever  cherish  a  most  grateful  recollection 
of  the  ex-Governor,  who,  during  his  evenlful  official  life — in  the  Halls  of  Congress, 
twice  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  a  distinguished  General  in  the  Southern  Army  dur- 
ing the  late  civil  war — for  a  period  of  sixty  years  inclusive  was  never  known  to 
indulge  in  ardent  spirits,  nor  as  a  candidate  for  public  office  sought  to  obtain  the 
suffrage  of  the  people  through  the  bribery  of  the  bar-room  or  at  the  social  board. 

Resolved,  We  cordially  tender  our  united  sympathies  to  the  bereaved  family 
of  ex-Governor  Smith  and  hereby  instruct  the  Secretary  to  have  the  above  resolu- 
tions published  in  the  two  county  newspapers  and  the  Temperance  Advocate. 

IN    MEMORY     OF    GOVERNOR    WILLIAM    SMITH. 

[A  representative  number  of  the  49th  Virginia  Regiment  met  last  Monday  by 
appointment  at  the  Lion  House  and  resolved  themselves  into  a  memorial  meeting. 
It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  fifteen  out  of  the  eighteen  veterans  present  bore  honor- 
able scars  of  battle  upon  their  bodies,  and  that  all  of  them  speak  from  personal 
knowledge.  We  append  the  stirring  address  of  their  orator,  T.  H.  Robinson,  and 
the  resolutions  they  unanimously  adopted. — Index.] 

Comrades  of  the  49TH  Regiment  :  I  am  unaccustomed  to  speak  in  public,  and 
feel  greatly  embarrassed  in  getting  up  to  do  so  now.  But  I  feel  I  would  be  derelict 
in  duty  should  I  refuse  to  raise  my  voice  on  this  occasion. 

We  are  here  to-day  to  express  sorrow  over  the  departure  of  our  old  Commander, 
General  William  Smith,  and  also  to  express,  if  possible,  our  high  appreciation  of  the 
noble  example  he  has  left  us.  He  has  gone,  not  as  the  world  goeth,  but  as  the  noble, 
the  true,  and  the  brave  go. 

To  follow  him  through  his  political  and  military  life  would  be  to  repeat  the 
history  of  Virginia  for  half  a  century. 

He  was  a  man  that  was  true  in  every  phase  of  life — true  in  peace,  true  in  war — 
true  in  the  cabinet  and  true  in  the  field.  When  the  clouds  of  war  burst  over  his 
native  State,  the  land  he  loved,  well  do  you  remember  how  his  hoary  locks  amid  the 
storm  and  smoke  of  battle  marked  the  spot  where  deadliest  conflict  raged,  and  that, 
like  a  Ney,  with  uniform  riddled  with  bullets,  he  often  beat  back  the  tide  of  battle. 

The  great  Cheronaea  of  the  South  has  been  fought,  and  the  constitutional  rights 
of  Virginia,  like  the  rights  of  Athenians,  have  been  violently  outraged  ;  but  the  prin- 
ciples for  which  we  fought  still  live,  and  will  live  on  as  long  as  the  mind  is  capable 
of  appreciating  the  blessings  of  liberty  and  justice. 

Comrades,  though  no  monument  may  mark  the  final  resting  place  of  our  old 
Commander,  yet  when  a  future  bard  shall  touch  his  harp  to  sing  a  requiem  over  the 
fading  nations  of  earth,  the  figure  of  William  Smith  will  appear  dim  in  its  dizzy  niche 
among  the  highest  in  the  temple  of  Fame. 

Comrades,  Demosthenes  swore  by  the  names  of  the  heroes  of  Marathon  and 
Pketcea.  Let  us  swear  by  the  memory  of  our  dead  Commander  never  to  forget  the 
example  he  set  us,  and  to  hand  it  down  as  a  precious  legacy  to  our  children's  chil- 
dren to  the  remotest  generations. 

The  war  of  the  Revolution  is  over  ;  the  heroes  of  Yorktown  and  New  Orleans 
sleep  within  the  grave  ;  the  small  remnant  of  the  gallant  army  that  placed  the  Ameri- 
can flag  upon  the  walls  of  the  Montezumas  have  been  provided  for ;  but  to-day,  for 
the  first  time  in  American  history,  do  we   find  a  class  of  old,  feeble  and  disabled 


94 

soldiers  within  our  borders  without  paternal  Government  to  extend  to  them  the  least 
aid  in  their  declining  years.  God  grant.  Comrades,  that  the  aegis  of  Virginia  may 
ever  protect  yours  and  mine,  until  we,  like  our  old  Commander,  shall  be  called  from 
earth  to  greet  the  spirits  of  Lee,  Jackson  and  Steuart. 

We,  the  surviving  members  of  Company  C,  49th  Virginia  Regiment,  deem  it  meet 
to  express  our  appreciation  of  our  friend  and  beloved  Commander,  the  late  Gen. 
William  Smith,  who  endeared  himself  to  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen  not  only  in 
peace  but  in  war,  and  who  ardently  espoused  the  cause  of  the  South  in  council,  and 
when  the  time  for  action  was  forced  upon  us  was  found  in  the  ranks  bravely  battling 
for  our  rights.  In  his  fidelity  to  the  land  and  people  he  loved,  he  poured  out  his 
blood  to  consecrate  the  principles  he  taught,  and  offered  to  lay  his  life  on  the  altar 
of  liberty.  Grand  old  hero !  Nobly  performed  he  the  duties  of  life,  and  cherished 
will  be  his  memory,  his  example,  his  fame.  In  his  sacred  ashes  Hollywood  holds  an 
inspiring  shrine.     Be  it  therefore  resolved  : 

First.  That  in  the  death  of  Gov.  William  Smith  we  feel  that  we  have  lost  a  dear 
friend  whom  we  delighted  to  honor,  our  country  a  valued,  useful  and  most  distin- 
guished citizen,  our  State  one  of  her  most  eminent  leaders,  brightest  orators  and 
truest  defenders. 

Second.  That  we  tender  our  sympathy  to  his  bereaved  family,  and  direct  that  the 
original  of  these  proceedings  be  presented  to  them  as  our  testimonial,  and  that  a  copy 
be  furnished  to  the  county  papers  for  publication. 

W.  15.  TOMPKINS,  Secretary.  J.  A.  PlLCHER,  Chairman. 

It  is  not  extravagant  to  say  that  the  above  tribute  is  a 
representative  expression  of  the  reciprocal  affection  and  ad- 
miration that  existed  between  commander  and  soldier  of 
regiment  and  brigade  as  lon^r  as  those  relations  subsisted  be- 
tween  Gen.  Smith  and  his  officers  and  men.  They  ever  after 
cherished  the  warmest  esteem  for  each  other. 

The  following  editorial  sketch  from  the  Richmo?id  Dispatch 
of  May  19th,  1887,  of  the  life  and  career  of  Governor  Smith, 
by  a  political  contemporary,  is  as  accurate  as  it  is  elegant  : 

EX-GOVERNOR    WILLIAM    SMITH. 

A  great  man  has  fallen  in  Virginia.  A  statesman,  soldier,  and  patriot  has  passed 
to  his  rest.  Ex-Governor  William  Smith  died  at  his  home,  near  Warrenton,  yester- 
day morning,  aged  four-score  years  and  tin.  thus  closing  a  life  than  which  few  have 
been  more  crowded  with  incidents,  and  fewer  still  have  been  fuller  of  honors.  It  is 
notour  purpose  to  attempt  a  biography  of  Governor  Smith.  That  would  involve 
attempting  a  review  oi  the  political  history  of  Virginia  for  two-thirds  of  a  century. 
Within  the  period  named  there  is  hardly  an  important  event  bearing  upon  the  poli- 
tics of  the  State  with  which  his  name  is  not  associated  prominently  and  honorably. 
We  therefore  give  only  the  principal  data  in  his  career,  leaving  it  for  the  Virginia 
political  historian  to  build  in  its  grand  proportions  that  monument  to  his  memory 
which  his  influence  in  shaping  the  destinies  of  the  Commonwealth  entitles  him  to. 
We  furnish  only  a  few  threads  to  aid  in  weaving  the  chaplet  of  cypress  and  laurel- 
leaves  which  t"  day  Virginia,  the  mother  he  so  loved  and  honored  and  served,  would 
lay  upon  his  grave.  Governor  Smith  was  born  in  King  George  county,  Va.,  Septem- 
ber 6.    1797.      In    1S11    he   was  sent    to   Plainheld,    Conn.,    in   order  to  commence  an 


95 

academic  career,  but  in  December  of  the  following  year  he  was  ordered  home  in  con- 
sequence of  his  application  to  his  father  to  get  for  him  a  warrant  in  the  navy.  For 
several  years  he  went  to  fine  classical  schools.  After  becoming  well  grounded  in  the 
classics  lie  began  the  study  of  law,  reading  first  with  Green  and  Williams,  of  Fred- 
ericksburg, then  with  T.  L.  Moore,  of  Warrenton,  and  finally  with  the  elder  General 
Winder,  of  Baltimore.  In  August,  1818,  when  in  his  twenty  first  year,  he  settled  in 
the  county  of  Culpeper  and  commenced  the  practice  of  law.  Culpeper  was  closely 
divided  in  politics,  with  the  speaking  talent,  as  a  rule,  in  the  ranks  of  the  opposition 
party.  Governor  Smith  was  an  ardent  and  devoted  Democratic  Republican.  At 
that  early  age  he  formulated  what  he  called  his  political  trinity,  from  which  he  never 
swerved  to  the  hour  of  his  death.  That  trinity  was  "strict  construction,  frugality  in 
the  public  expenditures,  and  honesty  in  the  public  servant."  He  was  soon  called  to 
take  the  stump,  and  his  aggressiveness  and  talents  as  a  speaker  almost  immediately 
raised  him  to  the  position  of  a  leader.  For  eighteen  years  his  voice  was  heard  in 
every  canvass,  but  during  all  that  time  he  never  sought  to  be  a  candidate  for  any 
office.  It  was  along  in  this  period  of  his  life  that  he  undertook  contracts  for  carrying 
the  United  States  mails,  which  finally  led  to  his  sobriquet  of  "Extra  Billy"  Smith. 
This  grew  out  of  his  perfectly  legitimate  demands  of  extra  pay  for  extra  services. 
In  1836,  however,  in  the  face  of  his  earnest  protest  he  was  nominated  for  the  State 
Senate.  He  declined,  but  was  re-nominated,  his  acceptance  demanded,  and  he  was 
elected.  He  served  out  his  term  of  four  years,  and  was  again  nominated,  and  after 
serving  one  year  of  his  second  term  resigned.  In  1841  he  was  elected  to  Congress. 
His  term  expired  in  1843,  and  having  been,  under  the  congressional  reapportion- 
ment based  on  the  census  of  1840,  thrown  into  a  district  hopelessly  Whig,  Governor 
Smith  announced  his  retirement  from  politics  and  moved  to  Warrenton  for  the  pur- 
pose of  educating  his  children  and  resuming  the  practice  of  law.  But  it  was  not  des- 
tined that  his  political  career  should  terminate  here.  Virginia  had  other  and  higher 
honors  for  him.  His  party  had  other  battles  for  him  to  fight.  There  were  other  vic- 
tories for  him  to  win.  In  1845  he  was  elected  Governor  of  the  State  by  the  Legisla- 
ture, his  term  commencing  January  1,  1846.  He  served  in  the  gubernatorial  office  for 
three  years,  and  in  1850  went  to  California,  where,  soon  after  his  arrival,  he  was 
elected  president  of  the  first  Democratic  convention  ever  held  in  that  State.  In  1852 
he  returned  to  Virginia,  and  in  the  year  following  was  a  candidate  for  Congress,  was 
elected,  and  served  four  successive  terms.  When  the  war  broke  out,  although  Gov. 
Smith  was  sixty-four  years  of  age,  he  offered  his  services  to  the  State,  and  was  com- 
missioned by  Governor  Letcher  colonel  of  the  Forty-ninth  regiment  of  Virginia  vol- 
unteers. Governor  Smith's  regiment  was  known  to  every  man  in  the  army  of  North- 
ern Virginia  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  organizations  in  that  army.  The  old 
hero  had  no  idea  of  discipline  and  less  of  military  tactics,  but  a  braver  commander 
and  braver  man  never  faced  an  enemy.  His  "Come  on,  Forty-ninth,"  has  become 
historic.  His  leonine  courage  inspired  both  devotion  and  confidence,  and  where  the 
Forty-ninth  would  not  go  no  other  set  of  men  would  dare  go.  The  writer  once  heard 
a  member  of  the  Richmond  Howitzers  remark  :  "I  saw  the  Forty-ninth  follow  the  old 
man  into  a  place  where  I  did  not  think  a  mosquito  could  live."  Governor  Smith 
was  elected  from  camp  a  member  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  but  stayed  in  that 
body  only  one  session.  He  was  eager  to  get  back  to  the  field.  He  returned  to  his 
regiment  in  1862,  was  shortly  thereafter  made  a  Brigadier-General,  and  subsequently 
promoted  to  a  Major-Generalship.  He  was  severely  wounded  in  battle,  and  in  1863 
was  elected  by  the  people  of  Virginia  Governor  of  the  State,  which  position  he  held 
when  the  flag  of  the  Confederacy  went  down  in  darkness  and  tears  and  despair  at 
Appomattox.  After  the  war  the  Federal  Government  put  a  price  upon  Governor 
Smith's  head.  He  escaped  to  Danville,  thence  to  Lexington,  and  finally  came  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Richmond.  Having  remained  in  this  vicinity  about  two  weeks  he 
concluded,  as  he  remarked,  that  he  would  not  strain  the  virtue  of  his  follow-citizens 
any  further,  and  rode  into  the  city  and  gave  himself  up.     We  believe,  however,  that 


96 

he  was  immediately  given  his  liberty,  and  that  no  action  was  taken  against  him  by 
United  States  authorities,  as  indeed  there  certainly  ought  not  to  have  been.  Since 
the  war  he  served  one  term  in  the  Legislature. 

Governor  Smith  was  a  man  of  firm  religious  convictions,  of  granitic  integrity,  of 
courtly  manner,  and  the  most  chivalrous  instincts.  He  gave  to  whatever  cause  he 
espoused  his  every  energy.  He  was  a  generous  foe,  and  his  admiration  for  woman 
amounted  to  worship.  This  latter  was  the  most  beautiful  of  his  many  splendid  attri- 
butes. Never  was  there  a  time  when  the  word  woman  was  powerless  to  bring  from 
his  lips  some  pure  and  reverential  sentiment :  never  was  there  a  time  when  this  nine- 
teenth-century knight  would  not  have  risked  his  life  and  broken  a  lance  for  the  hum- 
blest of  the  weaker  sex.  He  was  a  Virginian  of  Virginians.  To  him  his  mother 
State  was  all  that  was  good  and  great  and  noble.  His  last  years  were  a  beautiful 
reminder  that  "age  is  not  all  decay  ;  it  is  the  ripening,  the  swelling  of  the  fresh  life 
within,  that  withers  and  bursts  the  husk."  He  went  down  to  the  grave  leaning  upon 
"  a  staff  of  honor"  jeweled  with  his  own  good  deeds,  his  public  services,  and  the 
admiration  and  respect  of  his  follow-men. 

Among  the  interesting  and  gossipy  incidents  gathered  by 
the  Rambler  of  The  State,  there  appears  the  following  charac- 
teristic anecdote  : 

Since  the  death  of  the  lamented  ex-Governor  Smith,  the  newspapers  have  pub- 
lished many  interesting  stories  about  the  great  commoner.  I  heard  a  soldier 
relate  one  to-day  which  I  have  never  seen  in  any  of  the  sketches  of  the  old  man's 
life.  At  the  battle  of  either  the  first  or  second  Manassas  the  ex-Governor,  who  had 
not  then  won  the  high  military  title  which  he  afterwards  earned,  was  in  the  thickest 
of  the  fight.  It  was  an  exceedingly  hot  day,  and  he  sat  upon  a  white  horse  holding 
above  his  head  a  big  umbrella.  The  commanding  officer,  who  was  a  short  distance 
away,  spied  the  white  horse  and  the  big  umbrella,  and  instantly  inquired,  "Who  is 
that  officer  with  the  umbrella  raised?"  "It  is  Lieut.  (!)  Smith,"  came  the  answer. 
"Go  tell  him  to  lower  that  umbrella,  and  that  I  say  he  is  making  himself  a  target  for 
the  whole  Vankee  army." 

The  order  was  carried,  and  the  umbrella  went  down.  Presently  it  was  raised 
again,  and  immediately  afterwards  the  order  was  again  given  by  the  general  in  com- 
mand :  "Direct  Col.  Smith  to  lower  that  umbrella."  The  old  Governor  received 
the  order,  but  added,  after  saying,  "  I  can't  tell  what's  going  on  for  the  sun;  tell  Gen. 

I  will   lower  my  umbrella,  but  I  do  it  under  protest."     The  umbrella  was 

laid  aside,  and  the  brave  old  ex-Governor  sheltering  his  eyes  from  the  burning  sun 
with  the  brim  of  his  hat  stood  there  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  and  nerved  up  his  men 
by  his  own  bravery. 

The  following  article  is  from  a  Texas  paper  : 

Slowly  but  surely  the  old  landmarks  of  our  political  life  are  passing  away.  The 
men  who  made  OUT  history  tor  the  past  fifty  years,  with  its  lights  and  shadows,  its 
wisdom  and  folly  and  its  gravity  and  eccentricities  are,  one  by  one,  falling  into  the 
grave  and  leaving  behind  them  only  memories  of  what  they  have  been.  One  of  the 
last  and  most  prominent  figures  was  ex-Governor  William  Smith,  of  Virginia,  who 
was  known  popularly  as  "  Extra  Billy,"  who  died  at  his  home  at  Warrenton  a  few  days 
ago.  He  had  nearly  reached  his  ninetieth  year,  and  the  history  of  his  long  and  busy 
life  is  full  of  incident.  The  pseudonym  "Extra  Billy"  was  earned  when  he  was  a 
mail  contractor  between  Washington  city  and  Milledgeville,  Ga.,  an  enterprise 
beginning  in  1S31,  in  which  he  amassed  a  snug  fortune.     In   1S34  a  noted  attack  was 


97 

made  upon  the  administration  of  W.  T.  Barry,  then  Postmaster-General.  In  the 
rapid  development  of  the  postal  facilities  of  the  Southern  country,  the  expenditures 
of  the  department  were  largely  increased.  In  the  Blue  Book,  or  official  register  of 
the  United  States  Government,  the  salaries  or  compensation  of  its  officers  or  contract- 
ors' compensation,  for  instance,  of  additional  service  ordered  to  be  performed,  is 
indicated  by  an  asterisk.  Every  extra  allowance  beyond  the  stipulations  of  the  orig- 
inal contract  was  thus  designated.  As  the  route  of  Mr.  Smith  was  one  of  rapid  devel- 
opement,  his  entries  of  service  were  abundantly  thus  marked.  The  circumstance 
was  noted  in  debate  by  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  from  Virginia,  who,  without  calling 
the   name   of   Mr.  Smith,  yet   affixed   upon    him    the    life-long  sobriquet   of  "Extra 

YHis  history  is  not  confined  to  the  mail  contracting  business.  In  1818,  when  he  was 
twenty-one  years  old,  he  settled  at  Culpeper  and  began  legal  practice.     At  the  same 
time  he  eagerly  entered  the  political  arena  as  a  vigorous  and  favorite  exponent  of 
Democratic   doctrine.     He  was   a   firm    believer   in   strict   construction,  frugality  in 
public  expenditure  and  honesty  in  the  public  servant.    During  eighteen  years  he  took 
active  part  in  all  political  campaigns  without  being  a  candidate  for  any  public  position. 
In  1830,  against  his  own  wishes,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  State  Senate  for  four 
years.     He  was  re-elected  for  another  four  years'  term,  but  resigned  after  serving 
one  year.     He  was  the  representative  of  his  district  in  the  Congress  which  expired  in 
March,  1843.     Under  the  reapportionment  of  that  year  the  district  was  so  arranged  as 
to    give   it   a  large  Whig   majority.     Mr.  Smith    then   removed  to  Warrenton  and  re- 
sumed active  wo"rk  in  his  profession.     I  a  letter  written  three  years  ago  Governor 
Smith  thus  describes  his  first  election  as  Governor  of  the  Old  Dominion:   "Everything 
was  going  well  with  me,  when,  in  December,  1845,  having  just  returned  from  one  of 
my  courts,  I  was  addressed  by  one  of  my  friends  as  Governor  Smith.     I  asked  him 
what  he  meant  by  thus  addressing  me.     He  said  that  I  was  the  Governor-elect  of  Vir- 
ginia.    I  replied  that  I  trusted  it  was  not  so,  but  so  it  proved.     The  Legislature  at 
that  time  elected  our  Governor,  and,  without  having  the  idea  suggested  to  me  by  a 
human  being,  I  found  myself  elected  Governor  for  three  years  from  January  1,  1846. 
The  salary  was  wholly  inadequate  to  support  the  proper  hospitalities  of  the  position. 
I  had  no  private  fortune  to  supply  the  deficiency,  and  public  opinion  would  not  allow 
the  Governor  to  practice  his  profession.     I  wrote  to  my  friends  that  they  had  placed 
me  in  a  cruel  dilemma  ;  that  I  wanted  bread  and  they  gave  me  a  stone  ;  that  I  should 
have  to  decline  the  high  position  to  which  they  had  elected  me.     There  was  no  help 
for  it.     But  I  did  accept,  served  out  my  term  and  returned  to  my  home. "In  April, 
1852,  Governor   Smith   sailed    for   California,  and   on    reaching  San  Francisco   an- 
nounced himself  ready  for  legal  practice.     He  was,  without  previous  notice  to  him  or 
solicitation  on  his  part,  made  president  of  the  first  Democratic  State  Convention  held 
in  the  new  State.     David  Broderick,  afterward  United  States  Senator  from  California, 
became  jealous  of  Mr.  Smith's  influence  in  the  party.     The  quarrel  resulted  in  a  duel 
between  Broderick  and  James  Caleb  Smith,   a  son  of   the  Governor,  who  had  pre- 
ceded his  father  in  emigrating  to  the  new  Eldorado.     It  took  place  at  Sacramento  and 
was  witnessed  by  5,000  people,  Governor  Smith  being  one  of  the  spectators.    Accord- 
ing   to   the   rules  of  the  code   each  was  to   surrender   all   articles   from  his    pockets. 
Broderick,  drawing  his  watch  from  his  fob  pocket,  offered  to  surrender  that  if  Smith 
so  desired,  but  Smith  intimating  that  it  was  immaterial,  Broderick  restored  it  to  his 
fob.     Smith  put  four  balls  through  Broderick's  watch  and  cut  the  chain  with  another. 
Smith  was  untouched  and  Broderick  uninjured.     The  watch  was  hung  up  in  a  public 
place  in  Sacramento.     Governor  Smith  returned  to  Virginia  in  the  autumn  of  1854. 
In  March,  1855,  he  was  elected  to  Congress  and  served  four  successive  terms.     In 
June,   1861,  he  was  commissioned  Colonel  of  the  Forty-ninth  Virginia  Confederate 
Volunteers,  and  was  soon  after  elected  from  his  camp  a  member  of  the  Confederate 
Congress,  in  which  he  served  one  session,  resigning  in  May,  1862,  to  return  to  his 
military  command,  being  soon  after  promoted  as  Brigadier  and  Major-General.     In 


98 

1863  he  was  elected  by  the  people  Governor  for  a  term  of  four  years,  from  January 
I,  1864.  Since  the  war  he  has  served  one  term  in  the  State  House  of  Delegates  for  a 
special  purpose.  At  the  age  of  sixty-four  he  entered  the  Confederate  service  and 
among  a  host  of  brave  men  distinguished  himself  signally  by  his  coolness,  courage 
and  bravery  on  the  battle-field.  He  will  be  long  remembered  as  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable men  of  the  century. 

[From  the  New  York  Sun.] 

GOVERNOR    SMITH    DEAD. 

A    MAN    WHO   WAS    ELECTED   GOVERNOR    OF   VIRGINIA    IN    SPITE    OF    HIMSELF. 

Warrenton,  Va.,  May  18. — Ex-Governor  William  Smith,  popularly  known  as 
"Extra  Billy"  Smith,  died  at  his  home,  near  this  place,  to-day,  in  the  90th  year  of 
his  age. 

Governor  Smith  was  born  in  King  George  county,  Va.,  on  Sept.  6,  1797.  After 
receiving  a  classical  education  in  Connecticut  and  Virginia  schools  he  studied  law, 
first  in  Virginia  and  later  in  Baltimore.  In  1818  ho  began  to  practice  his  profession 
in  Culpeper  county,  in  his  native  State,  and  immediately  interested  himself  in  politics. 
After  serving  the  Democracy  as  a  stump-speaker  in  a  dozen  campaigns,  he  was 
elected  to  the  State  Senate  by  his  party  in  1836.  There  he  served  five  years,  next 
entering  the  political  arena  in  1841  in  a  triangular  contest  for  a  seat  in  Congress.  He 
was  elected  and  served  his  term  ;  but  at  its  close  found  that  a  reapportionment  had 
made  his  district  strongly  Whig.  Then  he  removed  to  Fauquier  county,  where,  in 
December,  1845,  having  just  returned  from  one  of  his  courts,  he  was  addressed  by 
one  of  his  friends  as  "Gov.  Smith."  He  asked  what  was  meant  by  this,  and  was  told 
that  he  was  Governor-elect  of  Virginia.  The  Legislature  had  elected  him  Governor 
for  three  years  from  the  first  of  January,  1846,  without  even  consulting  him.  The 
salary  was  wholly  inadequate  to  support  the  proper  hospitalities  of  the  position.  He 
had  no  private  fortune  to  supply  the  deficiency,  and  public  opinion  would  not  allow 
the  Governor  to  practice  his  profession.  He  accepted  the  honor,  however,  and  filled 
out  his  term  of  three  years. 

In  1852  Governor  Smith  went  to  California,  and  was  president  of  the  first  Demo- 
cratic Convention  held  in  that  State.  Within  a  year  he  was  back  to  Virginia,  and  in 
1855  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  where  he  remained  until  1861.  In  June  of  that  year 
he  was  commissioned  Colonel  of  the  Forty-ninth  Virginia  Volunteers,  and  soon  after 
was  elected  to  the  Confederate  Congress.  He  resigned  his  seat  a  year  later  for  the 
more  active  duties  of  the  field,  and  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Major- General,  re- 
ceiving a  serious  wound  at  Antietam.  He  was  elected  Governor  again  in  1863  for  a 
term  of  four  years.  After  the  war  Governor  Smith's  connection  with  politics  was 
less  active,  but  he  served  one  term  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates.  During  his 
long  life  he  was  prominent  in  many  other  ways  than  as  a  politician,  one  of  his 
achievements  while  yet  a  young  man  being  the  establishment  of  a  line  of  post 
coaches  through  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia.  He  contracted  to  carry  the 
mails  in  these  coaches,  and  his  demand  for  extra  compensation  gave  him  the  nick- 
name of  "Extra  Billy,"  which  clung  to  him  until  his  death. 

[From  the  Madison  Chronicle,  Nebraska.] 
WAR    REMINISCENCES. 

Ex-Governor  William  Smith,  of  Virginia,  who  on  Sunday  entered  upon  his  nine- 
tieth year,  is  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  his  mental  and  physical  powers,  and  personally 
superintends  operations  on  his  300-acre  farm  at  Warrenton. — Ex. 

Reading  the  above  item  brings  to  mind  some  old  war  reminiscences  which  have 
never  been  published,  and  which  may  be  of  interest  to  our  readers.     When  General 


99 

Pope  took  command  of  the  armies  of  Virginia,  and  was  re-organizing  the  same,  Gen. 
McDowell's  corps  (the  old  first  army  corps)  was  quartered  in  the  vicinity  of  Warren- 
ton,  and  McDowell's    headquarters  were   established   in  ex-Governor   Smith's  resi- 
dence—occupying the  library,  which  was  a  large  front  room  on  the  lower  floor,  just 
to  the  left  of  the  main  hall  entrance.     The  building  was  a  large,  plain,  substantial 
two-story  brick,  and  about  the  last  building  on  Culpeper  street.     At  that  time  "  Extra 
Billy,"  as  he  was  familiarly  called  by  the  old  inhabitants,  was  Colonel  of  the  49th 
Virginia  Confederate  Infantry.     We  occupied  this  library  while  the  corps  remained 
in  the  vicinity  of  Warrenton,  while  the  family  occupied  the  balance  of  the  mansion. 
The  writer  hereof  was  then  on  detached  duty,  among  others,  at  headquarters  as  clerk. 
While  there  one  of  the  clerks  was  taken  sick,  and  Mrs.  Smith,  learning  of  the  fact, 
insisted  on  his  being  taken  to  a  room,  put  into  a  comfortable  bed,  and  properly  cared 
for.     (The  clerks  were  sleeping  on  the  floor  of  the  library,  with  their  army  blankets 
for  bedding.)  The  patient,  under  the  kind  and  attentive  nursing  of  Mrs.  Smith  and 
her  attendants,  was  soon  convalescent.     When  the  army  was  ordered  to  advance, 
and  we  were  packing  up,  Mrs.  Smith  came  out  to  bid  the  "  boys  "  good  bye,  and  said 
if  we  ever  happened  in  Warrenton  again  we  must  be  sure  and  call  on  her.     We  asked 
her  in  a  half  joking  manner,  if  she  would  not  like  to  see  us  coming  back  with  Stone- 
wall Jackson  after  us  ?     "  No  "  said  she,  "I  really  wish  no  harm  to  you  ;  you  have  all 
acted  like  gentlemen  while  here,  and  when  I  meet  gentlemen  I  always  treat  them  as 
such."    Thus  we  bid  Mrs.  Smith  a  pleasant  good-bye,  and  moved  onward.    The  army 
advanced.     The    battle  of   Cedar   Mountain  soon   followed.     Then  came  the   flank 
movement  of  General  Lee,  the  retreat  of  Pope's  army,  the  series  of   engagements 
along  the  Rappahannock,  the  battles  of  Groveton,  Gainsville,  and  Second  Bull  Run, 
in  rapid  succession,  the  final  retreat  within  the  fortifications  of  Washington,  the  cross- 
ing of  the  Potomac  into  Maryland  at  Point  of  Rocks  by  Lee's  army,  the  rallying  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  under  General  McClellan,  the  battles  of  South  Mountain 
and  Antietam,  and  retreat  of  Lee  up  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  while  McClellan's  army 
advanced  on  the  east  side  of  the  Blue  Ridge.     At  Warrenton  the  army  again  halted, 
where   McClellan  was  removed   and  Burnside  put   in  command.     During   this  halt 
some  of  the  clerks  who  were  formerly  at  McDowell's  headquarters,  accepted  the  in- 
vitation previously  extended  by  Mrs.  Smith  and  called  on  her.     They  were  cordially 
received,  but  ascertained  while  there  that  Colonel  Smith,  her  husband,  had  been  se- 
verely wounded  at  Antietam,  and  was  then  in  the  house,  perhaps  on  his  death  bed. 
Mrs.  Smith  requested  that  nothing  be  said  by  "our  boys  "  of  the  presence  of  her  hus- 
band, for  fear  he  might  be  taken  prisoner  by  the  "Yankees,"  and  die  from  exposure 
or  want  of  proper  nursing.     From  a  sense  of  high  esteem  the  boys  held  for  Mrs. 
Smith  in  her  kindness  to  them  a  few  months  previous,  her  request  was  complied  with. 
Colonel  Smith's  presence  at  home  was  not  reported  to  the  Union  officers,  and  under 
the  tender  care  of  a  loving  wife  he  was  nursed  back  to  health. 

He  afterward  (we  believe  the  following  year)  was  again  elected  to  the  Governor- 
ship of  Virginia— having  served  a  term  in  the  gubernatorial  chair  before  the  war. 
This  is  thekist  we  have  heard  of  him  until  the  above  item  caught  our  eye,  which 
brought  up  all  these  old  war  recollections. 

We  have  nothing  but  the  kindest  feelings  for  the  old  hero,  and  for  Mrs.  Smith, 
whether  she  be  living  or  dead,  we  shall  ever  remember  as  one  of  those  human  angels 
who  could  so  overcome  her  personal  prejudices  as  to  minister  to  the  wants  and  com- 
forts of  her  "enemies  "  while  they  were  her  unwelcome  guests. 

While  there  was  much  retaliation  for  cruelty  and  insult  during  that  unfortunate 
struggle,  there  were  also  many  acts  of  kindness  extended  and  reciprocated  which 
have  never  been  told. 

The  following  just  tributes  from  the  Nebraska,  New  York 
and    Pennsylvania   papers    deserve    an    insertion    in    these 


100 

memoirs  to  show  the  character  and  extent  of  the  name  and 
fame  of  Governor  Smith  in  those  States,  as  statesman  and 
soldier. 

[From  the  New  Y'.rk  Herald.] 

a  noted  Virginian's  extraordinary  public  career — civil 
and  military  service — state  senator,  governor,  member 
of  congress  and  confederate  general. 

Ex-Governor  William  Smith,  of  Virginia,  long  familiarly  known  as  "  Extra  Billy," 
died  at  his  home  in  Warrenton,  Va.,  yesterday  morning  at  twenty  minutes  to  eight 
o'clock.  If  his  life  had  been  spared  until  September  6  he  would  have  completed  the 
ninetieth  year  of  his  age.  For  three  score  and  ten  years  he  has  been  very  promi- 
nently identified  with  State  and  National  politics  and  excelled  as  a  debater  upon  the 
hustings.  He  was  twice  Governor  of  his  native  State,  his  second  term  covering  the 
notable  last  years  of  the  civil  war.  At  the  age  of  sixty-four  he  entered  the  Confed- 
erate army  and  distinguished  himself  for  his  sublime  daring  on  the  battlefield.  He 
was  badly  wounded  at  Sharpsburg,  and  afterward  made  Brigadier-General,  achieving 
for  himself  and  his  brigade  great  distinction. 

HIS    EARLY    LIFE. 

Governor  Smith  was  born  in  King  George  county.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he 
was  sent  to  Plainfield,  Conn.,  to  commence  his  academic  career,  but  was  ordered 
home  a  year  later  in  consequence  of  his  expressed  wish  to  secure  a  position  in  the 
Federal  navy.  He  subsequently  attended  classical  schools  in  Virginia.  His  legal 
studies  were  prosecuted  at  Fredericksburg  and  Warrenton,  Va.,  and  finished  in  the 
office  of  General  Winder,  of  Baltimore,  Md.  In  1818,  when  he  was  twenty-one  years 
old,  he  settled  at  Culpeper  and  began  legal  practice.  At  the  same  time  he  eagerly 
entered  the  political  arena  as  a  vigorous  and  favorite  exponent  of  Democratic  doc- 
trine. He  was  a  firm  believer  in  strict  construction,  frugality  in  public  expenditure 
and  honesty  in  the  public  servant.  During  eighteen  years  he  took  active  part  in  all 
political  campaigns  without  being  a  candidate  for  any  public  position.  In  1836, 
against  his  own  wishes,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  State  Senate  for  four  years. 
He  was  re-elected  for  another  four  years'  term,  but  resigned  after  serving  one  year. 
He  was  the  representative  of  his  district  in  the  Congress  which  expired  in  March, 
1843.  Under  the  re-apportionment  of  that  year  the  district  was  so  arranged  as  to  give 
it  a  large  Whig  majority.  Mr.  Smith  then  removed  to  Warrenton  and  resumed  active 
work  in  his  profession  in  order,  as  he  said,  to  educate  his  children  and  rebuild  his 
fortune,  which  had  become  impaired  during  his  previous  political  career. 

FIRST   ELECTION    AS   GOVERNOR. 

In  a  letter  written  three  years  ago  Governor  Smith  thus  describes  his  first  election 
as  Governor  of  the  <  >ld  Dominion  :  '•  Everything  was  going  well  with  me,  when  in 
December,  1845,  having  just  returned  from  one  of  my  courts,  I  was  addressed  by  one 
of  my  friends  as  Governor  Smith.  I  asked  him  what  he  meant  by  thus  addressing 
me.  He  said  that  I  was  the  Governor-elect  of  Virginia.  I  replied  I  trusted  it  was 
not  so,  but  so  it  proved.  The  Legislature  at  that  time  elected  our  Governor,  and, 
without  having  the  idea  suggested  to  me  by  a  human  being,  I  found  myself  elected 
Governor  for  three  years  from  the  first  of  January,  1846.  The  salary  was  wholly  in- 
adequate to  support  the  proper  hospitalities  of  the  position.  I  had  no  private  fortune 
to  supply  the  deficiency,  and  public  opinion  would  not  allow  the  Governor  to  practice 
his  profession.  I  wrote  to  my  friends  that  they  had  placed  me  in  a  cruel  dilemma  ; 
that  I  wanted  bread  and  they  gave  me  a  stone  ;  that  I  should  have  to  decline  the  high 


101 


position  to  which  they  had  elected  me.     There  was  no  help  for  it.     But  I  did  accept, 
served  out  my  term  and  returned  to  my  home." 


THE   CALIFORNIA    EPISODE. 


In  April  1851,  Governor  Smith  sailed  for  California,  and  on  reaching  San  Fran- 
cisco announced  himself  ready  for  legal  practice.  He  was,  without  previous  notice 
to  him  or  solicitation  on  his  part,  made  President  of  the  first  Democratic  State  Con- 
vention held  in  the  new  State.  David  Broderick,  afterward  United  States  Senator 
from  California,  became  jealous  of  Mr.  Smith's  influence  in  the  party.  The  quarrel 
resulted  in  a  duel  between  Broderick  and  James  Caleb  Smith,  a  son  of  the  Governor, 
who  had  preceded  his  father  in  emigrating  to  the  new  Eldorado.  It  took  place  at 
Sacramento,  and  was  witnessed  by  five  thousand  people,  Governor  Smith  be.ng  one 
of  the  spectators.  According  to  the  rules  of  the  code  each  was  to  surrender  all  arti- 
cles from  his  pockets.  Broderick,  drawing  his  watch  from  his  fob  pocket,  offered  to 
surrender  that  if  Smith  so  desired,  but  Smith  intimating  that  it  was  immatenal,  Brod- 
erick restored  it  to  his  fob.  Smith  put  four  balls  through  Broderick's  watch  and  cut 
the  chain  with  another.  Smith  was  untouched  and  Broderick  uninjured.  The  watch 
was  hung  up  in  a  public  place  in  Sacramento. 


HOME   AGAIN. 


Governor  Smith  returned  to  Virginia  in  the  autumn  of  1852.  In  March,  1853,  he 
was  elected  to  Congress,  and  served  four  successive  terms.  In  June,  1861,  he  was 
commissioned  Colonel  of  the  Forty-ninth  Virginia  Confederate  Volunteers,  and  was 
soon  after  elected  from  his  camp  a  member  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  in  which 
he  served  one  session,  resigning  in  May,  1862,  to  return  to  his  military  command, 
being  soon  after  promoted  as  Brigadier  and  Major-General.  In  1863  he  was  elected, 
by  the  people,  Governor,  for  a  term  of  four  years,  from  January  1,  1864.  Since  the 
war  he  has  served  one  term  in  the  State  House  of  Delegates  for  a  special  purpose. 

"EXTRA    BILLY." 

Mr  Smith  was  given  the  prefix  "Extra  Billy"  while  he  was  a  mail  contractor 
between  Washington  citv  and  Milledgeville,  Ga.,  an  enterprise  beginning  in  1831,  in 
which  he  amassed  a  snug  fortune.  In  1834  a  noted  attack  was  made  upon  the  admin- 
istration of  W.  T.  Barrv,  then  Postmaster-General.  In  the  rapid  development  of  the 
postal  facilities  of  the  Southern  country  the  expenditures  of  the  department  were 
largely  increased.  In  the  Blue  Book,  or  Official  Register  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment the  salaries  or  compensations  of  its  officers  or  contractors'  compensation,  for 
instance  of  additional  service  ordered  to  be  performed,  is  indicated  by  an  asterisk. 
Every  extra  allowance  beyond  the  stipulations  of  the  original  contract  was  desig- 
nated As  the  route  of  Mr.  Smith  had  one  rapid  development,  his  entries  of  service 
were  abundantly  thus  marked.  The  circumstance  was  noted  in  debate  by  United 
States -Senator  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  from  Virginia,  who,  without  calling  the 
name  of  Mr.   Smith,  yet  affixed'upon  him  the  life  long  sobriquet  of  »  Extra  Billy. 

THE   BEREAVED   FAMILY. 

Two  sons  and  a  daughter  survive  Governor  Smith.  The  elder  son,  Colonel 
Thomas  Smith,  is  United  States  District  Attorney  of  New  Mexico.  Captain  Fredenck 
Smith  the  other  son,  is  a  prominent  citizen  of  Arizona  Territory.  William  Smith,  his 
eldest' son,  was,  while  serving  as  a  midshipman  in  the  United  States  Navy,  lost  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  Another  son,  Colonel  Austin  Smith,  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Seven 
Pines.  A  sister,  Mrs.  Maria  Johnson,  the  wife  of  the  Chaplain  of  Hampton's  brigade, 
died  in  South  Carolina  last  week. 

The  remains  of  Governor  Smith  will  be  carried  to  Richmond  on  Friday  and 
placed  in  the  family  vault  at  Hollywood  cemetery.  The  Board  of  Aldermen  of 
Warrenton  yesterday  afternoon  passed  resolutions  of  respect  to  his  memory,  and  last 


102 

night  the  citizens  generally  met  at  the  Court  House  to  testify  their  high  appreciation 
of  his  services  as  a  citizen,  statesman  and  patriot.  The  State  Legislature,  in  session 
at  Richmond,  adopted  resolutions  in  honor  of  his  great  public  services  and  private 

worth. 

[  From  the  Columbia  'Pa.    Democrat,  Oct.  11 .] 

EX-GOVERNOR    SMITH,    OF    VIRGINIA. 

This  able  champion  of  Democracy  and  honored  representative  of  the  old  Domin- 
ion, has  been  spending  a  few  days  in  Columbia  and  speaking  to  her  people.  Gov. 
Smith,  is  one  of  the  most  estimable  men  in  all  the  social  and  political  relations  of  lite 
with  whom  it  has  ever  been  our  fortune  to  associate.  Frank,  fearless  and  intelli- 
gent, plain  of  speech  and  honest  of  purpose,  he  is  at  once  a  model  specimen  of  the 
true  Virginia  gentleman.  Nor  is  this  all.  He  is  without  exception  the  most  logical 
reasoner,  ablest  debater  and  finest  orator  we  have  ever  heard  in  Northern  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Old  Virginia  may  indeed  be  proud  of  her  cherished  son  and  patriotic  statesman, 
upon  whom  she  has  bestowed  the  highest  honors  within  her  gift,  and  who  now  holds 
his  seat  in  the  National  Legislature  by  a  majority  of  over  6,000!  Never  have  we 
heard  a  man  before  treat  more  fully  and  fairly  all  the  issues  of  the  day,  than  did  Gov. 
Smith  in  all  the  thrilling  speeches  he  delivered  in  Columbia.  He  supports  Mr. 
Buchanan,  not  because  he  is  /re-slavery  or  <7////-slavery,  but  in  the  name  of  Democ- 
racy of  the  Old  Dominion  asks  only  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union.  Proudly  and  truthfully  can  he  point  to  the  history  of  his  State  to  prove  that 
she  has  done  more  for  the  cause  of  freedom  than  all  the  fanatics  who  revile  her. 
She  voted  in  the  Federal  convention  to  abolish  the  slave  trade  in  1800,  while  Mass- 
achusetts and  other  New  England  States  voted  to  continue  the  traffic  to  1808,  that  they 
might  make  money  in  propagating  slavery  by  their  commerce.  She  gave  the  North- 
west Territory  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  it  has  since  made  five  free  States. 
She  petitioned,  when  yet  a  colony,  to  the  British  Parliament  for  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade  out  of  which  the  New  Englanders  made  their  wealth. 

Gov.  Smith  labored  assiduously,  whilst  with  us,  and  did  yoeman's  service  in  the 
Democratic  cause.  The  thousands  who  heard  his  instructive  discourses  and  impress- 
ive eloquence,  will  long  cherish  the  recollection  as  a  treasured  reminiscence.  He 
spoke  on  Friday  afternoon  at  Rohrsburg  ;  on  Friday  evening  he  addressed  a  large 
meeting  in  the  Court  House  at  Bloomsburg.  On  Saturday  afternoon  he  addressed  a 
meeting  at  Cambria,  and  in  the  evening  another  one  at  Orangeville.  On  Monday 
afternoon  he  spoke  at  Berwick,  and  in  the  evening  at  Espytown.  On  Tuesday  he 
addressed  a  large  meeting  at  Mordansville  in  Mount  Pleasant,  and  on  Wednesday,  at 
Thomas  Parr's  Hotel,  in  Limestone,  Montour  county.  In  the  evening  before  leav- 
ing for  Virginia,  the  Governor  addressed  the  citizens  of  Danville,  in  the  Court  House, 
which  was  rilled  to  overflowing,  in  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  telling  speeches  ever 
delivered  within  that  Hall  of  Justice,  and  which  was  received  with  rounds  of  cheers 
and  applause. 

The  following-  is  from  the  pen  of  the  distinguished  poet 
and  scholar,  James  Barron  Hope. 

THE    SAGE    AND    VALIANT    DEAD. 

The  death  of  ex-Governor  William  Smith,  at  a  good  old  age,  has  already  been 
announced  to  our  readers  and  to  what  has  already  been  said,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
add  much  more.  The  deceased  had  been  a  prominent  and  noble  figure  in  making 
history,  and  there  was  little  need  of  any  biography  of  him  within  the  limits  of  his 
native  State.     He  was  a  man  of  singularly  frank  and  manly  spirit,  and  his  personal 


103 

valor  was  of  a  heroic  type.  Nothing  appalled  him,  and  while  he  despised  military- 
technicalities,  there  never  was  a  better  soldier  in  any  army  for  fortitude,  dash  and 
staying  power  than  Major-General  Smith.  In  civil  as  well  as  in  military  life  he  was 
an  honor  to  the  commonwealth,  and  his  ashes  most  appropriately  have  been 
consigned  to  the  bosom  of  beautiful  Hollywood,  among  the  sleeping  statesmen  and 
soldiers  by  whose  remains  they  are  surrounded. 

[From  the  Bristol  News,  Dec  14,  1875.] 

A  good  humored  rivalry  exists  between  ex-Governor  Smith,  of  Fauquier,  and 
Patrick  H.  McCaull,  of  Pulaski,  as  to  which  is  the  junior  member  of  the  House.  Both 
of  them  are  serving  for  their  first  time  as  Delegates,  and  although  the  former  is  aged 
seventy-eight  and  the  latter  twenty-three,  the  Governor  asserts  that  he  is  actually  the 
younger.  He  is  as  straight  as  an  arrow,  as  buoyant  as  a  game  cock  and  full  of  useful 
labor.  His  Democracy  is  purer  than  that  of  Andrew  Jackson  ;  his  bravery  and  dash 
were  not  surpassed  by  those  of  Stonewall  Jackson  during  the  war,  and  although  he 
celebrated,  several  years  since,  the  golden  anniversary  of  his  wedding,  he  says  the 
honeymoon  is  not  yet  over  with  him.  He  bids  fair  to  celebrate  his  centennial  birth- 
day, and  if  he  does,  the  historian  will  record  that,  while  his  was  the  longest,  it  was 
one  of  the  most  useful  and  brilliant  of  the  lives  of  the  public  men  of  Virginia. 

Virginia's  governors. 

In  an  interesting  contribution  to  the  Richmond  Dispatch 
styled  "  Virginia's  Governors,"  signed  "  X,"  we  find  the  fol- 
lowing relating  to  our  highly  esteemed  and  venerable  towns- 
man, ex-Governor  Smith. —  Warrenton    Virginian. 

Of  the  ante-bellum  Governors  of  Virginia,  William  Smith,  of  Fauquier,  is  the  only 
survivor.  His  life  has  been  one  continued  illustration  of  benevolence,  high  principles, 
able  purposes  and  stern  devotion  to  what  he  held  to  be  right — in  peace  and  in  war — 
at  home  and  abroad— at  the  family  fireside  and  in  the  political  arena.  Past  the 
period  allotted  to  the  reach  of  man,  even  "by  reason  of  great  strength,"  he  is  as 
straight  as  an  arrow  ;  walks  nimbly  as  a  youth,  with  mind  clear  as  a  bell.  For  more 
than  fifty  years  he  has  held  a  prominent  position  in  the  politics  of  the  State — again 
and  again  serving  the  people  in  their  councils  ;  and  when  long  passed  the  years  of 
military  service,  he  led  his  old  constituents  in  many  hard  fought  battles,  in  one  of 
which  he  was  desperately  wounded.  Bright  and  shining  as  his  public  record  has 
been,  his  home  record  is  yet  more  beautiful.  Never  father  loved  his  children  more 
devotedly  than  he.  No  man  was  ever  more  wrapped  up  than  he  in  the  wife  of  his 
bosom — his  comforter  in  the  toils  and  vicissitudes  of  his  earlier  life,  the  misfortunes 
of  maturer  years,  and  the  sharer  of  his  prosperity  and  honors.  He  was  always  as 
tenderly  attentive  to  her  as  mother  to  her  babe.  He  was  proud  of  her  for  her  many 
virtues,  and  as  the  vein  of  his  heart  he  hallows  her  memory.  Pure  as  an  angel  she 
lived,  happy  as  a  saint  she  died,  and  in  the  spirit  land  awaits  reunion  with  the  pride 
and  love  of  her  soul.  X 

In  the  same  paper,  a  few  days  later,  we  find  the  following 
from  Mr.  John  Pollard  : 

GOVERNOR    SMITH. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Dispatch. 

"X  gives  us  in  your  paper  a  very  interesting  account  of  the  Governors  of  Vir- 
ginia from  the  times  of  Lord  Delaware  to  the  present  day.     Very  handsome  and  very 


104 

just  is  his  tribute  to  the  venerable  William  Smith,  of  Fauquier,  who  walks  among  us 
as  the  sole  representative  of  those  eminent  citizens  occupying  the  gubernatorial  chair 
before  the  war  between  the  States.  In  enumerating  the  jewels  that  appear  in  this 
statesman's  civic  crown,  it  is  surprising  that  "X"  should  have  failed  to  notice  one 
which  is  as  resplendent  as  any  other — I  mean  his  temperance.  In  his  earlier  days  he 
was  often  before  the  people  as  a  candidate,  always  secured  the  office  for  which  he 
ran,  and  yet  never  found  out,  what  some  are  accustomed  to  allege,  that  no  man  can 
carry  an  election  without  treating  the  voters  to  intoxicating  liquors.  According  to 
a  communication  that  recently  appeared  in  your  columns,  at  his  receptions  when 
Governor  the  intoxicating  bowl  was  conspicuous  for  its  absence.  I  have  myself 
heard  him  say  that  he  has  refused — and  refused  without  [offense — to  drink  with  a 
President  of  the  United  States.  Before  many  an  assemblage  in  Virginia  and  elsewhere, 
he  has  pleaded  eloquently  for  temperance,  and  he  has  repeatedly  made  the  public 
declaration  that  he  regarded  it  as  the  highest  honor  of  his  life  to  be  permitted  to 
devote  to  this  good  cause  his  declining  years.  Whoever  shall  write  the  life  of 
William  Smith,  or  pronounce  his  eulogy,  or  prepare  his  epitaph — still  distant  be  the 
day  when  the  tomb  shall  bear  his  name — will  leave  the  task  very  incomplete  if  no 
allusion  is  made  to  his  practice  and  advocacy  of  temperance  through  a  long  and 
eventful  career.  John  Pollard. 

We  understand  that  Gov.  Smith,  was  born  in  the  county  of  King  George,  Vir- 
ginia, on  the  6th  day  of  September,  1797;  that  his  father,  Col.  Caleb  Smith,  was  also 
born  and  died  in  the  same  county,  as  his  father  was  born  before  him,  although  the 
county  was  then  called  Richmond.  Gov.  Smith's  mother  was  Mary  Waugh  Smith, 
and  was  born  in  the  county  of  Fauquier,  Virginia.  Her  mother  was  Elizabeth  Doni- 
phan, a  lineal  descendant  of  Alexander  Doniphan,  it  is  believed  in  the  family,  a 
Spaniard  by  birth,  who  having  married  Margaret  Mott,  a  Scotch  lady,  settled  in  the 
Northern  neck  of  Virginia  prior  to  1663,  with  his  wife's  father,  uncle  and  four  sisters. 
The  Smith  branch  of  the  family  did  not  come  into  the  country  until  1720,  when  Sir 
Sidney  Smith,  a  British  naval  officer  and  family,  and  Sir  Joseph  Anderson  and 
family  of  Wales,  settled  in  Richmond  county  then,  but  King  George  now.  These 
families  intermarried  and  thus  the  parents  of  Gov.  Smith,  both  Smith's  became  related. 

The  following  admirably  written  article  is  from  the  ready 
and  fluent  pen  of  a  gentleman  well  known  in  the  social  and 
political  circles  of  Richmond,  and  deserves  a  prominent  place 
in  these  memoirs  : 

DEATH    OF    EX-GOVERNOR    SMITH. 


THE  GREAT  COMMONER  PASSES  AWAY  AT  THE  AGE  OF  NINETY— SKETCH  OF  HIS  CAREER 
HIS  BIRTH-FLACK  AM)  EARLY  LIKE— AT  THE  KAK,  IN  THE  LEGISLATURE,  IN  CON- 
GRESS,   AND    TWICE    GOVERNOR    OF   VIRGINIA— HIS    POWER    OVER   THE    MASSES. 

[Written  for  the  Whig.] 

The  golden  chain  of  Virginia's  representative  men  which  connects  the  past  with 
the  present  time,  is  growing  shorter  every  day.  One  by  one  the  links  have  dropped 
out,  until  now  scarely  a  single  one  remains.  We  have  now  the  melancholy  duty  to 
perform  of  recording  the  loss  of  one  who  was  perhaps  the  most  shining  and  prominent 
link  of  this  glorious  group  of  Virginia's  worthies  in  this  generation. 

EX-GOVERNOR    WILLIAM   SMITH, 
of  Fauquier,  is  no  more.     He  departed  this  life,  at  his  residence  in  Warrenton,  on  the 
18th  of  May,  1887,  at  the  ripe  old  age  of  ninety  years.     He  was  born  in  the  county  of 
King  George  in  1797,  reared  to  manhood  in  that  county,  but  soon  after  receiving  his 
license  to  practice  law.  he  removed  to  the  county  of  Culpeper,  where  he  pursued  his 


105 

profession  in  addition  to  other  occupations  for  many  years,  until  about  thirty  years 
ago,  he  removed  to  Warrenton,  where  he  has  ever  since  resided,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  years  spent  in  California.  He  married  in  early  life  a  daughter  of  Capt  J.  M. 
Bell,  of  Culpeper,  and  reared  a  family  of  five  sons  and  one  daughter  only  wo  of 
whom  have  survived  him.  His  oldest  son,  William,  was  an  officer  of  the  United 
States  Navy,  and  was  lost  at  sea  in  1850,  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  between  San  Francisco 
and  the  Sandwich  Islands.  His  second  son,  J.  Caleb,  became  a  Judge  in  Cal.forn.a, 
and  was  a  prominent  man  in  that  State  for  several  ;years.  Austin  Smith  was  a  law- 
yer and  died  of  wounds  received  in  battle  during  the  war.  Col.  Peter  Bell  Smith, 
who  was  his  father's  private  secretary  during  his  second  term  as  Governor,  died  in 
Richmond,  and  lies  in  Hollywood.  His  only  living  son,  Col.  Thomas  Smith,  is  a  law- 
yer, and  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Virginia  Legislature,  and  is  now  United 
States  District  Attorney  in  New  Mexico. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  successful  career  of  his  boys,  that  their  father  must  have 
instilled  in  their  youthful  minds  some  of  those  qualities  of  mental  activity  and  physi- 
cal energy  which  he  possessed  in  as  high  a  degree  as  I  have  ever  known  in  any  man 
whose  fame  and  acts  have  made  their  possessor  prominent  in  the  world.     William 
Smith,  in  his  early  manhood,  was  fairly  successful  at  the  bar,  and  had  he  chosen  to 
have  given  his  whole  unremitted  attention  to  his  profession  of  the  law,  I  have  no 
doubt  he  would  have  reached  eminence  as  a  lawyer.     He  had  qualities  of  mental  dis- 
crimination, indefatigable  energy  and  perseverance,  fine  address  and  very  great  foren- 
sic  power,  and   he  evinced   his   ability  to  contend   successfully  at     he    bar  against 
such  men  as  Judge  John  Scott,  John  Shackelford,  John  S.  Pendleton,  Robert  E   Scott 
Sam.  Chilton,  and  others,  who  adorned  the  bar  of  Culpeper  and  Fauquier  and  were 
forever  worthy  of  any  man's  steel.     But  Governor  Smith's  inclination  led  him  into 
the  stormy  field  of  politics,  which  was,  perhaps,  better  suited  to  the  energetic  activity 
of   his   mind;  and   upon  that   theatre  he   had  the   opportunity  to   display  his  highest 
powers.     His  political  career  was  eminently  successful.     He  was  elected  to  the  Leg- 
islature many  times,  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  to  the  Governorship  twice 
-the  only  man  except  Patrick  Henry  so  distinguished  in  all  the  annals  of  Wgima 
Indeed,  so  bland  and  insinuating  was  his  demeanor,  and  so  popular  and  powerful 
were  his  speeches  on  the  stump  in  his  canvass,  that  he  was  hardly  ever  beaten  in  a 

popular  election.  .      .      ,,     ,•  „ 

I  recollect  that  after  his  return  from  California  he  arrived  in  Fauquier  just  before 
the  canvass  for  the  election  of  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  rom  he 
Eighth  district.  John  Willis,  of  Orange,  James  Barbour,  of  Culpeper,  General  Hunton 
and  others,  of  Fauquier,  Frank  Smith,  of  Alexandria,  and  other  younger  Democrats 
were  candidates  for  the  nomination,  all  of  whom  urged  against  the  Governor  that  he 
was  a  Californian,  and  the  people  ought  not  to  select  him  as  their  candidate  but  the 
Governor  took  the  stump  against  the  tremendous  odds,  and  his  old  constituents  could 
not  withstand  the  power  and  influence  of  his  eloquent  voice,  and  they  elected  him o 
Congress  against  such  tremendous  opposition.  In  1845  he  was  a  candidate  for  the 
United  States  Senate  before  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  but  he  was  defeated  by  Judge 
Pennybacker,  of  Shenandoah.  Upon  that  occasion,  John  Hampden  Pleasants,  in  he 
Whig,  thus  speaks  of  him,  which  from  a  political  enemy  of  such  distinction,  is  the 
highest  compliment  that  could  be  paid  to  any  man  : 

-The  man  does  not  breathe  to  whom  its  party  in  Virginia  owes  the  heavy  debt  it 
does  to  Mr.  Smith,  of  Culpeper.  In  1840  and  1844  no  one  of  them  fought  the  battle 
with  so  determined  an  energy  and  throughout  so  extensive  a  range  of  count, £  ^  e 
dreaded  the  harm  that  Smith  could  inflict  upon  the  Whig  party  byhMene^"d 
clodian  talents  more  than  all  the  silk-stocking  orators  from  the  towns  put ^gether. 
The  result,  we  believe,  justified  our  fear  and  our  sagacity.  From  Culpeper  to  tt e 
Ohio,  from  Halifax  to  King  and  Queen,  Smith  was  omnipresent  and  wielding  more 
influence  than  all  the  successful  orators  united.  We  speak  not  this  in  comphment .W* 
speak  what  we  do  know.     We  feel  rather  relieved  that  this  champion-this    Smith  ot 


10G 

the  wynd  ' — this  fighting  Smith — is  not  to  be  sent  to  make  head  against  the  Whigs  in 
the  Senate,  and  that  the  mantle  is  to  devolve  upon  one  less  uncompromising,  more 
conciliatory,  tractable  and  manageable.  We  can  well  imagine  how  the  friends  of 
such  a  man,  strong  and  ardent,  as  he  is  strong  and  ardent  in  all  his  relations,  must 
feel  rather  taken  aback  at  the  perference  given  to  an  inferior  over  him." 

The  Fredericksburg  Recorder  (Democratic),  then  conducted  by  a  very  able  editor, 
thus  speaks  in  his  behalf  for  the  Senatorship :  "William  Smith  is  our  man  ;  and  in 
behalf  of  the  thousands  of  Democrats  in  this  region,  who  have  for  years  witnessed 
his  noble,  gallant,  manly,  and  sacrificing  course,  we  call  upon  the  Democratic  party 
in  the  Legislature  i<>  BE  JUST,  No  man  in  Virginia  can  present  stronger  claims  than 
Mr.  Smith  for  the  Senatorial  office,  we  care  not  whether  talents,  integrity,  or  hard  ser- 
vice, shall  constitute  the  obligation.  He  is  a  politician  who  can  neither  be  corrupted 
nor  coerced.  His  metal  has  often  been  proved,  and  his  friends  may  justly  boast  of 
his  valor,  his  prowess,  and  his  success.  Indeed,  his  enemies,  or  his  rivals,  if  he  has 
them,  will  fully  accord  to  him,  the  distinguishment  of  having  saved  Virginia  in  one 
campaign,  and  carried  her  to  a  more  brilliant  triumph  in  another.  Is  that  nothing? 
Then  indeed  are  republics  ungrateful." 

Thus  spake  the  great  Whig  editor,  in  the  highest  terms  of  him  as  a  man,  but  in 
fear  and  dread  as  a  Democrat.  Thus  the  Democratic  editor  voiced  the  universal 
opinion  of  the  people  of  Virginia,  evidencing  the  high  regard,  favor  and  affection  he 
was  held  in  by  them.  King  caucus  oftentimes,  before  and  since,  committing  great 
iniquities,  defeated  him.  But  the  people  remindful  of  his  great  services  to  his  party, 
immediately  elected  him  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  on  the  2d  of  January,  1846,  he 
took  charge  of  that  high  office.  Before  that  time  Governor  Smith  was  known  all  over 
the  State  by  his  firm,  undeviating  attachment  to  the  Democratic  party,  and  by  his 
powerful  speeches  in  its  behalf.  He  was  perhaps  the  "best  stump  speaker  in  Vir- 
ginia," and  that  is  high  praise,  when  we  consider  who  were  some  of  the  men  who 
were  often-times  his  antagonists  in  debate. 

Between  the  years  1840  and  1850,  there  were  political  giants  in  the  land.  In  his 
own  county  of  Culpeper,  there  lived  three  men  who  were  the  peers  of  the  best  in 
their  eloquence  and  influence  over  the  masses.  John  S.  Barbour,  a  man  of  the 
noblest  presence,  and  possessing  all  the  power  of  an  orator;  John  S.  Pendleton, 
"  the  Lone  Star  of  the  Virginia  Whigs  in  Congress,"  whose  strong  sonorous  voice, 
uttering  smooth  and  eloquent  sentences,  would  always  deeply  interest  and  affect  the 
people  ;  and  Edmund  Broadus,  whose  logical  mind  and  earnest  manner  of  speech, 
from  whom  always  emanated  close,  compact  sentences  of  power  and  truth,  for  many 
years  largely  controlled  the  legislation  of  the  State,  and  others  in  other  parts  of  the 
State,  who,  in  comparison  with  most  of  the  leading  men  in  Virginia  politics  to-day, 
were  as  Hyperion  to  a  Satyr. 

At  the  forum  and  on  the  hustings,  William  Smith  met  such  men  as  these,  and  held 
his  own  with  them.  Indeed,  in  a  very  large  degree,  it  was  owing  to  his  indomitable 
energy  and  earnest,  persistent,  eloquent  advocacy  of  the  Democratic  party  that  it  was 
so  constantly  victorious  in  Virginia  politics.  Of  course  he  was  a  terror  to  the  Whigs, 
and  John  Hampden  Pleasants  gave  him  the  title  of  "Extra  Billy,"  which  has  stuck  to 
him  like  the  shirt  of  Nessus,  and  which,  although  it  may  have  been  given  him  origin- 
ally by  way  of  belittlement,  has  ever  since  been  used  by  his  friends  and  foes  alike  as 
an  epithet  of  endearment  and  compliment.  The  name  originated  thus  :  Many  years 
ago  Governor  Smith  was  a  contractor  with  the  United  States  Government  to  carry  the 
mail  from  Washington  city  to  Milledgeville,  in  Georgia,  by  stage  coaches,  and  it  seems 
he  took  the  contract  at  too  small  a  consideration  ;  at  any  rate  it  did  not  pay  him,  for 
the  records  of  Congress  will  show  that  oftentimes  during  his  term,  he  applied  for  extra 
compensation,  and  he  had  the  talents  and  influence  to  constrain  Congress  to  grant  it. 
His  stages  ran  through  the  little  village  where  the  writer  was  raised,  and  when  he  was 
a  little  boy,  it  was  the  delight  of  him  and  his  playfellows  often  to  go  a  mile  or  two  to 
meet  the  stage  and  ride  back  in  the  boot  of  it.     Often  has  he  done  so  when  the  future 


107 


Governor  of  the  State  was  the  driver,  who  would  kindly  stop  and  take  US  in.  He  was 
a  kind-hearted,  affable,  amiable  man,  as  he  was  diligent  and  ~-^»«* £ 
charge  of  all  his  public  duties  in  the  high  offices  which  he  afterwards  filled  The 
people  of  Richmond  ought  especially  to  be  grateful  to  him,  for  every  day  then-  eyes 
behold  evidences  of  his  efforts  to  beautify  the  city.  To  h.m  .s  due  more,  perhaps 
than  to  any  other  Governor,  save  one,  the  present  beautiful  appearance  o  our  lovely 
Capitol  Square.  He  had  the  trees  planted,  the  walks  laid  off,  the  In  Is  cut  down  and 
the  landscape  grading  generally  done,  which,  under  the  regime  of  Governor  Wise, 
was  continued  and  improved  until  the  Square  has  received  its  present  ornate  beaut, 
ful  appearance. 

In  1850  Governor  Smith,  in  order  to  recuperate  his  shattered  fortune,  removed  to 
San  Francisco  to  practice  law.  He  remained  there  several  years,  and  was  very  suc- 
cessful in  acquiring  a  sufficient  amount  of  money  to  pay  his  deb  s  He  was  akc e^y 
prominent  in  that  State  as  a  politician,  and  was  a  candidate  for  the  United  btates 
Senatorship,  but  was  defeated  in  the  Legislature  by  only  one  vote.  He  ^n  returned 
to  Virginia  and  ran  for  Congress  from  the  Eighth  district  and  was  elected  as  I  have 
already  stated.  Being  a  true  Democrat  throughout  his  whole  career,  he  was  a ^e» 
sionist,  and  acted  with  that  party  in  bringing  about  the  separation  of  Virginia  from 

the  Union. 

When  the  war  began  he  at  once  entered  the  army  as  Colonel  of  a  regiment and 
was  in  almost  the  first  battle.  At  Fairfax  Court  House  a  story  ,s  ^  upon  »nm  wtoch 
illustrates  his  courage  and  bravery.  He  knew  nothing  of  military  tactic and  had  had 
no  experience  in  military  affairs;  so  when  the  enemy  appeared  in  battle ^yand 
ready  for  the  onslaught,  he  had  not  at  his  command  the  proper  word of  command  to 
be  given  in  order  that  his  regiment  should  be  put  in  the  proper  line  of  attack  and 
therefore  discarding  all  military  rules,  he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  his  regiment  he 
gave  the  unusual  but  effective  order  -Boys,  follow  me,  and  let's  lick  em  .  and 
away  they  ran  towards  the  enemy. 

Governor  Smith  reached  the  rank  of  Major-General  in  the  Confed erato  army  but 
in  !863  Governor  Letcher's  term  of  office  having  expired  he  was  elec ted _  to succeed 
him,  and  thus  became  the  war  Governor,  and  remained  in  office  un U  his  term  was 
abruptly  terminated  by  the  downfall  of  the  Confederacy.  Since  thai :  time  the ^ov 
ernoi  has  served  one  term  in  the  Legislature,  but  for  the  balance  of  the  time  until 
death  he  has  remained  at  his  home  in  retiracy  in  the  enjoyment  of  good  health 

Governor  Smith  was  all  his  life  a  temperate  man-which  cannot  be  said  of  all  of 
our  public  men.  Upon  one  occasion,  Colonel  Tom  August  attended  a  levee  at :  the 
Govenior's  Mansion"  and  being  asked  by  a  friend  the  next  day  how  he  enjoyed  him- 
self  replied  :     "  First-rate  ;  all  we  did  was  io  promenade  and  lemonade. 

'Governor  Smith  was  universally  beloved  by  the  Democratic  party,   , » ^  ja* 

universally  hated  by  the  Whig  party,  for  the  harm  *^alf  VTraverv    c'ou  re  y 
stump-speeches  did  them,  but  they  always  admired  him  for  his ,  b  a-  y    co arte  y 
gallantry  and  extraordinary  talent  for  public  speaking       Indeed,   his  whole :  ca 
ffiustrates  in  its  effects  of  acquiring  for  him  the  love  of  his  friends    the  ad— 
his  enemies,  and  the  esteem  and  appreciation  of  all  what  a  character     f  up nghtnes^ 
courtesy,  gallantry,  courage  and  popular  talents  can  effect.     He  was ,  the   ^at  C 
moner  of  his  day.     The  people   loved  him  as  one  of  themselves    and  tos  etoquenc 
could  control  them  like  the  wind  controls  the   motion  of  the  leaves      He  has 
from  us  to  "the  undiscovered  country  from  whose  bourne  no  traveler  returns      and 
whatever  of  hatred  and  animosity  may  have  existed  in  the  hearts  of  any  man  will  be 
buried  in  his  grave.     The  State  of  Virginia  will  mourn  for  him  as  one  o er  greatos 
men.     He  discharged  his  public  and  private  duties  well,   and  may  we  not  hope 
now,  since  "  life's  fitful  fever  is  o'er,   he  rests  peacefully  over  the  river,  under 
shade  of  the  Tree  of  Life  !  "  R.    D.  W. 


LOS 

We  also  find  the  following  notices  of  the  Governor,  in  the 
National  Farm  mid  /^i  reside,  and  the  Baltimore  Sun: 

[From  ilir  National  Farm  and  Fireaide,  May  28,  1887  ] 
DEATH    01     EX-GOVERNOR    WILLIAM    SMITH. 
This  venerable  and  patriotic  citizen  died  at  his  home  in  Warrenton,  Fauquier 

county,  last  wok.  Il<  was  born  in  King  George  county,  September  6,  1797,  and  was 
therefore  neai  ly  ninety  years  oi 

Me  was  closely  connected  with  the  political  history  of  Virginia  for  forty  years 
prior  to  the  war,  and  was  twice  elected  Governor  ljy  the  people  of  the  State  who 
trusted  and  delighted  to  honor  him. 

At  the  close  ol  the  war,  although  constantly  working  for  the  best  interest  of  the 
people  when  occasion  required,  h<-  retired  from  participation  in  political  life  and  for 
ten  years  past  has  lived  quietly  the  life  oi  a  farmer  at  his  home.  Although  living 
beyond  the  allotted  term  ol  four-score  years,  he  was  hale  and  active  t<<  the  last, 
and  withal  a  devoted  patriotic  citizen.  We  honor  Governor  Smith's  memory  because 
he  practiced  what   he  preached.     Nearly  seventy  years  of  age,  when  the  war  broke 

Out,  be  winl  into  the  army  as  he  advised  others  to  do,  in  defence  of  what  lie  con- 
Sidered  Ins  liberties  and  those  of  hia  State;  he  was  shot  down,  and  on  recovering 
again  entered  tin-  army  and  was  again  wounded,  lie  recovered  and  entered  the 
army  again  and  remained  with  his  command  until  called  by  the  suffrages  of  his 
"fellow  countrymen"  to  fill  for  a  second  term  the  exalted  office  of  Governor  of 
Virginia,  lb-  was  deposed  win -n  the  Confederacy  failed  and  has  held  no  public  posi- 
tion Since  that  time  eX(  epl  that  he  served  one  term  in  the  Legislature. 

In  the  death  oi  Governor  Smith,  Virginia  loses  a  man  of  large  heart  and  great 
brain,  and  on.-  who  never  tailed  to  do  what  he  believed  to  he  his  duty. 

A  gentleman  of  the  old  School,  whose  example  oi  patriotism  should  be  remem- 
l'<  1 1  d  and  emulated. 

1 1  r..m  ihr  Baltimore  Sun] 
NINETY    YEARS    OF    AGE. 


OVBRNOR    WILLIAM   SMITH,    OF    VIRGINIA,    AM)  His    REMARKABLE  CAREER. 

Warrenton,  Va.,  Sept.  4-  Ex-Governor  William  Smith,  of  Virginia,  enters  his 
ninetieth  year  Sunday,  the  6th  inst.  He  passes  Ins  time  industriously  and  pleasantly 
at  his  beautiful  suburban  home  at  Warrenton,  Virginia,  superintending  his  three 
hundred  broad  ax  res,  whii  h  stret<  h  oul  for  a  mile  from  his  home.  The  ex-Governor, 
although  he  has  passed  considerably  the  "by  reason  oi  length  oi  age"  oi  ton: 
of  Scripture,  yel  is  only  venerable  in  years,  his  speech  being  as  emphatic,  his  carriage 
as  prompl  and  erect,  and  his  facultii  1  .:  •  ear  as  any  man  oi  sixty.  He  is  up  at 
dawn  every  morning,  and  has  always  led  a  busy  life,  not  overstrained  with  work, 
allowing  nothing  to  depress  him  or  n  tard  him  in  the  realization  Oi  his  plans  ill  life. 
This,  together  with  a  wise  temperance,  is  the  >- ■<  ret  ol  the  prolongation  oi  his  days. 
In  his  age  he  is  probably  more  entitled  to  the  cognomen  oi  "Extra  Billy  "than  in 
his  prime,  when  it  was  .1  name  l>y  whi<  h  he  was  known  all  over  the  United  States. 

From  an  early  period  in  this  century  the  ei  Governor  has  been  the  recipient  oi 
many  distinguished  honors  from  the  people  <>i  Virginia.  Twin-  Governor  ol  the 
Stat<  1  ■  ;■•■  ■  1  itive  from  Virginia  in  Congress  foi  several  terms,  and  Majoi  Gen- 
eral  in  the  Confederate  Army,  w<  re  among  the  notable  positions  <>f  trust  to  which  he 
has  been  called.     He  volunteered  at  th>-  commencement   of   the  war  at  sixty  five, 


109 

was  wounded  twice,  and  left   the  field  with  a  high   record  to  assume   his  second  term 
of  service  as  Governor  of  Virginia. 

Only  three  of  a  large  family  of  children  are  living.     His  only  daughter  pre 
over  his  delightful   home  with    pleasing   grace,  and   extends   to  a  host   of  friends  an 
elegant  hospitality.     She  associates  with  the  care  of  her  lather's  declining  years  a 
sad  watching  over  the  graves  and  memories  of  the  Confederate  dead. 

Col  Thomas  Smith  and  Capt.  Frederick  Smith  are  the  only  sons  surviving. 
The  latter  lives  in  New  Mexico,  and  is  very  prominent  in  that  territory.  <  ol.  I  homas 
Smith  is  a  leading  lawyer  of  the  Warrenton  bar,  and  the  recent  and  prospective 
Delegate  in  the  Virginia  Legislature  from  Loudoun  and  Fauquier.  He  was  a  great 
pet  of  Gen.  Early's  during  the  war.  He  had  a  splendid  regiment,  made  so  by  h.s 
discipline  It  is  claimed  for  him  that  he  saved  Early's  army  at  Fisher's  Hill,  as  h.s 
rejrfment  never  broke,  and  kept  Early's  rear  intact  until  he  could  rally  Ins  routed 
troops.     Col.   Smith's  commission  as   Brigadier-General  was   made  out  at  the  time  ot 

the  surrender.  ......  ..         ,,  r 

James  Caleb  Smith,  who  went  to  California  with  his  father,  the  ex-Governor  in 
l850  died  there  some  years  afterwards  a  prominent  citizen.  Gov.  Smith  and  h.s  son 
became  at  once  prominent  leaders  in  the  Democratic  party  of  California.  James 
Caleb  Smith  became  involved  in  a  duel  with  Senator  Broderick.  The  duel  took  place 
at  Sacramento  and  was  witnessed  by  five  thousand  people  ;  Gov.  Smith  being  one  of 
the  spectators.  According  to  the  rules  of  the  code  each  were  to  surrender  a  articles 
from  their  pockets.  Broderick,  drawing  his  watch  from  his  fob  pocket,  offering  to 
surrender  that  if  desired,  but  the  second  intimating  that  it  was  immaterial,  Brodenck 
restored  it  to  his  fob.  Smith  put  four  balls  through  I'.roderick's  watch  and  cut  the 
chain  with  another.  Smith  was  untouched  and  Broderick  wounded  in  the  abdomen 
which  was  entered  by  half  of  a  ball,  the  other  half  remaining  in  the  watch.  The 
watch  was  hung  up  in  a  public  place  in  Sacramento.  William  Smith  the  oldest  son, 
was  a  midshipman  in  the  navy  and  lost  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  A  portrait  hanging  in 
his  father's  parlor  shows  him  to  have  been  a  splend.d  looking  man. 

His  son  Austin  Smith,  was  killed  at  Seven  Pines  a  few  days  after  being  exchanged 
from  Fort  Warren,  where  he  had  been  confined  a  political  prisoner  from  the  first 
outbreak  of   the  war  in  California.     He  was  shot  soon   after  he  appeared  upon  h.s 

first  battle-field. 

Peter  Bell  Smith,  a  prominent  member  of  the  Warrenton  bar,  was  accidentally 
killed  soon  after  the  war  by  a  pistol  which  dropped  from  his  hand  and  exploded 

The  ex-Governor  has  been  most  methodical  in  preserving  the  records  of  his 
official  life  They  afford  material  for  a  valuable  and  interesting  historical  work,  and 
his  friends  entertain  the  hope  that  he  may  at  an  early  day  be  induced  to  give  to  the 
public  from  his  own  pen  a  volume  or  more  of  his  reminiscences. 

The  following  letter,  written  by  Governor  Smith  in  1874, 
to  the  Alexandria  Gazette,  contains  a  sound  and  logical  view 
of  the  evils  attending  elections  twelve  months  or  more  before 
the  expiration  of  the  incumbent's  term: 

LETTER    FROM    EX-GOVERNOR    WILLIAM    SMITH. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Alexandria  Gazette  : 

Warrenton,  Va.,  March  26,  1874.-I  notice,  with  surprise,  in  our  county  paper,  as 
taken  from  yours,  the  announcement  that  a  large  number  of  gentlemen  whose 
names  are  given,  are  candidates  for  this  Congressional  District  now  so  worthily  and 
ably  represented  by  General  Eppa  Hunton.  Among  those  mentioned  I  find  my  name. 
Now   as  I  have  not  and  do  not  entertain  any  such  purpose,  will  you  please  withdraw 


110 

my  name  from  the  crowd,  to  which  you  ascribe,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  such  premature 
aspirations. 

It  was  only  a  few  months  ago  that  General  Hunton  was  selected,  by  a  Conven- 
tion of  this  District  as  our  candidate  for  Congress,  and  in  November  last  was  triumph- 
antly elected  ;  and,  already,  it  would  seem,  machinations  are  at  work  to  oust  him. 
What  means  this  ?  It  has  been  the  custom  of  Virginia  to  give  a  generous  confidence 
to  her  public  servants  and  to  manifest  it  by  re-elections,  so  long  as  they  demeaned 
themselves  in  a  manner  becoming  their  respective  positions  ;  and  it  will  not,  I  am 
persuaded,  be  departed  from  in  this  district.  We  owe  to  this  policy  our  great  influ- 
ence in  the  Federal  Councils  in  the  past,  securing  thereby  Representatives  of  superior 
wisdom  and  experience.  Other  States  have  been  induced  to  adopt  this  policy  to  the 
great  improvement  of  their  standing  and  reputation,  and  it  will  never  do  for  us  to 
abandon  it. 

Conventions  may  be,  and  undoubtedly  are,  sometimes  necessary,  in  fixing  up  a 
candidate  for  the  first  time,  in  harmonizing  a  divided  party  upon  a  great  question  of 
Constitutional  power,  or  upon  an  important  measure  of  public  policy,  for  instance. 
They  should  be  the  expedient,  and  not  the  rule  of  party  organization — to  be  resorted  to 
in  exigencies  and  not  as  a  matter  of  course  in  all  elections.  A  man  once  selected  by 
convention  and  elected  by  the  people  and  assured  of  his  re-election,  if  he  deserved 
it,  would  devote  himself  to  the  public  service,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  his  private 
business,  and  assiduously  endea%'or  to  establish  himself  in  the  confidence  of  his  con- 
stituents, and  to  win  a  high  position  in  the  country  at  large.  The  obligation  to  elect 
the  nominee  of  a  convention  is  regarded  as  imperative — surely,  the  re-election  of 
such  nominee  cannot  be  less  so,  if,  without  any  supervening  objection,  he  unites  to 
the  considerations  which  gave  him  his  first  nomination,  and  increased  ability  to  per- 
form the  duties  of  the  office.  A  different  policy  rapidly  corrupts  the  people.  We  are 
told  that  in  New  York  it  is  a  regular  business  to  get  out  and  manage  conventions, 
and  to  give  their  nominations  to  those  who  will  pay  the  price  fixed  for  them.  How 
any  good  citizen  can  desire  such  a  state  of  things  here  I  cannot  conceive  ;  and  yet  it 
is  the  sure  and  certain  consequence  of  the  general  adoption  of  the  convention 
system. 

It  has  been  the  custom  of  Virginia  not  to  elect  to  any  political  office  until  it  was 
vacant.  In  this  way  she  retained  her  influence  and  control  over  her  representative 
to  the  end  of  his  term,  and  with  a  full  knowledge  of  his  record,  could  wisely  decide^ 
as  to  the  propriety  of  his  re-election.  But  the  act  of  Congress,  which  directs  the  elec- 
tion for  Congress  to  take  place  in  November,  months  before  the  expiration  of  the  ex- 
isting term,  compels  the  people,  if  they  re-elect  their  member,  to  do  so  without  his 
complete  record,  or  if  they  supercede  him  by  the  election  of  another,  then  their  rela- 
tion with  their  member  must  be  most  unpleasant  ;  while  he,  offended  and  indignant, 
would  be  too  apt,  for  the  residue  of  his  term,  to  consult  only  his  own  interests.  Now, 
I  can  see  no  occasion  for  the  election  taking  place  before  the  Spring,  and  I  beg  your 
influence  in  favor  of  the  change. 

Most  respectfully  yours, 

William  Smith. 

We  take  the  liberty  of  making  a  few  extracts  from  a  letter 
from  his  old  tried  and  trusted  friend,  Colonel  Parker,  of  Vir- 
ginia, to  .     The  letter  speaks  for  itself  : 

TaPPAHANNOCK,   Va.,    November  15th,  1875. 

*********** 
I  pray  you  to  excuse  me  for  saying,  that  from  the  time  Governor  Smith  entered 
the  Senate  of  Virginia — upwards  of  thirty -five  years  ago — up  to  the  close  of  the  war 


Ill 

I  have  been  perfectly  familiar  with  all  of  his  public  acts,  and  perhaps  have  seen  and 
known  more  of  them  than  any  one  person  now  living,  and  I  can  safely  say,  that  no 
man,  in  or  out  of  the  State,  has  done  more,  if  as  much,  to  sustain  the  true  principles 
of  the  Democratic  party.  Principles  upon  which  the  very  existence  of  Republican 
Government  must  rest — this  is  now  conceded  by  three-fourths  of  the  American  peo- 
ple. 

It  was  a  departure  from  these  principles  which  led  to  the  late  civil  war  and  all  its 
misery,  horrors,  woes  and  ruin  ;  and  has  cast  a  pall  over  the  whole  land.  And  if  these 
principles  are  not  restored  in  1876,  the  downfall  of  the  Government  must  soon  become 
a  matter  of  history. 

In  all  the  varied  offices  Governor  Smith  has  held — State  Senator,  Governor  of  the 
State  twice,  and  member  of  Congress  for  many  years — he  has  proved  himself  faithful 
to  his  trust,  faithful  to  the  Constitution.  No  better  evidence  can  be  given  of  this  than 
the  fact  that  he  has  on  every  occasion  when  his  name  has  been  before  the  people  re- 
ceived more  than  the  vote  of  his  party.  He  has  always  been  warmly  supported  by 
those  who  know  him  best — his  immediate  neighbors.  This  is  sufficient  evidence  of 
the  purity  of  his  private  character. 

The  late  venerable  Thomas  Ritchie  often  assured  me  that  in  1840  and  1844  we 
should  have  lost  the  State  but  for  the  extraordinary  efforts  of  Governor  Smith.  It  was 
carried  on  each  of  these  occasions  by  less  than  1,500  majority. 

In  1853  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives  the  writer  was  present  and 
occupied  a  seat  near  Governor  Smith  and  was  an  eye-witness  to  one  of  the  greatest 
triumphs  he  has  ever  seen  of  one  man  standing  alone  and  unaided  over  a  combined 
attack  of  abolitionists  and  free-soilers,  led  on  by  the  notorious  Giddings. 

They  had  selected  him  as  the  object  of  attack.  Their  purpose  was  to  destroy  his 
influence.  They  believed  he  was  more  in  their  way  than  any  man  in  the  House. 
Ever  after  that  they  kept  out  of  his  way,  and  gave  him  a  wide  berth. 

With  Governor  Smith's  military  history  each  of  you  must  be  acquainted.  Gal- 
lantly on  all  occasions  did  he  fight  ;  freely  was  his  own  blood  and  that  of  his  noble 
sons'  shed  for  the  cause  he  so  dearly  loved.  One  of  his  sons  now  rests  in  a  patriot 
soldier's  grave  ;  and  he  (Governor  Smith)  was  often  wounded  and  taken  from  the 
field,  supposed  to  be  mortally.  He  will  carry  to  his  grave  on  his  own  person  the 
evidence  of  his  bravery. 

He  has  grown  gray  and  poor  in  the  service  of  his  country,  unlike  many  of  the 
public  men  of  the  present  day 


We  clip  the  following  from  a  New  York  paper,  extracted 
from  a  speech  of  Gen.  Grant's,  at  the  eleventh  annual  dinner 
of  the  Lincoln  Club,  which  took  place  at  Martinellis,  to 
celebrate  the  seventy-first  birthday  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

I  never  met  Mr.  Lincoln  until  I  came  East  in  March,  1864.  Although  when  the 
war  broke  out  in  1861  I  was  a  citizen  of  the  same  State  that  our  then  President 
belonged  to.  I  had  never  met  him  until  I  came  East  in  1864  to  take  command  of  all 
the  armies.  (Vociferous  applause.)  I  had  heard  very  much  of  him.  I  had  heard 
very  much  of  his  fund  of  anecdote.  I  was  led  to  suppose  he  was  a  man  who  passed 
his  time  in  telling  funny  little  stories  ;  in  fact  stories  that  it  would  hardly  do  to  tell  in 
the  company  of  ladies  and  hardly  in  society  composed  entirely  of  gentlemen — 
(laughter).  I  can  say  this  :  I  met  him  a  great  deal  after  I  came  East.  He  spent  a 
good  deal  of  time  with  me  at  City  Point,  and  I  saw  him  on  intimate  terms,  and  I  can 
say  I  never  heard  a  word  from  Mr.  Lincoln  that  could  not  be  uttered  in  the  society  of 
any  lady.     He  had  a  fund  of  anecdote,  but  it  was  always  used  to  illustrate  a  point. 


112 

I  scarcely  ever  heard  him  talk  in  my  life,  but  that  after  he  stated  the  case  very 
clearly  he  did  not  add  some  little  anecdote  to  illustrate  exactly  what  he  meant  and  to 
give  a  point  to  it.  I  will  give  you  one  of  his  little  stories  that  I  heard  him  tell  as  an 
indication.  After  the  surrender  at  Appomattox  I  went  to  Washington  to  give 
necessary  orders  for  the  paroling  and  releasing  of  prisoners,  and  I  had  ordered  Gen- 
eral Mead  to  re-march  the  army  to  Burkesville  Junction,  on  the  Richmond,  Danville 
and  Western  Railroad.  I  started  for  Washington  to  stop  enlistments  and  the  expenses 
of  the  army.  (Applause.)  The  Confederate  Government  and  the  State  Governor  of 
Virginia  left  Richmond  about  the  same  time,  ^reat  applause.)  When  they  left 
Danville  they  were  not  pursued.  They  stopped  for  a  time.  I  was  supposed  to  be 
with  the  army,  but  I  had  gone  to  Washington.  After  I  left  the  field  and  while  in 
Washington,  I  received  a  telegraphic  letter  forwarded  by  Gen.  Meade.  The  letter 
had  been  written  by  Gov.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  in  which  he  said  he  was  the  Governor 
of  the  commonwealth  of  Virginia  and  as  such  he  had  temporarily  taken  the  State 
government  to  Danville.  He  wished  to  know  whether  he  would  be  permitted  to 
carry  on  the  functions  of  his  office  unmolested.  If  he  was  not  permitted  to  do  so,  he 
wished  to  know  whether  he  and  his  friends  would  be  permitted  to  leave  the  country 
unmolested.  (Laughter.)  I  referred  the  matter  to  Mr.  Lincoln  a  few  moments  after- 
wards and  he  said  :  "Well  !  Now  I  am  just  like  my  friend  McGroirarty,  of  Spring- 
field. He  was  very  fond  of  drinking.  He  would  drink  a  great  deal,  but  finally  his 
friends  persuaded  him  to  join  the  temperance  society,  but  he  was  so  much  in  the 
habit  of  drinking  that  he  would  go  through  the  motion  of  drinking  by  taking  soda- 
water.  (Laughter.)  For  two  or  three  days  he  held  to  soda-water,  but  he  held  the 
glass  behind  his  back  and  said:  'Doctor,  can't  you  put  a  drop  of  whiskey  into  it 
unbeknowst  to  myself?'  "  (Great  laughter.)  I  knew  then  just  as  well  what  I  was  to 
reply  to  Gov.  Smith's  letter  as  if  Mr  Lincoln  had  made  a  speech  as  long  as  the  speech 
of  ex-Senator  McDonald.     (Laughter  and  great  applause.) 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  beautiful  address  by- 
Major  Taylor  Scott,  the  orator  on  memorial  day  at  Warren- 
ton,  Virginia,  June  4,  1887. 

I  speak  upon  the  invitation  of  the  Lady  President  of  the  Memorial  Association  of 
Fauquier.  Von  beautiful  monument  is  her  work,  its  crowning  glory  woman's  form. 
In  the  circling  years,  see  to  it  that  this  day  is  kept  ;  perpetuate  it  as  your  birthright  ; 
this  is  your  Association.  God  made  you  helps  meet  for  man  and  has  crowned  you 
with  a  triple  crown,  mother,  sister,  wife,  three  blessed  names !  Wear  them  as  your 
mothers  wore  them  in  the  days  that  tried  men's  souls.  They  are  "the  peculiar 
jewels  of  your  souls."  My  task  is  finished,  my  message  delivered,  and  my  work 
done.  No,  not  yet.  Why  am  /here?  Another  was  expected  to  make  this  address. 
With  words  of  wisdom  and  eloquent  tongue  he  would  have  stirred  your  souls. 
Where  is  he  ?  Vesterday  he  walked  among  us  an  aged  man.  Had  he  been  spared 
a  few  months  longer  his  years  would  have  been  four-score  and  ten,  but  God's  finger 
touched  him  and  he  slept,  his  hoary  head  a  crowning  glory.  William  Smith  twice 
Governor  of  Virginia,  and  Fauquier's  distinguished  son,  is  dead.  He  was  a  man  of 
kindly  heart  and  gentle  spirit,  a  man  of  convictions ;  he  had  opinions  and  dared 
maintain  them  ;  he  was  refined,  courteous,  brave— a  knightly  man.  When  the  war 
cloud  burst  upon  his  State  he  was  over  sixty  years  of  age.  On  a  visit  to  Fairfax 
Court  House,  then  an  out-post,  there  was  a  night  attack.  A  fateful  bullet  laid  low 
the  Captain  of  that  post,  John  Quincy  Marr,  whose  monument  in  yon  cemetary  com- 
memorates a  brave  man,  the  first  blood  of  the  war.  Disorder  reigned  and  defeat  was 
imminent. 

Amid  the  darkness,  the  cheery,  ringing  voice  of  an  old  man  was  heard.  William 
Smith   took   command,  rallied    the   soldiers,  and    repelled    the   attack.     He  was  not 


113 

educated  to  arms,  nor  had  he  learned  military  tactics  ;  but  he  had  genius,  and  his 
heart  was  in  the  struggle.  As  Colonel  of  the  49th  Virginia  Regiment,  Brigadier-Gen- 
eral and  Major-General,  he  won  and  wore  the  honors  of  camp  and  field.  Wherever 
placed,  William  Smith  fulfilled  every  duty,  and  bore  himself  like  a  Roman— no,  no, 
as  a  Roman,  but  like  the  great  Virginian,  that  he  was!  He  was  just  and  considerate 
of  others,  so  just  that  the  bitter  rancor  of  political  parties,  as  it  existed  forty  years 
ago,  did  not  burn  against  him  ;  but  in  its  place  was  admiration  for  this  brave  old  man. 
He  had  opponents,  but  no  enemies  ;  and  he  did  what  few  men,  if  any,  before  him 
ever  did,  lived  down  political  enmity.  The  people  of  this  town  sorrow  for  him  and 
did  him  homage  when  his  body  lay  in  their  public  hall,  and  Virginia  mourned  for 
him  as  his  body  lay  in  state  in  the  Capitol  at  Richmond.  Yes,  "the  memory  of  the 
just  is  blessed  "  and  "the  path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shining  light  that  shineth  more 
and  more  unto  the  perfect  day."  Crowned  with  civic  wreath  and  warrior's  laurels, 
he  sleeps  in  Richmond's  city  of  the  dead — beautiful  Hollywood. 

"Sleep,  soldier,  sleep,  thy  warfare  o'er  ; 
Sleep  the  sleep  that  knows  no  breaking 
Dream  of  battle  fields,  no  more 
Days  of  danger,  nights  of  waking." 


A    TRIBUTE    TO    GOVERNOR    SMITH. 

On  a  similar  occasion,  at  the  Confederate  Cemetery,  at 
Culpeper,  the  following  feeling  tribute  was  paid  to  the  memory 
of  Governor   Smith   by  the  orator  of  the  day  : 

My  Countrymen  :  A  few  days  since,  in  the  neighboring  town  of  Warrenton, 
passed  from  life  to  eternity  a  grand  old  soldier,  statesman  and  patriot,  who  had 
passed  far  beyond  the  age  allotted  to  man,  and  perhaps  was  the  Nestor  of  our  Con- 
federacy. He  voluntarily  entered  the  army  after  he  had  passed  beyond  the  age  of 
three  score  years.  He  became  commander  of  the  invincible  Forty-ninth  Regiment 
of  Virginia  ;  soon  rose  to  the  rank  of  commander  of  a  division,  and  was  then  called, 
by  the  almost  unanimous  vote  of  the  people  of  his  native  State,  to  become  her  Chief 
Magistrate  for  a  second  time.  This  grand  old  soldier  was  no  less  distinguished  in 
the  tented  field  than  in  the  councils  of  the  country,  both  State  and  Federal,  and  his 
mother  State,  Virginia,  like  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  when  asked  for  her  jewels, 
can  point  to  him  as  one  of  her  sons.  This  beloved  old  patriot  now  sleeps  in  Holly- 
wood Cemetery,  beneath  the  sacred  sod  that  contains  the  ashes  of  so  many  of  his 
gallant  comrades.  Whilst  he  lived,  he  was  honored  and  revered  ;  and  now  that  he  is 
dead,  his  grave  will  be  watered  by  the  pious  tears  of  a  grateful  people.  And  now, 
conscious  of  our  incompetency  to  portray  before  you  his  life  or  rightly  to  delineate 
his  character,  we  leave  the  task  of  eulogy  to  some  more  able  and  eloquent  successor. 
For  ourself,  we  have  said  the  least  our  feelings  would  permit.  We  rejoice  in  the 
consciousness  of  knowing  that  as  detraction  cannot  impair,  so  eulogy  cannot  add  to 
his  eternal  fame. 


114 


TO    EX-GOVERNOR    WILLIAM     SMITH. 


[From  a  Published  Volume.] 
BY  J.  D.  BLACKWELL. 

The  noon'of  life  is  past  with  thee, 
The  summer  time  hath  flown  ; 

And  thou  art  as  the  yellow  leaf 

When  autumn's  blasts  have  blown. 

But  yet  undimmed  thy  burning  eye, 

Unbent  thy  rugged  form  ; 
And  thou  art  as  the  brave  old  oak 

Which  still  defies  the  storm. 

Oh  !  warm  beneath  thy  whitening  locks 
A  youthful  heart  still  glows, 

As  Hecla's  quenchless  fires  burn  on 
Beneath  eternal  snows. 

Thy  life,  old  hero,  was  not  passed 
Mid   sunny  bowers  of  ease  ; 

For,  like  Old  Ironsides,  thou's  braved 
The  battle  and  the  breeze. 

And  thou  canst  look  upon  that   life, 

Nor  blush  at  the  review  ; 
Thy  heart  in  sunshine  and  in  storm 

Was  to  Virginia  true. 

Thy  actions  now  are  with  the  past, 

All  measured,   numbered,  weighed, 

Thy  struggles  like  the  conflict's  clash, 
Which  proved  the  battle  blade. 

The  passing  clouds  may  dim  the  sun 

When  skies  are  overcast ; 
But  bright,  far  o'er  our  mountains    blue 

He  sets  in  light  at   last. 

And  as  that  sun  will  oft  descend 
Sublime  as  when  he  rose, 

So  will  thy  life,  when  near  its  end, 
Sink,  like  him,  to   repose. 


BUST    OF    EX-COV.    SMITH. 


115 

The  following  sympathetic  and  affectionate  tribute  is  from 
the  pen  of  a  chivalrous  officer  and  brilliant  man,  who  speaks 
with  his  accustomed  frankness  and  stern  sense  of  justice  and 
truth : 

Warrenton,  October  30,  1888. 
Dear  Tom  : 

*********** 

"I  have  observed  with  great  interest  the  efforts  which  you  and  your  sister  have 
made  to  '  Honor  your  Father  and  Mother,'  and  to  erect  some  memorial  of  their  worth 
and  usefulness.  That  he  should  have  a  conspicuous  place  amongst  Virginia's  public 
men,  whether  the  assemblage  be  one  of  statesmen  or  soldiers,  is  a  matter  of  course. 
But  I  have  been  particularly  struck  at  the  happy  thought  of  associating  him  with  the 
maimed  and  neglected  veterans  of  our  grand  war.  To  that  cause  the  good  old  man 
gave  his  whole  heart,  as  he  offered  his  life,  and  had  fortune  blessed  him,  his  hand 
would  have  been  as  open  as  day. 

"What  a  career  his  was  ;  running  from  the  birth  of  the  union  to  beyond,  what  I 
fondly  hoped,  would  be  its  grave,  and  how  well  he  bore  himself  in  all  vicissitudes. 

"  You  know  I  was  born  a  Whig  of  the  straightest  sect,  and  although  I  entered 
life  as  a  Disunion  Democrat,  I  carried  with  me,  and  retained  for  a  long  time,  many 
of  the  prejudices  of  my  early  education. 

"For  many  years  I  lived  under  the  shadow  of  your  father's  roof,  and  in  his 
daily  presence,  and  was  yet  too  dull  to  know  him.  Indeed,  until  the  war,  that  great 
detective  and  pitiless  exposer  of  shams,  broke  upon  us;  I  had  no  idea  what  manner 
of  man  he  was.  It  was  not  until  I  saw  him  refusing  the  exemptions  of  a  seat  in 
Congress,  and  the  legitimate  repose  of  advanced  years,  seeking  hardships  and 
dangers  from  which  others  blenched — the  whitest  head  and  the  lightest  heart  that 
marched  under  the  Confederate  colors — did  I  know  that  a  piece  of  as  genuine  metal 
as  was  ever  forged  from  English  loins,  was  beside  me.  You  know  how  reverently 
and  humbly  I  sought  to  atone  for  my  misjudgment ;  with  what  scorn  I  recalled  the 
admiration  I  had  wasted  upon  the  wretched  vaporers  who,  'Roared  so  loud  and 
thundered  in  the  Index,'  who  proving  incompetent  as  soldiers,  sought  consolation  in 
carping,  until  mortified  vanity  was  only  appeased  by  defiling  the  cause  in  which  they 
had  failed  to  achieve  distinction;  and  you  will  recall  how  pleased  the  old  man  was 
with  my  repentance,  when  I  gave  honor  where  honor  was  due. 

"  Noble  as  was  his  bearing  during  the  war,  it  did  not  surpass  his  conduct  after. 

"  When  the  whole  earth  seemed  hung  with  black  ;  when  the  heavens  like  brass, 
echoed,  not  answered,  our  prayers  ;  when  we  were  a  lost  people  without  a  friend  on 
the  planet  and  life  was  one  vast  'Sea  of  sorrow  without  one  single  star,'  with  what 
a  strong  heart  and  uplifted  brow,  did  the  old  man  confront  fate.  How  often  in  my 
despair,  have  I  laid  my  head  upon  his  shoulder  and  caught  hope  and  inspiration  from 
his  heart.  I  am  consoled  to  think  that  he  went  to  his  grave  under  the  happy  delusion 
that  '  the  wisdom  and  virtue  of  the  people '  would  redeem  a  lost  nation. 

"What  a  true  Virginian  was  he,  rendering  her  not, 
"  Mouth-honor,  health  ; 
but  his  whole  allegiance  ;  it  could  as  truthfully  be  said  of  him  as  of  John  Randolph: 

"  'Too  honest  or  too  proud  to  feel, 
A  love  he  never  cherished, 

Beyond  Virginia's  border  land 
His  patriotism  perished. 

Whilst  others  hailed  in  distant  lands, 
The  eagle's  dusky  pinion  ; 

He  only  saw  the  royal  bird, 
Stoop  o'er  his  old  Dominion.'  " 


116 

"  Our  post  bellum  intimacy  revealed  another  trait  to  me.  Your  father  was  the 
poorest  hater  I  ever  knew.  Although  no  man  passed  through  fiercer  conflicts, 
I  do  nol  believe  he  carried  one  unhealed  wound.  The  uniform  kindness  with  which 
h%  spoke  of  his  adversaries,  the  lurking  affection  with  which  he  seemed  to  regard 
most  of  them,  used  to  amaze  me.  I  have  tempted  him  into  talk  of  those  whom  I 
knew  had  done  him  injustice,  but  could  never  extort  one  bitter  word.  I  thought 
him  the  most  amiable  man  I  ever  knew. 

"  It  must  be  a  great  and  proud  consolation  to  you,  that  treading  so  many  paths 
in  life,  he  left  no  stain  behind  his  footsteps.  As  soldier,  citizen  and  husband,  he 
won  universal  admiration.  That  every  son  he  had  has  offered  his  life  to  avenge, 
even  a  breath,  which  might  have  sullied  his  name,  is  conclusive  evidence  that  he 
must  have  been  the  best  of  fathers  ;  and  now,  after  life's  fitful  fever  is  over,  he 
'  sleeps  well,'  leaving  behind  him  all  'Which  should  accompany  old  age  as  honor,  love, 
obedience,  troops  of  friends.' 

•  Hoping  that  I  may  soon  see  you  restored  and  fixed  upon  'the  sacred  soil,'  I 
am,  dear  Tom,  very  faithfully  yours, 

"William  H.  Payne." 

The  following  is  from  the  pen  of  the  Hon.  John  W.  Daniel, 
now  Senator  of  the  United  States,  the  son  of  the  late  William 
Daniel,  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  Virginia,  who  was 
the  son  of  Judge  William  Daniel,  of  the  General  Court  of 
Virginia. 

Governor  Smith  and  Judge  William  Daniel,  the  younger, 
were  contemporaries  and  co-laborers  in  the  great  cause  of 
Democracy  and  Constitutional  Government ;  and  the  writer 
has  heard  Governor  Smith  speak  with  glowing  admiration  of 
the  great  power  and  brilliant  eloquence  of  Judge  Daniel  as  a 
debater  on  the  hustings  : 

Colonel  Thomas  Smj  i  h  : 

My  Dear  Colonel. — It  was  very  gratifying  for  me  to  learn  that  there  is  in  course 
of  preparation  a  memorial  volume  of  your  father's  life,  and  I  wish  indeed  that  a  full 
\phy  of  him  could  be  written. 

He  (William  Smith)  lived  and  served  his  State  in  stirring  times.  He  was  always 
in  the  front  of  her  battles.  His  career  as  statesman,  soldier  and  citizen,  was  distin- 
guished by  the  highest  qualities  of  intellectual,  patriotic  and  courageous  manhood. 
lie  was  of  a  type  of  character  that  belonged  to  an  era  when  patriotism  burned 
warmly,  when  chivalrous  virtues  were  highly  valued,  and  when  the  conflicts  of  the 
forum  and  the  field  put  the  metal  of  the  public  men  to  the  severest  test.  Representa- 
tive in  Congress  for  several  terms,  twice  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  Gen- 
eral in  the  Confederate  Army  ;  he  was  long  conspicuously  before  the  people,  and  he 

ived  at  their  hands  every  honor  that  could  attest  their  confidence.  His  devotion 
to  his  State,  his  unflinching  and  unchanging  adherence  to  fundamental  Democratic 
principles,  his  serene,  firm  and  undaunted  courage,  was  displayed  throughout  his 
public  career,  and  these  virtues  of  character  were  associated  with  a  genial  address, 
a  rich  fund  of  information,  and  a  rare  faculty  of  speech  that  made  him  a  veritable 
tribune  of  the  people. 

Could  his  memoirs  be  fully  written  they  would  furnish  a  graphic  and  instructive 


117 

page  of  history,  and  supply  to  the  rising  generation  the  mould  of  a  patriot  and  hero, 
**  the  like  of  which  we  shall  not  see  again." 

The  first  political  speech  I  ever  heard  was  delivered  in  Lynchburg,  by  Gov.  Smith, 
in  1856,  or  1857  if  I  remember  rightly.  I  was  then  a  school  boy,  attracted  to  the 
gathering  by  the  prevailing  political  excitement,  but  was  too  immature  to  appreciate 
his  utterances.  But  I  recall  the  enthusiasm  created  by  his  speech,  and  the  picture  of 
the  orator  and  his  audience  is  as  vivid  before  me  now  as  if  the  scene  were  yesterday. 

I  did  not  see  the  Governor  again  until  March  1863,  when  I  was  appointed  by 
Gen.  J.  A.  Early,  Adjutant-General  on  his  staff,  and  reporting  at  the  camp  near  Fred- 
ericksburg, there  met  him  as  Brigadier-General  Smith,  commanding  the  Virginia 
Brigade  of  Early's  division. 

Kind  interest  in  young  men  was  an  attractive  trait  of  Gov.  Smith's  character  ; 
and  I  shall  never  forget  the  gracious  manner  with  which  he  received  me.  While  in 
camp  in  early  spring,  Gen.  Smith  was  elected  Governor  of  the  State.  He  was  then 
sixty-six  years  of  age  ;  he  had  been  severely  wounded  in  the  preceding  campaign 
while  stoutly  defending  our  left  at  Sharpsburg,  and  now  chosen  Governor  of  the  State, 
every  circumstance  tendered  invitation  to  exemption  from  field  service.  But  no  man 
■ever  felt  less  inclination  toward  the  rear  than  Gov.  Smith  when  battle  lay  in  front  ; 
and  in  the  May  following  when  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia  moved  out  to  meet 
Hooker's  advancing  columns,  he  was  at  the  head  of  his  brigade  and  there  remained 
until  the  army  returned  to  Virginia,  after  Gettysburg. 

It  was  in  this  campaign  that  I  was  thrown  often  in  the  company  of  Gen.  Smith, 
and  it  was  frequently  my  duty  to  fulfill  Gen  Early's  orders  in  bearing  him  messages 
upon  the  field,  and  pointing  out  the  positions  which  he  was  to  occupy.  He  invariably 
went  into  battle  at  the  head  of  his  men,  and  always  on  horseback  when  topography 
permitted.  To  speak  of  him  as  possessing  remarkable  courage  would  be  but  faintly 
to  express  what  everybody  knew  ;  but  his  courage  was  indeed  of  a  rare  and  peculiar 
order.  On  the  edge  of  a  fight  he  was  as  serene  as  a  May  morning  ;  pleasant  humored  ; 
full  of  vivacity  and  good  cheer  ;  and  his  face  betokened  the  confidence,  and 
heartiness  of  a  spirit  never  perturbed  by  fear  or  misgiving,  but  resolute  and  earnest 
to  do  with  a  will  the  work  before  it.  Yet,  when  roused  in  action  he  was  full  of  fire, 
energy  and  enthusiasm.  I  wish  I  could  paint  the  scene  before  Winchester  in  June 
1863,  when  his  brigade  was  ordered  forward  into  line  and  the  division  was  forming 
to  assail  Gen.  Milroy's  position.  Gen.  Early  directed  me  to  convey  the  order  to 
Gen.  Smith.  Galloping  to  deliver  it,  I  met  Gen.  Smith  riding  at  the  head  of  his  men 
who  were  approaching  across  the  field.  The  sun  was  hot,  and  he  carried  an  umbrella 
over  his  head  in  one  hand.  He  wore  a  citizen's  hat,  and  an  old-fashioned  standing 
collar.  His  horse  was  accoutred  with  a  pair  of  saddle-bags,  and  had  nothing  of  the 
martial  air  about  him.  The  General  looked  more  like  a  Judge  going  to  open  court 
than  like  a  Southern  Brigadier,  or  fire-eater  ;  and  his  smiling  face  and  urbane  manners 
gave  little  inkling  of  grim-visaged  war.  But  in  a  twinkling  the  umbrella  went  down  ; 
forward — quickstep — ran  down  the  column  ;  the  horse  caught  the  fire  of  his  rider, 
and  if  one  had  seen  Smith's  brigade  as  they  came  into  line  in  front  of  Milroy,  he  would 
have  recognized  instinctively  that  they  were  veterans  who  knew  their  business.  And  a 
glance  at  Gen.  Smith  would  have  shown  that  here  was  the  born  leader  who  could 
inspire  men  with  his  own  calm  but  energetic  and  indomitable  courage. 

A  little  later  the  same  afternoon,  it  having  been  determined  to  make  a  detour 
around  Milroy's  right  flank,  Hays'  and  Smith's  brigades  were  designated  by  Gen. 
Early  to  storm  Fort  Jackson.  The  movement  conceived  by  Gen.  Early,  and  executed 
by  part  of  his  division,  was  as  brilliantly  executed  as  it  was  brilliantly  designed. 
Quietly  and  unobserved  from  the  Federal  side,  Col.  Hilary  Jones'  batteries  and  Hays' 
and  Smith's  brigades  wound  circuitously  around  Milroy's  flank,  and  were  posted  by 
Gen.  Early  beneath  the  brow  of  a  hill  on  the  north-west  side  of  the  Federal  fortifi- 
cation. The  artillery  was  posted  and  ready  to  fire  ;  it  was  to  open  the  attack  and 
then  the  brigades  were  to  sweep  forward  over  an  open  undulating  field  and  climb 


118 

the  ramparts.  There  was  a  dead  calm  before  the  storm  ;  and  as  the  men  lay  under 
the  brow  of  the  hill  I  was  thrown  with  Gen.  Smith,  and  a  group  of  staff-officers  and 
couriers  who  rested  on  the  grass,  awaiting  the  command  to  advance.  Peeping  over 
the  hill  top  we  could  see  the  Federal  soldiers  walking  the  ramparts  of  the  fort  in 
front,  and  looking  down  toward  the  valley  south  of  them  where  skirmishing  was 
going  on,  and  where  they  expected  battle  to  be  delivered.  For  half  an  hour,  perhaps, 
we  were  waiting  for  the  word  "go" — like  hounds  in  leash — and  Gen.  Smith  led  in 
conversation.  He  gave  us  some  interesting  reminiscences  of  his  career  ;  and  what 
impressed  me  most  deeply  was  his  talk  of  his  domestic  life.  He  spoke  of  his  wife 
and  family,  and  of  the  principles,  and  rules  of  conduct  that  had  guided  him  in  his 
relations  to  them.  I  will  not  repeat  his  language,  for  it  was  not  used  for  such  quota- 
tion ;  but  the  wisdom  of  his  utterance,  and  its  elevated  affectionate  tone,— the  picture 
he  drew  of  home  as  it  should  be,  and  of  domestic  peace,  happiness  and  duty  ;  these 
are  things  that  must  linger  in  the  heart  of  all  who  heard  him.  A  beautiful  and 
impressive  picture  indeed  it  was,  all  the  brighter  for  its  dark  background.  Presently, 
"Attention  !"  was  the  word— the  big  guns  thundered — the  glittering  bayonets  swept 
down  the  one  hill  and  up  the  other,  and  over  the  ramparts,  and  the  wild  shout  of  victory 
rose  over  the  field.  Fort  Jackson  was  carried  by  Hays'  men — Milroy  was  in  retreat 
down  the  valley,  and  amidst  the  smoke  and  screaming  shells  I  saw  again  Smith's 
brigade  coming  up,  the  General,  as  usual,  in  front,  full  of  the  eagerness  of  battle. 
Tender  father ;  faithful  husband  ;  devoted  patriot,  stout-hearted,  redoubtable 
warrior,  that  he  was — no  soldier  better  proved  that, 

"The  bravest  are  the  tenderest, 
The  loving  are  the  daring." 

At  Gettysburg,  Smith's  brigade  did  hard  fighting,  over  hard  ground,  near  the 
extreme  left  of  the  Confederate  line.  They  had  to  climb  precipitous  places  in  the 
face  of  a  deadly  fire,  and  I  have  heard  the  men  of  his  brigade  speak  of  how,  on  foot, 
he  stood  amongst  them,  and  led  them,  and  urged  them  on.  This  was  his  fashion. 
He  was  always  with  his  men,  and  of  them.  They  had  supreme  confidence  in  him, 
and  warm  affection  for  him,  and  "Come  on  boys"  was  his  whole  book  of  war. 
Untrained  in  any  military  school,  or  drilled  by  any  previous  experience,  he  had  no 
knowledge  of  tactics.  But  he  had  Wellington's  idea  that  "to  pound  the  longest'* 
was  the  way  to  beat  a  foe;  and  he  was  always  ready  to  pound  quick,  pound  hard  and 
pound  long. 

Parting  with  his  brigade  after  this  campaign,  Brigadier-General  Smith  was  made 
Major-General  in  honor  of  his  long  and  distinguished  services  ;  an  honor  won  at  the 
bayonet's  point  and  the  cannon's  mouth,  and  justly  merited.  Erelong  he  was  installed 
in  January  1864,  as  Governor  of  Virginia. 

While  sitting  in  his  office  in  the  Capitol,  Grant's  guns  could  be  heard  thundering 
in  the  suburbs  of  Richmond,  and  as  every  one  knows,  all  things  Confederate  were 
at  a  low  ebb.  But  the  Governor's  house  was  always  open  to  genial  hospitality,  and 
his  calm  inperturbable  and  cheerful  courage,  inspired  all  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact. 

Richmond  FELL— APPOMATTOX  Came.— The  remnants  of  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia  drifted  through  Lynchburg  ;  soim-  going  southward  to  join  Gen.  J.  E.  John- 
ston in  North  Carolina.  Gov.  Smith  and  staff  came  to  Lynchburg,  and  once  again  I 
heard  him  speak  there.  The  town  was  filled  with  soldiers  who  had  escaped  surrender 
and  with  refugees  from  all  sections.  Crowds  gathered  in  the  streets.  Standing  on  the 
steps  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  on  Church  street,  the  Covernor  addressed  a  multi- 
tude. He  counseled  fortitude  and  patience,  and  his  speech  breathed  the  undying 
courage  that  inflamed  his  bosom.  He  spoke  (.f  the  rights  of  man — self-govern- 
ment— of  the  just  government  that  can  only  exist  by  the  consent  of  the  governed  ; 
and  his  sentences  ring  yet  in  my  ears. 


119 

But  a  little  later,  the  Confederacy  disappeared,  and  as  the  years  rolled  by  and 
the  horrors  of  reconstruction  ceased,  we  were  back  in  the  Union.  In  the  terrible 
ordeals  of  those  days  of  confusion,  disaster  and  distress,  Gov.  Smith— now  the 
retired  citizen— clung  with  tenacious  love  to  the  interests  of  our  people.  He  had 
words  of  hope  for  all,  and  by  tongue  and  pen  he  pointed  the  way  to  their  renewed 
prosperity.  In  the  legislature  of  the  Slate,  and  in  the  public  gatherings  of  our  citi- 
zens, his  voice  was  potent  ;  and  to  his  dying  hour  he  exhibited  the  keenest  interest 
in  public  affairs,  and  set  an  example  worthy  to  be  followed. 

His  true  Democracy  rendered  the  new  system  of  civil  service— miscalled, 
reform— obnoxious  to  him.  I  have  time  and  again  rejoiced  to  hear  him  denounce  it, 
pointing  out  the  evils  of  an  official  class  clothed  with  powers  of  indefinite  extension, 
and  selected  by  methods  in  which  the  people  have  no  participation.  It  has  taken 
but  little  time  to  disclose  the  weakness  of  such  a  system.  The  people  cannot  long 
rule  in  a  government  in  which  their  voice  is  not  potential  in  selecting  agents.  Gov. 
Smith  was  a  Democrat,  like  Hendricks  and  Thurman  ;  the  fit  companion  of  such  men 
in  intellectual  discernment  in  thorough  statesmanlike  equipment,  and  in  popular 
sympathies  ;  and  his  name  deserves  the  reverent  admiration  of  all  who  seek  to  pre. 
serve  the  monuments  of  popular  liberty. 

The  scenes  of  social  life  in  which  Gov.  Smith  was  the  center  of  a  large  and 
admiring  circle  ;  the  scenes  of  life,  in  camp  and  field,  in  which  he  was  the  officer 
respected  and  the  comrade  beloved  ;  the  pleasanthumors,  and  wisdom  of  his  conver- 
sation, the  charm  of  his  manners,  the  penetration  of  his  mind,  and  the  powers  of  his 
eloquence,  are  matters  impossible  to  depict  in  this  brief  sketch,  and  scarce  possible 
to  be  depicted.  Gifted  indeed  would  be  the  hand  that  could  retrace  them.  My  poor 
tribute  to  his  memory  is  that  of  one  who  honored  him  for  those  sterling  virtues  which 
made  him  everywhere  a  power  for  good,  and  who  entertained  for  him  warm  senti- 
ments of  admiration  and  friendship.  He  was  a  great  man  and  a  good  man.  As  a 
politician  he  had  no  superior.  He  attracted  friendship  by  ingratiating  manners  that 
made  him  agreeable  in  every  coterie.  He  cemented  friendship  by  amiability  and 
true  sympathy  for  all  around  him,  and  by  loyalty  to  every  tie.  He  pleased  his  com- 
panions, because  he  had  the  good  heart  that  loves  to  afford  pleasure  to  others.  He 
was  a  statesman  of  commanding  figure,  because  he  grasped  principles,  and  stuck  to 
them.  He  was  a  leader  in  peace  and  in  war,  because  he  was  sagacious,  fearless* 
bold,  and  counted  no  cost.  Upon  the  hustings  he  was  invincible.  A  few  months 
before  he  died,  I  met  him  in  Washington  and  he  spoke  of  his  declining  health,  not 
sorrowfully  nor  sadly,  but  as  one  who  felt  the  shadows  lengthening  and  darkening  on 
his  pathway;  and  he  added,  the  maxim  of  my  life  has  been  "  to  entertain[no  opinion 
that  I  would  not  avow,  and  avow  nothing  that  I  would  not  vindicate."  This  was  indeed 
his  guiding  star  ;  and  if  I  were  to  sum  up  my  conception  of  Gov.  Smith  in  a  single 
word,  I  would  say  that  manliness  was  his  great  quality.  He  had  the  robust  common 
sense,  practical  intellect  of  a  strong  man.  He  had  the  cheerful  well-tempered  dis- 
position of  a  good  man.  He  had  the  public  spirit,  and  enlightened  mind  of  the  patri- 
otic man.  He  had  the  lion-like  courage  of  the  brave  man.  He  was  a  Virginian,  to 
use  his  own  frequent  expression  inlus  et  incute  with  the  chivalrous  instincts 
and  manly  virtues  that  savored  of  the  times  he  lived  in,  of  the  atmosphere  he 
breathed,  and  the  soil  from  which  he  sprung. 

Long  will  his  memory  be  green  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  knew  him,  and  long 
and  high  shall  his  name  shine  on  the  roll  of  the  wise  and  valiant  who  have  loved 
and  served  the  State.  Would  that  his  biography  could  be  written,  and  placed  in  the 
hands  of  every  young  man  in  the  land.  In  it  he  would  find  the  happy  home  of  the 
revered  husband  and  father,  and  the  good  neighbor,  the  field  of  honor  that  will  not 
brook  a  stain  ;  the  love  of  country  that  inspires  sacrifice  and  secures  freedom  ; 
and  the  lesson  of  earnest  energy  and  aspiration  that  climb  upward  by  dint  of  true 
endeavor. 


120 

I  do  not  deem  it  irrelevant  to  insert  the  following;  vindica- 
tion  of  the  memory  of  Colonel  Austin  Smith,  written  by  a 
comrade  in  arms,  from  a  wanton  calumny  : 

THE    DEATH    OF    COLONEL    AUSTIN    SMITH. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Charleston  News  and  Courier  : 

An  item  appeared  in  your  paper  to-day  under  the  heading  "  Cream  of 
the  Mails,"  in  which  the  following  statement  is  made  in  reference  to  Col.  Austin 
Smith,  son  of  the  late  ex-Governor  Smith,  of  Virginia.  "Austin  Smith,  the  great 
bowie-knife  lighter,  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Seven  Pines."  Please  allow  me  to  cor- 
rect this  mistake.  Col.  Smith  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Gaines  Farm  the  second  of 
the  seven  days  around  Richmond.  He  was  on  General  Whiting's  staff,  whose  divi- 
sion led  the  advance  of  Jackson's  corps  in  the  attack  on  McClellan's  rear  and  whose 
charge  broke  through  Fitz  John  Porter's  lines  of  defence  on  Friday  afternoon  and 
dislodged  him,  though  I  observe  that  one  of  our  doughty  generals  has  recently  tried 
to  claim  his  laurels.  A  more  courteous  or  kindly  gentleman  than  Col.  Smith  I  never 
knew.  As  an  instance  of  his  considerate  kindness,  I  may  mention  the  following:  I 
was  a  private  in  the  Hampton  Legion  Cavalry  and  a  courier  with  General  Whiting 
when  Col.  Smith  was  killed.  On  the  night  before  I  reached  our  bivouac  at  Topotony 
Creek  at  dark,  without  a  blanket — Col.  Smith  observing  it,  insisted  on  sharing  his 
with  me,  and  we  slept  together,  heads  in  saddle,  until  four  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
when  his  servant  led  up  his  favorite  horse,  a  light  dappled  grey,  a  magnificent  animal, 
dead  lame.  After  examaning  him  he  told  the  servant  to  saddle  another  horse,  and 
turning  to  me,  with  a  disturbed  look,  said:  "Farley,  that's  a  bad  omen;  I  will  be 
killed  to-day."  "Oh  no, "  I  said  ;"  on  the  contrary,  I  think  it  fortunate  you  can't 
ride  the  grey  to-day  ;  on  him  you  would  have  been  a  conspicuous  mark  for  every 
sharp-shooter;  you  will  be  safer  on  the  other  horse."  But,  alas!  his  premonition 
was  verified.  That  day  the  gallant  gentleman  fell,  shot  through  the  shoulder,  and 
died  before  the  morning  of  the  next  clay,  lamented  by  everybody  who  knew  him. 
Of  him  might  we  truly  say  with  Sir  Ector  :  "  He  was  the  meekest  man  and  the  gentlest 
that  ever  ate  in  hall  with  ladies,  and  he  was  the  sternest  knight  to  his  mortal  foe  that 
ever  put  lance  in  rest" 

Charleston,  S.  C,  May  26.  John  S.  Farley. 


121 


Asa  final  tribute  of  love  to  her  dead  son,  Virginia  stamps 
his  crave  with  her  own  seal. 


Mr.  Heaton  said  the  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth  had  some  doubt  as  to  his 
right  to  allow  Miss  Smith  to  use  the  State's  seal  on  the  monument  to  be  erected  over 
her  father's  grave  in  Hollywood. 

GOVERNOR   SMITH'S    MEMORIAL. 

Mr.  Heaton  introduced  the  following,  which  was  adopted  : 

Resolved  (the  House  of  Delegates  concurring),  That  Miss  Mary  Amelia  Smith  be, 
and  she  is  hereby,  authorized  and  permitted  to  place  a  copy  of  the  seal  of  the  Com- 
monwealth in  such  material  as  she  may  choose  on  the  memorial  stone  to  be  erected  over 
the  grave  of  her  father,  the  late  William  Smith,  twice  Governor  of  Virginia;  and  the 
Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth  is  hereby  directed  to  furnish  her  with  a  copy  of  the 
seal  of  the  Commonwealth  to  be  used  in  the  execution  of  said  purpose. 

(The  great  men  of  the  revolution,  in  their  first  meeting  in  congress, 
on  the  5th  September,  1774,  and  in  their  proceedings  till  the  26th 
October,  when  "  the  congress  then  dissolved  itself  ;"  did  not  merely 
declare  in  their  resolutions  and  letters,  on  what  ground  they  stood 
in  asserting  the  rights  of  the  people  and  colonies,  but  pointed  to  it 
as  their  rallying  point,  To  the  journal  published  by  their  order,  and 
verified  by  the  autograph  of  their  secretary,  is  prefixed,  in  the  title 
page,   a  medallion  of  which,  the  following  is  a  fac  simile. 


The  magna  charta  of  England,  was  the  pedestal  on  which  the  co- 
lumn and  cap  of  liberty  was  raised,  supported  by  the  twelve  colo- 
nies, assembled  by  their  delegates  ;  declaring  that  "on  this  we  rely," 
"  this  ice  will  defend.") 


APPENDIX. 


Forsan  et  hcec  ohm  Meminisse  Juvabit. 

—Virgil 


INTRODUCTION. 


In  embracing  the  amount  of  matter  which  appears  in  the 
appendix  to  this  volume,  it  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  adding 
to  the  history  or  magnifying  the  importance  of  one  of  Vir- 
ginia's most  distinguished  sons. 

The  subject  of  these  Memoirs  filled  a  large  space  in  the 
public  eye  for  near  half  a  century.  For  forty  years  from  1836 
to  1876,  he  was  an  active  and  distinguished  participant  in  the 
politics  of  the  State,  in  Federal  Legislation  and  State  Gov- 
ernment. Hence  any  iteration,  generated  by  the  ardor  of 
biographical  enthusiasm,  may  be  excused. 

In  the  beginning  of  his  legislative  life  as  State  Senator  of 
Virginia,  when  that  branch  of  the  legislature  was  filled  with 
the  ablest  statesmen  of  that  period,  when  and  where  political 
animosities  and  party  acrimony  were,  as  at  the  present  time, 
too  ready  to  sacrifice  the  "  best  interests  of  the  Republic,"  to 
factious  political  ambition,  Mr.  Smith  was  regarded  as  the  first 
among  the  foremost,  in  upholding  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws  as  formed  and  construed  by  the  fathers. 

It  is  his  political  record  that  the  author  esteems  with  greater 
admiration  than  that  of  any  other  period  of  his  public  life. 
That  record  is  part  of  the  brilliant  history  of  Virginia.  He 
now  remembers  when  in  the  grand  old  days  of  this  then 
proud  and  unmutilated  Commonwealth,  great  questions  of 
government  and  political  economy  were  discussed  by  master 
minds.  In  the  bank,  tariff,  internal  improvements  by  the  gen- 
eral government  and  other  issues,  Mr.  Smith  boldly  and  fear- 
lessly stood  forth  as  the  great  champion  of  Democracy  and 
popular  rights. 


124 

He  remembers  when  and  how,  with  burning  eloquence  and 
passionate  oratory,  he  dauntlessly  maintained  the  affirmative 
of  the  proposition  whether  a  bank  charter  could  be  repealed, 
before  it  had  expired  by  its  own  limitation,  when  it  had  failed 
to  comply  with  the  purposes  of  its  own  creation  and  serve  the 
great  objects  of  government  and  the  people  ;  when  he  in- 
trepidly opposed  all  monopolies  and  charters  of  incorpora- 
tion except  where  administered  in  the  interests  of  the  great 
masses  ; — all  high  tariffs  and  taxation  and  custom  duties,  ex- 
cept for  the  bear  support  of  government  ;  and  manfully 
struggled  for  economy  and  retrenchment  in  every  department 
of  the  government,  National  and  State.  Upon  these  vital 
questions,  no  leader  ever  possessed  a  wider  popularity.  As 
Pitt,  in  England,  O'Connell,  in  Ireland,  and  Clay,  in  Kentucky, 
so  Mr.  Smith  was  known  as  the  great  Commoner  of  Vir- 
ginia. 

When  the  Whig  gentry  were  roaring  themselves  hoarse 
for  bank  tariff,  and  internal  improvements ;  for  distribution 
of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands,  and  the 
assumption  of  the  debt  of  the  State  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, Mr.  Smith  denounced  them  from  the  hustings  as  worth- 
less, profligate  and  unconstitutional — when  the  whole  Whig 
party  went  mad  with  hatred  of  the  Democrats,  Mr.  Smith 
haughtily  declared  his  esteem  for  the  masses  ;  and  the  fire  and 
grandeur  of  his  eloquence  gave  him  a  sway  over  the  people 
and  attached  them  to  him  in  a  far  greater  degree  than  to  any 
other  man  in  the  State ;  and  though  a  determined  and  bitter 
partisan,  he  never  stooped  to  the  devices  and  chicane  by  which 
men  form  a  political  part)-. 

His  real  strength  laid  not  in  the  legislature  or  in  congress, 
or  with  a  few,  but  in  the  "great  people."  as  he  was  always 
wont  to  call  them.  He  was  in  very  truth,  a  representative 
man — the  intense  embodiment  of  Democratic  principles. 

With  the  depth  of  conviction  and  love  of  the  people,  coupled 
with  his  hearty  self-assumption,  his  cool  audacity  and  perfect 
self-possession,  his  indomitable  energy  and  lofty  vehemence, 
enabled  him  to  contend  with  the  first  men  of  the  State — with 
Rives   and    Gov.    Barbour,    Botts   and    Wise.   Pendleton   and 


125 

Lyons,  Stuart  and  Baldwin,  and  others,  and  acquire  a  power 
and  command  over  the  people,  exciting  the  jealousy  of  friends 
and  hatred  of  foes. 

The  author  deeply  regrets  that  from  quite  a  volume  of  let- 
ter press  correspondence,  he  has  found  so  few  legible  enough 
to  be  utilized  in  this  work. 


"Eminent   Virginians, 


From  Special  Virginia  Edition  of  Hardesty's  Historical  and  Geographical 
Encyclopedia,  written  by  R.  A.  Brock,  Secretary  of  the  Virginia  Historical 
Society. 

To  the  distinguished  representative  of  the   name   of  Smith 
in  the  annals  of  Virginia  some  reference  has  been  made  in  a 
preceding  sketch  in  this  serial.       Doubtless  the  paternal  an- 
cestor of  the  subject    of  this    biography    was   settled    in  the 
colony   early  in   the  Seventeenth  Century,  but  it  is  proposed 
to  deduce  first,  her  descent  maternally   which  is  more   defi- 
nitely preserved.     Alexander  Doniphan,*  a  native   of    Spain 
whose   name  was  thus  anglicized   a  Protestant,  migrated  to 
England  for  religious  freedom,  and   thence  to  Virginia,  where 
he  married,  some  time  before  the  year  1692,  an  heiress,  Mar- 
garet, daughter  of  George   Mott,   a  native   of  Scotland,  and 
thus  came  into  possession  of  a  large   landed  estate  of  nearly 
18,000  acres,  located  in  the   Northern   Neck.     He  settled  in 
that  part  which   was  subsequently  erected  into  King  George 
County,    and    died    in    17 16,  leaving   three    sons    and   three 
daughters,  as  follows  :     Mott  (the  ancestor  of  the  distinguished 
and    venerable    General    O.    W.    Doniphan,    United    States 
Army).     Alexander,  Margaret,  Elizabeth,  Anne  and   Robert. 
The    second    son,  Alexander   Doniphan   married  twice  ;  first 
Mary  Waugh,  and  secondly  Catharine  Dobbins.     Of  his  issue 
by  the  first  marriage  was  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  born  April  12, 
1744  ;  died  January  15,  1809,  married  in  1773  William  Smith, 
son  of  Joseph  and  Kitty  (Anderson)  Smithf  born  February  5, 

•The  tradition  held  by  Alexander  Doniphan's  descendants  is  that  he  was  of  noble  Castilian  blood  and  had 
been  knighted  for  galantry  on  the  field  of  battle.  The  parchment  patent  of  his  rank,  it  is  said,  was  carried  to 
Kentucky  by  his  great-grandson,  Dr.  Anderson  Doniphan  in  1792,  and  is  believed  to  be  in  the  possession  of  his 
present  representatives. 

tThe  descent  of  William  Smith  as  preserved  by  his  descendants  was  as  follows  :  During  the  reign  o  f 
George  I,  Sir  Walter  Anderson,  a  native  of  Wales,  and  an  officer  in  the  British  Navy,  and  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  a 
native  of  England,  settled  in  Richmond  County,  Virginia  ;  and  Joseph  Smith,  a  son  of  the  last  married  Kitty, 
daughter  of  Sir  William  Anderson.  Another  daughter,  Anne  Anderson  married  Matt  Doniphan,  son  of  the 
emigrant  settler,  Alexander  Doniphan.  Walter  Anderson  received  from  Lord  Fairfax  a  grant  of  818  acres  of 
and  on  Carters  Run,  west  side  of  the  Rappahanock  River  and  another  of  395  acres  in  June,  1726. 


L28 

1 741  ;  died  January  22  1803,  of  their  issue  of  four  daughters 
and  three  sons,  the  eldest,  Mary  Waugh,  born  January  1, 
1775  ;  died  September  i5,  181 1,  married  December  18,  1794, 
William  (son  of  Thomas)  Smith,  born  in  1761  and  died  in 
November  18 14.     They  had  issue  : 

I.  Eliza,  born  September  25,  1795;  died  August  14,  1797. 

II.  William,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  born  September 6,  1797. 

III.  Thomas,  born  November  15,  1799;  married  Ann  Maria  Goodwin,  of  Caroline 
County;  died  April  4,  1847.  He  studied  law  with  his  brother  William,  and  prac- 
ticed for  a  time  with  exceptional  success,  but  later  entered  the  ministry  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  By  his  unwearying  exertions  he  caused  the  erec- 
tion of  the  handsome  Gothic  church  in  Parkensburg,  West  Virginia.  Had  issue 
six  sons,  and  four  daughters,  of  the  former  Thomas  G.,  who  is  married  resides 
with  his  family  in  Parkensburg.  Another  son,  Caleb,  was  reading  law  when 
the  war  with  Mexico  broke  out.  He  enlisted,  served  with  distinction,  and  was 
made  a  lieutenant  of  the  United  States  Artillery.  In  1861  he  joined  the  49th 
Virginia  Regiment,  was  made  major,  and  was  wounded  and  permanently  dis- 
abled in  the  first  battle  of  Manassas;  died  December  22,  1874. 

IV.  Mary  Frances,  born  January  9,  1802;  married  December  14,  1820,  Professor  Alex- 
ander Keech,  President  of  Potomac  Academy,  Maryland,  who  was  offered  by 
Mr.  Jefferson  a  professorship  in  the  University  of  Virginia. 

V.  Catharine  Elizabeth,  born   April    10,    1804;   married   December  7,    1826,   John  A. 

Blackford,  and  died  December  4,  1844. 

VI.  Martha,  born  July  24,  1806;  married  William  Bell  (died  July  1,  1874)  brother  of 
the  wife  of  Governor  Smith. 

VII.  James  Madison,  born  March  15,  1808;  married  first  Mary  Bell  (sister  of  the  wife 
of  Governor  Smith);  secondly  May  22,  1845,  his  cousin  Martha  Smith  Boutwell; 
died  December  15,  1853  at  Dora  Ana,  New  Mexico,  on  his  way  to  take  charge  of 
an  Indian  Agency,  to  which  he  had  been  appointed  by  President  Pierce. 

VIII.  Anna  Maria,  born  December  3,  1809;  married  January  17,  1833,  Reverend 
Richard  Johnson,  of  South  Carolina,  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  who  was  attached 
to  Hampton's  Legion  during  the  war  for  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  gained  by 
his  gallantry  the  sobriquet  of  "  The  Fighting  Parson."  He  died  February  7, 
1872.  Only  two  sons,  living  respectively,  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  surviv- 
ors of  their  issue. 

William  Smith,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  entered  at  the 
age  of  seven  years,  the  old-field  school  of  his  native  count}-. 
King  George,  and  some  years  later  received  tuition  in 
Fredericksburg,  Virginia,  where  he  resided  in  the  family  of 
Judge  John  Williams  Green.  In  181 1  he  was  sent  to  Plain- 
field,  Conn.,  to  continue  his  studies  at  the  Academy  Jabez  W. 
Huntington,  subsequently  United  States  Senator.  Here  he 
made  considerable  progress  in  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  ; 
but  the  war  with  Great  Britain  breaking  out  in  June  181 2, 
young  William  caught  the  patriotic  fire  of  the  period  and 
wished  to  enter  the  naval  service.     Having  written  his  father 


129 


to  procure  him  a  midshipman's  appointment,  the  latter  deemed 
it  prudent  to  call  his  ardent  son  home.  He  now  for  a  time 
enjoyed  a  private  tuition  ;  but  upon  the  death  of  his  father,  in 
November  1 8 14,  he  was  sent  to  the  classical  school  of  the 
Reverend  Thomas  Nelson  at  "  Wingfield,"  Hanover  County. 
Mr.  Nelson  was  a  highly  successful  teacher  for  a  long  series 
of  years,  and  many  of  his  pupils  distinguished  themselves  in 
science  and  legislation.  Young  Smith  continued  with  Mr. 
Nelson  until  the  age  of  eighteen,  when  he  entered  upon  the 
study  of  law,  first  with  Green  &  Williams,  at  Fredericksburg, 
then  with  J.  L.  Moore,  in  Warrenton,  and  finally  for  a  brief 
period  in  the  office  of  General  William  H.  Winder,  in  Balti- 
more, Maryland.  Having  passed  an  examination  by  Judge 
Hugh  Holmes,  Robert  White,  and  John  W.  Green,  he  was 
licensed  to  practice  law,  and  qualified  in  the  Circuit  and  County 
Courts  of  Culpeper  Co.,  in  Aug.  1819.  His  talents,  energy  and 
fidelity  speedily  gained  him  success  in  his  profession.  An  ardent 
Democrat  in  politics,  the  ability  of  Mr.  Smith  was  soon  ex- 
tensively in  request  by  his  party.  He  responded  cheerfully  to 
its  calls,  though  at  personal  sacrifice,  and  presistently  declined 
all  political  preferment  for  a  long  period.  In  1836,  when  in 
his  39th  year,  he  consented  to  become  a  candidate  for  the 
State  Senate,  to  which  he  was  elected  and  served  throug-h  the 
term  of  four  years.  He  was  re-elected  to  this  body,  but  re- 
signed after  serving  one  season.  In  the  Presidental  campaign 
of  1840  Mr.  Smith  canvassed  the  state  in  the  interest  of  his 
party,  and  in  his  triumphant  advocacy  of  its  principles,  greatly 
enhanced  and  firmly  established  his  reputation  as  a  public 
speaker,  and  his  hold  upon  the  Democratic  masses. 

Early  in  the  career  of  Mr.  Smith  as  a  lawyer,  he  had  been 
impressed  with  the  illy-provided  mail  service  of  Culpeper 
County,  and  determined  to  improve  such  facilities.  In  1827 
he  obtained  a  contract  for  carrying  the  mails  once  a  week 
from  Fairfax  Court  House  to  Warrenton,  and  thence  to  Cul- 
peper Court  House.  He  renewed  this  contract  in  1831. 
With  this  small  beginning  he,  in  four  years  built  up  a  daily 
four-horse  post-coach  line  from  Washington  City  to  Milledge- 
ville,  Georgia.     In  1834  a  violent  attack  was  made   upon   the 


130 

administration  of  the  Post  Office  Department,  W.J.Barry  be- 
ing the  Postmaster-General.  In  the  rapid  development  of  the 
postal  facilities  of  the  Southern  country,  the  expenditures  of 
the  department  were  largely  increased.  In  the  Blue  Book, 
or  official  register  of  the  United  States  Government,  the 
salaries  or  compensation  of  its  officers  or  contractors  appear 
in  connection  with  their  names  ;  and  in  the  case  of  the  con- 
tractors compensation  for  instances  of  additional  services 
ordered  to  be  performed  is  indicated  by  an  asterisk.  Every 
extra  allowance  beyond  the  stipulations  of  the  original  con- 
tract was  thus  designated.  As  the  route  of  Mr.  Smith  was 
one  of  rapid  development  his  entries  of  service  were  abund- 
antly thus  marked.  The  circumstance  was  noticed  in  debate 
by  Senator  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  from  Virginia,  who 
without  calling  the  name  of  Mr.  Smith,  had  affixed  upon  him 
the  life-long  sobriquet  of  "  Extra  Billy."  Mr.  Smith  ob- 
tained, January  i,  1835,  the  mail  contract  by  steamboat  and 
coach  line  between  Washington  and  Richmond.  The  pre- 
vious contractors,  Messrs.  Edmond  Davenport  &  Co.,  of  the 
latter  place,  started  a  passenger  line  in  opposition,  and  for  a 
few  months  there  was  a  spirited  competition,  which  is  trans- 
mitted in  tradition  of  free  passage,  and  finally  of  the  addi- 
tional gratuitous  inducement  of  a  bottle  of  wine.  It  was 
ended  by  the  transfer,  for  a  consideration,  of  the  contract  to 
the  former  contractors.  During  this  contest,  in  the  month  of 
February,  Mr.  Smith  was  seized  in  Fredericksburg,  Virginia, 
with  a  violent  attack  of  inflammatory  rheumatism,  which  con- 
fined him  to  his  bed,  incapable  of  movement  without  assist- 
ance. Early  in  March  whilst  still  prostrated,  and  at  a  time 
when  the  ground  was  covered  with  snow  intelligence  was 
brought  him,  that  three  of  his  coaches  had  been  overturned 
in  the  Rappahanock  River  which  was  very  much  swollen  in 
volume.  Under  the  stimulant  of  strong  excitement,  he  de- 
manded that  he  should  be  taken  from  his  bed,  dressed,  and 
placed  upon  his  riding  horse,  and  would  take  no  denial. 
This  was  with  much  difficulty,  and  great  pain  to  himself  ac- 
complished. Urging  the  horse  to  full  speed,  he  speedily 
reached  the  river,  plunged  into  the  foaming  flood,  and  ordered 


131 

his  drivers  to  his  assistance.  Reaching  the  coaches,  and  real- 
izing that  the  intense  excitement,  and  the  exercise  had  re- 
stored him  to  the  use  of  himself,  he  dismounted  into  the  water, 
and  by  his  active  example  the  coaches  were  promptly  up- 
righted  and  started  upon  their  route.  The  rheumatism  was 
dispelled,   not  to  return  again. 

The  resolution  of  Mr.  Smith  was  strikingly  exhibited 
on  another  occasion.  Being  deprived  unexpectedly  of 
the  services  of  the  captain  and  pilot  of  the  steamboat 
which  he  ran  between  Baltimore  and  Norfolk,  he  un- 
dauntedly took  command  of  the  vessel,  and  charge  of  the 
wheel  himself,  and  successfully,  in  a  fierce  storm  on  the 
bay,  reached  port  in  advance  of  the  rival  steamer.  "  Cham- 
pion "  was  the  appropriate  name  of  the  boat  so  bravely  and 
fortunately  directed  in  this  instance.  Such  energetic  purpose 
merited  the  fullest  pecuniary  success — but  it  was  unfortunately 
otherwise.  The  attention  of  Mr.  Smith  being:  divided  be- 
tween  politics,  his  profession  and  his  contracts,  subjected  him 
to  the  peculation  of  his  agents,  and  financial  disaster  was  the 
result.  In  1841,  Mr.  Smith  was  elected  to  Congress  over  the 
Hon.  Lynn  Banks  and  served  in  that  body  until  1843.  In 
December,  1845,  he  was  elected  Governor  of  Virginia,  succeed- 
ing James  McDowell,  January  1,  1846.  During  his  term  he 
was  nominated  by  the  Democratic  caucus  for  the  United 
States  Senate,  which  was  accepted  by  the  people  as  equivo- 
lent  to  an  election,  but  a  small  minority  of  his  party,  disciples 
of  the  theories  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  broke  ranks,  coalesced  with 
the  Whigs,  and  after  a  protracted  struggle  and  the  withdrawal 
of  Mr.  Smith's  name  by  his  direction,  accomplished  the  elec- 
tion of  Hon.  R.  M.  T.  Hunter.  In  i85o  Governor  Smith  de- 
termined to  go  to  California,  where  two  of  his  son's  were  re- 
siding. He  arrived  in  San  Francisco  in  May  and  engaged  in 
the  practice  of  his  profession  with  much  success.  His  first 
considerable  fee  was  $3,000  for  examination  into  the  cele- 
brated Suter  title.  California  was  admitted  into  the  Union 
September  9,  i85o. 

Governor  Smith  was  returned  by  San  Francisco  as  its  dele- 
gate to  the   Constitutional   Convention  which  met  at  Benicia 


132 

in  the  autumn  of  1850,  and  was  unanimously   elected   perma- 
nent President  of  the  body.     In  the   State  Assembly  which 
convened   soon   after,  Governor     Smith    was   nominated    for 
United  States  Senator — but  cherishing  a  passionate  love  for 
his  native  state — and  never  having  contemplated  forfeiting  his 
citizenship  as  her  son,  he  would  not  permit  his  name  to  be 
submitted  for  election.     When,  on  the  1st  of  December,  1852, 
Governor  Smith  determined  to  return  to  Virginia,  such  had 
been  his  success  from  his  practice  that  he  left  in  San  Francisco 
property   acquired   therefrom,   which   yielded   him  an  annual 
rental  of  $18,000.     Upon  reaching  Virginia,  Governor  Smith 
found  the  people  of  the  State  much  agitated  about  a  redivision 
into  Congressional  districts,  rendered  necessary  by  the  cen- 
sus of  1850,  before  the  legislature  then  in  session,  performed 
this    duty.      Under  the   new  apportionment  Governor  Smith 
was  elected  to  Congress  in  May,  1853,  and  served  in'this  body 
by  successive  re-election   until    March   4,    1861.      Returning 
home,  he  was  prostrated  by  sickness  and  confined  to  his  room 
for  two  months.     In  the  meanwhile,  the  initial  movement  of 
our  recent  lamentable   Civil  War  had  been  instituted.     Gov- 
ernor Smith  feeling  that  the  struggle  on  the  part  of  the  South 
"  would     need     the     employment    ef  every     element    of  its 
strength  "  in  the  contest,  was  impelled  by  a  sense  of  duty  to 
enter  the  army,  though  in  the  sixty-fourth  year  of  his  age, 
and   "  wholly   ignorant  of  drill  and  tactics."       He    therefore 
offered  his  services  to  Governor  Letcher,  who  promptly  ac- 
cepted them  and  tendered  him  a  commission  as   Brigadier- 
General,  but  Governor  Smith  realizing  the  responsibilities  of 
such  a  position,  being  unwilling  to  assume  them  until  qualified 
by  experience,  declined  such  a  rank  and  accepted  a  Colonelcy, 
and  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  49th  Regiment  of 
Virginia  Infantry,  then  being  organized,  and  containing  three 
companies  only,  with  which  it  inaugurated  its  subsequent  long 
and  brilliant  career,  by  a  gallant  participation  in  the  first  bat- 
tle of  Manassas.     Its  first  commander  thus  warmly  testifies  to 
its  valorous  worth  :     "  I  will  say  that,  in  the  numerous  bloody 
fights   in   which   it   was   engaged,  it  never  broke  in  battle,  or 
c^ave  me  the  slightest  uneasiness  or  concern  as  to  its  conduct." 


133 

During  the  summer  and  autumn,  it  remained  in  camp  at  Man- 
assa,  completing-  its  organization  and  being  perfected  in  drill. 
During  this    period  Colonel    Smith,  at  the   solicitation  of  his 
friends,  announced  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  Confederate 
States  Congress,  and  was  elected  without  having  made  a  can- 
vass.    He  attended  this  body  when  it  convened  at  Richmond, 
in  February,  1862,  leaving  his  regiment  in  charge  of  his  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel.   Upon  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  April  16, 
he   rejoined   his   command.       At   the   reorganization    of  the 
regiment,  May  1st,  he  was  re-elected  its  Colonel,  upon  which 
he  resigned  his  seat  in  Congress.     He  participated  with  his 
command  in  the  operations  on  the  Peninsula,  about   York- 
town,  and  in  those  later,  near  Richmond.     In  the  battle  of  the 
Seven  Pines  the  loss  of  the  regiment  was  fifty-five  per  cent* 
of  its   number.     Of  its   service  here,  Colonel  Smith  narrates  : 
"  Anderson's  brigade,  of  which  my  regiment  was  a  part,  was 
ordered  to  keep  on  the  left  of  the  Williamsburg  road,  and  '  to 
the  front,  forward  march,'  was  the  only  order  I  received  dur- 
ing the  fight  of  some  hours.     In  obeying  this  order  we  had  to 
encounter  a  formidable   abattis,  consisting  of  heavy  timber, 
felled  at  least  six  miles  in  extent,  in  which  was  a  row  of  rifle  pits 
and  also  on  the  Williamsburg  road,  a  formidable  earth-work — 
the  whole  occupied  by  an  enemy  whom  we  could  not  see  until 
we  came  into  close  proximity.     It  was  on  this  occasion,  upon 
the  complaint  of  my  men,  that  they  could   not  see  the   foe, 
that   I   gave  the  order  to  '  flush  the  game,' "  which  excited  so 
much  humorous  newspaper  comment.     Colonel  Smith  effec- 
tively participated  in  the  battle  of  Sharpsburg,  Maryland,  on 
the  17th  of  September,  1862,  the  49th  constituting  the  right  of 
the  line  on  that  memorable  engagement.     Colonel  Smith  was 
here  severely    wounded.     One    of  his    wounds,  through   the 
shoulder,  it  was  feared  would  prove  fatal.     Before  his  wounds 
were  healed  he  returned  to   the    field   in    1863,   having   been 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  Brigadier-General,  and    took  com- 
mand of  the  4th  Brigade,  then  lying  at  Hamilton's  Crossing, 
near  Fredericksburg,  Virginia.     He  now  announced  himself  as 
a  candidate  for  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  was  elected  to  this 
office  by  a  large  majority,  in  May.    Early  in  August,  1863,  he 


134 

was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Major-General,  which  he  sought 
not,  but  prized  "  as  an  evidence  of  appreciation,"  to  use  his 
own  language. 

He  entered  upon  his  duties  as  Governor,  January  i,  1864. 
He  found  that  local  defence  was  greatly  needed,  from  fre- 
quent raids  with  which  the  Capital  was  menaced  by  the 
enemy.  He  accordingly  organized  two  regiments  for  this 
purpose  from  those,  who  by  reason  of  disability,  as  foreigners 
or  contractors,  or  by  age  or  non-age,  were  exempt  from  duty 
in  the  regular  service.  To  each  of  these  regiments  was  at- 
tached a  company  of  cavalry.  When  called  to  the  defence  of 
the  city  lines,  Governor  Smith  always  assumed  command  of 
them,  and  the  service  thus  rendered  was  in  several  exigencies 
highly  important.  Another  great  want  in  the  State  was  sup- 
plies of  every  description — food  for  man  and  beast.  Towards 
this  provision  Governor  Smith  assumed  the  authority  to  em- 
ploy as  a  purchasing  fund,  the  sum  of  $1 10,000,  which  he  drew 
in  part  from  the  State  Contingent  fund,  and  borrowed  the  re- 
mainder from  the  State  banks.  He  commissioned  agents, 
some  of  whom  were  supplied  with  cotton,  with  which  to  se- 
cure, through  the  blockade,  such  supplies  as  could  be  obtained 
from  abroad  only  ;  others,  procured  from  the  South,  corn,  rice 
and  other  needful  supplies.  The  measure  was  signally  suc- 
cessful and  profitable  to  the  State,  as  an  advance  of  ten  per 
cent,  was  charged  upon  the  cost  to  cover  transportation 
and  contingent  expenses,  whilst  the  public  was  protected  from 
speculators'  extortion.  It  greatly  assisted  the  Confederate 
Commissaries  in  time  of  need,  and  upon  the  conclusion  of 
the  war,  the  Confederacy  was  indebted  to  the  State  in  the  sum 
of  5300,000  for  such  supplies. 

Upon  the  evacuation  of  Richmond,  April  3,  1 865,  Governor 
Smith  determined  to  remove  the  seat  of  government  to 
Lynchburg.  General  Lee  surrendering  to  Grant  three  day's 
after  his  arrival  in  that  city,  he  determined  to  follow  the  for- 
tunes of  the  Confederate  Government  to  Danville,  Virginia ; 
but  here  again  rapidly  maturing  events  frustrated  his  hopes. 
Realizing  that  further  residence  was  hopeless,  he  returned  to 
the  vicinity  of  Richmond,  communicated  with  the  officer  com- 


135 

manding  in  that  city  and,  though  there  was  an  outstanding 
reward  of  $25,000  for  his  apprehension,  demanded  and  re- 
ceived his  parole,  and  returned  to  his  home  in  Fauquier 
County.  Governor  Smith  exulted  in  the  fidelity  of  the  people 
of  his  State  to  themselves  and  him,  in  that  not  one  among 
them,  despite  their  ruin,  was  bribed  into  the  betrayal  of  him — 
and  proudly  and  eloquently  recited  the  evidences  of  their 
interest  in  and  concern  about  him  during  his  tour  among  them 
as  their  Governor — carrying  in  his  person  the  only  State 
Government  they  recognized. 

It  is  a  grand  commentary  upon  the  people  that  not  even  a 
thought,  discovered  by  action,  was  entertained  by  them  of 
securing  this  tempting  sum  of  $2 5, 000,  by  the  capture  and  de- 
livery of  their  dethroned  Executive  to  his  enemies. 

Governor  Smith  has,  since  the  war,  resided  in  Warrenton, 
Virginia,  devoted  to  agricultural  pursuits.  He  married,  in 
1 82  1,  Miss  Bell,  with  whom  he  lived  for  the  long  period  of 
fifty-eight  years.  He  was  bereaved  of  his  cherished  companion 
January  7,  1879.     They  had  issue  : 

I.  William  Henry:     Entered  the  United   States   Navy  as   a   midshipman;    obtaining 

leave  of  absence  in  1850,  entered  into  a  private  maritime  enterprise  between 
California  and  China,  and  was  lost  at  sea  in  that  year  somewhere  off  the  Sand- 
wich Islands. 

II.  James  Caleb:     Was  a  licensed  lawyer,  and  removing  to  California,  was  appointed 

a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  San  Francisco,  which  position  he  held  at  will, 
became  a  member  of  the  California  Assembly,  and  subsequently  associated  him- 
self with  a  great  Land  Company  in  Central  America,  of  which  he  was  chosen  Presi- 
dent, and  in  the  service  of  which,  he  died  at  New  Grenada,  of  fever. 

III.  Mary  Amelia:     Unmarried  and  resides  with  her  father. 

IV.  Austin  E:  A  lawyer  by  profession,  and  practitioner  at  Fauquier  and  adjoining 
counties;  in  February  1853  removed  to  San  Francisco,  California;  appointed  by 
President  Buchanan  naval  officer  of  that  port;  resigned  in  1861  to  share  the  fate 
of  his  native  State,  and  on  his  way  to  Washington  to  settle  his  accounts  was 
arrested  and  held  as  a  prisoner  of  war.  Offered  his  release  upon  condition  that 
he  would  return  to  California,  which  he  indignantly  rejected;  his  exchange  being 
accomplished  by  the  efforts  of  his  father,  he  entered  the  Confederate  States  Army 
as  an  aid  on  the  staff  of  Major-General  Whiting,  and  received  his  death  wound  at 
the  battle  of  Gaines'  Mill,  whilst  enthusiastically  leading  a  charge. 

V.  Ellen— Catharine  VI.  Catharine  and  VII.  John  Bell,  all  died  in  infancy. 

VIII.  Thomas:  Graduated  A.  M.  from  William  and  Mary  College;  after  attending  a 
law  course  of  two  years  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  during  which  he  was  pre- 
vented from  graduating  by  a  protracted  attack  of  typhoid  fever,  at  the  time  an 
epidemic  at  this  institution,  he  settled  in  Charleston,  West  Virginia;  served  as  a 
private  in  the  beginning  of  the  late  war  as  member  of  the  Kanawha  Rifles;  ap- 
pointed Major  of  the  36th  Virginia  Regiment  at  its  organization  in  1861.  Com- 
manded  it   at   Fort   Donelson,  captured   a   battery   of   the  enemy  under  special 


136 

orders,  armed  his  regiment  with  Enfield  rifles  taken  from  the  enemy  and  success- 
fully withdrew  his  command  from  the  Fort  during  the  negotiations  for  its  surren- 
der, was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Colonel  and  gallantly  commanded  his  regiment, 
until  the  transfer  of  the  senior  officer  of  the  brigade,  when  Colonel  Smith  became 
Brigade  Commander,  was  recommended  for  promotion  as  Brigadier;  his  com- 
mission was  duly  issued  just  before  the  evacuation  of  Richmond.  Since  the 
war's  close  he  has  pursued  the  practice  of  his  profession,  in  the  main,  in  Fau- 
quier County,  of  which  he  was  elected  Judge  by  the  Legislature,  and  which 
he  at  present  efficiently  represents  in  the  House  of  Delegates. 

IX.  P.  Bell:  Graduated  A.  M.  from  William  and  Mary  College,  and  A.  B.  University  of 
Virginia.  In  1859  commenced  the  practice  of  law  at  Warrenton,  Virginia.  Hav- 
ing lost  an  arm  by  a  fall  from  a  tree  in  his  youth  he  was  disabled  from  service  in 
the  Confederate  Army,  and  chafed  under  the  misfortune;  served  in  1864  as  Gov- 
ernor's aid  to  his  father,  whose  fortunes  he  loyally  followed  through  all  the 
hazards  of  his  retreat;  died  from  a  wound  received  from  the  explosion  of  a  pistol 
that  slipped  from  his  hand. 

X.  Littleton  Moore:  Died  in  his  youth. 

XI.  Frederick  Waugh:  Volunteer  when  but  a  boy  in  the  49th  Virginia  Regiment; 
was  appointed  its  Sergeant-Major— became  staff  officer  with  rank  of  Lieutenant; 
was  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg,  was  made  Captain  and  served  with 
1  General  McCausland;  subsequently  attached  himself  to  the  command  of  Colonel 
John  S.  Mosby;  with  which  he  remained  to  the  close  of  the  war,  and  until  its  dis- 
bandment  near  Richmond,  upon  the  surrender  of  Johnston's  army;  was  advanced 
to  a  Major  before  the  fall  of  Richmond,  for  service  on  the  staff.  Is  married  and 
now  living  in  Arizona  Territory. 

Governor  Smith  retains,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  his  faculties 
entire,  mental  and  physical.  His  erect  and  alert  carriage 
misleads  one  as  to  his  age.  He  is  still  a  most  efficient 
speaker,  as  his  present  earnest  advocacy  in  public  of  the 
cause  of  temperance  fully  evidences.  There  is  a  fine  portrait 
of  him  in  the  State  Library  at  Richmond. 


REMINISCENCES    OF    THE    WAR. 


By  General  William  Smith. 

Skirmish  at  Fairfax  C.  IL,   May  31st,   1S61. 

[None  who  knew  him  could  fail  to  admire  the  enthusiastic  courage  with  which 
Governor  Wm.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  threw  himself  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight  for 
Southern  independence,  and  gave  an  axample  of  patience  under  hardships  which 
younger  men  might  well  have  emulated.  Now  in  his  eighty  tilth  year  ;  but  with  the 
clear  intellect  and  retentive  memory  of  his  vigorous  manhood,  he  proposes  to  write 
us  some-  of  his  personal  reminiscences  of  the  great  struggle. 

The  following  paper  on  the  skirmish  at  Fairfax  Courthouse,  will  be  followed  by  one 
on  the  first  battle  of  Manassas.  We  are  sure  our  readers  will  thank  us  for  these  inter- 
esting sketches  by  this  gallant  old  hero.] 

On  the  night  of  the  31st  of  May,  1861,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Kwell  (subsequently 
Geneial  Kwell),  just  out  of  the  Federal  lines,  in  which  he  was  Captain  of  cavalry, 
was  in  command,  and  had  been  for  two  weeks,  of  the  Confederate  forces  at  Fairfax 


^Kv.^VaO^  t^W\^  ^vv3ijkvs\vv0sr 


AUTOGRAPH,   AT    NINETY    YEARS   OF    AGE. 


137 

Courthouse.  This  was  a  small  village  of  some  300  inhabitants,  and  was  the  county- 
seat  of  the  noted  county  of  Fairfax.  The  village  was  built,  principally,  on  the  Little 
River  turnpike,  and  at  a  point  thereon  fourteen  miles  from  the  city  of  Alexandria. 
The  turnpike  was  used  as  the  main  street  of  the  village,  and  was  its  only  avenue  to 
the  west.  The  most  important  buildings  of  the  village  were  the  court-house  and  its 
appurtenances,  including  a  lot  of  several  acres,  well  enclosed,  and  on  the  northern 
side,  with  a  high-boarded  fence  ;  and  the  hotel  and  its  appurtenances  and  enclosure. 
These  buildings  were  opposite  each  other — the  court-house  on  the  south  and  the 
hotel  on  the  north  side  of  the  turnpike.  The  court-house  lot  was  not  only  well 
-enclosed,  but  was  also  surrounded  with  streets — first,  the  turnpike,  on  the  north  side, 
as  before  stated  ;  second,  a  street  on  the  west  side,  leading  from  the  turnpike  into 
Stevenson's  farm  and  there,  at  an  intersecting  point,  running  due  east  with  the  court- 
house lot  to  its  intersection  with  the  street,  binding  said  lot  in  its  eastern  side  and 
running  from  the  hotel  south  230  steps  to  the  Methodist  church,  and  thenoe  to  Fairfax 
station.  I  mention  these  facts  with  more  particularity,  as  it  will  assist  the  reader  to 
understand  what  follows.  I  proceed  now  to  add,  for  the  same  purpose,  that  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Ewell's  quarters  were  at  the  hotel  ;  that  Captain  Thornton's  company 
of  cavalry,  of  about  sixty  men,  were  on  the  same  side  of  the  street  with  the  hotel, 
the  horses  in  the  stable  of  the  hotel,  and  the  men  in  a  church  a  short  distance  further 
west.  Captain  Green's  cavalry  company,  also  about  sixty  strong,  was  quartered  in 
the  court-house  lot,  the  horses  picketed  in  the  lot,  and  the  men  sleeping  in  the  court- 
house. Captain  Marr's  company  of  rifles,  about  ninety  strong,  was  quartered  in 
the  Methodist  church,  which,  as  I  have  said,  was  230  steps  from  the  hotel.  This 
company  had  only  arrived  that  day  (the  31st),  and  had  not  seen  Colonel  Ewell,  nor 
been  seen  by  him,  he  being  out  on  a  scout. 

Captain  Marr,  after  making  his  company  comfortable  in  their  new  quarters,  sent  out 
a  picket  of  two  men  on  the  Falls  Church  road,  the  only  approach  it  was  deemed  necessary 
to  guard.  I  arrived  at  Fairfax  Courthouse  about  5  P.  M.  of  the  same  day,  on  a  visit 
to  Marr's  company,  which  being  raised  in  my  neighborhood,  although  known  as  the 
Warrenton  Rifles,  I  designated  them  as  "my  boys."  After  seeing  them  at  their 
quarters  and  spending  a  pleasant  hour  with  them,  and  after  a  gratifying  interview 
with  Colonel  Ewell  (whom  I  knew  well,  but  had  not  seen  for  many  years),  and  many 
-other  friends,  for  the  little  village  was  quite  crowded,  I  retired  with  Joshua  Gunnell,  Esq., 
to  the  comfortable  quarters  he  had  kindly  tendered  me  at  his  house.  This  brought 
me  within  about  one  hundred  yards  of  Marr's  command.  I  shall  be  pardoned,  I 
trust,  for  introducing  my  name  into  this  statement  of  the  situation,  but  the  circum- 
stances will  excuse,  if  not  make  it  necessary,  I  should  have  done  so.  The  only 
■companies  then  at  Fairfax  Courthouse,  on  the  night  of  the  31st  of  May,  were  those  I 
have  mentioned.  They  had  seen  no  service,  and  were  entirely  undisciplined.  The 
cavalry  companies  were  badly  armed,  and  Colonel  Ewell  in  his  official  account  of  the 
affair  which  subsequently  occurred,  says:  "The  two  cavalry  companies  (Rappa- 
hannock and  Prince  William)  had  very  few  fire  arms  and  no  ammunition,  and  took  no 
part  in  the  affair."  So  here  is  the  tittmber  and  character  of  our  entire  force  on  the  Jist  of 
May,  186 1,  and  the  only  force  in  any  way  concerned  in  the  affair  of  the  next  morning. 

In  this  state  of  things,  the  enemy  having  determined  on  a  scout,  I  have  concluded 
'to  let  Lieutenant  Tompkins,  commanding,  speak  for  himself  by  publishing  his  official 
report : 

"Camp  Union,  Virginia,  June  1,   1861. 

Sir: — I  have  the  honor  to  report,  pursuant  to  verbal  instructions  received  from 
Colonel-Commanding,  that  I  left  this  camp  on  the  evening  of  31st  of  May  in  com- 
mand of  a  detachment  of  Company  B,  Second  Cavalry,  consisting  of  fifty  men,  with 
Lieutenant  David  S.  Gordon,  Second  Dragoons,  temporarily  attached  for  the  pur- 
pose of  reconnoitering  the  country  in  the  vicinity  of  Fairfax  Courthouse.  Upon 
approaching  the  town  the  picket  guard  was  surprised  and  captured.     Several  docu- 


138 

ments  were  found  upon  their  persons,  which  I  herewith  inclose.  On  entering'  the 
town  of  Fairfax  my  command  was  fired  upon  by  the  Rebel  troops  from  the  windows 
and  house-tops.  Charged  on  a  company  of  mounted  rifles  and  succeeded  in  driving 
them  from  the  town.  Immediately  two  or  three  additional  companies  came  up  to 
their  relief,  who  immediately  commenced  firing  upon  us,  which  fire  I  again  rturned. 
Perceiving  that  I  was  largely  outnumbered,  I  deemed  it  advisable  to  retreat,  which  I 
did  in  good  order,  taking  five  prisoners,  fully  armed  and  equipped,  and  two  horses. 
Nine  horses  were  lost  during  the  engagement  and  four  wounded. 

"The  force  actually  engaged  at  the  commencement  of  the  engagement  were  two 
companies  of  cavalry  and  one  rifle  company,  but  reinforcements  coming  in  from 
camps  adjoining  the  Courthouse,  which  I  learn  from  reliable  authority,  increased 
their  force  to  upwards  of  1,000  men.  Twenty-five  of  the  enemy  were  killed  and 
wounded.  Captains  Cary,  Fearing  and  Adjutant  Frank,  of  the  Fifth  New  York  State 
Militia  accompanied  the  command  as  volunteers,  and  did  very  effective  service.  I 
regret  to  state  that  Captain  Cary  was  wounded  in  the  foot." 

(The  concluding  paragraph  of  Lieutenant  Tompkins's  official  report  is  omitted 
as  unnecessary.) 

The  following  report  by  General  McDowell,  commanding,  had  been  previously 
made  to  the  Adjutant-General  : 

"Arlington,  June  i,  1861 — 12  M. 

"Sir: — The  following  facts  have  just  been  reported  to  me  by  the  Orderly-Ser- 
geant of  Company  B,  Second  Cavalry,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Tompkins,  the 
commanding  officer  being  too  unwell  to  report  in  person.  It  appears  that  Company 
B,  Second  Cavalry,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Tompkins  (aggregate  about  seventy- 
five),  left  its  camp  about  ioA  last  night  on  a  scout,  and  reached  Fairfax  Courthouse 
about  3  A.  M.,  where  they  found  several  hundred  men  stationed — Captain  Ewell,  late 
of  the  United  States  Dragoons,  said  to  be  in  command.  A  skirmish  took  place,  in 
which  a  number  of  the  enemy  were  killed,  how  many  the  Sergeant  does  not  know. 
Many  bodies  were  seen  on  the  ground,  and  several  were  taken  into  the  court-house 
and  seen  there  by  one  of  our  cavalry,  who  was  a  prisoner  for  a  short  time  and  after- 
wards made  his  escape. 

Five  prisoners  were  captured  by  our  troops.  Their  names  are  as  follows,  viz  : 
(Names  not  given  by  General  McDowell  ;  and  concluding  paragraph  omitted  as 
unnecessary. 

The  above  quotations  from  the  official  reports  of  Lieutenant  Tompkins  and 
General  McDowell  are  so  full  of  errors  that  it  is  due  to  truth  and  justice  they  should 
be  exposed.  I  repeat  that  the  whole  Confederate  force  at  Fairfax  Courthouse,  on  the 
night  of  the  31st  of  May,  1861,  was  composed  of  the  companies  and  of  the  character 
and  description  I  have  heretofore  named  ;  ami  I  will  add,  that  the  only  additional 
force  which  came  to  our  assistance  was  sent  for  by  Colonel  Ewell,  and  was  com- 
posed of  the  cavalry  companies  of  Harrison  and  Wickham,  who  did  not  reach  the 
Courthouse  until  after  sunrise,  and  fully  two  hours  after  the  enemy  had  been  finally 
repulsed,  by  little  more  than  half  his  number  of  Captain  Marr's  rifles. 

Lieutenant  Tompkins  says  :  "It  will  be  observed,  that  he  was  in  command  of 
a  detachment  of  Company  B,  Second  Cavalry,  consisting  of  fifty  men,  with  Second 
Lieutenant  David  S.  Gordon's  Second  Dragoons  temporarily  attached." 

He  subsequently  adds  :  "Captains  Cary,  Fearing  and  Adjutant  Frank,  of  the 
Fifth  New  York  State  Militia,  accompanied  the  command  as  volunteers."  General 
McDowell  says:  "It  appears  that  Company  B,  Second  Cavalry,  commanded  by 
Lieutenant  Tompkins,  (aggregate  about  seventy. five)."  General  Bonham,  after  an 
examination  of  the  three  prisoners  taken,  reports,  "The  enemy  was  eighty  to  eighty- 
five  strong."  Colonel  Ewell  in  his  official  report  says:  "Three  prisoners  were 
brought  in,  who  separately  reported  their  strength  at  eighty,  rank  and  file."  And 
two  of  the  prisoners   taken  by  the  enemy,  intelligent   men,  with  whom  I   have  com- 


139 

municated,  think  the  enemy's  force  must  have  been  seventy-five  to  one  hundred 
men.  All  this  testimony,  with  what  I  saw,  satisfied  me  that  Lieutenant  Tompkins  had 
his  company,  and  not  a  detachment  thereof  with  him;  and  that  his  force  was  about 
eighty  men,  and  not  fifty,  as  he  reports. 

Lieutenant  Tompkins  says  :  "Upon  approaching  the  town  the  picket  guard  was 
surprised  and  captured."  This  was  on  the  Fall's  Church  road,  about  a  mile  below 
the  town.  One  of  Marr's  pickets  was  captured,  made  his  escape  in  town,  and  joined 
us,  as  he  says,  in  the  fight  which  subsequently  occurred.  The  firing  of  the  enemy  at 
the  pickets  did  more  to  spread  a  knowledge  of  his  approach,  than  all  our  pickets. 

It  was  very  dark,  so  that  objects  could  only  be  discerned  in  the  group,  and  not  in 
the  detail.  On  the  alarm  being  given,  lights  were  soon  moving  in  the  hotel.  The 
cavalry  companies  located  as  before  described,  commenced  to  form,  forming  on  a 
line  with  the  court-house  enclosure,  on  the  part  of  the  Prince  William  company,  and 
on  the  street  or  turnpike  over  which  the  enemy  must  pass  in  charging  through  town, 
while  the  Rappahannock  company,  similarly  employed,  was  forming  in  the  court- 
house lot,  but  with  the  advantage  of  being  protected  from  an  enemy  by  a  high  board 
fence.  Neither  company  was  nearly  formed  when  the  enemy  appeard.  Lieutenant 
Tompkins  says  :  "  On  entering  the  town  of  Fairfax,  my  command  was  fired  upon  by 
the  rebel  troops  from  the  windows  and  the  house-tops."  In  this  the  Lieutenant  was 
under  a  gross  mistake.  Not  a  shot  from  any  direction,  up  to  this  time,  had  been  fired 
at  him  ;  on  the  contrary,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Ewell,  speaking  of  the  alarm,  says : 
"This  was  followed  by  their  appearance,  firing  at  the  windows  and  doors  of  the  hotel, 
where  there  was  no  resistance  or  troops."  Lieutenant  Tompkins  further  says: 
"  That  he  charged  on  a  company  of  rifles,  and  succeeded  in  driving  them  from  the 
town."  This  is  a  gross  mistake,  we  had  no  such  force.  It  is  true,  as  the  enemy 
went  through  the  town  firing  to  the  right  and  left,  apparently  at  random,  as  if  for 
no  other  purpose  than  to  excite  alarm,  he  drove  before  him  a  small  portion  of  the 
Prince  William  Cavalry,  four  of  whom  he  succeeded  on  this  occasion  in  capturing,  the 
Rappahannock  Company  having  been  left  behind  in  the  court-house  lot  to  complete 
its  formation  at  leisure. 

In  the  meantime,  the  alarm   having  reached  Captain  Marr  also,   he    promptly 
deployed  his  company  in  Stevenson's  clover  field,  his  right  near  the  road  to  the  Fair- 
fax Station  and  near  its  quarters,  the  Methodist  church,  and  parallel  with  the  street 
before  described,  and  which  divided  the  clover  field  from  the  court-house  lot,  resting 
its  left  on  the  road  leading  to  the  Stevenson's  farm  house.     Here  Captain  Marr  was 
found  the  next  morning,  dead,  (and  apparently  without  having  had  a  struggle  in  his 
last  moments),  one  hundred  and  fifty  steps  from  the  church,  and  thence  two  hundred 
and  thirty  steps  to    the  hotel,  thus  constituting  an  obtuse   triangle.     Here  he  was, 
doubtless,  handling  his  men,  and  was  struck  by  a  random  shot  to  the  left,  fired  by 
the  enemy  as  he  passed  the  court-house,  the  distance  being,  as  well  as  I  can  judge, 
three  hundred  steps.     I  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  that  any  one  of  his  men  knew 
of  his  death— the  clover  was  very  rank  and  tall,  and  I  am  told,  completely  enveloped 
his  person,  which  may  account  for  it.     And  further,  from  a  careful  examination  of 
his  wound  next  morning,  I  became  satisfied  that  the  Captain  was  killed,  as  I  have 
before  said,  by  a  random  shot.     The  wound  was  immediately  over  the  heart— had  a 
perfect  circular  suffusion  of  blood  under  the  skin,   something  larger  than  a  silver 
dollar,  but  the  skin  was  unbroken,  and  not  a  drop  of  blood  was  shed.     Nothing  but 
a  round  spent  ball  could  have  inflicted  such  a  wound.     Manifestly  it  was  the  shock  of 
the   blow,  which,  suspending  the  machinery  of  the  heart,  had  necessarily  produced 
instant  death.     It  was  reported  to  me  that  Captain  Marr,  when  found,  was  upon  his 
face,  with  his  sword  firmly  gripped  in  his  right  hand,  not  having  taken  time,  it  is 
inferred,  in  the  hurry  and  excitement  of  passing  events,  to  belt  it  round  his  person. 
Captain  Marr  being  thus  killed,  a  fact  unknown  to  his  men,  the  enemy  having  gone 
up  the  turnpike,  driving  part  of   the  Prince  William  company  before  it,  and  the  Rap- 
pahannock company  left  in  the  court-house  lot,  having  completed  its   formation, 


140 

mo%'ed  into  the  street,  west  of  said  lot,  and  to  avoid  the  enemy  on  his  return,  turning 
in  the  direction  of  Marr's  men,  near  the  Stevenson  road  was,  in  the  extreme  dark- 
ness, mistaken  by  them  for  the  enemy,  and  was  fired  upon,  severely  wounding  one 
of  the  cavalry.  This,  very  naturally,  impressed  the  cavalry  company  with  the  idea 
they  had  been  fired  upon  by  the  enemy.  So  that  under  the  mutual  mistake,  the 
cavalry  being  entirely  unfit  for  effectual  service,  and  the  left  wing  of  the  Rifles 
demoralized  by  the  unexpected  disappearance  of  its  Captain,  both  dispersed,  and 
sought  safety  in  darkness,  perhaps  as  intense  asT  ever  saw. 

While  these  events  were  occurring,  of  which  I  knew  nothing  other  than  from  the 
noise,  I  was  satisfied  that  the  enemy  had  passed  through  town.  I  was  delayed  briefly 
in  firing  my  tape  to  my  Maynard  rifle.  Hurrying  to  the  quarters  of  the  Werrenton 
Rifles,  I  found  about  forty  or  forty-five  of  them,  a  short  distance  this  side  of  their 
quarters,  standing  in  the  clover  lot  before  referred  to  and  resting  on  the  fence  which 
enclosed  it,  and  without  an  officer.  I  promptly  addressed  them,  "Boys,  where  is 
your  Captain  ?"  They  answered,  "  We  don't  know,  sir."  Where  is  your  Lieutenant 
(meaning  Shackleford)?  The  answer  was  the  same.  (It  is  due  that  I  should  say  that 
both  the  Lieutenants,  Shackleford  and  McGee  were  absent  on  leaves  with  their 
families).  Knowing  that  the  men  did  not  look  to  the  other  officers  to  command,  I 
said  to  them,  "Boys,  you  know  me,  follow  me."  Without  hesitation,  they  jumped 
the  fence,  and  at  the  corner  of  the  court-house  lot  on  the  sidewalk  leading  from  the 
church  to  the  hotel,  I,  without  the  slightest  knowledge  of  tactics,  commenced  to  form 
them  into  two  files.  I  had  nearly  completed  my  work,  when  hearing  a  disturbance 
at  the  head  of  the  column,  I  walked  rapidly  up  the  line  to  hear  what  was  the  matter. 
Nearing  the  head  of  the  column,  I  heard  Lieutenant-Colonel  Ewell,  in  his  impetuous 
way,  say  to  one  of  the  men  (Davidson),  "  What,  sir,  do  you  dispute  my  authority  ?  " 
To  which  the  young  man,  in  a  very  proper  manner  replied,  "  I  do,  sir,  until  I  know 
you  have  a  right  to  exercise  it."  Taking  in  the  situation,  and  aware  that  the  Rifles 
and  this  officer  were  strangers  to  each  other,  I  at  once  said,  "Men,  this  is  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Ewell,  your  commanding  officer,  a  gallant  soldier,  in  whom  you  may 
place  your  confidence."  Of  course  this  ended  the  trouble.  The  men  might  well  be 
excused  for  doubting  Colonel  Ewell,  for  when  he  came  up  he  was  bare  and  bald- 
headed,  in  his  shirt  sleeves  and  bleeding.  Fearful  that  the  enemy  might  be  on  his 
return  through  town  before  we  were  prepared  to  intercept  him,  Colonel  Ewell  again 
hurried  to  the  column  to  complete  its  formation,  which  was  soon  accomplished.  We 
put  ourselves  at  the  head,  and  gave  the  command  "march,"  having  two  hundred 
yards  to  go  before  we  could  reach  the  turnpike,  running  by  the  hotel  and  over 
which  the  enemy  must  pass  on  his  return.  It  was  during  this  march  that  Colonel 
Ewell  told  me  how  he  came  to  be  in  his  then  condition;  that  he  had  undertaken  to 
run  across  the  street  from  the  hotel,  just  ahead  of  the  enemy's  column,  which  he 
could  do  under  cover  of  tin-  darkdess,  that  the  commanding  officer  of  the  enemy 
discovering  that  some  one  was  crossing  the  street  in  front  of  him,  had  fired  upon 
him,  and  struck  him  in  the  Ik-shy  part  of  the  shoulder,  that  as  he  ran,  he  jerked  off 
his  uniform  and  pitched  it  into  a  lot,  his  fear  being  that  the  enemy  might  discover 
he  was  an  officer,  and  might  mike  a  special  effort  to  capture  him.  The  coat  was 
found  next  morning  in  Powell  s  porch  below  Gunnell's,  and  accounts  for  Ewell's 
tardiness  in  reaching  tin  Rifles.  He  then  said  to  me,  that  as  soon  as  we  reached 
the  hotel  he  would  have  to  leave  me  to  get  a  courier  to  send  off  to  Fairfax  Station  for 
some  cavalry  camped  at  that  place,  and  added,  that  as  I  seemed  to  have  a  turn  for 
this  sort  of  thing,  I  must  take  charge  of  the  boys  and  manage  them  to  the  best 
advantage  until  he  rejoined  me. 

I  will  here  collate  the  incidents  which  had  occurred  up  to  this  time.  I  think  it 
was  a  little  before  3  A.  ML,  and  very  dark,  when  the  enemy  struck  our  pickets,  and 
entering  town,  and  Dear  tin-  hotel,  as  described,  wounded  Colonel  Ewell— com- 
menced firing  to  the  right  and  left,  clearly  with  no  other  object  than  to  alarm—  killing 
Captain  Marr  with  a  chance  shot  at  a  distance  of  three  hundred  yards,  never  pausing 


141 

for  a  moment,  but  driving  the  Prince  William  Cavalry  before  them,  and  stopping  at 
the  stream  west  of  the  town,  manifestly  to  reform  and  to  return  through  the  town, 
the  dispersion  of  the  Rappahannock  Cavalry,  and  the  larger  portion  of  theWarrenton 
Rifles,  and  the  organization  of  those  remaining  by  Colonel  Ewell  and  myself,  and 
marching  them  promptly  to  the  point  of  interception  of  the  enemy,  should  he  under- 
take to  return  through  the  town,  as  was  expected.  I  am  confident  that  all  these  inci- 
dents occurred  within  the  first  half  an  hour  of  the  first  appearance  of  the  enemy  in 
town  ;  resulting  in  the  slight  wounding  of  Colonel  Ewell,  the  killing  of  Captain  Marr, 
and  the  dispersion  of  the  whole  Confederate  force,  except  some  forty  to  forty-five  of 
the  Rifles,  then  in  hand  ;  and  with  which  to  redeem  the  fortunes  of  the  night. 

But  to  resume,  we  had  just  struck  the  turnpike,  and  turning  our  little  squad  to  the 
left  had  got  it  cleverly  on  the  road  between  the  hotel  and  the  court-house,  when  the 
enemy  appeared  advancing.  My  purpose  was  to  advance  until  I  found  a  good 
position  for  the  expected  fight,  but  we  had  to  take  things  as  we  found  them.  Both 
of  us  had  narrow  fronts,  two  files,  and  neither  could  deploy,  the  road  being  enclosed 
on  each  side  by  the  fences  of  the  hotel  and  the  court-house  respectively.  The  enemy 
halted,  because  (I  suppose),  he  saw  something  occupying  the  road  in  his  front.  Flushed 
with  their  success,  they  were  manifestly  in  considerable  disorder,  and  when  I 
ordered  the  Rifles  to  fire,  which,  owing  to  their  position,  was  obeyed  to  a  very  limited 
and  inefficient  extent,  I  do  not  think  the  enemy  returned  it.  But,  reversing  his 
movement  returned,  I  inferred,  to  the  run  west  of  the  town,  to  reform  his  command, 
I  presume,  in  order  to  charge,  in  order,  through  the  town.  It  must  have  been  at 
this  time,  or  when  we  first  entered  the  turnpike,  (for  I  saw  no  more  of  him  after- 
wards,) that  Colonel  Ewell  left  the  command  to  dispatch  a  courier  to  bring  up  the 
cavalry  companies  of  Harrison  and  Wickham,  camped  at  Fairfax  Station,  three  miles 
from  the  court-house.  Captain  Thornton,  I  was  informed,  went  on  this  duty. 
Neither  man  nor  beast,  that  I  could  ascertain,  sustained  the  slightest  injury  in  this 
collision. 

Having  been  left  to  my  own  discretion,  and  perfectly  satisfied  that  my  position 
was  untenable  against  any  mounted  force  of  dash  and  courage,  I  followed  immedi- 
ately on  the  retiring  footsteps  of  the  enemy.  It  was  not  until  I  had  reached  Cooper's 
wagon  shop,  ascertained  by  recent  measurement  to  be  one  hundred  and  ninety-five 
steps  west  from  the  court-house,  that  I  found  a  place  which  satisfied  my  judgment. 
Here  I  found  a  new  post  and  rail  fence,  on  each  side  of  the  turnpike — the  one  on 
the  south  side  helping  to  enclose  the  wagon  shop  yard.  Feeling  safe  in  this  position, 
I  at  once  divided  my  command,  placing  it  on  opposite  sides  of  the  road,  and  protect- 
ing it  by  the  post  and  rail  fence.  I  stated  to  the  men,  if  I  was  not  much  mistaken, 
the  enemy  will  soon  appear — that  they  would  seem  a  dark  moving  mass,  and  when  I 
gave  the  command  "  fire  "  they  must  all  aim  at  the  head  of  the  column,  my  object 
being  to  crush  it  in,  throw  the  command  into  confusion,  win  time,  deliberately  to 
reload,  and  to  give  them  another  plunging  volley  before  they  could  recover  from 
their  confusion.  And  in  that  way  I  said,  I  counted  on  whipping  the  veteran  enemy, 
although  our  superior  in  numbers.  I  had  scarcely  gotten  through  with  this  state- 
ment of  my  plans  and  purposes,  when  the  enemy  appeared.  Near  the  Episcopal 
church,  fifty  steps,  by  subsequent  measurement,  west  of  the  position  we  occupied,  I 
first  discovered  him.  He  was  leisurely  advancing,  and  when  within  forty  yards  of 
us  I  gave  the  command  "fire."  It  was  admirably  executed.  Another  fine  volley 
followed,  and  a  third  partially,  when  the  enemy  fell  back.  During  this  time  the 
enemy  fired  wildly  and  irregularly,  not  only  without  wounding  or  killing  any  of  my 
men,  but  not  even  entertaining  "The  Rifles"  with  the  whistle  of  a  bullet.  The 
result  of  this  affair  was  the  capture  on  our  part  of  three  prisoners,  I  think  four  horses, 
a  number  of  horses  killed  and  wounded,  and  according  to  general  McDonald's  first 
official  report,  (which  I  have),  one  man  killed  and  six  wounded,  besides  a  number  of 
arms  and  fancies,  such  as  photographs  of  pretty  women  and  the  like,  picked  up  after 
the  fight.     The  whole  affair  occupied  a  very  short  time,  during  which  Colonel  Ewell 


142 

was  engaged  in  getting  his  courier,  and  preparing  his  dispatch  to  order  up  the  troops 
from  Fairfax  Station — it  could  not  have  exceeded  twenty-five  minutes.  I  repeat  that 
the  enemy's  passage  through  town  resulted  in  the  casualties  as  stated — the  disper- 
sion of  the  entire  Confederate  force,  with  the  exception  of  some  forty  to  forty-five  of 
the  Rifles — that  our  cavalry,  for  the  reason  stated  by  Colonel  Ewell,  I  suppose,  "took 
no  part  in  the  affair" — that  in  passing  through  town,  as  Colonel  Ewell  officially  says, 
the  enemy,  "did  not  stop,  but  passed  through  toward  Germantown,"  and  was  not 
fired  upon,  the  cavalry,  I  repeat,  taking  no  part  in  the  affair,  and  the  Rifles  being,  at 
the  nearest  point,  two  hundred  and  thirty  steps  off — that  the  first  collision  which  took 
place,  was  between  the  enemy,  on  his  return  through  town,  and  about  forty  of  the 
Rifles,  and  occurred  on  the  street,  between  the  hotel  and  court-house  inclosures, 
without  damage  to  either,  the  enemy  retreating,  and  that  the  final  affair  took  place 
one  hundred  and  ninty-five  steps  from  the  former,  resulting  in  the  inglorious  retreat 
of  Company  B.  Second  United  States  Cavalry,  before,  certainly  not  more  than  forty- 
five  young  Virginians,  but  little  more,  if  any,  than  half  the  number  of  their  veteran 
enemy,  and  that  too,  without  inflicting  upon  us  the  slightest  injury.  In  this  final  fighb 
if  I  may  so  express  myself,  Lieutenant  Tompkins  says,  "Perceiving  that  I  was  largely 
outnumbered,  I  deemed  it  advisable  to  retreat,  which  I  did  in  good  order."  I 
re -affirm  upon  my  honor  that  the  force  which  Lieutenant  Tompkins  assumes  to  be 
largely  superior  to  his  own  did  not  exceed  forty-five  men  ;  and  that  he  was  per- 
mitted to  retreat  "in  order,"  in  consequence  of  our  inferiority  of  numbers  and  our 
utter  want  of  military  experience.  He  further  says  that  we  increased  our  "force  to 
upwards  of  a  thousand  men."  Now  I  assert  that  no  reinforcements  joined  us  until 
long  after  his  inglorious  retreat  before  an  inferior  |force  ;  and  that  the  only  force 
which  did  join  us  were  the  companies  of  Captains  Harrison  and  Wickham,  for  whom 
Colonel  Ewell  had  sent,  and  they  did  not  arrive  until  some  time  after  sunrise.  Lieu- 
tenant Tompkins  officially  reports  that  "  twenty-five  of  the  enemy  were  killed  and 
wounded."  This  is  most  inexcusable  mendacity.  I  again  say  that  except  from  the 
chance-medley  firing  of  the  enemy  as  he  passed  through  town,  we  did  not  sustain 
the  slightest  injury.  At  the  first  collision  we  received  no  injury  and  are  not  aware 
that  we  inflicted  any.  At  the  second  and  last,  we  certainly  received  no  injury,  but 
inflicted  considerable  damage  on  the  enemy,  and  forced  him  to  seek  safety  by  retir- 
ing from  the  contest  through  the  fields  of  an  adjoining  farm. 

I  have  thus  presented  the  facts  of  this  little  affair,  most  of  [which  are  within  my 
personal  knowledge,  whilst  those  contributed  by  others  have  been  adopted  only 
after  the  most  patient  investigation. 

Warrenton,  Va.,  June,  1882.  William  Smith. 


MEMORIAL  COTTAGE,   AT   THE  SOLDIERS'    HOME,    RICHMOND. 


143 


OUR  FALLEN  BRAVE. 


BY    MISS    FANNIE    H.    MARR. 


[It  seems  appropriate  to  follow  General  Smith's  account  of  the  killing  of  Captain 
Marr,  by  .the  the  beautiful  poem  written  by  his  sister,  and  read  at  the  last  "Memorial 
Day"  in  Werrenton.] 

They  lie  'neat  many  a  marble  shaft, 

Our  noble,  fallen  brave  ; 
They  lie  on  many  a  battle  field, 

In  many  an  unmarked  grave. 
They  lie  by  Honor  guarded  safe, 

In  peaceful  dreamless  rest ; 
They  lie  by  every  valiant  heart 

And  patriot  spirit  bless'd. 

They  come  on  these  Memorial  Days, 

They  haunt  the  very  air 
With  scenes  long  passed,  with  forms  long  stilled, 

With  words  and  deeds  that  were. 
They  come  to  mourning  household  bands, 

They  come  in  heart  and  thought ! 
They  come  in  struggles  they  have  made, 

In  battles  they  have  fought. 
They  come, — and  living  voices  speak 

Their  names  and  deeds  once  more  ; 
We  give  a  flower — a  sigh — and  then 

Memorial  Day  is  o'er. 

O  children,  dear,  who  never  saw 

The  old  Confederate  gray  ; 
Who  never  saw  our  soldiers  march 

With  flag  and  drum  away  ; 
Who  never  saw  the  dead  brought  back, 

The  wounded  line  the  street ; 
Who  never  heard  the  cannon's  roar, 

Nor  tramp  of  victor  feet ; 
Keep  as  a  holy  trust  this  day 

To  their  remembrance  true, 
Who,  sorely  tried,  were  faithful  found, 

And  fought  and  died  for  you. 

That  so,  though  dead,  they  still  may  live  ; 

Live  on,  as  year  by  year, 
This  day  recalls  the  memories 

So  sacred  and  so  dear. 
Live  on,  though  ages  o'er  them  roll ; 

Live  on  in  flower-decked  grave  : 
Live  on  in  hearts  that  cherish  still 

Our  own,  our  fallen  brave. 


144 

REMINISCENCES    OF    THE    FIRST    BATTLE    OF    MANASSAS. 


BY   GENERAL   \VM.    SMITH. 


I  was  appointed  by  Gov.  Letcher,  Colonel  of  the  Forty-ninth  Virginia  volunteers,  the 
latter  part  of  June,  1861,  upon  my  individual  application.  The  Governor  replied  to- 
my  application,  that  I  was  too  old  ;  to  which  I  rejoined,  that  I  would  like  to  see  the 
young  man  who  could  stand  more  hardship  and  fatigue  than  I.  Well,  he  said,  if  you 
insist  upon  it,  I  will  not  refuse.  To  which  I  said,  in  the  words  of  the  bridegroom, 
who,  when  asked  by  the  parson  if  he  would  take  this  woman  as  his  wedded  wife, 
"zounds  man,  that  is  just  what  I  come  for."  The  Governor  thereupon  gave  me  an 
order  to  Gen.  R.  E.  Lee,  then  Adjutant-General  of  our  State,  to  prepare  my  commis- 
sion. Upon  presenting  it,  General  Lee,  after  glancing  over  it,  looked  up  with  mani- 
fest surprise,  he,  too,  doubtless  thinking  I  was  too  old  ;  and  pausing  a  moment,  and 
without  a  word,  he  filled  up  and  handed  it  to  me.  I  took  it  to  the  Governor  for  his 
signature.  Receiving  it,  I  returned  with  it  to  General  Lee,  that  he  might  make  the 
proper  record — who,  having  done  so,  returned  it  to  me,  with  an  order  to  General 
Beauregard  to  form  my  regiment  out  of  companies  as  they  severally  reported  for 
duty.  In  my  sixty-fourth  year,  and  wholly  unacquainted  with  drill  or  tactics,  my 
military  prospects  were  anything  but  flattering  ;  yet,  I  thought  I  knew  how  to  manage 
men,  and  flattered  myself  that  I  could  soon,  for  all  practical  purposes,  overcome 
existing  difficulties.  Besides,  I  well  knew  the  bitter  feeling  of  hostility  against  the 
South  cherished  by  Northern  politicians,  who  would  greedily  seize  upon  the  oppor- 
tunity to  gratify  their  hatred  and  satiate  their  revenge  ;  and  in  view  of  the  great 
inequality  of  the  contest,  I  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  set  a  spirited  example  and  to  con- 
tribute all  in  my  power  to  the  success  of  a  cause  which  was  dear  to  my  heart,  and 
which  I  believe,  and  ever  shall  believe,  to  be  right.  With  this  explanation,  by  way 
of  reply,  to  the  many  friends  who  kindly  remonstrated  against  my  entering  the  army, 
I  proceed  to  carry  out  the  purpose  of  this  article.  Having  made  my  personal 
arrangements,  and  having  fortunately  secured  unexceptionable  field  officers,  to  wit : 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Murray,  a  graduate,  I  believe,  of  West  Point,  and  certainly  a 
splendid  drill-master  and  tactician,  and  Major  Smith,  my  nephew,  a  veteran  soldier, 
just  about  three  weeks  from  the  Federal  army,  having  resigned  therefrom  to  enter 
the  Confederate  service,  I  telt  that  my  first  great  difficulty  had  been  overcome. 

And  so,  with  three  companies  only  assigned  to  my  regiment,  I  found  myself  regu- 
larly enrolled  in  the  Confederate  army,  only  three  days  before  the  first  battle  of 
Manassas.  On  the  first  day,  and  late  in  the  afternoon,  I  was  ordered  to  the  Sudley 
mills,  where  I  expected  to  meet  Colonel  Ilunton,  then  on  the  march  from  Leesburg. 
On  our  arrival,  finding  Colononel  Ilunton  had  not  arrived,  we  camped  in  and  around 
the  Sudley  church,  my  quarters  being  in  a  house  not  far  from  it.  It  was  fully  11  P. 
M.  before  my  men  got  their  supper  and  fixed  themselves  for  the  night,  and  I  had  not 
been  asleep  more  than  an  hour  when,  about  1  A.  M.,  I  received  an  order  to  get  my 
men  under  arms  and  move  with  them  to  a  point  on  Bull  Run  near  the  Lewis  house, 
and  to  report  to  General  Cocke;  in  other  words,  to  return.  I  promptly  gave  the 
necessary  orders.  On  reaching  the  camp  I  found  the  command  in  a  state  of  confused 
preparation,  and  when  it  was  reported  as  ready  to  move  I  walked  over  the  ground 
and  found  many  of  its  conveniences  about  to  be  abandoned.  I  at  once  sternly 
rebuked  the  men  for  their  negligence,  told  them  that  order  and  care  were  two  of  the 
duties  of  the  soldier,  and  that  1  would  not  tolerate  the  loss  of  a  tin  cup  if  an  act  of 
carlessness.  The  ground  being  gleaned,  the  order  to  march  was  given,  and  we 
reached  our  position  about  sunrise.  The  next  day  we  camped  near  the  Lewis  house. 
As  it  was  understood  we  were  to  fight  the  day  thereafter,  and  my  men  had  but  little 
rest  the  previous  night,  I  determined  they  s'-.^uld  have  a  good  night's  rest  the  coming 
night.     Accordingly  when   the  sentinels  were  posted,  they  were  charged  not,  under 


145 

any  circumstances,  to  permit  the  men  to  be  disturbed.  On  the  morning  of  the  21st 
July,  1861,  I  was  ordered  to  take  position  on  Bull  Run,  north  of  the  Lewis  house  ;  and 
Captain  Harris,  an  engineer  officer  of  much  note,  was  ordered  to  accompany  and 
post  us.  We  were  placed  on  the  edge  of  the  run,  under  a  bluff,  on  which  a  section 
of  Rogers's  battery,  under  Lieutenant  Heaton,  was  posted,  and  temporarily  attached 
to  my  command. 

Riding  up  on  the  bluff,  I  found  but  one  gun.  Surprised,  I  asked  the  Lieutenant 
where  his  other  was.  Pointing  to  it,  near  the  Lewis  house,  he  said,  "there  it  is,  and 
put  there  by  the  order  of  General  Cocke."  Putting  spurs  to  my  horse,  as  I  passed 
the  gun,  I  gave  orders  for  every  man  to  be  in  the  saddle,  ready  to  move  on  my 
signal  to  do  so,  on  my  return.  Dashing  up  to  General  Cocke,  who  was  some  two 
hundred  yards  west — after  saluting  him — I  said,  General,  permit  me  to  suggest  that 
the  gun  I  have  just  passed  would  be  more  likely  to  render  effective  service  along 
side  of  its  mate  on  yonder  bluff  than  where  it  is  now  ;  and  I  beg  you  will  permit  me 
to  so  order.  Receiving  his  consent,  and  touching  my  hat  in  salute,  I  moved  rapidly 
in  return,  giving  the  expected  signal,  so  that  the  gun  with  all  its  equipments  was 
promptly  in  motion,  and  moved  with  such  celerity,  that  it  reached  the  bluff  before  I 
could,  with  all  my  dash,  overtake  it.  It  was  a  happy  reunion,  and  under  the  exhila- 
rating circumstances,  gave  assurance  of  a  splendid  fight,  should  the  exigency  require 
it ;  but  a  few  shots  from  our  guns  and  from  Latham's  battery  near  by,  on  my  right, 
induced  the  enemy,  who  had  shown  himself  in  the  pines  on  the  northern  side  of  the 
run,  to  abandon  his  purpose  which,  obviously,  was  to  reach,  in  this  direction,  our 
line  of  inter-communication  with  Manassas.  As  far  as  I  can  learn,  the  enemy's  force 
referred  to  was  under  the  command  of  General  Schenck.  He  was  easily  checked. 
About  this  time  the  peals  of  musketry,  apparently  about  the  Robinson  and  the  Henry 
houses,  was  incessant  and  fascinating.  While  thus  absorbed,  and  sitting  on  my 
horse,  surrounded  with  Colonel  Murray,  Captain  Harris  and  others  on  the  bluff,  near 
Heaton's  guns,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Murray  called  to  me,  "Look  there,  Colonel." 
Following  the  direction  of  his  finger,  I  saw  two  regiments  in  line  of  battle,  moving  at 
quick  time,  apparently  from  the  field  of  battle.  I  know  not  how  to  account  for  my 
conduct,  but  giving  way  to  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  I  put  spurs  to  my  horse, 
threw  myself  in  their  front  and  brought  them  to  a  halt,  simply  remarking,  "  Gentle- 
men, I  must  inform  you  that  you  have  taken  the  wrong  direction." 

Returning  quickly  to  my  position,  for  the  heavy  firing  still  continued,  I  had  barely 
done  so,  when  Colonel  Murray  cried  out :  "Look,  Colonel,  those  fellows  are  mov- 
ing." Again  stopping  them  I  again  returned  to  the  bluff,  when  Colonel  Murray  for  the 
third  time  exclaimed.  "Colonel,  those  fellows  are  off  again."  Much  exasperated,  I 
put  spurs  to  my  horse,  soon  overtaking  them,  and  galloped  around  their  left  flank, 
drew  up  in  their  front,  and  again  brought  them  to  a  halt  on  the  road  leading  from  the 
Lewis  house  to  Ball's  or  Lewis'  ford,  I  am  uncertain  which.  As  I  did  so,  I  heard 
some  one  in  the  ranks  cry  out,  "  who  the  h— 11  is  that?  "  To  which  I  replied  in  a  loud 
voice,  "I  am  Colonel  Smith,  of  the  Forty-ninth  Virginia  Volunteers."  To  which 
Colonel  Fisher  promptly  replied,  "and  I  am  Colonel  Fisher,  of  the  Sixth  North 
Carolina,  all  I  ask  is  to  be  put  in  position,"  and  Colonel  Falkner  then  said, 
"and  lam  Colonel  Falkner  of  the  Second  Mississippi,"  but  from  the  distance  he 
was  from  me,  I  heard  him  imperfectly,  yet  understood  him  to  say  that  he 
was  ready  to  obey  orders.  Then,  I  said,  "dress  your  men  on  the  line  of  this 
road,  bring  them  to  a  rest,  and  wait  for  orders."  These  regiments  and  the  gun 
I  had  had  moved  to  the  bluff,  were,  it  is  highly  probable,  the  foundation  of  General 
Schenck's  estimate  of  our  force.  He  had  them  in  full  view  from  the  position  he 
occupied  in  the  pines. 

Returning  rapidly  to  my  position,  I  there  found  a  general  order,  that  every  man 
not  in  the  face  of  the  enemy  should  report  to  General  Beauregard  near  the  Robinson 
house.  Promptly  putting  my  little  command  in  motion,  I  soon  crossed  a  small  ravine 
draining  into  Bull   Run.     Ascending  the  opposite  hill,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Tibbs  of 


146 

Colonel  Hunton's  Eighth  Virginia  Regiment  hallooed  to  me:     "lam  posted  here 
(near  the  head   of   the  ravine)  with  three  companies  ;   for  God's  sake,  let   Colonel 
Hunton,  who  is  at  the  Lewis  house  with  the  balance  of  the  regiment,  know  your 
orders."     The  hill  on  which  the  Lewis  house  stood  is  of  very  considerable  size  and 
the  northern  slope  of  it  drains  into  the  ravine.     The  whole  of  this  slope,  up  to  the 
new  ground,  near  the  north  of  the  Lewis  house,  was  then  covered  with  an  oaken 
growth  of  original  forest ;  but  it  is  now,  I  find  upon  recent  examination  (1882),  under 
a  fine  crop  of  corn,  the  house  having  been  burnt  by  the  enemy  in  the  spring  of  1862, 
when  he  first  took  possession  of  it.     Ordering  Lieutenant-Colonel  Murray  to   take 
charge  of  my  command,  and  to  move  on  without  delay,  saying  I  would  soon  rejoin  him, 
I  put  spurs  to  my  horse,  dashed  through  the  woods  and  nearing  Colonel  Hunton's 
command,  hallooed  to  him  that  General  Beauregard's  order  was,  "  that  every  man 
not  in  the  face  of  the  enemy  should  move   into  action."     To  which  he   promptly 
replied  :     "I  am  posted  here  by  General  Cocke,  with  express  orders  not  to  leave  my 
position  without  his  command."     I  rejoined,  "You  know  whom  to  obey."     Return- 
ing rapidly  to  my  command,  I  had  scarcely  reached  it  when  a  squad  of  fifteen  or 
twenty  men  crossed  my  line  of  march,  in  the  direction  of  the  Lewis  house.     I  halted 
them  for  information,  when  at  the  instant  a  heavy  outburst  of   musketry  breaking 
upon  the  ear,  they  resumed  their  previous  rapid   movement,  like  frightened  deer, 
amid  the  derisive  laughter  of  my  whole  command.     Resuming  our  march,  we  had 
proceeded  but  a  short  distance  when  we  encountered  a  South  Carolina  company 
moving  in  the  direction  of  the  stone  bridge.     Ascertaining  it  was  lost,  I  said  :     "Fall 
in  upon  my  left  and  I'll  conduct  you  to  the  post  of  duty."     This  was  promptly  done. 
Moving  but  a  short  distance  I  encountered  two  Mississippi  companies  under  precisely 
similar  circumstances,  to  whom  I  also  said  :     "Fall  in  on   my  left  and   I'll  conduct 
you  where  men  can  show  their  mettle  ;"  which  was  done  with  alacrity.     So  that  when 
I  reported  to  General  Beauregard,  some  hundred  yards  from  the  Robinson  house,  I 
had  three  companies  of  my  own   regiment,  one  South  Carolina  company  and  two 
Mississippi  companies — not  exceeding  in   all  450  men.     Touching  my  hat,  I  said  : 
"General  Beauregard,  I  report  for  orders."     Pausing  for  a   moment,    he  replied: 
"Colonel,    what   can  you  do?"     This  was  a  hard  question   to  one  wholly  unac- 
quainted with  military  duty.     I,  however,  promptly  answered,  "Put  us  in   position 
and  I'll  show  you."     I   then  added  :     "  General,  Colonel  Hunton,  with  a  fine  regi- 
ment, is  posted  at  or  near  the  Lewis  house  and  is  burning  with  impatience  to  join  in 
the  battle,"     Promptly  acting  on   the   information,  he  ordered  one  of  his  staff  to 
proceed  forthwith  to  Colonel  Hunton,  and  to  order  him  to  report  with  his  regiment 
with  all  possible  dispatch. 

At  this  time  General  Beauregard  was  forming  his  new  line  of  battle,  his  right  in 
the  open  field,  midway  between  the  Robinson  and  Henry  houses,  and  in  a  line 
parallel  therewith,  but  considerably  to  the  east  thereof  and  running  south  in  a  line 
that  soon  gave  them  the  shelter  of  the  pines  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  or  so.  The 
enemy  was  heavily  flanking  our  left,  and  our  reinforcements,  as  they  came  up, 
were  ordered  to  form  on  the  left  of  our  line,  and  so,  by  extending  it,  counteract  the 
movement  of  the  enemy.  Accordingly,  I  was  ordered  to  form  on  the  left,  by  pass- 
ing the  rear  of  our  line  until  I  reached  my  position.  The  Washington  Artillery,  as  1 
was  at  the  time  informed,  was  firing  upon  the  enemy  and  across  my  line  of  march  ; 
it  was  ordered  to  suspend  its  fire  until  I  had  crossed  its  range,  when  General  Beaure- 
gard placed  himself  by  my  side,  at  the  head  of  my  column,  and  the  order  to  march 
was  given.  On  reaching  our  new  line  of  battle,  under  what  influence  I  know  not, 
I  announced  General  Beauregard  to  the  men,  to  which  they  promptly  responded  with 
three  rousing  cheers,  and  so,  as  we  marched  along  the  rear  of  our  line,  I,  every  fifty 
or  seventy-five  steps,  announced  General  Beauregard,  to  which  a  similar  response 
was  invariably  and  promptly  given.  On  reaching  the  left  of  the  line  I  found  it  in 
much  disorder.  Here,  General  Beauregard  informed  me  that  he  must  leave  me, 
and  repeating  his  orders  left  me.     He  had  not  gone  more  than  forty  steps  when  a 


147 

cry  from  the  disordered  crowd  referred  to,  demanded  to  see  General  Beauregard. 
Calling  to  the  General  to  return,  as  the  men  say  they  must  see  you,  I  announced  him 
to  them,  to  which,  responding  with  three  hearty  cheers,  they  promptly  formed  in 
line.  This  I  understood  was  Jackson's  left,  on  which,  as  ordered,  I  formed  my  men  ; 
the  three  companies  which  had  joined  me,  as  heretofore  stated,  having  been 
detached,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  by  General  Johnston  and  placed  under  the  command 
of  Colonel  F.  J.  Thomas  of  his  staff,  who  was  unfortunately  killed.  I  have  recently 
visited  the  spot  where  he  fell.  From  the  time  I  reported  to  General  Beauregard  to 
the  time  I  took  my  position  on  the  left,  we  were  at  no  time  under  fire,  certainly  none 
that  annoyed  us.  It  may  not  be  amiss  here  to  add  that  the  half  dozen  cheers  to 
which  I  have  referred,  and  with  which  General  Beauregard  was  honored,  had,  I 
have  reason  to  believe,  a  very  happy  effect  on  our  troops  and  a  very  depressing  one 
on  those  of  the  enemy,  being  regarded  by  him  as  the  indications  of  frequent  and 
heavy  reinforcements  from  General  Johnston's  army.  At  least  the  letters  of  the 
Federal  correspondents,  which  were  spread  all  over  the  country  and  were,  as  I  have 
heard,  republished  in  Europe,  so  stated  ;  while  I  know  that  the  entire  force  repre- 
sented by  those  cheers  did  not  exceed  450  men,  one-half  of  whom  belonged  to  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac. 

Having  taken  my  position,  I  found  myself  quite  well  sheltered  from  view  by  a 
small  growth  of  old-field  pines,  as  was  Jackson's  left,  with  some  small  gullies  now 
plainly  to  be  seen  in  the  rear  of  my  left.  Looking  around  me,  I  found  myself  on 
the  eastern  slope  of  the  ridge  or  plateau,  opposite  to,  with  my  left  a  little  to  the  south 
of  the  Henry  house,  and  directly  in  front  of  Rickett's  battery,  which  had  just  taken 
position.  I  am  quite  sure  the  enemy  had  not  yet  discovered  us.  I  admonished  my 
men  to  be  cool  and  deliberate,  and  not  to  fire  without  an  object  under  sight,  and 
gave  the  word  to  fire.  This  fire,  with  Jackson's,  which  was  no  doubt  simultaneous, 
was  so  destructive  that  it  utterly  disabled  the  Rickett's  battery  for  all  efficient  pur- 
poses. I  am  not  sure,  but  I  am  under  the  impression,  that  it  never  fired  upon  us 
more  than  once,  if  that.  Three  times  was  it  taken  and  retaken  before  the  enemy 
gave  up  the  struggle  to  retain  it.  I  had  a  number  of  men  wounded  at  the  guns — 
two  of  them,  James  and  John  Wells,  brothers,  wounded  on  one  of  the  guns  ;  and 
James,  although  shot  through  the  lungs,  is  still  living  and  able  to  do  a  day's  work  as 
a  post  and  rail  fencer.  Indeed,  such  was  the  impetuosity  of  one  of  these  charges — 
the  first,  I  think — that  two  of  my  men,  Kirkpatrick  and  Suddoth,  penetrated  so 
deeply  into  the  enemy's  lines  that  they  could  not  fall  back  with  their  comrades  when 
repulsed,  but  remained  in  the  confused  masses  of  the  enemy,  unnoticed  I  presume, 
until  another  charge,  which  almost  immediately  followed,  extricated  them. 

Shortly  after  this  bloody  strife  began,  looking  to  my  left,  I  saw  a  heavy  mass  of 
the  enemy  advancing  from  the  direction  of  the  Sudley  and  Manassas  road,  on  a 
parallel  with  the  equidistant  between  my  line  of  battle  and  the  Henry  house.  For 
a  moment  I  thought  I  must  be  doubled  up,  but  had  resolved  to  stand  my  ground,  cost 
what  it  might,  when  to  my  great  relief,  the  Sixth  North  Carolina,  Colonel  Fisher,  and 
the  Second  Mississippi,  Colonel  Falkner,  came  up  from  the  direction  of  the  Lewis 
house,  and  formed  in  much  confusion  on  my  left,  relieving  me,  however,  in  a  great 
degree  from  my  perilous  position.  I  had  three  times  stopped  these  regiments  as 
previously  described,  and  now  they  came  up  so  opportunely  to  my  relief  that  it 
almost  seemed  to  be  an  act  of  Providence.  By  the  time  they  had  formed  in 
tolerable  order,  the  enemy  nearly  covered  their  front  without  seeming  to  have 
discovered  them.  Being  on  my  extreme  left,  one  of  the  North  Carolinans  recog- 
nizing me,  called  to  me  from  his  ranks  :  "  That  is  the  enemy  ;  shall  we  fire?  "  I 
replied  :  "Don't  be  in  a  hurry  ;  don't  fire  upon  friends."  At  the  instant  a  puff  of 
wind  spread  out  the  Federal  flag,  and  I  added,  "  There  is  no  mistake  ;  give  them 
h — 1,  boys  !  "  thus  giving  orders  most  strangely  to  a  regiment  which  was  not  under 
my  command,  to  begin  the  fight.  The  enemy  was  soon  scattered  and  disappeared 
from  the  field.     I  have  not  been  able,  after  much  investigation,  to  discover  his  name 


148 

or  number.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Lightfoot,  of  the  Sixth  North  Carolina,  claims  that  his 
regiment  united  with  us  in  one  of  the  charges  on  the  enemy's  guns  and  to  have 
suffered  severely.  It  was  on  this  charge,  I  presume,  that  Colonel  Fisher  was  killed, 
as  he  fell  some  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  in  advance  of  his  original  line  of  battle. 
When  driven  back  from  the  enemy's  guns  neither  the  North  Carolinians  nor  Mis- 
sissippians  remained  to  renew  the  charge,  but  incontinently  left  the  field. 

I  was  thus  again  on  the  left  of  our  line  of  battle,  with  no  enemy  in  sight.  On  my 
flank  I  had  suffered  severely.  Major  Smith  had  been  shot  down  in  my  lines— his  leg 
broken  just  below  the'hip  ;  Captain  Ward  had  been  mortally  wounded  in  the  charge, 
and  died  in  a  few  hours  ;  the  enemy  had  charged  into  my  lines  and  been  repulsed, 
several  prisoners  being  captured,  among  them  a  Captain  Butterworth,  I  think,  of 
the  First  Michigan,  who  was  shot  down  in  my  lines,  badly  wounded,  and  a  private 
of  the  same  regiment,  I  presume,  who  held  Major  Smith  in  his  arms  until  the  fight 
was  over,  and  he  was  relieved  by  the  removal  of  Major  Smith  to  Dogan's,  near  by, 
where  he  was  confined  for  many  weeks.  It  was  about  this  time  that  Colonel  Hunton, 
with  his  gallant  regiment,  appeared  upon  the  field,  charged  and  cleared  out  the 
scattered  fragments  of  the  enemy  about  and  near  the  Henry  house,  and  thus  shared 
in  and  materially  contributed  to  the  final  result.  Nor  must  I  omit  to  state  here,  that 
he  was  indebted  to  me  for  the  opportunity  he  so  handsomely  improved,  to  share  in 
the  glories  of  the  day. 

The  battle  being  now  substantially  at  an  end,  I  made,  for  the  time  being,  such 
arrangements  for  my  killed  and  wounded  as  the  occasion  required.  Attracted  by 
an  artillery  firing,  apparently  some  two  hundred  yards  southwest  from  my  position, 
I  concluded  to  see  what  it  meant.  On  my  way  I  encountered  an  officer  lying  dead. 
I  was  told  it  was  colonel  Fisher,  of  the  Sixth  North  Carolina,  who  was  killed  in  a 
charge  as  I  have  previously  described.  Passing  on  I  reached  the  battery  of  Captain 
Delaware  Kemper,  and  found  him  firing  upon  the  enemy  retreating  on  the  ridge 
running  northerly  from  the  Chinn  by  the  Dogan  house.  He  was  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Sudley  road,  and  some  half  mile  from  his  target.  "With  that  beautiful 
precision  inaugurated  at  Vienna,"  he  soon  drove  the  enemy  for  shelter,  to  the  western 
slope  of  the  ridge,  while  on  receiving  his  fire,  the  enemy'  sharp-shooters  would  run 
to  the  crest  of  the  ridge  and  empty  their  long  range  guns,  in  reply.  No  injury  was 
done  to  Captain  Kemper  or  his  command,  of  which  I  am  aware,  during  the  half 
hour,  or  less,  that  I  remained  with  it — the  enemy's  shot  occasionally  fell  about  us 
with  sufficient  force  to  wound  or  kill.  Leaving  Captain  Kemper,  I  rode  to  a  squad 
of  officers  some  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  to  the  right,  composed  of  Preston, 
Kershaw,  and  others,  also  overlooking  the  retreating  foe,  without  the  power  to  pre- 
vent it.  It  moved  me  deeply,  almost  to  tears.  Although  now  getting  late,  I  con- 
cluded to  ride  down  the  turnpike,  and  went  as  far  as  Cub  Run  bridge.  Here  I  found 
the  bridge  not  passable,  from  an  immense  jam  of  the  enemy's  wagons  and  other 
vehicles,  and  the  stream  not  fordable.  Returning  to  my  position  in  the  fight,  to  see 
if  my  orders  had  been  executed,  I  found  everything  done  to  my  satisfaction,  except 
that  Captain  Butterworth,  to  whom  I  have  before  referred,  had  not  been  removed. 
No  one  was  with  him  but  my  servant  Pin.  To  my  enquiry  why  he,  the  Captain,  had 
not  been  cared  for,  he  replied  that  all  the  wagons  which  had  passed  were  filled  with 
our  own  wounded,  but  that  he  hoped  soon  to  get  him  in.  It  was  now  nearly  9  P.  M.. 
with  every  prospect  of  a  bad  night,  and  I  directed  my  servant  to  take  from  under  my 
saddle  four  or  five  blankets,  which  my  dear  wife  had  pro\'ided  for  my  own  exigencies, 
and  to  make  him  as  comfortable  as  possible.  I  also  charged  my  servant  to  lay  my 
commands  on  the  first  wagon  which  passed  to  take  him  in  and  carry  him  to  the 
hospital,  while  he  must  remain  by  him  until  this  was  done.  The  officer  was  grateful 
for  my  arrangements  for  his  comfort  ;  inquired  of  my  servant  who  I  was,  and  hand- 
ing him  his  pistols,  a  beautiful  pair,  directed  him  to  hand  them  to  me,  with  an 
earnest  request  that  I  would  accept  them  as  the  evidence  of  his  gratitude  for  the 
kind  and  generous  care  I  had  taken  of  him  :    at  least,  so  said   my  servant  when  he 


149 

delivered  the  pistols  to  me  next  morning,  and  added,  that  I  had  scarcely  left  them 
the  night  before,  when  a  wagon  passing  by,  was  stopped,  the  officer  taken  in  and 
duly  delivered  to  the  hospital.  Subsequently  inquiring  about  him,  I  was  informed 
that  he  had  been  moved  to  Orange  Courthouse,  where  he  died. 

It  was  now  fully  9  P.  M.  I  had  been  in  the  saddle  from  a  little  after  sunrise.  I 
was  much  fatigued  from  the  constant  exertions  and  anxieties  of  the  day,  besides  I 
had  slept  but  little  the  two  preceding  nights— the  night  promised  to  be  a  bad  one  ; 
and  so,  I  concluded  to  seek  the  hospitable  roof  of  my  friend  Dogan,  where  my 
Major  was  already  quartered.  The  road  to  Dogan's  passed  over  the  bloody  plateau, 
on  which  a  large  portion  of  the  fighting  had  been  done,  and  near  the  Henry  house. 
The  field  through  which  I  rode  was  well  nigh  covered  with  the  Federal  dead  and 
wounded  ;  and  as  my  horse's  step  announced  the  passing  of  a  human  being,  the 
wail  of  suffering  humanity,  and  deep  cry  for  water,  water,  which  burst  upon  the 
otherwise  profound  stillness  of  the  hour,  was  absolutely  agonizing.  I  understood 
the  appeal,  but  without  the  power  to  give  relief,  was  compelled  to  leave  them  to 
those  who  were  already  actively  engaged  in  collecting  the  wounded  and  carrying 
them  where  their  wants  could  be  attended  to.  On  reaching  Dogan's,  I  saw  by  the 
imperfect  light  of  a  somewhat  clouded  moon,  that  his  porch,  yard  and  stable  adjoin- 
ing the  yard,  seemed  full  of  the  enemy's  wounded.  Taking  my  seat  in  the  porch, 
one  of  the  wounded  men,  I  think  from  New  Hampshire,  asked  me  about  my 
position  in  the  fight.  Apparently  satisfied  with  my  reply,  he  said,  "I  thought  I 
recognized  you  when  you  rode  up,  and  particularly  your  horse.  Three  times  did  I 
fire  upon  you  during  the  fight,"  and  added  with  the  most  perfect  simplicity,  "Of 
course,  what  I  did  was  in  the  way  of  business  and  not  in  malice."  My  horse  was 
shot  in  the  neck,  and  I  suppose  I  owe  to  this  man  the  injury  he  received.  However, 
I  soon  retired,  and  notwithstanding  the  exciting  and  important  incidents  of  the  day, 
I  slept  soundly  and  awoke  with  the  morn,  refreshed  and  buoyant,  resolved  to  per- 
form my  whole  duty  in  the  grand  drama,  in  which  I  had  undertaken  to  perform 
a  part. 

I  should  not,  perhaps,  omit  an  incident  of  the  day,  as  it  illustrates  an  important 
duty  of  the  officer.  On  the  morning  of  the  fight  (I  was  not  provided  with  a  commis- 
sary) a  man,  whom  I  did  not  know,  reported  to  me  as  my  acting  commissary,  stating 
that  supplies  for  my  command  had  been  turned  over  to  him,  and  he  wished  to  know 
if  he  should  destroy  them,  as  he  supposed  we  would  soon  engage  the  enemy. 
Amazed  !  I  replied,  "Destroy  them  !  No.  Take  good  care  of  them  and  issue  them 
as  the  law  and  your  duty  requires.  I  am  soriy  thus  to  learn  that  you  already 
assume  that  we  are  to  be  whipped."  Meeting  him  the  next  morning,  I  said,  "Well, 
sir,  what  have  you  done  with  your  supplies?"  He  replied,  "Obeyed  your  orders, 
and  am  now  issuing  them  to  your  men."  I  then  said,  "Let  this  incident  be  a  lesson 
to  you,  never  to  destroy  anything  committed  to  your  care,  without  it  would  materially 
injure  our  enemies  or  materially  benefit  ourselves." 

I  might  here  close  this  article  contented  with  the  very  handsome  notice  taken  of 
my  command,  in  the  official  reports  of  the  Generals  commanding.  But  Dr.  Dabney  s 
Life  of  Jackson,  and  the  official  reports  of  the  day,  recently  published  by  the 
Federal  Government,  and  until  then  unseen  by  me,  impose  upon  me  the  duty  of 
asserting  for  my  command,  even  at  this  late  day,  its  just  claim  upon  the  love  and 
admiration  of  its  country. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  my  command  had  been  organized  only  three  days, 
and  was  wholly  unused  to  arms,  and  was  now  on  its  third  day  called  upon  to  per- 
form the  duties  of  the  veteran  soldier  ;  it  passed  along  the  rear  of  Bee's  and  Jackson's 
brigades,  and  it  may  be  Gautrell's  regiment,  to  form  on  the  left — a  position  of 
peculiar  danger,  as  the  great  effort  of  the  enemy  was  to  turn  our  left ;  that  we  took 
about  2  to  2\  P.  M.,  our  position,  and  in  musket  range;  of  the  Rickett's  and  Griffin 
batteries  ;  that  we  had  scarcely  opened  our  fire  when  a  heavy  column  of  the  enemy 


150 

appeared,  from  the  direction  of  the  Sudley  and  Manassas  road,  moving  on  a  line 
about  equi-distant  between  my  left  and  the  Henry  house,  obviously  to  flank  me, 
which  was  happily  anticipated  by  the  opportune  arrival  of  the  Sixth  North  Carolina; 
that  my  command  three  times,  the  North  Carolinans  once  co-operating,  charged  the 
Ricketts  battery  before  the  enemy  gave  up  the  struggle  to  hold  it  ;  that  my  flank 
was  again  left,  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  Mississippians  and  North  Carolinians, 
exposed  ;  that  my  loss  was  slightly  in  excess  of  that  of  Jackson's  brigade,  which  only 
came  under  fire  in  the  afternoon,  at  the  same  time  that  I  did,  slightly  more  than  that 
of  Hampton's  Legion,  and  slightly  less  than  that  of  Bee's  brigade,  as  40  to  43;  while 
in  the  afternoon's  fight,  during  which  we  were  engaged  together,  my  command 
suffered  a  much  larger  percentage  of  loss  than  any  other  in  the  field,  except  Jackson's, 
and  slightly  in  excess  of  that.  And  I  now  mention  these  illustrious  commands  for 
the  special  purpose  of  showing  that,  however  high  the  standard  they  have  established 
for  the  qualities  of  the  true  soldier,  my  command  may  justly  and  proudly  claim  to 
have  come  fully  up  to  it — par  nobile  fatrum . 

In  view,  then,  of  these  facts,  it  can  but  excite  surprise  that  Dr.  Dabney  should,  in 
his  life  of  Jackson,  have  claimed  for  his  brigade  the  whole  merit  of  capturing  Ricketts 
battery,  &c.  It  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  General  Jackson  did  not  do  it.  In  his 
official  report,  speaking  of  a  charge  he  had  ordered,  he  says,  "He  pierced  the 
enemy's  centre,  and  by  co-operating  with  the  victorious  Fifth  and  other  forces  [the 
italics  are  mine],  soon  placed  the  field  essentially  in  our  possession."  Again,  he 
says  :  "  The  brigade,  in  connection  with  other  troops,  took  seven  field  pieces,  in 
addition  to  the  battery  captured  by  Colonel  Cummings."  General  Jackson  also  says  : 
"The  enemy,  although  repulsed  in  the  centre,  succeeded  in  turning  our  flanks."  If 
the  General  meant  his  left  flank,  he  was  under  a  mistake.  I  was  on  his  left,  and 
know  that  no  effort  was  made  to  turn  mine  but  once,  and  that  failed,  as  heretofore 
stated.  I  presume  General  Jackson  does  not  refer  to  the  movements  of  the  enemy 
west  of  the  Manassas  road,  as  they  were  promptly  arrested  and  the  enemy  was 
driven  back. 

I  omitted  to  mention  in  the  proper  place  that  Lieutenant-Colonel  Murray  in  one  of 
our  charges  upon  the  enemy's  guns,  finding  that  we  could  not  hold  them,  spiked  one 
of  them  with  a  nail  he  had  in  his  pocket. 

My  next  article  will  be  a  narative  of  the  personal  incidents  of  the  battle  of  Seven 
Pines,  the  bloodiest  fight,  as  far  as  my  command  was  concerned,  in  which  I  ever 
was  engaged. 

RELATIVE    LOSSES. 


Colonel  Evans  began  the  fight  with  the  subjoined  forces  and  lost  during 
as  follows  : 


the  day 


-6 

en  JJ 
0 

U 
fg 

O 

~6 
u 

Officers 

wounded. 

0 

3 

0 

.  c  * 

<L> 

s 

_«3 

n 

bfl 
U 
u 
bn 
bo 

Fourth  South  Carolina,  Col.  Sloan 

I 

10 
8 
1 

9 

5 

70 

33 
1 

1 

90 
46 

2 

First  Louisana  Battalion,  Maj.  Wheat 

I 

I 

19 

14 

105 

'39 

151 


Force  estimated  at  1,300  men. 
The  above  command  was  relieved  by  General  Bee's  Brigade  consisting  of 


9) 
en  "v 

S-  "* 

V 
u 

m 

0 

Officers 
wounded. 

T3 
O 

3 

d 

"3 
So 

HI 
bi> 

< 

Seventh  Georgia,  Col.  Barton. . 

1 

3 
4 
4 

18 

38 
36 

21 

7 

12 

6 
6 

3 

122 
153 
151 

79 
21 

153 
200 
I97 
I07 
28 

Eighth  Georgia,  Col. 

Fourth  Alabama,  Col.  Jones   . 

Second  Mississippi,  Col.  Falkner. 

Two  companies,  Mississippi,  Maj.  Liddell. . . 

12  1  120 

27 

526 

685 

2,800  muskets. 
Colonel  Hampton's  Legion  fought  through  the  day.     Had  27  officers  and  600  men, 
and  lost  19  killed  and  100  wounded. 

General  Jackson's  Brigade  consisted  of  five  regiments,  as  follows  : 


Second  Regiment  Va.  Vol.,  Col.  Allen 

Fourth  Regiment  Ya.  Vol.,  Col.  Preston 

Fifth  Regiment  Va.  Vol.,  Col.  Harper ....... 

Twenty-seventh  Regiment  Va.  Vol.,  Col.  Echols. 
Thirty-third  Regiment  Va.  Vol.,  Col.  Cummings. 


-6 

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1)   0 

0 

£ 

C 

u 

0 

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3 

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3 

69 

1 

3° 

100 

6 

47 

1 

18 

122 

1 

44 

IOI 

6 

113 

3 

439 

bo 

to 
< 


90 
131 

53 
141 
146 

~5^~ 


Dr.  Dabney  estimates  2,700. 
Forty-ninth  Virginia  Volunteers,   Col.    Smith,  210  men.     Officers  killed,    1  ;    men 
killed,  9  ;  officers  wounded,  1  ;  men  wounded,  29— aggregate  40. 

William  Smith. 


DOC.    No.    XVIII. 


Inaugural   Address 

OF 

THE    GOVERNOR  OF  VIRGINIA, 

1864. 


State  of  Virginia,  Executive  Department,  ) 
Richmond,  January  6,  1864.  j 

Gentlemen  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Delegates : 

Having  deemed  it  proper,  under  existing  circumstances, 
at  the  time  of  taking  the  oaths  of  office  as  the  governor  of  this 
commonwealth  on  the  1st  instant,  to  present  my  views  of  the 
present  condition  of  public  affairs,  the  causes  which  led  to 
them,  and  the  measures  proper  to  meet  the  exigency  which 
is  upon  us,  I  respectfully  transmit  herewith,  to  the  general 
assembly,  copies  thereof,  for  such  consideration  and  dispo- 
sition as  it  may  be  your  pleasure  to  give  to  them. 

Respectfully, 

William  Smith. 


ADDRESS. 


Seventeen  years  ago  I  appeared  in  this  capitol  to  take  the 
oaths  of  office  as  the  governor-elect  of  the  commonwealth  of 
Virginia.  By  the  permission  of  God  and  the  election  of  the 
people  I  am  now  here  to  repeat  them.  Entrusted  by  my 
countrymen,  under  the  perilous  circumstances  which  surround 
us,  with  the  important  duties  which  I  am  about  to  assume,  I 
think  it  altogether  a  fitting  occasion,  as  I  hereby  do,  to  ex- 
press my  most  profound  acknowledgements  of  this  gratifying 
and  distinguishing  mark  of  their  confidence.  I  hope  I  may 
deserve  it ;  certain  it  is,  if  my  best  efforts  to  accomplish  all 


153 

that  may  be  expected  of  me  within  my  constitutional  powers, 
will  suffice,  I  shall  not  be  disappointed. 

On  the  17th  day  of  September,  1787  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States  was  adopted  by  the  convention  and  trans- 
mitted by  the  president  thereof,  General  Washington,  to  the 
congress  of  the  Confederation.  In  his  letter  he  says,  among 
other  things,  "  And  thus  the  constitution  which  we  now  pre- 
sent is  the  result  of  a  spirit  of  amity  and  of  that  mutual  defer- 
ence and  concession  which  the  peculiarity  of  our  political 
situation  rendered  indispensable."  In  the  concluding  part  of 
his  letter  he  also  says,  "  That  it  will  meet  the  full  and  entire 
approbation  of  every  state  is  not,  perhaps,  to  be  expected  ; 
but  each  will,  doubtless,  recollect  that,  had  her  interests  been 
alone  consulted  the  consequences  might  have  been  particu- 
larly disagreeable  or  injurious  to  others." 

The  constitution  thus  constructed,  was  adopted  by  the 
states  at  different  periods,  but  eleven  of  them  having  ratified  it, 
the  7th  article  thereof  declaring  that  "  The  ratification  of  the 
conventions  of  nine  states  shall  be  sufficient  for  the  establish- 
ment of  this  constitution  between  the  states  so  ratifying  the- 
same,"  the  government  authorized  thereby  was  fully  organized 
by  the  installation  of  President  Washington  on  the  30th  of 
April,  1789.  He  was  elected  unanimously,  but  ten  states  only 
united  in  his  election.  North  Carolina  remained  out  of  this 
Union  until  the  21st  of  November,  1789,  as  Rhode  Island 
did  until  the  29th  of  May,  1790.  It  is  obvious  that  they  were 
soverign  states,  complete  nationalities,  and  might  have  re- 
mained separate,  "  free  and  independent  states."  Unde- 
niably, the  old  Union  under  the  first  constitution,  which  took 
us  triumphantly  through  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  to  which 
North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island  seemed  so  anxious  to 
adhere,  was  dissolved  by  the  withdrawal  of  a  majority  of  the 
members  thereof,  and  another  substituted  therefor.  Was  this 
secession  ?  Let  the  facts  stated  give  the  reply.  Was  it  right 
for  a  portion  of  the  states  to  disregard  or  destroy  a  compact 
with  those  of  their  associates  who  withheld  or  refused  their 
consent  ?  Allow  me  to  give  a  short  time  to  the  consideration 
of  this  enquiry. 


154 

It  may  be  conceded  that  the  government  formed  by  the 
articles  of  Confederation  was  wholly  inadequate  for  its  essen- 
tial purposes —  that  it  could  neither  secure  to  us  the  respect  of 
foreign  powers,  nor  promote  our  prosperity  at  home.  True, 
it  had  taken  us  through  the  Revolution,  but  the  stern  neces- 
sities of  our  condition  fired  the  hearts  of  the  people  and  they 
forbore  to  question  power  when  it  was  exercised  for  the  pur- 
pose of  filling  our  ranks  and  feeding  and  clothing  our  gallant 
soldiers.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  had  enunciated 
to  the  world  the  right  of  a  "  people  to  dissolve  the  political 
bands  which  connected  them  with  another,"  and  "  to  alter  or 
abolish  "  the  existing  form  of  crovernment,  "and  to  institute  a 
new  government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such  principles  and 
organizing  its  powers  in  such  form  as  to  them  shall  seem  most 
likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness."  And  in  that  day 
no  one  doubted  the  right  to  reform  the  existing  government 
and  place  it  with  another,  whenever  any  of  the  parties  to  it 
shall  see  fit  to  do  so. 

It  was  confidentially  concluded  by  those  who  believe  in  the 
progressive  civilization  of  our  race,  that  our  revolution  had 
firmly  established  this  great  right.  It  had  been  distinctly 
proclaimed  to  the  world  as  the  ground  upon  which  the  thir- 
teen dependent  colonies  of  Great  Britain  justified  their  separa- 
tion from  the  mother  country,  and  the  assumption  of  the 
rights,  powers  and  duties  of  independent  states.  The  great 
struggle  had  been  successfully  fought  upon  it.  The  declara- 
tion containing  it  had  passed  into  every  civilized  language. 
Our  ancestors  had  acted  upon  it  after  their  independence  had 
been  recognized.  President  Buchanan,  the  predecessor  of 
the  present  chief  magistrate  of  the  United  States,  had  de- 
clared that  the  federal  government  had  no  right  to  make  war 
upon  a  seceding  state.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  celebrated 
paper,  to  which  I  so  often  have  referred,  not  only  distinctly 
asserted  the  right  of  separation,  but  boldly  proclaimed  it  to 
be  the  duty  of  the  states  whom  it  might  concern,  to  exercise 
it,  whenever  in  their  judgment,  it  was  necessary.  It  was  con- 
fidently believed  that  this  great  philosophical  right,  which 
may  very  properly  be  called  the  right  of  secession,  would  pre- 


155 

serve  the  peace  between  the  parties  to  the  compact  under  all 
circumstances  and  throughout  all  time.  I  know  there  are  many 
persons  who  deny  this  right,  and  yet  admit  that  of  revolution. 
Now,  I  cannot  too  earnestly  insist  that  the  right  of  secession, 
practically  recognized  and  admitted,  is  the  guaranty  of  peace  ; 
while  the  right  of  revolution  necessarily  leads  to  civil  war. 
One  applies  to  a  confederation  of  states,  and  cannot  be  politi- 
cally wrong  ;  the  other  acts  within  a  nation,  and  is  rarely 
right.  It  is  true  the  power  of  the  parts  is  not  equal  to  the 
power  of  the  whole  ;  but  what  of  that  ?  Governments  are 
not  instituted  for  aggression,  but  for  the  security  of  the  rights 
of  "  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

I  have  heretofore  remarked  upon  the  peculiar  language  of 
General  Washington  in  his  letter  communicating  the  consti- 
tution, as  agreed  upon  in  convention,  to  the  old  congress.  It 
was,  he  says,  "  the  result  of  a  spirit  of  amity,  and  of  that 
mutual  deference  and  concession  which  the  peculiarity  of  our 
political  situation  rendered  indispensable!'  Without  the  in- 
fluence of  such  considerations  it  would  not  have  been  adopted 
by  the  convention.  Wide  and  deep-rooted  opposition  to  it 
was  found  to  pervade  the  public  mind  throughout  the  Con- 
federacy. Three  of  the  most  powerful  minds  of  the  day,  in  a 
series  of  numbers,  now  known  as  the  Federalist,  undertook 
the  task  of  reconciling  the  people  to  its  adoption.  Many  of 
the  states  yielded  their  assent  to  it  with  extreme  reluctance. 
Virginia,  after  formidable  opposition  headed  by  Patrick 
Henry,  sent  her  ratification  of  it,  with  a  number  of  amend- 
ments, designed  to  guard  against  certain  constructions  of 
which  it  was  susceptable  and  which,  with  others,  were  subse- 
quently adopted.  And  it  is  certain  that  the  states  never 
would  have  adopted  this  untried  and  much  doubted  ex- 
periment, had  there  been  any  question  of  their  right  to 
withdraw  at  pleasure  from  the  Union  it  was  designed  to 
form. 

When  the  constitution  was,  however,  adopted,  it  was  ob- 
vious to  the  most  ordinary  sagacity  that,  unless  it  was  con- 
strued and  its  admitted  powers  were  exercised  in  the  spirit  to 
which  the  constitution   was   indebted   for  its    existence,  the 


156 

government  authorized  thereby  could  not  last.  Yet  it  is  a  well 
known  historical  fact  that  a  great  party  was  speedily  formed 
to  change  the  whole  character  of  the  government,  and, 
through  the  agency  of  the  implied  powers  thereof,  utterly  to 
subvert  the  reserved  powers  of  the  states.  This  was  the  more 
remarkable,  as  the  powers  of  the  federal  government  were 
exclusively  of  a  delegated  character — that  powers  not  granted 
were  denied.  The  evidences  on  this  subject  might  be  multi- 
plied as  the  leaves  of  autumn  were  it  necessary,  but  I  refer  to 
it  only  for  the  purpose  of  pointing  out  the  fountain  of  bitter 
waters,  I  may  be  spared  further  specification  and  be  allowed 
to  follow  its  flow  to  that  great  ocean,  the  storms  which  have 
carried  sorrow  and  death  into  the  bosom  of  almost  every 
family  in  the  land.  I  shall  confine  myself  to  one  subject  only 
as  illustrative  of  that  want  "  of  amity,  and  of  that  mutual 
deference  and  concession  which  the  peculiarity  of  our  political 
situation  rendered  indispensable." 

One  of  the  great  interests  to  be  protected  in  the  new  con- 
stitution was  the  institution  of  slavery.  That  interest  well 
knew  that  great  efforts  would  be  made  for  its  overthrow  ;  and 
although,  at  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  slavery  existed 
in  all  the  states  but  one,  yet  the  unerring  law  of  race  allowed 
no  doubt  that  its  final  resting  place  would  be  in  the  southern 
states.  To  provide  for  its  safety  and  protection  was  a  plain 
and  obvious  duty.  Provisions  were  accordingly  inserted  in 
the  constitution  which  were  deemed  ample  and  sufficient ; 
and  the  price  for  them  cheerfully  paid  in  the  power  over 
commerce  and  navigation.  Notwithstanding  all  which,  at  the 
first  congress  agitation  began.  The  act  of  1793,  known  as 
the  fugitive  slave  act,  was  passed  to  vitalize  the  clause  of  the 
constitution  authorizing  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves.  Gen- 
eral Washington  was  the  first  to  claim  the  benefit  of  it ;  but 
he  gave  up  his  claim  sooner  than  provoke  the  howl  which 
was  about  to  be  raised  by  the  fanatics  of  Massachusetts. 

And  he,  the  Father  of  his  Country  and  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  was  denied  the  benefit  of  a  clause  of  the 
constitution  and  of  an  act  of  congress  intended  to  give  it 
effect.     As  time  swept  on  agitation  continued,  increasing  in 


157 


strength  and  volume,  until,  in  the  great  struggle  of  1819-20,  it 
was  openly  proclaimed  by  the  North,  in  debate,  that  the  admis- 
sion of  Missouri  was  a  question  of  power,  and  as  such,  overrode 
all  other  considerations.    It  is  well  known  that  this  question  at 
that  time  seriously  endangered  the  Union.    Upon  its  unfortu- 
nate adjustment,  did  fanaticism  cease  its  efforts  ?     No,  its  work 
was  only  partially  accomplished,  and  agitation  was  resumed  with 
increased   activity,  in  utter  disregard   of  that  fraternal  spirit, 
without   which  the  cry  of  Union  was  nothing  more  than  an 
empty  sound.     It  again  culminated  in  i85o  upon  the  terri- 
torial question,  and  the  Union  once  more  trembled  to  its  base. 
But  the  wisdom  of  congress  effected  a  truce,  and  by  a  series 
of  measures,  postponded  the  impending  blow.     This  adjust- 
ment,   however,    gave    no    peace,    no    repose.       Fanaticism, 
balked  of  its  entire   purpose,   redoubled  its  efforts— it   gave 
warning  on  the  floor  of  the  senate  that  agitation  should  never 
cease    until    its    designs    should    be    fully    accomplished — it 
entered  the  halls  of  state  legislation,  and  obtained  the  pas- 
sage of  personal  liberty  laws;  laws  denouncing  citizens  in  pur- 
suit of  their  property,  as  guilty  of  a  crime  punishable  by  con- 
finement in  the   penitentiary;  laws  for  removing  judges  who 
proved  too  honest  and  independent  to  become  the  tool  of  its 
will — and  all  intended  to  nullify  a  clause  of  the  constitution  and 
acts  passed  in  pursuance  thereof — it  incited  mobs  to  do  the 
work  of  death  upon  respectable   citizens  in  pursuit  of  their 
lawful  and  constitutional  rights.     And  finally,  in  disregard  of 
all  precedent — of  that  "spirit  of  amity "  and  of  "that  mutual 
deference  and  concession^  to  which   I   have  so  frequently   re- 
ferred— dared  to  run  an  entirely  sectional  ticket  for  the  high- 
est offices  of  the  country,  declaring  that  it  would  no  longer  be 
dependent  upon  the  slaveholding  states  to  any  extent  what- 
ever.    This  position  thus  taken  and  successfully  maintained 
by  northern  fanaticism  in  the  election  of  its  candidates,  filled 
the    hearts   of  the    southern    states    with    despondency    and 
gloom ;  and  impressed  them  with  the  melancholy  conviction 
that  there  was  no  longer  any  hope  of  living  in  the  Union  in 
the   enjoyment  of  the  rights  it  was  designed  to  secure,  and 
that  the  time  had  come  when  the  existing  form  of  govern- 


158 

ment  having  become  destructive  of  those  ends  for  which  it 
was  instituted,  it  was  their  right  as  it  was  their  duty,  in  the 
language  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  "  to  alter  or 
abolish  it,  and  to  institute  a  new  government,  laying  its  foun- 
dation on  such  principles  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such 
form  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  safety 
and  happiness." 

But,  notwithstanding  the  long-continued  wrongs  and  in- 
juries which  the  South  had  sustained  at  the  hands  of  the  non- 
slaveholding  North,  most  of  the  southern  states  still  clung 
with  fond  tenacity  to  the  work  of  our  fathers,  and  essayed  in 
various  ways  to  readjust  the  disturbed  relations  of  the  states. 
Our  dear  old  Virginia  made  extraordinary  efforts,  as  well  be- 
fitted her,  for  readjustment  and  for  peace  ;  but  all  in  vain. 
The  North,  stimulated  by  her  hatred  of  the  South  and  the 
consciousness  of  her  strength,  and  believing,  unhappily,  that 
we  would  not  dare  the  last  extremity,  turned  a  deaf  ear  to 
every  overture,  and  resolved  on  force.  On  the  1 5th  day  of 
April,  1 86 1,  President  Lincoln  issued  his  proclamation  for 
seventy-five  thousand  men  to  put  down  the  insurrection,  as 
he  was  pleased  to  term  it.  Virginia  was  called  upon  for  her 
quota  to  dragoon  her  southern  sisters  into  submission,  and  she 
responded  by  passing,  on  the  17th  of  April,  1861,  her  ordi- 
nance of  secession,  uniting  her  fate  to  theirs.  It  was  under 
this  conduct  on  the  part  of  non-slaveholding  states,  and  after 
every  effort  to  preserve  the  Union  which  our  ancestors  had 
formed,  had  failed,  that  our  convention  felt  itself  constrained 
to  take  this  organic  and  final  step  "  which  denounces  our 
separation,  and  hold  them  as  we  hold  the  rest  of  mankind, 
enemies  in  war;  in  peace,  friends/'  This  ordinance  was  also 
submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  who,  with  a  rare  and  noble 
unanimity,  approved  it,  and  in  support  of  it,  pledged  to  each 
other  "  our  lives,  our  fortunes  and  our  sacred  honor." 

I  have  thus  referred  to  one  of  the  °reat  causes  of  our  un- 
happy  difficulty — too  briefly,  perhaps,  for  perspicuity  ;  per- 
haps too  much  at  length  for  such  an  occasion  as  the  present ; 
and  yet  I  trust  of  sufficient  fullness  to  clearly  show  that  the 
sentiment  of  the  northern  mind  has  waged  incessant  war  upon 


159 

one  of  the  great  compromises  of  the  constitution,  producing 
thereby,  the  irritation  and  injustice  which  have  destroyed  those 
pleasant  and  happy  relations  which  it  was  expected  the  Union 
would  establish  and  assure,  and  which  has  culminated  in  this 
frightful  and  bloody  war !  while  the  South  evinced  her  love 
of  union  and  her  anxiety  to  preserve  the  work  of  our  fathers 
in  the  compromises  she  had  made  and  the  wrongs  and  injuries 
to  which  she  had  submitted — in  the  great  forbearance  she 
had  practiced,  and  finally,  in  her  numerous  efforts  to  avoid 
the  dread  alternative  which  was  presented  to  her  of  uncon- 
ditional submission  or  manly  resistance.  The  war,  then,  which 
is  now  raging,  was  not  sought  by  us  ;  it  was  forced  upon  us — 
and  is  the  last  and  most  flagrant  of  that  series  of  wrongs, 
which,  commencing  with  the  government,  is  to  be  resisted  to 
the  last  extremity. 

Invoking  the  divine  will  to  enlighten  my  understanding, 
and  to  guide  me  to  that  system  of  measures  best  calculated 
to  provide  for  the  exigency  which  is  upon  us,  and  to  promote 
the  true  interests  of  our  country,  I  proceed  to  suggest  what 
duty  in  my  judgment  requires,  and  what  a  generous  patriot- 
ism will  cheerfully  accord. 

First  then,  it  is  of  the  greatest  moment  that  our  minds 
should  be  trained  to  allow  that  the  entire  manhood  and 
property  of  the  country,  for  the  purpose  of  this  war,  belongs 
to  the  state.  The  men  who  are  called  into  the  field  to  join  in 
battle  with  our  enemies,  the  taxes  which  are  levied  and  the 
impressments  which  are  made  for  their  support,  are  but  modes 
of  appropriating  the  resources  of  the  country,  and  should 
neither  excite  murmurs  nor  discontent.  The  man,  who,  by 
tricks,  evasions  or  subterfuges,  seeks  to  avoid  the  taxes  in- 
tended to  be  collected  from  him,  is  in  heart  both  knave  and 
traitor.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  law-maker  to  provide  the 
amplest  punishment  for  such  malefactors,  and  of  every  good 
citizen  to  bring  them  to  justice,  and  to  hold  them  up  to  public 
scorn  and  contempt.  And  what  should  be  thought  of  those 
who  grumble  about  the  prices  paid  for  articles  impressed,  to 
feed  and  clothe  the  army — that  army  which  stands  between 
them  and  ruin — that  army,  composed,  as  it  is,  of  their  own 


160 

sons,  and  of  their  own  kith  and  kin,  and  which  may  be  dis- 
banded for  want  of  the  necessary  supplies,  while  they  are  hig- 
gling with  the  government  agents  for  higher  prices  than  those 
established  by  the  commissioners  chosen  equally  by  the  State 
and  Confederate  authorities,  and  actually  appealing  to  the 
courts  of  justice  for  protection  against  the  alleged  wrong  and 
injury  of  which  they  complain  ?  They  are  not  content  with 
prices  fixed  by  citizen  farmers,  chosen  for  each  state,  of 
sound  judgment  and  lofty  patriotism ;  they  must  have  a 
jury  of  the  vicinage,  composed  of  men,  like  themselves,  all 
anxious — I  will  not  say  willing — but  anxious  to  wring  from 
their  bleeding  and  suffering  country  the  last  dollar  which  can 
be  obtained.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  such  a  mode  of 
assessment  would,  within  six  months,  drive  our  armies  from 
the  field  and  utterly  annihilate  the  public  credit,  unless  we 
establish  a  most  enormous  system  of  taxation,  or  the  Con- 
federate government  should  proclaim  martial  law.  The 
country  must  not  be  ruined  by  the  rapacity  of  the  people,  and 
the  government  will  not  hesitate,  I  am  sure,  to  exercise  all 
their  constitutional  powers,  when  necessary  for  our  safety. 
I  am  pleased  to  say  that  the  people  of  Virginia  have,  with 
some  exceptions,  cheerfully  accepted  the  maximum,  while  not 
one  has  been  hardy  enough  to  brave  public  opinion  by 
demanding  any  other  rule  of  assessment. 

While,  however,  the  people  of  the  State  have  acquiesced  in 
the  prices  fixed  by  the  public  commissioners,  others  have 
been  unwilling  to  accept  them  in  consequence  of  higher  prices 
being  offered  by  speculators  and  others.  This  very  naturally 
produces  discontent  on  the  part  of  the  more  liberal  and  patri- 
otic portion  of  the  people,  while  others  resort  to  hoarding, 
hiding  and  other  disreputable  shifts  and  evasions  to  avoid 
their  contribution  to  the  support  of  our  gallant  army.  This 
state  of  things  is  very  demoralizing,  and  may,  I  think,  be 
easily  corrected  by  the  establishment  of  a  state  maximum, 
which,  taking  the  Confederate  maximum  as  a  basis,  shall  be 
extended  to  all  the  productions  of  human  industry. 

I  know  that  this  proposition  has  always  met  with  the  most 
determined  opposition,  and  yet   it  has  always   prevailed    in 


161 

times  of  public  trouble.  I  know  it  is  said  that  France  tried 
and  France  gave  up  this  policy.  And  yet  she  first  tried  it 
upon  corn,  then  enlarged  it,  but  never  made  it  general,  ad- 
hered to  it  through  all  the  dark  hours  of  her  revolution,  when 
she  was  rent  by  intestine  dissensions  and  engaged  in  war 
with  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  never  abandoned  it  until  she 
had  resumed  a  specie  currency,  composed  her  intestine  feuds, 
and  brought  continental  Europe  to  her  feet.  What  occasion 
had  France  to  adhere  to  this  policy  when  she  fed  her  armies 
from  the  stores  of  other  nations,  and  replenished  her  treasury 
by  contributions  upon  them  ? 

But  it  is  the  duty  of  wisdom  to  comprehend  the  force  of 
circumstances.  What  is  our  situation  ?  We  are  cut  off  from 
the  world  by  our  enemies,  insulated  as  completely  as  if  we 
were  on  an  island  in  mid-ocean  and  no  productions  from 
abroad,  like  those  raised  by  us,  are  allowed  to  come  in  com- 
petition with  our  own.  Can  it  be  contended  with  any  pro- 
priety, that  there  can  be,  in  such  a  state  of  things,  a  market 
price  for  commodities  in  the  sense  of  the  economists?  Again, 
the  supply  of  our  own  productions  is  inadequate  for  a  liberal 
consumption.  Bread,  meat,  shoes,  cotton  and  woolen  cloths, 
are  painful  illustrations  of  this  stern  fact ;  and  I  ask,  where 
is  the  competition  to  be  found  which  is  to  put  these  articles 
within  easy  reach  of  the  naked  and  the  hungry  ?  It  is  some- 
times said,  that  it  is  the  currency  which  causes  the  great  ex- 
aggeration of  prices.  To  some  extent,  this  may  be  so.  But 
where  the  supply  of  actual  necessaries  is  deficient,  and  the 
price  of  them  is  fixed  by  the  conscience  of  the  seller  alone,  the 
currency  is  of  but  little  significance  ;  the  hungry  must  be  fed, 
and  the  seller  knows  it ;  and  the  price  must  be  paid,  in  what- 
ever currency  required. 

Nor  is  the  maximum  unknown  in  daily  life.  It  was  the 
law,  that  the  person  who  took  out  a  license  as  a  tavern- 
keeper  should  keep  proper  accommodations  for  the  traveler, 
and  then  should  not  charge  him  for  meals  at  pleasure,  but 
only  the  rates  fixed  by  the  county  courts.  So  in  the  cases  of 
bridges  and  ferries,  where  the  prices  are  fixed  by  law.  But 
this  is  a  very  remarkable  case  of  maximum  which  seems  to 


162 

have  escaped  general  observation — I  mean  interest  upon 
money.  No  lender  shall  take  more  than  six  dollars  for  the 
loan  of  one  hundred  dollars  for  one  year.  Should  the  lender 
bargain  for  more,  the  contract  is  void.  If  he  takes  more,  he 
forfeits  double  the  sum  loaned.  Here  is  a  maximum  of  great 
antiquity,  on  money,  the  token  or  representative  of  all 
property  ;  and  yet  it  is  not  proper  to  set  a  maximum  on  the 
property  so  represented ! 

That  the  law  of  maximum  will  be  difficult  to  enforce,  I 
readily  admit.  So  is  the  whole  criminal  code.  So  is  the  law 
which  forbids  the  loan  of  money  at  more  than  legal  interest. 
So  is  that  bright,  hopeful  and  glorious  plan  of  salvation  for 
which  a  Saviour  died.  But  shall  we,  for  such  reasons,  aban- 
don our  efforts  to  reform,  benefit  and  save  mankind  ? 

But  the  maximum  would  have  other  important  advantages. 
It  would  put  an  end  to  discontent  among  the  people  ;  it  would 
extinguish  the  practice  of  hoarding  and  hiding.  Without  any 
hope  of  increasing  prices,  producers  would  cheerfully  furnish 
to  consumers  their  surplus.  Uniformity  of  price  and  the 
application  of  the  maximum  to  all  things  would,  I  am  per- 
suaded, inspire  general  satisfaction  and  relieve  the  necessary 
duty  of  collecting  supplies  for  the  army  of  that  irritation  which 
has  heretofore,  in  many  cases,  made  the  duty  most  unpleasant, 
and  restore  those  kind  and  agreeable  relations  which  should 
always  exist  between  the  people  and  their  government. 
Surely,  when  such  must  be  the  happy  consequence  of  this 
measure  the  States  will  speedily  adopt  it. 

As  an  auxiliary  to  the  maximum,  it  is  of  great  importance 
that  the  common  law  offences,  of  forestalling,  regrating  and 
engrossing  should  be  made  effective.  Forestalling  is  defined 
to  be  "  the  act  of  buying  provisions  before  they  are  offered 
in  market,  with  intent  to  sell  them  at  higher  prices."  Re- 
grating  is  "  the  purchasing  of  provisions  and  selling  them  in 
the  same  market."  Engrossing  is  "  the  buying  up  of  large 
quantities  of  commodities  in  order  to  raise  the  prices."  These 
acts  are  all  offences  at  the  common  law,  because  enhancing 
the  necessaries  of  life  and  thus  committing  a  public  wrong. 
These  practices  are  common  and  ought  to  be  suppressed.     If 


163 


the  legislature  would  denounce  such  acts  as  contrary  to 
public  policy,  and  by  a  summary  remedy,  punish  all  persons 
guilty  of  them,  it  would  relieve  the  people  from  the  cruel  ex- 
tortion to  which  they  are  now  compelled  to  submit,  and  many 
a  poor  family  from  suffering  and  want. 

Of  a  kindred  character  is  the  practice  of  withholding  from 
sale  other  articles  than  provisions  with  a  view  of  obtaining 
higher  prices  at  a  future  day.  The  law  should  compel  all 
persons  in  possession  of  articles  of  whatever  description  not 
needed  for  their  use  to  offer  them  for  sale.  And  to  prevent 
frauds  and  evasions,  such  persons  should  be  required  to  make 
out  inventories  of  all  such  articles,  whether  they  are  their 
own  property  or  the  property  of  others,  with  the  cost  price 
thereof,  and  to  deliver  the  same  to  a  board  of  commissioners, 
to  be  provided  by  law,  who  should  put  their  stamp  upon  each 
article,  and  restrict  the  owners  to  a  profit  not  exceeding 
twenty-five  per  cent,  thereon.  I  cannot  here  give  all  the 
details  necessary  to  perfect  this  scheme,  but  it  is  entirely 
practicable  and  would  greatly  contribute  to  the  relief  of  the 
country. 

The  auction  system,  as  now  conducted,  is  prejudicial  to 
good  morals  and  to  the  country.  I  regard  it  as  having  done 
more  to  the  prejudice  of  our  currency  than  any  other  known 
agency,  and  under  our  present  circumstances,  as  an  unmiti- 
gated evil.  Indeed,  I  regard  it  as  a  gigantic  system  of 
gambling  under  authority  of  law.  I  hope  it  will  be  speedily 
suppressed. 

At  the  special  session  of  the  general  assembly,  a  law  was 
passed  to  suppress  distillation*.  It  was  eminently  a  wise  and 
proper  measure.  To  effect  the  objects  contemplated  by  the 
act,  however,  breweries  should  be  suppressed ;  and  no  sale  of 
malt  or  alcoholic  liquors  should  be  permitted,  except,  perhaps, 
by  apothecaries,  who,  under  proper  regulations,  might  be 
allowed  to  do  so  for  strictly  medical  purposes. 

There  are  many  persons  among  us,  foreigners  by  birth,  con- 
suming our  food,  growing  rich  by  speculation  and  extortion 
upon  us,  and  yet  denying  their  obligation  to  unite  in  the  de- 
fence of  the  country.     Although  I  cannot  see  how  such  pre- 


164 

tensions  can  be  maintained,  yet,  if  valid  under  the  law  now 
existing,  the  law  should  be  changed,  and  such  persons  should 
be  compelled  to  perform  military  duty,  or,  at  any  rate,  to 
leave  the  country. 

It  is  a  matter  of  concern  to  every  patriot  to  see  so  many 
able-bodied  men  anxious  to  escape  military  service,  and,  to  do 
so,  seeking  the  safe  and  easy  employments  of  the  govern- 
ment, or  leaving  the  country  for  foreign  parts.  This  evil 
might  be,  to  a  considerable  extent,  corrected  by  a  rigid  en- 
forcement of  existing  law,  the  refusal  of  all  passports  to  leave 
the  country,  and  the  enactment  of  such  laws  by  the  State  and 
Confederate  governments  as  might  be  necessary  to  correct  it. 

I  cannot  too  earnestly  press  upon  the  public  consideration 
the  great  importance  of  organizing  the  reserved  forces  of  the 
State.  Every  element  of  strength,  whether  of  means  or  men, 
which  is  now  left  to  us,  must  be  combined  as  an  auxiliary  to 
the  armies  in  the  field.  The  Confederate  government  has 
our  entire  body  of  militia  under  its  command,  consisting  of 
the  able-bodied  men  of  the  State,  and  now  proposes  to 
organize  our  reserved  force.  I  do  not  intend,  certainly  at 
present,  to  raise  any  question  about  the  right  to  do  so,  but  I 
confess  I  should  be  much  concerned  to  see  it  exercised.  A 
sovereign  state  without  a  soldier,  and  without  the  dignity  of 
strength — stripped  of  all  her  men,  and  with  only  the  form  and 
pageantry  of  power — would,  indeed,  be  nothing  more  than  a 
wretched  dependency,  to  which  I  should  grieve  to  see  our 
proud  old  commonwealth  reduced.  Recent  events  painfully 
admonish  us,  also,  of  the  necessity  of  thorough  and  complete 
organization,  and  I  doubt  not,  the  general  assembly  will,  on 
reassembling  on  the  6th  instant,  promptly  relieve  us  of  all 
uneasiness  about  the  legislation  of  congress  by  the  passage  of 
a  short,  yet  comprehensive  act,  clothing  the  governor  with 
full  power  to  organize  the  reserved  force  of  the  State  in  such 
manner  as  may  best  promote  the  public  interests,  having  due 
regard,  of  course,  to  the  character  and  to  the  limited  objects 
to  which  it  is  to  be  applied.  A  generous  confidence  on  the 
part  of  the  general  assembly  in  the  governor,  to  whom  the 
executive  power  of  the  State  has  been  entrusted  by  the  con- 


165 

stitution  and  the  people,  is,  it  seems  to  me,  a  constitutional 
duty.  But,  apart  from  that  view  of  the  subject,  I  respectfully 
ask  it,  because  it  is  impossible  for  any  human  forethought  to 
provide,  by  legislation,  for  the  varying  circumstances  which 
may  occur  during  the  gigantic  war  in  which  we  are  engaged ; 
and  because  I  cannot  believe  that  I  can  abuse  any  trust  con- 
fided in  me,  or  fail  tenderly  to  consider  the  feelings  and 
interest  of  my  fellow-citizens  in  regard  to  the  military  duties 
which  they  may  be  called  to  perform. 

The  currency  of  the  country,  consisting  as  it  does  almost 
exclusively  of  Confederate  notes,  with  which  the  States  and 
all  the  people  thereof  are  identified,  calls  for  the  most  careful 
consideration.  It  must  be  thoroughly  reformed.  The  facility 
with  which  it  is  created,  and  the  enormous  amounts  which 
are  daily  issued,  naturally  lead  to  waste  and  extravagance, 
and  inevitably  to  vice  and  depravity.  Far  better  would  it 
have  been  had  we  adopted,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  a 
hard  money  currency.  A  judicious  system  of  loans  and  of 
taxation,  combined  with  our  great  staples  of  cotton,  tobacco 
and  naval  stores,  of  which  the  government  should  have  pos- 
sessed itself,  would  have  furnished  us  such  resources  as  would 
have  liberally  supplied  our  wants  and  planted  our  public 
credit  upon  a  basis  which  would  have  given  us  the  confidence 
of  the  world.  It  is  useless,  however,  to  speculate  as  to  the 
past.  The  practical  question  is,  what  is  best  now  to  be  done  ? 
Virginia  is  deeply  interested  in  this  question,  and,  as  her 
governor,  I  feel  it  to  be  my  duty,  although  with  hesitation 
and  diffidence,  to  express  my  views  upon  this  interesting  and 
important  question. 

First.  Provide  by  law  for  the  issue  of  one  thousand  millions 
of  dollars,  at  four  per  centum  per  annum  on  that  part  which 
takes  up  the  currency,  and  six  per  centum  on  the  residue, 
with  coupons  attached  ;  interest  payable  in  specie  or  bank 
currency. 

Second.  Declare  that  the  Confederate  note  currency  shall 
cease  to  circulate  as  such,  and  shall  be  funded  in  the  bonds 
authorized  to  be  issued. 

Third.  Make   the    banks    of  established    credit    the    fiscal 


166 

agents  of  the  government,  to  sell  at  not  less  than  par,  all 
bonds  which  may  be  in  excess  of  the  currency  to  be  funded ; 
to  issue  their  own  notes  as  a  currency,  and  to  transfer,  when 
and  where  needed,  the  funds  of  the  government. 

Fourth.  To  tax  freely ;  taxes  payable  in  specie,  or  in  the 
notes  of  banks  acting  as  government  agents,  or  coupons  of 
public  debt. 

Fifth.  Let  the  government  now  take  into  its  possession  the 
cotton,  tobacco  and  naval  stores  of  the  country  as  auxiliary 
to  loans  and  taxes. 

There  can  be  but  little  objection  to  this.  It  is  well  known 
that  a  large  portion  of  these  articles  is  in  the  hands  of  specu- 
lators, who  have  grown  rich  in  the  midst  of  general  suffering 
and  distress. 

The  scheme  would,  I  am  persuaded,  act  like  a  charm  in 
the  immediate  renovation  of  the  public  credit.  In  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  interest  the  public  will  find  satisfaction  as  an  evi- 
dence of  regard  to  the  resources  of  the  country.  Besides, 
those  who  will  own  it,  will  have  acquired  the  ability  to  do  so 
by  enormous  profits;  and,  at  most,  it  can  only  be  regarded 
as  a  special  tax  upon  the  rich,  which  has  numerous  prece- 
dents, and  which  they  can  well  afford  to  pay. 

In  this  selection  of  banks,  we  should  have  agents  of  tried 
and  approved  integrity — thoroughly  informed  as  to  the  most 
judicious  system  of  credits,  and  with  the  restoration  of  a  cur- 
rency now  at  a  heavy  premium,  and  with  which  the  people 
have  long  been  familiar,  we  should  at  once  see  a  revival  of 
confidence  that  would  gladden  the  heart  of  every  patriot  in 
the  land.  It  does  seem  to  me  that  this  scheme  would  open 
most  auspiciously  ;  and  if  sustained  by  liberal  taxation  and  a 
judicious  sale  of  our  great  staple,  would  dispel  the  clouds 
which  hang  over  and  obscure  our  financial  system  and  let  in 
a  bright  and  hopeful  future. 

In  aid  of  any  scheme  of  finance,  however,  I  regard  it  as  of 
the  first  consequence  that  blockade  running,  as  it  is  termed, 
should  be  conducted  by  the  government  alone,  or  by  indi- 
viduals and  government  combined,  and  that  nothing  should 
be   imported  except  articles  of  prime  necessity.     The  effect 


167 

would  be  to  prevent  a  large  amount  of  waste  and  extrava- 
gance at  home — to  sharpen  our  industrial  and  inventive  facul- 
ties— and  to  accumulate  a  large  amount  of  sterling  exchange 
abroad. 

No  business  should  be  tolerated  which  looks  to  fluctuations 
in  the  currency  of  the  country  and  the  stocks  of  the  govern- 
ment for  prosperity.  Its  instincts  would  naturally  seek  to 
aggravate  these  fluctuations,  while  all  its  powers  would  be 
exerted  to  appropriate  and  secure  all  the  advantages  incident 
thereto.  An.  organized  money  power,  actively  engaged  in 
unsettling  the  public  credit,  is  a  foe  greatly  to  be  dreaded, 
and  should  be  controlled  by  the  sternest  legislation.  Per- 
haps no  currency  ever  existed  which  had  so  many  agencies 
at  work  for  its  destruction  as  that  of  the  Confederate  States. 
And  the  new  scheme  of  currency  and  finance  which  will,  I 
presume,  soon  take  the  place  of  that  which  now  exists,  must 
be  strengthened  and  protected  by  timely  legislation.  As  a 
part  thereof,  let  all  buying  and  selling  of  gold  and  silver,  all 
dealing  in  State  or  Confederate  currency  or  the  currency  of 
their  respective  agencies,  all  stock-jobbing  in  State  or  Con- 
federate bonds,  all  receipts  of  Federal  currency  of  any  de- 
scription, be  prohibited,  and  let  those  violating  such  law  be 
severely  punished. 

It  is  now  time  to  hasten  these  remarks  to  an  end.  I  may 
seem  to  have  abandoned  some  of  my  old  and  cherished 
opinions.  But,  in  advocating  the  maximum — in  seeming  to 
approve  the  policy  of  limiting,  by  law,  the  price  of  money, 
and  in  proposing  to  return  to  the  agency  of  banks  for  the 
management  of  the  public  treasure,  I  renounce  no  old  and 
cherished  opinions,  and  only  yield  to  the  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances which  surround  us. 

In  the  suggestions  which  I  have  made,  I  have  looked  for 
the  best  means  of  meeting  the  peril  that  is  upon  us.  In  the 
plan  which  I  have  presented,  I  have  contemplated  a  system, 
each  measure  of  which  is  necessary  to  the  other.  It  will  be 
observed,  that  some  of  them  will  be  more  effective  by  co- 
operative legislation,  which,  on  the  part  of  Virginia,  will  never 
be  withheld. 


168 

Virginia  entered  into  this  war  with  reluctance  ;  but  having 
entered  into  it  from  a  sense  of  duty,  she  does  not  mean  to 
sheath  her  sword  until  she  has  won  her  liberty  and  indepen- 
dence, or  the  bones  of  her  last  son  shall  lie  bleaching  on  her 
hilltops.  Although  hundreds  of  thousands  of  her  people  have 
been  overrun  by  the  enemy,  their  fields  desolated,  their 
homes  utterly  consumed,  in  many  cases,  by  fire  ;  their  stock 
devoured,  destroyed  or  carried  away ;  their  slaves  enticed 
away  from  their  possession,  while  the  blood  of  their  loved 
ones  moisten  every  battle-field ;  yet,  they  are  unconquered ; 
bright,  bold  and  defiant,  they  are  still  prepared  to  suffer.  We 
cannot  believe  that  our  good  God  will  allow  such  a  just  cause 
as  ours  to  be  lost.  Much  as  we  have  done,  much  remains  to 
be  done.  Let  us  resolve  to  make  every  sacrifice  in  a  cheerful 
and  hopeful  spirit — in  short,  perform  our  whole  duty,  and 
then,  with  the  blessings  of  Heaven,  we  cannot  be  subdued. 

William  Smith. 
January  ist,  1864. 


DOC.  No.  VII. 

Governor's  Response 

TO 

Resolution  of  the  General  Assembly, 

RELATIVE    TO 

EXEMPTING  STATE  OFFICERS  FROM  MILITARY   SERVICE, 


[COMMUNICATION] 

State  of  Virginia,  Executive  Department,  j 
Richmond,  January  ioth,  1865.  j 

To  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  : 

Gentlemen — Your  resolution,  adopted  December  15,  1864,  was  duly  placed  in 
my  hands.  Constant  occupation,  combined  with  the  impression  that  great  prompt- 
ness was  not  necessary,  have  induced  me  to  delay  my  reply  to  the  present  hour.  I, 
however,  now  respectfully  submit  it. 

In  the  resolution,  I  am  asked  whether  I  have  "apprised  the  proper  Confederate 
authorities  that  the  State  of  Virginia,  by  her  resolution  of  the  ioth  of  March,  1864, 
claims  and  requires  the  exclusive  service  of  certain  officers  enumerated  therein,  and 
their  immunity  from  all  military  service  to  the  Confederate  government  by  virtue  of 
any  law  thereof,  as  indispensable  to  the  public  functions  with  which  they  are 
charged,  and  to  the  proper  maintenance  of  the  dignity,  integrity  and  efficiency  of 
the  government  of  this  State,  and  if  so,  what  response  has  been  made  by  those 
authorities;  and  if  he  has  failed  so  to  do,  he  is  respectfully  requested  to  communi- 
cate to  the  general  assembly  his  reasons  for  such  failure." 

In  reply,  I  respectfully  state  that  I  did  not  formally  communicate  to  the  Con- 
federate authorities  the  resolution  in  question,  although  I  frequently  conversed  with 
the  secretary  of  war  and  the  conscript  bureau  upon  the  matter  contained  in  them.  Of 
course,  they  were  well  known  to  those  authorities;  and  they  were  even  used  by 
them  to  obstruct  what  I  deemed  proper  exemptions,  they  insisting  in  cases  that  I 
deemed  necessary  for  exemption,  which  were  not  included  in  the  specifications  of 
the  resolutions,  that  the  legislature  had  not  asked  for  them.  The  only  approximate 
reply  to  my  notification  of  said  resolutions  is  to  be  found  in  the  nth  section  of  Circu- 
lar No.  8,  March  18,  1864,  which  is  in  the  following  words:  "XI.  "Besides  the  officers 
of  the  Confederate  and  State  governments  particularly  named  in  the  act  of  congress, 
the  officers  of  the  government  of  the  Confederate  States  whose  nominations  have 
been  made  by  the  President  and  confirmed  by  the  senate,  or  who  have  been  ap- 
pointed by  the  judges  of  the  district  courts,  under  the  authority  confided  by  an  act 
of  congress,  will  be  exempted  from  military  service  until  further  orders;  also,  the 
judges  or  justices  of  any  supreme,  superior  or  circuit  court  of  any  state;  also,  the 
judges  of  probate,  clerk  of  any  court  of  record,  ordinary,  sheriff,  one  tax  collector  in 
each  county,  and  recorder  of  deeds  and  wills,  if  there  be  such  an  officer  existing  by 
law,  and  such  other  officers  of  the  State  provided  by  law  as  the  governor  may  certify 


170 

to  be  necessary  to  the  proper  administration  of  the  State  government;  "  and  in  the 
following  extract  from  a  communication  received  from  the  bureau  of  conscription, 
under  date  27th  September,  1864:  "  No  other  orders  have  been  issued  upon  the  sub- 
ject, but  applications  have  been  repeatedly  refused  for  the  want  of  your  certificate, 
and  returned  to  the  parties  to  enable  them  to  procure  it  as  required  by  the  act  of 
congress." 

The  paragraph  from  the  act  of  congress  referred  to,  approved  February  17,  1864, 
providing  for  exception,  reads  as  follows:  "The  vice-president  of  the  Confederate 
States,  the  members  and  officers  of  congress  and  the  several  State  legislatures,  and 
such  other  Confederate  and  State  officers  as  the  President  or  the  governors  of  the 
respective  States  may  certify  to  be  necessary  for  the  proper  administration  of  the 
Confederate  or  State  governments,  as  the  case  may  be." 

The  language  of  the  third  resolution  referred  to  reads  as  follows:  "That  the 
governor  be  and  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed,  in  such  mode  as  he  may  deem  best, 
to  apprise  the  proper  Confederate  authorities  that  the  State  of  Virginia  claims  and 
requires  the  exclusive  use  of  the  above  enumerated  officers  and  their  immunity  from 
all  military  service  of  the  Confederate  government  by  virtue  of  any  law  thereof." 

In  this  resolution,  as  well  as  others  in  the  series,  the  legislature  claims  to  speak 
for  the  State,  and  restricts  the  governor  to  certain  enumerated  officers,  and  in  certain 
general  terms,  undertaking  to  grant  him  power  "to  see  that  the  laws  are  faithfully 
executed."  The  concluding  resolution  reads:  "That  the  governor  be  further  em- 
powered and  directed  to  certify  as  to  such  other  officers  as  he  may  deem  necessary  for 
the  proper  administration  of  the  government,"  and  after  referring  to  a  number  of 
the  employments  of  the  State,  winds  up  with  directions  that  the  governor  shall 
'■'^request  their  exemption,  so  long  as  they  may  be  rendering  such  services,  from  the 
military  service  of  the  Confederate  States."  It  will  be  observed  that  the  legislature 
does  not  claim  any  of  the  officers  or  employees  referred  to  in  this  resolution  for 
"exclusive  service"  in  the  State  government,  but  leaves  the  governor  to  request  of 
the  Confederate  government  such  as  he  may  deem  necessary.  It  is  obvious  that  the 
governor's  action  is  to  have  the  whole  weight  of  the  legislature  against  it,  and  that 
his  request  would  have  but  a  poor  chance  with  the  Confederate  authorities.  Of 
course,  I  could  not  become  a  party  to  this  action  of  the  assembly  by  formally  com- 
municating it,  as  the  effect  would  inevitably  have  been  to  deprive  me  of  the  ability 
to  see  the  law  executed  according  to  the  injunctions  of  the  Constitution.  I  must 
repeat,  in  substance,  that  it  is  manifest  that  the  general  assembly,  in  the  various 
enumerations  of  officers  which  they  claim,  throw  their  whole  weight  against  such  as 
I  might  claim.  Why  are  the  deputies  of  sheriffs  and  of  clerks — why  constables  and 
surveyors  and  others  omitted?  Simply  because  they  were  not  deemed  by  the 
general  assembly  as  entitled  to  "immunity  from  all  military  service." 

And  as  the  government  could  not  be  carried  on  with  such  officers  as  were 
claimed  by  the  general  assembly,  I  was  constrained  to  take  the  ground  that  the 
resolutions  in  question  were  merely  the  opinions  of  the  general  assembly,  entitled  to 
every  respect,  but  furnishing  no  controlling  rule  for  the  government  of  the  execu- 
tive, and  that  his  constitutional  rights  could  in  no  wise  be  affected  thereby.  It  was 
months  before  this  view  was  recognized  by  the  Confederate  government,  and  it 
would  not  have  been  yielded,  I  presume,  but  for  the  act  of  congress  which  required 
the  authorities  of  the  government  to  respect  the  certificate  of  the  governor  of  a  state. 
Nor  could  the  governor  of  Virginia  "request"  of  the  Confederate  government  an 
officer  or  employee  deemed  necessary  to  the  State  government,  when  the  State  had 
an  inherent  right  to  him,  which  was  fully  recognized  by  the  Confederate  govern- 
ment. Our  State  will  have  fallen  low  indeed  when  she  has  to  stoop  to  "request"  of 
one  of  her  own  citizens  who  is  necessary  to  the  administration  directly  or  indirectly, 
of  her  government. 

But  there  are  other  objections  to  the  resolutions  which  would  not  allow  me  to 


171 

give  them  my  assent,  even  by  implication,  and  which  I  will  proceed  to  notice,  I  beg 
to  assure  you,  with  the  most  sincere  respect. 

The  second  article  of  our  State  constitution  is  as  follows: 

"The  legislative,  executive  and  judiciary  departments  shall  be  separate  and 
distinct,  so  that  neither  exercise  the  power  properly  belonging  to  either  of  the  others; 
nor  shall  any  person  exercise  the  power  of  more  than  one  of  them  at  the  same  time, 
except  that  justices  of  the  peace  shall  be  eligible  to  either  house  of  the  assembly." 

All  writers  upon  popular  government  agree  that  public  liberty  depends  upon 
keeping  these  departments  separate  and  distinct  and  strictly  within  their  respective 
limits.  No  commingling  of  them  is  allowable,  except  when  specified  in  the  consti- 
tution; any  other  is  a  violation  thereof,  subverts  a  fundamental  principle  of  our 
organic  law,  and  marches  us  on  directly  to  that  concentration  of  all  power  in  a  single 
head,  whether  of  one  or  many  makes  no  difference,  which  all  agree  is  the  essence  of 
tyranny.  The  legislature  makes  the  law,  the  governor  executes  it,  and  the  judges 
expound  it.  Neither  can  exercise  a  power  outside  of  its  appropriate  function,  except 
by  express  constitutional  grant. 

These  departments  derive  their  power,  not  from  each  other,  but  from  the 
sovereign  people,  whose  will  is  expressed  in  our  Constitution.  Those  filling  them 
are  equally  the  representatives  of  the  people,  being  elected  by  them;  and  the  idea 
which  prevails  to  some  extent  that  either  more  immediately  reflects  the  popular  will 
than  another,  is  without  foundation  in  fact.  All  are  presumed  to  be  equally  honest, 
capable  and  faithful  in  the  performance  of  their  respective  functions,  and  all  have  to 
take  the  same  oath  of  office,  of  fidelity  to  its  trusts  and  to  the  Constitution.  I  will 
give  the  oath:  "I  declare  myself  a  citizen  of  the  commonwealth  of  Virginia,  and 
solemnly  swear  that  I  will  be  faithful  and  true  to  the  said  commonwealth  and  will 
support  the  Constitution  thereof  so  long  as  I  continue  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  same.  So 
help  me  God."  I  could  not,  therefore,  so  far  compromise  the  rights  and  dig?iity  of 
the  commonwealth  as  to  "request"  those  State  officers  and  State  employees  whom  I 
might  deem  necessary  to  the  administration  of  the  Stale  government,  inasmuch  as  I 
had  a  clear,  undoubted,  and  fully  recognized  right  to  them. 

I  could  not  fail  to  see,  gentlemen,  that  you  assume  in  your  resolutions  that  the 
whole  power  of  exemption  is  yours.  Pardon  me,  but  I  respectfully  submit  that  this 
is  a  grave  mistake.  An  exempt  is  one  who  is  "free  from  any  service  to  which 
others  are  subject;  "  for  instance,  "to  be  exempt  from  military  duty."  To  give  a 
man  or  men,  an  individual  or  a  class,  an  exemption,  is  to  confer  upon  him  or  them  a 
privilege  which  is  expressly  forbidden  by  the  4th  article  of  our  bill  of  rights.  The 
power  which  exempts  a  class  may  exempt  all  classes,  and  thus  the  most  fearful  mis- 
chief may  ensue  from  the  action  of  a  single  department  of  the  state  government.  Of 
course,  such  a  doctrine  cannot  be  maintained;  and  yet  it  is  the  legitimate  sequence 
of  the  power  assumed.  I  quoted  in  my  late  message  from  the  decision  of  our  court 
of  appeals  in  the  case  of  Burroughs  vs.  Peyton,  etc.,*  the  doctrine  and  language  of 
which  is  so  opposite  that  I  trust  I  shall  be  excused  for  reproducing  it  on  the  present 
occasion.  Says  the  court:  "The  obligation  of  the  citizen  to  render  military  service 
is  a  paramount  social  and  political  duty.  It  is  a  matter  in  which  the  whole  body 
politic  is  interested.  The  citizens  have  a  right,  collectively  and  individually,  to  the 
service  of  each  other  to  avert  any  danger  which  may  be  menaced.  The  manner  in 
which  the  service  is  to  be  apportioned  among  them,  is  a  matter  for  legislation.  The 
government,  as  the  agent  and  trustee  of  the  people,  is  charged  with  the  whole  mili- 
tary strength  of  the  nation,  in  order  that  it  may  be  employed  so  as  to  ensure  the 
safety  of  all.  The  power  which  it  has  to  enforce  the  performance  of  the  obligation 
to  render  military  service,  is  given  that  it  may  be  used,  not  abdicated.  No  right  has 
been  conferred  on  the  government  to  divest  itself,  by  contract  or  otherwise,  of  the 
power  of  employing  whenever  and  as  the  exigencies  of  the  country  may  demand, 
the  whole  military  strength  that  has  been  placed  at  its  disposal.     As  the  nature  and 

*  XVI.  Vol.  Gratian's  Report— p.  470.     Opinion  of  the  whole  Court,  delivered  by  Judge  Robertson. 


172 

extent  of  those  exigencies  cannot  be  foreseen,  and  it  is  impossible  to  say  in  advance 
that  the  services  of  every  citizen  capable  of  bearing  arms  may  not  become  indis- 
pensable for  the  defence  of  the  country,  the  government  has  no  right  to  enter  into 
any  contract  precluding  it  from  requiring  those  services  if  they  should  be  needed. 
If  there  be  such  right,  the  spectacle  might  be  presented  of  a  nation  subjugated  and 
destroyed  at  a  time  when  it  had  within  its  limits  citizens  amply  sufficient  to  defend 
it  successfully  against  all  assaults  of  its  enemies,  but  whose  services  could  not  be 
commanded  because,  forsooth,  the  government  had  contracted  with  them  that  they 
should  not  be  required  to  serve  in  the  army."  Again:  "The  power  of  coercing  the 
citizen  to  render  military  service  for  such  time  and  under  such  circumstances  as  the 
government  may  think  tit,  is  a  transcendent  power;  but  so  far  from  being  inconsis- 
tent with  liberty,  is  essential  to  its  preservation.  A  nation  cannot  foresee  the  extent 
of  the  danger  to  which  it  may  be  exposed.  It  must  therefore  grant  to  its  government 
a  power  equal  to  every  possible  emergency;  and  this  can  only  be  done  by  giving  to 
it  the  control  of  its  whole  military  strength.  The  danger  that  the  power  may  be 
abused  cannot  render  it  proper  to  withhold  it,  for  it  is  necessary  to  the  national  life." 
The  supreme  court  of  Georgia,  in  a  very  able  opinion,  full  of  authorities,  maintains 
the  same  doctrine;  and  it  is  believed  that  such  is  the  doctrine  of  every  State  in  the 
Confederacy. 

In  our  Code,  page  135,  under  the  title  of  "What  persons  are  liable  to  and  what 
exempt  from  military  duty,"  the  first  section  will  be  found  to  read  as  follows: 
"Every  able-bodied  male  citizen  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five,  resi- 
dent within  the  State,  and  not  exempt  from  service  by  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
or  of  this  State,  shall  be  subject  to  military  duty."  Under  this  law,  all  persons  out- 
side of  the  specified  age  are  exempt.  But  under  the  doctrine  which  rules  this  ques- 
tion, what  becomes  of  this  exemption  ?  Already  the  conscript  law  of  the  Confederate 
government  has  overridden  it  and  included  all  persons  between  seventeen  and  fifty, 
except  those  specified  in  the  act  itself,  or  such  as  are  necessary  to  the  State  govern- 
ment, the  evidence  of  which  necessity  is  to  be  found  in  the  governor's  certificate.  The 
fact  is,  the  word  "exception,"  in  connection  with  this  question,  has  no  legal  or  consti- 
tutional significance.  There  is  no  such  word  in  the  Constitution,  nor  is  the  idea  con- 
templated therein.  All  persons  are  bound  to  perform  all  the  duties  imposed  upon  them 
by  the  law  and  the  Constitution.  Exemptions  therefrom  are  in  derogation  of  the  com- 
mon right  of  one  citizen  to  the  service  of  another.  A  citizen  to  whom  one  duty  is 
assigned  may  or  may  not  be  required  to  perform  another.  If  the  interests  of  the 
community  make  it  necessary  to  call  upon  a  citizen  who  has  one  duty  to  perform  to 
perform  another,  why  should  he  not  do  it  if  he  can  ?  If  relieved  from  the  duty  when 
he  can  perform  it,  he  is  then  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  privilege  which,  as  I  have  shown, 
is  prohibited  by  the  bill  of  rights.  Hence  I  conclude  that  proper  exemptions  are  not 
derived  from  the  Constitution  or  the  laws  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  but  are  to  be 
traced  up  to  that  inherent  right  of  self-preservation  which  gives  to  the  proper  State 
authorities  the  right  of  all  officers  and  employees  requisite  to  the  proper  administra- 
tion of  the  State  government.  And  what  objection  can  there  be  to  this  doctrine  ? 
If  one  government  claims  and  the  other  concedes  this  doctrine,  where  is  the  diffi- 
culty? and  where  the  objection  ? 

It  is  the  duty,  undoubtedly,  of  the  general  assembly  to  pass  all  laws  and  to  pro- 
vide all  officers  necessary  to  maintain  the  State  government.  The  constitution  gives 
the  amplest  power  for  that  purpose.  Indeed,  the  legislature  has  the  power,  it  may 
be,  to  exercise  all  the  powers  not  conferred  upon  the  other  departments,  or  not  with- 
held by  express  stipulation  in  the  Constitution.  The  second  article  furnishes  a  broad 
and  general  restriction.  Besides  that,  there  are  many  special  restrictions  and  commands 
in  the  Constitution  for  the  government  of  the  legislature.  It  has  certain  specified 
executive  powers.  Surely,  it  requires  no  logic  to  demonstrate  that  a  grant  of  power 
is  a  denial  of  power  not  granted.  The  nth  section  of  the  5th  article  of  the  Constitu- 
tion says:       "A  secretary   of  the  commonwealth,    treasurer   and   auditor  of  public 


173 

accounts  shall  be  elected  by  the  joint  vote  of  the  two  houses  of  the  general  assem- 
bly." Where  is  the  authority  to  elect  a  register,  a  second  auditor  and  a  superinten- 
dent of  the  penitentiary  ?  Clearly,  the  exercise  of  it  is  an  executive  power,  and 
clearly  that  is  forbidden  to  the  legislature,  except  in  the  cases  specified. 

But  the  spirit  of  encroachment  on  the  part  of  the  legislature  has  always  existed. 
It  has  excited  the  liveliest  interest  with  the  patriot  and  the  sage,  and  various  measures 
have  been  devised  to  restrain  it.  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  Notes  on  Virginia,  says:  "  All 
the  powers,  legislative,  executive  and  judiciary,  result  to  the  legislative  body.  The 
concentration  of  these,  in  the  same  hands,  is  precisely  the  definition  of  despotic 
government."  In  the  47th  number  of  the  Federalist,  Mr.  Madison  says:  "The 
accumulation  of  all  powers,  legislative,  executive  and  judiciary,  in  the  same  hands, 
whether  of  one,  a  few  or  many,  and  whether  hereditary,  self-appointed  or  elective, 
may  justly  be  pronounced  the  very  essence  of  tyranny."  Mr.  Hamilton,  in  the  51st 
number  of  the  Federalist,  says:  "  In  order  to  lay  a  due  foundation  for  that  separate 
and  distinct  exercise  of  the  powers  of  government  which,  to  a  certain  extent,  is 
admitted  to  be  essential  to  the  preservation  of  liberty,  it  is  evident  that  each  depart- 
ment should  have  a  will  of its  own. 

By  our  first  State  Constitution,  the  executive  was  a  mere  dependent  of  the  legis- 
lature. Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  Notes  on  Virginia,  says:  "They  (meaning  the  legisla- 
ture) have  accordingly  in  many  instances  decided  rights  which  should  have  been 
left  to  judiciary  controversy;  and  the  direction  of  the  executive,  during  the  whole  term  of 
their  session,  is  becoming  habitual  and  familiar."  Mr.  Doddridge,  in  the  convention  of 
1829,  in  summing  up  this  subject,  says:  "From  this  view,  it  is  manifest  that  the 
governor  of  this  commonwealth  is  a  mere  creature  of  the  general  assembly."  Mr. 
Monroe  said  also,  that  "the  danger  is  in  the  legislature;"  that  "the  success  of 
our  system  of  government  depends  upon  its  organization,  on  the  distribution  of 
power  between  the  different  branches,  and  on  keeping  each  branch  independent  of 
the  others."  But  why  multiply  quotations  from  our  best  and  wisest  statesmen  ?  All 
will  agree  that  our  system  of  government  requires  that  each  department  should  be 
kept  separate  and  distinct  from  the  others,  and  in  the  expressive  language  of  Mr. 
Hamilton,  "should  have  a  will  of  its  own."  To  give  this  "will"  to  the  governor, 
it  is  provided  by  the  Constitution  that  he  shall  be  elected  by  the  people,  that  he  shall 
have  a  salary  of  five  thousand  dollars  for  each  year  of  his  service,  and  that  he  shall 
not  be  elected  for  two  successive  terms.  Anyone  who  will  read  the  debates  of  the 
conventions  of  1829  and  1850,  will  at  once  see  that  the  great  object  of  these  organic 
changes  was  to  give  the  executive  "a  will  of  its  o7vn." 

Mr.  Hamilton  has  well  remarked:  "But  the  great  security  against  a  gradual 
concentration  of  the  powers  in  the  same  department  consists  in  giving  to  those  who 
administer  each  department  the  necessary  constitutional  means,  and  personal 
motives,  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  the  others.  The  provisions  for  defence  must, 
in  this,  as  in  all  other  cases,  be  made  commensurate  with  the  danger  of  attack." 
Now,  the  governor  has  all  that  is  necessary  to  make  him  independent,  but  he  is 
without  the  means  to  protect  his  department  from  encroachment  by  the  others.  He 
may  refuse  to  execute  an  unconstitutional  act  or  judgment,  as  it  would  be  his  duty 
to  do,  but  he  has  to  rely  mainly  upon  the  forbearance  of  the  co-ordinate  departments 
for  his  protection  from  encroachment. 

You  are  pleased  to  say,  gentlemen,  in  your  concluding  resolution,  "that  the 
governor  be  further  empowered  and  directed  to  certify  to  such  other  officers  as  he  may 
deem  necessary  for  the  proper  administration  of  the  government."  From  this  I 
infer  that  you  propose  to  confer  upon  the  governor  a  power  which  he  did  not  other- 
wise possess.  As  the  constitution  has  undertaken  to  distribute  the  powers  of  the 
government  among  the  different  departments,  it  is  plain  that  one  department  can- 
not confer  power  upon  another.  The  legislature  may  increase  the  duties  of  the 
executive,  but  cannot  increase  his  powers.  The  legislature  may  pass  laws,  but  the 
Constitution  confers  upon  the  governor  the'power  to  execute  them — indeed,  requires 


174 

him  to  do  so.  The  5th  section  of  the  5th  article  says:  "  He  shall  take  care  that  the 
laws  be  faithfully  executed."  He  is  clothed  with  the  power  to  embody  the  militia  to 
enforce  the  execution  of  the  laws.  This  broad  and  distinct  power  carries  with  it  the 
right  to  select  and  appoint  all  the  officers  and  employees  necessary  to  its  exercise. 
There  is  no  principle  better  settled  than  that  an  unqualified  grant  of  power  gives  the 
means  necessary  to  carry  it  into  effect.  In  the  language  of  the  supreme  court  of 
Georgia,  "  this  is  a  universal  maxim,  which  admits  of  no  exception."  And  thus  the 
grant  of  power  which  you  have  proposed  to  make  already  belongs  to  the  executive. 
I  am  sure  there  can  be  no  difference  between  us  upon  this  question. 

I  have  already  said  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  legislature  to  pass  the  necessary 
laws  to  execute  the  purposes  contemplated  by  the  Constitution,  and  to  provide  the 
executive  with  the  necessary  officers  and  employees  to  execute  them;  because  there- 
by no  questions  could  arise  with  the  legislature  as  to  the  necessity  of  officers  or  their 
compensation.  But  should  the  legislature  at  any  time  pass  a  law  without  providing 
the  necessary  officers  for  its  execution  and  fixing  the  compensation,  the  governor's 
right  to  appoint  such  officers  can  admit  of  no  question.  Without  the  right  to  do  so, 
the  requirement  to  see  the  law  executed  would  be  unobserved,  and  a  clear  and  im- 
perative command  be  disobeyed. 

You  are  pleased,  also,  in  the  resolution,  to  direct  me  to  certify,  etc.  I  respectfully 
submit  that  this  is  not  the  language  of  official  courtesy,  which  should  be  observed  in 
the  intercourse  betwen  co-ordinate  departments,  It  is  language  proper  to  be 
addressed  to  a  subordinate,  not  an  equal.  It  is  the  language  of  the  Constitution,  the 
common  source  of  our  several  powers,  which  prescribes  and  commands  at  pleasure. 

I  have  thus,  gentlemen,  stated  the  qualified  mode  adopted  in  communicating 
your  resolutions  to  the  Confederate  authorities,  and  have  explained  to  you  the  objec- 
tions which  prevented  my  adopting  them,  which  I  should  have  done  by  officially 
communicating  them.  I  beg  to  assure  you  that  the  grounds  I  have  taken  have  been 
assumed  with  hesitation;  but  having  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution,  and  really 
believing  that  your  resolutions  contain  doctrines  inconsistent  with  the  constitutional 
rights  which  I  represent,  with  that  system  of  government  which  we  have  established, 
the  preservation  of  which  is  essential  to  public  liberty,  and  which  we  are  all  anxious 
to  maintain,  I  have  felt  myself  constrained  to  present  these  views  for  your  con- 
sideration.    I  have  the  honor  to  be,  gentlemen, 

With  high  consideration, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

William  Smith. 

Specimens  of  the  Prices  of  Supplies  Purchased  by  Gov- 
ernor Smith's  Quartermaster,  at  Richmond,  for  the 
State  of  Virginia,  in   1864. 

The  following  account  (on  next  page)  of  State  Quartermas- 
ter and  Agent  of  Gov.  Smith,  while  Governor  during  the  last 
year  and  a  quarter  of  his  administration  at  Richmond,  Va.,  are 
here  inserted  only  as  matters  of  curiosity  in  the  extraordinary 
prices  for  provisions  and  supplies  obtained  by  him  at  that 
time,  for  the  use  of  citizens  of  Richmond  and  others,  as  well 
as  to  show  the  energy  and  great  executive  ability  of  the  Gov- 
ernor in  so  doing. 

They  are  copies  of  the  original  vouchers,  and  there  can  be 
no  question  of  their  truth  and  accuracy.  These  are  but  speci- 
mens : 


175 


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176 

J.  &  F."  Garret  &  Co.,  Dr.  to  Governor  W.  Smith. 
1864. 

April  14.    To  3  sides  upper  leather  19J  lbs.  $30  00 $592  50 

73  lbs.     32  50 2,372  50 

327  lbs.    3300 10,79100 

27^  lbs.               907  50 

Russet  leather  176  lbs.  29  00 5,104  00 

3400 4,21600 

36  5° x3>705  5° 

45  25 7.194  75 

3i  5° 


10 

"        "            " 

48 

11        t i            11 

27 

II             II                  a 

"    Russet  leather 

124 

"  sole  leather 

375* 

it         11             11 

*59 

"     upper  leather 

3 

wood  boxes 

$44,915  25 

CR. 

"     By  10  per  cent,  commission  $4i49i  52 

"         Drayage  from  depot  25  00 

"         Drayage  to  depot  3  boxes  10  00 $4>526  52 

$40,388  73 
1864. 

June  14.     Amount  of  corn  on  hand 2i5°5  Bushels  io'pounds 

"     20.     To  balance  sold  as  follows:         Bush.      Lbs. 

Ordinance  Department 5         12J 

First  Regiment 2  45 

Nineteenth  Regiment 59         30 

Miscellaneous 1019  1,08637^         " 

Balance  on  hand i)4i8  bushels  22^  pounds 

E.  H.  Fitzhugh's  Account,  Quartermaster-General. 
1864.                         In  Account  with  Governor  Wm.  Smith,  Dr. 
June  20.     To  250  bushels,  sold  at  $10  per  bushel $2,500  00 

"  To  836        "        37   pounds  sold,  at  $15  per  bushel 12>55r  25 

Total  sold $15,051  25 

CR. 
By  cash  paid  Governor $8,560  00 


Balance  on  hand $6,491  25 

Edward  H.  Fitzhugh,  Major  and  Quartermaster. 

Quartermaster  GeneraPs  Office: 
1864.  To  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  Dr. 

June  13.     To  654  bushels  meal,  etc $8,560  00 

July  3.       To  1,352       "     27$  lbs.  meal 20,28825 

"    3.         "  1,698^  lbs.  flour 2,03820 

$30,886  45 
1864.                                                                 CR. 
June  13.     By  cash $8,560  00 

Balance  due  Governor $22,326  45 

Amount  of  meal,  according  to  Miller  2,435  bushels. 

Issued 654        ' ' 

"         1,352        "        27$  lbs.   ...       2,00627$ 

Bushels  428  32J  lbs 
July  4,  1864. 

Edward  H.  Fitzhugh,  Major  and  Quartermaster,  Virginia. 


177 

Cash. 
The  Quartermaster  General's  Office  of  Virginia,  Dr. 
1864.  In  account  with  William  Smith,  Governor  of  Virginia. 

June  25.     To  amount  of  meal,  etc.,  sold  to  date  inclusive  of  Saturday  ) 

25,  June  1864,  viz.,  250  bushels  at  $10.  . .  .     $2,500  00  V     $21,900  25 
1,293       "  17J  lbs.  at  $15.    19,40025) 

CR. 
By  cash  to  Governor 8,560  00 


Saturday  June  25,  1864.     Balance  due  Governor $13,340  25 

Meal  account.  bush.    lbs. 

Amount  of  corn  delivered  Warwick  &  Barksdale 2>5°5     10 

CR. 
By  amount  sold I>543     ^l\ 

Quantity  now  on  hand 961     42^ 

Saturday,  June  25,  1864. 

Edward  H.  Fitzhugh,  Major  and  Quartermaster,  Virginia. 

Cash  paid  Lamar  for  449  Tierce's  Rice $90,991  89 

Express  Charges  and  Expenses $225  00  j 

Freight  paid  by  Major  Ficklin 283  80  i 

"         "       N.  E.  R.  R.  Co.,  on  150  Tierce's $8,27446 

"         "       C.  &  S.  R.  R.  Co.,  on   13  cars 2>5°9  00 

"         "       N.  E.  R.  R.  Co.,  on    299   Tierce's 11,36520 

"       C.  &  S.  R.  R.  Co.,  4,65300 

"         "       Lighterage  over  C.  F.  River 598  00       $27,459  66 


Total  by  Ficklin $1 18,960  35 

Freight   paid   by  Spotts  &  Harvey,  Wilmington  to  Richmond 

150   Tierce's     $6,398  57 

Wilmington  to  Richmond 300         "  14,752  35 

Drayage  etc.,  Petersburg 150         "  I>155  °° 

"  "     Richmond 150         "  32000 

"  "  "         300         "  44100  $23,06692 

Total  cost  450  Tierces  of  Rice $142,027  27 

CR. 

By  receipts  on  sales  per   Spotts  &  Harvey $130,506  00 

Net  loss 11,521  27 

The  Governor  of  Virginia  in  Account  With  State  of  Virginia,  Dr. 

To  Military  Contingent  Fund $40,000  00 

"  Civil                 "                "     25,000  00 

"  Cash  on  sale  of  paper  imported  for  State 4,000  00 

"  Cash  loaned  by  self  to  State 1,070  00 


$70,070  00 
By  costs  returned  to  self 1,070  00 


Amount  of  funds  from  State  to  be  accounted   for $69,000  00 

CR. 

By  divers  sundries  paid  for  State  on  account  of  Civil  Contingent  fund  etc.       38,926  65 


January  19,  1865,  yet  to  be  accounted  for $30,073  35 


178 

Estimated  Results. 

Cash  in  hands  of  Quartermaster $  "8,395  74 

Due  by  B.  T.  Ficklin 5I>°39  45 

"       "  Spotts  &  Harvey  per  account 42,439  08 

$211,874  27 
Due  by  Spotts  &  Harvey  450  empty  rice  tierces.     100  tierces  yet  to  arrive. 

Sundry  goods,  viz.,  say  13  rolls  leather;  4  boxes  of  window  glass,  at  Wilmington. 

90  to   100  bales  of  cotton  abroad  against  which  there  has  been  drawn  say  about 

$4,000. 

S.  DeRosset  &  Brown. 

State  of  "  Virginia  "  per  J.  D.  Harvey,  Esq.,  62  Bbls.  Flour  @  $175 $10,850  00 

Drayage 32  50 

$10,882  50 
Wilmington,  June  17,  1864.  Received  payment, 

DeRosset  &  Brown. 

per  J.  Deans. 

Governor  Smith  Asking  that  a  Train  of  Cars,  etc.,  from  York  River  R.  R.  be 
placed  at  Disposal  of  State  Authorities. 

Executive  Department  of  Virginia,  1 
Richmond,  June  8,   1864.  J 

Alexander  Dudley,  Esq?,  President  of  the  York  River  R.  R,  Co.,  Richmond  Virginia: 

Sir: — You  are  doubtless  aware  that  the  enemy  in  their  inroads  into  various  por- 
tions of  the  State,  has  devastated  the  country  and  systematically  destroyed  provisions 
and  supplies  of  every  kind. 

This  inhuman  mode  of  warfare  has  reduced  the  people  in  some  sections  of  the 
State  to  absolute  want.  They  are  deprived  of  all  means  of  subsistence  and  the 
authorities  of  the  State  must  adopt  some  plan  for  their  relief  or  they  will  starve. 

Corn  can  only  be  obtained  at  the  South — and  in  reflecting  upon  the  means  of 
transportation,  which  will  least  interfere  with  the  government  in  bringing  supplils 
for  our  armies  to  this  point,  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  a  train  from  your  road  will 
cause  as  little  embarrassment  as  one  taken  from  any  other  road  in  the  State. 

The  object  of  this  communication  is  therefore  to  request  that  you  will  place  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Slate  authorities  a  train  of  cars  from  your  road,  complete  in  all  its 
equipments  and  with  the  necessary  officers  and  men  to  run  it,  for  the  purpose  of 
transporting  corn  and  other  supplies  from  the  South  to  Virginia. 

The  appeal  in  behalf  of  aged  men  and  of  helpless  women  and  children  in  want 
of  the  absolute  necessaries  of  life,  is  one  I  cannot  listen  to  unmoved.  Their  wants 
must  be  supplied  and  supplied  quickly.  The  urgency  of  the  case  admits  neither  of 
denial  nor  of  delay.  As  the  State  is  a  large  stockholder  in  your  road  this  call  is  for 
what,  in  a  great  measure,  is  her  own.  And  as  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  State,  I,  in 
her  name,  feel  warranted  in  demanding  that  the  train  of  cars  be  immediately  put  at 
the  disposal  of  the  State  authorities. 

I  shall  be  [gratified  to  hear  from  you  on  this  subject  at  the  earliest  possible  mo- 
ment. I  am,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

Wm.  Smith. 

Richmond,  June  9,  1864. 
Any  diversion  of  the  rolling  stock  of  the  York  River  Railroad  from  its  present 
business  would  be  a  serious  interference  to  the  supplies  of  the  army,  and  while  ap- 
preciating the  urgency  of  Governor  Smith's  appeal,  yet,  I  cannot  consent  to  jeopord- 
ize  the  constant  and  regular  supply  of  food,  already  too  meagre  for  the  safety  of  the 
army.  I  must  therefore  respectfully  decline  to  let  any  of  the  trains  of  the  Y.  R.  R.  R. 
g°-  F.  W.  Swiss,  Lieutenant-Colonel  and  Quartermaster. 

Respectfully  returned  to  his  Excellency  Governor  Smith.  The  train  of  cars  re- 
ferred to  will  be  released  from  further  service  in  this  department.  I  trust  this  train 
will  be  able  to  supply  the  private  wants  in  Virginia,  which  are  now  very  pressing,  so 
that  this  department  can  exert  all  its  energies  to  the  supply  of  our  armies. 

June  11,  1864.  A.  R.  Lawton,  Quartermaster-General. 


179 


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ANNUAL  MESSAGE  OF  GOV.  SMITH, 

to  the  legislature  of  virginia,  december  jill,   1864. 

Executive  Department,  ) 

Richmond,  Va.,  December  7th,  1864.  j 

Gentlemen  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Delegates  : 

I  am  gratified  that  you  have  again  met  in  general  assembly, 
to  take  into  consideration  the  condition  of  our  afflicted  com- 
monwealth. At  the  period  of  your  last  adjournment  our 
enemy  was  engaged  in  vast  preparations  for  the  capture  and 
occupation  of  this  proud  city.  Having  completed  his  prepa- 
rations, by  the  organization  of  one  of  the  most  formidable 
armies  ever  assembled  on  this  continent,  he,  about  the  1st 
of  May  last,  commenced  his  march.  He  relied,  with  confi- 
dence, upon  his  vast  numbers  and  thorough  equipment,  for 
an  early  consummation  of  his  long  deferred  hopes.  Led  by 
the  greatest  of  his  captains,  flushed  with  numerous  successes, 
it  was  entirely  natural  that  he  should  fearlessly  look  to  the 
future,  while  we  should  contemplate  it  with  uneasiness  and 
apprehension.  He  had,  however,  scarcely  crossed  the  Rapid 
Ann  before  our  noble  army,  led  by  that  great  and  good  man 
General  R.  E.  Lee,  breaking  up  their  camp,  dashed  upon  his 
haughty  columns,  and,  after  one  of  the  bloodiest  and  best 
contested  battles  of  the  war,  taught  the  enemy  to  respect  the 
army  he  had  effected  to  despise,  and  to  know  that  his  march 
to  Richmond  would  be  attended  with  difficulties  and  dangers 
he  had  not  anticipated.  I  shall  not  undertake  to  detail  the 
series  of  bloody  battles  which  were  fought  on  the  road  to 
Richmond,  nor  tell  how  the  enemy,  although  continually 
strengthened  by  heavy  reinforcements,  was  compelled  to 
leave  the  city  to  his  right,  until  finally  he  crossed  the  James 
and  undertook,  by  a  coup  de  main,  to  carry  the  City  of  Peters- 
burg; nor  how,  after  nearly  a  seven  months'  campaign  of 
unexampled  slaughter  of  his  men,  he  still  finds  himself  with 
hope  deferred,  and  but  little  prospect  of  realizing  expecta- 
tions  so   confidently^  entertained    for   the    last    three    years. 


181 


Suffice   it  to   say,   that   you,  gentlemen,  are  here   in   safety  ; 
here   in   calm   deliberation  ;    here   to   digest  those  measures 
which  are  still  required  by  the  dangers  we  have  yet  to  meet. 
It  is  right,  however,  that   I  should  warn  you  that  the  enemy 
is  diligently  engaged  in  strengthening  his   army,  and   in   re- 
covering from  the  exhaustion  caused  by  his  repeated  defeats. 
It  is  difficult,  really,  to  comprehend  our  foe.      The  right  of 
self-government  was  established   by  the  blood  of  our  revo- 
lutionary fathers  ;  was  proclaimed  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and   is   engrafted   in   the   Constitution   of  all    the 
States  ;    and  yet,  the   United   States,  with  reckless   extrava- 
gance in  men  and  money,  unparalleled  in  the  world's  history, 
is  denying  this  right  and  seeking  to  overthrow  and  subjugate 
the  people  who  proclaimed   it,  and   who   only  ask   to  be  let 
alone ;  who,  for  simply  asserting  and  maintaining  this  princi- 
ple, are  pursued  with  a  venom,  malignity  and   hate  unknown 
in  civilized  war. 

With  everything  dear  to  man  at  stake,  I  can  not  suppose 
that  there  will  be  any  hesitation  on  your  part  to  embody  the 
whole  resources  of  the  State,  in  men  and  means,  in  order  to 
enable  us  successfully  to  avert  the  awful  doom  our  enemy 
has  in  store  for  us. 

One  of  your  first  duties,  gentlemen,  will  be  to  take  into  the 
consideration  the  measure  to  bring   into  the   field  all   able- 
bodied  men  who  are  not   necessary  to  the  State  government. 
It  is  utterly  impossible  for  me  to  understand  the  logic  which 
exempts   State  officers  who  are  not  necessary   for  the    State 
government ;  and  yet  it  is  the  fact  that  the  judges  are  under- 
taking to  turn  loose  from  the  grasp  of  military  authority  men 
without  any  duty  to  perform,  upon  the  ground  that  they  are 
officers  provided  by  the  constitution   and   the   laws.     There 
are  some  forty  or  fifty  counties  of  Virginia  within  the  enemy's 
lines,  most  of  them  under  a  regular  government  of  the  enemy. 
The   State  officers  therein   have   been,  were  loyal  of  course, 
expelled   from  office  and  are  refugees.      Most  of  them  have 
acquired  new  homes,  and  have  formed  new  social  and  busi- 
ness relations,  and  may  not  return  to  their  counties  until  this 
war   shall    terminate.       Many    will    never  return   even   with 


182 

peace,  and  it  may  be  a  question,  if  they  should  do  so,  whether 
they  would  have  a  right  to  resume  their  offices.  Under  the 
laws  and  the  constitution  the  counties  will  average  about 
sixty  officers,  furnishing,  within  the  enemies  lines,  a  number 
equal  to  about  two  thousand,  constituting  a  force  sufficient,  it 
may  be,  to  turn  the  tide  of  a  great  battle.  Yet,  according  to 
the  decision  of  some  of  the  judges,  these  officers  would  be 
exempt  from  military  duty,  although  without  civil  duties  to 
perform,  and  with  a  great  probability  that  they  will  have  none 
during  the  continuance  of  the  war. 

The  court  of  appeals  in  the  case  of  Burroughs  vs.  Peyton,* 
etc.,  has  well  said  that  "  the  obligation  of  every  citizen  to 
render  military  service  is  a  paramount,  social  and  political 
duty.  It  is  a  matter  in  which  the  whole  body  politic  is  inter- 
ested. The  citizens  have  a  right  collectively  and  individually 
to  the  service  of  each  other  to  avert  any  danger  which  may 
be  menaced.  The  manner  in  which  the  service  is  to'  be  ap- 
pointed among  them  is  a  matter  for  legislation.  The  govern- 
ment, as  the  agent  and  trustee  of  the  people,  is  charged  with 
the  whole  military  strength  of  the  nation,  in  order  that  it  may 
be  employed  so  as  to  insure  the  safety  of  all.  The  power 
which  it  has  to  enforce  the  performance  of  the  obligation  to 
render  military  service  is  given  that  it  may  be  used,  not  abdi- 
cated. No  right  has  been  conferred  upon  the  government  to 
divest  itself,  by  contract  or  otherwise,  of  the  power  of  employ- 
ing, whenever  and  as  the  exigencies  of  the  country  may  de- 
mand, the  whole  military  strength  that  has  been  placed  at  its 
disposal.  As  the  nature  and  extent  of  these  exigencies  can- 
not be  foreseen,  and  it  is  impossible  to  say  in  advance  that  the 
services  of  every  citizen  capable  of  bearing  arms  may  not 
become  indispensable  for  the  defence  of  the  country,  the 
government  has  no  right  to  enter  into  any  contract  preclud- 
ing it  from  requiring  those  services,  if  they  should  be  needed. 
If  there  be  such  right,  the  spectacle  might  be  presented  of  a 
nation  subjugated  and  destroyed  at  a  time  when  it  had  within 
its  limits  citizens  amply  sufficient  to  defend  it  successfully 
against  all   the   assaults  of  its   enemies,   but  whose  services 

*  XVI.  Gratian's  Reports,  p.  470,  before  referred  to  in  a  preceding  message  to  the  Legislature  of  Virginia. 


183 

could   not  be  commanded  because,  forsooth,  the  government 
had  contracted  with  them  that  they  should  not  be  required  to 
serve   in  the  army.      Again  :     "  The  power  of  coercing  the 
citizen  to  render  military  service  for  such  time  and  under  such 
circumstances   as  the   government  may  think  fit,  is  a  trans- 
cendent   power,    but    so    far    from    being    inconsistent    with 
liberty,  is  essential  to  its  preservation.     A  nation  cannot  fore- 
see the  extent  of  the  danger  to  which  it  may  be  exposed.     It 
must,  therefore,  grant  to  its  government  a   power    equal  to 
every  possible  emergency  ;  and   this  can  only   be   done  by 
giving  to   it  the  control   of  its  whole  military  strength.     The 
danger   that  the    power  may  be    abused    cannot    render    it 
proper  to  withhold  it,  for  it  is  necessary  to  the  national  life." 
It  would  seem  to  me  that  the   doctrine   of  these   extracts 
covers  the  whole  question  ;    but  should  there   be  a  doubt  re- 
maining, the  following  extract  from  the  same  able  opinion,  re- 
peating a  well  established  rule  of  law,  must  dispel  it  :*    "  The 
well  established  rule  of  construction  is,  that  all  grants  of  privi- 
leges and   exemptions   from   general  burdens  are  to  be  con- 
strued liberally  in  favor  of  the  public,  and  strictly  as   against 
the   grantee.      Whatever   is    not  plainly   expressed  and   un- 
equivocally granted,  is  taken  to  be  withheld."     Taken  in  this 
view,  how  can  there  be  a  question  ?     The   officers  referred  to 
are  local   officers  ;    their  duties   are   local  ;   they    forfeit  their 
offices  if  they  leave  their  counties.     The  Justices  of  the  Peace 
are   compelled   to   reside   in  the  districts  from  which  they  are 
elected  ;  and  yet  these  officers  are  refugees — that  is,  resident 
out  of  their  counties.     In  undertaking  to  protect  them  against 
the  forfeiture  provided  by  law,  the  courts  have  to  assume  that 
they  are  excused  from  the  residence  required,  in  consequence 
of  the  compulsion  of  the  enemy.     Is  not  this  inference  judi- 
cial legislation  ?     At  any  rate   no  act  of  assembly  authorizes 
such  an  inference  ;   and  is  it  to   be    supposed    that    the    law 
would  not  have    provided  for  such  a  case  had  the  legislature 
deemed  it  proper  to  do  so  ?     At  least,  can  it  be  said  that  there 
is   no   doubt   upon  the  subject  ?  and  if  a  doubt,  that  it  should 

*  The  opinion  before  referred  to  by  Governor  Smith  is  from  the  pen  of  Judge  W.  J.  Robertson,  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals  of  Virginia,  an  able  lawyer  and  rigid  constructionist  of  the  Constitution. 


184 

not,  in  the  language  of  an  extract  already  quoted,  "  be  con- 
strued liberally  in  favor  of  the  public."  How  can  the  State 
be  injured  by  the  view  for  which  I  contend  ?  How  it  can  be 
prejudiced  by  the  converse  of  the  proposition,  all  can  see. 

But  to  exempt  the  large  class  of  officers,  or  any  portion  of 
them,  when  they  have  no  service  to  perform  is,  it  seems  to 
me,  plainly  unconstitutional.  The  fourth  article  of  the  Bill  of 
Rights  reads  as  follows  :  "  That  no  man  or  set  of  men  are 
entitled  to  exclusive  or  separate  emoluments  or  privileges 
from  the  community  but  in  consideration  of  public  services." 
Will  not  these  officers,  without  civil  duties  to  perform,  enjoy 
personal  "privileges  ?"  Surely  it  may  legitimately  be  argued, 
that  so  far  from  being  exempted  they  are  under  a  special  ob- 
ligation, in  addition  to  the  general  one  attaching  to  every  citi- 
zen, to  fight  for  the  recovery  of  their  counties.  They  have 
been  ousted  of  their  offices,  have  consequently  suffered  a  per- 
sonal injury  and  will  realize  a  special  advantage  in  the  re- 
covery of  the  counties  from  which  they  have  been  expelled. 
I  know  it  is  contended  that  these  officers  are  entitled  to  ex- 
emption under  the  decision  of  the  court  in  the  case  from  which 
I  have  so  freely  quoted,  and  the  following  extract  is  relied 
upon  in  support  of  the  position. 

"  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  Government  of  the  Con- 
federate States  can  rightfully  destroy  the  Government  of  the 
States  which  created  it ;  and  all  the  powers  conferred  on  it 
must  be  understood  to  have  been  driven  with  the  limitation 
that  in  executing  them,  nothing  shall  be  done  to  interfere  with 
the  independent  exercise  of  its  sovereign  power  by  each 
State.  Congress  can  have  no  right  therefore  to  deprive  a 
State  of  any  officer  necessary  to  the  action  of  its  government, 
and  the  State  itself  is  the  sole  judge  as  to  the  officers  that  are 
necessary  for  that  purpose."  I  entirely  concur  with  the  doc- 
trine here  expressed  ;  but  can  it  be  said  that  the  officers  of  a 
locality  within  the  enemy's  lines  and  under  the  regular  super- 
visions of  the  agents  of  a  foreign  government,  are  necessary  to 
the  action  of  the  Government  of  the  State?  and  under  this  doc- 
trine, can  any  officer  of  a  county  within  our  own  jurisdiction 
be  entitled  to  exemption  unless  he  be   necessary?     It  is  said, 


185 

however,  that  all  the  officers  named  in  the  constitution  and 
provided  by  the  laws  are  pronounced  necessary  by  the  very 
highest  authority,  and  can  under  no  circumstances  be  ques- 
tioned, and  whether  employed  or  not  cannot  be  required  to 
perform  any  other  duties  than  those  for  which  they  are  elected. 
Surely  this  will  strike  the  reflecting  mind  with  surprise.  The 
•constitution  intended  to  provide  a  frame  of  government  for 
those  on  whom  it  was  to  operate.  It  was  necessarily  experi- 
mental. The  officers  authorized  were  doubtless  presumed  to 
be  necessary  ;  but  if  found  to  be  otherwise,  why  should  those 
appointed  to  fill  them  be  relieved  from  the  performance  of 
other  duties  required  by  the  wants  of  the  community.  Indeed 
I  lay  it  down  as  a  broad  proposition  that  no  person  occupying 
office  is  exempt  from  the  other  duties  of  a  citizen,  except  on 
the  score  of  incompatibility.  I  ask  with  confidence,  why 
should  a  citizen  be  exempt  from  other  obligations,  when  they 
do  not  interfere  with  those  to  which  he  is  specially  elected. 
If  a  man  can  perform  more  than  one  duty,  why  should  he  not 
do  it?  I  would  like  to  hear  a  good  and  sufficient  reason  in 
answer  to  this  interrogatory.  It  would  be  a  great  reflection 
upon  those  who  framed  the  constitution  to  suppose  that  they 
intended  any  such  conclusion  ;  and  in  the  absence  of  all  pro- 
visions to  that  effect,  it  cannot  be  presumed.  Nowhere  in  the 
constitution  is  provision  made,  in  terms,  for  exemption.  It  is 
inferential  merely  and  then  only  upon  the  ground  of  incom- 
patibility of  service.  The  same  remarks  will  apply  to  the 
legislature. 

The  doctrine  contended  for  may  lead  to  the  most  fatal  re- 
sults. If  all  the  officers  designated  in  the  constitution  and  in 
the  laws  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  are  to  be  exempted  be- 
cause they  are  State  officers — if  all  the  Justices  of  the  Peace, 
who  bye-the-bye,  were  never  exempted  until  the  ist  of  Octo- 
ber, 1862,  having  from  the  revolution  to  that  period  been  re- 
quired to  perform  military  duty — if  all  sheriffs  and  clerks  and 
their  deputies,  all  commissioners  of  the  revenue,  all  surveyors 
and  commonwealth's  attorneys,  all  constables  and  overseers 
of  the  poor,  all  county  agents  for  supplying  soldiers'  families, 
all  salt  agents,  commercial  agents,  etc.,  all  employees  of  banks, 


186 

cities,  towns,  etc.,  are  to  be  exempt  indiscriminately  and  with- 
out reference  to  their  necessity,  then  indeed,  in  the  language 
of  the  decision  so  frequently  quoted,  "  the  spectacle  might  be 
presented  of  a  nation  subjugated  and  destroyed  at  a  time  when 
it  had  within  its  limits  citizens  amply  sufficient  to  defend  it 
against  all  the  assaults  of  its  enemies,  but  whose  services  could 
not  be  commanded,  because,  forsooth,  the  government  had  con- 
tracted with  them  that  they  should  not  be  required  to  serve 
in  the  army."  So  far,  in  this  State,  the  number  of  exempts 
is  comparatively  small  ;  but  in  other  States,  we  are  told,  it  is 
widely  different.  At  this  time  a  powerful  army  of  the  enemy  is 
sweeping  over  the  State  of  Georgia,  in  which,  under  the  doc- 
trine contended  for,  there  is  now  an  army  of  exempts — exempts 
because  officers  and  employees  of  the  State  government. 

At  this  time  the  pressure  of  the  service  inspires  a  very  com- 
mon desire  to  escape  from  it  ;  and  the  remedy  by  habeas 
corpus,  designed  for  extraordinary  acts  of  official  tyranny  or 
individual  acts  of  oppression,  is  daily  resorted  to,  to  extricate 
the  citizen  from  the  holy  duty  of  defending  the  country. 
Lawyers  of  every  degree  hie  to  the  feast  thus  spread  before 
them,  and  judges  in  chambers  and  in  court  feel  constrained  to 
apply  the  principles  of  the  writ  to  those  but  little  better  than 
moral  deserters  from  the  standard  of  their  country,  and  at  a 
time,  too,  when  she  is  struggling  in  a  death  struggle  with  her 
eicrantic  foe.  But  do  the  iudsfes  aoree  amomr  themselves  in 
a  uniform  application  of  the  same  principle  ?  In  North  Caro- 
lina exemption  assumes  the  broadest  form,  while  in  Alabama, 
a  much  narrower  rule  is  adopted,  and  even  in  Virginia,  some 
differences  exist.  But  all,  I  believe,  concur  that  the  judges 
have  the  right  to  pronounce  who  are  exempt  from  military 
duty  by  reason  of  their  office,  notwithstanding  the  legislature 
and  the  executive  may  entertain  a  different  opinion.  It  does 
not  matter  what  the  legislature  may  declare  by  law  ;  it  does 
not  matter  who  the  Executive  may  deem  necessary  to  enable 
him  to  see  the  laws  faithfully  executed — the  court  understands 
better  than  their  co-equal  and  co-ordinate  departments,  what 
is  necessary  to  preserve  the  State  governments  !  Against  this 
I  enter  my  firm  but  respectful  protest. 


187 

The  second  article  of  the  constitution  reads  as  follows  : 
"  The  Legislative,  Executive  and  Judiciary  Departments  shall 
be  separate  and  distinct,  so  that  neither  exercise  the  power 
properly  belonging  to  either  of  the  others  ;  nor  shall  any  per- 
son exercise  the  powers  of  more  than  one  of  them  at  the  same 
time,  except  that  Justices  of  the  Peace  shall  be  eligible  to 
either  House  of  Assembly."  The  Massachusetts  Constitution 
still  more  emphatically  declares  that  "  in  the  government  of 
this  commonwealth,  the  legislative  department  shall  never  ex- 
ercise the  executive  and  judicial  powers,  or  either  of  them  ; 
the  executive  shall  never  exercise  the  legislative  or  judicial 
powers,  or  either  of  them  ;  the  judicial  shall  never  exercise 
the  executive  and  legislative  powers,  or  either  of  them  ;  to 
the  end  that  it  may  be  a  government  of  laws,  and  not  of  men." 
Of  course  all  intermixture  of  these  departments,  except  as  pro- 
vided in  the  constitution,  must  be  in  violation  thereof.  These 
departments  are  co-ordinate,  and  each  is  supreme  and  inde- 
pendent of  the  others  within  their  respective  spheres.  This 
is  the  theory  of  the  constitution,  at  least;  and  it  is  the  univer- 
sal sentiment  of  the  American  people,  that  their  complete 
separation  is  essential  to  public  liberty.  The  Federalist  has 
strongly  said  that  "  the  accumulation  of  all  powers — legislative, 
executive  and  judicial — in  the  same  hands,  whether  of  one,  a 
few  or  many,  and  whether  hereditary,  self-appointed  or  elec- 
tive, may  be  justly  considered  the  very  definition  of  tyranny." 
Can  it  be,  then,  that  the  judiciary  can  properly  prescribe  its 
own  bounds  as  well  as  those  of  its  co-ordinate  departments  ? 
Where  is  the  authority  for  it  ?  It  cannot  be  found  either  in 
the  constitution  or  the  law — a  fact  conclusive  against  the 
jurisdiction  assumed.  I  know  the  general  sentiment  is  other- 
wise, and  that  it  is  insisted  that  the  power  is  essential  and 
must  therefore  exist.  The  power  in  one  to  give  law  to  the 
other  demonstrates  this  too  clearly  to  require  argument." 

While,  however,  it  may  be  conceded  that  the  judicial  de- 
partment, in  the  last  resort,  is  the  final  expositor  of  the  con- 
stitution as  to  all  questions  of  a  judicial  nature,  it  is  equally 
clear  that  it  cannot  assume  jurisdiction  of  political  questions- 
This  doctrine  was  quite  elaborately   treated   in   the   case   of 


188 

Luther  vs.  Borden,  et  al  (7  How.  R.)  In  the  celebrated  Dorr 
case,  out  of  which  the  one  quoted  sprung,  this  doctrine  was 
treated  ;  and  it  was  declared  that  the  court  shall  not  take 
jurisdiction  of  questions  of  political  power.  For  instance,  that 
it  was  the  right  of  the  political  power  to  decide  which  was 
the  rightful  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  the 
charter  or  that  known  as  the  Dorr  Constitution,  that  it  was 
not  a  judicial  question.  So,  it  was  conceded,  that  the  Presi- 
dent alone  has  the  right  to  decide  when  such  insurrection  or 
rebellion  existed  in  a  State  as  required  him  to  call  out  the 
militia,  that  it  was  not  a  judicial  question.  So,  in  cases  of 
contested  elections  before  the  senate,  they  involve  a  question 
■of  political  power  to  be  decided  by  that  body.  So,  likewise, 
in  the  case  of  a  treaty  or  the  recognition  of  foreign  nations, 
they  involve  questions  of  political  power  over  which  the  ju- 
diciary could  not  take  jurisdiction.  I  respectfully  submit  that 
this  important  distinction  should  be  taken  by  our  judges. 
When  the  legislature  declares  who  shall  be  subject  to  military 
duty,  it  is  an  act  of  political  power  with  which,  it  seems  to 
me,  the  judiciary  should  not  interfere.  And  when  the  execu- 
tive, to  whom  the  special  duty  is  assigned  of  seeing  the  laws 
faithfully  executed,  decides  that  a  certain  officer  or  employee 
is  not  necessary,  it  is  an  act  of  political  power  which  should 
equally  command  the  forbearance  of  the  courts.  It  was  ob- 
jected in  the  case  just  quoted,  that  in  conceding  to  the  Presi- 
dent the  decision  as  to  which  was  the  riehtful  constitution  of 
Rhode  Island,  it  was  yielding  him  a  dangerous  power  which 
might  be  abused.  The  learned  judge  who  pronounced  the 
opinion  of  the  court,  emphatically  said  in  reply  :  "  All  power 
may  be  abused  if  placed  in  unworthy  hands  ;  but  it  would  be 
difficult,  we  think,  to  point  out  any  other  hands  in  which  this 
power  would  be  more  safe,  and  at  the  same  time  equally 
effectual."  At  all  events  it  is  conferred  upon  him  by  the 
constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  must, 
therefore,  be  respected  and  enforced  in  its  judicial  tribunals. 
You,  gentlemen,  can  apply  this  quotation.  But  I  may  be 
pardoned,  as  the  several  departments  take  the  same  oath  of 
office,  that  of  fidelity  to  the  constitution,  and  are  all,  in  the 


189 


view  of  the  constitution,  equally  honest,  capable  and  faithful, 
if  I  claim  for  the  legislative  and  executive  departments  the 
same  right  to  judge  of  their  own  powers  as  is  exercised  by 
the  judiciary  as  to  theirs.  This  is  indispensable  to  preserve 
the  equilibrium  of  the  several  departments,  a  matter  of  the 
last  importance,  as  upon  it  depends  the  preservation  of  con- 
stitutional liberty,  according  to  all  writers  upon  free  govern- 
ment. My  conclusions,  then,  are  that  the  several  depart- 
ments have  no  right  to  define  the  political  powers  of  each 
other  ;  that  political  power  is  not  of  a  judicial  nature  ;  that 
there  is  no  authority  in  the  constitution  or  the  laws  which 
gives  to  the  judiciary  the  right  to  define  its  own  boundaries 
and  those  of  the  other  branches  of  the  government ;  that 
whatever  may  be  the  necessity  of  having  a  tribunal  clothed 
with  such  powers,  none  has  been  provided,  and  cannot  be 
provided  by  judicial  construction  ;  that  the  right,  on  the  part 
of  the  several  departments,  to  refuse  to  co-operate  in  the 
unconstitutional  measures  of  each  other,  of  which  each  has 
an  equal  right  to  judge,  is  eminently  proper,  healthful  in 
action,  and  well  calculated  to  preserve,  intact,  that  division  of 
powers  guaranteed  in  the  second  article  of  the  constitution. 
That  the  constitution  contains  no  exception,  confers  no 
privileges,  except  "in  consideration  of  public  services;  "  that 
election  to  office  does  not  protect  any  man  against  other 
duties,  except  so  far  as  they  may  be  in  conflict  with  those  to 
which  he  was  elected ;  that,  in  the  language  of  the  court  of 
appeals,  "the  obligation  of  the  citizen  to  render  military 
service  is  a  paramount,  social  and  political  duty,"  from  which 
no  man  can  be  discharged,  except  on  account  of  his  civil 
duties,  and  only  to  the  extent  required  by  such  duties ;  that 
military  service  "  is  a  matter  in  which  the  whole  body  politic 
is  interested  ;."  that  "  the  citizens  have  a  right,  collectively  and 
individually,  to  the  service  of  each  other,  to  avert  any  danger 
which  may  be  menaced,"  of  which  they  cannot  lawfully,  and 
ought  not  to  be  deprived  by  any  authority  whatsoever.  And 
I  here,  in  the  name  of  patriotism,  of  our  manhood,  of  our  dear 
old  State,  rent  and  torn  by  a  vandal  foe,  and  of  our  bleeding 
country,   protest    firmly   but  respectfully   against   the   entire 


190 

doctrine  which  would  <nve  to  able-bodied  men  the  le^al  riodit 
to  walk  abroad  untouched  amid  the  general  suffering  and 
desolation. 

I  have  uniformly  acted  upon  the  principle  that  the  State 
government  had  an  inherent  right  of  self  preservation,  which 
involved  the  right  to  all  the  officers  and  employees,  of  every 
description,  necessary  thereto.  I  have  never  hesitated  to 
claim  all  such  persons,  and  to  assert  a  right  to  judge  for  my- 
self as  to  the  necessity  of  such  persons,  as  against  the  Con- 
federate Government.  I  understand  this  principle  to  have 
been  broadly  conceded  by  the  act  of  congress  of  the  17th  of 
February,  1864.  This  act  did  not  undertake  to  grant  power 
to  the  Governors  of  the  States  who  could  not  accept  power 
from  such  a  source,  even  had  such  been  the  design  of  the  act. 
But,  I  repeat,  I  do  not  understand  it  to  have  had  any  such 
purpose  in  view.  The  certificate  spoken  of  in  the  act  was 
merely  designed  to  obtain  information  of  the  Governors  of 
the  States,  of  the  persons  claimed  by  the  States  as  their 
officers  and  employees  ;  and  such  certificates  are  very  properly 
conceded  by  that  act  to  be  conclusive  upon  the  Confederate 
authorities.  Recocrnizino;  in  the  Confederate  Q-overnment 
the  right  to  the  whole  military  power  of  the  States,  except  to 
the  extent  of  such  persons  as  are  necessary  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  State  government  and  the  execution  of  the  laws, 
I  have  uniformly  confined  my  certificates  of  exemption  or 
claim  to  such  persons  as  I  regarded  necessary  therefor.  In 
the  case  of  Justices  of  the  Peace,  I  did  not  and  do  not  believe 
that  the  number  authorized  by  law  was  necessary  to  the 
execution  of  the  duties  imposed  upon  them.  I  know  per- 
fectly well  that  three  instead  of  four  are  amply  sufficient  for 
all  the  purposes  of  the  State;  and  I  aimed,  as  a  general  rule, 
to  confine  myself  to  that  number.  I  recognized  the  right  of 
all,  however,  to  be  commissioned,  and,  deeming  such  to  be 
my  constitutional  duty,  commissioned  those  who  had  been 
duly  elected  by  the  people.  It  is  not  a  little  curious  that 
Justices  of  the  Peace,  at  least,  from  the  first  revolution  up  to  the 
present  one,  have  never  been  regarded  otherwise  than  as  sub- 
ject to  military  service.    They  have  been  treated  uniformly  as  a 


191 


part  of  the  militia.  They  fought  in  the  first  revolution,  they 
fought  in  the  year  18 1 2,  they  mustered  at  cross  roads  and 
other  places  of  meeting,  and  the  exempting  favor  of  the  legis- 
lature never  reached  them  till  the  first  of  October,  1862.  It 
is  strange  that,  in  the  midst  of  a  deadly  struggle,  your  prede- 
cessors should  have  deemed  it  proper,  for  the  first  time,  to 
protect  these  gentlemen  from  military  service,  pronounced  by 
the  highest  judicial  authority  of  this  State  to  be  a  "a  para- 
mount, social  and  political  duty."  It  is  also  strange  that,  for 
the  first  time,  it  should  be  treated  as  a  judicial  question,  and 
that  our  Judges  should  likewise  concur  in  pronouncing  them 
exempt  from  military  service,  and  that,  too,  notwithstanding 
the  same  high  authority  to  which  I  have  just  referred,  has 
pronounced  military  service  "a  matter  in  which  the  whole 
body  politic  is  interested." 

But  so  it  is;  and,  yielding  to   the   force   of  this   combined 
opinion,  I  respectfully  suggest  for  your  consideration  the  pas- 
sage of  a  law  which  will  diminish  the  number  of  these  officers, 
and  restrict  their  selection  to  persons   of  an   age  usually  be- 
yond the  period  of  military  service.     I   propose   the   passage 
of  a  law  diminishing  the  number  of  the  districts  in  the  several 
counties  and  confining  the  election  of  magistrates  to  persons 
over  forty-five  years  of  age.     There  is  no  question  of  your 
power  to  enact  such  a  law;  there  is  no  doubt  of  its  giving  great 
satisfaction  to  the  people  ;  and  the  discreditable  efforts^which 
were   made  in  certain   localities,  by  hale   and   hearty   young 
men,  to  obtain  their  election  as  Justices  of  the   Peace,  there* 
by  to  secure  their  exemption  from  the   honor  of  defending 
their  country,  would   no  longer  reflect  upon  the  patriotism  of 
our  people.     But  many  of  our  best  citizens  are  unwilling  to 
yield  any  of  our  State  officers  or  employees  to  the  claim's  of 
the  Confederate  government.      They  are  entirely  willing  to 
see  such  persons  embodied  in  a  State  force,  to  be  called^out 
on  great  emergencies,  because,  under   State   authority,  they 
can  be  returned  to  their  civil  functions  as  soon  as  the  emer- 
gency shall   have  passed.     Apart   from  the  great  principle  of 
the  saluspopuli,  they  insist  that  it  is  entirely  in  the  power  of 
the  legislature  to  embody  the  State  officers,  etc.,  as  an   aux- 


192 

iliary  force,  under  the  circumstances  to  which  I  have  referred. 
In  Georgia  this  principle  is  acted  upon,  and  under  it  Gover- 
nor Brown  has  been  able  to  embody  an  army  of  considerable 
size,  which  has  rendered  and  is  rendering  valuable  service  in 
the  campaign  in  his  great  State.  In  Mississippi  the  same 
doctrine  prevails  with  like  results,  in  which,  indeed,  the  power 
is  claimed,  without  question  by  the  judiciary,  to  assign  super- 
numary  State  officers  to  the  Confederate  service.  In  an  act 
passed  by  the  general  assembly  of  that  State  on  the  13th  of 
August,  1864,  the  preamble  thereto  reads  as  follows: 

"  Whereas,  in  the  present  situation  of  affairs,  it  is  not  nec- 
essary to  the  proper  administration  of  the  State  government 
that  the  officers,  members  and  agents  hereinafter  named,  shall 
be  held  exempted  from  the  military  service  of  the  Confed- 
erate States  ;  and  in  the  absence  of  such  necessity  the  State  is 
willing  to  waive  her  rights  in  the  premises  to  all  officers, 
members  and  agents  not  named  in  the  constitution,  and  not 
necessary  to  the  preservation  of  our  form  of  government." 

This  preamble  fully  recognizes  the  policy  for  which  I  have 
been  arguing,  and  in  giving  up  a  part  of  her  State  officers 
the  State  impliedly  asserts  a  right  to  do  so  with  all,  under  the 
qualification  stated.  Should  it  not  be  the  pleasure  of  the 
legislature,  however,  to  adopt  my  views,  I  respectfully  urge, 
in  this  dark  hour  of  our  fortunes,  that  the  entire  male  popu- 
lation of  our  State  be  embodied  for  the  purpose  of  co-oper- 
atine  in  our  great  struo-eje.  The  second-class  militia,  author- 
ized  under  a  special  act,  restricted  in  its  operation  to  a  few 
localities,  has  been  of  great  advantage  and  has  rendered  most 
efficient  service.  Perhaps  no  regular  force  in  the  army  has 
performed  more  arduous  duty  since  the  6th  of  May  than 
those  portions  of  it,  including  the  Nineteenth  Virginia  militia, 
organized  in  the  city  of  Richmond  and  Petersburg. 

In  consequence  of  the  frequent  and  extensive  raids  of  the 
enemy,  often  in  small  parties,  and  the  great  destruction  and 
outrages  perpetrated  by  them,  it  has  become  indispensable  to 
organize  our  whole  male  population.  Were  such  an  organi- 
zation made,  even  of  the  force  now  left  at  home,  the  country 
would  be  saved  from  the  ravages  which  lay  waste  our   fields, 


193 

certainly  to  a  large  extent ;  and  the  enemy  who  respects  in 
no  degree  the  laws  of  civilized  war,  sparing  neither  age  nor 
sex,  would  be  compelled  to  contract  his  lines  of  march,  more 
in  larger  masses,  and  ran^e  over  a  much  more  limited  amount 
of  our  territory.  I  most  respectfully  submit  a  bill  for  your 
consideration,  designed  to  provide  for  this  important  object : 

i st.  It  proposes  that  the  reserve  force  of  the  State  should 
be  organized  by  the  Governor,  and  when  completed,  to  be 
reported  to  the  assembly  for  such  change  as  it  may  see  fit  to 
make. 

2d.  That  the  Governor  shall  not  move  said  force  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  State. 

3d.  That  no  portion  of  such  force  shall  be  called  on  for  a 
longer  period  than  thirty  days. 

4th.  When  practicable,  said  force  shall  be  assigned  to  duty 
in  the  several  counties  from  which  it  may  be  drawn. 

5th.  The  particular  duties  to  which  this  force  may  be  as- 
signed are  designated. 

6th.  That  the  county  court  and  county  officers  shall  aid  in 
the  enrollment. 

7th.  That  the  Governor  shall  provide  for  the  proper  dis- 
cipline and  order  of  such  force. 

8th.  This  bill  being  a  war  measure,  it  is  proposed  that  it 
shall  expire  with  the  proclamation  of  peace,  only  suspending, 
in  the  mean  time,  the  general  militia  law. 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  bill  asks  for  no  appropriation, 
nor  for  Commissaries  or  Quartermasters.  My  plan  is  to 
make  an  arrangement  with  the  Secretary  of  War  to  pay  off  such 
portion  of  the  reserved  force  as  may  be  called  out,  when  its 
particular  service  is  ended,  by  marching  it  to  the  post  Quarter- 
master of  its  county  for  that  purpose,  who  would  be  instructed 
accordingly  ;  and  my  purpose  would  be,  when  necessary,  to 
appoint  respectable  old  gentlemen  Quartermasters  and  Com- 
missaries for  the  particular  occasion,  and  for  them  to  settle 
up  any  accounts  they  may  have  created  with  the  post  Quarter- 
master, and  be  likewise  paid  off,  thus  closing  up  the  trans- 
action without  perplexity  or  delay,  and  to   the   entire  satis- 


194 

faction,  doubtless,   of  both  the  government  and    the  people. 

Our  free  negroes  are  very  disorderly,  many  of  them,  doubt- 
less, disloyal.  In  the  towns,  and  especially  in  the  city  of  Rich- 
mond, they  are  guilty  of  many  outrages  upon  persons  and 
property,  full  proof  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  procure.  They 
sometimes  are  found  co-operating  with  the  enemy,  and  oc- 
casionally indulging  in  the  utterance  of  treasonable  senti- 
ments and  threats  against  our  fellow-citizens.  The  laws  are 
inadequate  to  their  proper  management,  and  will,  I  hope,  be 
made  to  cover  such  cases. 

When  this  war  began,  it  was  confidently  believed  by 
our  enemy  that  it  would  be  of  short  duration.  Relying  upon 
his  vast  superiority  in  numbers  and  material  of  war,  he  ex- 
pected to  overrun  us  with  facility  and  ease.  But  the  result 
of  a  single  year's  operations  corrected  this  expectation  and 
impressed  him  with  the  conclusion  that  he  had  on  hand  a 
contest  of  great  magnitude,  full  of  danger  and  difficulty. 
Having  soon  exhausted  his  floating  population  he  openly 
recruited  his  armies  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  Not 
satisfied  with  this,  he  seized  our  slaves,  and,  in  violation  of 
all  civilized  war,  armed  them  against  us.  Under  ever)'  dis- 
advantage, the  war  has  been  protracted  deep  into  the  fourth 
year,  and  we  find  ourselves  looking  around  for  material  to 
enlarge  our  armies.  Whence  is  it  to  come  ?  The  laws  of 
natural  accretion  will  not  furnish  a  sufficient  supply  of  men. 
Foreign  countries  are,  in  effect,  closed  against  us.  Recruit- 
ing from  the  prisoners  we  capture  will  not,  except  to  a  limited 
extent,  supply  our  wants,  and  the  public  attention  naturally 
turns  to  our  own  slaves  as  a  ready  and  abundant  stock  from 
which  to  draw.  This  policy,  however,  has  given  rise  to  great 
diversity  of  opinion.  Some  consider  it  as  giving  up  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery.  Others  declare  that  to  put  our  slaves  in 
the  ranks  will  drive  our  fellow-citizens  from  them  and  dif- 
fuse dissatisfaction  throughout  the  country.  In  reply,  it  is 
said  that  this  policy  will  effectually  silence  the  clamor  of  the 
poor  man  about  this  being  the  rich  man's  war  ;  that  there  is 
no  purpose  to  mingle  the  two  races  in  the  same  ranks,  and 
that  there  cannot   be  a  reasonable  objection   to   fighting  the 


195 

enemies  negroes  with  our  own  ;  that  as  to  the  abandonment 
of  slavery,  it  is  already  proclaimed  to  be  at  an  end  by  the 
enemy,  and  will  undoubtedly  be  so  if  we  are  subjugated,  and 
that  by  making  it  aid  in  our  defence,  it  will  improve  the 
chance  of  preserving  it. 

This  is  a  grave  and  important  question  and  full  of  diffi- 
culty. All  agree  in  the  propriety  of  using  our  slaves  in  the 
various  menial  employments  of  the  army,  and  as  sappers  and 
miners  and  pioneers  ;  but  much  diversity  exists  as  to  the  pro- 
priety of  using  them  as  soldiers  now.  All  agree  that  when 
the  question  becomes  one  of  liberty  and  independence  on  the 
one  hand,  or  subjugation  on  the  other,  that  every  means  with- 
in our  reach  should  be  used  to  aid  in  our  struggle,  and  to 
baffle  and  thwart  our  enemy.  I  say  every  man  will  agree  to 
this  ;  no  man  would  hesitate.  Even  if  the  result  were  to 
emancipate  our  slaves,  there  is  not  a  man  that  would  not 
cheerfully  put  the  negro  in  the  army  rather  than  become  a 
slave  himself  to  our  hated  and  vindictive  foe.  It  is,  then, 
simply  a  question  of  time.  Has  the  time  arrived  when  this 
issue  is  fairly  before  us  ?  Is  it,  indeed,  liberty  and  independ- 
ence or  subjugation,  which  is  presented  to  us  ?  A  man  must 
be  blind  to  current  events,  to  the  gigantic  proportions  of  this 
war,  to  the  proclamations  of  the  enemy,  who  does  not  see  that 
the  issue  above  referred  to  is  presented  now.  And,  I  repeat, 
the  only  question  is,  has  the  time  arrived  ?  Are  we  able,  be- 
yond a  question,  to  wage  successful  war  against  a  power  three 
times  our  own  in  numbers,  with  all  Europe  from  which  to  re- 
cruit, and  who,  unhesitatingly  puts  arms  in  the  hands  of  our 
own  negroes  for  our  destruction  ?  I  will  not  say  that  under  the 
Providence  of  God,  we  may  not  be  able  to  triumph,  but  I  do 
not  say  that  we  should  not,  from  any  mawmish  sensibility,  re- 
fuse any  means  within  our  reach  which  will  tend  to  enable 
us  to  work  out  our  deliverance.  For  my  part,  standing  before 
God  and  my  country,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  I  would 
arm  such  portion  of  our  able-bodied  slave  population  as  may 
be  necessary,  and  put  them  in  the  field,  so  as  to  have  them 
ready  for  the  spring  campaign,  even  if  it  resulted  in  the  free- 
dom of  those  thus  organized.     Will  I  not  employ  them  to  fight 


196 

the  negro  force  of  the  enemy  ?  aye,  the  Yankees  themselves, 
who  already  boast  that  they  have  two  hundred  thousand  of 
our  slaves  in  arms  against  us !  Can  we  hesitate,  can  we 
doubt,  when  the  question  is  whether  our  enemy  shall  use  our 
slaves  against  us,  or  we  use  them  against  him,  when  the 
question  may  be  between  liberty  and  independence,  on  the 
one  hand,  or  our  subjugation  and  utter  ruin  on  the  other? 

In  the  meeting  of  the  governors  the  following  resolutions 
upon  this  subject  were  unanimously  adopted  : 

"And  whereas,  The  public  enemy  having  proclaimed  the  freedom  of  our  slaves,, 
are  forcing  into  their  armies  the  able-bodied  portion  thereof,  the  more  effectually  to 
wage  their  cruel  and  bloody  war  against  us,   therefore,  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  the  true  policy  and  obvious  duty  of  all  slave  owners  timely 
to  remove  their  slaves  from  the  line  of  the  enemy's  approach,  and  especially  those 
able  to  bear  arms;  and  when  they  shall  fail  to  do  so,  that  it  should  be  made  the  duty 
of  the  proper  authorities  to  enforce  the  performance  of  this  duty,  and  to  give  to  such 
owners  all  necessary  assistance  as  far  as  practicable. 

'•  Resolved,  That  the  course  of  the  enemy,  in  appropriating  our  slaves  who  happen  to 
fall  into  their  hands  to  purposes  of  war,  seems  to  justify  a  change  of  policy  on  our 
part;  and  whilst  owners  of  slaves,  under  the  circumstances,  should  freely  yield  them 
to  their  country,  we  recommend  to  our  authorities,  under  proper  regulations,  to  ap- 
propriate such  part  of  them  to  the  public  service  as  may  be  required." 

The  object  of  these  resolutions,  as  understood  by  me,  was 
to  call  public  attention  to  the  consideration  of  the  policy  of 
bringing  our  slaves  into  this  war.  It  seems  that  a  "  change 
of  policy  on  our  part "  was  contemplated,  and  we  determined, 
in  reference  to  our  slaves,  to  "  recommend  to  our  authorities, 
under  proper  regulations,  to  appropriate  such  part  of  them  as 
may  be  required  to  the  public  service." 

I  am  aware  that  a  clamor  has  been  raised  against  the  policy 
of  putting  the  negroes  into  the  army,  by  good  and  loyal  men, 
because,  they  say,  "  the  end  is  not  yet,"  that  our  army  of  citi- 
zen-soldiers is  still  competent  to  make  good  our  defence.  No 
one  would  advocate  the  policy  of  thus  appropriating  our 
slaves,  except  as  a  matter  of  urgent  necessity  ;  but,  as  public 
opinion  is  widely  divided  on  this  subject,  does  not  common 
prudence  require  us  to  fear  that  those  opposed  to  this  ex- 
treme measure  may  be  mistaken  ?  Suppose  it  should  so  turn 
out,  how  deep  would  be  their  responsibility  to  tiieir  country, 
to  freedom  and  independence  everywhere  ?  I  know  it  is  the 
opinion   of  some  of  the  highest  military  authorities  that  the 


197 

time  has  come  when  we  should  call  our  slaves  to  our  assist- 
ance ;  and  I  hold  it  to  be  clearly  the  duty  of  every  citizen, 
however  much  he  may  doubt  the  wisdom  and  necessity  of  the 
policy,  to  co-operate  in  strengthening  by  every  means,  our 
armies.  I  repeat,  I  know  this  policy  is  looked  to  with 
anxiety  by  some  of  the  ablest  military  men  of  the  age,  who 
believe  that  it  is  of  the  last  importance  that  it  should  be 
adopted  without  delay.  I,  therefore,  earnestly  recommend  to 
the  legislature  that  they  should  give' this  subject  early  con- 
sideration, and  enact  such  measures  as  their  wisdom  may  ap- 
prove. As  an  additional  auxiliary  to  the  successful  prosecu- 
tion of  the  war,  I  deem  it  of  the  gravest  consequence  that  our 
currency  should  be  improved.  I  am  entirely  satisfied  that  it 
may  be  effected.  With  the  great  staples  at  our  command  as 
the  basis  of  such  purchases  abroad  as  are  necessary  to  our 
defence,  with  a  judicious  system  of  taxation  and  public  credit, 
the  blunders  of  the  past  may  be  speedily  reformed,  and  the 
public  confidence  assuredly  revived.  I  bring  this  subject  to 
your  consideration,  as  you  may  promote  the  policy  of  improv- 
ing the  currency,  by  lending  the  aid  of  co-operative  legisla- 
tion to  that  of  the  Confederate  government. 

There  is  a  measure  now  pending  before  congress  to  reduce 
the  currency  by  the  issue  of  tithe  certificates,  in  effect  pledg- 
ing the  tithes  in  cotton,  wheat  and  corn,  to  the  redemption  of 
such  certificates,  and  continuing  the  tax  in  kind  after  the  war 
shall  terminate,  until  they  shall  be  fully  paid  off  and  discharged. 
The  security  must  necessarily  be  ample,  and  all  persons,  not 
needing  the  currency  for  immediate  use,  will  find  such  invest- 
ment a  most  Judicious  one. 

The  legislation  I  would  suggest  is  in  aid  of  that  policy,  and 
I  submit  the  following  plan  for  your  consideration  :  Let  the 
State  go  into  the  market  and  purchase  up  the  currency  at  its 
market  value  for  gold — say  twenty  in  currency  for  one  in  gold. 
The  effect  of  this  would  be  to  reduce  the  price  of  gold  at  once 
to  that  standard  as  a  maximum,  which  would  necessarily  in- 
volve a  reduction  in  the  prices  of  all  commodities,  thereby  se- 
curing a  general  benefit  to  every  individual  in  the  community. 
The   question  will   naturally   be  asked  how  is  the  gold  to  be 


198 

obtained  ?  The  reply  is  easy.  It  is  known  that  our  State 
banks  have  a  large  amount  of  specie  on  hand  entirely  unpro- 
ductive, not  even  contributing  to  sustain  their  credit,  and  a 
source  of  constant  anxiety  to  the  officers  in  charge  of  them. 
In  this  state  of  things  the  banks,  I  have  no  doubt,  would 
cheerfully  surrender  their  specie  to  the  State,  upon  her  obli- 
gation to  return  it  at  the  end  of  the  war,  and  the  assignment 
of  the  tax  in  kind  certificates  of  the  Confederate  government, 
issued  to  the  State  from  time  to  time  for  the  currency  which 
she  might  acquire.  The  faith  of  the  State,  with  this  collateral 
security,  would,  I  am  persuaded,  be  entirely  acceptable  to  the 
banks  under  the  circumstances  which  imperil  us.  Should  we 
triumph  in  our  present  struggle,  which  I  doubt  not,  the  se- 
curity would  be  ample  ;  and  should  we  fail,  of  course  the  se- 
curity would  be  valueless,  and  all  would  be  lost,  except  in  the 
diffusive  benefit  to  the  people  from  the  circulation  of  the  coin 
now  excluded  from  all  useful  purposes. 

$  *  #  #  *  *  *  *  * 

(Signed)  William  Smith. 


199 
INCIDENTS    AND    REMINISCENCES. 


WOMAN    THE    INSPIRATION    OF    HIS    LIFE. 

A  few  months  preceding  his  death  the  ladies  of  Fauquier  [Memorial  Association 
prevailed  on  Governor  Smith  to  supply  the  place  of  an  orator  who  had  been  unex- 
pectedly called  away.  He  consented  and  spoke  to  afudience  on  Court  Green  with 
unabated  fire  and  force.  When  he  left  the  stand  and  was  pressing  through  the 
throng  to  his  carriage  a  friend,  grasping  his  hand,  remarked:  "Yours  was  a  beauti- 
ful tribute  to  woman,  Governor." 

"God  bless  the  ladies!"  he  replied.  "They  have  been  the  inspiration  of  my 
life.  I  shall  never  grow  too  old  to  respond  to  their  call,  nor  to  the  claims  of  duty. 
Why,  sir,  when  I  came  as  a  young  man  to  Warrenton,  the  first  bout  I  had  was  with 
a  fellow-law-student  for  not  cutting  the  acquaintance  of  a  chap  who  made  it  a  point  to 
disparage  woman." 

COOLNESS    AND    TENDERNESS. 

An  old  friend  and  army  comrade  in  referring  to  Governor  Smith  when  news  of 
his  death  was  given  from  lip  to  ear,  said:  "In  passing  along  the  Confederate  lines 
at  'First  Manassas,'  I  saw  the  old  Governor  in  the  new  role  of  colonel  of  a  regiment. 
He  sat  as  erect  as  a  trained  trooper  on  a  handsome  sorrel,  which  was  bleeding  pro- 
fusely from  a  shot  in  the  shoulder;  and  his  men,  by  his  order,  lay  prostrate  upon  the 
ground.  It  was  an  illustration  of  personal  bravery  and  considerate  tenderness  never 
forgotten.  A  few  moments  later  his  white  hair,  like  a  rallying  plume,  was  stream- 
ing in  the  wind  at  the  head  of  an  impetuous  charge  on  a  battery  pouring  round  shot 
and  grape  into  our  ranks." 

BROOKS    NO    DELAY. 

At  Fredricksburgh  the  Forty-ninth  was  stationed  at  the  rear  of  the  extreme  left 
of  General  Lee's  lines  as  a  reserve.  When  the  battle  waxed  hot  in  front  and  the 
Confederate  column  wavered,  a  courier  dashed  up  to  the  old  Governor  with  an  order 
to  advance.  In  a  moment  he  was  in  the  saddle,  and  shouting  "Fall  in,  the  Forty- 
ninth,  fall,  in  quickly,  or  I'll  march  alone  to  the  front  and  leave  every  d n  one  of 

you."     His  gallant  volunteers  did  fall  in,  and  were  soon  doing  more  effective  work 
than  veterans  commanded  by  officers  an  fait  in  the  tactics  of  Hardee  and  Scott. 

FLUCK    AND    FORTITUDE. 

Senator  Heaton,  of  Loudoun,  in  speaking  to  resolutions  of  respect  to  the  memory 
of  Governor  Smith  in  the  Virginia  legislature,  said  the  first  time  he  saw  him  was  at 
Sharpsburg,  where  he  received  three  wounds  before  he  consented  to  leave    the  field. 

This  evidence  of  splendid  pluck  recalls  an  incident  illustrating  his  fortitude  dur- 
ing enforced  inactivity: 

An  old  county  man,  casually  meeting  him  in  the  rotunda  of  the  State  capitol, 
said: 

"Governor,  I  intend  to  use  a  short  furlough  to  visit  Fauquier;  have  you  a 
message  to  send  home  ?  " 

A  loving  smile  chased  away  all  trace  of  pain  as  he  replied:  "  Tell  the  madam, 
sir,  they  slightly  winged  me;  but  I  am  as  gay  as  a  lark,  and  feel  like  a  boy  of  five- 
and-twenty. " 

FORESIGHT    AND    BENEVOLENCE. 

When  Governor  Smith  was  elected  a  second  time  chief  magistrate  of  the  old 
commonwealth,  the  soul  of  patriotism  was  sorely  tried.  The  enemy  held  nearly 
half  of  its  territory;  made  its  capitol  the  objective  point;  Confederate  ports  were 
blockaded  by  hostile  squadrons,  and  limited  transportation  by  rail  was  monopolized 
by  Confederate  commissaries.     Public  credit  was  gone,  and  provision   in  the   city 


200 

was  growing  less  every  day.  In  this  exigency  Governor  Smith  borrowed  money 
from  the  president  of  a  city  bank  on  his  own  responsibility,  dispatched  merchants 
above  conscript  age  to  North  Carolina,  and  with  difficulty  got  permit  from  the 
Confederate  government  to  bring  supplies  to  Richmond  for  the  destitute.  When 
distribution  had  been  partially  made,  and  looting  averted,  the  Governor  was  besieged 
by  commissary  officers,  begging  authority  to  intercept  stores  en  route  for  the  support 
of  men  in  the  field.  While  giving  audience  to  these  the  Governor's  quick  ear  caught 
the  sound  of  the  voice  of  his  faithful  porter  at  the  door,  saying:  "  He's  engaged 
now,  and  cannot  be  seen."  In  an  instant  that  eye,  which  blazed  fiercely  in  battle, 
kindled  with  pleasure  at  sight  of  woman,  and  he  exclaimed: 

"Make  way,  gentlemen,  for  a  lady." 

In  an  instant  a  queenly  figure  in  faded  calico  was  face  to  face  with  the  old  hero. 

"I  wish  to  see  my  governor,"  said  she,  bewildered  by  the  lace  on  a  score  of 
uniforms,  and  emphasizing  the  pronoun. 

"I  amjw  governor"  he  blandly  responded.     "What  can  I  do  for  you?  " 

Courteously  she  said:  "My  husband  is  dead.  I  have  six  children,  the  oldest 
not  large  enough  to  help  me  labor.  During  these  years  of  war  I  have  cultivated  a 
garden,  raised  a  few  fowls,  and  carted  my  produce  to  this  city  to  exchange  for 
necessities  of  life.  Officers  have  pressed  my  old  horse,  soldiers  robbed  my  coops 
and  garden.  I  have  nothing  left  and  my  children  are  hungry.  I  have  walked  seven 
miles  to  ask  my  Governor  what  I  am  to  do?  " 

Touched  by  her  simple  appeal,  the  old  Governor  gave  her  a  note  to  the  mistress 
of  the  Executive  mansion  to  divide  family  stores,  and  sent  an  escort  with  her. 
Doubtless  that  widow  was  one  of  the  many  thousands  who  pressed  forward  to  gaze 
on  the  rigid  features  of  the  kindly  old  hero,  when  his  body  lay  in  state  at  the  capitol 
waiting  interment. 


TO  THE    VOTERS  OF  THE    SEVENTH  CONGRESSIONAL    DISTRICT. 

FELLOW  Citizens: — Having  been  repeatedly  requested  by  many  of  you  to  be- 
come a  candidate  for  congress,  and  being  fully  satisfied  that  I  am  your  choice,  I 
hereby  announce  my  willingness  to  serve  you  should  it  be  your  pleasure  to  elect 
me.  In  thus  announcing  myself,  gentlemen,  unqualifiedly  a  candidate  for  your  suf- 
frages, I  am  not  insensible  to  the  fact  that  there  are  some  of  you  in  favor  of  select- 
ing a  candidate  through  the  agency  of  a  convention.  But,  believing  as  I  do,  that 
few  of  you  require  any  such  means  of  ascertaining  your  preference,  I  put  myself  at 
once  before  you  in  accordance  with  the  usages  of  our  Fathers. 

Fellow-citizens,  the  Constitution  contemplates  your  meeting  at  the  polls,  and, 
in  the  face  of  God  and  your  country  recording  your  suffrages.  It  requires  that  you 
should  come  in  your  sovereign  might  and  speak  out  your  will  "viva  voce."  Any 
mode  by  which  a/Wo  of  you  undertake  to  prescribe  who  shall  be  supported  by  ALL 
is  in  derogation  to  the  true  theory  of  the  Constitution  and  should  not  be  resorted  to 
except  from  plain  and  palpable  necessity.  A  resort  to  the  system,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  on  every  occasion,  will  inevitably  place  in  the  hands  of  managing  cliques 
the  substantial  power  of  popular  sovereignty,  and  gradually  introduce  an  all-pervad- 
ing corruption.  In  New  York  this  system  universally  prevails;  and  hence  that 
numerous  class  of  trading  politicians  for  which  the  Empire  State  is  distinguished, 
and  which  has  given  to  her  politics,  in  the  general  opinion  of  the  country,  the 
character  of  universal  corruption.  Nor  has  the  system  ever  had  the  advantage  of 
securing  unity  in  the  action  of  her  political  parties  as  we  have  had  cause  deeply  to 
lament,  in  the  loss  of  that  State  to  the  Democratic  party  on  several  important  occa- 
sions. Who  would  wish  to  see  such  a  system  of  party  tactics  introduced  here?  Who 
would  desire  to  resort  to  an  admitted  evil  without  necessity  to  justify  it,  an  evil  too 
which  may  impair,  if  not  destroy,  the  vital  spirit  of  our  institutions? 

But,  fellow-citizens,  while  I  deprecate   conventions  called  without  necessity,  I 


201 

am  for  them  when  such  necessity  exists.     Does  that  necessity  exist  now?     I  think 

not.     You  have  a  strong  Democratic   majority.      No  Whig  will  be  in   the  field in 

any  event,  you  must  have  a  representative  of  your  opinions,  and,  in  addition, 
you  will  be  able,  by  going  to  the  polls  without  a  convention,  undoubtedly  to  have 
your  choice  for  your  representative.  A  convention  can  do  no  more— it  may  do  less, 
by  selecting  one  for  your  candidate  with  a  preference,  on  your  part  for  another. 
It  may  be  said  that  a  convention  may  prevent  heart-burning,  ill-will  and  strife.  I 
think  there  can  be  nothing  in  this  view  of  the  subject,  as  experience  proves  that  a 
convention,  unnecessarily  called,  is  more  apt  to  produce  than  prevent  them.  Even 
the  convention  proposed  for  you,  is  patronized  by  some  with  a  hope  that  it  may  be 
unable  to  agree  in  a  selection  for  those  placed  in  nomination,  and  that  some  gentle- 
man, not  known  as  a  candidate,  may  be  selected  as  your  representative.  But  it  may 
be  said  that  a  convention  is  necessary  to  compare  the  claims  and  pretentions  of 
those  aspiring  to  represent  you.  Fellow-citizens,  at  no  place  can  this  be  so  safely 
done  as  at  the  polls.  Without  the  fear  of  a  convention,  however  formed,  I  confess 
my  experience  teaches  me  to  prefer  the  grand  convention  of  the  people.  There, 
all  can  be  heard — justice  will  be  done  and  no  murmur  of  discontent  will  disturb  the 
general  satisfaction  which  must  be  felt  at  the  wisdom  of  your  selection.  These  are 
my  views,  but  if  yours  are  different,  if  you,  the  PEOPLE  prefer  to  sit  in  convention 
previous  to  the  election,  yours  is  the  right    and  mine  the  duty  of  submission. 

Fellow-citizens:  In  looking  over  the  field  of  my  past  life,  I  see  an  unbroken 
consistency  of  political  opinion  and  public  conduct.  In  the  dark  hours  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  I  was  ever  faithful  amongst  the  faithless.  When  leader  after  leader 
abandoned  the  Democratic  standard,  and  Gen.  Jackson  was  unable  to  preserve  our 
ranks  unbroken,  I  sympathized  with  the  distress  that  agitated  your  bosoms  and  un- 
shrinkingly battled  for  your  cause.  In  subsequent  periods  of  gloom  and  disaster, 
you  called  me  ever,  to  the  field  of  strife,  and  with  all  the  deep  energy  of  my  nature, 
regardless  of  the  great  sacrifice  it  involved,  I  struggled  and  toiled  at  your  bidding. 

It  is  pleasant  for  me  to  look  back  upon  these  fields,  but  it  is  said  they  dwell  not 
in  your  memory;  that  time  has  already  swept  them  away,  and  that  you  are  disposed 
to  take  up  new  men,  not  yet  proven  in  the  stricken  field;  I  DO  not  believe  it;  and 
yet  desire  to  know  how  the  memories  of  the  past  are  appreciated  at  present.  I  wish 
to  see  you  vindicate  yourselves,  not  coldly,  but  ardently,  against  what  I  regard  an 
imputation.  But,  above  all,  I  expect  you  to  give  unmistakable  evidence  of  your 
sense  of  justice,  and  your  determination  properly  to  appreciate  those  who,  in  a 
generous  and  devoted  spirit,  yield  to  your  calls,  and  dedicate  themselves  to  your 
service. 

Fellow-citizens:  I  shall  meet  you  at  your  respective  courts,  and  in  the  mean 
time,  will  merely  remark,  that  I  feel  full  confidence  that  the  WILL  you  may  express 
on  the  fourth  Thursday  of  May  next,  will  not  only  command  general  approbation, 
but  give  new  evidence  of  the  sensibility  and  justice  of  a  free  and  enlightened  people. 

April,  1853.  William  Smith. 

The  effect  of  this  address  was  to  silence,  almost,  all  opposition  and  disaffection 
toward  the  Governor  within  his  own  party,  and  to  triumphantly  elect  him  over  the 
combined  opposition  and  alliance  of  both  Whig  and  Democrat.  The  people  declined 
to  call  a  convention.  

Warrenton,  Va.,  November  25,  1856. 
Hon .  James  Buchanan  : 

Dear  Sir: — I  suppose  I  may  now  congratulate  you  on  our  glorious  success  in 
your  election  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States.  A  success,  which  I  firmly 
believe  could  not  have  been  accomplished  under  the  leadership  of  any  other  mem- 
ber of  our  great  party.  I  took  my  grounds  upwards  of  a  year  ago,  when,  at  the  State 
Fair  of  Virginia,  I  declared  against  any  Southern  candidate,  particularly  any  from 
Virginia,  and  for  you  as  the  only  man  who  could  be  elected.  As  my  district  and 
state  came  fully  up  to  my  expectations,  as  did  the  entire  South,  with  the  exception  of 


202 

Maryland;  and  as  my  chief  disappointment  was  in  the  free  States,  I  think  I  may 
indulge  in  some  little  self-gratulation.  But,  enough  of  this.  You  are  successful  after 
a  great  and  doubtful  struggle,  and  I  heartily  rejoice  at  it.  May  your  administration 
be  distinguished,  as  I  believe  it  will  be,  for  its  patriotic  success  in  advancing  the 
true  interests  of  our  great  confederation  of  co-equal  and  sovereign  States. 

I  have  been  much  solicited  by  many  of  your  sincere  and  unambitious  friends  to 
write  you  fully  and  frankly,  especially  of  Virginia,  but  I  have  declined  it.  I,  how- 
ever, yield  to  their  wish  so  far  as  to  express  the  general  hope  that  you  will  firmly 
plant  yourself  upon  the  Constitution,  recognize  in  its  construction  the  doctrine  of  Mr. 
Madison's  report;  call  around  you  old,  tried,  conservative  Democrats;  avoid  all 
interference  with  State  politics;  use  the  appointing  power  solely  with  the  view  to  the 
public  service,  and  select  no  one  for  appointment  to  office  who  cannot  respond 
affirmatively  to  the  enquiry  "Is  he  honest,  is  he  capable,  is  he  faithful  to  the  Con- 
stitution?" Upon  such  principles  the  South  may  be  counted  on;  upon  such  princi- 
ples, it  is  hoped,  the  conservative  men  of  the  free  States  will  co-operate,  and  in  this 
way  the  Union  be  preserved  beyond  your  administration.  I  have  said  that  it 
is  hoped  you  will  call  around  you  old,  tried,  conservative  Democrats;  this  is  deemed 
of  the  highest  importance.  A  cabinet  of  such  men  would  indicate  a  marked  policy, 
and  at  once  command  the  confidence  of  the  country.  Nor,  would  such  a  policy  be 
any  wrong  to  our  new  men.  They  should  not  expect  any  but  subordinate  places, 
and  the  appointment  of  them  to  such,  will  meet  all  the  claims  of  a  just  and  discrete 
policy  and  fully  satisfy  the  sentiment  of  the  country.  It  is  earnestly  hoped  that  you 
may  adopt  this  policy  in  reference  to  any  appointments  you  may  make  from  Virginia, 
as  it  will  soothe  the  irritations  superinduced  by  a  different  policy  which  has  hereto- 
fore prevailed  among  us,  and  especially  soothe  the  regrets  occasioned  by  your 
Pacific  R.  R.  letter.  Our  thinking  men  regard  the  policy  above  indicated  as  appro- 
priately representing  the  strength  and  dignity  of  a  great  constitutional  power,  and 
as  a  true  way  to  rally  all  those  who  sincerely  desire  to  preserve  our  great  republic; 
any  other  course,  it  is  thought,  will  make  of  our  government  a  rickety  concern,  sub- 
ject to  frequent  convulsions,  to  end,  inevitably,  in  early  dissolution.  The  cabinet  of 
President  Pierce  and  his  administration  of  the  patronage  of  the  government,  are 
frequently  referred  to  as  a  beacon  and  a  warning. 

It  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  we  have  those  among  us  who  are  for  an  immediate 
dissolution  of  the  Union.  They  are  not  so  powerful  in  numbers  as  in  intellect  and 
will.  But,  embracing,  as  they  do,  a  large  number  of  our  politicians  and  many  of  our 
most  intelligent  and  substantial  people,  they  are  by  no  means  to  be  despised.  Still, 
the  great  body  of  the  people  are  loyal  to  the  Union,  as  yet,  and  will  continue  so  if  let 
alone  and  permitted  to  enjoy  in  peace,  the  rights  and  blessings,  the  Union  was  formed 
to  secure. 

With  my  best  wishes  for  the  preservation  of  our  great  confederacy,  and  of  your 
successful  administration  of  affairs,  I  remain  sincerely  and  truly, 

Your  friend,  William  Smith. 


The  Commonwealth  ok  Virginma,  to  William  Smii-h,  Greeting: 

Know   you,   that  from   special    trust   and    confidence    reposed    in    your    fidelity, 

courage  and  good  conduct,  our  governor,  in  pursuance  of  the  authority  vested  in  hint 

by  an  ordinance  of  the  convention  of  the  State  of   Virginia,  doth   commis-ion   you  a 

Colonel  in  the  active  volunteer  forces  of  the  State,  to  rank  as  such  from  the  27th  day 

of  June,  1861. 

In    testimony  whereof,    I   have   hereunto    signed    my    name    as    Covernor,    and 

caused  the  seal  of  the  commonwealth  to  be  affixed,  this  27th  day  of  June,  1861. 
[seal]  John   I.ktcher. 

State   of  Virginia,  City  of  Richmond,  To  wit: 

I,  R.  M.  Burton,  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  in  and  for  the  city  aforesaid,  do  certify  that 
William  Smith  has  this  day  personally  appeared  before  me  in  my  city,  aforesaid,  and 
qualified  to  the  within  commission  by  taking  the  several  oaths  prescribed  by  law. 

Given  under  my  hand  this  iotli  day  of  July,  1861. 

R.  M.  Burton,  Justice  of  the  Peace. 


203 

General    Orders    and    Messages    Relative    to    the 
Evacuation  of   Richmond,  Etc. 

Executive  Department  of  Virginia,  | 
Danville,  April  n,  1865.         j 

To  Lieutenant -General  U.  S.  Grant,  Commanding  U.  S.  Forces: 

General: — The  government  of  Virginia,  of  which  I  am  the  executive  head,  is, 
for  the  present,  located  in  this  town,  elected  by  the  people,  under  a  recognized  state 
constitution;  and,  in  conformity  to  the  laws  of  the  commonwealth,  it  is  my  duty  to 
look  to  the  interests  of  her  people  to  the  best  of  my  ability.  In  view  of  the  reported 
surrender  of  General  Lee,  and  in  ignorance  of  its  terms,  I  respectfully  propound  the 
following  questions: 

Will  the  State  government,  represented  by  me,  be  superceded  by  a  military  or 
civil  organization  under  your  authority,  or  that  of  the  Federal  government?  Will 
the  State  officials  of  the  Virginia  government  be  subject  to  military  arrest,  and  will 
they  be  allowed,  peaceably,  to  leave  the  State  for  Europe,  should  they  desire  to 
do  so? 

I  send  this  dispatch  in  charge  of  my  aid,  Lt. -Colonel  P.  Bell  Smith,  and  Wm.  D. 
Coleman,  Esq.,  of  this   town,  who  will  receive  your  reply,  which  I  respectfully  ask. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  General, 

Respectfully  your  obedient  servant,  William  Smith. 

Headquarters  Army  of  the  Potomac,  April  14,  1865. 
To  His  Excellency,   William  Smith,  Danville,   Va. 

Dear  Sir — Your  letter  to  Lieutenant-General  U.  S.  Grant,  brought  by  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Smith  and  C.  D.  Coleman,  was  received  by  me  and  duly  presented  to 
Lieutenant-General  Grant. 

I  have  to-day  received  a  dispatch  from  Lieutenant-General  Grant  stating  he 
has,  at  present,  no  reply  to  make  to  your  letter,  and  should  he  hereafter  have  one, 
it  will  be  presented  to  you  by  special  messenger. 

Very  respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 

George  G.  Meade,  Maj.-Gen.  U.  S.  A. 

Near  Lynchburg,  May  15th,  1865. 
To  Major-  General  Halleck,  Commanding   Divison  of  the  James: 

Sir — Since  the  evacuation  of  Richmond  and  the  surrender  of  General  Lee,  I 
have  considered  the  war  as  practically  at  an  end  in  Virginia,  at  least  under  that  con- 
viction, I  have  diligently  addressed  myself  to  the  duty  of  preserving  public  order  ; 
have  sought  to  ascertain  the  sentiment  of  the  people,  and  I  have  endeavored  to 
obtain  from  General  Grant  a  knowledge  of  the  conclusion  of  the  Federal  authorities 
as  to  the  civil  officers  of  the  State  government  of  which  I  am  the  executive  head.  In 
the  absence  of  the  military,  I  am  satisfied  that  the  civil  authority  is  competent  to  its 
chief  function.  I  know  the  great  body  of  the  people  have  made  up  their  minds  to 
conform  in  good  faith  to  the  new  order  of  circumstances.  Nor  have  I  received  the 
information  sought  from  General  Grant,  or  been  enabled  to  obtain  it  from  your 
general  orders — if  they  furnish  it — in  the  absence  of  mails,  etc.  I  am  gratified  to 
believe,  however,  from  what  I  can  learn,  that  the  officers  referred  to  have  been  uni- 
formly treated  with  forbearance,  at  least.  Will  that  forbearance  be  extended  to  me? 
I  put  the  question  frankly,  General,  and  will  be  governed  by  your  reply. 

I  am  bound  by  the  obligations  of  my  position  to  promote  the  interests  of  the 
people  who  have  honored  me,  and  I  am  consequently  deeply  anxious,  under  the 
circumstances,  for  the  pacification  of  the  State,  and  the  restoration  to  her  civil  rights, 
and    to  her  political   relations.     Should   a  similar  disposition    animate  the  Federal 


204 

authorities,  as  may  surely  be  expected,  then  we  may  cherish  with  confidence,  the 
hope  that  the  wound,  inflamed  by  the  war  just  closed,  will  be  speedily  healed. 

My  Aid,  Lieutenant-Colonel  P.  Bell  Smith,  will  deliver  this  letter,  to  whom  I 
respectfully  ask  you  to  entrust  your  reply. 

I  have  the  honor  to  subscribe  myself  with  high  consideration, 

Your  obedient  servant,  William  Smith. 

Lexington,  Va.,  May,  1865. 
Jno.  R.  Tucker,  Esq.,  Attorney  General  Virginia: 

Dear  Sir: — I  have  yours  by  Mr.  McDonald,  and  in  reply,  say  that  we  have  to 
recognize  the  unhappy  fact  that  armed  resistance  to  Federal  power  is  at  an  end;  that, 
as  yet,  the  developed  policy  of  our  adversities  will  not  justify  us  (to  ourselves)  in 
appealing  to  partisan  operations  or  war,  the  true  mode  of  conducting  resistance  by  a 
weak  against  a  strong  power;  that  a  return  to  the  Federal  Union  is  a  necessity, 
which  we  must  accept,  and  being  a  necessity,  involves  no  abandonment  of  princi- 
ples or  sacrifice  of  rights;  that  if  we  return  to  the  Federal  Union  as  a  necessity,  good 
faith  requires  us  to  cherish  the  restored  relation  until  acts  of  wrong  and  oppression 
shall  warrant  us  in  discarding  it;  that,  of  course,  we  cannot  refuse  to  take  an  oath  to 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  Union  of  which  we  are  a  part,  and  as  long  as  we 
remain  such,  to  accept  as  binding  and  obligatory,  the  exposition  thereof,  by  the 
Supreme  Court;  and  that  the  modified  oath  (which  I  have  just  seen)  is  nothing  more, 
although  abounding  in  useless  and  (to  many)  irritating  verbiage. 

I  send  you  a  copy  of  my  note  to  General  Grant,  to  which  I  have  received  no 
reply  except  the  note  of  General  Mead;  a  copy  of  my  proclamation  to  the  people,  and 
of  my  letter  to  President  Johnson,  (which  you  must  regard,  for  the  present,»as  strictly 
private,  as  I  have  not,  as  yet,  heard  from  it)  that  you  may  see  what  I  have  been 
doing. 

My  own  situation  is  this:  As  Governor  of  the  State,  with  my  field  of  duty 
restricted  to  her  limits,  I  am  here,  and  have  to  remain,  to  protect  her  interests,  to 
promote  her  prosperity,  and  to  share  her  fate.  I  have  heretofore  freely  periled  life 
and  fortune  in  her  service;  and  all  that  is  left,  a  brief  span  of  life,  is  hers  and  will 
be  gladly  yielded  up  if  needed  or  required. 

I  look  for,  but  see  not,  the  silver  streak  across  the  dark  cloud  of  our  fortunes, 
but  I  yet  hope  God  will  not  permit  our  good,  noble  old  commonwealth  to  pass  into 
the  memory  of  the  things  which  are  past.     With  my  best  wishes,  I  am 
Yours  very  truly, 

(Signed)  William  Smith. 

Richmond,  Va.,  7th  April,  1865. 
General  Joseph  R.  Anderson,  and  others,  Committee,  etc.  : 

GENTLEMEN — I  have  had.  since  the  evacuation  of  Richmond,  two  conversations 
with  Mr.  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States.  My  object  was  to  secure  for  the 
citizens  of  Richmond  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  who  had  come 
under  the  military  authority  of  the  United  States,  as  much  gentleness  and  forbear- 
ance as  could  be  possibly  extended. 

The  conversations  had  relation  to  the  establishment  of  a  government  for  Virginia, 
the  requirement  of  oaths  of  allegiance  from  the  citizens  and  the  terms  of  settlement 
with  the  United  States.  With  the  concurrence  and  sanction  of  General  Weitzell,  he 
assented  to  the  application  not  to  require  oaths  of  allegiance  from  the  citizens. 

He  stated  that  he  would  send  to  General  Weitzell  his  decision  upon  the  question  of 
a  government  for  Virginia.  This  letter  was  received  on  Thursday  and  was  read  by 
me.  It  authorized  General  Weitzell  to  grant  a  safe  conduct  to  the  Legislature  of 
Virginia  to  meet  at  Richmond,  to  deliberate  and  to  return  to  their  homes  at  the  end 
of  their  session.     I  am  informed  by  General  Weitzell   that  he  will   issue  whatever 


205 

orders  that  may  be  necessary,  and  will  furnish  all  the  facilities  of  transportation  etc. 
to  the  members  of  the  legislature  to  meet  in  this  city;  and  that  the  Governor,  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, and  public  men  of  the  State,  will  be  included  in  the  orders.  The 
object  of  the  invitation  is  for  the  Government  of  Virginia  to  determine  whether  they 
will  administer  the  laws  in  connection  with  the  authorities  of  the  United  States  and 
under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  understood  from  Mr.  Lincoln,  if  this 
condition  be  fulfilled  that  no  attempt  would  be  made  to  establish  or  sustain  any  other 
authority. 

My  conversation  with  President  Lincoln  upon  the  terms  of  a  settlement  was 
answered  in  writing — that  is,  he  left  with  me  a  written  memorandum  of  the  substance 
of  his  answers. 

He  states  as  indispensable  conditions  of  a  settlement,  the  restoration  of  the 
authority  of  the  United  States  over  the  whole  of  the  States,  and  the  cessation 
of  hostilities  by  the  disbanding  of  the  army,  and  that  there  shall  be  no  reced- 
ing on  the  part  of  the  Executive  from  his  position  on  the  slavery  question.  The 
latter  proposition  was  explained  to  mean,  that  the  Executive  action  on  the  subject  of 
slavery,  so  far  as  it  had  been  declared  in  messages,  proclamations  and  other  official 
acts,  must  pass  for  what  they  were  worth;  that  he  would  not  recede  from  his  position. 
But  that  this  would  not  debar  action  by  other  authorities  of  the  government. 

I  suppose  that  if  the  proclamation  of  the  President  be  valid  as  law,  that  it  has 
already  operated  and  vested  rights. 

I  believe  that  full  confidence  may  be  placed  in  General  Weitzel's  fulfillment  of 
his  promises  to  afford  facilities  to  the  legislature,  and  that  its  members  may  return 
after  they  have  concluded  their  business,  without  interruption. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  in  his  memorandum,  referred  to  what  would  be  his  action  under 
the  confiscation  acts.  He  stated  that  where  the  property  had  not  been  condemned 
and  sold,  that  he  would  make  a  universal  release  of  the  forfeitures  that  had  been 
incurred  in  any  State  which  would  now  promptly  recognize  the  authority  of  the 
United  States,  and  withdraw  its  troops.  But  that  if  the  war  be  persisted  in,  that  the 
confiscated  property  must  be  regarded  as  a  resource  from  which  the  expenses  of  the 
war  might  be  supported. 

His  memorandum  contains  no  article  upon  the  penalties  imposed  upon  persons, 
but  in  his  oral  communications  he  intimated  that  there  was  scarcely  any  one  who. 
might  not  have  a  discharge  upon  the  asking. 

I  understood  from  the  statement,  though  the  words  did  not  exactly  imply  it,  that 
a  universal  amnesty  would  be  granted  if  peace  were  now  concluded. 

In  my  intercourse  I  strongly  urged  the  propriety  of  an  armistice.  This  was 
done  after  the  preparation  of  his  memorandum.  He  agreed  to  consider  the  subject, 
but  no  answer  has  been  received.  I  suppose  that  if  he  assents,  that  the  matter  will 
be  decided  and  executed  between  Generals  Grant  and  Lee. 

Very  respectfully  yours,  J.  A.  Campbell. 

Published  at  the  Jeffersonian  Office,  Charlottesville,  from  a  copy  brought  by  a  member  of  General 

Lee's   Body  Guard. 

Headquarters,  A.  N.  Va.,  April  ioth,  1865. 
General  Order  No.  <p. 

After  four  years  of  arduous  service,  marked  by  unsurpassed  courage  and  forti- 
tude, the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  has  been  compelled  to  yield  to  overwhelming 
numbers  and  resources. 

I  need  not  tell  the  brave  survivors  of  so  many  hard  fought  battles  who  have 
remained  steadfast  to  the  last,  that  I  have  consented  to  the  result  from  no  distrust  of 
them.  But  feeling  that  valor  and  devotion  could  accomplish  nothing  that  would 
compensate  for  the  loss  that  must  have  attended  the  continuance  of  the  contest,  I 
determined  to  avoid  the  sacrifice  of  those  whose  past  services  have  endeared  them  to. 
their  countrymen. 


20G 

By  the  terms  of  the  agreement  officers  and  men  can  return  to  their  homes  and 
remain  until  exchanged.  You  will  take  with  you  the  satisfaction  that  proceeds  from 
the  conciousness  of  duty  faithfully  performed;  and  I  earnestly  pray  that  a  merciful 
God  will  extend  to  you  his  blessing  and  protection.  With  an  unceasing  admiration 
of  your  constancy  and  devotion  to  your  country,  and  a  grateful  remembrance  of 
your  kind  and  generous  consideration  of  myself,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell. 

R.  E.  Lee,  General. 
(Copy.) 

Headquarters  Army  of  the  United  States,  April  9th,  1865. 

To  General  R.  E.  Lee,  Commanding  C.  S.  Army  : 

General— In  accordance  with  the  substance  of  my  letter  to  you  of  the  8th 
inst.,  I  propose  to  receive  the  surrender  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  on  the 
following  terms,  to  wit:  Rolls  of  officers  and  men  to  be  made  in  duplicate;  one  copy 
to  be  given  to  an  officer  to  be  designated  by  me,  the  other  to  be  retained  by  such 
officer  or  officers  as  you  may  designate.  The  officers  give  their  individual  parole 
not  to  take  up  arms  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States  until  properly 
exchanged;  and  each  company  and  regimental  commandant  to  sign  a  like  parole  for 
the  men  of  their  commands.  The  arms,  artillery  and  public  property  to  be  stacked 
and  parked  and  turned  over  to  the  officers  appointed  by  me  to  receive  them.  This 
will  not  embrace  the  side  arms  of  the  officers,  or  their  private  horses  or  baggage. 
This  done,  each  officer  and  man  will  be  allowed  to  return  to  their  homes,  not  to  be 
disturbed  by  the  United  States  authorities  as  long  as  they  observe  their  paroles  and 
the  laws  in  force  where  they  reside. 

Very  respectfully, 

U.  S.  Grant,  Lt.-Gen.  Commanding  U.  S.  A. 

Headquarters  Military  Governor  of  Richmond,  j 

April  9th,  1865.  j 

By  authority  from  the  President  of  the  United  States,  permission -is  hereby  given 
to  Governor  William  Smith,  of  Virginia,  to  come  within  the  lines  of  the  Army  of  the 
United  States  to  Richmond,  and  remain  until  further  orders.  All  officers  and 
soldiers  of  the  army  will  give  him  safe  conduct  and  protection.  He  will  be  free  from 
arrest  coming  and  during  the  time  he  is  allowed  to  remain  in  Richmond  and  return- 
ing to  the  place  where  he  receives  this  pass.  The  person  receiving  this  pass  hereby 
gives  his  parole  of  honor  not  to  communicate  with  the  enemy  or  to  do  any  act 
prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  the  United  States  during  the  continuance  of  this 
protection.  By  Command  of  Major-General  G.  Weitzel. 

G.  F.  Shepley,  Military  Governor  of  Richmond. 

University  of  Virginia. 

Dear  Sir — Mr.  McDonald  gives  me  an  opportunity  to  communicate  with  you. 
I  fear  the  Federal  troops  will  be  here  in  a  day  or  two  and  may  propose  the 
modified  oath.  My  relation  as  an  officer,  to  the  question,  gives  me  great  trouble, 
without  regarding  the  feelings  I  have  as  a  citizen,  and  I  have  not  decided  on  my 
course  of  action.  If  you  can  let  me  know  what  are  the  views  of  the  executive,  and 
what  is  proposed,  I  shall  be  obliged  to  you. 

I  am  satisfied  the  struggle  is  over,  and  what  will  be  for  us  is  a  question  which  I 
fear  we  can  neither  control  nor  influence  in  the  official  position.  \Yhether  I  will  be 
arrested  I  know  not,  nor  can  even  conjecture;  but  I  shall  abide  here  with  my  family. 

I  shall  submit  to  the  will  of  God  with  all  the  resignation  of  spirit  I  may  command, 
but  the  calamity  which  has  come  on  the  commonwealth,  is  beyond  all  the  griefs, 
private  or  public,  which  I  could  have  conceived  as  possible. 

The  action  of  citizens  of  Richmond  vou  will  have  seen. 


207 

Have  you  communicated  with  the  Federal  authorities  on  the  subject  of  our  state 
organization;  and  had  you  not  better  make  a  deputation  to  present  the  rights  of  the 
government  of  Virginia. 

In  the  respect  of  a  common  misfortune  I  am  very  truly  yours, 

J.  R.  Tucker. 

Governor  Smith.  May  8,  1865. 

Charlottesville,  April  15,  1865. 
My  Dear  Sir — I   have  read  the  letter  of  Judge  J.  A.  Campbell,  a  copy  of  which 
will  be  handed  you  with  this  letter. 

I  need  only  say,  that  in  the  present  crisis  of  the  affairs  of  the  commonwealth,  I 
am  clearly  of  opinion,  and  therfore  advise,  that  the  legislature  of  Virginia  be  con- 
vened at  Richmond  at  the  earliest  practicable  day,  to  deliberate  upon  the  interests  of 
the  people  of  the  state.  I  do  this  in  order  that  you  may  act  upon  my  official  advice, 
and  that  I  may  thus  share  with  you  the  responsibility  of  the  proposed  action. 

I  am  with  high  respect, 

J.  R.  Tucker. 
Governor  William  Smith. 

I  have  seen  your   passport,   but  do  not  send  it   because  it   may  be  sent  you 

otherwise.  Yours, 

J.  R.  Tucker. 

Near  Lynchburg,  May  14,  1865. 
General  Robert  E.  Lee: 

Dear  Sir — Amid  the  distress  and  perplexities  of  my  situation,  I  have  concluded 
to  address  you  this  letter  with  a  view  to  obtain  your  counsel  and  such  assistance  as 
you  may  be  able  to  afford. 

Enclosed  you  will  find  copies  of  sundry  papers,  which  will  explain  themselves, 
and  which  will  show  you  what  I  have  been  doing  since  the  evacuation.  From  them 
you  may  also  gather  my  view  of  the  necessities  of  our  condition  and  the  conclusion 
I  have  reached  in  reference  to  them.  I  do  not  see  how  we  can  avoid  taking  the  oath. 
The  propriety  of  my  remaining  in  Richmond  occasionally  crossed  my  mind,  but  I 
could  not  conclude  to  do  so,  as  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  foresee  eventualities, 
and  after  they  occurred  it  was  my  duty  to  wait  until  I  could  ascertain  the  temper  and 
disposition  of  our  people,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Federal  authorities.  Having  satisfied 
myself  upon  this  subject,  my  conclusions  are  to  be  found  in  my  note  to  Mr.  Tucker, 
which  comprehend,  of  course,  a  rule  for  my  own  action,  as  I  could  not  advise  others 
to  do  what  I  would  not  do  myself.  Were  I  to  take  the  oath  I  should  still,  from  what 
I  can  gather,  although  not  fully  advised  upon  it,  have  to  file  a  petition  to  the  Federal 
authorities,  which  would  be  much  the  hardest  part  of  the  trial.  Could  I  bring  myself 
to  it?  Would  not  Halleck  give  me  a  safe  conduct  to  visit  Richmond,  to  confer  with 
him  and  to  see  my  friends  ? 

I  learn,  in  my  passage  through  the  country,  that  the  Federal  troops  are  seizing 
all  the  branded  horses,  whether  of  the  United  States  or  the  Confederate  States. 
This  is  grossly  unjust,  as  the  United  States  troops  have  frequently  left  their  broken 
down  horses  in  the  places  of  those  they  took  from  the  citizens,  while  thousands  of 
broken  down  Confederate  horses  have  become  private  property  by  public  auction. 
I  hope  you  may  be  able  to  correct  this  wrong. 

Most  respectfully  and  truly  your  obedient  servant, 

William  Smith. 

Near  Cartersville,  Va.,  May  20,  1865. 
Major -General  Helleck,  Commanding,  etc.: 

Sir — Having  exercised  the  executive  power  of  the  state  government  of  Virginia, 
under  an  election  by  the  people,  from  the  1st  of  January,  1864,  until   General  Lee's 


208 

surrender,  and  since,  only  with  the  view  to  the  preservation  of  public  order;  and 
having  endeavored,  in  vain,  through  a  note  to  General  Grant  and  a  communication 
to  President  Johnson,  to  learn  the  views  of  the  Federal  authorities,  and  having 
recently  seen  that  to  Governor  Pierpont  has  been  assigned  the  duty  of  reorganizing 
the  state  government,  I  have  concluded  to  address  you  this  communication,  to  which 
I  respectfully  ask  a  reply. 

Since  the  evacuation  of  Richmond  I  have  mixed  freely  with  large  numbers  of 
my  fellow  citizens,  and  I  am  perfectly  satisfied  that  the  general  opinion  is  to  yield, 
without  further  resistance,  to  the  necessity  they  are  under,  and  to  accept,  in  good 
faith,  the  new  order  of  things  which,  they  understand  is  proposed  for  them.  I  have 
advocated  and  labored  to  strengthen  such  opinion.  My  highest  duty  to  the  people, 
who  have  so  much  honored  me,  is  to  hasten  forward,  by  precept  and  example,  the 
pacification  of  the  state;  and.  as  I  have,  so  I  still  propose  honestly  to  perform  this  duty. 
Although  Governor  Pierpont  is  not  placed  in  authority  by  vote  of  the  people,  but  by 
a  power  they  cannot  resist,  he  will  meet  with  no  faction's  opposition.  The  grand  duty 
of  pacification  and  re-adjustment,  in  conformity  with  the  Federal  constitution,  being, 
under  the  circumstances,  paramount  to  all  others. 

With  these  views  I  was  prepared  to  take  the  amnesty-oath  to  support  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  and  should  have  visited  Richmond  before  this,  for  the 
purpose;  but  I  have  just  learnt  that  a  reward  is  offered  for  my  arrest,  and  am 
induced  to  apprehend,  that  were  I  to  fulfil  my  original  intention,  I  should  be  im- 
prisoned. Now,  I  am  too  old  (being  in  my  sixty-eighth  year)  to  be  confined,  with- 
out great  damage  to  my  health;  but  if  it  be  the  desire  of  the  Federal  government  to 
have  control  of  my  person,  I  will,  by  permission,  retire  to  my  home  in  Fauquier 
county,  and  will,  also,  give  bond  and  security  promptly  to  respond  to  the  requisition 
of  the  Federal  authority.     I  trust  this  will  be  satisfactory. 

I  beg,  General,  you  will  believe  I  have  written  what  I  mean  in  the  spirit  of 
frankness  and  sincerity,  which,  I  think,  has  characterized  my  long  and  somewhat 
eventful  life. 

My  son,  Lieutenant-Colonel  .Smith,  who  has  been  paroled,  will  hand  you  this, 
and  will  be  pleased  to  receive  your  reply. 

I  am,  General,  most  respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 

William  Smith. 

The  following  is  the  reward  offered  for  the  arrest  of  Governor  Smith: 

Headquarters  Military  Division  of  the  James,  | 
Richmond,  Va.,  May  8,  1865.  [ 

$25,000  Reward  ! — By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  a  reward  of  $25,000  is 
hereby  offered  for  the  arrest  and  delivery  for  trial  of  William  Smith,  Rebel  Governor 
of  Virginia.  H.  W.  Halleck,  Major  General  Commanding. 

SYNOPSIS  OF  THE  AGREEMENT  BETWEEN  GENERALS   JOHNSTON  AND 

SHERMAN. 

1st.  Armistice  between  all  armies  pending  negotiations  between  the  two  govern- 
ments. 

2d.  Confederate  armies  to  be  disbanded  and  conducted  to  their  several  State 
capitols,  these  to  deposit  arms.  Each  officer  and  man  to  execute  and  file  agreement 
to  cease  from  acts  of  war,  and  to  abide  the  action  of  both  State  and  Federal  authority. 
Arms,  until  action  of  congress,  to  be  used  solely  to  maintain  peace  and  order  within 
respective  States. 

3d.  Recognition  by  the  executive  of  the  United  States  of  the  several  State 
governments  or  their  officers  and  legislatures  taking  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  and  when  conflicting  State  governments  have  resulted 


209 

from  the  war,  the  legitimacy  of  all  shall  be  submitted  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States. 

4th.  Re-establishment  of  Federal  courts  in  the  several  States. 

5th.  The  people  and  inhabitants  of  all  the  States  to  be  guaranteed,  so  far  as 
the  executive  can,  their  political  rights  and  franchises,  as  well  as  their  rights  of 
person  and  property  as  defined  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  respectively. 

6th.  The  executive  authority  of  the  United  States  government  not  to  disturb  any 
of  the  people  by  reason  of  the  late  war  so  long  as  they  live  in  peace  and  abstain 
from  acts  of  armed  hostility  and  obey  laws  in  existence  at  their  place  of  residence. 

7th.  The  war  to  cease,  a  general  amnesty  as  far  as  the  executive  can  command 
on  condition  of  the  disbandment  of  the  Confederate  armies,  the  distribution  of  the 
arms  and   resumption  of  peaceful  pursuits  of  officers  and  men  of  said  armies. 

Approved,  G.  T.  Beauregard,  Quartermaster-General. 

Respectfully  furnished  his  Excellency,  William  Smith,  Governor  of  Virginia. 

J.  E.  Johnston,  General. 

I,  William  Smith,  do  hereby  pledge  my  parole  of  honor  as  prisoner  of  war  that  I 
will  retire  to  my  home  in  Warrenton,  Fauquier  county,  and  will  remain  in  arrest  at 
that  place  until  otherwise  directed  by  the  authorities  of  the  United  States,  and  that 
on  receiving  such  directions  I  will  immediately  deliver  myself  to  the  military 
authorities  at  Washington  or  Richmond. 

Given  at  Richmond,  Va.,  June  13th,  1865.  William  Smith. 

Witness,  Albert  Ordvvay,  Lieut. -Colonel  24th  Massachusetts  ) 

Volunteer  Infantry,  Provost  Marshal  General  Department  Virginia.  J 

Provost  Marshal's  Office,  Sub-district  of  Fauquier,  | 
No.  181.  Warrenton,  Va.,  July  26th,  1865.  \ 

I  do  hereby  certify,  that  on  the  26th  day  of  July,  1865,  at  Warrenton,  Va.,  the 
oath  prescribed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  in  his  proclamation  of  May 
29th,  1865,  was  duly  taken,  subscribed  and  made  matter  of  record  by  William  Smith 
at  Warrenton,  Va. 

A.  H.  Russell,  Captain  and  Acting  Provost  Marshal. 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  D.  C,  August  30,  1865. 

Permission  is  hereby  given  to  William  Smith,  of  Virginia,  to  visit  Washington 
City,  D.  C,  and  return  to  his  home — the  visit  not  to  exceed  30  days  in  length — upon 
his  parole  of  honor  to  deport  himself  as  a  loyal  citizen  of  the  United  States. 

Andrew  Johnson,  President. 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  D.  C,  September  20,  1865. 

The  parole  heretofore  given  to  William  Smith,  of  Virginia,  is  hereby  extended  so 
as  to  allow  him  to  visit  freely  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  upon  the  same  conditions 
as  those  imposed  in  the  former  parole. 

Andrew  Johnson,  President. 

Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  D.  C,  November  9th,  1865. 

The  parole  heretofore  given  to  William  Smith,  of  Virginia,  is  hereby  extended 
so  as  to  allow  him  to  visit  freely  in  Pennsylvania,  New  York  and  West  Virginia,  upon 
the  same  conditions  as  those  imposed  in  the  former  parole. 

Andrew  Johnson,  President  United  States. 


210 

The  following  proclamation  of  Governor  Smith ;  the  order 
of  General  Munford,  and  his  letter  to  the  Governor,  are  inci- 
dents of  those  stirring-  and  eventful  times,  the  significance  of 
which  the  reader  will  at  once  comprehend. 

On  the  very  day  General  Munford  issued  his  order,  Gen- 
eral Kirby  Smith  issued  his  order  to  the  soldiers  of  the  trans- 
Mississippi  Army  in  which  he  embodied  the  following  intrepid 
and  patriotic  appeal  : 

"Great  disasters  have  overtaken  us."  The  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  and  our 
General-in-Chief  are  prisoners  of  War.  With  you  rest  the  hopes  of  our  Nation;  and 
upon  you  depends  the  fate  of  our  people.  *****  Prove  to  the  world  that 
your  hearts  have  not  failed  in  the  hour  of  disaster.  *****  Stand  by  your 
colors;  maintain  your  discipline.  The  great  resources  of  this  department,  its  vast  ex- 
tent; the  numbers,  the  discipline,  and  the  efficiency  of  the  army,  will  secure  to  our 
country  terms  that  a  proud  people  can,  with  honor,  accept." 

Mr.  Davis  says  in  his  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate 
Government,"  that  General  Magruder,  with  like  heroic  determ- 
ination invoked  the  troops  and  people  of  Texas,  not  to  de- 
spond, and  asserted  his  ability  to  carry  on  the  war  indefinitely. 

The  President  of  the  Confederate  States,  who  did  not  know 
how  to  surrender,  evidently  approved  this  plan  of  these  offi- 
cers ;  and  as  late  as  the  nth  of  May,  1865,  when  the  last 
army,  east  of  the  Mississippi  had  surrendered,  but  before 
Kirby  Smith  had  entered  into  terms,  the  enemy  attacked  a 
little  Confederate  encampment,  captured  and  burned  it ;  but 
"  was  so  intent  upon  plunder,"  that  General  Slaughter  moved 
against  it,  and  drove  it  back  with  considerable  loss. 

This,  says  Mr.  Davis,  was  the  "  last  armed  conflict  of  the 
war,"  and  deserves  notice  as  having  closed  the  lono-  strucro-le 
— as  it  opened — with  a  Confederate  victory." 


PROCLAMATION  BY  THE  GOVERNOR. 

State  of  Virginia,  Executive  Department,  | 
Danville,  April  20,  1865.  j 

In  consequence  of  the  occupation  of  the  Capital  of  the  State  by  the  forces  of  the 
United  States  and  the  surrender  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  numerous  evil- 
disposed  persons,  associated  in  bands  and  small  parties,  embrace  the  unhappy  oppor- 
tunity to  inflict  upon  the  persons  and  property  of  the  good  people  of  the  Common- 
wealth such  outrages  as  threaten  the  destruction  of  all  social  order.  This  deplorable 
state  of  things  makes  it  indispensable  that'all  good  citizens  should  thoroughly  organ- 
ize for  the  suppression  of  lawlessness  and  for  the  enforcement  of  the  laws. 

Therefore,  I,  WILLIAM  SMITH,  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  do  hereby 
command  the  Sheriffs  and  other  civil  officers  of  the  several  cities,  towns  and  counties 


211 

to  proceed,  with  all  despatch,  to  organize  the  citizens  thereof,  with  a  view  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  laws  and  the  preservation  of  order.  It  is  enjoined  upon  all  per- 
sons to  be  active  in  the  performance  of  all  these  duties.  The  Sheriffs  are  authorized 
and  required  to  collect  from  citizens  and  others,  in  their  respective  counties,  such 
public  arms  as  they  may  find  necessary  for  the  purposes  indicated. 

Persons  passing  through  the  country  are  advised  to  demean  themselves  in  a  quiet 
and  orderly  manner  and  to  return  to  their  homes  without  delay;  there  to  await 
further  developments  and  information.  And  in  the  meanwhile,  all  citizens  are  en- 
joined to  resume  their  ordinary  avocations  and  pursue  the  same  with  energy  and 
industry. 

Never  in  the  history  of  Virginia  have  such  claims  been  made  upon  the  fortitude, 
love  of  order,  good  sense  and  courage  of  our  people,  and  it  is  hoped  and  confidently 
believed  that  those  high  qualities  will  not  be  wanting  on  the  present  trying  occasion. 

WILLIAM  SMITH. 

Headquarters  Munford's  Cav.  Brig,  j 
April  21,  1865.  j 

Special  Orders,  No.  6. 

Soldiers — I  have  just  received  a  communication  from  the  President  of  the 
Confederate  States,  ordering  us  again  to  the  field  in  defence  of  our  liberties.  General 
Johnston,  with  an  army  constantly  increasing,  well  appointed  and  disciplined,  still 
upholds  our  glorious  banner,  and  we  are  ordered  to  report  to  him.  Our  cause  is  not 
dead.  Let  the  same  stern  determination  to  be  free,  which  has  supported  you  for 
four  years  of  gallant  struggle,  still  animate  you,  and  it  can  never  die.  One  disaster, 
however  serious,  cannot  crush  out  the  spirit  of  Virginians,  and  make  them  tamely 
submit  to  their  enemies,  who  have  given  us,  during  all  these  terrible  years  of  war, 
so  many  evidences  of  their  devilish  maliginity  in  our  devastated  fields,  our  burned 
homesteads,  our  violated  daughters  and  our  murdered  thousands.  Virginians  will 
understand  that  their  present  pretended  policy  of  conciliation  is  but  the  cunning  de- 
sire of  the  Yankee  to  lull  us  to  sleep,  while  they  rivet  the  chains  they  have  been  mak- 
ing such  gigantic  efforts  to  forge,  and  which  they  will  as  surely  make  us  wear  forever, 
if  we  tamely  submit.  We  have  sworn  a  thousand  times  by  our  eternal  wrongs,  by 
our  sacred  God-given  rights,  by  the  memory  of  our  noble  fathers  and  our  glorious 
past,  by  our  gallant  dead  who  lie  in  every  plain  of  our  war-scarred  State,  by  our 
glorious  victories  on  many  a  well-fought  field  that  we  would  be  free.  Shall  we  not 
keep  our  oaths  ?  Can  we  kneel  down  by  the  graves  of  our  dead,  kneel  in  the  very 
blood  from  sons  yet  fresh,  and  kiss  the  rod  which  smote  them  down?  Never  !  never! 
Better  die  a  thousand  deaths  !  We  have  still  power  to  resist.  There  are  more  men 
at  home,  to-day,  belonging  to  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia,  than  were  surrendered 
at  Appomattox.  Let  them  rally  to  the  call  of  our  President  and,  Virginia,  our  be- 
loved old  Commonwealth  shall  yet  stand  triumphant  and  defiant,  with  her  foot  upon 
her  tyrant's  prostrate,  and  her  proud  old  banner,  never  yet  sullied,  with  its  "  Sic 
Semper  Tyrannis  "  streaming  over  her. 

Soldiers  of  the  old  Brigade!  to  you  I  confidently  appeal.  You  have  never  been 
surrendered  !  Cutting  your  way  out  of  the  enemies  lines  before  the  surrender  was 
determined,  you,  together  with  a  majority  of  the  cavalry,  are  free  to  follow  your 
country's  flag.  The  eyes  of  your  Virginia,  now  bleeding  at  every  pore,  turns  with 
special  interest  to  you;  will  you  desert  her  at  her  sorest  need?  You  will  never  de- 
scend to  such  infamy.  Let  us  renew  our  vows,  and  swear  again  by  our  broken  altars, 
to  be  free  or  die.  Let  us  teach  our  children  eternal  hostility  to  our  foes.  What 
though  we  perish  in  the  fight;  as  surely  as  the  God  of  justice  reigns,  the  truth,  the 
right  will  triumph,  and  though  we  may  not,  our  children  will  win  the  glorious  fight, 
for  it  is  not  within  the  nature  of  her  Southern  sons  to  wear  the  chains  of  Yankee 
rule. 

We   have,  still   a   country,  a    flag,  an    army,  a   Government.     Then  to  horse  !  to 


212 

horse !  a  circular  will  be  sent  to  each  of  your  officers,  designating  the  time  and  place 
of  assembly.  Hold  yourselves  in  instant  readiness,  and  bring  all  true  men  with  you 
from  this  command  who  will  go,  and  let  us  who  struck  the  last  blow  as  an  organized 
part  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  strike  the  first  with  that  victorious  army  which, 
by  the  blessings  of  our  gracious  God,  will  yet  come  to  redeem  her  hallowed  soil. 

THOMAS  T.  MUNFORD, 
Brigadier-General,  Commanding  Division. 


Lynchburg,  May  4,  1865. 
His  Excellency,  Governor  William  Smith  : 

Sir: — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  communication,  and 
beg  leave  to  reply,  that  I  had  ordered  out  a  portion  of  my  division,  and  was  en 
route  for  General  Johnston's  army,  when  I  saw  your  proclamation.  Knowing  the 
difficulty  of  supplying  my  command,  I  issued  an  order  for  all  of  the  Virginia  troops 
to  remain  at  home,  subject  to  your  call,  but  the  Maryland  Battalion,  who  were  as- 
sembled and  ready  for  anything,  had  no  money,  and  no  homes  to  go  to,  and  back  pay 
due  them  since  August  last.  The  people  were  complaining  seriously  of  having  to 
suppjort  them,  and  no  alternative  was  left  me  but  to  disband  them. 

If  you  have  any  orders  for  me,  they  will  be  conveyed  to  me  by  sending  them  to 
my  home  in  Bedford  county. 

I  send  you  an  order  I  issued  upon  my  own  responsibility,  and  hope  when  the 
time  comes  for  us  to  strike,  that  the  command  I  have  the  honor  to  command,  will 
be  as  ready  to  respond  to  your  call,  as  I  shall  be. 

Your  obedient  servant,  THOMAS  T.  MUNFORD. 

Brigadier-General,  Commanding  Division. 


While  President  Lincoln  was  in  Richmond,  after  the  evacu- 
ation of  the  city,  the  dispersion  of  the  legislature  of  Virginia 
and  the  departure  of  President  Davis,  and  Governor  Smith, 
and  most  of  the  officers  of  State,  much  was  said  as  to  the 
feasibility  and  propriety  of  their  returning  and  reassembling. 

President  Lincoln  was  at  that  time  waited  on  by  Judge 
John  A.  Campbell,  who  had  had  an  interview  with  President 
Davis  and  Secretaries  Benjamin  and  Breckenridge.just  before 
they  left  the  city,  and  who  said  to  them,  as  reported  at  that 
time,  that  the  military  power  of  the  Confederacy  was  broken  ; 
that  the  separation  and  independence  of  the  Confederacy  was 
hopeless,  and  that  it  remained  to  make  the  best  terms  they 
could.  It  was  said  that  the  President  of  the  United  States 
could  not  enter  into  negotiation  with  the  President  of  the 
Confederate  States,  but  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  recognize  the 
States  and  could  confer  with  their  regular  authorities. 

Under  the  doctrine  of  State  Rights,  so  universally  held  in 
the  South,  he  would  concede  the  right  of  the  Virginia  legis- 
lature to  control  them  ;  and  he  said  to   Mr.  Lincoln  that  if 


213 

he  would  permit  that  body  to  convene  it  would,  doubtless, 
recall  them  from  the  field.  The  President  was  actuated  by 
an  absorbing  desire  for  peace,  and  listened  attentively  to 
Judge  Campbell,  and  he  said  :  "  Judge  Campbell,  let  us  have 
no  misunderstanding  ;  I  will  give  you,  once  more,  in  black 
and  white,  my  only  terms."  He  immediately  wrote  down 
the  same  proposition  which  Secretary  Seward  took  from  him 
to  the  Hampton  Roads  Conference. 

I.  The  Territorial  integrity  of  the  Republic. 

II.  No  retraction  of  Executive  or  Congressional  action  on 
the  subject  of  slavery. 

III.  No  Armistice. 

To  these  he  added  a  fourth  condition,  that  if  the  leading 
Confederates  still  persisted  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war, 
their  property  would  be  confiscated.  Of  this,  Mr.  Campbell 
asked  for  a  modification,  but  Mr.  Lincoln  was  immovable. 
He  said  :  "  We  will  not  negotiate  with  men  as  long  as  they 
are  fighting  against  us." 

On  the  steamer  that  carried  Mr.  Lincoln  down  the  James 
River,  he  penned  the  following  order  to  General  Weitzel  : 
"  You  will  permit  the  persons  who  call  themselves  the  Virginia 
Legislature  to  convene  in  Richmond  for  the  purpose  of  with- 
drawing the  Virginia  troops  from  the  Rebel  army  ;  but  you 
will  not  allow  them  to  use  any  treasonable  language  or  adopt 
any  treasonable  measures." 

Without  consulting  any  one,  it  is  said,  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote 
this  document,  sealed  it  up  and  sent  it  to  General  Weitzel  by 
a  United  States  Senator.  On  the  day  the  President  was 
assassinated  he  received  a  letter  from  Judge  Campbell  ignoring 
the  proposition  the  President  had  made  to  him  in  writing,  and 
urging,  that  while  it  was  true  that  the  military  power  of  the 
Confederacy  was  destroyed,  the  spirit  of  the  Southern  peo- 
ple remained  unbroken.  He  said  to  the  President,  that  "  if 
you  want  to  conciliate  them,  it  will  be  wise  to  grant  an  ar- 
mistice, and  necessary  for  you  to  treat  leniently  their  leading 
public  men,  and  to  seek  their  assistance." 

This  note  was  said  to  be  offensive  to  the  President's  crood 
nature,  and  he  characterized  Judge  Campbell's  course  in  very 


[214 

emphatic  terms.  Meanwhile  the  capitulation  of  General  Lee 
obviated  the  necessity  of  convening  the  Virginia  Legislature, 
and  he  sent  an  order  countermanding  the  call. 

Immediately  after  General  Weitzel  entered  the  city,  the 
following  orders  were  issued  : 

Headquarters  Detachment  Army  of  the  James,    \ 
Richmond,  Va.,  April  3,  1865.  j 

Major-General  Godfrey  Weitzel,  commanding  Detachment  of  the  Army  of  the 
James,  announces  the  occupation  of  the  city  of  Richmond  by  the  armies  of  the  United 
States,  under  command  of  Lieutenant-General  Grant.  The  people  of  Richmond  are 
assured  that  we  come  to  restore  to  them  the  blessings  of  peace,  prosperity  and  free- 
dom, under  the  flag  of  the  Union. 

The  citizens  of  Richmond  are  requested  to  remain  for  the  present  quietly  within 
their  houses,  and  to  avoid  all  public  assemblages  or  meetings  in  the  public  streets. 
An  efficient  provost  guard  will  immediately  re-establish  order  and  tranquility  within 
the  city. 

Martial  law  is,  for  the  present,  proclaimed. 

Brigadier-General  George  F.  Shepley,  United  States  Volunteers,  is  hereby  ap- 
pointed Military  Governor  of  Richmond. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Fred.  L.  Manning,  Provost  Marshal  General,  Army  of  the 
James,  will  act  as  Provost  Marshal  of  Richmond.  Commanders  of  detachments  doing 
guard  duty  in  the  city  will  report  to  him  for  instructions. 

By  command  of  Major-General  Weitzel. 

GENERAL  SHEPLEY  MILITARY  GOVERNOR  OF  RICHMOND. 
Brigadier-General  G.  F.  Shepley,  having  been  announced  as  Military  Governor 
of  Richmond,  immediately  issued  the  following  order  : 

Headquarters  Military  Governor  of  Richmond,    ) 
Richmond,  Va.,  April  3,  1865.  J 

The  armies  of  the  rebellion  having  abandoned  their  efforts  to  enslave  the  people 
of  Virginia,  have  endeavored  to  destroy  by  fire  the  capital  which  they  could  not 
longer  occupy  by  their  arms.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Manning,  Provost-Marshal  General 
of  the  Army  of  the  James,  and  Provost  Marshal  of  Richmond,  will  immediately  send 
a  sufficient  detachment  of  piovost  guard  to  arrest,  if  possible,  the  progress  of  flames. 
The  fire  department  of  the  city  of  Richmond,  and  all  the  citizens  interested  in  the 
preservation  of  their  beautiful  city,  will  immediately  report  to  him  for  duty,  and 
render  every  possible  assistance  in  staying  the  progress  of  the  conflagration.  The 
first  duty  of  the  armies  of  the  Union  will  be  to  save  the  city  doomed  to  destruction  by 
the  armies  of  the  rebellion. 

II.  No  person  will  leave  the  city  of  Richmond  without  a  pass  from  the  office  of 
the  Provost  Marshal. 

III.  Any  citizen,  soldier,  or  any  person  whatever,  who  shall  hereafter  plunder, 
destroy  or  remove  any  public  or  private  property  of  any  description  whatever,  will 
be  arrested  and  summarily  punished. 

IV.  The  soldiers  of  the  command  will  abstain  from  any  offensive  or  insulting 
words  or  gestures  towards  the  citizens. 

V.  No  treasonable  or  offensive  expressions  insulting  to  the  flag,  the  cause  or  the 
armies  of  the  Union  will  hereafter  be  allowed. 

VI.  For  an  exposition  of  their  rights,  duties  and  privileges,  the  citizens  of  Rich- 
mond are  respectfully  referred  to  the  proclamations  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States  in  relation  to  the  existing  rebellion. 

VII.  All  persons  having  in  their  possession  or  under  their  control  any  property 


215 

whatever  of  the  so-called  Confederate  States,  or  of  any  officer  thereof,  or  the  records 
or  archives  of  any  public  officer  whatever,  will  immediately  report  the  same  to  Col. 
Manning,  Provost  Marshal. 

In  conclusion,  the  citizens  of  Richmond  are  assured  that,  with  the  restoration  of 
the  flag  of  the  Union,  they  may  expect  the  restoration  of  that  peace,  prosperity  and 
happiness  which  they  [enjoyed  under  the  Union,  of  which  that  flag  is  the  glorious 
symbol. 

George  F.  Shepley,  Brigadier-General  United  States  Vols., 

and  Military  Governor  of  Richmond. 

PROTECTION  OF  PRIVATE  PROPERTY. 
Major  Stevens  was  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  following  order  . 

Headquarters  Military  Governor  of  Richmond,  ) 
Richmond,  Va.,  April  3,  1865.  | 

General  Order  No.  2 : 

No  officer  or  soldier  will  enter  or  search  any  private  dwelling,  or  remove  any 
property  therefrom,  without  a  written  order  from  the  headquarters  of  the  Command- 
ing General,  the  Military  Governor,  or  the  Provost  Marshal  General. 

Any  officer  or  soldier,  with  or  without  such  order,  entering  any  private  dwelling 
will  give  his  name,  rank  and  regiment. 

Any  officer  or  soldier  entering  a  private  dwelling  without  such  authority,  or  fail- 
ing to  give  his  name,  rank  or  regiment,  or  reporting  the  same  incorrectly,  will  be 
liable  to  immediate  and  summary  punishment. 

George  F.  Shepley,  Brigadier-General  United  States  Vols., 

and  Military  Governor  or  Richmond. 

When  the  President  of  the  United  States  entered  the  city, 
an  immense  crowd  of  negroes  saluted  their  so-called  liberator 
with  loud  and  cordial  acclamations.  The  peculiar  feature  of 
this  exultant  entree  was,  that  he  walked  in  the  pageant  on  the 
streets  of  the  proud  but  now  fallen  and  humbled  capital  of  the 
Confederate  States  of  America,  and  the  capital  of  Virginia.  He 
was  escorted  to  the  headquarters  of  General  Weitzel,  which 
were  then  in  the  building  just  before  occupied  by  President 
Davis.  The  city  was  then  surrendered  to  the  United  States 
troops  at  8  o'clock  on  Monday  morning,  3d  day  of  April, 
1 865! 

Upon  entering  the  suburbs  of  the  city  General  Weitzel  sent 
a  small  detachment  of  the  Fourth  Massachusetts  cavalry, 
under  command  of  Major  Stevens,  to  meet  the  Mayor  of  the 
city,  from  whom  General  Weitzel  received  the  keys  of  the 
public  buildings.  The  Federal  troops  then  marched  to  the 
capital  without  opposition. 

The  capitol  grounds  were  filled  with  negroes  of  every  hue 
and  grade,  of  all  shades  from  dingy  white  to  darkest  sable, 
in  faded  finery,  in  blue  coats  and  greys,  in  butternut  and  non- 
descript, of  uncouth  shade  and  fashionable  cut,  country  hands 


216 

and  favored  servants  jostling  together,  laughing,  joking,  hand- 
shaking, and  exchanging  congratulations  that  "  der  prayers 
is  ansered." 

Such,  as  described  by  a  northern  looker-on,  were  the  motely 
and  maladroit  conoreo-ations  that  assembled  in  the  beautiful 
and  refined  capitol  grounds  and  took  possession  of  the  ancient 
and  renowned  State  House  of  the  Old  Dominion. 

The  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  against  President 
Davis  and  Governor  Smith  was  bitter  and  intense,  and  for 
some  time  it  increased.  For  General  Lee  it  was  of  a  modi- 
fied form  of  mere  respect,  mixed  with  a  mild  sort  of  venera- 
tion. For  Governor  Smith,  amongst  the  white  citizens  of 
Richmond,  it  was  of  the  highest  grade  of  love  and  affection. 
[The  letter  of  Judge  Campbell,  spoken  of  above,  will  be  found 
in  Major  Stiles'  article  from  The  Magazi?ie  of  American 
History?^ 

The  reader  must  observe  what  a  grim  and  solemn  mockery 
this  grotesque  exhibit  presented,  and  the  unqualified  falsifica- 
tion of  the  resolution  of  Congress  passed  2  2d  July,  1861,  the 
day  after  the  memorable  overthrow  and  route  of  the  Federal 
forces  at  First  Manassas,  followed  up  by  President  Lincoln's 
oft  repeated  declarations  from  his  inaugural  down  to  and  in- 
cluding the  evacuation  of  Richmond. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  resolution  : 

"That  this  war  is  not  waged  on  our  part  in  any  spirit  of  oppression,  or  for  any 
purpose  of  conquest  or  subjugation,  or  of  overthrowing  or  interfering  with  the  rights 
or  established  institutions  of  those  States  (Confederate);  but  to  defend  and  maintain 
the  supremacy  of  the  constitution,  and  to  preserve  the  Union,  with  all  the  dignity, 
equality  and  rights  of  the  several  States  unimpaired;  and  that,  as  soon  as  these 
objects  are  accomplished,  the  war  ought  to  cease." 

The  vote  in  favor  of  the  resolution  was  :  in  the  Senate, 
yeas  30,  nays  4;  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  yeas  117, 
nays  2. 

Fxtract  from  President  Lincoln's  Inaugural,  March  4,  1861. 

"Apprehension  seems  to  exist  among  the  people  of  the  Southern  States  that,  by 
the  accession  of  a  Republican  administration,  their  property  and  their  peace  and 
personal  security  are  to  be  endangered.  There  has  never  been  any  reasonable  cause 
for  such  apprehensions.  Indeed,  the  most  ample  evidence  to  the  contrary  has  all 
the  while  existed,  and  been  opened  to  their  inspection.  It  is  found  in  nearly  all  the 
public  speeches  of  him  who  now  addresses  you.  *****•«!  declare  that  t 
have  no  purpose,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the    institution  of  slavery  in 


217 

the  States  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no 
inclination  to  do  so.  Those  who  nominated  and  elected  me  did  so  with  full  knowl- 
edge that  I  had  made  this  and  many  similar  declarations,  and  had  never  recanted 
them.  And  more  than  this,  they  placed  in  the  platform  for  my  acceptance,  and  as  a 
law  to  themselves  and  to  me,  the  clear  and  emphatic  resolution  which  I  now  read: 

Resolved,  That  the  maintenance  in  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  State,  and 
especially  the  right  of  each  State  to  order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institutions 
according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is  essential  to  that  balance  of  power  on 
which  the  perfection  and  endurance  of  our  political  fabric  depend,  and  we  denounce 
the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  force  of  the  soil  of  any  State  or  Territory,  no  matter 
under  what  pretext,  as  among  the  gravest  crimes." 

The  above  resolutions  and  Mr.  Lincoln's  Inaugural  were 
officially  and  formally  communicated  to  the  Cabinets  of  Great 
Britain  and  France.  (See  also  despatches  addressed  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  United  States,  under  direction  of  the  Presi- 
dent, to  the  Ministers  of  the  United  States  at  London  and 
Paris,  under  date  of  the  ioth  and  2 2d  of  April,  1861.) 


Richmond,  February  19,  1870. 
Governor  William  Smith,  Warrenton,  Fauquier  County,  Virginia: 

My  Dear  Sir — Your  letter  of  the  15th  instant  received.  I  am  glad  to  hear  you 
are  writing  out  a  statement,  as  Governor,  of  the  incidents  from  April  2,  1865,  to  your 
return  to  Richmond  to  surrender  to  General  Patrick  in  May  1865.  It  will  be  interest- 
ing and  be  a  contribution  to  the  history  of  the  times.  You  ask  if  I  had  charge  of  all 
the  archives  of  the  State  ?  and  if  Bennett  was  not  with  me  ?  In  my  historical  synop- 
sis of  the  events  which  caused  the  overthrow  of  the  Government  of  Virginia,  pub- 
lished in  the  Code  of  1873,  a*  Page  22>  I  state  in  a  very  brief  way  an  outline  of  the 
facts  of  the  removal  from  Richmond,  I  say:  "  After  the  evacuation  at  Richmond 
Governor  Smith  designed  carrying  on  the  government  of  the  State  at  Lynchburg  or 
Danville,  and  therefore  issued  an  Executive  order  directing  the  several  heads  of  de- 
partments to  remove  the  archives  of  the  government,  containing  at  least  the  official 
acts  at  these  departments  during  the  war  to  the  City  of  Lynchburg.  This  order,  on 
the  night  of  the  jd  of  April  1865,  they  proceeded  to  execute,  and  many  of  the  records 
of  the  Executive  department  and  of  the  Auditor  and  Treasurer  were  removed  by  the 
route  of  the  James  River  and  Kanawha  Canal,  as  far  as  the  County  of  Buckingham, 
but  finding  it  impossible  to  proceed,  in  consequence  of  the  destruction  of  the  canal, 
and  the  impracticability  of  obtaining  transportation,  they  were  conveyed  and  de- 
posited in  the  court  house  of  that  county.  And  when  General  Lee  capitulated  in 
Appomattox  County,  on  the  ninth  of  the  month,  these  records  were  taken  possession 
of  by  the  Federal  Army,  and  were  transmitted  to  the  War  Department  at  Washington, 
and  have  been  to  this  day  refused  to  be  delivered  to  the  State  of  Virginia." 

I  was  compelled  in  that  synopsis  to  be  as  brief  as  possible,  and  the  account  is 
therefore  very  meagre.  I  stated  that  on  the  night  of  the  3d  of  April  this  removal 
took  place.  Most  persons  assert  that  it  was  on  the  second,  but  the  reason  for  my 
saying  on  the  third,  resulted  from  the  fact  that  we  did  not  leave  the  city  until  after 
12  o'clock  in  that  night,  indeed  it  was  about  one.  Each  of  the  heads  of  departments 
had  caused  the  archives  belonging  to  his  office  to  be  boxed  up  separately.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth,  I  think,  had  six  large  boxes,  which  had  been  used 
for  boxing  muskets.  The  Auditor,  Mr.  Jonathan  M.  Bennett,  and  the  Treasurer,  Mr. 
John  S.  Calvert,  took  charge  of  the   boxes    containing    the   papers   of   each  of  their 


218 

offices,  which  they  intended  to  remove,  and  they  and  I  went  together  in  the  same 
boat.  There  were  two  boats  provided  by  the  Quartermaster,  General  E.  H.  Fitz- 
hugh. In  one  of  which,  such  members  of  the  Legislature  as  left  the  city  for  Lynch- 
burg, the  public  guard  and  a  portion  of  the  Cadets  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute 
took  passage.  The  officers  of  government,  and  their  archives,  and  other  members 
of  the  Legislature,  were  in  the  other  boat.  General  Richardson  must  have  been  in 
the  first  boat  with  the  military,  for  I  did  not  see  him  until  we  reached  Columbia  in 
Fluvanna.  I  understood  he  went  from  thence  to  General  Cockes',  at  Brenio  Bluff.  I 
suppose  some  of  the  Adjutant-General's  books  were  carried  with  him,  because  some 
of  the  important  Militia  Registers  are  not  now  to  be  found  in  his  office.  I  send  you 
enclosed  a  statement  made  by  Quartermaster  Fitzhugh,  which  will  explain  his  opera- 
tions. 

When  we  reached  Columbia,  about  daylight  on  the  morning  of  the  fourth,  we  as- 
certained that  the  canal  had  been  cut  by  General  Sheridan's  forces  and  was  not  naviga- 
ble from  Bent's  Creek  down  to  a  few  miles  above  Columbia.  We  found  it  was  im- 
possible therefore,  to  go  on  to  Lynchburg  for  the  want  of  transportation,  and  as  General 
Lee's  army  was  between  us  and  the  Federal  forces,  we  determined  to  cross  over  the 
river  into  Buckinghann  and  follow  in  the  rear  of  our  army.  Bennett,  Calvert  and  I, 
therefore,  took  our  archives  to  Buckingham  courthouse  and  deposited  them  in  the 
Jail  of  the  county.  You  will  perceive  that  in  the  synopsis  I  have  quoted  above  I  say 
"in  the  courthouse,'1''  but  I  used  that  phrase  in  that  place  simply  to  designate  the  seat 
of  justice  of  the  county,  not  the  courthouse  building.  They  were  in  fact  placed  in 
the  jail,  in  which  at  the  time  there  were  no  prisoners  confined.  Having  seen  the 
archives  safely  locked  up  in  the  jail  we  went  to  the  farm-house  of  Mr.  Richard  S. 
Ellis,  who  kindly  received  us  and  our  suite.  I  remember  that  Mr.  Philip  F.  Howard, 
my  chief  clerk  was  with  us  and  that  Quartermaster  Fitzhugh  joined  us,  the  day  after 
our  arrival  there.  About  the  seventh  of  April,  we  had  ascertained  beyond  doubt 
that  General  Lee  contemplated  the  surrender  of  his  entire  army  and  that  it  would  be 
impossible  to  proceed  further.  Indeed  throughout  the  entire  day  whole  regiments 
were  rapidly  passing  through  Mr.  Ellis'  farm  on  their  way  home.  They  declared 
that  they  had  given  up,  because  they  found  it  impossible  for  the  want  of  supplies  to 
keep  the  army  longer  together.  I  recollect  how  the  ladies  attempted  to  shame  them 
by  denouncing  the  men  as  deserters,  and  how  they  mournfully  moved  along  with- 
out uttering  a  word.  Now  and  then  a  single  man  would  walk  up  to  the  gate  and  say 
"The  jig  is  up."  We  heard  the  firing  on  the  day  of  surrender,  and  soon  after  the 
news  of  the  capitulation.  On  the  seventh,  Bennett  and  Calvert  and  Howard  left  us, 
and  Fitzhugh,  the  two  first  to  make  their  way,  if  possible,  on  the  north  side  of  the 
river  to  Lynchburg,  and  the  others  to  Richmond. 

The  day  after  the  surrender,  several  troops  or  squads  of  cavalry  from  the  Fed- 
eral army  came  down  to  the  courthouse  and  spread  through  the  neighborhood,  and 
a  company  came  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Ellis  and  required  him  to  furnish  them  with 
sapper  about  sundown,  which  his  wife  had  prepared  in  her  best  manner.  As  soon 
as  their  appetite  was  appeased,  they  said,  in  consequence  of  the  hospitable  manner 
in  which  they  had  been  treated,  they  should  ask  no  questions  and  leave  the  family 
undisturbed.  They  certainly  asked  me  no  questions  and  "  I  told  them  no  lies."  It 
is  proper  to  say  that  Mr.  Ellis  had  served  throughout  the  war,  most  faithfully  in  the 
Confederate  army,  was  then  at  home,  on  furlough  on  account  of  sickness,  and  that 
every  member  of  the  family  were  Virginians  to  the  core. 

I  understood  that  the  cavalry  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  ascertained  that  the  State 
archives  were  in  the  jail— that  they  took  possession  of  them  and  sent  them  to  the 
Federal  commander  at  Richmond.  I  understood  they  were  forwarded  by  General 
Patrick  to  the  War  Department  at  Washington.  Whether  he  did  it  or  not  I  cannot 
say,  but  I  see  by  a  reference  to  my  synopsis,  heretofore  mentioned,  that  the  names 
of  all  the  officers  in  command  at  Richmond  is  given  and  that  this  information  was 
obtained  by  me  from  the  war  department  at  Washington,  and  that  General   Patrick  is 


219 

not  mentioned  as  one  of  those  officers.  (See  page  25  of  the  synopsis  code  1873.)  The 
seal  of  the  State  which  I  deposited  in  one  of  the  boxes  with  the  archives,  was  taken 
out  of  that  box  and  sent  to  Governor  Pierpont;  [on  page  122-123,  °f  *ne  code  of  1873, 
in  the  note,  there  you  will  see  what  I  say  there  on  this  subject.] 

I  have  thus,  my  dear  sir,  in  a  hurried  way,  given  you  such  information  as  I 
think  answers  your  enquiries.  I  am  sorry  to  see  by  your  letter  that  your  nervous- 
ness and  other  ailments  are  given  you  annoyance.  I  hope  the  remainder  of  your 
life  may  be  tranquil  and  happy.  Very  truly  your  friend, 

George  W.  Munford. 

Richmond,  February  23,   1880. 

Governor  William  Smith,   Warrenton,  Va. 

Dear  Governor: — Your  letter  of  the  21st  received.  You  say  I  did  not  say 
whether  Bennett  and  I  reached  Lynchburg  and  reported.  I  wrote  in  a  hurry  and 
thought  I  had  answered  all  your  enquiries;  have  not  been  very  well  and  kept  no 
copy  of  what  I  wrote.  I  will  supplement  that  letter  with  the  information  you  de- 
sire. 

We  were  so  near  General  Lee's  army  that  we  heard  every  day  what  was  going 
on,  and  we  knew  with  absolute  certainty  that  he  would  be  compelled  to  surrender  in 
a  day  or  two.  Whole  regiments  and  brigades  of  his  army  were  passing  through  Mr. 
Ellis' farm  making  for  home,  and  they  said  "all  was  over."  Accordingly  on  the 
sixth  of  April,  the  civil  officers  who  were  with  me  had  a  conference,  and  determined 
to  separate.  Bennett  and  Calvert  said  they  would  cross  the  river  to  the  north  side, 
and  make  their  way  if  possible  to  Lynchburg.  I  concluded  to  remain,  and  if  possi- 
ble to  keep  an  eye  on  the  archives,  which  we  locked  up  in  the  jail.  Bennett  said  he 
would  go  to  Lynchburg  because  he  expected  to  receive  the  money  which  was  deposit- 
ed in  the  Branch  Banks  there.  I  know  he  reached  there,  and  received  the  money  he 
expected,  but  it  was  paid  in  Confederate  notes,  of  course  of  no  value.  He  carried 
this  with  him,  and  when  he  returned  to  Richmond  sealed  it  up  and  deposited  it  with 
the  Auditor,  who  succeeded  him,  and  the  last  time  I  saw  the  package  it  was  in  the 
First  Auditor's  office  and  the  seal  or  envelope  had  apparently  never  been  opened. 
This  was  when  I  left  the  office  after  my  successor  had  been  appointed.  Bennett  for- 
merly resided  at  Weston,  in  Lewis  County,  West  Virginia,  and  after  leaving  Rich- 
mond returned  there.  He  informed  me  that  when  he  was  in  Lynchburg,  you  had 
either  not  reached  there  or  had  gone  on  to  Danville.  Calvert,  the  Treasurer,  had 
previously  lived  in  Shenandoah  County,  and  returned  to  his  former  home  there. 
Whether  he  went  to  Lynchburg  or  not  I  do  not  know.  My  chief  clerk,  Mr.  Howard, 
determined  to  cross  the  river  and  foot  it  to  Richmond.  Quartermaster  Fitzhugh,  left 
us  about  the  same  time.  They  all  left  me  on  the  night  of  the  sixth  or  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  seventh.  On  the  ninth  General  Lee  surrendered,  and  I  understood  that  on 
the  tenth  the  Federal  cavalry  took  possession  of  all  the  archives  which  were  in  the 
jail  and  forwarded  them  to  the  commanding  officer  in  Richmond,  and  from  thence 
they  were  sent  to  Washington,  as  I  before  stated.  I  remained  at  Mr.  Ellis'  for  about 
three  weeks,  it  being  impossible  to  obtain  transportation  for  myself  and  baggage. 
All  the  slaves  were  free,  and  they  hung  around  the  Yankee  army  hoping  then  that  their 
former  masters  would  be  turned  out  of  their  homes  and  they  would  be  speedily 
seated  in  their  places.  At  last  I  obtained  a  negro  boy  to  drive  the  buggy  I  had  ob- 
tained, and  to  bring  the  horse  back  to  its  owner.  I  went  to  Lynchburg,  expecting  to 
hear  there  where  you  were  and  if  possible  to  join  you.  Previous  to  my  reaching 
there  my  son,  General  Thomas  F.  Munford,  who  commanded  a  cavalry  brigade  under 
General  Rosser,  had  cut  through  the  Yankee  army  and  escaped  with  his  command  to 
Lynchburg.  Prior  to  disbanding,  so  as  to  avoid  the  capture  of  his  force,  he  issued 
an  order  commanding  his  troops  to  rally  at  a  given  day  with  the  intention  to  join  Joe 
Johnsons'  force  in  the  South.  This  order  had  been  published  and  when  I  reached 
Lynchburg,  I  was  informed  that  a  cavalry  regiment  of  the  Federals  were  in  the 


220 

neighborhood  and  intended  to  proceed  to  my  son's  house  in  Bedford,  some  five  miles 
above  Forest  Depot,  to  capture  him  and  burn  his  dwelling  and  outhouses.  Under 
such  circumstances  I  did  not  remain  in  Lynchburg,  but  continued  my  journey  to  his 
house  direct,  to  give  him  the  information.  He  had  with  him  several  of  his  officers, 
members  of  his  staff  and  some  of  his  mounted  couriers.  They  were  immediately 
posted  as  pickets,  along  the  roads  for  about  five  miles.  While  we  were  at  dinner  the 
next  day  one  of  the  couriers  rode  up  at  full  gallop  and  said  that  a  Yankee  regiment 
of  cavalry  were  on  their  way  to  capture  him,  and  that  they  had  been  enquiring  the 
way  to  his  house  at  a  blacksmith's  shop  on  the  road.  We  had  been  riding  over  the 
farm  and  the  horses  were  tied  at  the  gate.  The  whole  party  took  care  of  themselves 
as  best  they  might,  and  my  son  and  I,  on  good  horses,  made  our  way  through  the 
farm  to  the  mountains,  avoiding  the  main  roads,  and  crossing  by  country  passways 
with  which  he  was  acquainted.  A  company  of  cavalry  rode  up  to  the  house,  enquired 
for  the  General,  and  would  not  believe  that  he  was  not  concealed  in  the  house.  They 
made  a  thorough  search  but  without  success,  and  then  swore  they  would  burn  every 
house  on  the  place.  My  son  had  rented  his  house  to  Mr.  William  W.  Gwathmey, 
who  with  his  family  occupied  the  premises.  Upon  their  urgent  remonstrance,  and 
being  informed  that  the  General  had  not  left  home  more  than  a  half  hour,  before 
thev  came,  they  went  off  in  a  canter  hoping  to  overtake  him.  They  took  the  main 
and  parallel  roads  leading  to  Big  Lick,  while  we  stuck  to  the  mountain  passes  and 
loitered  about  until  in  the  night,  when  emerging,  we  ascertained  that  they  had  gone 
ahead  of  us  and  could  not  be  less  than  eight  or  ten  miles  in  advance  of  us.  We  pro- 
ceeded then  leisurely  to  Mr.  George  P.  Tayloes'  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Lick.  My 
son  had  married  Mr.  Tayloes'  daughter.  In  the  morning  we  ascertained  beyond  a 
doubt  that  the  Yankees  had  proceeded  on  their  way  down  the  valley.  I  now  deter- 
mined to  go  up  to  Montgomery,  just  in  the  neighborhood  of  Fatheringay,  where  my 
youngest  sister,  who  had  married  Mr.  Howard  Payton  lived,  and  I  stayed  with  her  for 
about  three  weeks  longer  and  then  returned  to  Richmond,  arriving  there  about  the 
first  of  June.  By  that  time,  the  Alexandria  Government,  with  Governor  Pierpont, 
had  been  firmly  established,  they  having  taken  possession  of  the  Capitol  and  the 
Governor's  house  and  such  of  the  archives  as  remained,  and  the  Governor  having 
issued  his  proclamation  that  the  scat  of  government  had  been  restored  to  Richmond. 
The  proclamation  was  dated  May  23,  1865.  Hearing  that  you  had  returned  about  the 
fifth  of  June,  I  called  upon  you  and  heard  your  account  of  your  surrender  to  the  con- 
stituted authorities. 

You  ask  me  to  inform  you  how  Bennett  got  possession  of  the  $21,000,  most  of 
which  was  distributed  under  your  order  to  members  of  assembly  and  the  officers  of 
government,  on  account  of  their  salaries  and  services  to  the  State.  My  understand- 
ing of  it  was  this.  The  money  that  remained  in  the  Treasury  had  been  deposited  in 
the  Exchange  Bank  at  Richmond.  All  the  other  money  borrowed  under  an  act  of 
the  Legislature,  had  been  loaned  by  the  same  authority  to  the  Confederate  States 
Government,  and  the  Auditor's  books  show  that  it  had  been  paid  General  John  C. 
Breckenridge,  the  then  Secretary  of  War.  As  soon  as  it  was  ascertained  that  Rich- 
mond was  to  be  evacuated  the  officers  of  the  bank  sent  word  to  the  Auditor  that  he 
must  take  possession  of  this  money,  as  they  would  no  longer  be  responsible  for  its 
safe  keeping.  Mr.  Bennett  said  you  had  authorized  him  to  take  it.  He  showed  me 
your  order  dated  ihejirst  of  April,  1865,  on  the  second,  and  said  under  that  order  he 
could  pay  me  what  was  due  for  my  salary  as  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth.  I  had 
not  drawn  any  portion  of  my  pay  for  an  entire  quarter,  ending  March  31,  1865.  The 
salary  in  currency  was  upwards  of  $2,000.  There  was  nothing  in  the  treasury  but 
this  gold,  and  a  little  uncurrent  silver  coin,  consisting  of  sleek  twenty  cent  pieces, 
twelve  and  a  half  pieces  and  six  and  a  quarter  cent  pieces.  Bennett  said  he  would 
pay  me  $1,500  in  gold,  which  he  did  and  took  my  receipt  therefor,  which  is  dated 
second  of  April  1865.  He  said  he  had  paid  you  and  many  of  the  other  officers  and 
your  receipt  is  also  dated  the  second  of  April.     I  received  the  amount  paid  me  some- 


221 

time  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock  A.  M.  This  money  was  sent  to  Bennett  by  a  bank 
officer  on  Sunday.  The  offices  of  Auditor  and  Treasurer  were  not  open  on  Sunday, 
and  the  bank  having  paid  the  amount  standing  to  the  credit  of  the  State,  no  checks 
could  be  thereafter  drawn  upon  it,  consequently  there  was  no  warrant  drawn  on  the 
Treasurer,  and  no  check  drawn  by  the  Treasurer  on  the  bank,  and  no  entries  were 
made  in  either  office.  For  the  same  reason  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Com- 
monwealth was  not  open.  The  order  was  not  passed  through  my  hands  and  no  en- 
try thereof  will  appear  on  the  Executive  Journal.  The  order  was  kept  by  Bennett  as 
his  justification  for  his  receiving  and  paying  out  the  money,  and  was  filed  in  the 
Auditor's  office  with  the  statement  of  his  account  to  the  General  Assembly. 

When  we  were  about  separating  in  Buckingham,  as  I  have  related  above,  Mr. 
Calvert  said  that  a  considerable  portion  of  this  money  still  remained,  and  that  he  had 
other  gold  belonging  to  individuals  which  he  did  not  desire  to  carry  with  him,  and 
especially  as  he  expected  we  would  all  be  made  prisoners,  and  if  so  the  money  would 
be  captured.  He  suggested  that  we  might  bury  it  in  some  safe  place  in  the  night, 
and  let  it  remain  there  until  quiet  had  been  restored.  It  was  also  suggested  that  there 
was  a  balance  still  due  me  and  if  I  would  take  a  portion  of  it  in  the  uncurrent  silver 
which  he  had,  I  should  be  paid  $500  in  addition  to  what  I  received  in  Richmond.  This 
amount  was  accordingly  nominally  paid  me — hence  my  second  receipt  which  is  dated 
on  the  sixth  of  April.  The  silver  was  in  very  small  bags  and  the  amount  of  each  de- 
nomination of  coin  was  marked  on  the  outside.  I  received  it  without  counting. 
When  counted  the  next  day,  it  fell  short  forty  dollars;  though  it  was  apparent  that 
the  bags  had  not  been  tampered  with.  It  was  counted  by  Mr.  Richard  S.  Ellis  and 
myself.  I  mention  these  facts  simply  to  account  to  you  for  the  two  payments  to  my- 
self and  to  show  how  it  was  that  my  second  receipt  was  given  while  we  were  in  Buck- 
ingham. 

You  ask  me  to  send  you  Jaynes'  report.  I  would  do  so  with  pleasure,  but  I 
know  of  no  copy  of  it  except  in  the  Journal  of  the  House  of  Delegates.  It  is  no  doubt 
in  the  Public  Library,  but  it  is  too  long  for  me  to  copy. 

It  affords  me  pleasure  to  give  you  the  information  you  ask  for.  It  is  written 
currente  ca/amo,  without  revision  or  time  for  reflection. 

Very  truly  your  friend,  George  W.  Munford. 


MAJOR    STILES  S     NARRATIVE     OF    GOVERNOR    SMITH    ON    THE 

WITNESS    STAND    IN    THE    GOLD    CASES. 

There  is  an  incident  in  the  life  of  Governor  Smith  full  of  characteristic  incident 
which  has  never  attracted  the  attention  it  deserved.  Some  years  after  the  war,  the 
writer  had  the  honor  of  being  associated  with  two  Attorney-Generals  of  Virginia — 
Hon.  Raleigh  T.  Daniel  and  General  James  G.  Field — in  defense  of  what  was  known 
as  "The  Gold  Cases."  These  new  actions  of  assumpsit,  brought  in  the  Federal 
Court  at  Richmond,  by  the  United  States  as  plaintiff  against  Governor  Smith,  Colonel 
George  Wythe  Munford,  and  other  officers  of  the  commonwealth,  for  money  of  the 
State  of  Virginia,  which  the  Governor  had  drawn  out  of  the  city,  on  the  eve  of  the 
evacuation  of  Richmond,  and  had  used  in  paying  salaries  of  State  officials  and  in  other 
similar  ways.  It  was  agreed  with  the  representative  of  the  Government  to  make  the 
suit  against  the  Governor  a  test  case.  Our  demurrer  to  the  declaration,  which 
seemed  to  us  well  grounded,  having  been  overruled,  and  one  trial  of  the  issue  hav- 
ng  resulted  in  a  hung  jury,  General  Field  and  I  determined  to  adopt  a  bolder  line  of 
defense,  and  to  bring  Governor  Smith  and  Judge.  Henry  W.  Thomas,  (who  had  been, 
il  think,  Auditor  of  Public  Accounts  at  the  time  of  the  evacuation),  before  the  jury  as 
witnesses.  The  substance  of  Judge  Thomas'  testimony,  or  at  least  a  part  of  it,  re- 
vised by  himself,  will   hereafter  be   published   in   another  connection.     Governor 


222 

Smith's  thrilling  narrative  is,  I  fear,  lost,  unless  indeed  he  may  have  left  some  ac- 
count of  the  fact  among  his  papers.  I  regret  that  I  never  urged  him  to  do  so,  but  re- 
member going,  on  the  evening  before  the  trial,  to  the  offices  of  our  city  papers,  and 
advising  them  to  have  their  best  reporters  present,  as  a  chapter  of  War  history  was  to 
be  recited  under  the  pressures  and  sanctions  of  judicial  proceedings,  which  in  some 
of  its  facts  and  features,  would  probably  not  be  otherwise  published  or  preserved. 
Strange  to  say  no  reporter  was  present,  at  least  no  adequate  report  was  made,  and  a 
recital  of  surpassing  interest,  and  verified  as  history  is  seldom  verified,  has  been  for 
the  most  part  irrevocably  lost. 

When  Governor  Smith  was  informed  by  his  counsel  that  they  thought  it  desira- 
ble he  should  testify,  he  answered,  "  Well,  gentlemen,  you  must  tell  me  how  to  put 
the  matter  before  the  jury."  This,  however,  was  exactly  what  we  had  no  idea  of  do- 
ing, and  we  replied  in  substance  that  as  he  always  said,  and  as  we  were  entirely 
satisfied  he  had  spent  that  money  according  to  his  best  judgment  in  the  public  ser- 
vice, and  in  a  manner  which  gave  no  shadow  of  right,  title  or  excuse  to  the  United 
States  Government  to  demand  it  again  of  him- — that  we  wanted  him  to  convince  the 
jury  of  this;  and  as  we  did  not  believe  any  man  in  the  commonwealth  better  qualified 
than  he  to  determine  just  how  to  compass  this  end  we  did  not  intend  to  direct  him 
further;  that  we  wished  him  to  be  the  prominent  figure  in  the  trial  and  to  win  the 
verdict;  and  that  his  counsel  must  of  necessity,  and  would  of  choice  play  a  very  sub- 
ordinate part  in  the  drama. 

The  grand  old  man  caught  our  meaning  at  once — and  there  was  no  shrinking, 
no  false  modesty,  no  nonsense  about  the  matter.  I  have  never  witnessed  anything 
more  superb  than  his  entire  bearing  before  that  jury.  There  were  negroes  upon  it 
and  he  fully  appreciated  the  strain  of  the  position — the  War  Governor  of  Virginia,  a 
sworn  witness  in  his  own  .behalf  before  a  jury  of  freed  men,  but  yesterday  the  slaves 
of  Virginia's  citizens,  of  whom  he  was  the  constitutional  ruler,  and  the  chief.  But  he 
knew  the  negro  thoroughly — knew  his  good  points  and  his  weakness — knew  and  felt 
his  own  power  with  these  negroes.  And  they  knew  him  thoroughly,  up  to  the 
measure  of  their  capacity,  knew  his  good  and  true  manhood;  and  obviously  from  his 
opening  word,  recognized  and  felt  and  never  disputed  his  truth  or  his  power  over 
them.  He  rose  and  stepped  forward  to  address  them,  his  head  thrown  back  perhaps 
a  shade  higher  than  ever  was  his  wont,  yet  perfectly  poised  in  conscious  rectitude 
and  strength,  and  his  eye  kindled  with  even  a  little  more  than  its  wonted  fire,  yet 
there  was  in  it  kindliness  towards  them,  and  entire  courtesy  towards  the  court. 

Judge  Hughes  ordered  a  chair  to  be  placed  for  him,  and  asked  him  to  be  seated; 
and  I  recall  now  the  exquisite  tact  and  ease  with  which,  with  a  graceful  bow  and  ges- 
ture, he  replied,  "No,  I  thank  you,  Judge;  the  blood  flows  a  little  more  freely  to  the 
brain  of  an  old  man  when  the  column  of  the  body  is  entirely  erect.  If  you  will  per- 
mit me,  I  prefer  to  stand,  while  submitting  my  testimony  to  the  Jury."  Of  course 
the  Judge  assented,  and  every  man  on  the  jury  recognizing  the  implied  compliment, 
leaned  eagerly  forward  to  catch  every  word  he  might  utter  to  them. 

As  above  stated,  I  cannot  pretend  to  give  the  details  or  even  the  substance  of 
the  historical  part  of  his  testimony — the  recital  of  those  days  of  fearful  confusion, 
and  suspense  and  despair — but  I  can  never  forget  the  essence  of  the  logical  and  moral 
part  of  it. 

He  told  the  jury  quietly,  but  with  impressive  dignity,  that  Virginia  was  a  living, 
actual  Commonwealth,  and  himself  her  living,  actual  Governor,  when  he  drew  this 
money;  that  Virginia  did  not  cease  to  exist,  nor  did  he  cease  to  be  her  Governor,  as 
he  thought  then  and  thought  now,  when  in  the  exigencies  of  war  he  turned  his  back 
upon  her  capital,  and  went  out  a  fugitive,  but  not  a  vagabond;  that  there  were  duties 
which  he  still  owed  to  the  State,  and  which  her  other  officials  still  owed  to  her;  and 
for  these  official  duties  already  rendered,  being  rendered,  and  to  be  rendered,  sala- 
ries were  justly  due;  that  the  duty  of  these  officers  to  the  State,  as  he  and  they 
thought,  now  required  them  to  leave  their  families,   for  an   indefinite  period,   in  the 


223 

hands  of  the  public  enemy,  without  means  of  support  and  cut  off  from  sources  of 
supply;  and  that  he  summoned  these  faithful  officers  about  him  and  distributed  a 
large  part  of  this  money  among  them,  in  the  payment  of  salaries,  before  leaving  the 
city;  that  after  he  left,  albeit,  his  capital  was  in  the  hands  of  the  military  forces  of  the 
United  States;  Virginia  still  lived,  and  he,  as  her  Governor,  used  more  of  this  money 
in  the  discharge  of  the  great  duty  with  which,  in  that  awful  crisis,  he  considered  him- 
self charged — to  wit  :  the  duty  of  preserving  order  and  the  institutions  of  civil 
society,  in  that  debatable  ground  which  the  Confederate  government  and  forces  had 
abandoned,  and  over  which  the  United  States  had,  as  yet,  established  no  settled 
authority. 

As  an  instance  of  such  application  of  the  funds  in  his  hands  I  recall  that  he  men- 
tioned his  purchase  of  all  the  shoes  in  the  town  of  Danville,  I  think,  and  the  distribu- 
tion of  them  amongst  a  large  body  of  disbanded  and  barefoot  Confederate  soldiers, 
who  threatened  to  sack  the  place  if  the  shoes  were  not  turned  over  to  them.  He 
added  that  owing  to  the  hurry  and  confusion  of  that  terrific  time,  he  was,  of  course, 
unable  to  make  or  preserve  any  detailed  accurate  and  complete  account  of  the  appli- 
cation of  this  fund,  but  this  much  he  was  able  and  willing,  upon  his  oath,  to  state  : 
that  he  spent  no  part  of  this  money  except  in  the  manner  and  for  the  objects  and  pur- 
poses he  had  indicated,  and  upon  occasions  which  he  thought,  then  and  now,  clearly 
justified  and  demanded  the  expenditure;  and  that  he  kept  no  part  of  it,  over  and 
above  the  amount  which  he  thought,  and  now  to  be  justly  due  him  for  his  services  as 
Governor. 

The  effect  of  this  statement,  thus  made  can  readily  be  conceived.  His  erect 
figure,  his  firm,  clear,  silvery  utterance,  his  manly  courtesy — his  noble  mien — 
carried  conviction,  and  more  than  conviction,  to  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  jury. 

The  case,  indeed,  went  on,  but  when  Governor  Smith  took  his  seat  it  was 
obviously  over  for  the  defense,  and  my  recollection  is  that  we  offered  to  submit  it 
without  argument,  and  that  at  the  close  the  jury  did  not  leave  the  box. 

This  was  the  end  of  the  litigation,  the  United  States  District  Attorney,  now  the 
respected  President  of  our  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals,  promptly  dismissing  all  the 
cases. 

Governor  Smith's  part  in  the  trial  has  often  recurred  to  my  mind  as  the  finest 
possible  illustration  of  the  combination  of  splendid  courage  with  graceful  courtesy, 
and  inspired  common  sense;  and  I  have  often  recalled  his  figure  as  he  stood  testify- 
ing before  that  jury,  as  the  very  embodiment  of  lofty  manhood. 

Richmond,  March,  10,  1877. 
To  Lieutenant  Governor  Thomas: 

The  United  States  having  recently  instituted  actions  of  Assumpsit  against  me 
and  many  others  of  a  late  State  Government  of  Virginia,  for  various  sums  of  money 
received  by  us  in  our  official  capacity  on  or  about  the  2d  of  April,  1865;  and  sun- 
dry gentlemen  having  proffered  their  services  to  me  and  others  to  procure  from  the 
Attorney-General  of  the  United  States  an  order  to  dismiss  these  annoying,  and  I 
must  think,  groundless  actions;  and  as  you,  with  our  friend,  Major  Daniel,  propose  to 
visit  Washington  during  the  ensuing  week,  and  upon  conference  with  Beverley 
Tucker,  Esq.,  and  our  representatives  in  Congress,  or  such  of  them  as  may  be  in 
the  city,  may  deem  it  judicious  to  bring  this  matter  to  the  attention  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Justice,  I  have  concluded  to  furnish  you  with  the  subjoined  statement,  to  be 
used  by  our  friends  according  to  their  discretion.  Yours,  very  truly, 

William  Smith. 

The  following  statement  is  the  one  referred  to  in  the  above  note  to  Gov. 
Thomas.  W.  S. 

I  was  elected  Governor  of  Virginia  by  the  people  on  the  day  of  1863, 

to  take  office  on  the  1st  day  of  January  1864.     On   that  day  I  took  the  oaths  of  office 


224 

and  assumed  the  duties  imposed  upon  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  State,  by  the  Con- 
stitution and  Laws  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  wholly  or  in  part,  until  I  entered  the 
City  of  Richmond  about  the  5th  of  June,  1865,  with  my  Aid  and  servant,  under  Gen- 
eral Patrick's  safe  conduct,  and  surrendered  myself  to  that  officer.  I  obtained  this 
safe  conduct,  not  only  to  protect  myself  from  annoyance,  but  also  to  prevent  any 
one  from  acquiring  a  claim  to  the  reward  of  $25,000  which  the  Federal  authorities 
had  offered  for  my  arrest. 

On  Sunday  the  2d  of  April,  1865,  during  divine  service,  I  saw  a  messenger 
hurriedly,  advance  to  Mr.  Davis'  pew  and  hand  him  a  paper;  Mr.  Davis  read  the 
paper,  and,  much  excited,  instantly  left  the  church.  After  the  service  was  over  I 
returned  to  the  State  Mansion,  and  had  scarcely  reached  there  before  I  received  a 
message  from  Mr.  Davis,  requesting  me  to  come  to  his  office  without  delay.  Of 
course,  I  did  not  loose  a  moment.  On  joining  Mr.  Davis,  he  informed  me  that  the 
paper  he  had  received  in  church,  was  a  telegram  from  General  Lee,  informing  him 
that  he  feared  he  would  be  unable  to  maintain  his  lines  another  day,  and  that  he  had 
better  make  ready  to  evacuate  the  city  at  a  moment's  warning.  Of  course,  all  was 
soon  a  vast  scene  of  busy  and  excited  preparation,  having  determined  to  remove 
the  State  Government  to  Lynchburg.  Accordingly,  I  ordered  certain  officers  to  bun- 
dle up  such  of  the  State  archives  as  might  be  thought  most  necessary,  and  also 
charged  other  officers  to  remain  in  possession  of  the  State  House  and  its  appurten- 
ances and  their  contents,  and  to  preserve  and  protect  them  to  the  best  of  their 
ability.  I  also  ordered  General  Smith  with  his  Stale  Cadets,  and  also  the  State 
Guard  to  make  similar  preparation  to  move  at  a  moment's  notice,  and  should  they 
move  to  report  to  me  at  Lynchburg.  One  of  the  most  immediate  and  pressing  diffi- 
culties was  the  want  of  available  currency.  It  was  obvious  that  evacuation  would 
render  the  whole  mass  of  Confederate  currency,  worthless.  Besides,  it  was  known 
that  balances  were  due  to  most  if  not  all  of  the  State  officers,  who  could  neither  stay 
nor  go  without  suffering,  unless  they  were  adjusted;  and,  moreover,  it  could  but  be 
known,  that  money  was  indispensable  to  defray  the  costs  and  charges  of  the  ex- 
pected regime.  In  this  preplexity  I  learned  that  the  State  could  command  the 
necessary  money;  whereupon,  I  issued  the  following  order  in  favor  of  J.  M.  Ben- 
nett, Auditor  of  Public  Accounts,  as  follows:     [See  order  below.] 

Fairfax,  C.  H.,  Va.,  Septembers,  l888- 

My  Dear  Sir: — I  regret  very  much  that  I  cannot  find  the  letter  you  refer  to, 
relative  to  the  order  given  by  General  Smith  upon  Auditor  Bennett.  I  do  not  re- 
member the  terms  of   it,  for  my  impression  is  I  returned  it  to  him. 

The  only  incident  I  recollect  concerning  it,  is  that  whilst  preparations  were  be- 
ing made  for  the  removal  of  the  State  Government  I  was  with  the  other  officers,  sum- 
mond  to  meet  the  Governor,  relative  to  the  contemplated  action,  and  my  remarking 
to  the  Governor  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  leave  as  I  had  a  family'of 
small  children,  and  his  reply:  "  No,  you  had  better  remain;  your  first  duty  is  to  your 
family.  We  will  all  go  (referring  to  the  other  officers),  and  I  have  made  provision 
for  the  payment  of  your  salaries  now  due  by  an  order  issued  upon  the  Auditor,  and 
as  our  currency  is  now  worthless,  I  have  directed  the  Auditor  to  pay  the  same  in 
gold." 

He  further  remarked,  "  as  you  cannot  leave,  I  shall  leave  the  public  property 
here  under  your  charge.     Do  the  best  you  can,  and  trust  in  Providence." 

This  simple  incident  gives  the  key  to  his  character.  All  he  did  during  my 
official  connection  with  him,  was  to  relieve,  improve  and  advance  all  who  came  in 
contact  with  him,  and  from  his  frank,  genial,  and  kindly  nature  during  that  period, 
I  came  to  feel  better  acquainted  with  him.  and  to  esteem  and  admire  him  to  the  day 
of  his  death.  Respectfully,  H.  W.  Thomas. 

Judge  J.  W.  Bell,  Culpeper,  Va. 


225 

I  did  not  know  whence  this  money  was  obtained,  but  was  informed  that  it  was 
drawn  from  the  Exchange  Bank,  one  of  the  State  depositories.  It  will  be  observed 
that  my  order  clearly  defined  its  purposes  and  objects  and  left  no  room  for  question  or 
criticism.  Money  provided  by  a  great  State,  to  preserve  social  order  and  maintain 
her  political  integrity,  is  directed  to  be  applied  to  the  payment  of  the  salaries  and 
the  consequential  expenses  of  the  functionaries  to  whom  this  sacred  and  important 
trust  was  confided.  The  amount,  too,  is  inconsiderable  and  is  necessarily  consumed 
in  the  execution  of  the  trust.  It  is  not  the  accumulation  of  surpluses  from  time  to 
time,  but  it  was  provided  to  meet  a  sudden  and  severe  strain  of  the  body-politic  and 
prevent  a  state  of  anarchy.     In  no  sense  can  it  be  regarded  as  a  spoil  of  war. 

Of  the  $21,000  drawn  under  my  order,  the  Auditor,  whose  duty  it  was,  distributed 
under  it  only  $14,335.50.  The  residue  was  disposed  of  during  the  Pierpont  govern- 
ment long  after  mine  had  altogether  ceased.  This  account,  which  I  subjoin,  completely 
protects  the  State  officials,  who  received  the  above  amount,  from  all  ascription  of  un- 
worthy motives  in  receiving  the  sums  severally  charged  to  them,  as  they  could,  I 
have  no  doubt,  had  they  been  dishonorably  disposed,  have  divided  among  them  the 
whole  amount  of  $21,000  : 

Executive  Department  of  Virginia,  April  1,  1865. 

The  Auditor  of  Public  Accounts  will  issue  his  warrant  on  the  Treasury  (payable 
out  of  the  Military  and  Civil  Contingent  Funds),  for  twenty-one  thousand  dollars  in 
specie,  in  favor  of  J.  M.  Bennett,  to  be  disbursed  to  members  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly, in  attendance  at  the  Extra  Session  thereof,  to  the  Governor  and  other  executive 
officers  of  State  Government,  on  account  of  their  salaries  as  such  officers,  which  are 
now  or  may  hereafter  become  due,  and  such  contingent  expenses  as  may  be  found 
necessary. 

This  order  is  necessary,  owing  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  in  which  the  State 
is  now  situated,  which  prevent  the  regular  order  of  business  from  being  observed. 
Given  under  my  hand  as  above.  William  Smith. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  for  me  to  remark  here,  that  although  my  order  bears  date 
the  1st  of  April,  1865,  yet  I  am  entirely  satisfied  it  should  have  borne  date  the  follow- 
ing day;  for  I  well  recollect  that  my  mind  was  greatly  perplexed,  as  to  how  the 
needful  money  was  to  be  obtained.  And  this  conviction  is  strengthened  by  the 
facts  that  the  Auditor  did  not  draw  this  money  until  the  2d  of  April,  and  my  receipt 
for  the  portion  of  it  which  I  received,  bears  the  like  date.  And  I  am  still  further 
fortified  as  to  this  fact  by  Joyne's  Senatorial  Report  in  1865,  which  adopts  the  same 
conclusion. 

It  will  not  escape  attention  that  my  order  after  providing  for  the  State  officials 
and  members  of  the  Legislature,  also  provided  for  "such  contingent  expenses  as 
may  be  found  necessary."  It  will  be  readily  understood  that  the  State  Government 
could  not  be  removed  from  place  to  place  as  exigency  might  require,  except  at  con- 
siderable cost,  and  various  officers  in  charge  of  the  public  records  and  property, 
were,  under  my  instructions,  no  doubt  supplied  by  the  Auditor  with  funds,  not  only 
sufficient  to  pay  what  was  and  might  be  due  to  them,  but  also  to  provide  for  such 
emergencies.  As  others,  I  received  a  portion  of  the  $21,000  so  often  referred  to,  to 
pay  not  only  what  was  or  might  be  due  me  as  Governor,  but  to  repay  the  inevitable 
expenses  of  a  change  of  the  seat  of  Government,  and  those  contingent  expenses  con- 
tinually called  for  by  the  public  interests.  I  suppose  all  will  agree  that  I  ought  to 
have  made  some  such  provision,  and  that  had  mischief  followed  from  my  failure  to 
do  so,  I  would  have  been  justly  censurable.  Accordingly,  my  receipt  for  the  $5,000 
received  by  me  is  without  specification  and  was  obviously  expected  to  be  accounted 
for,  "  at  a  more  convenient  season  for  calm  and  dispassionate  inquiry."  I  give  a 
copy  of  my  receipt: 

On  the  night  of  the  evacuation  there  was  due  on  salary  account  $1,777.66.  ■  On 


226 

the  9th  of  April,  the  date  of  Gen.  Lee's  surrender  and  which  the  plaintiffs  declaration 
assumes  was  the  termination  of  the  State  Government  $2,161.66.  On  the  9th  of 
May,  1865,  when  President  Johnson  ordered  Governor  Pierpont  to  assume  the  Execu- 
tive duties  of  the  State  $3,833.06.  On  the  23d  of  May,  1865,  when  Governor  Pier- 
pont in  pursuance  of  President  Johnson's  order  entered  the  City  of  Richmond  and, 
as  Governor  of  the  State,  performed  his  first  act  as  such,  $4,610.76,  and  on  or  about 
the  5th  of  June,  1865,  when  I  surrendered  myself  to  General  Patrick,  in  the  City  of 
Richmond,  $5,332.91.  It  was  at  this  date,  the  day  of  my  surrender,  that  I  have 
always  considered  my  office  as  Governor  ended,  and  my  right  to  my  salary  ceased, 
although  it  is  expressly  declared  by  Act  of  Assembly  that  it  shall  continue  for  six 
months  after  the  termination  of  the  war,  which  did  not  terminate  in  Virginia,  accord- 
ing to  the  "  Protector"  case  [12th  Wallace  page  700]  until  the  President's  proclama- 
tion of  the  2d  of  April,  1866,  announced  that  it  was  at  an  end.  For  much  valuable 
information  touching  the  facts  stated  or  alluded  to  in  this  paragraph,  I  refer  to  the 
code  of  1873.* 

For  a  large  portion  of  the  time  between  the  evacuation  of  Richmond  and  my  sur- 
render there,  I  was  actively  engaged  in  the  performance  of  my  duties  as  Governor. 
Repairing  to  Lynchburg,  I  found  but  few  of  those  ordered  to  meet  me  there.  But 
few  of  the  State  Cadets  reported.  The  State  Guard,  however,  reported  in  considera- 
ble force,  but  in  a  state  of  complete  destitution,  so  that  I  had  to  furnish  it  with  funds 
through  one  of  its  officers,  for  its  necessary  subsistence.  None  of  the  State  officials 
met  me  in  Lynchburg  as  well  as  I  now  remember.  This  apparent  tardiness  or 
failure  to  assemble  in  Lynchburg,  on  the  part  of  those  ordered  to  do  so,  was  occa- 
sioned, as  I  have  been  informed,  and  believe,  by  the  bad  condition  of  the  canal, 
the  surrender  of  General  Lee  and  the  steady  advance  of  the  enemy.  Doubtless,  the 
hopelessness  of  protracting  the  struggle  had  something  to  do  with  it.  During  my 
location  in  Lynchburg,  I  sought  by  every  means  in  my  power  to  ascertain  public 
opinion.  With  this  view,  I  traveled  as  far  north  as  Staunton,  and  having  satisfied 
myself  that  the  people  had  no  disposition  to  continue  the  war,  and  that  the  Confeder- 
ate Government  had  lost  the  power  to  do  so,  I  devoted  myself,  as  the  first  Magis- 
trate of  the  State,  to  the  preservation  of  social  order,  and  to  the  adjustment  of  proper 
relations  between  the  State  and  Federal  Government.  With  the  latter  view  I  sent  a 
Mr.  Speed,  a  relation  of  the  United  States  Attorney-General,  as  a  messenger  or 
bearer  of  such  terms,  and  although  President  Lincoln  had,  when  in  Richmond, 
caused  messengers  to  be  sent  to  recall  the  State  Government,  including  myself,  thus 
evincing  a  disposition  to  establish  such  relations,  yet  my  communication  was  not 
only  treated  with  contempt,  but  the  person  of  my  messenger  was  seriously  imperiled. 
Lee  had  surrendered. 

Finding  that  the  proximity  of  the  Federals  to  Lynchburg  rendered  my  position 
there  unsafe,  I  concluded  to  transfer  myself  to  Danville,  where  President  Davis  was 
located.  I  arrived  at  his  quarters  at  the  hour  in  which  he  had  received  information 
of  General  Lee's  surrender,  and  when  he  was  in  busy  preparation  to  move  further 
south.  I,  at  once,  saw  the  importance  of  my  location  in  Danville,  and  upon  the  in- 
vitation of  my  friend  Clarke,  now  Senator  Clarke,  of  that  city,  I  established  my  head- 
quarters at  his  hospitable  mansion.  In  walking  through  the  city  I  found  there  was  a 
large  amount  of  comissary  and  quartermaster's  stores  on  hand,  which  were  being 
rapidly  removed  to  Greensborough,  N.  C.  I  at  once  put  a  stop  to  it,  satisfied  that 
our  paroled  prisoners  would  soon  be  in  the  city  and  would  find  the  supplies  thus  be- 
ing removed  absolutely  essential  to  their  wants  and  comfort.  And  I  advised  the 
officer's  in  charge  to  re-organize  their  Departments  and  to  issue  supplies  upon  regu- 
lar requisitions.  This  policy  was  adopted;  and  most  fortunate  it  was  so.  In  a  day 
or  two  there  was  over  3,000  of  our  men  in  the  city  at  one  time,  on  their  way  South; 

*  Vide  Historical  Synopsis  of  the  changes  in  the  Laws  and  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  by  Geo.  W. 
Munford,  Sec'y  of  Com.  of  Va.,  Co.  Va.,  1873. 


227 

they  were  in  the  worst  possible  humor  and  many  of  them  were  wretchedly  destitute. 
The  Comissary  promptly  filled  all  requisitions  for  rations.  But  when  the  Quarter- 
master was  unable  to  fill  the  requisition  for  shoes,  because  they  had  been  forwarded, 
as  he  declared,  to  Greensborough,  the  soldiers  became  furious,  denounced  him  as  a 
thief  and  a  liar,  and  evil  disposed  persons  having  whispered  into  their  ears  that  the 
citizens  had  carried  off  the  shoes  and  had  concealed  them  in  out-of-the-way  places, 
they  swore  that  they  would  sack  the  town,  unless  they  were  produced  without  delay. 
In  this  extremity  I  was  sent  for  and  soon  appeared  among  them.  Fortunately,  I  had 
served  with  many  of  them  and  not  a  few  recognized  me  at  once.  And  when  I  began 
to  speak  to  them  and  remind  them  of  their  glorious  history  and  the  sadness  of  the  pres- 
ent hour,  a  stillness  almost  as  deep  as  death  settled  upon  them.  I  then  told  them  that 
at  the  very  moment  of  my  arrival  in  Danville,  the  news  came  of  the  surrender  at 
Appomattox — that  finding  the  army  stores  were  being  removed  to  Greensborough, 
N.  C,  I  at  once  put  a  stop  to  it,  well  knowing  that  the  Southern  soldiers  of  Lee's 
army  would  aim  for  Danville  as  a  railroad  point,  and  where  they  might  also  expect 
to  find  food  and  clothing,  absolutely  necessary  to  them  on  their  homeward  journey. 
I  asked  them  if  every  requisition  had  not  been  filled,  except  for  shoes  ?  they 
answered,  "Yes."  "Then  where  so  much  has  been  cheerfully  supplied,  how  can  any 
reasonable  man  suppose  that  the  single  article  of  shoes  has  been  wilfully  withheld? 
No  men,  accept  my  assurance — of  your  former  comrade,  that  there  is  no  supply  of 
shoes  in  Danville.  That  those  which  were  here  have  been  sent  to  Greensborough — 
and  that  in  three  hours  after  you  leave  here,  and  the  trains  are  nearly  ready  to  take 
you  away,  you  will  be  in  Greensborough,  where  you  will,  doubtless,  be  promptly 
and  abundantly  supplied  with  this  essential  want.  Are  you  satisfied,  men  ?"  "We 
are,"  "  we  are,"  was  the  prompt  reply.  I  heard  but  one  murmured  dissent,  and 
that  was  promptly  hushed  by  an  indignant  warning  from  the  crowd  that  the  "  man 
who  questioned  the  word  of  General  Smith  did  so  at  his  peril."  This  is  but  an 
epitome  of  my  remarks.     But,  so  the  town  was  saved. 

But  the  danger  was  not  past.  Bands  of  plunderers,  including  women  came  into 
town  and  broke  into  the  public  stores,  carrying  off  any  and  everything  they  could  lay 
their  hands  upon — even  the  women  carrying  off  muskets,  etc.  And  it  took  the  most 
determined  service  of  the  whole  civil  power,  for  two  or  three  days,  to  prevent  a 
general  pillage  of  the  public  property,  and  restore  quiet  and  order  in  the  community 
many  entertaining  the  opinion,  and  not  a  few  acting  upon  it,  that  the  dead  man's  es- 
tate was  without  an  owner  and  that  everyone  had  a  right  to  appropriate  to  his  own 
use  whatever  portion  of  it  he  could  lay  his  hands  upon.  It  was  while  in  Danville  I 
settled  many  questions  of  public  interest.  In  no  case  was  my  authority  questioned 
or  disregarded.  While  there,  I  sent  a  deputation  to  General ,  who  merely  in- 
formed me  that  my  communication  would  be  forwarded  to  General  Grant,  which  was 
the  last  of  it.  It  was  in  this  way,  I  think,  I  first  learned  that  a  reward  of  $25,000  was 
offered  for  my  arrest.  This,  with  the  advance  of  the  enemy,  and  the  utter  hopeless- 
ness of  further  resistance,  made  it  necessary  for  me  to  determine  upon  my  future 
course. 

Honored  by  my  beloved  State  beyond  my  merit,  and  thoroughly  satisfied  that  it 
was  my  duty  to  share  her  fate,  I  early  resolved,  that  under  no  circumstances  would 
I  leave  "  my  own,  my  native  land."  Hence  I  declined  the  invitation  of  President 
Davis  to  share  his  car  the  night  of  the  evacuation — put  aside  all  similar  suggestions — ■ 
rode  with  my  aid  and  servant  a  thousand  miles  through  the  State  on  horseback,  to  learn 
the  condition  and  temper  of  her  people,  and  everywhere  during  the  brief  remnant  of 
my  power  devoted  to  their  best  interests.  In  this  spirit  I  concluded,  under  proper 
circumstances,  to  surrender  myself — left  Danville,  wended  my  way  through  Pittsyl- 
vania and  Campbell  counties,  crossing  the  James  about  ten  miles  above  Lynch- 
burg, into  Amherst — thence  touching  Nelson,  and  crossing  the  James  again,  entered 
Buckingham,  recrossed  the  river  at  Cartersville  and  finally  stopped  for  a  considerable 


228 

time  at  the  house  of  that  noble  and  hospitable  gentleman,  Captain  Charles  \V.  Dab- 
ney,  of  the  county  of  Hanover. 

This  trip  was  most  leisurely  taken;  although  I  was  aware  that  parties  of  the  enemy 
were  in  pursuit  of  me,  I  acted  upon  the  simple  principle  that  should  I  encounter  large 
parties  of  the  enemy  I  could  run  and  took  it  for  granted  that  parties  of  our  own  size  would 
not  undertake  to  arrest  me.  I  think  it  not  amiss  to  state  that  Captain  Dabney's  was 
within  twenty-three  miles  of  Richmond,  and  within  seven  miles  of  two  posts  of  the 
enemy,  that  it  soon  came  to  be  known  in  the  neighborhood  that  I  was  Captain  Dab- 
ney's guest,  and  that  a  reward  had  been  offered  for  my  arrest  of  $25,000,  and  yet,  not 
a  man  in  that  community,  occupied  by  men  in  the  humblest  circumstances  could  be 
found  who  would  so  far  forget  his  duty  and  patriotic  sympathies  as  to  win  comfort 
and  independence  by  betraying  me. 

While  here,  I  concluded  to  carry  out  my  determination  to  surrender,  and  sent  my 
Aid  into  Richmond,  with  a  communication  addressed  to  General  Patrick,  stating  that 
it  was  my  then  purpose  to  do  so,  but  as  I  was  unwilling  to  play  "  hide  and  go  seek," 
with  his  parties,  I  respectfully  asked  him  to  send  me  his  protection.  He  did  so  (not 
knowing  where  I  was),  for  ten  days.  A  few  days  after  I  availed  myself  of  the  pro- 
tection, and  reported  to  him.     And  I  am  gratified  to  be  able  to  say 

[It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  residue  of  this  letter  cannot  be  found,  and  that 
it  should  thus  abruptly  close.] 

In  the  actions  herein  and  elsewhere  referred  to,  the  ex- 
Governor  attended  in  proper  person  and  by  counsel,  and  took 
an  active  part  in  their  trial  ;  and  through  the  Hon.  Robert 
Stiles  and  the  Hon.  James  G.  Field,  Attorney-General  of  the 
State,  they  went  off  upon  a  demurrer  to  the  declaration,  and 
were  finally  disposed  of  in  favor  of  the  defendants,  at  the 
plaintiffs'  costs. 


[From  Mrs.  Martha  J.  Lamb's  Magazine  of  American  History.] 

LINCOLN'S  RESTORATION  POLICY  FOR  VIRGINIA 


THE    TRUTH    BROUGHT   TO    LIGHT. 

During  the  years  1876-79  the  writer  was  associated  with 
the  Attorney-General  of  Virginia  in  the  defense  of  what  were 
known  as  "The  Gold  Cases."  These  were  actions  at  law 
brought  in  the  Federal  Court  at  Richmond  by  the  United 
States  as  plaintiff,  against  ex-Governor  William  Smith  and 
other  parties  who  had  been  officers  of  the  commonwealth  in 
April,  1865.  claiming  of  the  defendants  money  of  the  State  of 
Virginia  which  the  Governor  had  drawn  out  of  the  banks  on 
the  eve  of  the  evacuation  of  Richmond,  and  paid  to  these 
parties  on  account  of  their  official  salaries. 

In  the  course  of  the  trial  certain  testimony  was  given  by 


229 

Governor  Smith  and  Judge  Henry  W.  Thomas  of  great  his- 
toric value  and  importance.  The  testimony  of  Judge  Thomas 
was  of  especial  interest  as  bearing  upon  the  question  how  far 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  prepared  to  go,  and  did  actually  go,  in  put- 
ting into  execution  his  admitted  views  in  favor  of  immediate 
restoration  of  the  Southern  States,  more  especially  Virginia, 
to  the  Union.  Recently,  in  glancing  over  Admiral  Porter's 
Incidents  of  the  Civil  War,  and  reading  his  account  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  visit  to  Richmond,  the  importance  of  Judge  Thomas's 
testimony  became  too  clear  to  admit  of  further  delay  in  giving 
it  to  the  public.  Admiral  Porter's  account,  so  far  as  it  relates 
to  the  subject  of  this  paper,  is  as  follows  : 

"  Next  morning,  at  ten]o'clock,  Mr.  John  A.  Campbell,  late  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  sent  a  request  to  be  allowed  to  come  on  board  with 
General  Weitzel.  He  wanted  to  call  on  the  President.  He  came  on  board  and 
spent  an  hour.  The  President  and  himself  seemed  to  be  enjoying  themselves  very- 
much,  to  judge  from  their  laughter. 

"I  did  not  go  down  to  the  cabin.  In  about  an  hour  General  Weitzel  and  Mr. 
Campbell  came  on  deck,  asked  for  a  boat,  and  were  landed. 

"I  went  down  below  for  a  moment,  and  the  President  said:  'Admiral,  I  am 
sorry  you  were  not  here  when  Mr.  Campbell  was  on  board.  He  has  gone  on  shore 
happy.  I  gave  him  a  written  permission  to  allow  the  State  Legislature  to  convene  in 
the  capitol  in  the  absence  of  all  other  government.' 

"I  was  rather  astonished  at  this  piece  of  information.  I  felt  that  this  course 
would  bring  about  complications,  and  wondered  how  it  had  all  come  to  pass.  I 
found  it  had  all  been  done  by  the  persuasive  tongue  of  Mr.  Campbell,  who  had 
promised  the  President  that  if  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  could  meet  in  the  halls  of 
the  Confederate  Congress,  it  would  vote  Virginia  right  back  into  the  Union,  that  it 
would  be  a  delicate  compliment  paid  to  Virginia  which  would  be  appreciated,  etc. 

"Weitzel  backed  up  Mr.  Campbell,  and  the  President  was  won  over  to  agree  to 
what  would  have  been  a  most  humiliating  thing  if  it  had  been  accomplished. 

"  When  the  President  told  me  all  that  had  been  done,  and  that  General  Weitzel 
had  gone  on  shore  with  an  order  in  his  pocket  to  let  the  Legislature  meet,  I  merely 
said:  'Mr.  President,  I  suppose  you  remember  that  this  city  is  under  military  juris- 
diction, and  that  no  courts,  legislature  or  civil  authority  can  exercise  any  power  with- 
out the  sanction  of  the  General  commanding  the  army.  This  order  of  yours  should 
go  through  General  Grant,  who  would  inform  you  that  Richmond  was  under  martial 
law;  and  I  am  sure  he  would  protest  against  this  arrangement  of  Mr.  Campbell's.' 

"The  President's  common  sense  took  in  the  situation  at  once.  'Why,'  he  said, 
'Weitzel  made  no  objection,  and  he  commands  here.' 

"  '  That  is  because  he  is  Mr.  Campbell's  particular  friend,  and  wished  to  gratify 
him;  besides,  I  don't  think  he  knows  much  about  anything  but  soldiering.  General 
Shepley  would  not  have  perferred  such  a  request.' 

"'Run  and  stop  them,'  exclaimed  the  President,  'and  get  my  order  back! 
Well,  I  came  near  knocking  all  the  fat  into  the  fire,  didn't  I?  ' 

"To  make  things  sure  I  had  an  order  written  to  General  Weitzel  and  signed  by 
the  President,  as  follows:  'Return  my  permission  to  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  to 
meet  at  all.'  There  was  an  ambulance  wagon  at  the  landing,  and  giving  the  order 
to  an  officer,  I  said  to  him,  'jump  into  that  wagon,  and  kill  the  horse  if  necessary, 


230 

but  catch  the  carriage  which  carried  General  Weitzel  and  Mr.  Campbell,  and  deliver 
this  order  to  the  General.' 

"The  carriage  was  caught  after  it  reached  the  city.  The  old  wagon  horse  had 
been  a  trotter  in  its  day,  and  went  his  three  minutes.  The  General  and  Mr.  Camp- 
bell were  surprised.  The  President's  order  was  sent  back,  and  they  never  returned 
to  try  and  reverse  the  decision. 

"Mr.  Campbell  evidently  saw  that  his  scheme  of  trying  to  put  the  State  Legisla- 
ture in  session  with  the  sanction  of  the  President  had  failed,  and  that  it  was  useless 
to  try  it  again.  It  was  a  clever  dodge  to  soothe  the  wounded  feelings  of  the  South, 
and  no  doubt  was  kindly  meant  by  the  late  Justice  Campbell;  but  what  a  howl  it 
would  have  raised  at  the  North  !    .     .     .     [pp.  305-6.] 

"  'Yes,'  the  President  answered,  'let  us  go.  I  seem  to  be  'putting  my  foot  into 
it"  here  all  the  time.  Bless  my  soul !  how  Seward  would  have  preached  and  read 
Puffendorf,  Vattel  and  Grotius  to  me  if  he  had  been  here  when  I  gave  Campbell  per- 
mission to  let  the  Legislature  meet !  I'd  never  have  heard  the  last  of  it.  Seward  is 
a  small  compendium  of  international  law  himself,  and  laughs  at  my  'horse  sense,' 
which  I  pride  myself  on,  and  yet  I  put  my  foot  into  that  thing  about  Campbell  with 
my  eyes  wide  open.  If  I  were  you  I  don't  think  I  would  repeat  that  joke  yet  awhile. 
People  might  laugh  at  you  for  knowing  so  much,  and  more  than  the  President !  I 
am  afraid  that  the  most  of  my  learning  lies  in  my  heart  more  than  in  my  head.'  " 
[P-  309-] 

It  is  but  fair  to  the  Admiral  to  note  that  in  another  connec- 
tion, page  313,  he  says  :  "  I  made  it  a  rule  during  the  war  to 
write  down  at  night,  before  retiring  to  rest,  what  had  occurred 
during  the  day." 

Having  heard  Judge  Thomas's  sworn  evidence,  above  re- 
ferred to  and  below  recited,  it  is  needless  to  add  that  I  read 
Admiral  Porter's  narrative  with  astonishment,  and  at  once  be- 
gan an  investigation  of  the  subject.  I  read  the  account  which 
General  Grant  gives  of  the  matter  on  pages  505-6  of  the 
second  volume  of  his  Memoirs,  as  follows  : 

"While  I  was  in  pursuit  of  General  Lee  the  President  went  to  Richmond  in  com- 
pany with  Admiral  Porter,  and  on  board  his  flagship.  He  found  the  people  of  that 
city  in  great  consternation.  The  leading  citizens  among  the  people  who  had  re- 
mained at  home  surrounded  him,  anxious  that  something  should  be  done  to  relieve 
them  from  suspense.  General  Weitzel  was  not  then  in  the  city,  having  taken  offices 
in  one  of  the  neighboring  villages  after  his  troops  had  succeeded  in  subduing  the 
conflagration  which  they  had  found  in  progress  on  entering  the  Confederate  capital. 
The  President  sent  for  him,  and  on  his  arrival  a  short  interview  was  held  on  board 
the  vessel,  Admiral  Porter  and  a  leading  citizen  of  Virginia  being  also  present. 
After  this  interview  the  President  wrote  an  order  in  about  these  words,  which  I  ijuote 
from  memory:  'General  Weitzel  is  authorized  to  permit  the  body  calling  itself  the 
Legislature  of  Virginia  to  meet  for  the  purpose  of  recalling  the  Virginia  troops  from 
the  Confederate  armies.'  Immediately  some  of  the  gentlemen  composing  that  body 
wrote  out  a  call  for  a  meeting  and  had  it  published  in  their  papers.  This  call,  how- 
ever, went  very  much  farther  than  Mr.  Lincoln  had  contemplated,  as  he  did  not  say 
'the  Legislature  of  Virginia,'  but  'the  body  which  called  itself  the  Legislature  of 
Virginia.'  Mr.  Stanton  saw  the  call  as  published  in  the  Northern  papers  the  very 
next  (issue,  and  took  the  liberty  of  countermanding  the  order  authorizing  any  meet- 


231 

ing  of  the  legislature  or  any  other  body,  and  this  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the 
President  was  nearer  the  spot  than  he  was. 

"This  was  characteristic  of  Mr.  Stanton.  He  was  a  man  who  never  questioned 
his  own  authority,  and  who  always  did  in  war  time  what  he  wanted  to  do." 

By  way  of  preface  to  Judge  Thomas's  evidence  it  should  be 
remarked  that  he  is  a  gentleman  of  high  character,  capacity 
and  position,  having  been  second  Auditor  of  the  State  in 
April,  1 865,  Lieutenant-Governor  after  the  war,  for  years  a 
Circuit  Judge,  and  at  all  times  recognized  as  one  of  the  most 
cautious,  well-balanced  and  accurate  lawyers  in  the  common- 
wealth. His  testimony  was  given  in  support  of  the  main 
point  of  Governor  Smith's  defense,  which  was  that  he  had 
drawn  and  expended  this  money  as  Governor  of  Virginia,  in 
the  public  service  and  for  the  public  good,  in  the  preservation 
of  order  and,  the  institutions  of  civil  society  in  that  debatable 
ground  from  which  the  Confederate  government  and  forces 
had  retired,  and  over  which  the  United  States  had,  as  yet, 
established  no  settled  authority.  Judge  Thomas  himself 
vouches  for  the  correctness  of  the  following  record  of  his  testi- 
mony,  he  having  read  every  line  of  it ;  indeed,  every  word, 
with  the  specific  exceptions  indicated,  being  now  in  my  pos- 
session in  his  handwriting-. 

It  is  also  of  consequence  to  note  that,  when  Judge  Thomas 
prepared  and  sent  the  writer  this  sketch,  he  had  not,  neither 
had  the  writer,  examined  the  files  of  the  Whig,  nor  was 
either  aware  of  what  they  contained,  and  Judge  Campbell's 
pamphlet — also  below  quoted — had  not  even  been  published. 
Judge  Thomas's  draught  of  his  testimony  is  as  follows : 

"Early  in  April,  when  it  was  known,  after  the  fall  of  Richmond,  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  coming  there,  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  hold  a  public  meeting,  with 
the  view  of  expressing  such  views  as  would  tend  to  show  that  we  were  willing  to 
accept  the  situation,  and  to  declare  our  purpose  to  renounce  all  opposition  to  the 
restoration  of  civil  government  under  the  authority  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States.  The  meeting  was  held  in  the  room  adjoining  the  Whig  office,  and  the  pro- 
ceedings were  published  in  the  Richmond  papers. 

"Judge  Campbell,  Mr.  Myers  (deceased),  and  myself  were  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  confer  with  the  President  and  submit  the  resolutions.  This  we  did,  and  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  much  pleased  by  the  views  presented  by  us.     .     .     . 

"In  the  conversation  I  had  with  the  President  upon  that  occasion,  reference  was 
made  to  the  consequences  which  might  ensue  from  the  condition  in  which  we  were 
placed — the  absence  of  civil  government,  the  demoralization  prevailing,  and  our 
utter  inability  to  control  the  passions  and  excited  feelings  of  a  part,  at  least,  of  our 
community — and  I  remarked,  '  Mr.  President,  we  would  all  be  much  gratified  if  you 


232 

would  send  Governor  Pierpont  here  as  early  as  possible,  so  that  civil  order  may  be 
re-established.'  I  recollect  Mr.  Lincoln's  action  and  utterance.  He  said  he  did  not 
regard  the  division  of  Virginia  as  permanent,  and  that  the  matter,  if  tested  in  the. 
courts,  would,  he  thought,  result  in  overthrowing  it,  that  it  could  only  be  justified  as 
a  war  measure,  and  therefore  he  did  not  want  Mr.  Pierpont.  '  The  government  that 
took  Virginia  out  is  the  government  that  should  bring  her  back,  and  is  the  govern- 
ment that  alone  can  effect  it.  I  shall  appoint  a  committee  for  the  purpose  of  sum- 
moning the  Governor  and  the  Legislature  to  meet  at  an  early  date  in  Richmond  for 
this  action,  and  I  shall  direct  General  Weitzel  to  issue  you  passes  through  General 
Grant's  lines;  I  presume,  (he  added),  you  will  need  none  in  passing  General  Lee's; 
and  I  shall  take  care  that  you  have  safe  conduct  in  the  discharge  of  this  duty,  as,  also, 
those  you  may  summon,  in  repairing  to  the  capitol.  They  must  come  here  to  the 
very  place  they  went  out  of  the  Union,  to  come  back;  and  your  people  will,  doubt- 
less, all  return,  and  we  shall  soon  have  old  Virginia  back  again.' 

"I  recollect  distinctly  his  replying  to  my  suggestion  that  we  could  get  the  mem- 
bers of  the  existing  legislature  in  session  without  difficulty.  'But  no,'  he  said  'the 
government  that  took  the  State  out  must  bring  her  back.'  My  impression  is  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  asked  who  was  Governor  at  the  time  of  the  secession  of  the  State,  and  my 
answer  was  Letcher.  He  was  the  man,  then,  to  come  and  participate  in  the  action 
of  the  legislature;  and  Smith,  who  was  the  present  Governor,  was  to  be  here  and 
ratify  it.     .     .     . 

"He  proposed  that  messengers  should  be  dispatched  to  summon  these 
gentlemen,  and,  if  my  memory  serves  me  correctly,  that  General  J.  R.  Anderson 
and  a  gentleman  who  then  represented  Richmond,  and  myself,  with  others,  should 
undertake  the  task.     .     .     . 

"  The  orders  were  given  to  General  Weitzel,  and  passes  in  conformity  thereto 
issued  by  General  Weitzel,  by  order  of  the  President.  I  have  mine  now.  Before, 
however,  we  could  act,  the  passes  were  revoked.  This  was  done  immediately  after 
his  return." 

In  the  brief  sketch  of  Judge  Thomas,  his  modest  and  re- 
tiring nature  and  his  kindly  spirit  should  have  been  men- 
tioned. The  first  characteristic  explains  if  it  does  not  excuse 
the  delay  in  the  publication  of  this  article.  He  repeatedly 
declined  "to  obtrude  his  reminiscences  upon  the  country," 
while  heartily  approving  any  attempt  to  rescue  and  preserve 
this  bit  of  history.  To  the  regret  of  the  writer,  he  struck  out 
from  the  record  certain  quaint  and  characteristic  remarks  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  which  I  distinctly  recall  as  recited  in  his  testi- 
mony in  court,  and  which  he  did  not  dispute,  but  protested 
that  some  of  these  remarks  and  expressions  reflected  somewhat 
upon  certain  persons  still  living,  as  to  whom  the  President  freely 
used  popular  nicknames  and  phrases  not  altogether  compli- 
mentary. 

The  few  additions,  therefore,  to  his  written  statement  rest 
upon  my  authority  alone,  and  I  deem  myself  entirely  within 
the  kindly  limitations  imposed  by  Judge  Thomas,  when  add- 
ing  to  his  own  recollections  of  his  evidence,  that  he  testified 


233 

that  Judge  John  A.  Campbell  (of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  and  later  of  the  Confederate  war  office)  was  chairman 
of  the  committee  appointed  by  the  citizens'  meeting  to  wait 
upon  Mr.  Lincoln ;  that  Mr.  Lincoln,  when  he  spoke  of  Gov- 
ernor Smith,  called  him  "  Extra  Billy  " — which  title,  origina- 
ting in  a  half-sneering,  political  reference,  was  ever  after 
lovingly  applied  to  the  old  hero  by  Virginians  all  over  the 
country — and  that  he  added,  making  use  of  the  expression 
"  By  Jove,"  or  some  such  expletive,  and  smiting  the  table 
with  his  clenched  fist,  "  I  want  that  old  Game  Cock  back 
here." 

What  is  meant,  and  all  that  is  meant  by  these  additions,  is, 
that  Judge  Thomas's  testimony,  as  given  at  the  trial,  bristled 
with  vivid  details  which  convinced  every  hearer  of  its  truth, 
and  that  much  of  the  vigor  and  quaint  homeliness  which  en- 
livened the  court  recital  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  utterances  is  wanting- 
in  the  above  transcription ;  but  with  these  qualifications  it  is, 
according  to  my  best  and  quite  distinct  recollection,  the  same 
testimony  which  Judge  Thomas  gave  in  the  trial  of  the  Gold 
Cases  in  1879. 

In  a  recent  pamphlet  entitled  "  Reminiscence  and  Docu- 
ments relating  to  the  Civil  War  during  the  year  i865,"  Judge 
Campbell  has  given  his  own  recollection  of  these  occurrences, 
a  paper  prepared  by  Mr.  Lincoln  expressive  of  his  views 
upon  the  subject  of  peace  and  restoration,  with  certain  testi- 
mony of  Mr.  Secretary  Stanton  bearing  upon  the  main  point 
to  which  this  investigation  is  directed.  As  this  pamphlet  may 
not  be  readily  accessible  to  the  readers  of  this  article,  we 
quote  what  it  contains  (pages  38-44)  bearing  upon  the  history 
of  this  matter  : 

"Richmond  was  evacuated  the  2d  of  April,  and  was  captured  on  the  3d  of  April. 
I  informed  the  Secretary  of  War  that  I  should  not  leave  Richmond,  and  that  I  should 
take  an  opportunity  to  see  President  Lincoln  on  the  subject  of  peace,  and  would  be 
glad  to  have  an  authority  to  do  so,  but  that  I  would  do  so  if  an  occasion  arose. 
President  Lincoln  came  to  the  city  on  the  4th  of  April,  in  less  than  forty-eight  hours 
from  the  departure  of  the  Confederate  President  and  his  cabinet.  Richmond  had 
experienced  a  great  calamity  from  a  conflagration.  I  represented  the  conditions  to 
him,  and  requested  that  no  requisitions  on  the  inhabitants  be  made  of  restraint  of 
any  sort,  save  as  to  police  and  preservation  of  order;  not  to  exact  oaths,  interfere 
with  churches,  etc.  He  assented  to  this,  the  General  Weitzel  and  Military  Governor 
Shepley  cordially  assenting.     On  the  following  day  I  visited  him  on  the  Malvern 


234 

gunboat  on  which  he  had  come  into  Richmond  upon  the  4th.  He  had  prepared  a 
paper,  which  he  commented  on  as  he  read  each  clause.  The  paper  was  not  signed 
nor  dated.  This  paper  he  handed  to  me,  and  on  the  13th  of  April  I  returned  it  to 
General  Ord,  by  direction  of  the  President.  I  retained  a  copy,  as  I  informed  that 
General  I  should  do.     This  is  a  copy: 

"  '  1.  As  to  peace,  I  have  said  before,  and  now  repeat,  that  three  things  are  in- 
dispensable:    The  restoration  of  the  national  authority  throughout  all  the  States. 

"2.  No  receding  by  the  Executive  of  the  United  States  on  the  salary  question 
from  the  position  assumed  thereon  in  the  late  annual  message  to  Congress,  and  in 
preceding  documents. 

"3.  No  cessation  of  hostilities  short  of  an  end  of  hostilities  and  the  disbanding 
of  all  forces  hostile  to  the  government. 

"That  all  propositions  coming  from  those  now  in  hostility  to  the  government, 
and  not  inconsistent  with  the  foregoing,  will  be  respectfully  considered  and  passed 
upon  in  a  spirit  of  sincere  liberality.  I  now  add  that  it  seems  useless  for  me  to  be 
more  specific  with  those  who  will  not  say  that  they  are  ready  for  the  indispensable 
terms,  even  on  condition  to  be  named  by  themselves. 

"If  there  be  any  who  are  ready  for  those  indispensable  terms  on  any  condition 
whatever,  let  them  say  so,  and  state  their  conditions,  so  that  such  conditions  can  be 
strictly  known  and  considered.  It  is  further  added,  that  the  remission  of  confisca- 
tion being  within  the  executive  power,  if  the  war  be  now  further  persisted  in  by 
those  opposing  the  government,  the  making  of  confiscated  property,  at  the  least,  to 
bear  the  additional  cost  will  be  insisted  on;  but  that  confiscations  (except  in  cases  of 
third  party  intervening  interests)  will  be  remitted  to  the  people  of  any  State  which 
shall  now  promptly  and  in  good  faith  withdraw  its  troops  and  other  supports  from 
further  resistance  to  the  government.  What  is  now  said  as  to  remission  of  confisca- 
tion has  no  reference  to  supposed  property  in  slaves. 

"On  the  13th  of  April,  the  day  before  the  assassination  of  the  President,  General 
Ord  addressed  me  a  letter,  stating  that  by  the  instructions  of  the  President  he  wrote, 
that  since  the  paper  was  written  on  the  subject  of  reconvening  the  gentlemen  who, 
under  the  insurrectionary  government,  had  acted  as  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  the 
object  had  in  view  and  the  convention  of  such  gentlemen  is  unnecessary;  he  wishes 
the  paper  withdrawn.  I  sent  to  General  Ord  the  only  paper  1  had  ever  received, 
being  that  I  have  copied. 

"After  the  President  had  read  and  expounded  that  paper  he  delivered  it  to  me. 
It  was  not  dated  nor  signed,  nor  directed  to  me  or  other  person.  When  he  had  con- 
cluded this  he  said  he  had  been  meditating  a  plan,  but  had  come  to  no  conclusion 
upon  the  subject;  that  he  should  not  do  so  till  he  returned  to  City  Point;  that  if  he 
was  satisfied  he  would  write  to  General  Weitzel. 

"This  had  reference  to  a  convention  of  the  legislature  which  had  been  sitting 
during  the  preceding  winter  and  recognized  the  Confederate  States.  The  President 
said  'he  had  a  government  in  Virginia— the  Pierpont  government.  It  had  but  a 
small  margin,  and  he  was  not  disposed  to  increase  it.  He  wanted  the  very  legisla- 
ture which  had  been  sitting  up  yonder  '—pointing  to  the  capitol— '  to  come  together 
and  to  vote  to  restore  Virginia  to  the  Union  and  recall  her  soldiers  from  the  Confeder- 
ate army.' 

"The  suggestion  came  from  the  President,  and  its  object  was  plainly  stated. 
As  the  suggestion  had  some  tolerence  for  the  existing  State  governments,  I  was 
pleased  to  hear  it  and  strongly  supported  the  suggestion.  I  told  him  '  there  had  been 
discussions  during  the  winter  in  respect  to  both  peace  and  union;  none  could  be 
found  to  make  peace.     Each  man  would  now  make  his  own  peace.'  " 

It  appears  that  Edwin  M.  Stanton  was  examined  in  relation 
to   this   intercourse   before   the  committee  appointed   for  the 


235 

examination  of  charges  preferred  against  President  Johnson 
in  1867.  He  testified  before  that  committee  that  "  President 
Lincoln  went  to  the  city  of  Richmond  after  its  capture,  and 
some  intercourse  took  place  between  him  and  Judge  Camp- 
bell, formerly  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and 
General  Weitzel,  which  resulted  in  the  call  of  the  rebel  legis- 
lature to  Richmond.  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  his  return  from  Rich- 
mond, reconsidered  that  matter.  The  policy  of  undertaking 
to  restore  the  government  through  the  medium  of  Rebel 
organizations  was  very  much  opposed  by  many  persons,  and 
very  strongly  and  vehemently  opposed  by  myself.  I  had 
several  earnest  conversations  with  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  subject, 
and  advised  that  any  effort  to  reorganize  the  government 
should  be  under  the  Federal  government  solely,  and  to  treat 
the  Rebel  organizations  as  null  and  void.  On  the  day  preced- 
ing his  death  a  conversation  took  place  between  him,  the  At- 
torney-General and  myself  upon  the  subject,  at  the  executive 
mansion.  An  hour  or  two  afterwards,  and  about  the  middle 
of  the  afternoon,  Mr.  Lincoln  came  over  to  the  war  depart- 
ment and  renewed  the  conversation.  After  I  had  repeated 
my  reasons  against  allowing  the  Rebel  legislature  to  assem- 
ble, or  the  Rebel  authorities  to  have  any  participation  in  the 
business  of  reorganization,  he  sat  down  at  my  desk  and 
wrote  a  telegram  to  General  Weitzel  and  handed  it  to  me. 
"  There,"  said  he,  "  I  think  this  will  suit  you."  I  told  him,  "  No, 
it  did  not  go  far  enough  ;  that  the  members  of  the  legislature 
would  probably  come  to  Richmond ;  that  General  Weitzel 
ought  to  be  directed  to  prohibit  their  assembling.  He  took 
up  his  pen  again  and  made  that  addition  to  the  telegram 
and  signed  it.  He  handed  it  to  me.  I  said  it  was  exactly 
right.  It  was  transmitted  immediately  to  General  Weitzel, 
and  was  the  last  act  ever  performed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the 
war  department." 

Judge  Campbell  adds :  "  General  Ord  had  succeeded 
General  Weitzel  and  communicated  the  intelligence  to  me." 

But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  and  conclusive  contribu- 
tion to  the  history  of  this  matter  is  the  contemporaneous 
record  in  the  daily  press  of  Richmond.     Most  of  the  news- 


236 

paper  offices  of  the  city  were  laid  in  ashes  at  the  great  con- 
flagration of  April  3,  1865  ;  only  the  Whig  and  Sentinel  es- 
caped. Whether  or  not  the  Sentinel  was  published  continu- 
ously during  the  early  days  of  Federal  occupation,  I  have 
not  been  able  to  determine  absolutely,  but  am  inclined  to 
believe,  it  was  not.  Certainly  I  have  failed  to  find  any  num- 
bers of  the  paper  covering  that  period  between  the  3d  and 
the  1 5th  of  April.  The  Times  was  the  first  paper  started 
after  the  great  disaster,  but  its  earliest  issue  was  later  than 
the  last  of  these  dates.  So  far  as  appears,  then,  to  the  Whig 
alone  we  must  look  for  the  daily  record  of  events  in  Rich- 
mond just  after  the  evacuation.  Immediately  upon  this 
change  of  masters  this  newspaper,  the  Whig,  passed  under 
the  control  and  conduct  of  a  Northern  man  of  Union  senti- 
ments, and  was  promptly  issued  Tuesday  evening,  April  4, 
amid  the  smoking  ruins  of  the  city,  with  the  sanction  of  the 
United  States  military  authorities,  as  a  Union  journal,  in  a 
sheet  about  the  size  of  an  ordinary  Sunday-school  paper. 

It  may  be  pertinent  to  remind  the  average  reader  that — 
as  the  columns  of  the  journal  abundantly  show — the  Con- 
federate rear  guard  retired  from  Richmond  very  early  Mon- 
day morning,  April  3d,  and  the  Federals  entered  the  burning 
city  close  upon  their  heels  ;  that  Admiral  Porter  brought  Mr. 
Lincoln  up  the  river  in  the  gunboat  Malvern,  Tuesday,  April 
4th,  landing  at  Rockett's  about  three  P.  M.;  that  the  Presi- 
dent walked  through  the  city,  for  the  most  part  east  and  north 
of  the  '  burnt  district,'  to  General  Weitzel's  headquarters, 
which  were  in  President  Davis's  mansion  at  the  corner  of 
1 2th  and  Clay  streets,  and  that  he  spent  that  evening  meet- 
ing and  conferring  with  military  officers  of  the  United  States 
and  the  leading  citizens  of  Richmond,  returning  to  the  Mai- 
vern  to  sleep  that  night,  and  going  back  down  the  river  to 
City  Point,  say  about  noon  the  next  day,  which  was  Wednes- 
day, the  5th. 

Several  reportorial  notices  of  and  editorial  comments  upon 
what  it  was  pleased  to  term  "  the  first  step  toward  the  rein- 
statement of  the  Old  Dominion  in  the  Union"  appear  in  the 
columns  of  the    Whig  during  the   week   beginning  Friday, 


237 

April  7th,  and  ending  Friday,  April  14th — the  day  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  assassination.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  Whig 
commended  and  advocated  the  proposed  scheme  for  the  im- 
mediate rehabilitation  of  the  State  just  so  long  as  the  military 
authorities  of  the  United  States  appeared  to  approve  it,  and 
denied  all  sympathy  with  it  when  their  approbation  and  co- 
operation were  withdrawn.  We  give  below  all  the  Whig's 
reference  to  the  matter  which  tend  to  the  clear  and  con- 
secutive development  of  the  facts  as  they  actually  occurred. 
The  earliest  notice  is  as  follows,  and  is  found  in  the  Evening 
Whig,  April  7th  :  " 

"An  Important  Movement — Reconstruction — Meeting  of  the  Virginia 

Legislature. 

"An  informal  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  Virginia  Legislature  remaining  in 
the  city  was  held  in  the  Law  building,  Franklin  street,  this  morning,  for  the  considera- 
tion of  the  proposition  of  President  Lincoln  to  re-assemble  the  legislature  for  the 
purpose  of  authorizing  a  convention  to  take  Virginia  back  into  the  bonds  of  the 
Union.  The  proposition  of  the  President  was  laid  before  the  meeting.  A  formal 
meeting  was  appointed  to  take  place  at  four  o'clock  this  afternoon,  to  which  time  the 
meeting  adjourned." 

Then,  next  day,  Saturday,  April  8,  we  have  the  following  : 

"Correction. 

"The  statement  that  there  would  be  a  meeting,  last  evening,  of  such  members  of 
the  Virginia  Legislature  as  still  remained  in  the  city  was  not  strictly  correct.  There 
was  no  meeting  of  legislators  or  others,  but  simply  an  informal  conference  and  con- 
sultation of  private  individuals,  among  whom  were  five  or  six  members  of  the  legis- 
lature. The  motive  of  these  gentlemen  in  coming  together  was  to  hear  from  Judge 
Campbell  the  terms  upon  which  President  Lincoln  had  expressed  himself  as  willing 
that  Virginia  might  return  to  the  Union.  Messrs.  Joseph  R.  Anderson,  David  I. 
Burr,  Nathaniel  P.  Tyler  and  W.  H.  Thomas  were  appointed  a  committee  to  inform 
the  legislature  and  Governor  Smith  of  President  Lincoln's  terms;  and  Judge  Camp- 
bell was  requested  to  accompany  the  committee,  who  were  to  leave  the  city  so  soon 
as  passports  could  be  procured.  It  was  said  to  be  probable  they  would  get  off  this 
morning. 

"We  prefer  not  to  state  our  understanding  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  terms,  as  our  infor- 
mation on  that  head  is  not  official." 

The  next  publication  of  importance,  and  the  most  important 
of  all,  appearing  in  the  issues  both  of  Wednesday,  the  12th, 
and  Thursday,  the  1 3th  of  April,  is  the  following  address  : 

"To  the  People  of  Virginia. 
"The  undersigned,  members  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  in  con- 
nection with  a  number  of  citizens  of  the  State,  whose  names  are  attached  to  this 
paper,  in  view  of  the  evacuation  of  the  City  of  Richmond  by  the  Confederate  govern- 
ment, and  its  occupation  by  the  military  authorities  of  the  United  States,  the  sur- 
render of  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia,  and  the  suspension  of  the  jurisdiction  of 


238 

the  civil  power  of  the  State,  are  of  opinion  that  an  immediate  meeting  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  State  is  called  for  by  the  exigencies  of  the  situation.  The  consent 
of  the  military  authorities  of  the  United  States  to  the  sessions  of  the  Legislature  in 
Richmond,  in  connection  with  the  Governor  and  Lieutenant-Governor,  to  their  free 
deliberation  upon  public  affairs,  and  to  the  ingress  and  departure  of  all  its  members 
under  safe  conducts,  has  been  obtained. 

"The  United  States  authorities  will  afford  transportation  from  any  point  under 
their  control  to  any  of  the  persons  before  mentioned. 

"The  matters  to  be  submitted  to  the  legislature  are  the  restoration  of  peace  to 
the  State  of  Virginia,  and  the  adjustment  of  questions  involving  life,  liberty  and 
property  that  have  arisen  in  the  State  as  a  consequence  of  the  war. 

"We,  therefore,  earnestly  request  the  Governor,  Lieutenant-Governor  and  mem- 
bers of  the  Legislature  to  repair  to  this  city  by  the  25th  of  April  (instant). 

"We  understand  that  full  protection  to  persons  and  property  will  be  afforded  in 
the  State,  and  we  recommend  to  peaceful  citizens  to  remain  at  their  homes  and  pur- 
sue their  usual  avocations,  with  confidence  that  they  will  not  be  interrupted. 

"We  earnestly  solicit  the  attendance  in  Richmond  on  or  before  the  25th  of  April 
(instant),  of  the  following  persons,  citizens  of  Virginia,  to  confer  with  us  as  to  the 
best  means  of  restoring  peace  to  the  State  of  Virginia.  We  have  procured  safe  con- 
duct from  the  military  authorities  of  the  United  States  for  them  to  enter  the  city  and 
to  depart  without  molestation  :  Hon.  R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  A.  T.  Caperton,  Wm.  C. 
Rives,  John  Letcher,  A.  H.  H.  Stuart,  R.  L.  Montague,  Fayett  McMullen,  J.  P.  Hol- 
combe,  Alexander  Rives,  B.  Johnson  Barbour,  James  Barbour,  Wm.  L.  Goggin,  J.  B. 
Baldwin,  Thomas  Gholson,  Waller  Staples,  S.  D.  Miller,  Thomas  J.  Randolph,  Wm. 
T.  Early,  R.  A.  Claybrook,  John  Critcher,  Wm.  Towns,  T.  H.  Eppes,  and  those  other 
persons  for  whom  passports  have  been  procured  and  especially  forwarded  that  we 
consider  it  to  be  unnecessary  to  mention. 

(Signed)      A.  J.  Marshall,  Senator,  Fauquier. 
James  Neeson,  Senator,  Marion. 
James  Venable,  Senator-elect,  Petersburg. 
David  I.  Burr,  of  House  of  Delegates,  Richmond  city. 
David  J.  Saunders,  of  House  of  Delegates,  Richmond  city. 
L.  S.   Hall,  of  House  of  Delegates,  Wetzel  county. 
J.  J.  English,  of  House  of  Delegates,  Henrico  county. 
Wm.  Ambers,  of  House  of  Delegates,  Chesterfield  county. 
A.  M.  Keily,  of  House  of  Delegates,  Petersburg. 
H.  W.  Thomas,  Second  Auditor  of  Virginia. 
St.  L.  L.  Moncure,  Chief  Clerk  Second  Auditor's  office. 
Joseph  Mayo,  Mayor  City  of  Richmond. 
Robert  Howard,  Clerk  Hustings  Court,  Richmond  city. 
Thomas  U.  Dudley,  Sergeant  Richmond  city. 
Littleton  Tazewell,  Commonwealth's  Attorney,  Richmond  city. 
Wm.  T.  Joynes,  Judge  of  Circuit  Court,  Petersburg. 
John  A.  Meredith,  Judge  of  Circuit  Court,  Richmond. 
Wm.  H.  Lyons,  Judge  of  Hustings  Court,  Richmond. 
Wm.  WlCKHAM,  Member  of  Congress,  Richmond  District. 
Benj.  S.  Ewell,  President  of  William  and  Mary  College. 
Nat.  Tyler,  Editor  Richmond  Enquirer. 
R.  F.  Walker,  Publisher  of  Examiner. 
J.  R.  Anderson,  Richmond. 
R.  R.  Howison,  Richmond. 
W.  Goddin,  Richmond. 
P.  G.  Bayly,  Richmond. 
F.  J.  Smith,  Richmond. 


239 

(Signed)      Franklin  Stearns,  Henrico. 

John  Lyon,  Petersburg. 

Thomas  B.  Fisher,  Fauquier. 

Wm,  M.  Harrison,  Charles  City. 

Cyrus  Hall,  Ritchie. 

Thomas  W.  Garnett,  King  and  Queen. 

James  A.  Scott,  Richmond. 
'■I  concur  in  the  preceding  recommendation.  J.  A.  Cmpbell. 

"  Approved  for  publication  in  the  Whig  and  in  handbill  form. 

G.  Weitzel,  Major-General  Commanding. 
Richmond,  Va.,  April  n,  1865." 

And  last  of  all,  from  the  Whig  of  Friday,  April  14,  we 
copy  the  following  military  order  : 

"Headquarters  Department  Virginia,  \_ 
Richmond.  Va.,  April  13,  1865.  \ 

"Owing  to  recent  events,  the  permission  for  the  re-assembling  of  the  gentlemen 
recently  acting  as  the  legislature  of  Virginia  is  rescinded.  Should  any  of  the  gentle- 
men come  to  the  city  under  the  notice  of  re-assembling,  already  published,  they  will 
be  furnished  passports  to  return  to  their  homes. 

"Any  of  the  persons  named  in  the  call  signed  by  J.  A.  Campbell  and  others, 
who  are  found  in  the  city  twelve  hours  after  the  publication  of  this  notice  will  be 
subject  to  arrest,  unless  they  are  residents  of  the  city. 

E.  O.  C.  Ord,  Major-General  Commanding  the  Department." 

In  the  light  of  the  evidence  above  collated,  need  we  refer 
again  to  Admiral  Porter's  account  of  how  he  ran  down  the 
entire  scheme  for  re-assemblino-  the  Virginia  Legislature  on 
that  Wednesday  morning  (April  5th),  when,  with  that  old 
three-minute  ambulance  horse,  he  overhauled  the  flying 
carriage  containing  General  Weitzel  and  Judge  Campbell,  nor 
how  the  Admiral  made  the  President  admit  his  clumsy  ig- 
norance and  beg  the  Admiral  not  to  expose  him  ?  No,  it  is 
not  treasonable  to  say  of  the  Admiral's  narrative  that  "  it  does 
not  read  like  history,"  and  it  is  but  fair  to  add  that  perhaps  it 
was  not  really  intended  to  read,  or  to  be  read,  in  any  such 
prosaic  and  critical  style.  The  whole  scope  of  the  book  puts 
it  outside  the  category  of  grave  history. 

But  General  Grant's  book  is  of  very  different  character, 
and  is  certain  to  be  largely  consulted  by  future  historians  of 
the  Civil  War.  It  is  the  more  to  be  regretted,  therefore,  that 
the  illustrious  author  appears  to  have  been  led  into  error 
about  this  particular  matter.  Passing  by  some  minor  details, 
as  to  which  we  raise  no  issue,  it  will  be  noted  that  the  General 
differs  with  the  Admiral  in  that  he  admits  the  "restoration" 


240 

scheme  and  policy  survived  the  disastrous  set-back  of  the  5th 
of  April ;  indeed,  the  General  seems  never  to  have  heard  of 
that  disaster.  He  quotes  the  words  of  President  Lincoln's 
order  given  after  the  interview  on  Admiral  Porter's  flag-ship, 
the  Malvern  ,  "  from  memory."  Memory  of  what?  Of  those 
words  and  that  order  certainly,  but  whether  as  read  by  him- 
self or  as  repeated  to  him  by  another,  it  would  be  very  in- 
teresting to  discover. 

Of  course  Judge  Campbell  is  the  "  leading  citizen  "  referred 
to  as  having  been  present  at  the  Malvern  interview  (though 
not  strictly  a  "  citizen  of  Virginia,")  and  Judge  Campbell  not 
only  publishes  a  copy  of  the  paper  handed  him  on  that  occa- 
sion, being  the  only  paper  he  ever  received  from  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  which  contained  no  reference  to  the  meeting  of  the 
Legislature,  but  he  also  says  that  Mr.  Lincoln,  while  express- 
ing verbally  and  freely  to  him  (as  he  had  done  to  Judge 
Thomas)  his  views  as  to  "  a  convention  of  the  Legislature  "  and 
"  a  government  for  Virginia,"  at  the  same  time  distinctly 
stated  that  he  was  only  "  meditating  a  plan,"  had  "  come  to 
no  conclusion,"  and  was  not  yet  prepared  to  commit  anything 
to  writing  on  this  subject. 

The  General  says  the  "call"  for  the  Legislative  conven- 
tion, afterwards  published  upon  the  basis  of  the  President's 
order,  "  went  very  much  further  than  Mr.  Lincoln  had  con- 
templated ;  "  and  that  Mr.  Stanton,  seeing  this  "  call,"  im- 
mediately "  took  the  liberty  of  countermanding  the  order, 
.  .  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  President  was  nearer 
the  spot  than  he  was."  Now,  it  is  conceivable  that  Mr. 
Lincoln,  who  was  the  author  and  sponsor  of  this  movement, 
never  saw  this  "  call,"  although  Mr.  Stanton  saw  it  in  "  the 
very  next  issue  of  the  northern  papers  ?  "  If  Mr.  Stanton 
saw  it,  is  it  not  certain  that  he  showed  it  to  Mr.  Lincoln  dur- 
ing their  prolonged  and  repeated  discussions  of  this  subject  ? 
And  if  Mr.  Lincoln  saw  it,  when  and  where  did  he  ever  ex- 
press his  dissatisfaction  with  it,  upon  the  ground  mentioned 
by  General  Grant  or  upon  any  other  ground  ?  In  short,  this 
entire  statement  about  this  "  call  "  and  Mr.  Stanton's  suppres- 
sion of  it,  and  "  the  order  "  authorizing  it  before  Mr.  Lincoln's 


241 

return  to  Washington,  is  totally  swept  away  by  the  sworn 
deposition  of  Mr.  Stanton  himself,  who  relates  how  difficult  it 
was  for  him  and  the  Attorney-General  to  induce  Mr.  Lincoln, 
after  his  return  to  Washington,  to  abandon  his  policy  and 
recall  his  order.* 

Mr.  Stanton,  undoubtedly,  was  a  man  who  seldom  "  ques- 
tioned his  own  authority  ;  "  he  may  even,  at  times,  have  as- 
sumed authority  to  countermand  one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  orders, 
but  he  certainly  did  not  do  so  in  this  instance. 

We  have  yet  two  further  contributions  to  make  to  the 
record  of  this  interesting  crisis.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
Mr.  Lincoln,  during  the  conference  on  board  the  Malvern, 
said  that  while  he  was  meditating  a  plan,  he  had,  as  yet,  come 
to  no  conclusion  upon  the  subject  of  a  convention  of  the 
Legislature,  and  should  not  do  so  until  he  returned  to  City 
Point ;  but  that,  if  he  was  then  satisfied,  he  would  write  to 
General  Weitzel.f  This  was  on  the  morning  of  the  5th  of 
April.  It  is,  of  course,  clearly  to  be  inferred  from  the  docu- 
mentary and  other  evidence  already  submitted,  that  he  was 
satisfied  and  did  write  authorizing  the  issue  of  the  "  call "  of 
April  1 1  ;  but  we  are  happily  able  to  establish  the  fact  that  he 
did  so  by  direct  and  satisfactory  proof. 

The  very  intelligent  and  accomplished  librarian  of  the  com- 
monwealth tells  me  that  some  years  ago  he  mentioned  the 
subject  of  this  "  call  "  to  a  gentleman  who  represented  him- 
self as  having  been  a  member  of  General  Weitzel's  staff  in 
April,  1 865,  and  that  the  gentleman  said  he  well  remembered 
the  paper,  and  related  the  following  circumstance  connected 
with  it :  General  Weitzel  was  speaking,  in  this  gentleman's 
presence,  to  a  brother  officer,  of  his  intention  to  issue  such  a 
"call  "as  Mr.  Lincoln  had  suggested,  when  the  officer  ad- 
dressed, who  seemed  to  have  been  more  than  a  mere  soldier, 
asked  whether  he  had  the  President's  directions  in  writing, 
and,  upon  Weitzel's  replying  that  he  had  only  verbal  instruc- 
tions, cautioned  him  not  to  take  the  step  until  he  had  au- 
thority and  directions  in  black  and  white  signed  by  the  Presi- 

*  See  pages  43  and  44  of  Judge  Campbell's  pamphlet, 
t  Campbell's  Pamphlet,  page  41. 


242 

dent  himself,  as  "the  politicians"  might  make  it  cost  him  his 
commission.  The  gentleman  further  informed  my  friend,  the 
librarian,  that  Weitzel  admitted  the  wisdom  of  the  caution 
and  awaited  written  instructions  from  Mr.  Lincoln,  which  he 
received  before  issuing  the  "call." 

Yet  once  more,  and  finally.  General  Joseph  R.  Anderson, 
who  was  chairman  of  the  committee  of  invitation  appointed 
to  carry  out  the  objects  of  this  "  call,"  *  a  few  days  ago, 
handed  me  a  very  important  paper,  which  has  never  been  pub- 
lished. It  is  Judge  Campbell's  report  to  this  committee,  also 
laid  before  the  afternoon  meeting  of  Friday,  April  7th  (see 
Whig  of  8th),  of  the  result  of  his  conferences  with  President 
Lincoln.  The  paper  handed  me  is  not  the  original  report, 
but  a  copy  made  therefrom  under  General  Anderson's  super- 
vision. He  returned  the  original  to  Judge  Campbell,  who 
wrote  it,  but  exacted  the  condition  that  Judge  Campbell  should 
certify  this  paper  as  a  true  copy,  which  he  has  accordingly 
done  in  his  own  handwriting  upon  the  face  of  the  paper  itself. 
It  reads  as  follows : 

"  Richmond,  Va.,  7th  April,  1865. 
General  "Joseph  R,  Anderson  and  others,  Committee,  etc. 

"Gentlemen — I  have  had,  since  the  evacuation  of  Richmond,  two  conversations 
with  Mr.  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States.  My  object  was  to  secure  for  the 
citizens  of  Richmond  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  who  had  come 
under  the  military  authority  of  the  United  States,  as  much  gentleness  and  forbear- 
ance as  could  be  possibly  extended. 

"The  conversations  had  relation  to  the  establishment  of  a  government  for 
Virginia,  the  requirement  of  oaths  of  allegiance  from  the  citizens,  and  the  terms  of 
settlement  with  the  United  States.  With  the  concurrence  and  sanction  of  General 
Weitzel  he  assented  to  the  application  not  to  require  oaths  of  allegiance  from  the 
citizens.  He  stated  that  he  would  send  to  General  Weitzel  his  decision  on  the  ques- 
tion of  a  government  for  Virginia.  This  letter  was  received  on  Thursday  and  was 
read  by  me.  It  authorized  General  Weitzel  to  grant  a  safe  conduct  to  the  legislature 
of  Virginia  to  meet  at  Richmond  to  deliberate  and  to  return  to  their  homes  at  the 
end  of  their  session.  I  am  informed  by  General  Weitzel  that  he  will  issue  whatever 
orders  that  may  be  necessary,  and  will  furnish  all  the  facilities  of  transportation, 
etc.,  to  the  members  of  the  legislature  to  meet  in  this  city,  and  that  the  governor, 
lieutenant-governor  and  public  men  of  the  State  will  be  included  in  the  orders.  The 
object  of  the  invitation  is  for  the  government  of  Virginia  to  determine  whether  they 
will  administer  the  laws  in  connection  with  authorities  of  the  United  States  and  under 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  understand  from  Mr.  Lincoln,  if  the  condition 
be  fulfilled,  that  no  attempt  would  be  made  to  establish  or  sustain  any  other 
authority. 

*  Judge  Thomas's  testimony,  and  extract  from  the  Whig  of  April  8.  t 


243' 

"My  conversation  with  President  Lincoln  upon  the  terms  of  settlement  was 
answered  in  writing;  that  is,  he  left  with  me  a  written  memorandum  of  the  substance 
of  his  answer.  He  states  as  indispensable  conditions  of  a  settlement  the  restoration 
of  the  authority  of  the  United  States  over  the  whole  of  the  States,  and  the  cessation 
of  hostilities  by  the  disbanding  of  the  army,  and  that  there  shall  be  no  receding  on 
the  part  of  the  executive  from  his  position  on  the  slavery  question.  The  latter 
proposition  was  explained  to  mean  that  the  executive  action  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
so  far  as  it  had  been  declared  in  messages,  proclamations  and  other  official  acts, 
must  pass  for  what  they  were  worth — that  he  would  not  recede  from  his  position,  but 
that  this  would  not  debar  action  by  other  authorities  of  the  government. 

"I  suppose  that,  if  the  proclamation  of  the  President  be  valid  as  law,  it  has 
already  operated  and  vested  rights. 

"I  believe  that  full  confidence  may  be  placed  in  General  Weitzel's  fulfillment  of 
his  promises  to  afford  facilities  to  the  legislature,  and  that  its  members  may  return 
after  they  have  concluded  their  business,  without  interruption. 

"Mr.  Lincoln,  in  his  memorandum,  referred  to  what  would  be  his  action  under  the 
confiscation  acts.  He  stated  that  when  the  property  had  not  been  condemned  and  sold 
he  would  make  a  universal  release  of  the  forfeitures  that  had  been  incurred  in  any  State 
which  would  now  promptly  recognize  the  authority  of  the  United  States  and  withdraw  its 
troops;  but  that  if  the  war  be  persisted  in,  that  the  confiscated  property  must  be 
regarded  as  a  resource  from  which  the  expenses  of  the  war  might  be  supported. 

"  His  memorandum  contains  no  article  upon  the  penalties  imposed  upon  persons, 
but  in  his  oral  communications  he  intimated  that  there  was  scarcely  any  one  who 
might  not  have  a  discharge  for  the  asking.  I  understand  from  the  statement,  though 
the  words  did  not  exactly  imply  it;  that  a  universal  amnesty  would  be  granted  if 
peace  were  now  concluded. 

"In  my  intercourse  I  strongly  urged  the  propriety  of  an  armistice.  This  was 
done  after  the  preparation  of  his  memorandum.  He  agreed  to  consider  the  subject, 
but  no  answer  has  been  received.  I  suppose  that,  if  he  assents,  the  matter  will  be 
decided  and  executed  between  Generals  Grant  and  Lee. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

(Signed)  J.  A.  Campbll. 

A  true  copy.        J.  A.  Campbell." 

General  Anderson  remembers  that  during  the  reading  of 
this  paper  to  his  committee,  when  he  came  to  that  portion 
which  contained  Mr.  Lincoln's  expressions  upon  the  subject 
of  amnesty,  Judge  Campbell  stopped,  and  said  that  it  occurred 
to  him  to  mention,  as  illustrative  of  the  magnanimity  of  the 
President  upon  this  subject,  that  he  remarked  at  the  con- 
ference, "  I  would  gladly  pardon  Jeff.  Davis  himself,  if  he 
would  ask  it." 

But  the  special  importance  of  this  report  lies  in  the  fact  that 
it  shows  conclusively  that,  after  Mr.  Lincoln  had  returned  to 
City  Point  and  reflected  quietly  over  the  whole  matter,  he 
adhered  to  the  views  he  had  thrown  out  in  conversation  with 
Judge  Campbell  and  Judge  Thomas,  and  wrote  to  Weitzel 
(not  to  Campbell)  a  letter  which  Campbell  read,  the  substance 


244 

of  which  he  gives  in  the  report,  and  which  fully  authorizes  the 
issue  of  the  call  of  April  1 1. 

And  now,  to  sum  up  briefly,  we  think  these  three  positions 
have  been  clearly  established,  to  wit :  that 

ist.  As  late  as  the  afternoon  of  the  13th  of  April,  i865, 
General  Weitzel  and  the  other  military  authorities  of  the 
United  States  in  Virginia  were  going  on  in  good  faith  to  carry 
out  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  of  immediate  restoration,  and  they 
regarded  the  address  or  "  call"  of  the  nth  of  April  as  a  fair 
expression  of  that  policy  and  the  first  step  in  execution  of  it. 

2d.  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  was  not  only  the  author  and  spon- 
sor of  that  policy  and  that  "  call,"  but  as  late  as  the  afternoon 
of  the  13th  of  April,  i865 — four  days  after  the  surrender  of 
General  Lee,  and  when  he  must  be  concluded  to  have  seen 
the  "call" — he  had  found  no  reason  to  abandon  this  policy  or 
to  repudiate  this  call. 

3d.  To  Edwin  M.  Stanton  belongs  the  responsibility  (or 
dory)  of  breaking  up  the  policy  of  restoration,  and  inaugura- 
ting in  its  stead  the  policy  of  reconstruction. 

Robert  Stiles. 
Richmond,  Virginia. 


The  address  to  be  found  below  bears  the  appearance  of 
being  abruptly  concluded.  The  balance  of  it  has,  most  proba- 
bly, been  lost.  Being  unacquainted  with  the  history  of  the 
Mechanics'  Institute,  of  Virginia,  and  being  anxious  to  pro- 
cure a  full  and  corrected  copy  as  delivered,  the  author  of  these 
memoirs  wrote  to  the  Hon.  R.  A.  Brock,  secretary  of  the 
Virginia  Historical  Society,  asking  some  information  upon 
the  subject. 

To  my  letter,  Mr.  Brock,  with  his  usual  courtesy  and  kind- 
ness, responded  as  follows  : 

Westmoreland  Club,  6oi  East  Grace  Street,  [ 
Richmond,  Va.,  August  22,  1888.         j 
Hon.  John  W.  Bell  : 

My  Dear  Sir — Sometime  ago  when  it  was  desired  to  revive  the  beneficent  Me- 
chanics' Institute,  no  records  of  its  organization  could  be  found.  The  war  and  its 
destructive  consequences  had  swept  them  from  existence.  I  hold  an  interest,  not 
only   in   the   Mechanics'    Institute,  but   in   the   patriotic  and  admirably  exemplified 


245 

career  of  the  late  Governor  William  Smith,  I  have  no  knowledge  of  an  address 
delivered  by  him  such  as  you  mention,  nor  have  I  the  means  to  determine  the  cir- 
cumstances inducing  its  preparation,  or  the  time  of  its  delivery.  Only  the  latter  in- 
formation, I  opine,  may  now  be  obtained  by  a  careful  examination  of  the  files  of 
some  Richmond  newspaper  for  a  period  of  some  five  years  anterior  to  our  late  war. 

These  files  are  in  our  State  Library.  My  excellent  friend,  Captain  George  A. 
Ainslie,  President  of  the  Mechanics'  Institute,  whose  whole  being  is  responsive  as  a 
faithful  citizen,  might  be  made  instrumental,  perhaps,  in  service  in  your  behalf. 

The  memory  of  Governor  Smith  is  held  in  just  and  uniform  regard,  here,  by  all, 
as  we  feel  that  it  is  throughout  the  State,  that  he  served  with  such  earnest  devotion. 

Faithfully  yours,  R.  A.  Brock. 

According  to  Mr.  Brock's  above  suo-o-estion,  I  communi- 
cated  with  Captain  George  A.  Ainslie,  President  of  "  The 
Mechanics  Institute,"  to  which  I  received  the  following  reply 
from  Thomas  Ellett,  Esq.,  secretary  of  the  Institute  : 

Richmond,  Virginia,  August  27,  1888. 
Judge  John  W.  Bell: 

Dear  Sir — Your  favor  of  the  24th  to  Captain  George  A.  Ainslie,  President  of 
Mechanics' Institute,  has  just  been  handed  me  for  reply.  The  Virginia  Mechanics' 
Institute,  which  was  in  successful  operation,  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  owning 
a  large  building  suitable  for  their  purposes,  containing  drawings,  models,  etc.,  which 
was  taken  possession  of  by  the  Confederate  Government,  and  made  the  basis  of  a 
Patent  Office — and  which  was  destroyed  by  fire,  at  the  evacuation  of  this  city,  with 
its  contents,  including  the  records  and  papers  of  the  old  Institute,  which  obliterates 
almost  entirely  its  history — we  have  heard  old  members  refer  to  the  speech  of  Gov- 
ernor Smith,  and  hope  that  you  will  be  able  to  perpetuate  it  in  his  memorial  volume, 
for  there  was  no  one  held  in  higher  esteem  by  this  community,  for  their  civil,  mili- 
tary and  patriotic  services  in  every  way,  than  ex-Governor  William  Smith.  The  In- 
stitute was  reorganized  in  December,  1884,  and  is  now  doing  a  good  work  for  our 
young  mechanics.  We  are  growing  and  enlarging  our  boundaries,  and  in  the  near 
future  we  shall  be  the  peer  of  the  "Cooper  Institute,"  "the  Boston  School  of  Tech- 
nology," and  the  other  first  Technical  Schools,  not  alone  of  this,  but  also  of  all 
foreign  countries.     ************ 

Yours  very  truly,  Thomas  Ellett,  Secretary. 

Just  here  I  beg  to  add  a  short  extract  from  the  admirable 
address  of  the  Hon.  James  L.  Pettigru,  before  the  South 
Carolina  Historical  Society,  as  quite  suitable  to  the  occasion  : 

"  It  is  a  very  general  complaint  that  our  people  are  careless  of  records.  The 
materials  of  history  are  treated  very  much  like  the  noble  forests,  not  to  be  surpassed 
in  beauty,  with  which  Virginia  was  once  covered.  It  is  delivered  without  mercy,  to 
the  havoc  of  the  axe  or  the  ravages  of  the  devouring  flame.  The  supply  is  supposed 
to  be  inexhaustible,  and  the  process  goes  on  until  the  recklessness  of  waste  is 
checked  by  the  alarm  of  approaching  scarcity.  We  would  interpose  to  protect  the 
remnant  of  that  noble  forest  which  is  threatened  with  extermination.  We  would  be 
happy  to  lend  our  aid  in  preserving  the  memory  of  things  remarkable  or  interesting 
in  our  country,  which  are  beginning  to  lose  their  hold  on  living  memory.  The 
labors,  the  trials,  and  dangers  that  have  proved  the  endurance,  or  exercised  the 
virtue  of  our  countrymen,  are  in  our  eyes,  of  sufficient  interest  to  be  preserved  from 
neglect.     We    would   inscribe    with   a    name   the   battle-fields   of  Indian  and  British 


246 

hostility;  and  would  fain  prevent  the  soil  that  has  been  watered  with  blood 

POURED   OUT    IN    BEHALF   OF    THE     COMMONWEALTH,    FROM    BEING    CONFOUNDED    WITH 

common  earth . ' '  Hon.  JAMES  L.  PETTIGRU, 

Before  the  South  Carolina  Historical  Society — Adopted. 

ADDRESS. 

Although  here  under  an  invitation  of  some  weeks'  standing,  I  have  to  inform  you 
that  the  constant  pressure  upon  my  time  has  left  me  but  poorly  prepared  to  justify 
your  selection  for  this  occasion,  or  to  do  justice  to  the  important  subject  upon  which 
I  am  expected  to  speak,  having  but  a  small  period  of  time  for  this  interesting  duty, 
the  more  important  to  me  from  want  of  familiarity.  From  this  cause  and  the  want 
of  familiarity  with  my  subject,  I  shall  do  what  I  have  never  done  before,  read  from 
manuscript  my  hasty  and  ill-digested  views;  yet,  Mr.  President,  relying  upon  your 
charity  and  indulgence,  I  embrace  this  opportunity  to  address  you  with  pleasure. 

Mr.  President,  and  gentlemen  of  the  Mechanics'  Institute  of  Virginia:  I  am 
obliged  to  you  for  this  opportunity  to  address  you,  not  that  I  have  any  peculiar  power 
to  serve  you,  but  because  I  take  a  deep  interest  in  your  praisworthy  undertaking, 
and  am  anxious  to  contribute  my  humble  efforts  to  its  advancement.  In  the  second 
section  of  the  first  article  of  your  constitution  you  declare  that  "The  object 
of  the  Institute  shall  be  the  promotion  and  encouragement  of  manufactures,  the 
mechanic  and  useful  arts,  and  the  mental  improvement  of  the  industrial  classes." 

I  could  not  feel  indifferent  to  these  important  purposes  under  any  circumstances, 
nor  in  any  place;  but  when  I  know,  here  in  the  capital  of  our  beloved  State,  under 
lowering  clouds  which  threaten  the  repose,  if  not  the  integrity,  of  our  Union,  you 
have  devoted  yourselves  to  the  promotion  of  objects  vital  to  our  common  weal,  I 
confess  I  feel  such  a  deep  interest  and  anxiety  for  your  success  as  to  guaranty  my 
most  cordial  and  hearty  cooperation. 

The  duties  you  have  assumed  have  been  too  much  neglected.  Your  own  self- 
respect,  your  obligations  to  your  country,  your  allegiance  to  Him  who  made  us  after 
his  own  image,  require  you  to  perform  them  without  further  delay. 

"And  God  said,  let  us  make  man  in  our  own  image,  after  our  likeness,  and  let 
him  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over 
the  cattle,  and  over  all  the  earth,  and  over  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon 
the  earth." 

Such  is  man,  the  last  of  the  works  of  God,  with  unrestricted  dominion  over  the 
earth  and  all  that  is  thereon  !  And  yet  we  have  been  content  for  ages  to  slumber  in 
ignorance  of  the  full  value  of  our  vast  possessions.  Priceless,  then,  are  the  efforts- 
thoroughly  to  understand  their  real  value,  and  by  our  own  moral  and  intellectual 
development  to  approximate  Him  in  whose  "  image  "  we  are  made. 

Man  is,  of  all  the  animal  creation,  longest  in  a  state  of  helpless  infancy;  and 
when  he  reaches  manhood  he  is  vastly  inferior  in  strength  to  many  of  the  brute 
creation.  It  is  estimated  that  one  horse  is  equal  to  six  men,  and  one  elephant  equal 
to  six  horses;  yet  man  has  dominion  over  all,  and  makes  all  obedient  to  his  will. 
And  how?  By  mind,  and  by  the  mechanic  arts.  When  God  created  the  earth  and 
gave  it  for  a  dominion  to  man,  it  was  but  a  raw  material,  and,  after  the  fall  of  our 
first  parents,  unsuited  to  the  tastes  and  necessities  of  man;  and  he  sought  change, 
improvement.  In  fact,  God  so  constructed  him  as  to  make  him  necessarily  both  a 
mechanic  and  a  manufacturer  He  furnished  him  the  material,  left  him  to  fashion  it, 
and  gave  him  intellect  that  he  might  truly  fulfill  this  important  duty. 

When  God  created  Adam,  and,  because  it  was  not  good  that  man  should  be 
alone,  "made  him  a  help  meet  for  him,"  and  placed  them  in  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
there  was  no  sin,  and  their  wants  were  supplied  by  the  bounties  God  had  bestowed 
upon  them.  But  they  sinned;  wants  at  once  multiplied,  and  in  his  wrath  God  de- 
creed  that  "in   the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt   thou  eat  bread,  till  thou  return  unto  the 


247 

ground."  Sin  made  our  first  parents  mechanics  and  manufacturers— "  And  the  eyes 
of  them  both  were  opened;  and  they  knew  that  they  were  naked;  and  they  sewed  Jig 
leaves  together,  and  made  themselves  aprons.'1''  And  the  first  child  of  our  first  parents 
was  Cain,  who  was  the  muidererof  his  brother  Abel;  and  so  the  world  was  to  be 
peopled  in  sin,  and  sorrow  and  toil;  and  man  was  compelled  to  undertake  the  me- 
chanic arts  to  provide  for  his  wants  and  his  comfort  made  necessary  to  him  in  his 
new  condition. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  trace  man  through  all  the  difficulties  which  have 
marked  the  intervening  ages  to  our  present  time;  but  that  would  be  a  labor  entirely 
beyond  my  power,  and  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  necessary  limits  to  this  address; 
but  such  an  exposition  would  demonstrate  that  the  comfort,  prosperity,  indeed,  civil- 
ization of  man,  more  completely  depended  upon  the  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
arts  than  upon  any  other  occupation  of  man.  Still  a  brief  reference  to  past  ages 
may  not  be  uninteresting. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  and  Jews  were  particularly  distinguished  by  a  high 
degree  of  mechanical  ingenuity;  so,  subsequently,  were  the  Greeks  and  Romans; 
but  the  great  defect  in  their  useful  arts  was  the  want  of  science.  The  Romans,  with 
all  their  wealth  and  magnificence,  had  no  knowledge  of  the  spinning-wheel,  nor  even 
of  the  mill-wheel,  their  grain  being  ground  into  meal  by  hand-mills,  and  similar  con- 
trivances. Hence  the  necessity  of  substituting  the  want  of  those  mechanical  arts 
which  are  now  in  familiar  use,  with  enormous  masses  of  human  labor.  History 
records  that  one  hundred  thousand  men  were  employed  for  thirty  years  in  the  erec- 
tion of  the  great  Pyramid  of  Egypt,  which  covers  thirteen  acres  of  ground,  and  is 
four  hundred  feet  high.  It  is  difficult  of  belief,  but  still  it  is  as  well  authenticated  as 
any  other  ancient  statement.  Archimedes,  born  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
years  before  the  Christian  era,  was  more  remarkable,  perhaps,  for  mechanical  genius 
than  any  man  who  ever  lived.  His  celebrated  saying  in  reference  to  the  lever  has 
been  in  the  mouth  of  every  scholar  from  that  to  the  present  age:  "Give  me  (says 
he)  a  place  to  stand  upon,  and  I  will  move  the  earth."  He  was  also  acquainted,  no 
doubt,  with  the  doctrine  of  specific  gravity,  and  was  thereby  enabled  to  satisfy  the 
King  Hiero,  of  Syracuse,  who  suspected  a  workman  to  whom  he  had  confided  the 
duty  of  making  him  a  crown  of  gold,  with  having  adulterated  the  gold  with  silver. 
It  is  said,  while  he  had  the  plan  under  consideration  for  carrying  out  the  wishes  of 
the  King,  he  was  taking  a  bath,  and  observing  that  a  volume  of  water  was  displaced 
corresponding  with  the  size  of  his  body,  he  sprang  delightedly  from  his  bath,  and 
running  naked  into  the  streets,  cried,  "  1 have  found  it!  I  have  found  it !" 

The  most  remarkable  displays  of  mechanical  skill,  however,  were  in  inventing 
engines  of  defense  and  destruction,  during  the  siege  of  his  native  city,  Syracuse,  by 
the  Romans,  under  Marcellus.  These  inventions,  especially  that  of  burning  the  Roman 
ships  at  a  great  distance  by  means  of  the  solar  rays,  were  long  deemed  incredible, 
although  resting  upon  the  authority  of  the  Roman  general.  But  subsequent  im- 
provements in  mechanics  have  demonstrated  their  practicability,  Buffon  having 
invented  a  burning  glass  capable  of  concentrating  the  solar  heat  with  such  power  as 
to  ignite  wood  at  a  distance  of  two  hundred  feet,  melt  led  and  tin  at  one  hundred  and 
twenty  feet,  and  silver  at  the  distance  of  fifty  feet.  Of  all  those  engaged  in  this  cele- 
brated siege,  the  loftiest  position  in  the  temple  of  immortality  is  that  occupied  by 
Archimedes,  and  purely  on  account  of  his  remarkable  genius  for  mechanical  inven- 
tion. But  with  Archimedes  the  genius  of  mechanical  power  was  buried;  and  the 
world  ceased  to  improve,  indeed,  retrograded  up  to  the  days  of  Galileo,  some  nine- 
teen hundred  years  thereafter. 

Without  dwelling  in  detail  upon  these  interesting  subjects,  I  will  ask  attention  to 
the  condition  of  the  mechanic  arts  at  periods  more  familiar  to  our  ordinary  reading, 
which  will,  I  hope,  be  neither  uninteresting  nor  without  instruction.  We  learn  from 
undoubted  authority  that,  in  considerable  towns  in  England  down  to  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  "the   greater  part  of  the  houses  had  no  chimneys;  the  fire  was   kindled 


248 

against  the  wall,  and  the  smoke  found  its  way  out  as  well  as  it  could  by  the  roof,  the 
door  and  the  windows.  The  houses  were  mostly  built  of  wattling,  plastered  over 
with  clay;  the  floors  were  of  earth,  strewed,  in  families  of  distinction,  with  rushes. 
The  beds  were  only  straw  pallets,  with  a  log  of  wood  for  a  pillow.  In  this  respect, 
even  the  King  was  no  better  off  than  his  subjects;  for  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.,  we 
find  direction  '  to  examine  every  night  the  straw  of  the  King's  bed,  that  no  daggers 
might  be  concealed  therein."'  In  the  discourse  prefixed  to  Hollingshed'' 's  Chronicle, 
published  in  1577,  the  writer  speaking  of  the  progress  of  luxury,  mentions  three 
things  especially,  that  were  marvellously  altered  for  the  worse  in  England:  the  multi- 
tude of  chimneys  lately  erected;  the  great  increase  of  lodgings;  and  the  exchange  of 
cream  platters  into  pewter,  and  wooden  spoons  into  pewter  and  tin.  To  illustrate  the 
condition  of  clothing  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  I  would  mention  that  the  Queen 
"herself  never  wore  any  other  than  cloth  hose  until  the  third  year  of  her  reign,  when 
she  was  presented  with  a  pair  of  black  silk-knit  stockings,  by  her  silk  woman." 
The  luxury  of  a  linen  shirt,  says  McCulloch,  was  confined  to  the  highest  classes. 
What  a  contrast  with  the  condition  of  things  in  the  present  day  !  Now,  in  the  language 
of  another,  the  mechanic  wears  his  two  hats  a  year,  dresses  in  broadcloth,  robes  his 
wife  in  silk,  makes  his  boys  to  rejoice  in  a  plurality  of  suits,  and,  in  the  bridal  hour, 
enables  him  to  hand  his  daughter  to  the  altar  in  robes  delicate  as  the  spider's  web, 
beautiful  in  color  as  the  rainbow's  hues,  and  for  elegance,  such  as  never,  in  their 
grandame's  younger  days,  even  Duchesses  wore.  This  mighty  change  is  wrought 
by  the  mechanic  arts — by  skill  and  science  combined. 

Contrast  the  cautious  navigation  of  ancient  times — sailing  close  in  shore,  never 
venturing  out  of  sight  of  land — and  that  of  the  present  day,  which  fearlessly  dashes 
into  mid-ocean,  and  finds  its  way  on  the  pathless  deep,  with  the  aid  of  the  compass 
and  the  quadrant,  and,  even  in  bright  day,  and  when  surrounded  by  the  zephyr's 
play,  under  the  barometer's  unerring  warning,  takes  in  sail  and  timely  prepares  for 
the  coming  storm.  Remember,  we  are  indebted  for  these  vast  advantages  to  the 
mechanic  arts.  We  are  indebted  to  the  union  of  science  and  art  for  the  telescope,  by 
which  we  can  count  the  stars,  planets,  distances,  etc.,  far  beyond  the  reach  of  human 
vision.  Earl  Rosse  has  recently  constructed  a  telescope  of  such  mighty  power  as  to 
enable  him  to  ascertain  that  the  moon,  which  is  about  two  hundred  and  forty  thou- 
sand miles  from  this  earth,  is  full  of  lofty  mountains,  with  deep  intervening  ravines, 
without  water  or  an  atmosphere,  and  of  course  uninhabited,  at  any  rate  with  beings 
like  ourselves. 

But  it  is  within  the  last  seventy-five  years  that  mechanical  philosophy  has  made 
its  greatest  progress.  Chemistry  has  been  subdued  to  its  service.  Through  natural 
philosophy  the  power  has  been  obtained  to  move  and  regulate  matter;  and 
through  chemical  philosophy  to  test  and  ascertain  its  component  parts.  And  thus 
the  intelligent  mechanic  is  enabled  to  work  with  an  advantage  and  perfection  hereto- 
fore unknown.  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  matter  cannot  be  destroyed  or  pro- 
duced. I  will  mention  a  few  cases  to  be  found  in  the  common  school  books,  as  apt 
illustrations  of  the  extreme  divisibility  of  which  matter  is  susceptible.  A  single  grain 
of  gold  may  be  hammered  by  a  gold  beater  until  it  will  cover  fifty  square  inches. 
Each  square  inch  may  be  divided  into  two  hundred  strips,  and  each  strip  into  two 
hundred  parts,  all  of  which  may  be  seen  with  the  naked  eye;  consequently  a  square 
inch  contains  forty  thousand  visible  parts,  which,  multiplied  by  fifty,  the  number  of 
square  inches  which  a  grain  of  gold  will  make,  gives  two  million  parts,  which  maybe 
seen  with  the  naked  eye.  It  has  also  been  calculated  that  sixteen  ounces  of  gold, 
which,  in  the  form  of  a  cube,  would  not  measure  one  inch  and  a  quarter  in  its  side, 
will  completely  gild  a  quantity  of  silver  wire  sufficient  to  surround  the  globe.  The 
case  of  water  is  still  more  remarkable;  a  solid  inch  of  which,  with  the  agency  of  fire, 
may  be  expanded  into  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  twenty  solid  inches,  which, 
in  the  absence  of  heat,  will  relapse  into  its  original  dimension.  This  remarkable 
power  of  divisibility  has  been  seized  upon  by  mechanical  philosophy  and  converted 


249 

into  one  of  the  most  valuable  agents  in  promoting  the  comfort  and  advancing  the 
civilization  of  man.  Mr.  Gordon,  an  English  engineer,  thus  enumerates  the  uses  to 
which  this  plastic  power  is  applied: 

But  this  is  not  a  tithe  of  its  present  efficiency.  Oceans  are  navigated  by  its  aid 
with  unerring  certainty  and  unwonted  speed;  continents  penetrated  by  land  and  water, 
and  the  rude  purposes  of  war  made  still  more  frightful  and  destructive.  But  its  con- 
servative and  useful  character  is  lost  in  the  hands  of  carelessness  or  ignorance;  and 
it  then  becomes  a  frightful  and  destroying  monster.  It  has  opened  a  vast  and  bound- 
less field  to  mechanical  labor.  It  is  a  formidable  power,  manageable  as  an  infant  in 
the  hands  of  knowledge,  but  in  the  hands  of  ignorance  more  destructive  and  devour- 
ing than  the  howling  hurricane.  Of  this  we  have  distressing  illustrations  in  the  ex- 
plosions and  casualties  which  the  newspaper  press  daily  report.  But  1  must 
hurry  on. 

I  shall  not  dwell  upon  the  properties  of  matter  which  the  mechanic  has  to  fashion, 
and  with  which  he  should  be  well  acquainted,  that  he  may  know  the  article  he  is 
manufacturing  will  answer  the  purpose  designed. 

1  shall  not  dwell  upon  the  six  great  powers  in  mechanics— the  lever,  the  screw, 
the  wedge,  the  pulley,  the  wheel  and  axle,  and  the  inclined  plane. 

I  shall  not  dwell  upon  those  new  combinations  of  existing  matter,  effected 
through  the  agency  of  chemical  science,  and  a  knowledge  of  which  is  indispensable 
to  the  intelligent  mechanic;  because  this  would  be  more  appropriate  to  works  pre- 
pared for  general  instruction  than  to  a  popular  discourse. 

Still,  I  cannot  forbear  a  few  additional  illustrations  of  the  wonderful  develop- 
ment of  the  mechanic  arts.  The  production  of  cotton  in  the  United  States  was  a 
trifle  previous  to  1793;  in  that  year  it  amounted  to  less  than  five  hundred  thousand 
pounds,  the  great  difficulty  in  its  production  arising  from  the  impossibility  of  clean- 
ing and  separating  it  from  its  seed  with  sufficient  facility.  The  Edinburgh  Quarterly 
Review  for  July,  1854,  p.  123,  says,  speaking  of  slave  labor: 

Mr.  Whitney,  a  Massachusetts  man,  invented  the  cotton-gin;  and  according  to 
this  writer,  slave  labor  thereby  became  profitable;  the  disposition  to  emancipate 
ceased;  and  cotton  rapidly  increased  in  quantity.  Nor  is  this  all.  It  increased  to  a 
countless  extent  the  comforts  of  the  world  in  its  various  relations;  furnishes  employ- 
ment to  millions;  secures  us  peace  with  the  great  Powers  of  the  earth;  and  finally  has 
secured  for  itself  the  general  admission  that  cotton  is  king.  And  yet,  the  fanaticism 
of  Abolition  rails  at  the  causes,  and  takes  the  benefit  of  the  results. 

With  the  great  increase  in  the  supply  of  cotton  came  wonderful  improvements 
in  the  art  of  manufacturing  it;  of  which  I  have  only  time  to  furnish  part  of  the  evi- 
dence, in  this  statement,  of  its  rapidly  increasing  power  of  production.  Previous  to 
1823. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  manufacturing  power  of  Great  Britain  is  fully  equal  to  the 
labor  of  forty  millions  of  men. 

But,  Mr.  President,  I  owe  an  apology  for  mentioning  these  illustrations  to  your 
intelligent  and  enlightened  association,  so  much  better  and  fuller  known  to  each  and 
all  of  you.  I  have  named  them  with  a  hope  that  I  might  arouse  in  others  a  spirit  of 
inquiry,  investigation,  and  knowledge.  The  American  mechanic  must  have  science. 
He  must  know  that,  when  he  labors,  he  labors  to  the  best  advantage.  I  know  that 
this  is  attended  with  difficulty,  but  it  suits  the  American  character  to  overcome  difficul- 
ties. It  is  related  of  the  great  Galileo,  who  was  arraigned  before  the  Inquisition  upon 
a  charge  of  heresy,  for  maintaining  the  rotary  motion  of  the  earth,  etc.,  that  being 
compelled  to  recant,  he  stamped  his  foot  upon  the  ground,  and  in  a  low  voice  re- 
marked, "she  moves,  nevertheless."  But  progress  must  be  made;  difficulties  must 
be  subdued;  and  the  American  mechanic  at  least  "must  know  enough  0/ the  laws  of  na- 
ture not  to  attempt  impossibilities:'  Dr.  Ure  states  a  well-known  fact,  in  his  Philosophy 
of  Manufactures,  that  "  prodigious  sums  are  wastefully  expended  every  year  by 
manufacturers,  which  would  be  saved  by  a   more  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 


250 

principles  of  science  and  art,  which  apply  to  their  business."  "  Though  a  man, 'r 
says  Lord  Brougham,  "  be  neither  a  mechanic  nor  a  peasant,  but  only  has  a  pot  to 
boil,  he  is  sure  to  learn  from  science  lessons  which  will  enable  him  to  cook  his  mor- 
sel better,  save  his  fuel,  and  both  vary  his  dish  and  improve  it."  Judge  Story  states, 
in  his  lecture  before  the  Boston  Mechanics'  Institute,  November,  1829,  having  had 
occasion  to  examine  the  history  of  the  carding  machine  of  Whittemore,  and  the  nail 
machine  of  Perkins,  that  half  of  the  labors  of  those  extraordinary  men  would  have 
been  saved,  if  they  had  been  originally  instructed  in  the  principles  of  mechanical 
science.  Fulton's  invention  of  the  steamboat  was  useless  for  months,  from  want  of 
science  in  reference  to  the  resistance  of  fluids.  These  cases  might  be  almost  indefi" 
nitely  enlarged;  but  surely  enough  has  been  said  to  rouse  up  our  mechanics  to  a  de- 
termination to  acquire  all  the  science  necessary  to  the  thorough  understanding  of 
their  respective  crafts  or  occupations.  It  is  not  insisted  that  a  general  knowledge  of 
natural  philosophy  is  indispensable,  however  desirable;  but  it  is  insisted,  as  a  sine 
qua  non,  that  the  mechanic  should  have  such  a  knowledge  of  mechanical  philosophy 
as  will  enable  him  thoroughly  and  scientifically  to  pursue  his  particular  employment. 
Such  knowledge  would  be  the  source  of  many  a  happy  thought,  and  the  suggestion 
of  many  a  valuable  improvement.  To  know  the  philosophy  of  a  thing,  why  what 
we  are  doing  is  right,  and  at  all  times  the  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  us  is  of  the 
greatest  importance.  It  strengthens  our  self-reliance,  elevates  our  self-respect,  ex-* 
pands  one's  views,  and  imparts  a  glow  that  suffuses  itself  throughout  the  moral  man. 
I  well  recollect  that  when,  alas  !  many  weary  years  ago,  I  was  under  the  examina- 
tion of  the  late  Judge  Green,  for  admission  to  the  bar,  he  put  a  question  to  me,  which, 
answering  correctly,  he  inquired  why  it  was  as  I  stated  ?  and  I  could  not  answer  him. 
He  then  admonished  me  never  to  be  satisfied  until  I  was  fully  acquainted  with  the 
reasons  of  the  knowledge  I  might  possess.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  this  was 
the  most  valuable  advice  I  ever  received;  and  has  been  to  me  the  source  of  the  great- 
est profit  and  satisfaction,  in  my  somewhat  stormy  career.  Never,  then,  strike  a 
blow,  nor  fashion  a  material,  without  knowing  the  scientific  reason  for  so  doing;  and 
so  well  that  you  can  impart  those  reasons  to  others. 

Be  not  deterred,  my  fellow-countrymen,  by  the  difficulties  which  may  beset  you. 
Archimedes  was  slain  while  sketching  a  figure  in  the  sand,  on  the  sea-shore.  Co- 
pernicus was  afraid  to  publish  his  astronomical  theories  until  very  late  in  life,  re- 
ceiving his  works,  as  published,  in  his  dying  hour.  Galileo  was  arraigned  before 
the  Inquisition  for  daring  to  proclaim  the  truth  of  the  Copernican  system.  The 
Scottish  Revifiv  presents  some  curious  illustrations  of  progress  under  difficulty,  which 
may  not  be  unsuitably  introduced  here. 

Progress  Under  Difficulty. — The  establishment  of  the  Royal  Society  was  op- 
posed because  it  was  asserted  that  "experimental  philosophy  was  subversive  of  the 
Christian  faith;"  and  the  readers  of  Disraeli  will  remember  the  telescope  and  micro- 
scope were  stigmatized  as  "  atheistical  inventions  which  perverted  our  organ  of  sight, 
and  made  everything  appear  in  a  false  light."  So  late  as  1806,  the  anti-vaccination 
society  denounced  the  discovery  of  vaccination  as  the  "despotic  tyranny  of  forcing 
cow-pox  misery  on  the  innocent  babes  of  the  poor — a  gross  violation  of  religion, 
morality,  law  and  humanity."  Learned  men  gravely  printed  statements  that  vaccin- 
ated children  became  "ox-faced;"  that  abscesses  broke  out  to  "indicate  sprouting 
horns;"  that  the  countenance  was  gradually  "  transmuted  into  the  visage  of  a  cow, 
the  voice  into  the  bellowing  of  bulls;"  that  the  character  underwent  strange  muta- 
tions from  quadrupedan  sympathy."  The  influence  of  religion  was  called  in  to 
strengthen  the  prejudices  of  ignorance,  and  the  operation  was  denounced  from  the 
pulpit  as  "diabolical,"  as  a  "tempting  of  God's  providence,  and,  therefore,  a  heinous 
crime;"  and  its  abettors  were  charged  with  sorcery  and  atheism. 

When  fanners  were  first  introduced  to  assist  in  winnowing  corn  from  the  chaff" 
by  producing  artificial  currents  of  air,  it  was  argued  that  "winds  were  raised  by  God 
alone,  and  it  was  irreligious  in  man  to  attempt  to  raise  winds  for  himself  and  by 
efforts  of  his  own."  A  route  has  just  been  successfully  opened  by  Panama  between 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific.  In  1588,  a  priest  named  Acosta  wrote  respecting  a  proposal 
then  made  for  this  very  undertaking,  that  it  was  his  opinion  that  "human  power 
should  not  be  allowed  to  cut  through  the  strong  and  impenetrable  bounds  which  God 


251 

put  between  the  two  oceans,  of  mountains  and  iron  rocks,  which  can  stand  the  fury 
of  the  raging  seas.  And  if  it  were  possible,  it  would  appear  to  me  very  just,  that  we 
should  fear  the  vengeance  of  Heaven,  for  attempting  to  improve  that  which  the 
Creator,  in  His  Almighty  will  and  Providence,  has  ordained  from  the  creation  of  the 
world."  When  forks  were  first  introduced  into  England,  some  preachers  denounced 
their  use  "as  an  insult  on  Providence,  not  to  touch  our  meat  with  our  fingers." 
Many  others  plead  against  the  measure  of  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews,  that  the  bill  is 
a  direct  attempt  to  controvert  the  will  and  word  of  God,  and  to  revoke  his  sentence 
upon  the  chosen  but  rebellious  people. 

But  none  of  those  difficulties  will  be  yours.  You  will  be  left  to  the  pursuit  of 
your  several  callings,  and  there  will  be  none  to  make  you  afraid.  Go  on,  then,  and 
fear  not.  Everywhere  American  genius  is  to  be  found.  American  invention,  in  the 
pistol,  the  lock,  the  reaper,  etc.,  bears  down  all  competition  at  the  World's  Fairs 
recently  held  in  London  and  Paris.  Our  steamers,  in  magnificence  and  speed,  are 
without  equals,  and  our  clippers  are  the  wonder  of  the  world.  The  Russian  capital 
is,  we  are  told,  full  of  American  inventions,  one  of  them,  a  submarine  battery  or 
torpedo,  for  coast  defense,  having  been  adopted.  Naturalists  tell  us  that  the  atmos- 
phere is  but  an  aggregation  of  animalculi — that  beauty's  lovely  cheek — oh  !  discourte- 
ous, ungallant  thought — is  but  the  play- ground  of  countless  breathing  worms,  to  make 
all  which  plain,  a  Mr.  Hinds,  of  Ohio,  has  recently  constructed  a  "compound  micros- 
cope which,  for  magnifying  power,  is  not  equaled  by  any  in  the  world.  In  185 1  he  con- 
structed a  microscope  capable  of  magnifying  objects  seventeen  million  times.  The 
one  just  completed  has  a  diamond  lens,  with  a  power  surpassing  by  nearly  two  millions 
that  of  1851." 

But  the  wonders  of  American  genius  and  invention  are  admirably  summed  up 
by  the  New  York  Mirror;  and  I  give  it,  as  I  find  it,  entire: 

American  Invention  and  Discovery. — The  American  is  unequaled  in  genius 
and  aptitude  for  invention  and  discovery.  From  hjs  five  hundredth  patent  wash-tub 
(each  a  marvel  for  its  day)  up  to  the  electric  telegraph,  there  is  no  field  in  which  his 
brain  and  hand  do  not  distance  competition.  He  has  invented  and  discovered  more 
things  to  advance  general  comfort,  labor-saving  and  well-being,  than  all  other  rep- 
resentatives of  the  human  race  combined.  He  has  not  scorned  the  simple  nor  been 
staggered  by  the  intricate  and  profound.  No  hint  escapes  him,  no  subject  is  too 
comprehensive  for  him.  We  might  cite  a  volume  of  bare  names  of  his  useful  inven- 
tions and  discoveries.  Every  household  teems  with  them;  every  trade  and  occupa- 
tion is  indebted  to  them.  And  yet  there  is  no  cessation  of  his  invention.  One  would 
think  the  round  of  invention  must  have  an  end  somewhere,  and  finally  run  out.  It 
does  not  appear  thus.     The  Patent  Office  annually  increases  its  record. 

We  have  seen  lately,  as  a  specimen  of  rare  American  mechanical  genius,  a 
machine,  costing  not  over  five  hundred  dollars,  invented  by  a  workingman,  which 
takes  hold  of  a  sheet  of  brass,  copper  or  iron  and  turns  off  complete  hinges  at  the  rate 
of  a  gross  in  ten  minutes — hinges,  too,  neater  than  are  made  by  any  other  process. 
Also  a  machine  that  takes  hold  of  an  iron  rod  and  whips  it  into  perfect  bit-pointed 
screws  with  wonderful  rapidity  and  by  a  single  process.  This  is  also  the  invention 
of  a  workingman.  And  both  these  machines  are  superior  to  anything  of  the  kind  in 
the  world.  No  other  process  of  manufacture  can  compete  with  them.  Yet  these  are 
but  a  fraction  of  the  marvelous  inventive  triumphs  constantly  going  forward  in  this 
country. 

A  late  notable  discovery  is  that  of  a  process  for  transforming  plaster  of  Paris  into 
marble,  pure  white,  or  of  whatever  grain,  and  scarcely  varying  from  real  marble  in 
weight,  while  it  is  impervious  to  wet  and  cold,  and  is  susceptible  of  the  highest 
polish.  This  discovery  has  been  made  by  one  of  our  New  York  artists,  Mr.  Wallace 
Wotherspoon,  the  landscape  painter.  It  has  (in  its  products)  been  critically  examined 
by  leading  builders  and  marble-workers,  and  pronounced  the  desideratum.  Mr. 
Wotherspoon  conceived  his  idea  while  sojourning  in  Italy,  and  after  several  months' 
chemical  experiment  has  fully  realized  it.  It  will  give  the  sculptor  a  means  of  cast- 
ing his  bust  or  statue  in  the  most  perfect  counterfeit  of  marble,  while  it  is  adapted  for 
walls  and  ceilings  of  dwellings,  and  will  give  the  builder  power  to  put  up  the  most 
elaborate  mantel  and  other  ornaments  at  a  third  of  the  cost  of  real  marble.  In  truth 
plaster  of  Paris  marble  promises,  like  flax-cotton,  to  create  a  revolution  in  a  branch 
of  trade  and  industry. 

Science  and  Art. — Professor  Faraday  is  of  the  opinion  that  we  are  on  the  verge 
of  important  discoveries  concerning  the  nature  of  physical  forces,  and  their  relation 
to  life  and   physiology.     He  says  that  all  forces  have  a  similar  dual  property,  and 


252 

that  even  gravitation  will  be  ultimately  determined  to  possess  it.  One  force  cannot 
be  called  into  action  by  electricity  without  the  other,  and  they  are  always  equal. 
When  the  north  poles  of  four  magnets  are  placed  together  at  right  angles,  so  as  to 
form  a  deep  square  cell,  in  the  center  of  that  cell  there  is  no  magnetic  attraction  at 
all.  The  "  northness  "  and  "southness  "  of  a  magnet  (Professor  F.  says)  takes  in 
curved  lines  outside,  not  inside  a  magnet. 

The  London  Artisan  mentions  an  invention  for  softening  horn  and  rendering  it 
elastic  like  whalebone.  The  horns  are  cleaned,  split,  opened  out  and  flattened,  and 
impressed  fur  several  days  in  a  bath  composed  of  rive  parts  of  glycerine  and  one 
hundred  parts  of  water.  They  are  then  placed  in  a  second  bath  consisting  of  three 
quarts  of  nitric  acid,  two  quarts  of  pyroligneous  acid,  and  twelve  pounds  and  a  half 
tannin,  five  pounds  bitartrate  of  potash,  and  five  pounds  sulphate  of  zinc,  with 
twenty-five  gallons  of  water.  After  leaving  this  second  bath  it  will  have  acquired  a 
suitable  degree  of  flexibility  and  elasticity  to  enable  it  to  be  used  as  a  substitute  for 
whalebone. 

Chemists  have  found  our  terraqueous  globe  made  up  of  sixty-three  so-called 
elements;  of  these,  thirteen  are  most  widely  distributed,  and  of  the  latter  again,  one 
— oxygen — composes  about  two-thirds  of  our  globe.  It  is  present  as  a  gas  in  our 
atmosphere;  we  drink  its  liquid  as  water,  and  carry  it  about  with  us  as  part  of  our 
nerves,  our  muscles,  and  our  clothing;  it  feeds  our  blast  furnaces  and  quenches  our 
fires,  while  vast  stores  of  it  are  locked  up  in  the  solid  rock. 

Common  sulphur,  when  placed  in  a  Florence  flask  and  heated  to  a  certain  point, 
fuses,  and  the  liquid  produced  by  the  fusion  is  a  thin  pellucid  body;  applying  more 
"heat,  it  loses  its  transparency  and  becomes  thick  and  blackens,  at  which  juncture  the 
flask  may  be  inverted  without  the  liquid  coming  out.  If  heated  still  further,  a  vapor 
is  given  forth,  and  the  sulphur  again  becomes  liquified.  Poured  in  this  state  into 
cold  water  the  liquid  is  no  longer  yellow  and  brittle,  but  has  become  a  substance  like 
India  Rubber  or  Gutta  Percha,  on  which  seals  and  impressions  may  be  and  are 
taken. 

Vice  Admiral  Kreugar,  of  the  Swedish  Navy,  has  invented  an  instrument  by 
which  the  force  of  the  winds  can  be  measured  with  great  facility  and  with  the  utmost 
exactitude.  By  order  of  the  King  of  Sweden  this  instrument  is  exhibited  at  the  Paris 
Exposition. 

The  zodiacal  light,  about  which  so  much  is  now  said  in  scientific  circles,  in  con- 
nection with  the  important  theories  lately  announced  of  a  nebulous  ring  around  the 
earth,  was  first  described  and  named  by  Canini  in  1683.  It  appears  but  towards  the 
end  of  winter,  and  in  spring  after  sunset,  or  before  his  rising  in  autumn  and  begin- 
ning of  winter. 

An  English  mechanic  has  taken  out  a  patent  for  certain  mechanical  improve- 
ments or  arrangements  for  supplying  steam  or  other  boilers  or  vessels  with  water  or 
other  fluid,  independent  of  power  from  the  engine,  or  any  separate  mechanical 
source.  The  apparatus  consists  of  a  pair  of  cylindrical  copper  vessels,  firmly  con- 
structed and  ingeniously  contrived,  so  as  to  withstand  the  pressure  of  steam. 

Messrs.  De  Roulz  and  Fontenay,  of  Paris,  have  invented  an  alloy  which  may 
be  employed  for  almost  all  purposes  to  which  silver  is  usually  employed.  The  im- 
proved alloy  is  composed  of  silver,  copper,  and  purified  nickel,  in  the  following  pro- 
portions: silver  twenty  parts,  nickel  from  twenty-five  to  thirty-one  parts,  and  the 
rest  up  to  one  hundred  parts  in  copper.  An  alloy  is  thus  produced  containing  twenty 
per  cent.,  or  thereabouts,  of  silver,  and  constituting  silver  of  the  third  degree  of  fine- 
ness, thus  reversing  the  proportions  of  the  ordinary  composition  of  the  second 
degree;  this  latter  containing  light  hundred  parts  of  silver,  two  hundred  of  alloy, 
whereas  the  improved  compound  contains  two  hundred  parts  of  silver  and  eight 
hundred  parts  of  alloy. 

Mr.  A.  Guthrie,  of  Chicago,  has  given  an  exhibition  of  an  instantaneous  method 
of  extinguishing  fires  by  applying  strong  pressure  of  air  to  the  water  in  the  com- 
mon hydrant  pipes,  so  as  to  direct  a  gnat  flood  at  once  on  the  building  which  takes 
fire.  The  necessary  force  is  given  to  the  water  by  air  which  is  kept  constantly  in  a 
high  state  of  compression,  in  a  large  stationary  chamber  in  some  part  of  the  city. 
This  pressure  is  shut  off  till  an  alarm  of  fire  is  given  by  signal  or  telegraph,  when, 
l»)'  simply  opening  a  valve  which  forms  a  communication  between  the  air  chamber 
and  the  street  pipe,  and  attaching  hose  to  the  nearest  hydrant,  streams  of  water  are 
thrown  to  any  desired  spot. 

If  an  observer,  provided  with  slips  of  bibulous  paper  which  has  been  dipped  in 
a  solution  of  iodide  of  potassium  and  starch,  ascend  a  hill  near  the  sea,  while  the 
wind  is  landward,  he  will  find  that  the  papers  suddenly  change  their  tint,  becoming 
blue.  This  indicates  a  new  chemical  agent  in  the  atmosphere,  called  ozone  by  its 
discoverer,  Professor  Shanbien,  to  whom  we  owe  also  gun-cotton. 

The  London  Mechanics'  Magazine  states  that  its  editor  recently  saw  at  the  Institu- 
tion of  Civil  Engineers,  London,  a  submarine  cable  for  the  Atlantic  Telegraph  Com- 


253 

pany,  which  differs  from  all  theother  telegraph  cables  hitherto  used.  It  combines  in- 
creased conducting  powers  with  a  diminution  of  weight,  so  that  the  entire  cable  for 
the  Atlantic  telegraph  may  be  carried  in  one  ship. 

It  was  proved  by  competent  testimony  before  one  of  the  courts  of  New  York, 
recently,  in  examining  into  the  causes  of  a  fire  in  Maiden  Lane,  that  colored  fire- 
works take  fire  by  spontaneous  combustion,  unless  properly  prepared,  at  certain 
temperatures  of  the  atmosphere. 

Nor  is  this  the  only  encouragement  by  far,  to  cheer  on  the  American  mechanic. 
He  is  the  offspring  of  a  fusion  of  the  energetic  and  enlightened  portion  of  many 
nations  of  the  earth,  and  is  necessarily  blessed  with  uncommon  energy  and  will. 
This  is  powerfully  stimulated  by  our  free  institutions.  The  world  is  open  before 
him,  and  it  is  his  own  fault,  to  a  large  extent,  if  he  does  not  win  its  honors.  A 
printer's  boy  of  our  own  country  chained  the  lightning's  angry  flash,  delighted,  by 
the  charms  of  his  conversation,  the  most  polished  court  in  Europe,  and  died  beloved 
by  his  country  and  admired  by  the  world,  a  patriot  and  a  sage.  A  blacksmith,  second 
only  to  Washington  in  the  field,  often  led  our  revolutionary  armies  to  battle.  A 
shoemaker  shared  largely  in  the  formation  of  our  Federal  Constitution,  and  enlight- 
ened and  instructed  the  august  body  which  formed  it.  Follow  on,  then,  my  fellow- 
countrymen,  in  the  footsteps  of  your  illustrious  predecessors.  Remember  that  it  was 
a  maxim  of  Lord  Bacon,  that  "knowledge  is  power,"  and  devote  every  spare 
moment  to  study.  Shun  the  haunts  of  dissipation — avoid  low  and  vicious  associ- 
ations— act  upon  the  maxim  of  the  celebrated  John  Wesley,  "to  be  always  in  haste, 
but  never  in  a  hurry  "  and  society  will  open  its  arms  to  receive  you — proud  homes 
may  be  yours — lovely  and  accomplished  women  will  smile  upon  you — our  legislative 
halls  will  be  within  your  reach — and  the  highest  honor  of  the  earth,  the  Presidency  of 
the  United  States,  may,  perchance,  be  yours. 

I  speak  in  no  unmeaning  compliment,  Mr.  President  and  gentlemen  of  this  In- 
stitute, when  I  declare  that,  next  to  the  owners  of  the  soil,  you  constitute,  and  have 
constituted,  the  most  important,  the  most  reliable,  and  the  most  conservative  element 
of  each  and  all  of  our  American  communities.  Art  and  science  cannot  be  acquired 
by  a  coup  de  main.  They  are  the  acquisition  of  patient,  persistent  toil.  Any  great 
and  sudden  change  of  society,  from  whatever  cause  proceeding,  are  so  many  dis- 
turbing agents  which  threaten  mischief,  and  almost  certainly  subject  you  to  loss.  To 
be  conservative,  then,  is  the  law  of  your  condition.  The  very  habit  of  investigation 
which  the  scientific  knowledge  of  your  calling  requires,  will  elevate  the  tone  of  your 
feelings  and  the  range  of  your  thoughts,  and  learn  you  to  appreciate  your  country, 
and  what  is  far  more  important,  your  God;  for  I  hold  it  to  be  absolutely  impossible 
for  you  to  fashion  the  materials,  and  scientifically  understand  them,  which  God  has  so 
bountifully  supplied  for  the  use  of  man,  without  entertaining  a  profound  veneration 
for  His  holy  name. 

Fellow-countrymen,  I  have  laid  it  down  as  my  rule  of  life,  to  be  happy  with  what  I 
have,  and  yet  with  cheerful  alacrity  to  pursue  that  which  I  ought  to  desire.  I  have  en- 
deavored to  impress  it  upon  my  children.  Excuse  me,  gentlemen,  for  commending  it 
to  you.  Your  observance  of  it  will  make  you  happy,  useful  and  valuable  men, 
gentlemen  and  patriots;  and  when  that  day  shall  come,  as  come  it  must  and  shall, 
when  the  name  of  American  citizen  shall  be  a  passport  and  a  protection,  each  of  you, 
my  countrymen,  may  say,  with  more  than  Roman  pride,  wherever  your  foot  may 
rest,  and  by  whatever  danger  beset,  I  am  an  American  citizen!  and  that  shall  give  you 
peace,  and  food,  and  raiment,  and  safety. 

May  God  bless  you,  my  fellow-citizens;  and  in  this  hour  of  danger  to  our  political 
covenant,  may  he  still  continue  his  fostering  care  to  our  beloved  country ! 

Considered  in  its  application  to  the  husbandry,  the  cottager  looks  forth  upon  the 
neat  paling  which  fences  his  dwelling— it  was  sawed  by  steam.  The  spade  with 
which  he  digs  his  garden,  the  rake,  the  hoe,  the  pick-ax,  the  scythe,  the  sickle— 
every  implement  of  rural  toil  which  ministers  to  his  necessities  are  produced  by 
steam.     Steam  bruises  the  oil-cake  which  feeds  the  farmer's  cattle;  molds  the  plow- 


254 

share   which  overturns  his  fields;  forms   the  shears  which  clip  his  flock,  and   cards, 
spins  and  weaves  the  produce. 

Applied  to  architecture,  we  find  the  Briarean  arms  of  the  steam-engine  ever  at 
work.  Stone  is  cut  by  it,  marble  polished,  cement  ground,  mortar  mixed,  floors 
sawed,  doors  planed,  chimney-pieces  carved,  lead  rolled  for  roofs  and  drawn  for 
gutters,  rails  formed,  gratings  and  bolts  forged,  paints  ground  and  mixed,  paper 
made  and  stained,  worsted  dyed  and  carpet  wove,  mahogany  veneered,  door-locks 
ornamented,  curtains  and  furniture  made,  printed  and  measured;  fringes,  tassels, 
and  bell-ropes,  chair-covers  and  chair-nails,  bell-wires,  linens  and  blankets,  manu- 
factured; china  and  earthenware  turned;  glass  cut  and  pier-glass  formed;  the  draw- 
ing-room, dining-room,  kitchen,  pantry,  closets,  etc.,  all  owe  to  steam  their  most 
essential  requisites. 

Before  1794  it  seemed  that  this  species  of  labor  was  about  to  die  out  in  the  natural 
course  of  events.  In  three  of  the  northern  States  it  had  perished;  in  five  more  it 
lived  only  upon  sufferance;  and  in  the  South  public  sentiment  would  have  abolished 
it  if  a  feasible  way  had  been  proposed.  Whitney  then  invented  the  cotton-gin;  and 
the  export  of  cotton  in  1793,  less  than  five  hundred  thousand  pounds,  trebled  in  1794, 
increased  to  six  millions  in  1795,  reached  eighteen  millions  in  1800,  two  hundred  and 
eighty  millions  in  1830,  nine  hundred  and  twenty-seven  millions'jin  1850.  African 
bondage  became  profitable.  The  planters  of  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Georgia  and  the 
Carolinas  bear  the  sin  before  the  world;  but  Liverpool,  Lowell,  Manchester  and  New 
York  furnished  the  money  which  prolongs  and  extends  the  system. 

The  increasing  powers  of  the  steam-loom  are  shown  in  the  following  statement, 
furnished  by  a  manufacturer: 

A  very  good  hand-weaver,  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  of  age,  will  weave  two 
pieces  of  nine-eighths  shirting  a  week. 

In  1823  a  steam-loom  weaver,  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  attending  two  looms, 
could  weave  seven  similar  pieces  in  a  week. 

In  1826  a  steam-loom  weaver,  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  attending  two  looms, 
could  weave  twelve  similar  pieces  in  a  week;  some  could  weave  fifteen  pieces. 

In  1833  a  steam-loom  weaver,  from  fifteen  to  twenty  years  of  age,  assisted  by  a 
girl  about  twelve  years  of  age,  attending  four  looms,  could  weave  eighteen  similar 
pieces  in  a  week;  some  could  weave  twenty  pieces. 


The  following  paper  contains  a  bold  and  manly  expression 
of  the  principles  and  tenets  always  entertained  by  the  writer ; 
and,  although  defeated  in  the  great  struggle  for  their  main- 
tenance and  support,  he  yet  exhibited  the  unsubdued  spirit 
of  one  who  felt  that,  he  was  thrice  armed  who  hath  his  quarrel 
just. 

It  was  not  addressed  to  anyone  on  its  face,  but  manifestly 
intended  for  the  President  of  the  United  States.  We  insert 
it  as  we  find  it : 

I  believe  that  the  thirteen  British  Colonies  now  constituting  States  of  the  Ameri- 
can Union  were,  at  the  commencement  of  the  Revolution,  dependencies  of  the  British 
Crown,  and  became,  in  the  language  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  free  and 
independent  states.  I  believe  that  that  celebrated  instrument  which  proclaimed  to 
the  world  the  principles  which  justified  resistance  to  British  aggression  in  solemnly 
declaring  that  it  is  the  right,  and  is  the  duty,  of  a  people  to  throw  off  their  Govern- 


255 

■ment  when  it  shall  oppress  them,  clearly  and  necessarily  proclaimed  the  doctrine  of 
secession;  that  our  successful  Revolution  established  the  doctrine  as  a  principle  of 
public  law;  that  such  colonies,  having  become  free  and  independent  States,  are 
sovereign,  neither  dependent  upon  the  other;  that  in  associating  themselves  together 
their  sovereignty  was  in  no  wise  effected  or  impaired;  that  this  principle  equally  ap- 
plies to  the  compact  between  such  States  known  as  the  Federal  Constitution;  that 
•Governments  have  powers  but  no  rights,  and  can  be  changed  at  will  by  the  parties 
to  the  compact  creating  them;  that  this  doctrine,  although  embodied  in  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  was,  out  of  abundant  caution,  re-affirmed  by  many  of  the 
"States  in  their  several  ordinances  adopting  and  ratifying  the  Constitution;  that  the 
people  of  Virginia,  in  convention  assembled,  particularly  declared  that  the  powers 
granted  in  the  Constitution  may  be  resumed  by  them  whensoever  the  same  may  be  perverted 
to  their  injury  and  oppression ;  that  this  doctrine  was  [again  solemnly  proclaimed  by 
the  Virginia  Legislature  in  the  celebrated  report  and  resolutions  of  Mr.  Madison,  and 
in  the  Kentucky  resolutions  drawn  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  which  celebrated  papers  con- 
stituted, for  many  years,  the  text  book  of  the  Democratic  party,  on  questions  of 
Federal  power;  that  those  principles  were  taught  to  the  people  of  Virginia,  from  the 
Hustings  and  their  schools  and  colleges,  and  was  their  received  doctrine;  that  it  was 
approved  by  a  large  majority  of  the  American  people,  as  evinced  in  the  triumphant 
election  of  its  great  expounders,  Jefferson,  Madison  and  others,  during  much  the 
larger  portion  of  our  political  existence;  that  this  was  the  common  sentiment  of 
Virginia  on  the  17th  of  April,  1861;  that  the  continual  agitation  of  the  slavery  ques- 
tion, commencing  with  the  first  session  of  Congress  and  growing  daily  in  extent  and 
intensity;  the  unequal  and  oppressive  policy  of  a  protective  tariff;  the  refusal  to 
permit  the  slave-holding  States  to  share,  without  restriction,  the  common  patrimony 
of  the  Union,  followed  up  by  the  election  of  a  sectional  candidate  to  the  Presidency, 
and  the  proclamation  of  the  President  so  elected,  calling  for  75,000  men  to  dragoon 
sovereign  States  into  submission,  notwithstanding  the  direct  refusal  of  the  conven- 
tion to  put  that  power  in  the  Constitution,  painfully  impressed  the  people  of  Virginia 
with  the  conviction  that  the  time  had  come  when  it  was  "their  right, "  as  it  was 
"their  duty  "  to  throw  off  the  government,  which,  in  their  judgment,  was  perverted 
to  their  injury  and  oppression. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  these  principles;  my  only  object  is  to  state  the 
grounds  upon  which  Virginia  felt  herself  bound  to  withdraw  from  the  Federal  Union, 
and  to  claim  from  all  her  sons  the  allegiance  which  they  had  been  taught  was  due  to 
her.  Nor  is  this  all.  The  principles  of  our  revolution,  universally  recognized  among  us 
as  unquestionable,  inspired  us  with  a  general  sympathy  for  all  peoples  struggling  for 
liberty  and  independence. 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  President  Washington  could  prevent  our  infant  Re- 
public from  taking  part  in  the  French  Revolution.  We  were  the  first  power,  I  be- 
lieve, to  recognize  the  struggling  republics  of  Spanish  America,  and  we  were  prompt 
to  extend  sympathy  and  material  aid  to  the  distant  people  of  Greece,  engaged  in  a 
violent  effort  to  free  themselves  from  the  grasp  of  the  Turk. 

It  was  not  believed  that  the  seceding  States  could  be  otherwise  than  objects  of 
sympathy  and  interest  with  the  other  States  of  the  Union— neighbors,  speaking  a 
common  language,  in  many  respects  with  similar  institutions — bound  together  by 
many  ties,  and  only  differing  on  questions  of  public  policy,  no  one  believed  that  we 
could  be  objects  of  less  interest  and  regard  than  the  Frenchman,  the  Hibrids  of 
Spanish  America,  and  the  degenerate  Greek. 

With  the  right  proclaimed  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  with  the 
sympathy  universally  expressed  by  our  people  for  alFpeoples  struggling  to  establish 
their  liberty  and  independence;  but  few  believed  that  the  right  we  claimed  would 
be  seriously  denied  to  us.  But  in  this  we  have  been  sadly  disappointed.  A  cruel 
war  has  been  waged  against  us;  our  best  and  bravest  sons  have  died  upon  the  field 
of  battle,  or  have  perished  in  the  prisons  in  which  they  were  confined;  one-half  of 


25G 

our  wealth  has  been  taken  from  us  by  the  emancipation  of  our  slaves,  who  have 
been  turned  loose  among  us;  our  farms  have  been  devastated;  our  other  property, 
to  great  extent,  destroyed,  and  our  houses,  which  sheltered  our  wives  and  children, 
have,  in  thousands  of  instances,  been  burned  to  the  ground;  and  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say,  that  of  all  our  wealth,  two-thirds  have  been  destroyed  in  this  unexpected  and 
bloody  war. 

And  we  are  denied  the  right  of  self-government,  and  the  sympathy  expressed  for 
every  other  people  is  not  only  denied  to  us,  but  is  superseded  by  fierce  and  bitter 
feelings  of  hatred  and  revenge. 

Finding  ourselves  thus  disappointed  in  being  denied  rights  we  had  been  taught 
were  "unalienable,"  standing  alone  in  the  world  without  human  sympathy  or 
assistance,  and  deeply  indignant  at  the  conduct  of  France  and  England,  our  soldiers 
determined  to  end  the  war,  and  our  people,  in  genera],  to  acquiesce  in  it. 

It  was  not  believed  that,  in  the  face  of  what  they  considered  their  undoubted 
rights  and  with  their  knowledge  of  the  sympathy  uniformly  accorded  to  every  other 
people  struggling  as  we  have  done,  there  could  be  any  disposition  to  increase  the 
flow  of  blood  or  still  further  extend  the  ruin  and  confiscation  of  property,  especially 
as  we  were  and  are  chained  as  members  of  the  American  Union  and  consequently 
entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of  American  citizens. 

If  we  are  to  be  members  of  a  common  brotherhood,  if  we  are  to  be  united  as 
members  of  the  American  Union,  if  we  are  to  be  regarded  as  necessary  to  the 
construction  of  a  gigantic  nationality,  I  implore  you,  Mr.  President,  to  exert  your 
great  power  and  influence  to  heal  the  wounds,  soothe  the  passions  and  remove  the 
prejudices  which  now  exist  and  which,  if  allowed  to  continue,  will  make  the  seceded 
States  a  source  of  weakness,  rather  than  of  strength  to  the  American  Union. 

My  personal  interest  is  but  slight;  confiscation  can  do  me  but  little  harm,  and 
death  itself  could  but  briefly  anticipate  that  period,  which,  according  to  the  course  of 
nature,  I  must  soon  attain;  but,  having  resolved,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  my 
fellow-citizens,  in  good  faith  to  aid  in  restoring  our  past  relations  to  the  Federa] 
Union  as  far  as  practicable,  I  sincerely  desire  that  no  policy  shall  find  favor  with 
your  Excellency,  inconsistent  with  the  accomplishment  of  this  great  and  patriotic 
purpose. 

I  pray  your  Excellency,  to  remember  in  this  connection,  that  the  people  of  the 
seceded  States  did  not  act  without  deep  conviction  of  the  right  to  do  as  they  have 
done;  that  the  disastrous  termination  of  their  efforts  for  liberty  and  independence 
has  not  convinced  them  that  they  were  in  error  in  the  efforts  they  have  made,  and 
that  they  now  only  submit  to  a  necessity  which  they  have  no  power  to  resist.  The 
death  or  the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  the  father  of  a  family  are  not  likely  to 
convince  his  children  of  error  and  to  make  them  good  and  loyal  citizens. 

I  deem  it  due  to  myself  to  declare  that  the  foregoing  positions  and  opinions  are 
those  in  which  I  believe.  Accepting  re-construction  as  a  necessity  since  the  sur- 
render of  General  Lee,  I  have  borne  myself  in  such  a  way  as  to  promote  and  not 
obstruct  it. 

Such  influence  as  I  possessed  has  been  uniformly  exerted  for  the  pacification  of 
the  State.  Governor  Pierpont,  having  been  placed  at  the  head  of  the  civil  power  of 
the  State,  will  find  no  factious  opposition  from  any  of  the  people;  he  will  certainly 
have  none  from  me. 

When  Richmond  was  evacuated,  I  left  the  State  property  in  large  amounts,  and 
the  State  buildings  in  charge  of  agents  and  uninjured. 

Deeming  that  my  allegiance  was  due  to  Virginia,  I  recognized  her  right  to  my 
services,  and,  although  long  past  the  military  age,  entered  her  military  service,  from 
which  I  was  transferred  to  that  of  the  Confederate  States. 

Elected  by  her  people,  from  the  camp,  as  their  chief  magistrate,  I  resigned  my 
position  in  the  field  and  assumed  the  civil  duties  thus  assigned  me. 

In  the  various  capacities  in  which  I  have  served,  I  am  not  aware  that  the  United 
States  authorities,  civil  or  military,  have  ever  charged  me  with  harshness  or  op- 
pression.    I  know  they  could  not  truly  do  so. 

William  Smith. 


257 

We  insert  the  following  extracts  from  a  letter  written  by 
Governor  Smith,  a  few  years  after  the  war,  to  an  old  and  tried 
friend  of  the  same  principles,  because  they  seem  to  embody 
in  clear  and  cogent  terms,  the  fundamental  tenets  of  his 
political  faith,  which  he  ever  followed  from  early  manhood 
with  an  unfaltering  step  to  the  day  of  his  death. 

Warrenton,  Va.,  August  28th,  1873. 
Colonel  John  A.  Parker  : 

My  Dear  Sir — You  have  known  me  long  and  are  familiar  with  my  public  record. 
I  have  always  regarded  office  as  a  public  trust,  and  not  as  private  property,  to  be 
exercised  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  conferred  it,  and  not  for  the  benefit  of  the 
incumbent.  Admonished  by  all  history  that  "  power  is  continually  stealing  from 
the  many  to  the  few,"  I  was  early  taught  and  have  ever  believed,  that  in  politics  the 
most  essential  and  eminent  virtue  in  the  citizen,  was  jealousy  of  power.  Hence,  I 
have  always  denied  to  government  the  exercise  of  any  power  not  clearly  granted; 
hence,  I  have  always  maintained  that  doubtful  powers  should  belong  alone  to  the 
people;  hence,  I  have  always  earnestly  maintained  that  the  only  way  to  enlarge  the 
powers  of  the  Federal  Government  was  by  express  grant,  in  the  mode  and  manner  as 
provided  in  the  constitution,  and  hence  I  have  always  repudiated  the  whole  system 
of  implied  powers,  as  certainly  fatal  to  constitutional  government  as  death  is  to  that 
which  lives.  These  doctrines  are  not  new;  they  are  the  teachings  of  our  honest  and 
patriotic  fathers.  Guided  by  them,  I  have  never  had  to  give  up  an  opinion.  Neither 
the  wording  of  General  Jackson's  celebrated  proclamation,  nor  the  inland  sea  doctrine 
of  Mr.  Calhoun  misled  me.     And  most  assuredly  I  will  not  submit  to,  but  will   raise 

my  warning  voice  against  the  alarming  doctrine  of  Mr.  ,  as  promulged  in  his 

late  speech  at  a  ratification  meeting  in  Richmond.  You  may  ask  why  all  this?  I 
answer,  shall  we  abandon  the  truth  because  it  is  crushed  to  the  earth  ?  Shall  we  give 
up  the  great  plan  of  Christian  redemption,  because,  after  1873  years  of  effort,  the 
Devil  is  still  roaring  over  the  earth  seeking  whom  he  may  devour?  No,  sir,  no;  we 
must  cherish  the  hope  that  truth,  though  crushed  to  earth,  will  rise  again  and  cry 
aloud  and  spare  not.  But,  my  dear  sir,  there  are  other  reasons  for  what  I  have  said. 
I  wish  to  recall  your  attention  to  my  past  record  and  to  my  present  opinions. 

Again,  I  was,  in  1847,  Governor  of  our  State.  A  Senator  for  the  United  States 
Senate  had  to  be  elected.  The  caucus,  as  customary,  met  to  select  a  candidate. 
The  Democratic  party  was  divided  between  the  straight-out  and  Calhoun  Democracy, 
the  latter  only  twenty-eight  in  number.  When  the  caucus  was  organized,  the  Cal- 
houn wing  of  the  Democracy  offered,  in  substance,  the  following:; 

Resolved,  That  the  nominee  of  this  caucus  must  have  a  majority  of  the  whole 
Democratic  vote  of  the  Legislature  whether  present  or  absent. 

This  resolution  being  unusual  and  being  manifestly  aimed  at  me,  I  was  con- 
sulted as  to  the  propriety  of  its  adoption.  I  earnestly  advised  that  it  should  pass, 
and  without  division,  and  it  was  done.  Thereupon  the  Calhoun  Democracy  with- 
drew. The  business  then  in  order  being  the  selection  of  a  candidate  to  be  put  in 
nomination  the  next  day  for  the  Senate,  was  called  up.  I  was  presented  to  the 
caucus,  and  not  only  got  the  majority  required  by  the  resolution,  but  had  seven 
votes  more  than  necessary.  Next  day  the  election  came  off.  I  had  been  selected  by 
the  caucus  under  unusual  requirements,  and  ought  to  have  been  elected  upon  the 
final  vote.  The  Whigs  were  opposed  to  me  from  a  disposition  to  cross  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  and  was  aroused  because  of  my  superior  activity  and  efficiency  in  party 

matters.     Mr. consented  to  run  against  the  nominee  of  his  own  party.     Accordingly 

he  was  put  in  nomination  by  the  Calhoun  ring  of  the  Democracy,  and  I,  the  nominee, 
was  put  in  nomination  by  the  straight-out  Democracy.     The  result  was  as  anticipated. 


\ 


258 

was  elected  after  the  struggle  of  a  day,  not  by  his  party  friends,  but  by  his 

enemies.  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

At  a  time  when  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government  have  been  fearfully  in- 
creased by  constitutional  amendments  and  habitual  usurpation;  at  a  time  when  cor- 
ruption in  the  highest  places  stalks  unblushingly  through  the  land;  when  public 
office,  even  that  of  a  Senator,  is  openly  bought  and  sold;  when  Congress,  in  its  whirl- 
pool varacity  is  swollowing  the  tripartite  diversions  of  our  Federal  system,  and  rapidly 

forming  in   line  thereof  a  great  central  despotism, surrenders.     Surely 

there  never  was  a  time  in  our  whole  history  when  it  was  more  plainly  our  duty  to 
watch  power  with  lynx-eyed  jealousy  than  now,  and  to  restrict  it  to  its  clearly  defined 
grants.  Without  this  sacred  and  patriotic  duty  is  boldly  and  wisely  performed,  Con- 
stitutional government  will  soon  be  no  more.  Despotism,  in  the  form  of  an  oli- 
garchy,  the  worst   of    all    governments,    inevitable,    and   our   ruin  and  desolation 

certain.     And  at  such  a  time  as  this,  Mr.  talks  of  the   inland  sea  doctrine  of 

Mr.  Calhoun,  his  well-known  bid  for  the  Presidency,  and  at  the  time,  a  subject  of 
very  general  ridicule;  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  with  all  its  vast  corruption  staring  him 
in  the  face,  in  approval  and  in  support  thereof,  tells  us  what  Greece  might  have  been 
under  the  policy  he  now  favors,  and  what  the  Jews  did  under  the  press  of  Roman 
power;  in  fact,  renounces  the  school  in  which  he  was  taught,  and  abandons  the 
doctrines  of  his  life;  manifestly,  has  surrendered  to  circumstances  of  which  he  so 
much  speaks,  instead  of  locking  shields  with  you  and  I  and  the  thousands  of  Vir- 
ginians, who  would  gladly  unite  with  us,  and  bravely  breasting  the  current  of  mis- 
government  and  injustice,  which  has  swept  away  so  much  that  we  have  cherished, 
endeavor  to  save  that  which  remains.  Alas,  how  few  can  resist  temptation  !  How 
many  are  ready  to  "  crook  the  pregnant  hinges  of  the  knee  that  thrift  may  follow 
fanning." 

As  to  myself,  you  and  yours  know  me.  My  political  career,  I  may  say,  com- 
menced in  Rockingham.  It  was  there,  in  an  encounter  with  Judge  Baldwin,  I  won 
my  spurs,  and  made  a  name  which  forced  me  into  a  six  month'  canvass.  For  thirty- 
six  years,  with  intervals,  I  have  been  in  the  public  service.  I  have,  I  repeat,  always 
regarded  office  as  a  public  trust,  and  not  as  private  property,  to  be  exercised  for  the 
benefit  of  the  people  who  gave  it,  and  not  for  the  benefit  of  him  upon  whom  it  was 
conferred.  Acting  up  to  this  view  of  duty,  I  have  never  been  found  fault  with  by 
my  constituents.  No  one  has  questioned  my  integrity  in  office,  and  no  one,  my  de- 
votion to  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  as  taught  in  Mr.  Madison's  celebrated 
report.  And,  I  think,  I  may  fairly  claim  that  I  am  fully  up  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  famous 
test  of  fitness  for  office:  "Is  he  honest,  is  he  capable,  is  he  faithful  to  the  Consti- 
tution?  ********** 

I  am,  my  dear  sir,  most  truly  yours, 

William  Smith. 


We  also  append  an  extract  from  a  letter  to  a  friend  who 
has  written  him  as  late  as  1885,  asking  his  opinion  of  the  rapid 
strides  the  general  government  was  making  to  centralism 
and  the  absorption  of  the  rights  of  the  States. 

Unfortunately  the  letter  abruptly  terminates,  and  was  not 
resumed  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained.  But  as  far  as  it  goes 
it  will  interest  his   old   Democratic  and   State   Rights    con- 


259 

temporaries  who  so   often   heard   him  in   Congress  and   on 
the  Hustings  enunciate  just  such  views  : 

Warrenton,  Va.,  October  16th,  1885. 
To  L.  C.  M.,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir — I  duly  received  your  esteemed  favor  of  the  12th  inst.,  and,  al- 
though I  write  with  great  labor  and  difficulty,  I  will  not  longer  delay  my  reply, 
although  I  am  much  pressed  by  my  other  correspondence,  and  although  it  may  take 
me  the  whole  day,  as  it  will. 

I  recollect  the  incidents  in  my  history  to  which  you  refer,  with  more  or  less  dis- 
tinctness, and  your  reference  to  them  induces  much  of  what  follows.  I  settled  at 
Culpeper  Court  House  in  August,  1818,  to  practice  law,  and  not  twenty-one  years  of 
age  until  the  6th  day  of  September  following.  About  the  latter  part  of  August  I  was 
taken  sick,  and  did  not  recover  so  as  to  attend  to  business  until  the  latter  part  of 
October,  when  I  went  over  to  Fauquier  County  Court,  then,  as  now,  the  fourth  Mon- 
day of  the  month.  Being  a  man  of  strong  convictions  and  fearless  in  maintaining 
them,  I  soon  took  part  in  politics.  I  could  not  see  how  our  systems  of  State  and 
Federal  Governments  could  be  fairly  misconstrued.  The  line  of  separation  between 
them  was  plain,  manifest,  intended,  provided  for.  All  the  powers  of  government 
which  could  be  exercised  as  well  by  the  States  were  State  powers;  while  the  general 
policy  was  to  give  to  the  Federal  Government,  as  the  agents  of  the  States,  only  those 
general  powers  which  the  States  could  not  as  well  exercise  separately;  as  for  instance,  to 
regulate  our  intercourse  with  foreign  nations  and  among  the  several  States,  to  raise  rev- 
enue,to  raise  an  army,  to  coin  money  and  regulate  the  value  thereof,  to  establish  post- 
offices  and  post  roads,  etc.  But  as  the  Federal  Government  had  no  existence  until  1789, 
when  it  was  created,  and  can  have  no  power  except  what  was  granted,  and  as  the 
powers  not  granted  are  reserved  to  the  States  or  to  the  people  thereof,  it  is  plain  there 
can  be  no  enlargement  of  the  powers  of  the  Constitution  by  implication,  or  usurpation, 
or  precedent,  or  construction,  or  in  any  other  way  than  that  provided  for  by  the  Con- 
stitution. [See  5th  Article  thereof;  you  will  find  it  in  the  Va.  Code  of  i860,  page 
21,  and  in  Va.  Code  of  1873,  PaSe  4°]  I  refer  you  to  these  books  because  I  wish 
you  to  see  the  Federal  Constitution,  which  you  will  find  in  both  of  them,  and  which, 
in  providing  by  the  article  quoted  for  its  own  amendment,  necessarily  forbids  all 
other  modes  of  so  doing;  and  because  you  probably  have  or  can  easily  procure  one 
or  the  other  of  them.  You  cannot  fail  to  see  that  our  ancestors  who  penned  the  Con- 
stitution meant  that  their  work  should  not  be  readily  changed.  You  cannot  fail  to  be 
struck  with  the  jealous  watchfulness  with  which  our  noble  patriots  endeavored  to 
protect  their  precious  work,  the  Constitution.  Even  Congress  cannot  submit  amend- 
ments to  the  Constitution  to  the  people  for  adoption  without  the  concurrence  of  two- 
thirds  of  both  Houses,  or  even  to  call  a  convention  upon  the  application  of  two-thirds  of 
the  States,  to  consider  of  amendments,  and  when  agreed  upon  in  convention  they  only 
become  a  part  of  the  Constitution,  after  being  submitted  to  all  the  States  of  the  Union 
and  receiving  the  approval,  by  adoption,  of  three-fourths  of  them.  Washington,  in  his 
farewell  address,  dated  17th  of  September,  1796,  touches  this  subject  and  says:  "If, 
in  the  opinion  0/  the  people,  the  distribution  and  modification  of  the  Constitutional  powers  be, 
in  any  particular,  wrong,  let  it  be  corrected  in  the  way  the  Constitution  designates.  But  let 
there  be  no  change  by  usurpation  ;  for,  though  this,  in  one  instance,  may  be  the  instrument  oj 
good,  it  is  the  customary  weapon  by  which  free  governments  are  destroyed.  The  precedent 
must  always  greatly  overbalance,  in  permanent  evil,  any  partial  or  transient  benefit  which 
the  use  can,  at  any  time,  yield.'1''  At  this  time  Washington  knew  that  there  was  a  great 
party  in  the  country  and  cotemperaneous  with  his  administration.  In  1789,  under 
the  leadership  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  did  not  believe  in  the  capacity  of  the  people 
to  govern  themselves,  who  wanted  a  monarchy,  failing  in  which,  by  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  they  determined  to  strengthen  the  government  by  every  practicable 
"  usurpation."     This  party  was  practically  in  power,  from  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 


260 

stitution  until  ousted  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  1801.  Nor  was  this  all.  To  satisfy  the 
fears  of  the  people  and  to  induce  them  to  adopt  the  Constitution,  it  was  by  common 
understanding,  agreed  that  sundry  amendments  should,  without  delay,  be  made 
thereto.  This  was  done,  and  the  tenth  of  them  reads  as  follows:  "The  powers  not 
delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States, 
are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the  people."  This,  with  nine  other 
amendments,  all  having  the  same  end  in  view,  was  submitted  by  Congress  at  its  first 
session  under  the  Constitution  to  the  States  for  adoption,  which  they  unanimously 
adopted  and  so  became  a  part  of  the  Constitution.  You  cannot  fail  to  see  in  the 
fifth  Article  that  it  was  the  policy  of  the  Constitution  to  make  it  difficult  to  change  it, 
and  in  that  Article  and  in  the  amendment  quoted,  a  great  jealousy  of  Federal  power 
and  a  clear  purpose  to  confine  the  Federal  Government  to  the  undoubted  power,  is, 
beyond  all  question,  demonstrated.  Had  the  government,  from  the  start,  confined 
itself  to  the  exercise  of  the  clearly  granted  powers,  we  should  have  had  none  of  that 
strife  and  bitterness  which  has  characterized  the  first  century  of  our  political  exist- 
ence. Unfortunately  our  first  twelve  years  of  government  were  practically  in  the 
hands  of  those  unfriendly  to  a  government  of  the  people.  Hamilton  was  an  able  and 
patriotic  man  and  a  favorite  of  Washington,  but  he  was  an  avowed  monarchist.  He 
wished  our  Constitution  modeled  after  that  of  Great  Britain,  and  being  disappointed 
in  this,  by  the  adoption  of  our  Constitution,  he  could  but  see  that  the  fifth  Article 
thereof  precluded  all  hope  of  ingrafting  his  views  thereon  by  way  of  amendment 
thereto.  He  saw  that  his  only  chance  of  increasing  the  powers  of  the  Federal 
Government  was  by  construction,  by  "usurpation,"  as  Washington  termed  it. 


SOME    LETTERS. 

General  D.  II.  Hill  : 

On  the  morning  of  the  battle  of  the  Seven  Pines,  Colonel  Anderson's  brigade,  of 
which  Colonel  Smith's  49th  Varginia  Volunteers  was  apart,  was  ordered  to  move  by 
the  flank,  and  at  regimental  distance,  to  relieve  General  Garland,  then  engaged  with 
the  enemy.  On  reaching  the  formidable  abattis,  lying  on  north  of  the  Williamsburg 
Road,  we  found  he  had  been  routed  and  dispersed.  Galloping  up  to  Colonel  Smith, 
he  informed  him  that  his  brigade  had  been  cut  to  pieces,  and  urged  him  to  put  in. 
Order  soon  came  to  keep  to  the  left  of  the  Road,  and  to  the  fort  forward  march.  The 
49th  moved  steadily  forward  through  the  abattis,  before  referred  to,  accompanied  for 
an  hour  or  so  by  General  Garland,  who,  every  now  and  then,  would  cry  out  in  ad- 
miration of  the  regiment,  "What  tigers!"  "  what  tigers  !"  When  near  the  fort,  on 
the  Williamsburg  Road  an  incident  occurred  which  should  be  preserved.  As  Colonel 
Smith  was  picking  his  way  through  the  abattis,  he  found  Sergeant  Scruggs,  of  Am- 
herst, lying  at  the  foot  of  a  huge  stum]),  badly  wounded;  he  said  to  him,  "  ah, 
Scruggs,  my  dear  fellow,  I  am  sorry  to  see  you  in  such  a  fix."  "  Yes,  Colonel,  he  re- 
plied, "I  am  badly  hurt,  but  don't  take  anyone  out  of  the  ranks  for  me.  As  soon, 
however,  as  the  fight  is  over,  hunt  me  up,  and  take  care  of  me;  "  and  it  was  done. 
In  three  months  he  returned  to  duty;  and  is  now  at  home,  it  is  hoped,  prosperous  and 
happy. 

Another  circumstance  connected  with  the  gallant  soldier,  as  it  illustrates  how 
small  the  difference  sometimes  between  life  and  death,  may  not  be  omitted.  When 
he  fell,  it  was  at  the  foot  of  a  huge  pine  stump,  his  feet  higher  than  his  head.  This 
inconvenient  position  he  endeavored  to  obviate  as  far  as  practicable,  by  putting  his 
hand  under  his  head.  He  had  hardly  done  so,  before  a  shot  from  the  fort  passed  be- 
tween his  skull  and  fingers,  wounding  both,  but  neither  seriously.  But  for  the  slight 
elevation  of  the  head  his  death  would  have  been  inevitable. 

Another  incident  of  the  same  battle,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  mention.  During  the 
steady  advance  of  the  49th,  at  the   bloodiest  crisis  of  the  battle,  Colonel  Smith  dis- 


261 

covered  a  regimental  battle  flag  before  him.  Supposing  it  might  be  his  own,  and  re- 
solved not  to  abandon  it,  he  called  loudly  for  one  of  his  men  to  take  it;  but  unable  to 
make  himself  heard  in  consequence  of  the  confusion  and  noise  of  the  battle,  he 
called  to  his  Adjutant  to  bring  it  to  him,  and  he  would  bear  it.  This  was  done,  and 
the  Colonel  bore  it  a  considerable  time,  until  he  received  a  positive  order  to  give  it 
up.  Several  persons  were  present  when  the  order  was  delivered,  and  among  them  a 
bright,  gallant  lookingyouth,  who  thus  addressed  the  Colonel:  "Colonel,  Ihave  heard 
the  order  you  have  just  received;  I  belong  to  the  Florida  regiment,  of  Garland's 
brigade,  which  has  been  dispersed  to-day.  I  beg  leave  to  join  your  command  for 
this  fight,  and  ask  the  favor  of  bearing  that  flag  in  front  of  your  regiment,  which  I 
pledge  myself  to  do,  so  long  as  life  shall  last."  The  Colonel  looked  at  him  a  mo- 
ment, and  then  handed  him  the  flag  without  a  word.  The  noble  boy  received  it; 
pushed  rapidly  to  the  front,  where  he  found  the  regimental  flag  still  born  aloft  by  the 
last  of  the  color-guard.  And  thus  the  Veteran  regiment  finished  its  glorious  day's 
work,  with  two  flags  flying  at  its  front.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted,  that  the  name  of 
the  brave  young  soldier  should  have  escaped  us,  as  it  would  afford  us  much  satisfac- 
tion to  give  it  to  the  public.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  add,  that  the  49th  went  into  ac- 
tion 440  strong  and  lost  55  per  cent,  of  its  number;  that  its  color-guard  consisted  of 
eight,  all  of  whom  were  killed  or  wounded,  the  last  of  whom  refused  to  quit  the  field 
or  relinquish  his  flag,  but,  who  unhappily  died  of  his  wound.  And  that  you,  General, 
under  whose  eyes  it  fought,  a  few  days  afterwards  had  it  restored,  and  in  the  most 
flattering  terms  expressed  your  approbation  of  their  conduct,  on  that  bloody  day.* 

Warrenton,  Va.,  October  28,  1866. 

Dear  .  .  .  Texa — I  was  gratified  to  hear  of  you  by  your  letter  of  the  17th  inst., 
received  on  yesterday,  but  greatly  mortified  to  hear  so  little  of  yourself,  your  pros- 
pects, your  family,  and  your  present  condition.  You  gave  in  lieu,  however,  your 
political  views  somewhat  at  large;  and  such  views!  I  could  not  have  believed  it. 
What,  become  the  panderers  of  our  deadly  enemies — do  the  work  of  our  own  degra- 
dation and  dishonor  ?  By  the  God  that  made  me,  "  I  would  sooner  be  a  dog  and  bay 
the  moon,  than  such  a  Roman." 

Our  army  terminated  the  war.  Badly  fed,  and  aware  that  our  country  was 
greatly  exhausted,  and  putting  faith  in  the  oft-repeated  declaration  of  President  Lin- 
coln and  Congress,  and  I  may  say  every  organ  of  public  sentiment  in  the  United 
States,  that  all  they  were  fighting  for  was  the  preservation  of  their  Union,  they  threw 
down  their  arms.  At  once,  the  purpose  of  our  enemies  was  disclosed;  new  terms 
were  imposed,  and  the  Southern  States  hastened  to  accept  them.  Was  the  Union  re- 
stored then  ?  No,  the  Freedman's  Bureau  bill  and  the  Civil  Rights  bill  followed  in 
quick  succession;  now  the  Constitutional  amendment,  which  you  propose  to  accept, 
is  passed  and  offered  to  us  by  Congress.  Would  its  adoption  by  us,  secure  oblivion 
for  the  past  and  our  restoration  to  our  constitutional  rights  ?  There  is  no  such  pledge 
in  the  bill,  and  we  are  warned  by  leading  Radicals  that  still  further  conditions  will 
be  imposed.  I  say,  that  our  character,  our  chivalry,  our  manhood,  alike,  forbid  us 
from  becoming  the  voluntary  instrument  in  the  work  of  our  own  degradation.  Power 
may  crush  us,  but  we  will  not  be  the  vile  thing  to  do  our  own  dishonor.  As  to  Presi- 
dent Johnson,  Virginia  feels  grateful  to  him  for  what  he  has  done;  not  that  he  has 
done  all  that  she  wished,  but  that  he  has  done  so  much  more  than  she  expected,  that 
she  would  be  unreasonable  to  complain  of  what  he  has  omitted.  She  regards  him  as 
the  breakwater  against  which  the  mad  waves  of  fanaticism  have  burst  in  vain,  and 
by  which,  the  South  has  been  saved  from  desolation;  and  satisfied  that  he  will  do  all 

*  The  above  letter  was  found  among  the  Governor's  papers  (Letter  Press  Book)  unsealed  and  unsigned; 
but  is  a  faithful  delineation  of  the  remarkable  incident  referred  to  in  his  letters  to  General  Doniphan,  of 
Missouri,  which  was  lost  in  the  fire  at  Culpeper,  before  mentioned.  [See  illustration  No.  9  in  the  body  of  this 
volume.— J    W.  B.] 


262 

he  can  in  the  future,  she  is  disposed,  not  to  [embarrass  him  by  her  distrust,  but  to 
strengthen  him  by  her  confidence.     Such  is  Virginia,  and  in  her  views  I  participate. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  for  me  to  send  you  an  extract  from  a  letter  I  recently  ad- 
dressed to  a  friend.  "The  signs  are  indeed  most  ominous.  We  are  threatened  by 
the  Radical  party,  with  confiscation  and  death,  and  the  Conservative  party  of  the 
country  seem  to  be  wanting  in  the  spirit  and  strength  necessary  to  prevent  it.  Shall 
we  yield  ourselves,  like  sheep  to  the  slaughter,  or  if  necessary,  die  like  men,  in  pro- 
tecting ourselves,  and  in  vindicating  the  eternal  right  of  self-government  against  the 
most  brutal  and  vindictive  tyranny  recorded  in  the  annals  of  civilization.  For  my 
part,  I  have  no  difficulty.  I  shall  do,  as  I  hope,  I  ever  have  done,  manfully  perform- 
ing my  whole  duty." 

Again,  I  say  in  conclusion,  my  wish  is  to  make  my  farm  a  model  one;  and  there, 
in  quiet  usefulness  float  down  the  stream  of  time,  to  "that  bourn,  whence  no 
traveler  returns."  And  I  confess  I  view  with  regret,  the  prospect  of  having  this  quiet 
and  unpretending  life  so  congenial  to  my  age,  broken  in  upon  by  the  rude  shock  of 
war.  May  God  in  His  mercy,  pass  this  cup  from  our  lips.  I  have  presented  you  my 
views — they  are  those  of  our  family  and  of  my  beloved  State,  and  you  cannot,  must 
not  prove  recreant  to  them.  William  Smith. 

Monte  Rosa,  Va.,  March  7,  1867. 
Thomas  Meehan,  Esq.: 

Dear  Sir — I  am  really  obliged  to  you  for  your  kind,  but  cautious  favor  of  the  4th 
inst.,  received  on  yesterday.  I  do  not  propose  to  make  or  discuss  issues;  but  in  look- 
ing over  my  paper  to-day,  I  found  a  resolution  of  Congress  which,  being  appropriate 
by  way  of  reply,  to  one  of  your  positions,  I  send  you.  The  same  purpose  was  pro- 
claimed at  other  times  by  Congress  and  by  President  Lincoln,  and  at  the  surrender 
by  Generals  Grant  and  Sherman.  Should  not  a  great  power  preserve  its  faith  invio- 
late ? 

But  the  only  working  questions  are  two  :  1st.  Is  Virginia  a  State  ?  if  so,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  she  is  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  Constitution.  If  not  a  State 
but  conquered  Territory,  why  not  dictate  terms  and  impose  them  ?  why  call  upon  us 
to  do  our  own  dishonor?  We  might  quickly  submit  to  the  government  imposed  by 
our  conquerors;  but  to  require  us,  who  have  no  rights,  to  do  the  work  of  our  own 
degradation  is  a  refinement  of  cruelty,  without  precedent,  and  we  think  without  ex- 
cuse. New  York  has  rejected  the  Constitutional  Amendment;  Massachusetts  has  de- 
clined to  act  upon  it;  Ohio,  by  an  overwhelming  vote,  refused  to  strike  the  word 
"white  "  from  her  Constitution;  other  States  (loyal)  retain  words  denying  negro 
equality.  And,  yet,  we  commit  an  unpardonable  crime  for  adhering  to  the  same 
policy;  and  the  representatives  of  the  States  referred  to  unite  in  hunting  us  to  the 
death  for  it.     But  enough  of  this. 

A  few  words  more.  Look  to  the  resolution  I  enclose  you,  and  see  where  we  are 
now.  The  balance  of  the  policy  of  the  Radical  leaders  is  already  proclaimed  to  be 
confiscation  and  death;  and  you  will  see  some  such  scheme  presented  to  Congress 
during  its  present  session;  and  if  it  becomes  a  law,  what  then  ?  I  am  in  my  70th 
year.  I  have  a  nice  home  and  a  farm  of  225  acres — all  I  care  for.  I  want  quiet,  re- 
pose, and  safety  for  life  and  property.  We  will  acquiesce,  I  believe  in  any  honest 
government  which  will  secure  these  objects,  that  power  may  put  upon  us,  even  a 
military  government.  But  it  would  be  the  act  of  power,  notour  own.  You  say,  one 
thing  I  know  is  a  fact,  "  that  the  vast  majority  of  the  Northern  people  do  not  want  to 
oppress  the  South."  Then  I  say,  your  people  must  act,  and  act  promptly,  for  I  see 
no  hope  in  your  politicians.  May  God  in  His  mercy  dissipate  the  vision  of  ruin, 
desolation  and  blood  which  looms  up  before  us;  in  place  thereof  give  us  Safety,  Pros- 
perity, and  Peace. 

I  am,  my  dear  sir,  most  truly  and  sincerely  yours,  William  Smith. 


263 

Warrenton  Va.,  March  9th,  1867. 

Dear  Governor — I  have  your  esteemed  favor  of  the  26th  inst.,  and  note  its  sen- 
timents with  great  satisfaction.  But  I  earnestly  advise  you  against  your  views,  at 
present,  in  this  direction.  I  would  not  advise  you  even  to  purchase  a  farm  here,  as 
I  am  now  looking  tearfully,  for  a  state  of  horrible  anarchy  among  us.  Sherman's 
bill  was  thought  to  be  intolerable;  but  Mr.  Sumner's  bill,  which  proposes  to  confirm 
suffrage  to  our  negroes  and  a  few  white  men,  to  be  found  here  and  there,  called 
"  loyal  "  means  to  put  the  government  of  the  State  in  the  hands  of  the  minor  and 
least  intelligent  of  our  population.  The  family  of  Washington,  who  conquered  the 
mother  country  and  secured  the  liberty  and  independence  of  his  country;  the  de- 
cendants  of  Jefferson,  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  immortal  principles  (so  shamefully  disregarded  in  our  recent  struggle) 
upon  which  we  justified  to  the  world,  our  resolution;  the  family  of  Madison,  the  great 
expounder  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  decendants  of  Patrick  Henry,  who  set  the 
revolutionary  ball  in  motion  by  his  matchless  eloquence,  and  especially  his  soul-stir- 
ring, and  at  the  time,  inspiring  cry  of  "Give  me  Liberty  or  give  me  Death,"  with  a 
host  of  others  scarcely  less  known  to  fame,  all  such  are  to  be  subordinates  to  the 
ignorant  negro  and  to  the  vagrant  few,  and  with  not  more  than  a  dozen  exceptions, 
most  worthless  and  corrupt  of  our  whites.  This  is  a  Republican  government  with  a 
vengeance;  and  imposed  upon  us,  by  States,  which  within  themselves,  as  in  your 
State,  utterly  repudiate  negro  equality.  There  must  be  a  God,  and  if  it  be  true  as 
we  are  told,  that  He  has  declared  or  proclaimed,  that,  "Vengeance  is  mine,"  then 
such  outrages  and  injustice  must  provoke  His  wrath;  and  the  wrong-doer  will  be 
visited  by  condign  punishment. 

Yours  most  truly,  William  Smith. 

Warrenton,  Va.,  April  17,  1869. 
L.  X.  S.,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir — Having  been  from  home  for  ten  days,  yours  of  the  5th  inst,  has 
remained  unanswered.  In  reply  now,  I  have  to  inform  you  that  you  are  not  a 
security  for  the  debt  referred  to  in  your  letter.  I  see  it  intimated  in  various  ways 
that  we  are  to  abandon  our  organization,  and  take  part  in  the  existing  Radical  split. 
I  trust  we  shall  be  spared  this  most  foul  and  atrocious  degradation.  What  are  we  to 
gain  by  it  ?  At  the  best,  Radical  supremacy,  in  a  form  somewhat  less  obnoxious, 
that  is,  the  striking  out  of  certain  provisions  of  the  Underwood  Constitution.  But 
this,  according  to  all  rational  calculation  is  certain,  and  with  a  Radical  split  inevitable. 
We  shall  positively  gain  nothing  by  it  but  humiliation  and  shame.  I  therefore  insist 
upon  it,  that  we  preserve  our  organization,  and  run  the  candidates  we  have  hereto- 
fore selected  and  announced.  It  matters  not  that  some  of  them  are  ineligible— that 
Congress  has  reserved  the  power,  and  will  not  ratify  the  election  of  our  candidates. 
That  may  be,  but  the  Constitution,  as  modified,  will  be  adopted;  and  if  administered 
by  minority  candidates,  put  in  by  act  of  Congress,  we  shall  have  exalted  and  bur- 
nished the  name  of  our  State;  consolidated  the  sentiments  of  our  people,  and  given 
a  new  impulse  to  the  opinions  and  right  feelings  of  the  North,  which,  although  slowly, 
is  working  for  our  deliverance.  But  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  Congress  would 
reject  our  officers  or  refuse  to  relieve  them  of  their  disabilities.  The  iron  policy  of 
Radicalism  is  relaxing,  and  opinions  in  high  places,  and  from  influential  sources,  in 
favor  of  the  removal  of  all  disabilities  from  all  our  people  are  openly  proclaimed;  let 
us  then,  quietly,  but  firmly,  and  with  dignity  perform  our  duties.  The  good  sense  of 
the  American  people  cannot  sleep  forever;  and  they  must  tolerate,  indeed  admire 
that  sublime  crime  which,  after  all,  was  but  the  struggle  of  a  noble  race  for  their 
liberty  and  independence.  For  God's  sake,  do  what  you  can  to  preserve  our  organi- 
zation. In  mercy  save  us  from  the  deep  damnation  of  becoming  a  party  to  a  Radical 
split.     For  one,  I  am  determined  to  save  our  dear  old  mother,  as  much  as  I  can,   the 


264 

shame  and  infamy  of  the  threatened  sacrifice;  and  if  no  other  be  announced,  I  will 
at  the  proper  time  announce   myself  her  candidate  for  Governor. 

In  haste,  yours  truly,  William  Smith. 

i 

Warrenton,  Va.,  June  10,  1869. 

R-  T.  Daniel,  Esq.,  Chairman,  Ex.  Com.,  Richmond: 

Dear  Sir — Yours  of  the  9th  was  received  last  night,  suggesting  a  visit  to  Rock, 
bridge.  I  should  be  much  gratified  to  speak  in  that  county  on  the  25th,  as  I  would 
like  to  be  at  the  supper  given  by  W.  C,  on  the  24th,  if  my  dear  sick  wife  can  get 
away  to  the  Springs  by  so  early  a  day,  as  I  wish  to  accompany  her,  that  I  may  see 
her  made  comfortable.  But,  my  dear  sir,  can  it  be  made  necessary  to  go  to  Rock- 
bridge ?  I  know  not  how  to  think  so.  What  does  Governor  Letcher  and  other  true 
and  able  men  mean?  The  duty  of  every  man  of  intelligence  and  position  in  the 
present  fearful  crisis,  the  most  fearful  Virginia  has  ever  known,  scorns  a  cause  for 
indifference,  even  !     Achilles  in  his  tent  is  an  example  to  be  shunned,  not  followed. 

I  go  to  Manassas  on  the  12th  inst.,  and  Carolina  14th,  Fredricksburg  15th,  Staf- 
ford 16th,  King  George  17th  Alexandria,  to  Convention,  18th,  Madison  19th  inst.,  and 
will  write  you  further  about  Rockbridge. 

In  haste,  yours  truly,  William  Smith. 

Warrenton,  Va.,  June  22,  1869. 
R.  R.  Collier,  Esq.,  Petersburg,   Va. 

My  Dear  Sir — On  returning  home  on  Sunday,  having  fulfilled  numerous  en- 
gagements to  speak  to  my  fellow  citizens,  on  the  life  and  death  struggle  in  which 
they  are  engaged,  I  found  several  of  your  letters,  and  among  them,  one  of  the  12th 
inst.,  insisting  upon  my  views  in  opposition  to  the  so-called  Underwood  Constitu- 
tion. In  reply,  you  will  please  accept  what  follows  as  the  result  of  my  best  reflec- 
tions : 

I  must  remark  that  no  true  man  should  ever  despair  of  the  Republic.  That  no 
one  can  be  held  responsible  for  disregard  of  principle,  or  inconsistency  of  conduct 
in  the  course  he  may  pursue  in  the  exigency  which  is  upon  us,  provided  in  what  he 
does  he  aims  to  promote  the  best  interest  of  his  State.  In  no  sense  a  free  agent, 
nothing  of  our  choice,  only  acting  within  the  narrow  limit  accorded  to  us,  we  are 
bound  to  do  whatever  tends  to  better  our  condition,  even  that,  in  such  moderation 
as  not  to  offend  our  task  masters,  It  was  negligence,  principle,  if  it  may  be  so  called, 
and  despair,  which  induced  our  people  to  abandon  the  late  State  Convention  to  the 
most  wretched  and  ignorant  combination  that  ever  undertook  to  form  the  organic 
laws  of  a  State.  And  the  abomination,  which  is  soon  to  be  voted  on,  is  what  might 
have  been,  in  substance,  expected.  Our  military  government  was  a  very  different 
thing  at  one  time  from  what  it  is  at  present.  Then  our  military  government  sincerely 
disposed,  as  I  varily  believe,  to  secure  us  a  good  government;  rarely  made  an  ap- 
pointment, if  at  all,  unless  he  believed  his  appointee  was  competent.  But  since  the 
joint  resolution  of  Congress  (I  believe  it  was),  dissolving  our  civil  government,  the 
practice  has  been,  to  a  great  extent,  otherwise.  Look  at  our  present  Court  of 
Appeals — a  court  of  the  last  resort.  Supreme  over  the  rights  of  persons  and 
property,  composed  of  strangers  to  our  people  and  our  laws,  one  of  whom  at  least,  is 
believed  to  be  so  utterly  deficient  in  a  knowledge  of  the  commonest  principles  of 
jurisprudence  that  he  could  not  procure,  from  three  Virginia  judges,  a  license  to 
practice  law.  Look  around  you,  into  town  and  country,  and  you  will  see  the  Bench, 
everywhere  similarly  occupied.  The  monuments  of  our  estates  and  the  records  of 
our  courts,  dusty  with  years  of  watchful  custody,  likewise  confided  to  strangers. 
Even  our  revenues,  the  hard  earnings  of  an  impoverished  people;  in  short,  the  offices 
of   Virginia,  heretofore    held    by    men  of  worth  and  fitness,  are  now  merely  a  lure  to 


265 

the  needy  adventurer  from  other  States,  and  the  greedy  and  mercenary  of  our  own. 
It  requires  no  seer,  my  old  friend,  to  foretell  the  consequences  of  such  a  state  of 
things  as  this.  It  is  so  plain,  that  "he  who  runs  may  read."  Alas,  my  country! 
Now,  ouo-ht  we  not  do  whatever  we  can  to  save  our  State  from  that  tide  of  corrup- 
tion which  is  setting'jn  upon  us,  and  threatening,  with  sure  destruction,  all  that  we  have 
been  taught  to  reverence,  to  cherish,  and  to  hope  for  !  Undoubtedly  our  Military 
government  is  far,  far  preferable  to  the  dreadful  government,  the  proposed  constitu- 
tion unaltered,  would  give  us;  but  it  cannot  be  comparable  to  a  State  government, 
under  the  proposed  expurgated  constitution  and  which  being  under  our  control,  we  can  at 
once  proceed  to  amend,  at  pleasure.  Nor  is  this  all;  such  a  State  organization 
would  relieve  us  from  Congress— a  hard  task  master,  in  whose  justice,  past  experi- 
ence will  not  allow  us,  for  a  moment,  to  trust.  You  cannot  wonder  then,  that  my 
first  greatest  effort  has  been  to  secure  the  rejection  of  the  disfranchisement  test  oath, 
provisions  of  the  proposed  constitution  and  that  I  have  said  but  little  about  it;  rectifi- 
cation or  rejection,  satisfied  that  without  any  advice  from  me,  it  will  be  the  pleasure 
of  the  people  to  put  it  through,  thus  amended,  by  a  large  majority. 

I  thus  write  in  haste  and  labor.  Wherever  I  have  been,  all  is  well;  and  I  look 
for  a  complete  victory  on  the  6th  of  July  next.  Let  us,  I  implore  you,  to  unite  our 
labors  to  save  our  grand  old  State. 

Truly  your  friend,  William  Smith. 

Warrenton,  Va.,  August  27th,  1869. 
B.  F.  Berkley,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir— I  am  in  receipt  of  your  favor  of  the  26th  inst.,  asking  that  I  would 
put  in  writing  the  views  I  recently  expressed  to  you  in  conversation  on  the  cars,  as 
to  the  propriety  of  requiring  the  recently-elected  members  of  our  Legislature  to  take 
the  test  oath.  But  as  I  am  satisfied  that  the  Federal  authorities  will  not  exact  the 
oath  of  our  members,  and  as  far  too  much,  in  my  judgment,  has  been  said  and 
written,  I  may  say,  for  the  country's  good,  about  it,  I  much  question  the  propriety  of 
giving  my  views  in  the  way  you  suggest,  and  thereby  protracting  a  discussion  which 
should  never  have  commenced,  or  which,  at  any  rate,  should  have  long  since  ceased. 
As,  however,  you  think  otherwise  and  are  pleased  to  say  my  opinions  are  original, 
I  yield  my  doubts,  and  now  give  them  to  you  for  whatever  disposition  you  may 
prefer. 

Congress  claims  the  power  to  reconstruct  Virginia,  and  being  omnipotent  at 
present,  exercises  it.  The  form  of  a  Constitution  for  Virginia  having  been  agreed 
upon  in  the  convention  of  1867-8,  and  it  being  unnecessary  to  submit  it  to  a  vote  of 
the  people  it  was,  for  some  causes,  delayed  until  Congress  took  up  the  subject,  and 
by  act  passed  in  March  last,  I  think,  conferred  upon  the  President  the  power  to 
order  a  vote  upon  said  Constitution  as  a  whole  or  in  part.  I  choose  to  be  particular 
and  therefore  give  the  whole  of  the  first  section  of  said  act,  which  reads  as  follows: 

"Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  that  the  President  of  the  United  States,  at  such 
time  as  he  may  deem  best,  may  submit  the  Constitution,  which  was  prepared  by  the 
convention  which  met  in  Richmond,  Va.,  Tuesday,  the  3d  day  of  December,  1867,  to 
the  registered  voters  of  said  State  for  ratification  or  rejection,  and  may  also  submit 
to  a  separate  vote  such  provisions  of  said  Constitution  as  he  may  deem  best,  such 
vote  to  be  taken  upon  each  of  said  provisions,  or  in  connection  with  the  other  por- 
tions of  said  Constitution,  as  the  President  may  direct."  The  act  of  which  the  sec- 
tion given  was  a  part,  was  passed,  as  you  are  aware,  at  the  instance  of  the  Presi- 
dent himself,  that  he  might  give  to  the  people  of  the  State  a  chance  for  a  Constitution 
under  which  they  might  be  able  to  live  by  rejecting  from  the  proposed  Constitution 
certain  obnoxious  provisions,  universally  condemned  by  all  just  and  enlightened 
minds.  These  provisions  were  the  fourth  clause  of  the  First  Section  of  the  Third  Article, 
and  the  Sixth  Section  thereof.  The  first  denied  to  some  of  our  most  enlightened  citizens 


266 

the  right  of  suffrage,  and  the  second  excluded  all  the  citizens  of  the  State  from  the 
offices  thereof  who  could  not  take  the  following  oath.  (I  prefer  to  give  it  here,  as  it 
may  not  be  within  your  reach): 

"I  do  solemnly  swear  or  affirm,  that  I  have  never  voluntarily  borne  arms  against 
the  United  States  since  I  have  been  a  citizen  thereof;  that  I  have  voluntarily  given 
no  aid,  etc.;  *  *  *  *  that  I  have  never  sought  nor  attempted  to  exercise  the 
functions  of  any  office  whatever,  under  any  authority,  or  pretended  authority,  in  hos- 
tility to  the  United  States;  that  I  have  not  yielded  a  voluntary  support  to  any  pre- 
tended government,  authority,  power  or  constitution  within  the  United  States,  hostile 
or  inimical  thereto.  And  I  do  further  swear  (or  affirm)  that,  to  the  best  of  my  knowl- 
edge and  ability,  I  will  support  and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
against  all  enemies,  foreign  and  domestic;  that  I  will  bear  true  faith  and  allegiance 
to  the  same;  that  I  take  the  obligation  freely,  without  any  mental  reservation  or  pur- 
pose of  evasion,  and  that  I  will  well  and  faithfully  discharge  the  duties  of  the  office 
on  which  I  am  about  to  enter." 

General  Grant  called  the  attention  of  Congress  to  these  clauses  and  submitted 
them  for  a  special  vote  of  our  people,  that  they  might  reject  them  from  the  Constitu- 
tion if  they  saw  fit,  which  was  done  by  an  immense  majority  and  the  Constitution 
they  expurgated  was  adopted  almost  unanimously,  as  the  organic  law  of  the 
State.  By  the  Constitution  they  adopted,  all  male  citizens  of  the  United  States,  with 
a  few  qualifications  and  exceptions,  are  entitled  to  vote  and  to  hold  office,  and  only 
required,  from  those  taking  office,  the  following  oath: 

"I,  ,  do  solemnly  swear  (or  affirm)  that  I  will  support  and  maintain  the 

Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  and  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  State 
of  Virginia;  that  I  recognize  and  accept  the  civil  and  political  equality  of  all   men 

before  the  law,  and  that  I  will  faithfully  perform  the  duty  of to  the  best  of  my 

ability.     So  help  me  God." 

With  the  powers  of  the  State  in  the  hands  of  the  people  they  were  reconciled  to 
the  oath,  and  also  to  the  Constitution  as  adopted,  inasmuch  as  they  had  the  power  to 
amend  it.  But  just  before  the  election  and  when  we  were  lumicating  in  the  com- 
fortable assurance  that  we  would  be  able  to  get  possession  of  our  State,  and  too  late 
to  change  our  programme,  it  is  announced  that  General  Canby  will  require  the 
members-elect  of  the  Legislature  to  take  the  test  oath.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to 
copy  it  for  you. 

"  I;  ,  of  the  county  of  and  State  of  ,  do  solemnly  swear  (or 

affirm)  that  I  have  never,  voluntarily,  borne  arms  against  the  United  States  since  I 
have  been  a  citizen  thereof;  that  I  have  voluntarily  given  no  aid,  counsel  or  en- 
couragement to  persons  engaged  in  armed  hostility  thereto;  that  I  have  never  sought 
nor  accepted,  nor  attempted  to  exercise,  the  functions  of  any  office  whatsoever, 
under  any  authority,  or  pretended  authority,  in  hostility  to  the  United  States;  that  I 
have  not  yielded  any  voluntary  support  to  any  pretended  government  authority,  power 
or  Constitution  within  the  United  States  or  inimical  thereto.  And  I  do  further  swear 
(or  affirm)  that,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  ability,  I  will  support  and  defend 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  against  all  enemies,  foreign  and  domestic;  that 
I  will  bear  true  faith  and  allegiance  to  the  same;  that  I  take  this  obligation  freely 
without  any  reservation  or  purpose  of  evasion,  and  that  I  will  well  and  faithfully  dis- 
charge the  duties  of  the  office  on  which  I  am  about  to  enter.     So  help  me  God." 

General  Schofield  appeared  in  the  convention  after  the  test  oath  had  been  adopted 
by  that  body,  and  in  a  speech  endeavored,  in  vain,  to  get  it  reconsidered,  so  mon- 
strous did  he  regard  it.  The  President  so  regarding  it,  brought  it  to  the  attention  of 
Congress,  and  that  body  gave  him  the  power  to  submit  it,  for  adoption  or  rejection, 
to  our  people,  who,  by  an  immense  vote,  rejected  it  from  the  Constitution.  It  is  also  well- 
known  that  the  President  was  opposed  to  its  adoption;  and  that,  as  to  the  other  States 
similarly  situated,  he  forbid  the  application  of  the  test  oath  to  their  functionaries.  Can 


267 

it  then  be  believed  that  he  will  permit,  much  more  coerce,  its  application  to  those  of 
Virginia.  ?  It  must  not  escape  your  attention  that  the  test  oath,  so  heavily  rejected  at 
the  late  election,  is  a  transcript  of  that  of  the  act  of  1862.  I  have  given  them  to  you 
that  you  may  compare  them.  And,  that  which  is  submitted  to  the  people  for  a 
separate  vote,  to  be  rejected  if  they  please.  General  Canby  had  proclaimed,  although 
rejected  from  the  State  Constitution,  he  would  exact  it  from  our  State  officials  under 
the  act  of  Congress.  The  positive  and  undeniable  effect  of  which  will  be,  to  defeat 
the  choice  of  our  legally  recognized  voters  and  to  compell  us  either  to  hunt  for  young 
men,  barely  of  age,  without  knowledge  of  men  and  government,  or  to  yield  the  State 
to  an  utterly  ignorant  and  depraved  minority.  Our  Legislature  is  almost  entirely 
composed  of  new  men,  and  it  is  said,  has  only  a  few  members  in  it  who  were  ever  in 
a  Legislative  body  before.  And  all  this,  too,  when  the  gravest  duties  of  government 
requiring  par  excellence,  integrity,  knowledge  of  the  wants  of  the  people  and  ripe 
experience  in  the  affairs  of  State,  are,  especially  necessary,  a  new  system  of  govern- 
ment, to  which  the  people  have  never  been  accustomed  and  which,  in  many  respects, 
they  are  known  to  be  strongly  opposed,  having  to  be  inaugurated.  We  can  but  ex- 
pect a  wretched  job  when  it  is  left  to  apprentices  and  the  master-builders  are  away. 
It  has  been  said  that  our  case  is  different  from  those  of  Georgia  and  North  Carolina, 
where  the  test  oath  was  not  enforced  because  their  Constitution  was  recognized  by 
Congress,  but  ours  has  not  been,  hence  the  difference.  Our  Constitution  has  been 
before  Congress  about  a  year,  and  without  objection;  it  was  so  far  recognized  and 
approved  by  that  body  that  it  empowered  the  President  to  submit  it  in  whole  or  in 
parts  to  the  people,  and  appropriated  money  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  election,  im- 
plying necessarily,  that  that  Constitution,  however  adopted  fairly  by  the  people, 
would  be  approved  by  Congress;  indeed,  that  Congress,  by  its  own  Act,  was  fully 
committed  thereto.  But  the  election  recently  held,  was  assuredly  designed  to  adopt 
a  State  Constitution,  provide  for  a  State  organization  and  complete  the  work  of  re- 
construction. The  Constitution  provides  for  the  necessary  offices,  how  they  shall 
be  filled,  what  qualifications  are  required,  what  oaths  shall  be  taken,  etc.  And  yet 
it  urges  that  these  State  officials  must  take  the  test  oath  impossd  by  the  Act  of  1862. 
An  oath  which  it  is  not  pretended  they  will  be  bound  to  respect  after  they  shall  have 
been  recognized  by  Congress,  and  which  can  never  be  exacted  of  their  successors ! 
Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  then,  that  many  of  our  people  should  entertain  a  strong  feel- 
ing of  indignation  at  what  they  regard  as  an  unworthy  trick  to  still  further  wrong  and 
embarrass  them  in  the  honest  effort  to  recover  their  proper  position  in  the  Union? 
And  that  many  of  us  will  not  believe  that  President  Grant  can  or  will  permit  this 
wanton  and  mischievous  outrage.  There  are  certain  well-established  principles  of 
statutory  construction  which  are  presumed  to  be  always  in  the  mind  of  the  law-mak- 
ing  power:  First,  that  the  Act  was  necessary  to  accomplish  its  purpose;  second,  that 
where  the  purposes  of  an  Act  are  clean,  it  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  accomplish  them ; 
third,  that  powers  granted  establish  their  prior  non-existence,  and  that  powers  not 
granted  do  not  exist.  I  beg  your  attention  to  my  application  of  these  principles  to 
the  election  law  of  Congress.  None  will  deny,  I  presume,  that  the  object  and  pur- 
pose of  Congress  was  the  restoration  of  Virginia  to  the  Union;  and  that  any  construc- 
tion of  the  election  law,  not  required  by  its  plain  and  explicit  language  calculated  to 
defend  it,  is  unwarranted  and  erroneous.  Allow  me,  then,  to  examine  the  Act  I  have 
already  given  you,  the  first  Section  of  it,  which  authorizes  the  President  to  order  a  vote 
upon  the  Constitution  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  his  power  to  bring  on  the  election  of  July, 
1869,  was  derived  from  the  election  law.  It  did  not  previously  exist,  and  when  the 
power,  thereby  conferred,  was  exercised,  it  was  exhausted.  He  was  functus  officio, 
and  his  power  over  the  subject  was  at  an  end.  This  is  the  inevitable  conclusion  of 
common  sense  and  well-established  principles  of  law,  and  need  not  be  elaborated  or 
enlarged.     This  second  section  is  as  follows  : 

Section  second.     And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  at  the  same  election,  the  voters 
of  said  State  may  vote  for  and  elect  members  of  the  General  Assembly  of  said  State, 


268 

all  the  officers  of  said  State  provided  for  by  the  said  Constitution,  and  the  members  of 
Congress  and  the  officer  of  the  District  of  Virginia  shall  cause  the  list  of  registered  voters 
of  said  State  to  be  revised,  enlarged  and  corrected  prior  to  such  election,  according 
to  law,  and  for  that  purpose  may  appoint  such  registrars  as  he  may  deem  necessary, 
and  said  election  shall  be  held  and  the  returns  thereof  made  in  the  manner  pro- 
vided by  the  Acts  of  Congress,  commonly  called  the  "Reconstruction  Acts."  It  can 
but  strike  you  that  the  objects  of  this  section  are  two-fold,  and  that  they  are  presented 
in  apt  and  proper  language.  It  confers  upon  the  lawful  voters,  the  right  to  elect 
certain  representatives,  and  upon  the  District  Commissioner  the  duty  of  providing 
for  a  fair  election,  receiving  the  returns,  footing  up  the  results  and  proclaiming  who 
are  the  persons  elected.  Having  thus  exercised  the  powers  conferred  by  the  election 
law  and  discharged  the  duties  it  imposed,  he,  too,  is  functus  officio,  and  his  relation 
to  those  he  has  proclaimed  to  be  elected  becomes  that  of  any  other  private  gentleman, 
nothing  more,  nothing  less. 

Sections  three  and  four  exclusively  refer  to  Texas  and  Mississippi  and  need  no 
remark.     But  section  five  is  important,  and  reads  as  follows: 

Section  five.  Be  it  further  enacted,  That  if  either  of  said  Constitutions  shall  be 
ratified  at  such  election,  the  Legislature  of  the  State  so  ratifying,  elected  as  provided 
for  in  this  act,  shall  assemble  at  the  capitols  of  said  States  on  the  fourth  Tuesday 
after  the  official  promulgation  of  such  ratification  by  the  military  officer  commanding 
in  said  State.  "The  Legislature  of  the  State  so  ratifying,  shall  assemble  on  the 
fourth  Tuesday."  It  is  not  to  "assemble"  under  the  order  of  the  President,  or  of 
General  Canby,  but  it  shall  "  assemble  "  by  command  of  Congress,  as  expressed  in  the 
election  law,  "on  the  fourth  Tuesday  after  the  official  promulgation  of  the  ratification 
of  the  Constitution,  etc.,"  not  after  it  shall  be  convened  by  the  proclamation  of  our 
military  commander;  but  it  "shall  assemble"  at  the  time  fixed,  after  the  ratification 
of  the  Constitution  shall  be  proclaimed,  in  despite,  even,  of  General  Canby's 
hostility. 

But  I  must  hurry  on,  as  my  time  will  not  allow  me  to  add  other  views  I  would 
like  to  present.  The  Legislature  having  convened  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  Con- 
gress, and  not  in  obedience  to  the  command  of  our  District  Commissioner,  will  pro- 
ceed to  this  consideration  of  such  matters  as  are  required  of  them  by  the  law  under 
which  they  have  assembled.  Meeting  as  a  parliamentary  body,  it  must  organize  by 
the  election  of  the  necessary  officers.  By  the  express  provision  of  the  Constitution, 
it  alone  has  the  right  of  the  election  returns  and  qualification  of  its  members.  Being 
organized,  what  next?  Under  ordinary  circumstances  it  would  be  the  appointment 
of  committees  to  wait  upon  the  Governor  and  notify  him  that  the  General  Assembly 
is  organized  and  ready  to  receive  any  communication  he  may  desire  to  submit.  But 
we  have  no  Governor  as  yet,  nor  can  we  send  any  such  committee  to  our  military 
commander,  for  he  is  not  recognized  by  our  State  Constitution,  nor  by  the  election, 
or,  indeed,  any  law  as  an  official,  with  whom  the  State  can  hold  such  relation.  What 
then?  What  can  the  Legislature  do  ?  It  is  an  incomplete  body;  only  one  of  three 
departments  which  constitutes  the  State,  and  manifestly  can  do  nothing  which  is 
final  or  binding.     The  seventh  section  of  the  election  law  reads  as  follows: 

And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  proceedings  in  any  of  said  States  shall  not  be 
deemed  final,  or  operate  as  a  complete  restoration  thereof,  until  their  action,  respec- 
tively, shall  be  approved  by  Congress. 

The  Legislature,  to  concur  in  an  amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  must 
be  that  of  a  State  with  all  .its  functions  in  full  operation  and  its  government  undoubt- 
ed, recognized  and  complete.  When  our  Legislature  shall  assemble,  it  may  ratify 
the  fifteenth  amendment,  but  suppose  Congress  shall  disapprove  our  "action,"  will 
it  not  fall  to  the  ground  ?  Nor  will  the  approval  of  Congress  alter  the  case.  No 
amendment,  I  repeat,  can  be  concurred  in,  except  by  a  State  in  the  full  exercise  of  all 
her  Constitutional  powers.  Under  these  views  you  will  have  seen  my  conclusion, 
that  we  have  no  State  government  under  our  State  Constitution  until  the  period  fixed 


269 

for  its  organization,  to  wit:  the  1st  of  January,  1870;  that  any  ratification  of  the  fifteenth 
amendment  by  Virginia,  previous  to  that  period,  would  be  null  and  void,  and  an 
election  of  Senators  wholy  without  authority,  mischievous  and  useless;  and  that  the 
meeting  of  the  General  Assembly,  required  by  the  fifth  section,  can  accomplish  no 
valuable  result,  while  it  will  subject  the  State  to  a  heavy  expense,  which  Congress 
will,  some  day,  pay.  Nor  does  the  sixth  section  alter  the  question.  It  reads  as 
follows: 

Section  sixth.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  before  the  States  of  Virginia,  Missis- 
sippi and  Texas  shall  be  admitted  to  representation  in  Congress,  their  several  Legis- 
latures, which  may  be,  hereafter,  lawfully  organized,  shall  ratify  the  fifteenth 
amendment  article,  which  has  been  proposed  as  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States. 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  section  does  not  apply  to  the  State  organizations 
— that,  it  would  seem,  is  yielded.  Indeed,  Congress  recognizes  the  necessity  of  per- 
fecting the  State  government  before  the  fifteenth  Article  shall  be  acted  on,  when  it 
merely  declares  that  Congressional  representatives  shall  not  be  admitted  until  said 
Article  is  ratified.  This  construction  is  so  obvious,  that  I  am  pursuaded  it  would 
have  been  of  universal  acceptance;  that  the  Legislature  "  shall  assemble,"  and  when 
it  shall  assemble,  what  can  it  do  ?  In  fact  it  can  do  nothing  sensible  but  to  meet  and 
adjourn.  It  may  satisfy  the  fifteenth  Article,  and  to  satisfy  the  general  expectations, 
perhaps  it  should;  but  it  will  not  be  worth  the  paper  upon  which  it  is  written, 
v  I  have,  my  dear  sir,  replied  quite  hastily  and  more  at  large  to  your  letter  than  I 
had  intended,  but  I  hope,  I  do  not  believe  that  the  test  oath  can  be  legally  exacted  of 
our  State  officials,  nor  do  I  believe  that  the  President  will  permit  the  attempt  to 
enforce  it.  I  do  not  believe  the  Legislature,  when  it  shall  assemble,  has  the  power 
to  do  anything  more  than  organize,  draw  its  mileage  and  per  diem,  and  adjourn.  But 
if  they  do  undertake  to  do  anything  more  than  to  pass  upon  the  fifteenth  Article,  it 
will,  I  doubt  not   and  should  be  politically  damned. 

I  am,  my  dear  sir,  truly  yours, 

William  Smith. 


In  view  of  the  fearful  political  ordeal  through  which  this 
grand  old  State  was  passing,  among  other  things  in  which 
Governor  Smith  actively  participated  after  the  war,  with  a 
view  to  her  speedy  and  substantial  restoration  to  her  civil  and 
political  rights,  we  insert  the  following  letter  to  a  prominent 
citizen  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  as  a  part  of  her  history  and  trials  of 
that  day  : 

LETTER    FROM    GOVERNOR    WILLIAM    SMITH. 

Warrenton,  Va.,  May  19th,  1869. 
To  R.  M.  Collier,  Esq.,   Petersburg,  Va. 

My  Dear  Sir— Yours  of  the  1st  inst.,  has  been  received.  Absence  from  home 
for  some  time,  and  then  a  desire  to  see  the  President's  proclamation  ordering  an 
election  have  delayed  this  reply.  I  now  give  it  for  such  use  as  you  may  see  fit  to 
make  of  it,  and,  with  the  more  pleasure,  as  it  will  facilitate  my  replies  to  others, 
having  in  view  similar  enquiries  with  those  propounded  by  yourself. 

A  few  preliminary  observations  are  necessary  to  the  proper  elucidation  of  our 
present  deplorable  condition,  and  you  will  I  am  persuaded,  pardon  me  for  obtruding 
them  upon  your  attention. 


270 

In  1867  Congress,  in  her  wisdom,  treating  our  dear  old  State  as  a  territorial  ap- 
pendage, enacted  a  law  providing  for  a  convention  to  form  a  constitution  or  frame 
of  government  for  the  State.  The  negro  was  enfranchised,  large  bodies  of  our  most 
intelligent  citizens  were  disfranchised,  and  the  purpose  was  explicitly  developed  to 
put  our  State  government  in  the  hands  of  the  alienage,  pauperism,  ignorance  and  vice 
of  the  State.  This  alarming  policy  very  naturally  excited  the  profoundest  interest, 
and  the  result  was  a  convention,  composed  of  eight  hundred  of  our  best  and  most  en- 
lightened citizens.  This  body,  in  point  of  numbers,  was  without  a  precedent  in  our 
State,  and  in  all  that  constituted  the  excellence  of  our  race,  unsurpassed.  This  great 
body  firmly  looked  our  difficulties  in  the  face,  and  unanimously  resolved  to  defeat 
the  Underwood  constitution.  It  provided  for  an  executive  committee  with  ample 
powers,  which  body,  with  the  aid  of  the  county  superintendents,  etc.,  met  in  Rich- 
mond on  the  7th  of  May,  1868,  to  nominate  State  officers,  etc.  On  that  occasion  Col- 
onel R.  E.  Withers  was  nominated  for  Governor,  and  Colonel  Baldwin,  who  came 
near  getting  the  nomination,  made  a  speech  of  such  glowing  patriotism  as  quite  to 
electrify  our  venerable  Enquirer,  who,  in  his  rhapsody  cried  out,  "Even  while  he 
spoke  the  charming  thought  filled  the  minds  of  his  hearers  that  such  a  speech  was 
adding  another  leaf  to  the  crown  of  laurels  with  which  his  mother  State  will  some 
day  crown  his  brow,  '  when  the  King  shall  claim  his  own  again.'  " 

Through  such  instrumentalities  the  wisdom  of  our  State  had  proclaimed  a  plat- 
form and  had  selected  candidates  to  uphold  and  maintain  it.  The  president  of  the 
con%Tention  (Mr.  Stuart)  in  returning  thanks  for  the  honor  of  his  selection,  anticipated 
the  platform,  and  proclaimed  undying  hostility  to  the  negro  constitution.  Colonel 
Baldwin,  at  the  convention  which  selected  our  State  candidates,  gave  "  another  proof 
of  the  wisdom  of  his  head,  and  the  patriotic  love  of  his  heart,"  in  firing  up  all  to  the 
undying  determination  to  sustain  and  elect  them.  And  I  feel  fully  warranted  in  de- 
claring that  there  never  has  been  a  popular  organization,  under  more  trying  and  im- 
posing circumstances,  to  the  action  of  which  was  more  thoroughly  and  fully  pledged 
the  troth,  the  plight,  the  honor  of  each  and  all  of  its  members. 

Our  candidates,  occupied  moreover,  a  most  anomalous  position — a  position  of  ex- 
traordinary, indeed,  unprecedented,  trust  and  confidence.  We  had  a  clear  majority 
in  the  State;  our  candidates  might  easily  be  elected,  but  if  the  same  vote  should  be 
thrown  against  the  constitution,  it  would  be  defeated,  and  our  candidates  would  take 
nothing  for  their  pains.  The  defection  of  a  few  voters  here  and  there  for  and  not 
against  the  constitution  would  have  easily  changed  the  result,  and  it  might  have  been 
that  the  constitution,  by  a  very  little  management,  might  have  been  adopted,  and  yet 
our  candidates  be  elected.  Surely,  then,  they  had  a  right  to  expect  the  hearty,  un- 
broken support  of  everyone,  at  least,  who  participated  in  their  nomination.  It  was 
under  such  circumstances  our  candidates  opened  the  canvass,  which  they  prosecuted 
with  an  activity  and  ability  rarely  equalled.  Everywhere  the  enormities  of  the  pro- 
posed constitution  were  exposed,  and  the  framers  of  it  held  up  to  the  scorn  and  con- 
tempt of  the  people,  until  at  last  the  public  mind  was  so  fully  enlightened  and  public 
opinion  was  so  thoroughly  consolidated,  that  the  frightened  enemy  shrunk  from  the 
election,  while  the  Conservative  party  reposed  in  their  strength,  awaiting,  like  the 
strong  man,  the  summons  to  renew  the  conflict. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  signs  of  dissatisfaction  began  to  appear.  And,  finally,  in 
the  month  of  December  last  a  circular  was  issued  from  Staunton,  Va.,  subscibed  by 
five  gentlemen  of  that  town,  and  addressed  to  some  forty  of  the  most  prudent  of 
Virginia's  sons.  It  was  an  open  disloyalty  to  that  grand  organization  of  which  they 
were  voluntary  members,  and  of  which  I  will  add,  they  were  conspicuous  ones,  and 
to  fidelity  to  which  they  were  bound  by  every  tie  and  duty  which  gentlemen  recog- 
nize among  each  other.  Nor  was  there  any  necessity,  as  far  as  can  be  seen,  for  this 
summary  proceeding.  The  Executive  Committee  was  in  being,  enjoyed  to  a  great 
extent  the  confidence  of  the  State,  was  intelligent  and  patriotic  and  would  doubtless 
have  hearkened  to  the  "recent  intelligence  from  Washington,"  had  it  beencommu- 


271 

nicated  to  them,  and  which  was  the  pretext  upon  which  the  revolutionary  movement 
of  our  Staunton  gentlemen  was  predicated.  If,  however,  they  saw  fit  to  jump  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee,  why  did  they  not  summon  the  people  to  re-assemble  in  conven- 
tion to  receive  their  report  ?  These  gentlemen,  in  the  circular  of  December  last,  an- 
nounce that  "recent  intelligence  from  Washington  satisfies  us  that  the  best  interests 
of  the  State  of  Virginia  urgently  require  that  there  should  be  a  consultation  of  some 
of  the  most  prudent  of  her  sons,  in  Richmond,  on  Thursday  the  31st  inst.,  in 
regard  to  the  best  policy  to  be  pursued  in  the  present  condition  of  the  country." 
Manifestly,  it  was  deliberately  intended  to  set  at  nought  the  grave  and  well-considered 
conclusion  of  the  grand  convention  of  eight  hundred  of  Virginia  gentlemen,  selected 
by  the  sovereign  people  and  by  them  approved,  by  the  conclusions  of  a  coterie  of 
forty  gentlemen  or  less,  selected  by  the  five  gentlemen  of  Staunton  !!  Thank  God, 
the  history  of  our  beloved  State  can  furnish  no  precedent  for  such  conduct  on  the 
part  of  any  of  her  sons  as  this.  I  will  not  say  that  those  gentlemen  have  committed 
a  crime  against  the  law,  but  undoubtedly  they  have  committed  a  grievous  fault,  and 
grievously  should  they  answer  it. 

The  Executive  Committee  and  County  Superintendents  were  duly  summoned  to 
meet  in  convention  on  the  2Sth  of  April,  to  take  into  consideration  the  President's  proc- 
lamation, etc.  No  proclamation  had  been  issued,  but  it  was  confidently  expected  be- 
fore the  period  designated.  The  convention  assembled,  but  it  had  not  appeared,  and 
the  business  for  which  it  had  convened  was,  it  may  be  rightly  said,  coram  non  judice. 
It  was  in  vain,  that  it  was  urged  that  the  convention  should  adjourn  over— that  to  act 
in  anticipation  of  the  proclamation  would  be  to  act  in  the  dark — would  make  confu- 
sion worse  confounded,  and  might  and  probably  would,  compromise  the  most  vital 
interests  of  the  State.  The  same  gentlemen  who  had  repudiated  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee by  initiating  an  independent  movement,  strangely  appeared  in  the  body  con- 
vened under  its  authority,  and  assuming  to  be  members  thereof,  brought  their 
dangerous  influence  to  bear  and  defeated  this  reasonable  and  most  prudent  proposi- 
tion; nay,  in  a  body  in  which  conciliation  and  harmony  was  of  prime  consequence, 
adopted  the  five  minutes  rule,  refused  to  permit  a  gentleman  who  had  the  floor  to 
transfer  his  time  to  another  of  distinction  and  ability,  who  had  not  been  heard  upon 
the  subjects  under  consideration,  and  finally,  to  cap  the  climax,  carried  a  resolution 
proposing  to  bind  the  members  of  the  body  to  sustain  its  action,  although  they  were 
in  open  contumacy  of  a  similar  obligation  imposed  by  the  action  of  the  grandest  as- 
semblage ever  convened  in  Virginia,  and  of  which  they  were  conspicuous    members. 

Well,  proceeding  to  act,  our  State  ticket  was  withdrawn,  our  grand  organization 
was  thoroughly  disorganized,  and  proud  old  Virginia  graciously  allowed  the  privilege, 
or  I  should  rather  say,  reduced  to  the  necessity,  of  choosing  between  two  carpet- 
baggers; yes  with  30,000  majority  at  least,  upon  a  new  registration,  we  by  our  own 
act,  with  our  own  consent,  are  degraded  to  such  a  choice.  Nor  was  there  the  slightest 
necesssity  for  such  a  shame.  Were  concessions  necessary  we  could  easily  have 
made  them  by  modifying  our  platform  and  accepting  the  constitution,  less  the  test- 
oath  disfranchisement  and  county  organization  clauses.  This  would  have  strength- 
ened us  with  the  blacks.  Secured  in  their  own  suffrage,  thousands  would  have  re- 
fused to  deny  it  to  us.  A  mutual  confidence  would  have  sprung  up,  and  the  negroes, 
naturally  aristocratic,  would  have  looked  up  to  their  old  masters  and  present  em- 
ployers for  protection  and  support,  and  down  upon  scalawags  and  carpet-baggers 
with  loathing  and  contempt.  With  our  platform  modified  and  our  State  ticket  elected, 
as  it  could  easily  have  been,  a  frugal  honest  State  government  would  have  been  cer- 
tain, while  at  the  same  time,  we  should  have  been  protected  against  all  damage  from 
the  remaining  obnoxious  provisions  of  the  constitution. 

At  length,  however,  the  President's  proclamation  appears,  and  to  our  consterna- 
tion, without  submitting  the  county  organization  clause  to  a  separate  vote.  And  here 
we  are  without  a  State  ticket,  which  we  could  easily  have  elected,  and  which  would 
have  given  us  almost  complete  protection,  compelled  to  accept  or  take  a  constitution 


272 

with  all  its  unbroken  horrors  and  a  Governor,  it  may  be  with  a  government  a  dis- 
grace to  civilization,  and  an  exemplar  to  those  of  Arkansas  and  Tennessee;  or  a  con- 
stitution which,  in  its  most  favorable  aspect,  will  be  without  one  essential  modifica- 
tion, and  with  a  Governor  who,  however  favorably  spoken  of,  is  a  stranger,  and  not 
free  from  our  suspicion  and  distrust.  And  whose  dreadful  work  is  this  ?  It  is  not 
that  of  the  scalawag  or  the  carpet-bagger  or  even  of  Congress,  but  of  Virginians, 
bound  to  an  organization  they  have  scattered — of  Virginians  of  talent  and  position — 
of  Virginians  under  disabilities  which  they  were  anxious  to  have  removed.  And 
thereby  hangs  a  tale  : 

But  och,  mankind  is  unco'  weak,  and  little  to  be  trusted  ; 

If  self  the  wavering  balance  shake,  its  rarely  right  adjusted. 

But,  it  may  be  asked  why  this  criticism,  cni  bono.  The  mischief  is  done,  criticism 
cannot  repair  it.  Now,  sir,  I  am  one  of  those  who  think  that  when  one  enters  an  or- 
ganization and  assumes  its  obligations  he  should  grapple  them  to  his  "soul  with 
hooks  of  steel;  "  failing  in  this  he  should  be  brought  up  for  public  judgment.  With- 
out this,  organization  would  not  have  the  strength  of  a  straw — it  would  be  a  constant 
state  of  uneasiness  and  distrust.  Without  confidence,  unity  and  strength,  success 
would  be  the  accident,  and  defeat  the  expectation.  But  the  mischief  is  done,  now  let 
us  consider  how  it  can  be  repaired. 

It  is  part  of  true  wisdom  to  accept  the  situation,  whether  it  be  created  by  our- 
selves or  not.  It  is  our  palpable  duty — nay,  we  have  no  right  to  refuse  to  perform  it. 
We  owe  it  to  ourselves,  our  families,  our  posterity  and  our  State.  The  third  article 
of  the  constitution,  provides  for  universal  suffrage  with  sundry  exceptions,  as  speci- 
fied in  four  separate  clauses.  By  the  fourth  clause  of  this  article,  every  person 
thought  worthy  of  Federal  or  State,  city,  town  or  county  office,  and  shall  have  actually 
held  the  same,  however  unimportant,  is  denied  the  right  of  suffrage  through  all  time. 
The  right  of  suffrage  is  the  power  of  the  State,  and  it  is  accorded  by  the  third  article 
to  every  negro  male  adult,  pauper  and  carpet-bagger  in  the  State,  giving  to  these 
classes,  with  but  little  property  and  no  fixed  interest,  the  power  to  tax,  at  will,  for  the 
numerous  and  extravagant  purposes  of  the  constitution,  the  property  of  the  State 
held  by  the  native  born,  intelligent  and  educated  classes  thereof,  or  by  those  who  in 
good  faith,  bought  and  settled  among  us  with  a  purpose  of  incorporating  themselves 
with  our  society.  Without  self-protection  through  the  ballot  box,  industry  and  im- 
provement would  cease,  and  a  rapid  emigration  of  our  most  worthy  and  valuable 
people  would  ensue.  Having  provided,  in  this  way,  for  the  exclusion  of  all  those 
who  have  held  office,  the  proposed  constitution  proceeds  to  exclude  from  office  in  the 
future  all  of  our  people  who  by  education  and  intelligence  are  fitted  for  them.  The 
test-oath  as  it  is  called,  being  the  seventh  section  of  the  third  article  of  the  constitu- 
tion (with  which  the  people  of  Virginia  are  familiar),  was  inserted  for  this  purpose, 
and  will  effectually  accomplish  its  object,  so  far  as  the  present  generation  is  con- 
cerned; and  thus  our  State  government,  under  our  present  trying  and  perplexed  con- 
dition, demanding  for  itself  the  largest  prudence  and  wisdom,  will  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  our  negroes,  wholly  uneducated,  without  the  slightest  knowledge  of  public 
affairs;  and  it  is  no  reflection  or  disparagement  to  say,  utterly  incompetent  to  their 
management.  So  monstrous  are  these  propositions,  so  grossly  outrageous  of  every 
right  and  duty,  that  General  Schofield  appeared  in  the  convention,  and  in  a  public 
speech,  protested  against  them.  But  that  body,  drunk  with  power,  and  madly  bent 
upon  riding  our  poor  old  Commonwealth  to  her  destruction,  offensively  rejected  his 
counsels.  Congress,  similarly  impressed,  left  the  offensive  features  of  this  constitu- 
tion to  the  President,  and  that  high  functionary,  sharing  in  the  common  repugnance 
of  all  liberal  and  enlightened  minds  to  these  obnoxious  provisions,  ordered  an  elec- 
tion, and  specifically  ordered  a  separate  vote  upon  them,  that  those  they  were  de- 
signed to  oppress  might  reject  them.  Even  Governor  Wells,  yielding  to  the  force  of 
these  authoritative  opinions  of  the  high  functionaries,  with  whom  he  claims  to  be  on 
terms  of  liberal   affiliation,  in  a  recently  published  letter  takes  ground  against  them. 


273 

True,  it  is  disclosed,  that  he  does  not  desire  his  supporters  to  follow  him,  but  that  by 
it  he  hopes  to  divide  the  white  vote,  while  through  the  leagues  the  negroes  are 
notified  that  they  are  to  vote  for  the  constitution  as  a  whole,  and  of  course,  against 
striking  out  the  obnoxious  provisions  referred  to.  A  despicable  trick  which  should 
excite  the  indignation  of  every  honorable  man.  Is  it  possible  that  there  can  be  found 
in  all  Virginia  any  native  born  citizen,  or  anyone  who  has  bona  fide  settled  among  us, 
so  lost  to  the  instincts  of  his  race  and  so  indifferent  to  the  prosperity  of  the  State,  that 
they  will  not  with  heart  and  soul,  rush  to  the  polls  and  save  our  present  generation 
from  disfranchisement  and  utter  ruin,  and  the  State  from  the  control  and  power  of 
those  utterly  incompetent  to  manage  her  and  those  who  have  only  come  within  her 
border  for  place  and  plunder?  What,  refuse  to  go  to  the  polls — refuse  to  make  every 
effort  to  take  his  neighbors  with  him,  to  vote  down  provisions  condemned  by  all 
liberal  and  enlightened  Radicals,  and  which,  if  once  put  upon  us,  will  cover  our  fair 
land  with  ruin  and  desolation  ?  Never  !  never  !  I  cannot  think  of  it  with  patience. 
And  I  cannot,  will  not,  believe  that  with  the  power  in  our  hands  we  shall  not  have 
the  intelligence  and  patriotism  to  use  it  for  our  own  safety  and  the  well-being  of  our 
State. 

Having  secured  the  excision  of  the  disfranchisement  and  test  oath  clauses,  we 
can  pause  and  take  our  breath;  for  then  we  know  that  the  State  will  soon,  if  not  at 
once,  be  under  the  control  of  her  intelligent  masses — that  the  other  obnoxious  pro- 
visions of  the  Constitution  may  be  borne  until  we  can  be  relieved  from  them  by 
amendment,  according  to  the  twelfth  article  thereof,  or  otherwise.  In*the  meantime, 
it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  that  we  should  carry  the  Legislature.  Many  of  the 
obnoxious  provisions  of  the  proposed  Constitution,  including  the  county  organization, 
article  seven,  will  essentially  depend,  for  their  mischievous  or  innocuous  character, 
upon  the  laws  enacted  for  putting  them  into  operation.  Indeed,  we  cannot  over- 
estimate its  importance.  That  the  Radicals  of  the  convention  fully  appreciated  it, 
is  fully  demonstrated  by  their  shameful  gerrymander,  by  which  they  have  en- 
deavored to  secure  to  themselves  the  Legislative  power  of  the  State,  although  a  clear 
minority  of  the  population  thereof.  It  is,  however,  without  doubt,  within  our  power, 
if  we  exert  it,  to  control  the  Legislature.  And  will  we  neglect  or  refuse  to  do  it?  It 
surely  cannot  be  possible  !  With  the  Legislature,  corrupt  and  ignorant  Judges  can- 
not be  put  upon  us;  the  vast  system  of  mixed  schools  which  are  intended,  with  the 
expenditures,  which  must  be  the  necessary  consequence,  will  be  prevented;  and  that 
huge  scheme  for  an  army  of  office-holders,  and  the  plunder  of  the  people  in  provid- 
ing salaries  for  them,  known  as  the  "County  Organizations,"  may  be  deferred,  or, 
at  any  rate,  emasculated. 

Now,  my  dear  sir,  although  it  is  my  wont  to  believe  that  we  can  accomplish 
whatever  may  be  thought  right  and  proper,  yet  it  is  the  part  of  common  prudence  to 
consider  what  we  ought  to  do  should  we  be  disappointed.  We  may  loose  the  Legis- 
lature— it  would  be  a  great  calamity,  full  of  untold  evils  which  would  severely  op- 
press us  all.  What  should  we  do  to  provide  against  the  consequences  of  so  sad  an 
event.  I  see  but  one  thing  left  us,  and  that  is  to  elect  the  Walker  ticket — I  will  not 
say  our  ticked,  but  I  say  the  "Walker  ticket;  "  for  our  ticket  was  buried — was  buried 
with  the  gallant  Withers,  and  the  memory  of  those  who  brought  it  about  should  be 
cherished,  for  our  reprobation,  as  long  as  life  itself  shall  last. 

It  is  a  deep  humiliation  for  Virginians  to  have  to  choose  one  of  two  carpet-bag- 
gers for  their  Governor.  And  it  is  deeply  aggravated  when  we  remember  that  it  has 
been  brought  about  by  those  who  were  bound  to  prevent  it — that  in  this  regard  we 
"have  been  wounded  in  the  house  of  our  friends."  But  so  it  is,  there  is  no  help  for 
it — we  are  compelled  to  choose.  Wells  or  Walker  must  be  Governor.  If  both  are 
bad,  prudence  says  choose  the  one  who  will  do  the  least  evil,  and  patriotism  urgently 
demands  that  we  should  give  the  preference  to  him,  who,  in  his  antecedents,  general 
bearing,  character  and  affiliations,  gives  the  strongest  assurance  that  he  can  appreci- 
ate the  dignity  of  office  to  which  he  aspires,  and  that  in  his  personal  and  official  con- 


•274 

duct  he  will  emulate  the  fame  of  his  illustrious  predecessors.  Wells  came  to  the 
State  during  the  war — posted  in  Alexandria  as  provost,  he  did  not,  as  I  learn,  make  a 
favorable  impression  upon  the  people.  Certainly  he  made  no  historic  fame  as  a 
soldier.  Returning  from  the  army  about  the  close  of  the  war,  or  having  been  retired, 
I  know  not  which,  he  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  Alexandria. 

While  thus  engaged  he  was  appointed,  by  military  authority,  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia. Accepting  the  office  he  moved  to  Richmond,  and  at  once  compromised  the 
dignity  of  his  station  and  offended  the  sentiment  of  the  State  by  practicing  his  pro- 
fession in  said  city,  and  when  sufficiently  induced,  elsewhere.  He  became  a  candi- 
date for  Governor  under  the  reconstruction  acts,  and  relied  almost  entirely  upon  the 
negroes  for  support.  Charged  with  improperly  possessing  a  private  letter  and  prose- 
cuted therefor,  he  permits  the  United  States  Attorney  to  dismiss  the  proceedings,  the 
testimony  being  absent,  and  then  claims  a  triumph.  He  appears  before  the  recon- 
struction committee  and  reviles  and  villifies  the  State.  He  opposes  the  removal  of 
Congressional  disabilities.  Yielding  to  what  seemed  to  be  the  policy  for  his  situation, 
and  especially  the  official  opinions  of  the  high  functionaries  with  whom  it  seemed  he 
was  desirous  of  being  considered  on  terms  of  intimate  association,  he  published  a 
letter  taking  grounds  against  the  disfranchisement  and  test-oath  clauses,  and  then,  ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  before  us,  suggesting  to  the  central  association  that  they 
could,  through  the  leagues,  notify  the  negroes  privately  that  they  must  go  for  the 
Constitution  intact.  At  least  such  seems  to  be  the  fact,  and  if  so,  instead  of  being 
elevated  to  the  position  to  which  he  aspires,  he  can  expect  only  the  scorn  and  con- 
tempt of  every  honorable  man.  Nor  is  this  all.  He  stands  upon  the  same  platform 
with  a  negro  for  Lieutenant-Governor,  who,  in  the  event  of  a  vacancy  in  the  guber- 
natorial office,  would  be  Governor,  and  proclaims  in  the  face  of  the  world  "we  are 
well  beloved  cousins,  all." 

We  cannot  look  upon  Wells  other  than  an  unscrupulous  adventurer,  supported 
by  the  most  ignorant  and  depraved  of  our  population,  and  bound,  by  his  wretched 
associations  if  not  by  his  instincts,  to  a  policy  which  will  humiliate,  and  degrade,  and 
impoverish  our  State.  No  true-hearted  Virginian,  proud  of  his  State,  and  cherishing 
his  own  self-respect,  can  vote  for  such  a  man.  Walker  is  the  other  candidate,  and 
enjoys  the  supreme  advantage,  it  may  be,  of  being  but  little  known.  We  are  told 
that  he  t&o  came  to  the  State  upon  the  termination  of  the  war  with  a  well-filled  carpet- 
bag; that  he  became  a  Republican  candidate  of  the  city  of  Norfolk,  for  something 
which  I  do  not  recollect,  but  was  found  too  respectable  for  the  constituency  he 
desired  to  represent,  and  was  defeated,  and,  for  the  same  reason,  failed  in  obtaining 
the  Republican  nomination  for  Governor  at  Petersburg;  that  while  he  is  for  the  Con- 
stitution, which  gives  the  negroes  the  right  of  suffrage  and  to  hold  office,  he  is  for, 
and  will  vote  accordingly,  to  strike  therefrom  the  disfranchisement  and  test-oath 
clauses,  which  deny  similar  rights  to  the  whites;  and  that,  if  elected,  he  will  favor 
the  policy  of  freeing  the  Constitution  of  these  obnoxious  measures  incorporated 
therein  by  the  unworthy  factions  which  created  it,  and  which  will  still  remain.  It  is, 
moreover,  represented  that  his  character  is  spotless,  his  views  liberal  and  enlight- 
ened, and  his  fortune,  which  is  considerable,  actually  invested  in  the  business  and 
operations  of  his  adopted  State.  If  this  be  true,  and  I  have  no  reason  to  doubt  it, 
then  the  claims  or  merits  of  Wells  and  Walker  are  in  striking  contrast  indeed,  "as 
wide  as  the  poles  assunder."  From  Wells  we  have  nothing  to  expect  but  injury  and 
wrong.  His  character,  his  associates,  his  revenge — yes,  I  say  revenge,  for  the  uni- 
form repugnance  with  which  he  has  ever  been  treated  by  our  educated  masses  leaves 
no  room  to  doubt  that;  and  in  the  event  of  his  election  and  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution unamended,  we  may  expect  to  have  the  frightful  scenes  of  Arkansas  and 
Tennessee  re-enacted  here,  and  our  beautiful  State  a  perfect  pandemonium  upon 
earth.  With  Walker,  however,  our  case  is  widely  different.  With  good  character, 
as  I  am  bound  to  believe,  and  which,  in  itself,  gives  assurance  of  a  desire  for  the 
good  opinion  of  his  fellow  man — elected  by  our  friends,  and  bound  to  look  to  them 


275 

for  support,  and  concurring  with  us,  in  the  main,  in  the  general  policy  to  be  pursued, 
I  cannot  see  how  we  can  doubt  as  to  our  choice,  or  think  seriously  of  permitting  the 
election  of  Wells  by  refusing  to  attend  the  polls. 

You  can  but  notice,  my  old  friend,  that  I  have  treated  the  questions  I  have  dis- 
cussed as  if  the  Constitution  in  a  modified  form  would  be  adopted.  Of  this  I  have 
no  doubt.  It  would  not  be  by  my  vote,  had  I  one  to  cast;  but  it  will  be  carried  by 
thousands.  How  vitally  important  is  it  then,  to  secure  the  rejection  of  the  disfran- 
chisement and  test-oath  clauses.  These  clauses  rejected,  the  State  would  soon  be  in 
the  hands  of  our  enlightened  masses,  even  should  we  lose  the  Legislature  and  the 
Governor,  the  loss  of  which,  however,  would,  in  the  meantime,  inflict  upon  us  an 
amount  of  annoyance  and  actual  loss  it  would  be  difficult  to  estimate.  But,  should 
the  obnoxious  provisions  referred  to  be  voted  out,  as  I  have  no  doubt  they  will  be, 
and  we  should  carry  the  Legislature  and  Governor,  as  we  can  and  must,  and  Congress 
should  not  give  us  further  trouble,  then  we  may  soon  see  our  State  government  re- 
lieved of  all  embarrassments,  the  busy  hum  of  industry  everywhere  within  our  bor- 
ders, and  our  desert  "  smile  and  blossom  as  the  rose."  Then  let  us  gird  up  our  loins, 
and  like  the  strong  man  go  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer.  Let  us  resolve  as  of 
the  first  importance  to  vote  out  the  disfranchisement  and  test-oath  clauses.  Without  this 
all  is  lost.  As  second  in  importance  let  us  carry  the  Legislature,  that  we  may  be  saved 
from  ruinous  Legislation.  And  third  and  last,  let  us  defeat  Wells  and  elect  Walker, 
who,  if  he  be  as  we  hope  will,  armed  with  the  veto  power,  be  able  to  protect  us 
from  the  hungry  pack  already  in  full  cry  for  our  destruction.  The  unparalleled 
effrontery  of  the  clauses  I  have  so  often  referred  to,  strikes  down  almost  the  whole 
of  our  present  generation,  by  excluding  them  from  the  ballot  box  and  from  office, 
and  thus  throwing  the  whole  power  of  the  State  into  the  hands  of  the  minority  of 
our  population,  alike  mercenary,  selfish  and  ignorant,  and  every  man  thus  wronged 
and  injured  should  go  forth  into  the  canvass  as  a  missionary  and  for  his  own  sake, 
and  for  that  of  his  country,  "cry  aloud  and  spare  not,"  until  the  day  of  election  has 
passed  and  the  battle  shall  have  been  won. 

I  have  thus,  my  old  friend,  given  you  my  views  of  our  duty  in  our  present  great 
emergency.  In  the  course  of  my  remarks  I  have  freely  criticised  the  movement 
which  has  brought  us  into  our  present  peril.  I  am  one  of  those  who  think  that  it  is 
no  unimportant  public  duty  firmly  to  bring  those  to  the  bar  of  the  public,  who,  bound 
to  a  great  organization  by  every  tie  recognized  in  such  associations,  deliberately 
undertake  to  supercede  it  by  ''a  new  movement,"  alike  unnecessary  and  mis- 
chievous, and  which,  to  this  day,  is  without  any  sufficient  explanation,  and  hold  them 
responsible  for  the  evil  they  have  done. 

And  now  as  the  oldest  of  Virginia's  living  sons  who  has  been  honored  with  her 
high  positions;  as  one  who  has  mingled  but  little  in  our  struggle  since  the  war  for 
liberty  and  independence;  and  as  one  who,  through  a  long  life,  has  ever  performed 
his  duties  to  his  beloved  State  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  and  in  an  earnest,  zealous 
and  patriotic  spirit,  I  implore  you  as  I  would  every  friend  I  have  within  our  broad 
limits,  to  go  into  the  present  frightful,  fearful  struggle  in  no  hesitating,  halting  man- 
ner, but  freely  censuring  where  censure  is  due,  resolutely  perform  our  whole,  entire 
duty;  and  so  our  good  God  will  preserve  us  from  impending  ruin,  and  our  noble 
State  that  high  destiny  which  we  have  always  believed  was  His  will  and  Providence. 

I  am,  my  dear  sir,  most  truly  yours, 

William  Smith. 


276 

LETTER  FROM  GOVERNOR  SMITH. 
Hon.  William  Smith  : 

The  undersigned  members  of  the  convention,  having  great  regard  for  your 
opinions,  and  knowing  that  from  your  long  experience  in  the  administration  of 
the  government  of  Virginia  as  its  chief  magistrate  upon  two  occasions,  that 
your  views  will  have  great  weight  with  the  people  of  our  State,  do  hereby  re- 
quest that  you  will  favor  us  with  your  views  upon  such  reforms  as  will,  in  your 
opinion,  tend  to  relieve  us  from  the  present  oppressive  taxation  under  which  the 
people  are  now  suffering,  and,  whatever  in  your  opinion,  the  same  can  be  effected 
by  change  in  the  organic  law  of  the  State. 

D.  C.  DeJarnette,  F.  McMullen, 

C.  F.  Suttle,  H.  W.  Thomas, 

J.  V.  Brooke,  C.  E.  Sinclair, 

J.  H.  Stringfellow. 


Warrenton,  Va.,  September  18,  1871. 

To  D.  C.  DeJarnette,  C.  F.  Suttle,    J.  V.  Brooke,  F.  McMullen,  H.    W.    Thomas,  C.  E^ 

Sinclair  and  J.  H.  Stringfellow  : 

Gentlemen — I  am  in  receipt  of  your  esteemed  favor  of  the  1st,  in  which  you  are 
pleased  to  express  great  regard  for  my  opinions,  which,  from  long  experience  in  pub- 
lic affairs,  having  been  twice  Governor  of  the  State,  would  exert  a  large  influence 
over  the  views  and  sentiments  of  our  fellow-citizens;  and  requesting  of  me  an  expo- 
sition of  such  retrenchments  and  reforms  as  can  be  Constitutionally  effected,  and  at 
the  same  time  diminish  that  vast  mass  of  taxation,  which  is  crushing  out  the  life  and 
hope  of  our  people. 

This,  gentlemen,  is  a  large  field  which  you  invite  me  to  enter,  entirely  too  com- 
prehensive for  a  canvass  already  upon  us,  and,  therefore,  after  much  and  anxious 
consideration,  I  have  concluded  to  confine  my  suggestions  to  the  reform  of  the  Legis- 
lature. The  Legislature,  in  theory,  is  of  the  people,  in  sentiment  and  opinion,  in 
poverty,  in  ability,  to  bear  the  burden  of  expensive  government,  sharing  their  wants 
and  hardships,  and  in  all  things  sympathizing  with  them.  In  this  sense  only,  is  the 
Legislature  the  real  representative  of  the  people,  and  entitled  to  the  people's  confi- 
dence. In  any  other,  the  Legislature  is  a  tyrant,  a  plunderer,  and  should  be  held  up 
for  scorn  and  reprobation.  In  short,  it  is  not  the  true,  loyal  representative  of  the 
people,  except  when  earnestly  endeavoring  to  promote  their  interests.  If  the  Legislature 
should,  through  idleness  and  inattention,  lengthen  its  session — if  it  should,  regardless 
of  economy,  improvidently  waste  the  public  money — if  it  should  be  unwilling  to 
sympathize  with  and  share  the  hardships  of  the  people — manifestly,  it  is  not  such  a 
body  as  the  people  should  countenance  and  retain  in  their  service.  Just  out  of  a 
cruel  war,  in  which  all  was  lost  but  land  and  honor — stripped  of  a  property  chiefly 
relied  upon  for  the  payment  of  debts,  at  the  time  they  were  created — enveloped,  by 
the  tyranny  of  the  Federal  government  in  doubt  and  uncertainty  as  to  that  which  the 
war  had  spared — denied  the  right  of  self-government,  and  at  the  same  time  saddled 
with  a  military  and  cruel  despotism — borne  to  the  earth  with  desolation,  debt  and 
taxes,  an  opportunity  was  at  length  afforded  them  to  free  themselves  of  the  despotism 
which  oppressed  them.  Nobly  did  they  embrace  it.  And  in  the  adoption  of  a  Con- 
stitution, in  many  respects  it  is  true,  not  as  they  would  have  had  it,  but  freed  of  its 
proscriptive  features,  they  saw,  with  infinite  satisfaction,  as  was  then  supposed,  relief 
from  military  government  and  a  Constitution  which  could  be  amended  as  experience 
and  wisdom  taught  to  be  necessary.  The  stake  was  great,  the  struggle  fierce  and 
their  triumph  thorough  and  complete.  They  manifested  the  strength  of  numbers  and 
the  wisdom  by  which  they  were  managed,  in  the  election  of  a  Governor  and  Legisla- 
ture by  large  majorities.  True,  in  the  profound  excitement  of  this  great  struggle, 
but  little^heed  was  given  to  the  material   to  constitute  the  General  Assembly.     It  was 


277 

enough  that  it  was  anti-radical,  intus  et  in  cute  ;  and  in  all  other  respects,  it  was,  I 
have  no  doubt,  confidently  believed  that  the  members  coming  directly  from  their 
constituents  and  thoroughly  acquainted  with  their  poverty  and  distress,  would  feel 
themselves  bound  by  every  consideration  of  patriotism  and  duty,  to  forbear  the  ex- 
penditure of  every  dollar  which  could  be  spared  from  the  public  service.  How  has 
■this  natural  and  reasonable  expenditure  been  vindicated?  Let  us  see.  I  shall,  as  I 
have  said,  confine  myself,  in  the  consideration  of  reforms,  to  the  Legislature.  It  is 
the  great  power  in  the  State.  Reforms  there  will  assuredly  produce  reforms  in  every 
department  of  the  public  service.  And  there  is  a  peculiar  propriety  in  commencing 
at  that  point,  those  reforms  so  urgently  demanded  by  the  universal  out -cry  of  our  suf- 
fering people.  Physician,  heal  thyself  !  Let  this  be  done— and  who  would  dare 
resist  that  retrenchment  and  reform  which  the  people  must  have  and  which  the  Legis- 
lature must  sooner  or  later  accord. 

When  the  last  Assembly  met  it  was  composed  of  181  members— 43  Senators  and  138 
Delegates.  Our  entirejpopulation,  according  to  our  late  census,  is  1,224,948  souls,  not 
quite  8,887  persons  for  each  member.  This  body  was  more  numerous  than  that  prior 
to  the  war  and  prior  to  our  dismemberment  by  the  formation  of  the  State  of  West 
Virginia.  Why  was  so  numerous  a  body  necessary?  It  was,  however,  the  number 
provided  for  in  the  Constitution,  and  that  was  the  work  of  a  Radical  convention, 
manifestly  gloating  over  the  prospect  of  plundering  the  State,  and  aiming,  doubtless, 
to  provide  the  places  for  so  doing.  Did  the  late  Legislature  correct  this  great  and 
grinding  oppression  ?     Let  us  see. 

I  have  said  that  the  Legislature  provided  for  by  Radical  rule  for  our  State  as  it  is, 
is  a  more  numerous  body  than  that  provided  for  by  our  Constitution  for  the  State  as 
it  was.     So  much   for  our  precedent.      Now  let  me  call  attention  to  the  three  great 
commonwealths  of  our  Union,  New  York,  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio.     Ohio  has  a  pop- 
ulation of  about  2,600,0000— a  Legislature,  as  well  as  I  remember,  of  149  members, 
with  an  average  constituency  for  each  member  of  17,449  persons.     Pennsylvania  has 
a  population  of  about  3,500,000— a  Legislature  of  133  members,  and  a  constituency 
for  each  member  of  26,575,  or  nearly  that  number.     New  York  has  a  population  of 
nearly  5,000,000,  with  a  Legislature  of    160  members,  averaging  a  constituency  of 
31,250.     Now,  if  those  populous  and  prosperous  States  can  be  successfully  managed 
■by  Legislatures  greatly  less  in  numbers  than  ours,  why  should  not  ours  be  reduced 
ito  a  number  in  proportion  to  that  of  Ohio,  at  least?     Such  a  reduction  would  reduce 
our  Legislature  below  109  members— the  number  I  propose,  greatly  improve  that 
Ibody  and  diminish  its  expenses  annually,  over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.     Are 
mot  these  considerations  of  the  highest  import?     Our  Constitution  accords,  to  the 
•most  depraved  and  ignorant,  the  right  of  suffrage  and  eligibility  to  the  same,  some 
of  whom  have  and  will  find  their  way  into  the  Assembly.     That  I  do  not  unjustly 
-designate  the  greal  body  of  our  new  born  fellow-citizens,  you  will  readily  admit.     In- 
deed, I   find   in  the  recent   Republican  address  to  the  people  of   Virginia,  it   is  sub- 
stantially admitted,  for   in    arraigning    us   for  our   intolerance,  it   says,  "they  then 
endeavor  to  make  it  impossible  for  intelligence  and  respectability  to  join  the  party  of 
the  Government,  and  then  they  effect  to  execrate  the  party,  because  it  is  composed 
only  of  the  stranger,  the  humble  colored  man,  and  the  adventurous  native  who  dares 
•to  defy  the  terrors  of  the  home  proscription."     Again,  the  address  charges  us  with 
refusing  to  vote  upon  the  convention  question:     "  Thus  causing  the  convention  to 
be  composed  of  men,  who,  however  honest  in  purpose,  and  loyal  to  principle,  to  the 
State,  and  to  the  Nation,  had  no  experience  in  the  important  work  devolved  upon 
them,"     Is  it  not  then  the  plainest  duty,  to  free  ourselves,  as  far  as  practicable  and 
proper,  of  a  material  component  of  our  Legislature,  that  is  without  "intelligence  and 
respectability,"  and   has    "no  experience   in   the   important  work   devolved    upon 
them?"     Looking   to   this  question  as  one  of   the  gravest  importance  whether  we 
regard  it  as  seriously  affecting  the  purity  of   the  Legislature,  or  as  bearing  heavily 
and  needlessly  upon  an  impoverished  people,  I  deem  it  important  to  look  into  the 


y 


278 

action  of  our  late  representatives  and  to  enquire  about  their  mode  of  disposing 
of  it.. 

The  4th  Section  of  the  5th  Article  of  the  Constitution  reads  as  follows:  "At  the 
first  session  of  the  General  Assembly,  after  the  enumeration  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
State  by  the  United  States,  a  reapportionment  of  Senators  and  members  of  the  House 
of  Delegates,  and  every  tenth  year  thereafter,  shall  be  made."  The  General 
Assembly  was  thus  enjoined  to  re-apportion  the  State,  and  if  possessed  of  the  census, 
had  the  clear  and  unquestioned  right  to  make  the  re-apportionment  so  as  to  effect 
this  great  reform.  But,  although  the  Legislature  recognized  the  duty  and  the  power, 
it  was  not  equal  to  the  great  occasion.  It  took  up  the  subject  and  unmindful  or  re- 
gardless of  the  considerations  I  have  feebly  presented,  it  was  content,  on,  most  lame 
and  impotent  conclusion,  to  reduce  its  members  from  181  to  176  members,  so  that 
the  next  Legislature  will  be  still  more  numerous  than  that  which  existed  prior  to  the 
war  and  prior  to  our  dismemberment — more  numerous  than  the  great  States  of  Ohio, 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  saddling  us  with  over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  a 
year,  without  any  corresponding  equivalent  that  I  have  ever  heard  or  been  able  to 
divine.  And  shall  we  quietly  submit  to  this  great  grievance?  Shall  we  continue  to 
pay  over  $100,000  a  year  and  feel  and  know  that  we  do  not  derive  the  slightest 
advantage  from  so  doing?  It  is  a  wise  maxim  of  the  common  law,  that  every  wrong 
has  its  remedy,  and  it  is  by  common  consent  agreed,  that  when  there  is  a  will  there 
is  a  way.  Did  the  last  Assembly  rightfully  exercise  the  power  granted  or  rather  im- 
posed as  a  duty,  and,  in  so  doing,  exhaust  it.  Undeniably,  it  had  no  power  to  act 
until  the  Federal  census  had  been  taken  and  promulged.  Recognizing  this  as  the 
correct  and  proper  rule,  the  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth,  under  a  resolution  of 
the  General  Assembly,  asked  the  superintendent  of  the  census  for  a  statement  there- 
of as  far  as  Virginia  was  concerned.  This  statement  was  furnished  under  date  18th 
February,  1871,  and  upon  that  the  Legislature  acted.  In  the  letter  accompanying 
this  statement,  the  superintendent  explicitly  states:  "In  furnishing  these  statements, 
however,  I  must  say  that  this  office  is  not,  by  so  doing,  concluded  from  making 
changes  in  the  official  publications  of  the  census."  Again:  "Until  it  becomes 
necessary  to  furnish  the  certificates  of  population,  for  the  purpose  of  re-distributing 
representation  in  Congress,  these  statements  will  be  left  open  for  correction  and  re- 
vision as  occasion  may  appear." 

Are  these  statements  not  official,  but  open  for  correction,  such  as  the  Constitution 
contemplated  as  the  guide  in  the  important  work  of  reapportioning  the  State?  That 
mistakes  are  expected  is  clear — that  they  exist  is  undeniable,  for  my  own  village  of 
Warrenton  is  set  down  at  446  souls,  when  every  resident  thereof  must  be  fully  satis- 
fied that  our  population  is  three  times  that  number.  But  whether  mistakes  exist 
or  not,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  Legislature  could  not  legally  proceed  in  the 
important  work  of  reapportioning  the  State  without  having  first  procured  an  official 
statement  of  the  census  thereof.  All,  therefore,  that  was  done  by  the  last  Legislature 
in  this  regard,  is  null  and  void;  and  the  power  in  full  force  and  vigor,  enures  to  the 
Legislature  we  are  soon  to  elect.  Other  views  might  be  added,  but  I  must  not  too  far 
expand  my  reply.  But,  should  any  serious  doubt  be  entertained  about  the  reght  of 
our  next  Legislature  to  re-apportion  the  State,  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  its  right 
to  pass  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  provided  therefor.  Let  it  then  be  done,  and 
if  necessary,  done  quickly.  It  will  never  do,  annually  to  collect  from  our  people  $100,- 
000  to  be  paid  over  to  those  who,  instead  of  giving  us  corresponding  equivalent,  are 
an  unqualified  and  dangerous  nuisance. 

In  view,  then,  of  this  important  reform,  I  would  earnestly  press  upon  our  people 
that  they  instruct  their  Representatives  to  reduce  their  number  to  eighty-four  Dele- 
gates and  twenty-five  Senators,  the  number  recommended  by  the  minority  report  of 
the  committee  of  the  convention,  on  the  basis  of  representation  and  apportionment, 
making  one  hundred  and  nine  members  in  all,  nearly  as  large  a  body  as  that  of 
Pennsylvania,  with  her  millions  of  population  and  wealth;  and  to  secure  obedience 


279 

to  their  will  that  they  fully  commit  their  candidates  to  the  policy  I  have  indicated. 
By  reducing  the  number,  the  ignorant  and  corrupt  element  would  be  greatly 
diminished  and  the  intelligent  conservative  element,  in  the  wider  range  of  selection 
afforded  them,  in  all  probability,  greatly  improved.  Are  these  considerations  of  no 
importance?  Is  $  100,000  a  year  taken  from  our  taxes  not  worth  an  effort ?  I  have 
dwelt  more  upon  this  subject  than  might  be  thought  fitting  for  a  letter;  but  deem- 
ing it  of  the  first  importance  in  all  its  aspects,  moral,  social,  political  and  econom- 
ical, and  easily  effected  if  the  people  will  it,  I  feel  almost  unwilling  to  cease  my 
efforts  to  stir  them  up  to  the  necessary  vigilance  and  effort. 

The  next  reform,  I  would  earnestly  commend,  are  those  in  connection  with  the 
pay  and  allowances  of  the  members  of  the  Legislature.  Prior  to  the  war,  the  whole 
theory  was  simply  to  re-imburse  to  members  the  sums  necessarily  expended  by  them 
in  their  comfortable  and  decent  outfit  and  support.  The  per  diem  was  allowed  to  pay 
board  bills  and  other  moderate  personal  expenses,  and  the  mileage  was  allowed  to  re- 
imburse to  members  the  sums  actually  expended  by  them  in  reaching  the  seat  of 
government,  and,  after  their  duties  have  been  performed,  of  returning  to  their  homes. 
These  allowances  were  liberally  commuted  for  the  convenience  of  members  and  the 
State;  but  the  per  diem,  even  in  our  flush  and  prosperous  times,  never  exceeded  four 
dollars  a  day,  while  the  mileage  allowed  was  twenty  cents  a  mile  when  the  members 
had  to  travel  by  private  conveyances  or  the  slow  and  lumbering  mail  coach.  But 
when  the  war  terminated,  and  our  people,  stripped  of  everything,  had  to  scuffle  for 
bread,  it  was  to  have  been  expected  that  the  government  placed  over  us  would  have 
taken  into  consideration  the  desolation  of  our  lands  and  our  stricken  and  impoverished 
condition.  But  not  so.  Without  dwelling  upon  this  subject,  I  will  merely  remark 
that  the  Pierpont  government  was  put  upon  us  by  Federal  power,  and  ridiculous  and 
absurd  as  it  was,  we  found  ourselves  constrained  to  accept  the  Legislature,  the  laws 
enacted  by  it,  the  Constitution  and  all,  as  the  true  genuine  authority  of  Virginia. 
Pierpont  was  soon  superceded  by  Wells,  and  a  mixed  civil  and  military  government, 
which,  in  its  turn,  gave  place  to  that  organized  upon  the  adoption  of  our  present 
Constitution.  The  Legislature  elected  under  and  by  virtue  thereof,  in  fixing  its  pay 
or  wages,  as  termed  in  the  Act  of  Assembly  passed  April  20th,  1870,  provided,  "  that 
the  President  of  the  Senate  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Delegates  shall  each 
receive  the  sum  of  ten  dollars  per  day,  and  each  of  the  other  members  of  the  General 
Assembly  the  sum  of  six  dollars  per  day,  for  attendance  upon  the  duties  of  their  re- 
spective Houses."  Yes,  gentlemen,  six  dollars  per  day,  fifty  per  cent,  more  than  was 
ever  paid  to  our  members  prior  to  the  war,  when  all  were  men  of  "respectability 
and  intelligence,"  and  not  as  now,  when  a  material  portion  of  them  are  men  "who 
had  no  experience  in  the  important  work  devolved  upon  them,"  and  who,  outside  of 
their  Legislative  functions,  can't  make  a  dollar  a  day,  with  an  occasional  exception 
perhaps,  by  their  usual  employments.  And  this  great  wrong  upon  the  people  was 
perpetrated  by  their  representatives  just  from  among  them,  intimately  acquainted 
with  their  desolated  fields,  dilapidated  houses  and  general  destitution,  and  cannot  be 
justified  or  excused.  It  is  in  vain  for  members  to  say  that  they  cannot  live  on  a 
smaller  compensation — I  know  otherwise.  Let  members  try  respectable  private  board- 
ing, study  and  inform  themselves  and  give  diligent  attention  to  their  duties,  and  I'll 
answer  for  it  that  four  dollars  a  day  will  be  found  not  only  sufficient,  but  leave  a 
considerable  surplus  to  spare.  Of  course  six  dollars  a  day  will  not  suffice  for  lux- 
urious living  and  the  usual  appliances  which  attend  it;  for  that  demoralizing  habit  no 
State  has  ever  undertaken  to  provide.  New  York  pays  her  members  but  three 
dollars  per  day,  and  Ohio  pays  her  members  but  four  dollars  per  day;  and  yet  they 
have  small  Legislatures  and  rich  and  prosperous  communities.  Why  should  we  do 
more  ?     I  ask  for  a  reply. 

But  one  of  the  most  inexcusable  allowances  made  by  the  Legislature  to  itself,  is 
that  made  by  the  Act  of  April  20,  1870,  which  provides  that  a  member,  when  absent 
from  his  post  with  leave,  "  shall  receive  wages  for  every  day  "  he  may  "be  so  absent" 


280 

— "*'«  the  same  manner  as  if  he  had  sat  in  the  House."  The  first  section  of  the  Act  re- 
ferred to  allows  to  each  member  "six  dollars  a  day  for  attendance"  upon  the  duties  of 
his  House  and  then  allows  him,  if  absent,  with  "  leave  of absence"  the  like  sum.  As 
this  leave  is  rarely,  if  ever,  refused,  this  allowance  is  a  strong  temptation  to  inatten- 
tion and  neglect  of  duty.  Do  members  wish  to  visit  Washington,  the  marriage  or 
funeral  of  a  friend,  with  the  railroad  frank  and  the  State  to  pay  the  expenses,  the  trip 
is  taken;  or  should  a  member  think  his  business  at  home  requires  his  attention,  with 
these  advantages,  he  would  not  hesitate  to  take  it.  Nor  is  this  all.  During  such 
absence  the  board  bill  and  other  personal  expenses  in  Richmond  would  be  stopped, 
and  at  home  or  with  a  friend,  the  member,  without  expenses  and  without  the  per- 
formance of  any  public  service,  would  pocket  the  whole  per  diem.  Now  this  may  be 
a  pleasant  operation  to  the  members,  but  I  take  it.  that  it  is  not  what  we,  the  people, 
bargained  for  or  will  submit  to.  "We  had  a  striking  illustration  of  the  grossness  of 
this  allowance  or  perquisite  rather,  about  two  weeks  before  the  adjournment  of  the 
Legislature.  The  Senator  from  Nelson  offered  a  resolution  granting  him  leave  of 
absence  for  the  balance  of  the  session,  with  the  relinquishment  of  his  per  diem,  during 
such  absence,  and  asked  its  adoption  solely  upon  the  ground  of  urgent  private  busi- 
ness at  home.  A  Senator  offered  an  amendment  to  strike  from  the  resolution  the 
clause  relinquishing  the  per  diem,  and  it  was  adopted,  and  thus  amended  it  passed. 
1  understand  the  Senator  did  not  accept  the  resolution  as  passed.  Why,  I  do  not 
know;  but  as  far  as  I  may  infer,  it  was  for  a  reason  highly  creditable.  But  why 
Senators  should  have  refused  the  relinquishment  of  the  per  diem  is  so  marvelous 
that  I  am  compelled  to  infer  that  it  was  denied  because  it  would  have  been  a  prece- 
dent to  confront  similar  applications  by  Senators  less  scrupulous  and  wise  than  the 
Senator  from  Nelson. 

It  is  known  that  the  Legislature  elected  at  the  same  time  with  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  assembled  on  the  5th  of  October,  1869,  for  the  purpose  of  organizing 
the  State  government  according  to  the  act  of  Congress,  and  having  done  so,  received 
their  mileage  and  four  days'  pay  and  adjourned  on  the  8th,  to  re-assemble  on  the  18th 
of  October  for  the  purpose  of  electing  United  States  Senators.  Here  was  an  interval 
of  ten  days,  without  service  rendered  and  without  leave  of  absence,  a  mere  adjourn- 
ment to  the  time  stated.  Of  course  they,  the  members,  could  not  draw  pay  for  this 
interval,  but  I  find  the  difficulty  was  promptly  settled  by  the  passage  of  the  Act  of 
February  19th,  1870,  which  directed  the  clerks  of  the  two  houses  to  issue  their  cer- 
tificates "for  the  per  diem  of  the  members  and  officers  of  the  General  Assembly,  for 
the  recess  from  the  8th  day  of  October,  1869,  to  the  18th  day  of  the  same  month." 
This  act,  without  reference  to  a  committee,  and  under  a  supervision  of  the  rules,  was 
put  through  with  race-horse  speed;  and  thus  members  divided  out  amongst  themselves 
about  $10,000  of  the  people's  money. 

Again  on  the  iSth  of  October,  Legislature  re-assembled  and  having  elected  Sena- 
tors and  adopted  the  14th  and  15th  Amendments,  to  please  our  masters,  adjourned  un- 
til Congress  should  approve  the  Constitution  the  people,  by  an  overwhelming  vote  of 
both  parties,  had  adopted.  After  great  hesitation  and  delay,  Congress  was  pleased 
to  declare  its  approval  of  our  Constitution,  and  the  Legislature  re-assembled  on  the 
8th  of  February,  1870,  for  the  first  time  clothed  with  the  full  powers  of  such  a  body. 
You  must  not  forget,  gentlemen,  that  members  at  their  5th  of  October  session  had 
drawn  their  mileage  from  and  to  their  homes — had  on  the  8th  adjourned  over  to  the 
18th  of  October,  and  on  the  20th  of  the  same  month  had  adjourned  over  again  and 
re-assembled  as  above  stated.  The  Legislature  soon  took  up  the  question  of  mileage 
to  and  from  this  session..  No  law  or  established  usage  existed,  to  warrant  the  ac- 
counting officers  to  pay  it;  and  legislation  thus  became  necessary.  The  Legislature 
took  it  up,  and  after  much  hesitation  called  for  the  opinion  of  the  Attorney-General, 
who  finally  gave  it  (oh,  most  lame  and  impotent  conclusion  !)  in  favor  of  the  claim. 
Thus  relieved  of  responsibility,  as  it  was  hoped  and  doubtless  believed,  the  bill 
promptly  passed  the  Senate  without  a  division,  was  sent  to  the  House  and  was   there 


281 

rejected,  and  then  the  vote  rejecting  it,  was  reconsidered  and  the  bill  passed  by  a 
vote  of  70  ayes  to  45  noes.  And  the  Legislature  full  of  doubt  and  hesitation,  the  cus- 
todians of  our  treasury  divided  among  themselves  another  handsome  sum,  some  nine 
thousand  dollars  of  the  people's  money.  The  pretence  of  the  Attorney-General  for 
this  allowance,  to  wit:  "  that  having  closed  the  business  of  the  extra  session,  the 
members  were  necessarily  compelled  to  travel  to  and  from  their  homes  to  attend  the 
regular  session,  and  are  entitled  to  mileage  for  the  same, "  really  detracts  from  his 
high  position.  Will  not  this  reason  equally  apply  to  the  session  commencing  the  5th 
and  ending  the  8th  of  October,  1869,  which  met  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  the 
State  government,  and  having  completed  its  work,  adjuurned.  And  if  so,  what  be- 
comes of  the  recess  of  ten  days,  and  for  which  members  promptly  helped  themselves 
to  $60  each  ?  But,  the  true  enquiry  is  how  did  the  Legislature  regard  its  various  ses- 
sions, as  they  occurred.  The  Legislature  assembled  on  the  5th  of  October  for  the 
first  time  under  the  Constitution  and  organized.  On  the  8th  it  adjourned  over  to  the 
18th,  and  on  the  20th  of  October,  1869,  having  elected  United  States  Senators  and 
ratified  the  14th  and  15th  Amendments,  adjourned  over  to  the  second  Tuesday  after 
Congress  shall  have  approved  the  Constitution,  or  to  such  day  as  Congress  may 
designate,  and  thus  uniformly  treated  it  as  one  continuous  session.  At  their  first 
meeting  they  drew  mileage  and  their  per  diem  for  four  days;  at  their  second,  they 
drew  for  three  days.  Neither  the  ten  days  recess  nor  mileage,  was,  as  far  as  I  can 
learn,  claimed  or  even  thought  of,  and  yet  they  had  a  right  to  draw  for  the  recess, 
then  if  at  all.  It  was  only  after  Congress  had  approved  our  Constitution,  and  the 
Legislature  had  re-assembled  on  the  8th  of  February,  1870,  clothed  with  full  powers 
and  with  none  to  make  them  afraid,  that  they  seem  to  have  become  aware  of  the 
claims  I  have  been  treating.  If  so,  it  is  marvelous  and  well  calculated  to  excite  dis- 
trust and  suspicion. 

The  next  reform  I  suggest  is  in  the  allowance  for  mileage  to  members.  Origin- 
ally and  in  the  early  days  of  our  State,  and  before  the  introduction  of  railroads  and 
steamboats,  traveling  to  the  seat  of  government  was  slow,  laborious  and  expensive. 
It  was  a  matter  of  course,  that  the  State  should  pay  the  expenses  of  traveling  by  those 
called  into  her  service,  and  frugally  support  them  while  thus  employed.  Hence  the 
mileage  and  per  diem  of  which  we  hear  so  much.  It  was  inconvenient  to  keep  a  de- 
tailed account  of  personal  expenses,  and  hence  on  the  part  of  the  State,  they  were 
liberally  commuted.  As  the  State  progressed  with  her  improvements  and  traveling 
expenses  declined,  until  they  became  a  mere  bagatelle,  the  allowance  of  four  dollars 
for  every  twenty  miles  traveled,  became  enormous  and  ought  long  since  to  have 
been  reduced.  For  instance,  the  traveling  expenses  from  Warrenton  to  Richmond, 
by  rail,  a  distance  of  about  130  miles,  is  about  seven  dollars,  while  that  allowed  a 
member  is  about  twenty-six  dollars,  making  an  aggregate  disbursed  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Legislature  of  about  $7,000,  for  which  they  do  not  render  the  slightest  re- 
turn. Now  shouldn't  this  be  reformed?  Should  not  an  impoverished  people  stop 
this  leak  in  their  treasury  ?  But  there  is  another  and  a  higher  view  to  be  taken  of 
this  question.  It  is  not  a  mere  question  of  dollars  and  cents,  interesting  as  it  is  to  us 
in  our  straightened  circumstances;  but  it  is  one  directly  antagonizing  the  indepen- 
dence of  our  representatives.  It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  our  railroads  are  free  to 
members  of  our  Legislature,  and  equally  palpable  that  they  are  expected  to  pay  by 
their  votes  for  this  exemption  when  bills  come  up  before  them  in  which  those  roads 
are  interested.  This  will  never  do.  The  independence  of  the  representative  being 
impaired,  endangers  the  prosperity  and  safety  of  the  people:  and  every  practice, 
whether  it  consists  of  free  riding,  free  drinking,  free  eating,  etc.,  or  not,  should  be 
sternly  repressed  by  the  necessary  legislation.  And  first  in  order,  I  would 
earnestly  advise  that  the  law  allowing  mileage  be  repealed  and  that  members  be 
allowed  their  real  and  reasonable  expenses,  upon  account  rendered,  and  verified  by 
affidavit,  in  lieu  thereof.  Second,  that  members  who  shall  receive  any  advantage 
or  enjoyment  from  anyone  interested  in  a  bill  before  them  shall  be  expelled.     And 


282 

third,  that  anyone  directly  or  indirectly  interested  in  such  a  bill  who  shall  offer  to  a 
member  such  advantages  or  enjoyment  shall  upon  conviction  thereof,  be  sent  to  the 
Penitentiary.  Such  measures  may  be  regarded  as  harsh  by  some,  but  the  downward 
tendency  of  official  morals  is  absolutely  frightful,  and  all  who  love  the  State  and  her 
traditions  and  cherish  the  memory  of  the  past  as  furnishing  us  a  safe  guide  now  and 
for  the  time  to  come,  can  but  see  in  what  is  passing  around  us,  that  all  which  is  dear 
to  Virginians,  and  the  Christian  gentleman  is  lost,  without  the  sternest  measures  of 
repression. 

You  will  observe,  gentlemen,  that  I  have  freely  referred  to  the  late  Legislature. 
I  beg  to  assure  you  and  that  body  that  I  have  not  done  so  in  personal  unkindness;  for 
I  feel  it  not.  But  I  have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  speak  of  the  body  collectively, 
although,  in  so  doing  I  would  seem  to  censure  some,  who,  I  doubt  not,  would  have 
gladly  sustained  the  reforms  I  commend,  and  not  a  few  I  trust  whom  I  may  claim  as 
my  friends,  and  for  whom  I  entertain  regard  and  esteem.  Nor  do  I  make  these  dec- 
larations from  apprehension  of  injuriously  affecting  my  popularity  in  my  beloved 
State;  for  I  have  long  been  in  the  habit,  indeed,  I  do  not  recollect  if  it  were  ever 
otherwise,  of  speaking  my  mind  with  manly  frankness,  and  of  trusting  to  the  truth 
and  soundness  of  my  utterances,  and  the  good  sense  and  intelligence  of  my  fellow- 
citizens,  for  my  vindication.  But  my  great  object  has  been  to  show  the  important 
reforms  which  ought  to  be  made  in  the  Legislature  itself — how  that  body  had  failed 
in  embracing  the  noble  opportunity  it  had,  of  building  up  its  reputation  and  promot- 
ing the  best  interests  of  the  State,  and  how  from  the  constitution  of  the  body  a  differ- 
ent result  could  not  have  been  expected  and  might  not  hereafter,  unless  the  people 
took  up  these  reforms  and  fully  committed  their  representatives,  before  their  elec- 
tion, to  carry  them  out  by  the  necessary  legislation. 

I  have  said  that  the  Legislature,  as  at  present  constituted,  is  not  likely  to  reform 
itself,  although  clearly  demanded  by  the  best  interests  of  the  people.  A  few  words 
of  explanation  will  make  this  manifest.  About  one-third  of  the  last  Legislature  was 
of  the  Radical  party.  This  party  in  Virginia,  the  recent  Republican  address  substan- 
tially admits  is  without  "intelligence  and  respectability,"  and  distinctly  avers  that 
"  most  of  its  members  are  humble  laborers  who  have  little  interest  in  the  subject  of 
taxation,  having  to  their  sorrow  small  property  to  be  taxed."  Of  course,  such  a  con- 
stituency has  and  will  select  representatives  like  unto  themselves,  in  sympathy  and 
condition;  and  the  same  address,  speaking  by  authority,  distinctly  avers  that  the 
representatives  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  late  convention  "  had  no  experience 
in  the  important  work  devolved  upon  them.  Nay,  so  far  is  this  view  carried  in  the 
paper  referred  to,  that  it  proclaims  that,  "They  do  not  feel  that  it  is  for  them  to  lead 
in  devising  ways  and  means  for  preserving  the  State  credit,  etc, "  and  that  "when 
the  party  representing  the  wealth  of  the  State,  brings  forward  measures  of  State 
finance,  the  Republicans  will,  under  proper  protest,  aid  them  in  carrying  them  out, 
etc."  Again,  it  says:  "But  though  in  this  spirit,  they  may  support  unwise  and  un- 
just measures,  still  they  will  hold  the  majority  party  responsible  for  faults,  etc." 
Now  here  is  a  most  important  element  in  our  Legislature,  admitted  by  itself  to  be 
out  of  place,  "  humble  laborers,"  and  without  "experience  in  the  important  work 
devolved  upon  them,"  and  who,  poor  ignorant  fellows,  and  because  they  arc  such, 
claim  that  they,  even  when  they  "  support  unwise  and  unjust  measures  "  are  not  only 
irresponsible  therefor,  but  have  a  right  themselves  to  call  "  the  majority  party  "  to 
account  for  them.  t  Can  it  be  expected  that  such  a  party — drawing,  while  dressed  in 
a  little  brief  authority,  six  dollars  a  day,  will  consent  to  reduce  that  amount,  or  will 
favor  short  sessions,  when  by  so  doing  they  hurry  their  return  to  their  ordinary  em- 
ployments which  do  not,  I  suppose,  pay  more  than  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar  a  day  and 
rough  fare?  It  would  be  simply  absurd  to  expect  it.  Another  portion  of  our  Legis- 
lature is  apt  to  be  composed  of  worthy,  excellent  young  men,  without  experience  or 
business  habits,  who  go  to  Richmond  with  the  best  intentions,  but  who  soon  become 
wedded  to  the  fascinations  of  city  life.     Will  they  willingly  see  their  pay  and  allow- 


283 

ances,  insufficient,  doubtless,  to  pay  the  expenses  of  their  gay  career,  reduced,  or 
hasten  the  sessions  to  a  close  to  return  to  the  plain  and  homely  habits,  it  may  be,  in 
which  they  have  been  reared,  and  which  it  may  be  feared,  too  many  soon  learn  to 
despise  ?  Not  they.  Again,  we  have  some,  of  broken  fortunes,  accustomed  to  a  life 
of  ease  and  luxury,  who  anxiously  look  about  for  the  means  of  escaping  the  hardships 
and  self-denial  of  humble  life.  Such  men  seek  the  Legislature  in  the  spirit  I  sug- 
gested, and  if  elected  will  in  heart  at  any  rate,  bitterly  oppose  short  sessions  and  all 
reduction  in  their  pay  and  emoluments.  Again,  there  are  those  who  go  to  the  Legis- 
lature for  what  they  can  honestly  make  out  of  the  position.  Their  morals  and  habits 
are  fixed  and  defy  the  temptations  of  a  luxurious  city.  They  save  every  dollar  be- 
yond what  is  necessary  for  decent  and  respectable  living,  and  take  home  such  sav- 
ings to  build  up  their  private  fortunes.  This  is  all  right  and  proper,  and  such  mem- 
bers are  worthy  and  valuable  citizens,  and  I  do  them  no  injustice  when  I  infer  that 
they  too  would  not  be  zealously  anxious  for  reduced  pay  and  short  sessions.  There 
is  yet  another  class,  which  with  those  specified  comprise  the  component  parts  of  our 
General  Assembly.  It  is  composed  of  men,  who,  like  angels  visits,  are  few  and  far 
between.  They  study  the  true  interests  of  their  constituents  and  earnestly  endeavor 
to  foster  and  promote  them — they  resist  the  creation  of  offices  not  of  indispensable 
necessity,  and  when  formed  struggle  to  attach  salaries  to  them,  so  moderate  in 
amount  as  not  to  excite  the  cupidity  of  the  mercenary — they  push  forward  the  business 
of  the  sessions  with  activity  and  industry.  Spotless  in  character  and  lofty  in  bearing, 
corruption  dares  not  approach  them,  and  entering  into  the  philosophy  of  their  rela- 
tion to  the  people,  they  ask  no  allowance  for  themselves  beyond  what  is  necessary 
to  a  moderate  and  frugal  support  and  the  approbation  of  those  who  have  trusted 
them.  It  is  thus  manifest,  that  we,  the  people,  must  rely  mainly  upon  jourselves  for 
those  reforms  of  the  Legislature  which  our  interests  require — that  our  candidates 
should  be  committed  to  carry  them  out  before  their^nomination — and  that  when  this 
has  been  neglected,  that  they  should  be  promptly  instructed  as  to  our  wishes. 

To  sum  up — I  would  earnestly  recommend: 

1st.  That  the  Legislature  be  largely  diminished. 

2d.  That  a  Legislature  of  109  members — 25  Senators  and  84  Delegates — is  suffi- 
ciently numerous  for  all  useful  purposes. 

3d.  That  the  per  diem  now  allowed  should  be  reduced  to  $4  a  day. 

4th.  That  members  should  only  be  paid  for  their  actual  attendance  upon  their  re- 
spective houses,  except  when  absent  therefrom  by  sickness  at  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment; and  that  the  Act  of  April,  1870,  allowing  members  their  per  diem  if  absent 
with  leave,  even  if  absent  on  their  private  business  or  pleasure — should  be  repealed. 

5th.  That  mileage,  as  such,  should  no  longer  be  allowed,  but  that  the  traveling 
expenses  of  the  member,  upon  an  account  stated  and  verified  by  affidavit,  should  be 
in  place  thereof. 

6th.  That  all  attempts,  by  anyone  interested  in  a  bill  before  either  house  of  As- 
sembly, to  influence  any  member  thereof  be  severely  punished.  And  that  any  mem- 
ber accepting  such  advantage  shall  be  expelled. 

It  will  be  observed,  gentlemen,  that  in  the  reforms  I  propose,  I  have  confined 
myself  wholely  to  the  General  Assembly.  You  are  not  however  to  consider  that  I  do 
not  regard  other  reforms  as  necessary  and  important,  far  from  it.  But  it  must  not 
be  forgot  that  when  the  Constitution  was  voted  upon,  it  was  obnoxious  to  us  in  many 
essential  features.  But  the  Canby  &  Wells  Government,  under  which  we  then  lived, 
was  so  repugnant  to  our  feelings,  and  was  so  surely  and  insidiously  underminding 
the  virtue  and  independence  of  our  people,  that  it  was  thought  best  to  adopt  the  Con- 
stitution, with  the  disabling  clauses  voted  out,  especially  as  we  would  have  the  power 
to  reform  it,  "  at  a  more  convenient  season  for  calm  and  dispassionate  enquiry." 
But,  that  time  is  not  yet,  and  for  reasons  so  obvious  to  your  intelligent  minds  that  I 
need  not  take  time  or  space  to  express  them.  But  the  reform  of  the  Legislature  is 
the    grand  work.     As   the   embodiment   of   the   real  power  of   the  State,  there  is  a 


284 

peculiar  propriety  in  beginning  there.  Important  results  can  be  promptly  reached. 
In  thirty  days  the  laws  can  be  passed  which  will  reduce  the  annual  expenses  of  that 
body  from  $220,000  to  $75,000.  What  a  noble  Christmas  offering  it  would  be  for  our 
representatives  to  tender  such  a  glorious  consummation  to  their  tax-ridden  con- 
stituency !  They  can  do  it  and  they  should  do  it.  Will  they  be  equal  to  this  impor- 
tant duty  ? 

It  will  no  doubt,  be  thought  that  I  have  freely  criticised  the  late  Legislature,  but 
if  so,  I  have  confined  myself  strictly  to  measures  affecting  itself.  It  is  true  every  re- 
form I  have  proposed,  it  could  and  ought  to  have  made.  It  could  have  reduced  its 
own  numbers — its  own  pay — refused  pay  except  for  service  rendered — repealed  the 
law  of  mileage,  reimbursing  to  members,  actual  disbursements  only  in  lieu  thereof — 
and  passed  laws  punishing  all  persons  who  would  offer  any  advantages  to  members 
with  bills  before  them;  and  to  expel  members  who  accepted  them.  But  they  were 
not  equal  to  these  reforms  and  did  nothing.  And  now  the  people  in  view  of  the  past, 
must  commit  their  candidates  to  these  measurers  at  the  time  of  their  nomination  or 
if  this  has  been  neglected,  they  must  instruct  them.  Unless  this  is  done  the  next 
Legislature  will  do  as  the  last,  nothing,  nothing  whatever. 

But,  gentlemen,  while  I  thus  complain  of  the  last  Legislature,  I  would  by  no 
means  have  one  of  the  Conservatives,  however  censurable,  displaced  by  a  Radical; 
for  the  Radicals,  as  a  body,  opposed  every  reform  I  am  endeavoring  to  have  made. 
The  journals  of  the  two  Houses  show  this.  And  can  it  be  expected  to  be  otherwise  ? 
Without  character — with  but  little  property,  it  can  scarcely  be  expected  that  they  will 
consent  to  reduce  their  pay  and  emoluments.  Besides,  they  are  the  party  of  plunder 
■everywhere.  Here  they  have  never  had  a  chance  to  indulge  their  proclivity  to  any 
great  extent.  They  gave  us  our  present  expensive  Constitution  with  its  crowd  of 
officers,  and  had  they  been  able  to  retain  the  proscriptive  clauses  of  their  Constitution 
■they  would  have  had  a  majority,  and  then  our  fate  would  have  been  like  that  of 
Tennessee,  Louisana,  etc.  As  it  was,  they  voted  themselves  eight  dollars  per  day 
while  thus  engaged,  and  have  opposed  all  reduction  in  the  public  charge  and  expend- 
iture. 1  say  all,  uniformly,  systematically  and  upon  principle.  Our  Constitution 
made  by  them,  authorized  contracts  for  interest  as  high  as  twelve  per  cent,  per  annum 
and  they  voted  for  the  bill  regulating  it.  They  passed  the  funding  bill,  for  without 
their  vote,  which  was  unanimous  in  the  House,  it  would  have  been  defeated  there,  a 
majority  of  the  Conservatives  voting  against  it,  the  vote  being  seventy-eight  for  and 
forty-two  against  the  bill  and  the  Radicals  casting  forty  votes,  their  entire  strength, 
•of  the  seventy-eight.  Their  celebrated  Homestead  clause  of  the  Constitution,  has 
six  exceptions,  covering  so  many  of  the  daily  transactions  of  men  as  to  be  of  little 
value,  and  the  law  enacted  to  carry  it  out,  for  which  they  voted,  still  further  impairs 
its  presued  policy.  And  in  the  same  article,  the  eleventh,  containing  the  Home- 
stead provision,  the  fourth  section  provides  that  "  the  General  Assembly  is  hereby 
prohibited  from  passing  any  law  staying  the  collection  of  debts,  commonly  known  as 
stay  laws."  In  Article  1st,  section  10,  of  the  Federal  Constitution  it  is  expressly  pro- 
vided that  "  no  State  shall  pass  any  Bill  of  Attainder,  ex  post  facto  law,  or  law  impair- 
ing the  obligation  of  contracts."  And  which  provision,  in  words  even,  is  transferred 
to  our  Constitution,  the  work  of  Radical  hands,  and  is  to  be  found  in  the  fourteenth 
section  of  the  fifth  Article  thereof.  There  is  scarcely  one  man  in  ten  who  owns 
$2,500  worth  of  property,  and  if  the  Homestead  provision  was  designed  to  protect  it 
against  the  claims  of  outstanding  creditors,  will  it  not  clearly  impair  "the  obligation 
■of  contracts?  "  These  wretched  tricksters  and  miserable  demagogues  well  knew  that 
it  did  so,  and  that  whenever  the  question  was  raised  in  the  State  or  Federal  Courts,  the 
Homestead  clause,  so  far  as  prior  obligations  were  obstructed,  would  be  declared  null 
and  void.  I  am  in  favor  of  a  real  Homestead,  subject  to  none  of  the  exceptions 
specified  in  the  Constitution  except  that  which  makes  it  liable  for  "taxes,  levies  or 
assessments."  I  want  it  as  a  permanent  home  for  wife  and  children,  in  which  the 
wife  can  be  contented  and  happy,  with  none  to  make  her  afraid,  and  in  which  she 


285 

can  train  her  children  to  walk  in  the  paths  of  virtue  and  piety,  a  comfort  to  her, 
valued  citizens,  and  "  humble  followers  of  Him  who  died  that  all  might  live."  And 
as  a  public  policy  I  deem  it,  eminently  wise  and  proper.  But  the  Radical  scheme  of 
the  Homestead  is  "a  deception  and  a  snare,"  and  was  manifestly  so  intended.  They 
complain  that  we  are  not  carrying  out  the  school  system,  to  which,  as  they  allege,  we 
are  opposed;  and  that  its  execution  ought  to  be  entrusted  to  them,  who  are  its  friends. 
And  yet  we  have  passed  the  necessary  school  law,  organized  under  it,  opened  public 
schools  all  over  the  State  and  raised  $500,000  to  defray  its  expenses.  True,  we  have 
not  commenced  big  school  houses,  as  they  would  have  done  if  they  had  had  the 
power.  But  in  the  name  and  for  the  destitute  children  of  the  country  they  would 
have  let  out  fat  jobs  to  pets  and  favorites,  under  color  of  which  they  would  have 
done  here  as  everywhere  else,  plundered  the  people.  Again,  they  complain  of  our 
electing  partisan  judges.  Now,  look  at  Underwood — look  at  Rives — look  at  Bond — 
look  at  the  whole  class  of  Federal  and  State  appointments  when  the  Radicals  were  in 
power,  all  bitterly  partisan,  all  hungry  cormorants,  all  howling  hyenas,  utterly  in- 
capable of  being  gorged  by  any  variety  or  abundance  of  plunder.  But  the  County 
Judges  at  least,  must  be  "  learned  in  the  law  of  the  State."  Where  shall  we  find  such 
in  the  Radical  party  ?  The  idea  is  simply  absurd.  And  the  only  alternative  was  for 
the  Conservatives  of  the  Legislature  to  choose  those  as  judges  who  were  most  accept- 
able to  them,  or  by  allowing  free  fights  among  ourselves,  permit  the  Radicals  to 
choose  the  Conservatives  most  acceptable  to  them.  Of  course,  with  the  invariable 
practice  of  the  Radical  party  before  them,  our  Conservatives  of  the  Legislature  did 
not  hesitate  to  choose  our  County  Judges  from  among  their  friends;  not  as  partisans 
however,  but  as  men  of  spotless  character  and  unblemished  reputation  and  fully 
within  the  requirements  of  the  Constitution;  men  who  stand  proudly  before  the  people 
of  Virginia  and  challenge  all  persons  to  show  that  any  prisioner  was  ever  denied,  in 
any  of  her  courts,  a  full,  fair  and  impartial  trial. 

I  have  said  that  the  Radical  party  is  the  party  of  plunder,  everywhere.  I  repeat 
it.  The  States  south  of  us  have  been  plundered  to  an  extent  unknown  in  the  history 
of  mankind.  I  have  not  time  to  go  into  detail  upon  this  subject,  and  it  can  hardly  be 
necessary,  for  the  fact  is  notorious;  but  I  will  give  certain  tables  of  aggregate  re- 
sults, the  general  accuracy  of  which,  I  am  assured  by  the  Washington  Patriot,  may 
be  relied  on — indeed,  they  are,  to  a  great  extent,  official.  The  indebtedness  and 
liabilities  of  the  subjoined  States  before  the  war,  to  wit,  in  1860-61,  will  be  seen  in 
the  first  column  and  that  of  1871  in  the  second  column: 

Louisana $10,099,074  $76,473,091 

Georgia 3,170,750  50,137,500 

Tennessee 20,115,666  45,688,263 

North  Carolina 14,575,375  30,215,915 

South  Carolina 5,000,000  17,500,000 

Alabama 5,000,000  17,258,010 

Texas,  debt  for  railroads 12,000,000 

Arkansas 3,000,000  13,500,000 

Mississippi,  debt  reported 1,800,000 

Florida,  lowest  estimate 6,000,000 

$60,768,451  $270,572,779 

I  have  no  full,  official  returns  from  Texas  or  Mississippi,  but  the  taxes  in  both 
are  enormous,  greatly  beyond  our  experience.  In  Texas,  before  the  war,  the  tax 
was  ten  cents  on  the  hundred  dollars — it  is  now  two  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents — 
the  taxes  of  1871  are  $5,890,000  "  or  ten  times  the  amount  ever  levied  before  re-con- 
struction."    To  the  following  from  the  Patriot   of  22d  September,  I  invite  attention. 

"The  following  table  just  prepared  at  the  Census  office  exhibits  the  comparative 


286 

value  of  property  in  eight  States  for  i860  and  1870,  respectively,   and  for  reference 
in  the  county  taxes  for  those  two  periods: 

States.                                     Assessed  Valuation.  County.  Taxation. 

1870.  1S60.*  1870.  i860. 

Alabama $153,234,652  $432,198,762  (c)  $309,474 

Arkansas 92,399,897  $180,211,330  $1,738,760  285,773 

Florida 29,700,022  68,929,685  165,851  74-425 

Georgia 226,119,519  618,232,387  901,600  283,365 

Louisana 243,870,274  435,787,265  4,109.999  440,238 

Mississippi 177,278,888  509,472,912  2,170,993  384,908 

North  Carolina 127,613,954  292,297,602  923,604  255,417 

South  Carolina 174,409,491  489,319,128  575>°°5  59-5°6 

It  is  thus  seen,  that  while  the  aggregate  value  of  taxable  property  is  reduced 
more  than  one-half,  the  county  taxation  alone  has  been  increased  four,  five  and  even 
ten-fold  beyond  any  experience  before  re-construction  If  this  system  of  extortion 
and  robbery  had  been  imposed  upon  a  people  ordinarily  prosperous,  it  might 
possibly  have  been  endured.  But  it  was  applied  to  a  population  exhausted  by  the 
privations  of  four  years  of  unequal  strife,  suddenly  deprived  of  their  accustomed 
labor,  and  utterly  destitute  of  any  resource  but  their  own  hands  to  recommence  the 
battle  of  life.  The  history  of  the  civilized  world  presents  no  such  spectacle  of  tyranny 
and  spoliation  combined,  or  of  tranquil  submission  to  such  monstrous  wrongs  on  the 
part  of  a  spirited  people,  educated  in  the  ideas  of  personal  and  public  liberty." 

See  what  a  terrible  category  awaited  us,  but  from  which  we  happily  escaped  by 
maintaining  ourselves  in  the  great  struggle  of  1869,  is  which  we  routed  the  cohorts  of 
Radicalism,  horse,  foot  and  dragoon.  It  was  a  glorious  achievement  of  which  we 
were  justly  proud. 

But  time  and  tide  wait  for  no  man,  and  the  biennial  election,  provided  for  in  our 
Constitution,  is  upon  us.  Our  former  adversaries,  although  defeated,  are  again  rally- 
in^  to  renew  the  contest,  and  the  highest  obligations  of  patriotism  and  duty  demand 
of  us  unity,  thorough  organization,  and  the  firm  resolve,  as  the  only  sure  and  certain 
means  of  retaining  in  our  onw  hands,  by  which  we  can  hope  to  retain  the  control  of  the 
State,  and  to  protect  her  from  the  plunder  and  misrule  of  Radicalism.  It  is  amazing 
that  our  former  slaves,  now  our  fellow-citizens,  with  whom  we  are  in  daily  and  inti- 
mate association  as  our  laborers,  who  look  to  us,  not  only  for  employment,  but  for 
advice,  kindness  and  assistance  in  their  troubles,  should  band  together  and  under 
such  leaders  as  Wells  and  Underwood,  and  Piatt  and  Porter  and  Stowell,  aliens 
to  the  State,  and,  until  recently,  strangers;  such  renegades  as  Rives  and  Wick- 
ham  and  others,  all  of  whom  show  their  disinterestedness  and  patriotism  by 
clutching  places  and  plunder,  should  attempt  to  wrest  from  us  "  to  the  manner  born  " 
the  government  and  management  of  our  State.  But  it  is  so;  and  shall  we,  with  the 
power  to  prevent  it,  permit  it?  In  union  there  is  strength  and  victory;  in  division 
weakness  and  defeat — shall  this  important  axiom  be  disregarded?  Shall  young  am- 
bition, in  its  impatient  eagerness,  be  allowed  to  rend  asunder  our  firm  array  and 
deliver  us  over  to  our  enemy;  and  such  an  enemy!  everywhere,  when  they  have 
the  power,  plunderers  and  robbers,  and,  only  not  so,  here,  for  want  of  power.  Nay, 
this  universal  proclivity  is  not  without  its  illustrations  here.  Look  at  the  Federal 
appointments  in  our  midst  and  we  see,  I  believe  I  may  say  invariably,  large  wealth 
suddenly  accumulated — does  not  thereby  hang  a  tale !  We  complain  of  our  taxes, 
and  rightfully,  because  they  are  more  than  we  ought  to  have  been  called  upon  to  pay 
under  sound  and  judicious  reforms.  But  let  us  make  them  ourselves;  for  God's  sake 
don't  call  in  those  to  diminish  our  taxes,  who,  in  the  ten  States  where  they  have  the 
power,  have  foully  robbed  and  almost  devoured  them.     Our  victory  in  1869  saved  us 

*  Including  value  of  slaves. 


287 

from  a  like  disastrous  fate,  our  defeat  now,  would  bring  us  into  line  and  inaugurate 
the  plunderer  and  robber.  Our  taxes,  now  so  enormous  and  paid  with  a  sense  of 
weariness  and  distress,  would  be  remembered  as  the  sunny  spot  in  the  past,  while 
the  magnitude  of  the  taxes  and  assessments  levied  upon  us  by  our  new  masters, 
would  wring  from  us  such  a  wail  of  sorrow  and  distress  and  excite  in  us  such  a  pro- 
found feeling  of  desperation  as  to  drive  us,  as  it  is  charged  some  of  our  Southern 
sisters  have  dune,  into  combinations  for  our  protection  and  for  vengeance  upon  our 
oppressors.  But  such  need  not  be  our  fate.  It  is  fully  in  our  power  to  avert  it.  We 
have  a  heavy  majority  in  the  State,  let  us  not  fritter  it  away  by  our  dissensions,  and 
thus  become  the  prey  of  the  spoiler.  Let  us  organize  everywhere — nowhere  can  it 
be  neglected  without  danger.  Let  us  reform  the  Legislature  as  I  have  suggested — 
we  can  do  that  now,  if  we  are  wise  and  firm.  Other  reforms  are  necessary,  but  those 
of  the  Legislature  will  be  glory  enough  for  one  day.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  that 
Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day,  and  that  by  undertaking  too  many  reforms,  we  may 
lose  all.  We  must  reform  the  Constitution  too,  it  was  so  understood  at  its  adoption; 
but  not  now,  the  time  has  not  come.  The  Radicals  made  the  Constitution,  the  Con- 
servatives must  reform  it. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  I  must  bring  this  letter  to  a  close — prepared  amid  constant 
interruptions,  it  must  necessarily  abound  in  imperfections,  and  I  am  also  ready  to 
admit  its  great  prolixity;  yet,  the  subjects  I  have  touched  are  far  from  being  exhaust- 
ed; but  if  I  shall  impart  information  or  arouse  to  wise  and  vigorous  performance  of 
duty  any  who  may  honor  it  with  a  perusal,  I  shall  be  amply  requited^for  the  labor  it 
has  cost  me.  Pardon  me,  gentlemen,  for  concluding  with  the  admirable  rule  laid 
down  by  a  Romish  Father  as  a  guide  for  his  Christian  brethren,  and  to  which  I  think 
I  may  most  appropriately  call  the  attention  of  our  Conservative  brethren  of  every 
hue  as  furnishing  an  unerring  guidance  for  them  in  their  severe  and  trying  struggles, 
for  their  rights,  their  liberties  and  the  Constitution. 

He  says,  (I  quote  from  memory):  "In  non-essentials  let  there  be  liberty,  in 
essentials  unity;  in  all  things,  charity." 

I  have  the  honor,  gentlemen,  to  be,  with  great  consideration,  very  truly  yours. 

William  Smith. 


EXTRACTS   FROM   A   SPEECH    OF 

HON.    WILLIAM    SMITH, 

OF  VIRGINIA, 

ON    THE    TARIFF    BILL. 


DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  JULY  9,   1S42. 


We  think  it  not  inappropriate  to  insert  some  extracts  from 
a  speech  delivered  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  by 
Hon.  Wm.  Smith,  in  1842,  on  a  subject  then,  as  well  as  at  the 
present  time,  engrossing  the  public  mind  and  engaging  the 
earnest  attention  of  the  American  and  English  statesman. 

It  bristles  with  the  effective  logic  of  facts  and  figures,  and 
is  now,  as  ever,  deeply  interwoven  with  the  private  fortunes 
of  the  people.  The  whole  speech  is  as  fresh  as  when  de- 
livered, and  will  well  repay  persual  and  study. 


TO    MY    CONSTITUENTS    AND    FRIENDS. 


For  my  views,  gentlemen,  upon  the  tariff,  allow  me  to  ask  your  consider- 
ation— not  for  myself,  but  for  the  grave  importance  of  the  subject.  It  is 
thoroughly  interwoven  with  your  private  fortunes,  and  is  deeply  interesting  to 
the  whole  country 

In  the  general  accuracy  of  my  statistics,  you  may  safely  confide.  Of  the 
truth  of  my  principles,  and  the  soundness  of  my  conclusions,  you  are  fully 
competent  to  judge.  But  I  will  remark  that,  in  the  course  of  my  reasoning, 
I  have  always  preferred  the  cool  demonstrations  of  ascertaining  results  to  the 
attractive  theories  of  speculative  philosophy. 

I  am,  gentlemen,  your  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 

William  Smith. 
Washington,  August  20,  1842 


289 

SPEECH. 

Mr.  Chairman — The  question  under  consideration  is  one  of  the  highest  import- 
ance. Its  object  is  two-fold:  First.  To  raise  revenue  for  the  support  of  the  govern- 
ment. Second.  To  protect  manufactures.  The  first  object  is  a  legitimate  and  in- 
dispensable duty.  The  second  object  is  unwise,  inexpedient  and  destructive  of  the 
true  interests  of  the  country. 

There  are  four  modes  of  raising  revenue. 

First.  By  internal  taxes.  This  mode  has  prevailed,  to  some  extent,  for  about 
twenty  years  of  the  last  fifty  of  our  Federal  existence.  It  is  recommended:  First. 
Because  it  taxes  the  property,  and  not  the  consumption  of  the  country.  Second.  Be- 
cause it  is  an  honest  tax,  levying  directly  upon  the  people  the  sum  necessary  for  the 
support  of  government;  and  thus,  in  an  effective  way,  keeping  the  people  informed  oi 
the  millions  collected  from  them  for  taxes.  Third.  Because,  flowing  directly  from  the 
pockets  of  the  people,  they  will  exercise  greater  vigilance  over  both  charge  and 
expenditure,  secure  stricter  economy  and  responsibility,  and  thus  arrest,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent,  the  progress  of  corruption.  Fourth.  Because  it  will  subject  our 
collecting  officers  to  fewer  corrupt  temptations.  Fifth.  Because  it  in  no  respect 
leads  to  the  corruption  of  the  public  morals.  Sixth.  Because  it  is  less  liable  to  defal- 
cations, and,  when  they  occur,  to  loss  of  the  public  money.  Seventh.  Because  by  it 
our  revenue  will  be  more  cheaply  collected.  *  Eighth.  Because  it  places,  as  near  as 
can  be,  the  burden  of  government  on  the  whole  people,  and  upon  each  person  in 
proportion  to  his  property.  Ninth.  Because  it  gives  to  our  domestic  industry  its 
widest  scope  and  span;  the  markets  of  the  world  and  the  friendship  of  all  nations; 
secures  the  largest  amount  of  exchangeable  values,  and  the  most  rapid  accumulation 
of  wealth.  Tenth.  Because  it  brings  into  premature  existence  no  branch  of  industry. 
Eleventh.  Because  it  leaves  every  man  to  that  occupation  or  pursuit,  to  which  his 
own  taste  or  judgment  may  incline  him;  relieves  the  country  from  one  source  of 
agitation  and  excitement,  and  thus  tends  to  strengthen  and  consolidate  our  free  insti- 
tutions. For  these  and  other  reasons,  which  time  will  not  allow  me  to  enumerate,  I, 
speaking  only  for  myself,  under  a  due  sense  of  my  responsibility,  declare  my  decided 
preference  for  direct  over  indirect,  internal  over  external  taxes. 

Secondly.  By  imposing  duties  upon  foreign  goods,  the  like  whereof  is  not  made 
or  grown  in  this  country. 

Thirdly.  By  imposing  equal,  uniform  duties  upon  all  imports.  This  is  the 
principle  of  the  compromise  act. 

Fourthly.  By  imposing  duties  mainly  upon  such  imports  only  as  come  in  con- 
flict with  our  factory  system.  Thus  using  a  great  and  essential  power  of  the  con- 
stitution for  the  purpose  of  disturbing  the  industry  of  the  country;  pampering  one 
interest  at  the  expense  of  all  the  rest;  exciting  the  hostility  of  foreign  powers",  and 
breaking  up  that  equality  of  right,  without  which  the  Union  cannot  be  preserved. 

This  is  protection,  and  this  the  character  of  the  bill  now  under  consideration. 

I  am  aware,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  protection,  as  such,  is  not  generally  contended 
for.  It  is  revenue  only  which  gentlemen  profess  to  desire.  If  this  were  so.  why  was 
reference  made  at  all  to  the  Committee  on  Manufactures?  Why  not  have  referred,  at 
once,  the  whole  subject  of  duties  to  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  the  appropri- 
ate committee,  as  its  very  name  implies?  The  truth  is,  protection  is  the  great 
object,  and  revenue  the  incident  merely;  inverting  the  legitimate  powers  of  this 
government,  and  making  it  the  instrument  of  wrong  and  oppression,  and  not  of  pros- 
perity and  freedom. 

Of  all  the  nations  which  ever  joined  in  the  march  of  time,  this  republic  possesses, 
in  a  pre-eminent  degree,  the  elements  of  real  greatness.  Blessed  with  a  constitution 
formed  by  a  rare  union  of  the  purest  patriotism  and  the  most  enlightened  wisdom — ■ 
with  a  population  that  mingles  benevolence  with  enterprise,  and  morality  with  desire 
for  gain — that  possesses  an  industry  that  never  tires,  and  an  enterprise  that  fearlessly 
encounters  every  peril — a  courage  that  dares  to  meet  a  foe,  and  a  magnanimity  that 
readily  forgives  him — with  a  country  fertile  as  the  Nile,  and  embracing  the  capacities 
of  almost  every  clime — our  young  energies  untrammeled,  and  our  substance  yet  our 
own — nothing  is  wanting  to  enable  us  to  realize  the  dreams  of  Utopian  philosophy, 
but  to  let  our  industrial  pursuits  alone.  But  this,  I  fear,  is  not  to  be  permitted.  The 
high  prerogative  of  freedom — to  buy  as  cheap  as  we  can,  and  sell  as  dear  as  we  can 
— is  not  to  be  allowed.  The  doctrine  that  the  selfishness  of  man  is  the  safest  coun- 
sellor in  the  selection  of  his  occupation  or  pursuit,  is  to  be  exploded.  And  govern- 
ment, wiser  and  shrewder  than  individual  man,  is  to  prescribe  and  regulate  the 
different  branches  of  our  industry. 

*  I   have  a  statement  now  before  me,  made  at  the  Treasury,  which  shows  that  our  net  revenue  ft 
toms,  from  1830  to  1810,  both  inclusive,  was  8210,707,992,  and  that  the  expense  of  collecting  it  was  ?15,160,148, 
which  is  over  seven  and  one-half  per  cent.;  a  per  cent,  greater  than  attends  the  collection  of  direct  las 

is  well  known. 


200 

This  outrage  upon  the  intelligence  of  the  age  is  vindicated,  however,  upon  a 
Variety  of  reasons,  which  I  will  now  proceed  to  consider. 

First  Reason  for  protection — That  it  will  Create  a  Home  Market  for  our 
Surplus. 

The  value  of  a  home  market,  created  by  legislature,  may  be  more  than  ques- 
tioned— it  may  be  denied.  It  depends  upon  the  mutable  opinions  of  men.  The 
policy  of  to-day  may  be  abandoned  to-morrow.  A  home  market,  which  springs  into 
being  under  the  operation  of  natural  causes,  cannot  be  too  highly  appreciated.  It  is 
but  little  subject  to  changes  is  steady  as  the  wants  of  man — and  may  be  safely 
counted  on  in  the  operations  of  labor  and  capital. 

But  any  market  created  by  law  is  a  dear  one.  This  truth  is  established  by  law  itself. 
You  create  a  home  market,  by  refusing  to  our  people  the  privilege  of  buying  in  the 
cheapest  market,  and  compelling  them  to  buy  what  they  need  at  higher  prices,  of  a 
portion  of  our  people,  who,  in  consequence  thereof,  have  been  induced  to  engage  in 
manufacturing  industry.  Without  duties,  we  will  suppose  we  can  get  from  the 
foreign  manufacturer  one  hundred  yards  of  cotton  cloth  for  a  barrel  of  flour.  But 
our  own  manufacturers,  under  a  specious  idea  of  a  home  market,  prevail  upon  us  to 
impose  upon  the  foreign  article  a  duty  of  twenty  per  cent.;  in  consequence  whereof, 
we  get  from  our  manufacturer  only  eighty  yards  of  cloth  for  a  barrel  of  Hour.  The 
object  is  attained;   we  have  a  home  market— but  is  it  not  a  dear  one  ? 

From  the  adoption  of  our  present  constitution,  up  to  the  late  war,  our  manu- 
facturers were  aided  by  the  imposition  of  light  duties.  From  the  war,  up  to  the 
present  time,  they  have  been  aided  with  high  duties,  amounting,  in  many  respects, 
to  actual  prohibition.  Let  us  see  the  sort  of  home  market  the  manufacturers  have 
given  us: 

American  prices  in  boston,  in  the  years: 

1S16  1S24  1828  1832 

Flour S7  37  $6  62  $552  I5  62 

Corn 1  00  48  55  62 

Pork 22  00  12  00  13  00  13  00 

Cotton 30  16  11  11 

Tobacco 20  00  10  00  6  40  5  50 

I  have  selected  the  periods  of  the  former  high  tariffs,  running  through  a  period 
of  sixteen  years:  and  I  ask  if  the  policy  which  creates  a  home  market  gives  for  our 
principal  articles  any  increase  of  price?  I  will  now  ask  attention  to  tour  periods, 
embracing  a  space  of  about  fifteen  years  preceding  the  late  war,  and  during  the  preva- 
lence of  low  duties. 

American  prices  in  Boston,  in  the  years: 

1795  I^°°  '805  1S10 

Flour $12  00     $10  00     $13  00      $S  25 

Com 1  00  75  1    25  1    15 

Pork  per  bbl 18  00  17  00  16  50  19  00 

Cotton 3,^  36  25  16 

Tobacco 687  500  Sob  800 

This  contrast  of  prices  between  the  periods  of  free  trade  nearly,  and  that  of  high 
and  oppressive  duties,  affords  a  most  instructive  lesson.  In  the  one  period,  we  see 
our  products  finding  a  market  at  good  prices,  to  be  exchanged  for  the  cheap  pro- 
ducts of  other  climes. 

But  during  the  latter  period,  we  see  our  products  falling  in  value;  and  the  articles 
for  which  they  were  exchanged  coming  to  us  enhanced  in  price,  by  reason  of  the 
duties  imposed  upon  them;  still  further,  in  fact,  reducing  the  real  value  of  our  pro- 
ducts. Am  I  not,  then,  right  in  maintaining  that  any  home  market,  created  by  law, 
is  a  dear  one? 

The  fact  is.  the  creation  of  a  home  market,  otherwise  than  by  the  great  prin- 
ciples of  political  economy,  is  seriously  destructive  of  national  wealth.  It  not  only 
impairs  the  exchangeable  value  of  all  our  great  products,  by  enhancing  the  articles 
for  which  they  are  bartered;  but  the  nations  of  the  earth  are  placed  in  a  state  of 
hostility  to  them,  by  the  policy  1  am  now  considering. 

The  English  would  be  glad  to  place  bar  iron  in  our  seaports  at  two  cents  a  pound. 
Vet,  under  the  policy  which  goes  for  a  home  market,  we  are  compelled  to  pay  for  the 
same  artiele  from  three  and  one-half  to  five  cents  a  pound.  I  might  run  out  my 
illustrations  of  this  great  subject  in  many  ways;  but  time  will  not  permit.  Suffice  it 
to  saw  that  I  trust  enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  a  home  market,  such  an  one  as 
legislation  gives  us,  is  a  dear  one. 

But  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  any  tariff',  looking  to  revenue  at  all— ay,  if  raised 
to  prohibition — to  give  us  a  home  market.     Upon  examination  of  the  census  table,  it 


291 

appears  that  the  number  of  persons  engaged  in  "  manufactures  and  trades"  is  791,- 
749.  (See  Census  Compendium,  by  Allen,  page  103;  by  P.lair  and  Rives,  page  99.) 
This  number  includes  every  description  of  mechanic,  white  or  black,  slave  or  free. 
By  the  subjoined  statement,  taken  from  the  Compendium,  page  358,  it  will  be  found 
that  the  number  there  stated  as  engaged  in  mining  and  manufacturing  is  only  473,288. 
Deduct  from  this  number  those  engaged  in  machinery,  granite,  marble,  bricks,  lime, 
printing  and  binding,  musical  instruments,  carriages  and  wagons,  mills  and  houses, 
{none  of  which  subjects  are  imported,  and  which  would  exist,  many  of  them,  in  a 
greater  degree  than  now,  if  we  had  free  trade,)  and  the  number  sinks  to  265,032  only. 
This  number  might  fairly  be  reduced  considerably — as  tobacco,  for  instance;  the 
manufacture  whereof  is  entirely  unaffected  by  a  tariff.  But  take  the  number  265,- 
032  with  such  wives  and  children  as  they  have;  and  what  a  poor  prospect  do  they 
present  of  a  home  market  for  the  surplus  products  of  our  3,719,951  hardy  tillers  of 
the  soil !  Why,  sir,  the  idea  is  ridiculous — supremely  absurd.  My  colleague  [Mr. 
Stuart]  gave  us  a  very  graphic  picture  of  the  productions  of  his  district.  As  a 
Virginian,  I  rejoiced  with  him,  and  said,  there  is  a  single  district  in  the  Old  Dominion 
able  to  feed  every  factory  hand  in  the  Union — a  district  that  will  hardly  thank  her 
representative  for  increasing,  by  his  vote,  the  price  of  the  articles  for  which  she  has 
to  exchange  her  productions. 

The  truth  is,  a  home  market  is  a  wild  and  visionary  conceit.  Our  productions 
must,  for  many  generations  of  men,  exceed  our  consumption.  Our  surplus  must 
find  a  market  at  home  or  abroad.  At  home,  legislation  may  compel  it  to  the  extent 
of  our  own  consumption;  but  no  further,  Abroad,  we  can  find  no  general  market 
for  our  own  manufactures,  until  we  can  give  them  the  essential  element  of  cheapness. 
This  we  can  never  do,  until  our  operatives  are  willing  to  work  for  a  bare  subsistence, 
as  is  now  the  case  in  the  workshops  of  Europe.  And  this,  thank  God !  they  will 
never  submit  to,  until  our  wild  lands  are  all  taken  up  and  made  "to  smile  and 
blossom  as  the  rose."  A  home  market,  adequate  to  the  consumption  of  our  surplus, 
is  then  impracticable.  Abroad  we  must  seek  and  find  one,  or  the  most  frightful 
calamities  must  overtake  all  the  producing  classes. 

It  is,  however,  insisted  that  our  legislation  has  not  been  such  as  to  give  us  a  home 
market.  In  answer  to  this,  I  ask  attention  to  our  production  and  importation  of  four 
great  articles  of  consumption. 

Bushels  of  wheat $84,823,272 

Bushels  of  rye 18,531,875 

Corn   377.531.875 

Oats 123,071,341 

Had  the  vast  amount  of  surplus  products  been  without  a  foreign,  and  re- 
stricted to  a  home  market,  ruin  would  have  swept  over  the  land.  It  is  actually  fright- 
ful to  think  of  it.  And  yet,  gentlemen  gravely  urge  that  sufficient  protection  would 
give  us  a  home  market  for  our  surplus.  What  folly !  Do  they,  who  urge  the  argu- 
ment, believe  in  the  soundness  of  its  conclusion  ?     Credat  Judceus,  non  ego. 

Second  Reason  for  Protection — That  it  will  Prevent  the  Flow  of  Specie 
from  this  Country. 

This  reason  is  much  used,  and  with  great  effect  among  the  unreflecting.  But  it 
is  not  true  in  fact  or  theory.  It  has  been  our  fortune,  sir,  to  listen  to  many  disserta- 
tions, both  of  eulogy  and  censure,  upon  the  high  tariff  policy  of  England.  Yet  her 
banks,  for  about  twenty-five  years  preceding  (I  think)  1823,  were  unable  to  maintain 
specie  payments.  And  even  within  the  few  past  years,  the  Bank  of  England  has 
frequently  stood  upon  the  brink  of  bankruptcy,  and  has  only  saved  herself  "by  deep- 
ening the  sufferings  of  that  kingdom,  by  the  frightful  agonies  of  frequent  and  severe 
contractions.  Sir,  the  flow  of  specie  is  regulated  by  great  causes,  which  disregard 
all  human  legislation.  Those  who  undertake  to  control  its  gentle  yet  irrepressible 
currents,  would  feel  as  though  rebuked  for  their  foolishness,  if  they  would  but  look 
upon  the  lights  of  science  and  study  the  lessons  of  experience,  as  were  the  courtiers 
of  Canute  for  their  fulsome  adulation,  when  he  took  his  seat  upon  the  sea  shore  and 
said,  in  imperial  tone,  to  ocean's  approaching  wave,  "  thus  far  shalt  thou  go  and  no 
farther."  But  the  murmuring  tide,  heedless  of  his  command,  rolled  on  in  its  mighty 
and  inscrutible  destiny;  and  will  roll  on,  until  time  shall  be  no  more.  And  such  is 
the  destiny  of  money — ceaselessly,  yet  unseen,  it  regulates  the  relations  of  industry, 
adjusts  the  indebtedness  of  nations,  and  rolls  on,  until  time  shall  be  no  more.  And 
is  this  to  be  regretted?  The  flow  of  specie  is  ever  a  healthy  operation.  And,  instead 
of  being  arrested,  were  it  practicable,  ought  to  have  every  facility  for  its  departure; 
for  it  ever  goes  to  stay  some  unproductive  industry,  or  to  pay  some  honest  debt. 
Any  legislation,  therefore,  that  aims  to  arrest  the  flow  from  the  country,  is  a  species 
of  quackery  that  cannot  be  too  strongly  denounced. 


292 

But  let  us  look  into  our  own  history  to  ascertain  the  facts.  From  1821  to  1832, 
both  inclusive,  the  imports  of  specie  were  $82,331,067.  The  exports  for  the  same 
period  were  $85,604,131.  This  embraces  the  periods  of  all  our  high  tariffs.  Do  we 
find  the  flow  of  specie  from  the  country  stopped?  A  comparison  between  the  sums 
just  stated  gives  a  negative  reply. 

In  March,  1833,  a  tariff  act  (commonly  known  as  the  compromise  act)  was  passed, 
providing  for  the  gradual  reduction  of  duties  to  twenty  per  cent.,  the  revenue  stan- 
dard. Let  us  see  how  specie  fluctuated  under  reducing  duties,  and  an  abandonment 
of  the  protective  policy.  The  honorable  chairman  of  manufactures,  in  his  elaborate 
report  now  before  us,  asserts  the  position  I  am  controverting;  and,  in  his  first  table, 
gives  the  following  results. 

A  statement  exhibiting  the  value  of  bullion  and  specie  imported  annually  free  of 
duty  (after  deducting  therefrom  the  re-exportations)  from  1834  to  1840,  inclusive: 

Bullion  Imported.  Specie  Imported.                  Excess  of 

1834 $792,810  $15,442,564             Specie  Exported. 

1835 1,420,740  5,962,533 

1836 2,153,015  7,269,268 

1837 1,023,677  4,800.007 

1838 621,037  14,090,974 

1839 i5°,52°  ^M-3<729 

1840 694,872  2,006,000 

Aggregate $6,856,671  $49,571,346 

Deduct  excess 1,423,729 

Aggregate $6856,671  $48,147,617 

Could  I  ask  a  more  triumphant  reply?  In  twelve  years  of  protective  policy  the 
exports  exceed  the  imports  of  specie  $3,273,064.  But,  in  the  seven  succeeding  years 
of  duties  sinking  rapidly  to  a  revenue  standard,  our  imports  exceed  our  exports  of 
specie  and  bullion  the  sum  of  $55,004,288.  The  assertion  is,  that  high  duties  will  keep 
the  specie  in  the  country.  The  fact  is,  as  proven  by  our  records,  that  specie  leaves 
the  country  under  high  tariffs,  and  returns  to  it  under  low  ones.  Do  not  these 
interesting  facts  prove  that  high  tariffs  destroy,  and  that  free  trade  advances  to  pros- 
perity of  the  country  ? 

Third  Reason  for  Protection — That  it  makes  Goods  Cheap. 

This  reason,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  certainly  sufficiently  amusing.  In  one  breath  we 
are  told  that,  unless  the  duties  are  raised,  our  manufacturers  must  be  ruined,  and  in 
the  next,  when  they  are  told  that  this  would  only  shift  the  burden  from  their  should- 
ers to  those  of  the  farmers,  they  gravely  reply:  "Oh,  no  !  the  tariff  will  cheapen  goods, 
not  enhance  them."  When  we  inquire  how  this  can  be? — when  we  ask  if  foreign 
goods  are  not  so  low  that  they  cannot  now  compete  with  them? — when  we  ask  if  the 
very  object  of  the  duty  is  not  to  increase  the  price  of  the  foreign  article,  that  they 
may  get  a  better  one  for  their  own  ? — that  if  this  be  not  so,  how  is  it  that  they  are  to 
be  benefited  by  increased  duties? — they  answer,  gravely:  "That  the  tariff  will  reduce 
prices,  not  enhance  them;"  and  seriously  appeal  to  the  past,  in  confirmation. 

In  support  of  this  most  anomalous  conclusion,  my  colleague  [Mr.  Stuart]  informs 
this  committee  that,  when  information  reached  Brazil  that  it  was  intended,  at  the  extra 
session,  to  impose  a  duty  of  two  cents  a  pound  on  coffee,  the  Brazilians  instantly 
reduced  the  price  of  that  article  by  the  whole  amount  of  the  duty.  This  was  marvel- 
ously  kind  in  our  Brazilian  friends,  truly  !  What !  Not  even  wait  until  our  intention 
was  embodied  into  law.1  I  will,  however,  not  undertake  to  explain  the  phenomenon, 
until  I  ascertain  the  fact.  Is  the  fact  so?  Who  will  avouch  it?  We  are  told  that 
while  our  scientific  and  practical  countryman  (Franklin)  resided  in  France,  as 
the  representative  of  his  country,  it  was  stated  that  a  living  fish  put  into  a  vessel  full 
of  water  would  not  cause  it  to  overflow.  The  French  academicians  eagerly  undertook 
to  explain  the  apparent  phenomenon.  The  most  ingenious  and  profound  essays 
were  written  to  explain  it,  but  without  reaching  any  satisfactory  solution.  At  a 
dinner  party,  I  believe,  the  story  goes,  some  of  them  submitted  the  question  to  the 
venerable  Franklin.  "Has  the  fact  been  ascertained ?"  he  inquired.  "No,  it  has 
not  been  questioned,"  was  the  reply.  "  Then  (he  remarked)  we  will  first  ascertain 
the  fact."  Accordingly,  a  vessel  was  produced,  filled  with  water,  and  a  living  fish 
put  into  it;  when,  to  their  surprise,  the  water  burst  over  the  sides  of  the  vessel,  blow- 
ing  sky-high  the  fine-spun  theories  of  the  most  learned  philosophers  of  the  day. 
Such,  I  have  no  doubt,  will  prove  the  character  of  my  colleague's  fact,  the  existence 
whereof  I  utterly  deny;  and  the  explanation  of  which  I  shall  not,  therefore,  attempt. 


293 

Fourth  Reason  for  Protection — That  the  English  will  not  buy  from  US. 

This  allegation  has  been  so  repeatedly  made,  that  it  is  really,  to  a  great  extent, 
believed.  But  never  was  a  statement  more  destitute  of  truth.  England  is,  by  many 
millions,  not  only  our  best,  but  our  largest  customer. 

Driven  from  this  position,  the  friends  of  protection  then  undertake  to  alarm  the 
fears  of  the  cotton  interest,  and  give,  as  a 

Fifth  Reason  for  Protection — -That  IT  is  Necessary  to  Protect  us  AGAINST  the 
Growth  of  India  Cotton. 

I  have  heretofore  demonstrated  that  350,000  bales  of  cotton  are  fully  equal  to  the 
whole  consumption  of  the  Union.  Protection  could  not  extend  beyond  this  amount. 
The  residue  (not  less  than  1,700,000  bales)  would  have  to  go  into  the  world  for  a 
market;  which  it  could  not  procure  without  it  presented  a  price  and  quality  fully 
equal  to  that  of  all  competitors.  No  protective  laws  here  could  avail  it.  The  pre- 
tension, therefore,  is  a  delusion  and  a  farce. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  this  is  no  new  pretension.  It  is  one  as  old  as  the  protective 
policy.  It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  look  back  to  former  days,  and  on  occasions 
such  as  the  present  one.  If  I  mistake  not,  we  are  but  listening  to  a  cuckoo-note,  of 
which  I  do  think  those  who  utter  it  should  be  ashamed. 

In  1816  the  celebrated  Isaac  Briggs,  in  a  letter  to  William  Lowndes,  chairman  of 
the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  thus  sounds  the  alarm  about  India  cotton: 

"Let  not  even  the  cotton-grower  sleep  on  his  post  in  the  hope  that  he  will  be 
able  to  obtain  a  foreign  market  and  a  good  price,  to  the  extent  of  his  increasing 
crops,  and  commensurate  to  his  wishes.  I  have  no  doubt  he  will  soon  find  this  a 
treacherous  hope,  however  fair  the  prospect.  Bourbon  cotton  has,  for  experiment, 
been  planted  in  British  India;  the  experiment  has  completely  succeeded;  and  Britain 
may  soon  derive  a  full  supply  of  good  cotton  from  her  own  colonies  and  depend- 
encies.    She  will  then  take  ours,  or  not,  as  may  best  suit  her  own  convenience." 

Again:     Niles's  Register,  of  1824,  says: 

';  It  is  high  time  that  the  planters  of  the  United  States  should  look  at  home  for  a 
permanent  market,  which  may  regulate  and  give  steadiness  to  the  foreign  demand. 
*  *  *  Egypt  and  Greece,  and  their  islands,  can  apply  three  times  the  labor  to  the 
culture  of  cotton  that  we  apply  to  it;  and  the  quality  raised  _by  the  people  of  those 
countries  is  of  a  superior  kind.  We  would  not  predict  evil  to  any  part  of  our  fellow- 
citizens;  but  nothing,  apparently,  is  more  certain  than  that  the  product  of  cotton  will 
soon  exceed  the  amount  required  for  consumption." 

The  following  extract  is  from  the  circular  of  Freeman  &  Cook,  London,  dated 
January  1,  1842,  quoted  in  "American  Interests:  " 

"Cotton — The  cotton  trade  with  India,  for  the  last  two  years,  has  been  highly 
important  in  every  point  of  view.  The  imports  in  1841  reached  nearly  one-third 
those  from  the  United  States,  which  have  a  very  depressing  influence  on  the  value  of 
American  cotton.  The  manufacturers,  however,  have  been  benefited  by  an  ample 
supply,  at  very  low  rates,"  etc. 

In  Niles's  Register,  of  February  14,  1818,  it  is  said — (this  was  four  years  after  the 
East  India  trade  had  been  thrown  open  to  British  merchants) — 

"  Cotton  can  be  raised  in  India  cheaper  than  we  can  raise  it;  and,  in  the  present 
state  of  commerce,  the  carriage  on  it  has  a  very  small  effect  on  its  price.  The 
culture  in  India  is  extending,  andean  be  extended  to  any  degree  that  is  material,  from 
the  vast  population  whose  labor  may  be  directed  to  it." 

Again:     A  tariff  writer  says: 

"  Three  years  ago  no  cotton  (comparatively  speaking)  was  imported  from  India; 
but,  last  year,  90,000  bales  were  received  in  England;  the  present  year  may  give  an 
importation  of  150,000;  the  next,  of  250,000;  the  next,  a  quantity  sufficient  to  exclude 
all  American  cottons,  except  Sea  Island,  from  the  British  market,  unless  at  exceeding 
low  prices.  The  increase  of  ships,  since  the  free  trade  to  India,  has  been  at  the 
average  of  sixty  ships,  of  four  hundred  tons  each,  per  annum.  Calculate  the  amount 
that  the  probable  number  of  vessels  now  engaged  in  the  trade  will  carry.  'A  wise 
man  foreseeth  the  evil.'  Our  planters  have  been  told  this  over  and  over  and  over 
again;  and  it  has  been  made  known  to  them  '  as  though  an  angel  spoke  it,'  that  they 
must  rely  upon  a  domestic  consumption  to  insure  to  them  a  liberal  and  just  price  for 
their  article." 

The  author  of  "American  Interests"  quotes  from  a  Liverpool  circular,  dated 
December  11,  1818  : 

"  The  immense  increase  in  the  import  of  East  India  cotton  is  the  most  remarka- 
ble fact  connected  with  the  cotton  market.     The  average  import  of  the  fourteen  years 


294 

past  was  25,365  bales;'of  the  last  year  only  it  was  U7,955lbales;  and  during  the  first 
eleven  months  of  the  present  year  it  has  amounted  to  no  less  than  215,000  bales. 
The  low  price  at  which  this  cotton  has  been  pressed  upon  the  market,  has  very  much 
increased  the  consumption  of  it;  several  mills  are  building  for  the  spinning  of  East 
India  cotton  only;  and,  mixed  with  Brazils,  it  is  said  to  make  an  excellent  substitute 
for  American  cottons,"  etc. 

In  1827,  before  the  high  tariff  of  1828,  a  great  tariff  journal  said  : 

"  We  have  often  asserted  that  a  great  change  was  going  on  at  the  South  in  re- 
gard to  the  policy  of  encouraging  domestic  manufactures;  we  have  expressed  our 
belief  that  the  time  would  come,  and  speedily  (if  it  even  has  not  already  arrived), 
when  the  tariff  would  more  benefit  the  cotton  growers  than  the  cotton  spinners.  We 
have  ventured  an  opinion  that  our  Southern  fellow-citizens  would  receive  instruction 
from  experience." 

Above  are  the  predictions  of  the  tariff  men  from  time  to  time.  Recently,  many 
flattering  accounts  have  been  published  of  the  success  of  the  efforts  to  raise  cotton  in 
India,  under  the  management  of  planters  from  this  country,  It  is  also  now  known 
that  the  experiment  has  entirely  failed,  and  that  our  planters  have  left  India,  and  re- 
turned to  this  country. 

The  Manchester  Guardian,  an  English  paper,  says  : 

"We  have  learned,  through  the  medium  of  letters  received  by  the  last  overland 
mail,  that  the  efforts  of  the  American  planters,  who  went  to  the  westerly  side  of  India, 
have,  so  far,  entirely  failed." 

This  failure  is  attributed  to  mismanagement  on  the  part  of  the  directors  of  the 
East  India  Company.     But  the  article  goes  on  as  follows: 

"  So  far,  the  cultivation  of  the  American  cotton  in  Upper  India  has  made  no  pro- 
gress; nor  do  we  imagine  it  is  very  likely  to  do  so  hereafter.  *  *  *  On  the  whole, 
we  fear  the  prospect  of  receiving  any  large  supply  of  superior  cotton  from  India  is 
not,  at  present,  very  flattering." 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  exhibit  the  growth  of  cotton  in  the  world,  and  in 
the  United  States.  It  will  be  observed  that,  at  the  commencement  of  the  predictions 
against  our  cotton,  we  grew  but  little,  if  any,  over  80,000,000  lbs.;  that,  since  then, 
the  whole  increase  has  been  with  us;  while  the  quantity  grown  in  the  rest  of  the 
world,  so  far  from  increasing,  has  actually  materially  diminished  : 

Cotton  produced  in  the  Cotton  produced  in  the 

Years.  world.  United  States. 

1791 490,000,000  pounds.  2,000,000  pounds. 

1801 520,000,000  "  48,000,000  " 

1811 555,000,000  "  80,000,000  " 

1821 ....630,000,000  "  180,000,000  " 

1831 820,000,000  "  385,000,000  " 

1834 900,000,000  "  460,000,000  "  ' 

1840. 790,000,000  " 

I  find  no  return  of  the  growth  of  cotton  in  the  world  as  late  as  1840. 

To  show  that  our  cotton  still  maintains  its  ascendency,  I  will  give  a  report  of  the 
business  done  in  it,  in  the  month  of  May  last,  in  Liverpool,  the  great  cotton  market 
of  the  world: 

"  The  import  during  the  month  of  May  was  240,000  bales — in  1841,  159,000  bales. 
The  total  sales  of  the  month  were  129,000  American,  and  1,800  Surat,  on  speculation; 
and  5,000  American,  600  Surat,  and  600  Brazil,  for  exportation." 

I  have  previously  demonstrated  that  the  idea  of  finding  a  market  at  home  for  our 
immense  supply  of  cotton  is  perfectly  delusive.  But,  whether  right  or  not  in  this,  I 
am  sure  all  will  agree  that  the  opinion  that  India  is  to  become  the  great  rival  of  this 
country  in  the  growth  of  cotton  is  the  veriest  humbug  ever  started  by  scheming 
selfishness.     We  are  next  presented  with  the 

Sixth  Reason  for  Protection — That  it  WILL  MAKE  US  INDEPENDENT. 

This  is  an  appeal  to  our  nationality — an  attempt,  by  pure  selfishness,  to  arouse 
within  us  our  disinterested  feelings.  We  are  asked  if  we  will  not  free  ourselves  of 
dependence  on  foreigners  for  actual  necessities,  in  time  of  war.  And  a  glowing 
sketch  is  then  presented  of  the  sufferings  of  our  soldiers  during  our  late  struggle  with 
Great  Britain.     Without  admitting  or  denying  the  correctness  of  this  sketch,  it   must 


295 

be  admitted  that  no  just  fears  upon  this  subject  can  be  entertained  for  the  future. 
With  twenty  millions  of  sheep,  and  upwards  of  two  millions  of  bales  of  cotton,  the 
man  must  be  hardy  who  will  venture  to  assert  that  we  can  ever  suffer  for  want  of 
clothing.  Why,  sir,  in  time  of  profound  peace,  with  a  strong  appetite  among  us  for 
every  sort  of  luxurious  indulgence,  we  did  not  import  and  retain  for  our  use,  in  1840, 
of  blankets,  more  than  about  three  cents  worth  to  each  of  our  people.  Our  whole 
importation  of  woollen  goods,  of  every  kind,  retained  for  consumption,  was  only 
about  thirty  cents  each.  In  1840,  we  imported,  of  cotton  goods,  $6,504,584  worth; 
and  exported,  of  our  own  manufacture,  $3,549,607  worth;  leaving  for  consumption, 
of  cotton  goods,  about  15  cents  to  each  person.  In  1840,  we  imported,  of  gunpowder, 
only  $4,521  worth,  and  exported  $117,347  worth.  Of  arms,  we  have  the  most  abund- 
ant supply,  to  wit:  692,542  muskets,  23,334  rifles,  etc.  We  have  also  two  public 
armories,  which  turn  off  annually  27,948  arms;  and  contracts  with  seven  private  ar- 
mories, which  annually  supply  13,100  small  arms.  In  1840  our  whole  import  of  iron, 
after  deducting  32,786  tons  used  by  railroads,  and  admitted  free  of  duty,  was  only 
22,718  tons;  being  less  than  one-twentieth  of  our  own  production,  and  only  about 
three  pounds  to  each  person.  It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  force  of  this  reasoning  in  the  days  that  are  past,  now  it  is  not  entitled  to  the 
slightest  consideration. 

Seventh  Reason  for  Protection. — That,  after  a  short  time,  the  policy  may   be 

ABANDONED. 

This  reason  concedes  the  injustice  of  the  policy.  It  is  but  to  say,  As  soon  as  I 
get  rich  enough  to  do  without  it,  I  will  cease  to  plunder  you.  But  let  us  look  into 
this  pretension. 

General  Washington  in  his  seventh  annual  message,  of  December  8,  I795,  says: 
"Our  agricultural  commerce,  and  manufactures  prosper  beyond  former  example." 
In  the  same  paragraph  he  asks:  "Is  it  too  much  to  say  that  our  country  exhibits  a 
spectacle  of  national  happiness  never  surpassed,  if  ever  before  equaled  ?  "  At  this 
time  duties  were  only  15  per  cent.  Mr.  Monroe,  in  his  fifth  annual  message,  of 
December  3,  1821,  says:  "It  may  fairly  be  presumed  that,  under  the  protection 
given  to  domestic  manufactures  by  the  existing  laws,  we  shall  become  at  no  distant 
period,  a  manufacturing  country,  on  an  extensive  scale."  On  the  25th  of  May,  1816, 
in  the  House  of  Representatives, 

"  Mr.  Clay  said,  the  object  of  protecting  manufactures  was,  that  we  might  eventu- 
ally get  articles  of  necessity  made  as  cheap  at  home  as  they  could  be  imported,  and 
thereby  to  produce  an  independence  of  foreign  countries.  In  three  years  he  said,  we 
could  judge  of  the  ability  of  our  establishments  to  furnish  those  articles  as  cheap  as  they 
were  obtained  from  abroad,  and  could  then  legislate  with  the  lights  of  experience.  He 
believed  that  three  years  would be  sufficient  to  place  our  manufactures  on  this  desira- 
ble footing." 

The  same  sort  of  arguments  were  used  in  support  of  the  tariffs  of  1824  and  1828. 
In  1833,  when  the  anti-tariff  party  was  in  the  ascendency,  or,  as  was  conceded,  would 
shortly  be  so;  when  Mr.  Clay  said  of  the  tariff:  "  If  it  should  even  be  preserved  dur- 
ing this  session,  it  must  fall  at  the  next  session;  "  and  when,  under  the  apparent  and 
lofty  desire  of  preserving  in  harmony  and  peace  the  fraternal  relations  of  this  Con- 
fedracy,  he  was  really  struggling  for  the  preservation  of  the  tariff  interest,  did  he  not 
broadly  repeat  the  same  doctrine  ?  "What  was  the  principle,"  he  said,  "which  had 
always  been  contended  for,  in  this  and  the  other  House  ?  That,  after  the  accumula- 
tion of  capital  and  skill,  the  manufacturers  would  stand  alone,  unaided  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, in  competition  with  the  imported  articles  from  any  quarter.  Now,  give  us 
time;  cease  all  fluctuations  and  agitations  for  nine  years,  and  the  manufacturers,  in 
every  branch,  will  sustain  themselves  against  foreign  competition."  In  1795,  the 
prosperity  of  our  manufactures  was  such,  that  General  Washington  thought  it  worthy 
of  a  place  in  his  annual  message  to  Congress.  In  1821,  Mr.  Monroe,  in  the  same 
form,  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  protection  then  existing  would  make  us  a  great 
manufacturing  people.  In  1816,  Mr.  Clay  thought  three  years  enough  to  test  the 
utility  of  protection.  In  1833,  Mr.  Clay  declared -give  nine  years  of  peace,  and  it 
would  enable  our  manufacturers,  "  in  every  branch,'"  to  encounter  foreign  competi- 
tion. Well,  sir,  the  anti-tariff  interests,  with  a  generosity  rarely  equaled,  and  with  a 
manly  confidence,  about  to  be  most  shamefully  requitted,  grant  nine  years  of  peace 
to  their  adversaries — generous,  uninterrupted  peace.  Are  they  now  willing,  l,tn 
e?>ery  branch,"  or,  indeed  in  any  branch,  to  encounter  foreign  competition?  No,  sir; 
still  they  utter  the  same  cuckoo  note.  Greedy  and  rapacious  as  ever,  still  the  cry  is, 
"  Give,  give." 

I  have  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  with  candor,  considered  the  principal  reasons  in  sup- 
port of  a  protective  policy;  and  have  satisfied  myself,  at  least,  that  they  are 
obnoxious,     equally,    to   practical   justice   and   the  soundest  principles  of   political 


29G 

economy.     I  will  now  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  objections  to  the  policy  of 
protection. 

First  Objection. — That  it  is  Injurious  to  Commerce  and  Navigation. 

I  suppose,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  will  be  universally  conceded  that  commerce  and 
navigation  are  two  of  the  great  and  essential  partners  of  agriculture.  Commerce 
takes  up  the  surplus  products  of  agriculture;  and  navigation  transports  those  pro- 
ducts to  the  different  markets  of  the  world.  It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  any  policy 
that  cramps  or  embarrasses  these  branches  of  industry,  is  prejudicial  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  country.  An  abundance  of  ships,  cheaply  built,  is  essential  to  agricul- 
ture. By  it,  freights  are  reduced.  Every  surplus  that  can  be  spared  is  sent  abroad. 
Production  is  stimulated:  the  number  of  our  sailors,  is  of  course,  increased.  The  real 
home  market  is  formed;  and,  in  truth,  every  branch  of  industry  quickened  and  en- 
larged.    I  ask  attention  to  a  table  embracing  our  foreign  trade: 


United  States  foreign 

Population  of  the 

Imports  kept  for 

Imps,  for  consump- 

Years. 

tonnage.     Tons. 

United  State-;. 

consumption. 

tion  which  ought  to 
have  been. 

ISOO 

669,921 

5,245.815 

$52,121,891 

$52,121,891 

l8lO 

984,269 

7,036,563 

61,008,705 

69,495,854 

1815 

854,294 

IS20 

619,896 

9,654,596 

56,441,971 

95,556.800 

1830 

576,475 

12,866,020 

56,489,441 

128,304,706 

184O 

899,764 

17,063,353 

88,951,207 

169,306,145 

1 84I 

946,073 

During  the  first  ten  years,  our  trade  was  annoyed  both  by  England  and  France, 
yet  our  tonnage  increased  nearly  50  per  cent.  During  the  second  of  five  years  only, 
though  the  war  with  England  had  intervened,  and  our  navigation  had  braved  all  the 
fury  of  the  greatest  naval  power  of  the  world,  yet  our  tonnage  had  but  slightly  dimin- 
ished. But  during  the  two  subsequent  periods  of  fifteen  years,  the  three  great 
tariffs  of  1816,  1824,  and  1828,  had  intervened;  and  they  reduced  our  foreign  tonnage 
277,819  tons,  nearly  sweeping  it  from  the  ocean,  and  thus  accomplishing  what  had 
defied  the  power  of  England  with  her  thousand  ships  of  war.  Yes.  sir;  in  this  period, 
our  foreign  tonnage  diminished  over  ^o  per  cent. — and  that,  too,  while  our  popula- 
tion increased  over  50  per  cent.  Is  it  not  most  monstrous?  But,  sir,  in  1833,  the 
compromise  act  was  passed.  By  it  a  scale  of  descending  duties  was  established.  The 
effect  was  soon  visible  in  the  increase  of  our  commerce  and  navigation,  so  that,  in 
the  next  period  of  ten  years  only,  we  more  than  recovered  all  that  we  had  lost  in  the 
preceding  fifteen  years;  our  foreign  tonnage  being,  in  1840.  899,764  tons— an  increase 
since  1830  much  greater  than  our  population.  And,  sir,  this  increase  continues;  our 
foreign  tonnage  being  946,073   tons  in  1841. 

In  support  of  this  view  of  my  subject,  I  will  offer  for  consideration  certain  ex- 
tracts from  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce,  of  which  the  honorable  J.  P. 
Kennedy,  is  chairman. 

[Permit  me  here  to  remark,  however,  that  this  report  is  one  of  the  strongest  tariff 
documents  that  has  been  published  at  the  present  session;  and,  to  my  mind,  the 
deadly  foe  of  the  interest  it  undertakes  to  protect.] 

We  present  the  following  aggregates  of  importation  during  these  terms: 

THE    IMPORTATIONS    OF   SILKS. 

During  the  first  term,  from  1821  to  1830,  amounted  to $71,400,000 

During  the  second  term,  from  1831  to  1840 138,400,000 

Being  an  increase  of  $67,000,000. 

OK    WINES. 

During  the  first  term 15,900,000 

During  the  second  term 29,700,000 

Being  an  increase  of  $13,800,000. 

OF   WORSTED  Go.  »DS. 

During  the  first  term 15,800,000 

During  the  second  term  ...    45, 100,000 

Being  an  increase  of  $29,300,000. 

OF    LINENS. 

During  the  first  term 32,400,000 

During  the  second  term 42,600,000 

Being  an  increase  of  $10,200,000. 


297 

OF   TEAS. 

During  the  first  term 24,400,000 

During  the  second  term 42,900,000 

Being  an  increase  of  $18,500,000. 

OF    COFFEE. 

During  the  first  term 50,300,000 

During  the  second  term 89,500,000 

Being  an  increase  of  $39,200,000. 

"  These  constitute  the  principle  commodities  which,  since  the  act  of  1832  and  1S33, 
with  the  exception  of  wines,  have  been  admitted  free  of  duty;  and  in  regard  to  wii 
the  reductions  of  duty  under  the  act  of   1832,  which  took  effect  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1834,  were  established  at  so  low  a   rate  as  to  be,  in  effect,  equivalent  to  free  im- 
portation." 

Now,  sir,  these  comparative  tables  are  presented  by  the  report  in  question,  by 
way  of  complaint  that  free  goods  produce  an  over-importation  beyond  the  growth  of 
our  population.     It  says: 

"Contrasted  with  this  view  of  the  extension  of  our  trade  through  the  medium  of 
free  goods,  an  examination  of  the  principal  imports  would  show  that,  in  the  dutiable 
articles  retained  in  the  tariff  since  1832,  the  increase  of  importation  has  preserved  a 
ratio  nearer  to  that  of  population;  and  although  these  importations  were,  undoubt- 
edly, somewhat  enlarged  by  the  stimulus  of  the  government  measures  upon  the 
currency,  yet  the  difference  between  them  and  the  free  goods  is  sufficiently  ob%dous 
to  demonstrate  the  pernicious  effect  of  reducing  the  duties." 

Here  is  a  clear  confession  by  a  committee  devoted  to  a  tariff  policy,  that  free 
goods  increase  our  importations,  and,  as  a  consequence,  our  commerce  and  navi- 
gation. 

Nor,  sir,  is  this  all.  Imports  are  only  paid  for  by  exports.  The  imports  and 
exports  must  bear  the  relation  of  equality.  This  is  universally  conceded.  Mr. 
Adams,  in  his  fourth  annual  message,  says:  "In  our  country,  a  uniform  experience 
of  forty  years  has  shown  that,  whatever  the  tariff  of  duties  upon  articles  imported 
from  abroad  has  been,  the  amount  of  importations  has  always  borne  an  average  value 
nearly  approaching  that  of  the  exports,  though  occasionally  differing  in  the  balance — 
sometimes  being  more,  and  sometimes  less."  When,  therefore,  the  honorable  Com- 
mittee of  Commerce  shows  that  free  goods  increase  our  importations,  it  is  also  estab- 
lished that  our  exports  are  increased  in  that  same  ratio.  And  is  not  this  so  ?  Mr. 
Clay  has  said:  "  For  we  are  instructed  by  all  experience,  that  the  consumption  of 
any  article  is  in  proportion  to  the  reduction  of  its  price;  and  that,  in  general,  it  may 
be  taken  as  a  rule,  that  the  duty  forms  a  portion  of  its  price."  Articles  being 
admitted  free  of  duty,  are  reduced  in  price;  more  persons  are  found  to  consume 
them.  As  a  consequence,  exports  are  sent  forward  to  procure  them.  These  find  a 
ready  market;  for  the  increased  consumption  of  the  articles  for  which  these  exports 
are  to  be  exchanged  gives  the  ability  to  purchase  them.  And  thus  a  lively  inter- 
change of  commodities  ensues,  which  increases,  not  only  the  business  of  commerce 
and  navigation,  but  the  comfort,  prosperity  and  happiness  of  all  the  producing 
classes.  Why,  then,  should  this  great  interest  be  sacrificed  to  the  tariff  policy  ?  It  is 
to  be,  in  fact,  the  right  arm  of  our  power  in  all  our  future  wars.  It  asks  no  contri- 
butions to  its  own  support.  It  only  asks  that  it  should  not  be  crippled  and  chained 
for  one  of  the  least  useful  and  important  interests  in  our  country. 

Secona  Objection  to  a  Protective  Policy— That  it  Must,  to  a  Great  Extent, 
Demoralize  the  Country. 

Nothing  is  to  be  more  deprecated,  Mr.  Chairman,  than  the  enactment  of  laws  which 
do  not  find  support  in  the  moral  sense  of  the  community.  It  impairs  that  respect  for 
them  which  is  essential  to  their  utility.  A  bloody  criminal  code  cannot  be  enforced. 
Many  illustrations  might  be  given  of  the  inefficiency  of  human  legislation  for  want  of 
the  necessary  harmony  with  popular  feeling,  were  it  needful.  Can  it,  then,  be  sup- 
posed that  public  feeling  will  co-operate  with  the  law  in  punishing  the  evasion  of  a 
high  tariff?  Or  that  those  who  supply  the  consumer  with  cheap  goods  will  be  looked 
upon  with  hostility?  No,  sir,  smugglers  will  come  to  be  looked  upon  in  this  country', 
as  they  are  now  in  Europe — with  favor.  The  two  great  tariff  nations — Great  Britain 
and  France — with  a  mighty  revenue  service,  with  a  contracted  frontier,  with  a  dense 
population,  a  mighty  military  marine,  and  a  great  experience  and  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject,  have  in  vain  attempted  to  put  down   the  smuggler.     In  Europe, 


smuggling  is  a  well-established  business,  employing  a  large  capital,  with  a  regular 
tariff  of  its  own,  operating  almost  as  steadily  as  the  lawful  trade.     The  smuggler's 


298 

agent  appears  regularly  on  'Change,  and  makes  his  engagements  with  as  much  exact- 
ness as  regular  dealers.  He  will  take  all  the  risks,  and,  for  a  premium  varying  from 
15  to  40  per  cent.,  will  deposit  a  banker's  check  as  a  guaranty  for  the  safe  delivery  of 
the  article  according  to  contract.  The  report  of  Messrs.  Villiers  &  Bowring  on  the 
commercial  relations  between  France  and  Great  Britain  estimates  the  loss  to  the 
British  revenue,  from  the  clandestine  introduction  of  brandy,  geneva  and  tobacco 
from  France,  Belgium  and  Holland,  to  be  above  ^1,500,000—  about  $7,500,000. 

We  are  informed  also,  by  the  same  authority,  that  a  vast  system  of  smuggling  is 
carried  on  with  France  by  the  agency  of  dogs.  "In  1823  it  was  estimated  that  100,- 
000  kilogrammes  (about  225,000  pounds)  of  goods  were  thus  introduced  into  France; 
in  1825,  187,315;  and  in  1826,  2,100,000  kilogrammes."  These  dogs  carried  about  six 
pounds  each,  and  were  easily  made  to  obey  orders  by  harsh  treatment  when  they 
were  loaded,  and  by  kind  treatment  when  they  reached  their  homes.  It  was  esti- 
mated that  not  more  than  one  dog  in  75  was  destroyed,  although  the  frontier  was 
lined  with  revenue  servants. 

Now,  sir,  if  such  be  the  difficulty  in  executing  the  revenue  laws  in  Europe,  with 
all  the  advantages  possessed  there,  what  chance  is  there,  I  ask,  of  executing  them 
here?  With  8,000  miles  of  frontier  (much  of  it  in  forest),  no  human  force  can  pre- 
vent smuggling,  and  exactly  to  the  extent  the  parties  concerned  may  desire1  Buffalo 
will,  no  doubt,  grow  rich;  and  Norfolk,  if  she  be  wise,  may  find  renovation  and  health 
in  this  "bill  of  abominations." 

Third  Objection  to  a  Protective  Policy — That  it  must  lose  us  our  Foreign 
Market. 

It  is  an  undoubted  truth,  that  we  cannot  sell  if  we  do  not  buy;  unless  we  make 
that  which  other  nations  must  have,  and  cannot  elsewhere  procure.  Now,  it  so 
happens  that  there  is  nothing  within  the  whole  range  of  our  industry  that  cannot  be 
elsewhere  procured  in  abundance.  And  it  follows,  as  an  inevitable  consequence,  that 
the  line  of  policy  which  prevents  us  from  being  purchasers,  prevents  us  from  being 
sellers,  also.  There  must  be  substantial  equality  between  exports  and  imports.  If 
we  had  been  always  blessed  with  a  moderate  duty,  assuming  the  imports  of  1800  as 
the  basis  of  my  calculation,  we  should  have  imported,  in  1840,  the  sum  of  $169,306,- 
145;  and,  upon  the  principle  stated,  and  which  cannot  be  denied,  we  would  have 
a  like  sum;  instead  whereof,  we  exported  about  $100,000,000  only. 

This  principle  is  admirably  illustrated  by  a  table  taken  from  Mr.  Kennedy's 
report,  to  which  I  have  referred. 

Total  imports  and  exports  of  the  United  States: 

Imports.  Exports. 

1825 $96,340,075  $99.535>388 

1830 70,876,920  ,                73,849,508 

l835  129,391,247  121,693,577 

1840 107,141,519  131,571,950 

Of  these  amounts  there  were  exported  from,  and  imported  to: 

Great  Britain  and  her  dependencies.  France  and  her  dependencies 

Imports  Exports.  Imports.  Exports. 

1825 $42,394,812      $44,217,555  $11,835,581      $11,891,327 

1830 26,804,984        31,647,881  8,240,885         11,806,238 

1835 65,949,307        60,167,699  23,362,584        20,335,066 

1840 39>I3°,923      7°>322>986  17,908,127      22,355,905 

Spain  and  her  dependencies.  Brazil. 

Imports.  Exports.  Imports.  Exports. 

1825 $9,322,791  $5,840,720  $2,156,707  $2,393,754 

1830 8,373,681  6.049.051  2,491,460  1,843,238 

1835 15,017,140  7,069,279  5.574,466  2,608,656 

1840 14,019.650  7,618.347  4,927,296  2,506,574 

It  is  particularly  well  illustrated  by  our  trade  with  France.  In  consequence  of 
the  abolition  or  great  reduction  of  our  duties  on  French  silks  and  wines,  our  impor- 
tations from  France  very  greatly  increased.  But  it  will  be  observed  that  our  exports 
increased  in  the  same  ratio.  True,  our  imports  from  Spain  and  Brazil  greatly  exceed 
our  exports;  but  the  equality  of  the  general  aggregate  is  maintained. 

If,  then,  it  be  true  that  imports  and  exports  are,  on  an  average  of  years,  nearly 
equal  (as  I  have  very  briefly  attempted  to  establish),  then  it  follows  that  the  present 
bill,  which  is  more  or  less  prohibitory,  and  will  prevent  us,  to  a  great  extent,  from 
buying  from  foreigners,  will  also  prevent  us  from  selling  to  them.  The  consequence 
must  be  most  disastrous  to  those  who  till  the  soil. 

But  this  is  not  all.     When   it  comes  to  be  known   that  it  is  our  settled  policy  to 


299 

make  everything  at  home — to  buy  nothing — we  at  once  provoke  the  hostility  of  the 
world,  and  set  all  nations  to  work  to  procure  elsewhere  the  supplies  previously 
purchashd  of  us.  We  thus  lose  the  foreign  market,  without  which  we  cannot  dispose 
of  our  surplus,  and  without  which  we  would  be  the  prey  of  the  home  market. 

Now,  sir,  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  this  fatal  catastrophe  will  be  permitted? — that 
the  millions  engaged  in  production  will  allow  themselves  to  be  stripped  of  the  foreign 
market  by  a  few  rapacious  manufacturers?  It  would  enrich  them,  but  the  mass 
would,  indeed,  be  impoverished  and  undone. 

Fourth  Objection  to  a  Protective  Policy — That  it  is  Grossly  Oppressive,  Unequal 
and  Unjust. 

Before  I  proceed  with  the  argument  of  this  head,  I  ask  attention  to  a  table  em- 
bracing the  relative  importance  of  the  three  great  interests  of  our  country. 

Capital  employed.   Annual  production.  People  employed. 

Agriculture $1,500,000,000     $794,453,071     $3,719,951 

Forests 9,868,307         17,845,717  15,203 

Miscellaneous 3, 199, 729  68,000 

The  following  articles  more  properly 
belong  to  agriculture  than  to  man- 
ufactures. 

Granite,  etc 2,442,950  3.734 

Bricks  and  lime 9,736,945  22,807 

Turpentine,  tar,  etc 660,827  ) 

Carriages  and  wagons 5,521,632         10,891,887  \ 

Flour.... 37,022,810 1         g^gg 


Other  products  of  mills 65,858,470        76,545,246 

Mechanics,    inseparable    from    agri- 
culture   250,256 

$1,581,278,409     $952,739,182     $4,162,733 

Add  for  real  estate $3,500,000,000 

Commerce  and  navigation 379,445,473  40,871 

Internal,        "            "         11,526,950  I7>S94- 

Ocean,  lakes  and  rivers 100,000,000  92,604 

Fisheries 16,429,620  36,584 

$507,402,043  $187,653 

Manufactures  in  factories $234,643,176    $197,200,304       $265,032 

I  speak,  Mr.  Chairman,  of  the  three  great  interests  of  industry,  because  com- 
merce and  navigation  are  so  essentially  connected,  that  they  may  well  be  united  and 
placed  under  the  same  head.  In  this  arrangement  of  our  industry,  I  have  classed 
with  agriculture  certain  employments  that  have  always  belonged  to  it.  Surely,  fell- 
ing the  forest  and  converting  it  into  timber,  working  rock,  making  brick,  wagons 
and  grinding  meal,  etc.,  may  be  justly  so  associated,  being  identical  in  interest  and 
feeling.  I  have  also  classed  with  agricultural  laborers  those  mechanics  who  have 
always  been  thus  united,  and  who  are  included  in  the  791,545  persons  represented 
by  our  late  census  as  engaged  in  manufactures  and  trades.  In  ascertaining  the  num- 
ber of  persons  engaged  in  the  factory  business,  I  have  deducted  the  persons  I  have 
just  stated  as  given  to  agriculture.  Other  branches  were  deducted,  as  machinery, 
etc.,  because  they  were  articles  entirely  unaffected  by  the  tariff",  etc.  But,  not  claim- 
ing them  for  agriculture,  I  threw  them  out  of  the  calculation  altogether.  But  the 
table,  to  which  I  have  before  referred,  will  enable  all  to  judge  of  the  propriety  of  my 
calculations.     From  this  view: 

Agriculture  has  a  capital  of $5,081,278,409 

Commerce  and  navigation 5°7'402'°43 

Manufactures 234,643,176 

Now,  sir,  these  interests  are  equally  entitled  to  justice,  and  to  be  freed  from 
unequal  burdens.  At  any  rate,  if  partial  legislation  were  to  take  place,  an  unin- 
formed person  would  suppose  that  it  would  be  for  the  benefit  of  the  many,  and  not 
for  the  few.  Yet,  it  is  most  wondrous  !  the  smallest  interest — in  many  of  its  depart- 
ments a  pauper — is  enabled  to  plunder  the  other  two.  It  is  an  admirable  illustration 
of  the  efficiency  of  proper  organization. 

I  present  to  this  committee,  sir,  this  view  of  our  prodigious  wealth,  and  of  the 
persons  engaged  in  its  management,  that  all  may  be  able   to  judge  clearly  the   best 


300 

mode  of  raising  revenue  for  the  support  of  government.  Shall  we  levy  on  the  wealth, 
or  the  people  of  the  country  ?  Or  shall  we  put  the  whole  burden  upon  a  portion  of 
our  wealth  and  people  only?  These  are  truly  interesting  inquiries,  involved  in  the 
bill  before  us.     Let  us  examine  them. 

According  to  my  table,  our  aggregate  wealth  amounts  to  something  over  five 
thousand  eight  hundred  millions.  None  can  think  it  less.  Indeed,  our  household 
property  and  slaves  are  altogether  omitted  in  this  estimate.  If  we  levy  upon  this 
wealth  the  sum  requisite  to  support  the  government,  it  is  obvious  that  the  most  equal 
and  exact  justice  is  done  to  all  our  citizens,  each  paying  in  proportion  to  the  wealth 
he  possesses;  and  no  more.  Here,  sir,  there  is  no  proper  room  for  complaint — no 
bickering — no  hatred  and  ill-will;  but  the  burdens  and  the  blessings  of  government, 
like  the  dews  of  heaven,  fall  equally  upon  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  just  and  the  un- 
just. Sir,  is  not  this  so  plain  as  to  defy  contradiction  ?  Is  it  possible  that  such  a  sys- 
tem of  revenue  cannot  find  favor  with  the  American  people  ?  that  they,  when  they 
come  to  consider  it,  will  pronounce  it  unwise,  impracticable,  and  inexpedient  ? 

But,  sir,  the  manufacturers— constituting  about  one-nineteenth  of  the  laboring 
classes — insist  that  the  revenue  ought  not  to  be  collected  from  the  wealth  of  the 
country,  but  from  duties  on  foreign  imports;  and  not  even  by  an  equal,  uniform,  ad 
valorem  duty,  but  by  a  duty  discriminating  in  favor  of  their  manufactures — affording 
what  has  been,  and  still  is  called,  incidental  protection.  No  term  is  more  shamefully 
perverted.  Incidental  means  casual — happening  by  chance.  Is  that  the  character  of  the 
bill  before  us?  A  duty  of  fourteen  cents  on  an  article  that  costs  eight  cents — of  six 
cents  on  one  that  costs  two  cents — of  nine  cents  on  one  that  costs  six  cents,  (the  three 
articles  being  coarse  flannels,  cottons,  and  calicoes,)  is  a  protection  "  happening  by 
chance"  indeed!  Sir,  what  is  incidental  protection,  as  now  understood  and  carried 
out,  but  the  most  shameful  and  unblushing  wrong?  Every  sort  of  regular  expendi- 
ture is  swollen  to  the  largest  size;  improvements  undertaken,  which  are  neither 
sanctioned  by  the  constitution  nor  common  sense;  claims  rejected,  perhaps,  a  hund- 
red times — old  as  the  hills  almost,  and  frivolous  in  the  extreme,  are  passed.  And 
then,  if  by  all  these  means  such  a  charge  is  not  raised  against  the  treasury  as  to  re- 
quire a  tariff  large  enough  to  satisfy  the  cormorant  appetite  of  the  manufacturers, 
they  are  allowed  to  discriminate,  and,  under  the  general  name  of  incidental  protec- 
tion, procure  all  thaXlkeir  modesty  will  permit  them  to  ask.  Incidental  and  direct  pro- 
tection are,  then,  the  same;  and  the  man  who  attempts,  at  this  day,  a  distinction,  is 
either  trying  to  cheat  others,  or  to  cheat  himself. 

But,  sir,  whenever  protection,  whether  incidental  or  direct,  is  necessary  to  the 
support  of  any  branch  of  manufactures,  it  is  a  public  wrong  and  a  public  injury. 

What  is  the  first  fact  agreed  upon  ?  that  a  certain  branch  of  manufactures  can- 
not support  itself  at  the  price  it  can  get  for  what  it  makes.  It  is,  then,  a  pauper  upon 
the  parish;  and  must  either  receive  bounties,  in  the  shape  of  duties,  or  it  must  give 
up  its  business,  and  go  to  a  more  profitable  employment.  If,  in  the  shape  of  duties, 
you  take  a  share  of  the  profits  of  the  other  concerns  of  the  country,  to  supply  the 
losses  of  one  in  question,  do  you  not  inflict  a  great  wrong  upon  those  you  have 
plundered?  And  if,  by  such  means,  you  are  able  to  keep  up  this  losing  concern, 
will  you  not,  by  diminishing  the  general  wealth,  perpetrate  a  great  public  injury?  It 
is,  in  truth,  like  putting  a  certain  number  of  persons  upon  the  poor  list,  and  support- 
ing them  out  of  the  county-levy.  The  county  would  clearly  be  the  richer,  by  the 
whole  amount  of  their  support,  had  they  never  undertaken  it.  And,  as  every  man  of 
practical  wisdom  would  give  up  his  private  undertaking  which  could  not  support  it- 
self, so  it  is,  to  my  mind,  the  part  of  true  wisdom,  after  givingevery  branch  of  indus- 
try the  protection  of  just  and  equal  laws,  to  leave  them  to  thrive  or  perish,  as  they 
may  be  able  to  stand  the  competition  of  rival  establishments. 

It  is,  undoubtedly,  the  part  of  duty  and  justice,  to  place  the  whole  public  burdens 
upon  the  whole  people.  But  this  incidental  protection  incidentally  exempts  all  those, 
whose  business  is  aided  by  it,  from  any  share  of  the  public  burdens.  Were  you,  by 
law,  in  direct  terms,  to  exempt  manufacturers  from  taxes,  the  voice  of  the  country 
would  be  raised  in  indignant  condemnation.  But,  by  incidental  protection,  precisely 
the  same  result  is  accomplished;  and  many  of  those  whom  it  oppresses  are  drawn  to 
its  support.  It  is  vain  for  gentlemen  to  pretend  that  such  is  not  the  result  of  this 
policy.  No  human  wit  can  fail  to  perceive  that  that  system  of  revenue  by  which  the 
government  and  the  manufacturers  are  supported,  is  one  which  places  the  expense 
of  government  upon  a  part  of  the  people.  In  truth,  incidental  benefit  and  incidental 
wront;  may  be  regarded  as  inseparable,  in  reference  to  all  the  great  departments  of 
industry.  It  is  but  a  more  polite  way  of  expressing  a  homely  adage,  that  "  what  is 
one  man's  loss  is  another's  gain." 

But,  it  is  asked,  will  you  destroy,  annihilate,  the  vast  establishments  now  en- 
gaged in  manufactures?  I  answer,  I  would  not.  But  1  would  cease  to  destroy,  anni- 
hilate, the  wealth  of  the  country  in  their  support.  They  should  no  longer  be  fed  from 
the  general  crib  by  bounties  and  taxes.     I  would  refuse  any  longer  to  support  such 


301 

overgrown  and  rapacious  paupers.  I  would  say  to  them,  that,  for  six-and-twenty 
years — a  period  beyond  the  legal  infancy  of  man — you  have  grown  and  fattened  upon 
the  liberal  provision  of  a  generous  and  indulgent  country;  and  now  you  must  set  up 
for  yourselves;  "  root  hog  or  die." 

It,  however,  does  not  follow  that  all  our  manufacturing  establishments  would 
perish.  Those  unwisely  located,  or  extravagantly  or  unskilfully  conducted,  would 
no  doubt  soon  cease  to  be.  And  this,  so  far  from  being  a  subject  of  regret,  ought  to 
be  one  of  rejoicing;  for  the  country  would  be  no  longer  burdened  with  the  support  oi 
unprofitable  establishments.  But  many,  very  many  of  them,  if  not  all,  would  sur- 
vive. Forced  to  depend  upon  their  own  exertions,  theirindustry  would  be  increased, 
their  wits  sharpened,  and  their  management  improved.  They  would  become  useful 
and  valuable  members  of  the  community,  adding  to,  and  not  consuming,  its  wealth. 

Many  gentlemen — advocates  of  incidental  protection — are  very  indignant  at  the 
proposition  to  tax  tea  and  coffee.  They  are,  necessaries  of  life,  of  universal  use 
among  the  poor,  say  these  incidental  politicians;  and  should  therefore  be  free.  I  have 
heard  such  arguments  from  those  who  would  tax  the  laborer's  shirt  300  per  cent.,  the 
under-dress  of  the  milk-maid  180  per  cent.,  and  the  iron  for  the  plough  of  the  small 
farmer  50  per  cent.  And  I  could  but  in  bitterness  of  spirit  ask  myself  if  such  dear 
lovers  of  the  poor  were  playing  the  hypocrite,  or  had  really  cheated  themselves  into 
the  belief  that  the  cotton  shirt,  the  flannel  undercoat,  and  the  iron  plough,  were  not 
equally  essential  and  necessary  to  the  poor  as  a  cup  of  tea  or  coffee. 

One  of  the  great  objections  I  entertain  to  incidental  protection  is,  that  it  oppresses 
the  poor,  by  transferring  the  fruits  of  their  labor  to  swell  the  gains  of  capitalists. 
Every  cent  that  is  paid  for  a  yard  of  cloth,  over  and  above  the  price  at  which  it  could 
be  purchased  under  a  system  of  free  trade,  is  either  annihilated  in  supporting  the 
manufacturer,  or  swells  the  amount  of  his  wealth.  In  either  event,  it  is  the  same 
thing  to  the  poor  man.  His  money  is  gone — most  unjustly  lost  to  him  forever.  Do 
not  understand  me  as  being  the  advocate  of  a  system  shaped  for  the  benefit  of  the 
poor  man.  No,  sir;  no.  I  entirely  repudiate  it.  I  regard  such  a  system  as  a  species 
of  agrarianism,  and  nothing  less.  The  poor  man  has  an  interest,  a  most  particular 
interest,  in  the  institutions  of  freedom;  and,  as  a  matter  of  pride— the  pride  of  a  free- 
man— should  demand  to  pay  in  proportion  to  his  property;  and  treat  with  scorn — 
bitter,  indignant  scorn  — all  discriminations  in  his  favor.  But  what  I  do  insist  upon  is, 
that  the  poor  shall  not  be  oppressed;  that,  under  the  specious  guise  of  friendship,  the 
poor  shall  not  be  crushed  beneath  the  iron  heel  oi.  incidental  protection.  Such,  sir,  I 
tell  you,  is  the  character  of  the  bill  now  under  consideration. 

To  illustrate  this  view  in  a  tangible  form,  I  will  invite  attention  to  a  table  pre- 
pared by  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Snyder],  whose  sound 
practical  views,  a  few  days  since,  gave  so  much  satisfaction  to  the  committee. 

This  ts»ble  sets  forth  the  amount  of  articles,  which  it  is  supposed  each  poor 
family  wiir*t:onsume,  with  the  tax,  amounting  to  $9,535,  which  he  pays  on  such 
articles  to  the  Federal  government.  The  amount  is  greater  in  fact,  because  the  $9,545 
is  paid  first  by  the  importer;  and  not  only  he,  but  every  merchant  who  sells  the 
articles  charges  a  profit  on  this  sum;  so  that  it  is,  in  truth,  doubled  to  the  consumer. 

Sugar,  2  pounds  per  week — duty  l\  cents  per  pound 5 

Coffee,  2  pounds  per  week — duty  2  cents  per  pound 4 

9 
Multiply  this  by  52  weeks 52 

And  we  have,  for  one  year $4  68 

To  this  amount  add — 

2  bushels  of  salt,  at  10  cents  duty 20 

1  gallon  of  spirits 60 

3  gallons  of  vinegar  at  8  cents 24 

\   ream  of  paper I   20 

9  pounds  of  steel — duty  2\  cents  per  pound --'• 

10  pounds  of  lead  (for  fowling)  at  3  cents  per  pound 3° 

1  sickle,  (or  reaping  hook) 3° 

1   grass  scythe 3° 

100  pounds  bar  iron — tariff  $30  per  ton 1  5° 

$9  54 

By  this  table  each  family  can  calculate,  for  itself,  whether  the  quantity  be  more 
or  less.  But  this  is  far  from  all.  Common  white  cloth  can  be  bought  in  England  for 
z\  cents  a  yard.  The  duty  proposed  is  6|  cents.  Calico,  costing  in  England  6  cents 
has  a  duty  of  10  cents.  Flannel,  costing  8  cents  a  yard,  has  a  duty  of  14  cents,  etc., 
etc., ;  so  that,  in  every  article  a  man  buys  from  a  store,  he  is  paying  a  heavy  tax.     If 


.  v 


302 

a  foreign  article,  he  pays  a  direct  tax;  if  a  home  article,  he  pays  the  tax  indirectly,  in 
the  increased  price  demanded.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  in  my  State,  many  a 
poor  man,  who  pays  but  10  cents  to  the  State,  pays  $20  to  the  Federal  government, 
or  to  manufacturers — the  price  of  the  goods  he  buys  being  higher  than  they  ought  to 
be,  by  reason  of  duties  imposed  upon  foreign  imports.  But  this  is  not  all;  the  poor 
man  will  frequently  pay  more  taxes  than  the  rich  one;  the  tax  being  upon  consump- 
tion. The  poor  man  with  a  large  family  must  eat,  and  drink,  and  wear.  To  support 
his  family  at  all,  he  has  to  labor  early  and  late.  And  in  the  midst  of  all  his  anxieties, 
insteps  "incidental  protection,"  imposes  high  duties  upon  the  articles  the  poor 
man's  family  must  use,  and  thus  deepens  his  preplexities,  while  in  his  vocation  of 
patriotism  and  love.  The  rich  old  bachelor,  however,  disregarding  the  injunction  to 
increase  and  multiply,  lives  to  himself,  and  within  himself  adds  dollar  to  dollar,  and 
contributes  nothing— not  a  cent — to  the  support  of  that  government  by  which  he  is 
sheltered  and  protected.  Is  this  right  ?  Yet,  this  is  the  principle  of  incidental  pro- 
tection. 

But  I  will  give  some  general  illustrations  of  the  beauties  of  incidental  protection. 
In  1840,  we  imported  120,039,585  pounds  of  sugar,  and  made  in  the  United  States, 
155,110,809  pounds;  making,  after  deducting  18,930,952  pounds,  which  were  re-ex- 
ported, the  grand  total  of  256,219,442  pounds.  Well,  the  sugar-planters  of  Louisiana, 
about  600  in  number,  say  they  must  be  ruined  without  a  duty  on  sugar — that  is,  upon 
the  article  we  buy  from  foreigners.  The  incidental  politicians  say  the  country  needs 
revenue,  and  we  will  save  the  planters  from  ruin  by  imposing  a  duty  of  2\  cents  a 
pound.  This  duty  upon  the  quantity  imported,  deducting  that  re-exported,  gives  a 
revenue  of  about  two  millions  and  a  half.  But  the  sugar-planters  wanted  the  duty  to 
save  them  from  ruin.  The  duty  is  imposed  for  that  object,  certainly,  in  part.  Of 
course,  the  planter  puts  the  duty  upon  his  sugar  also,  which,  being  2}  cents  upon  the 
whole  quantity  of  256,219,442  pounds  of  sugar,  gives  the  sum  of  $6,405,485,  which  is 
annually  paid  for  the  growth  of  sugar  in  the  United  States — two  millions  and  a  half  of 
which  goes  into  the  treasury,  and  the  balance  into  the  pockets  of  the  sugar-growers. 
The  investments  in  the  sugar  business  are  supposed  to  be  worth  forty  millions  of 
dollars,  consisting  chiefly  of  land  and  negroes.  If  the  plantations  were  permitted 
to  go  down,  the  loss  of  capital  could  not  exceed  ten  millions  of  dollars. 
Is  it  not  plain  it  would  be  the  better  policy,  inasmuch  as  we  will  have  to 
pay  upwards  of  six  millions  to  keep  them  going?  Yes;  every  poor  woman  in  the 
country,  when  she  sips  her  coffee,  and  gives  the  pap  to  her  child,  should  remember 
that  the  sugar  with  which  both  are  sweetened  is  enhanced  to  her  in  price,  for  the  en- 
richment of  the  sugar-planter,  and  should  ever,  in  her  heart  at  least,  curse  the  policy 
of  incidental  protection. 

But,  of  all  the  outrages  that  legislation  ever  perpetrated  upon  a  universal  want, 
that  upon  salt  is  the  greatest.  Without  pausing  to  descant  upon  it,  I  will  merely  re- 
mark, that  to  man  and  beast  it  is  of  the  most  indispensable  necessity.  As  a  manure 
even,  to  fertilize  the  earth,  it  is  of  the  very  highest  importance.  To  meet  this  univer- 
sal demand  for  salt,  more  than  one-half  of  this  solid  globe  is  covered  with  an  ever- 
lasting brine;  in  situations  not  convenient  to  this  briny  wave,  salt  springs  are  found; 
and  in  many  parts  of  the  world  it  is  dug  as  a  mineral  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth  it- 
self. It  was,  then,  a  matter  of  surprise  and  regret  to  me,  to  hear  my  honorable  col- 
league [Mr.  Summers],  advocate  the  increase  of  the  salt  duty  for  the  benefit  of  the 
salt  manufactures  of  his  county,  lying  in  the  mountains  of  Yirginia,  remote  from  the 
seaboard,  and  amply  protected  by  its  inland  situation  from  all  competition  in  the 
supply  of  the  adjacent  country.  I  regretted  it,  because  I  saw  in  it  a  disposition 
to  tax  the  whole  seventeen  millions  of  people,  for  the  benefit  of  a  small  interest 
of  a  few  hundreds  of  people  in  my  own  State,  already  most  amply  protected  by 
their  location,  if  content  to  supply  the  country  that  naturally  looks  to  them  for  this 
essential  article — an  interest  that  most  shamefully  oppresses  the  community  in  which 
it  is  located,  by  converting  the  supply  of  salt  into  a  grinding  monopoly.  My  colleague 
shakes  his  head.  The  gentleman  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Triplett]  says,  the  monopoly 
is  broken  up.  It  may  be  so,  and  I  so  presume  it,  as  it  is  so  said.  But  that  it  did 
exist,  is  undoubted,  and  in  as  oppressive  a  form  as  could  have  been  devised.  And 
this  article,  so  essential  to  the  health  and  prosperity  of  man — of  such  universal  use 
and  necessity,  and  so  abundantly  supplied  by  God — my  colleague  is  willing,  by  high 
taxes,  to  make  a  monopoly  in  the  hands  of  the  few  producers  of  it  in  the  United 
States.  Why,  sir,  the  duty  proposed  is  over  100  per  cent.,  being  eight  cents  on  the 
bushel  of  50  pounds,  while  the  foreign  bushel  is  80  pounds,  being  a  duty,  in  effect,  of 
12^  cents. 

Price,  per  bushel,  of  salt  imported  into  the  United  States  from  the  countries 
named,  at  periods  of  three  and  five  years,  during  (the  years  1822,  1825,  1830,  1835 
and  1838. 


303 

Whence  imported.  1822.  1825.  1830.  1835.  1838. 

Cents.  Cents.  Cents.  Cents.  Cents. 

Danish  West  Indies 32  1-8  10  1-2  11  16  1-2  7  3-5 

I  >utch  West  Indies 18  10   1-2  7  7-8  9   1-6  7   1-6 

England 18  1-6  18  1-6  15  15  3-4  18 

Ireland 185-8  13  1-2  20  1-3  23  5-8  16  i-S 

British  West  Indies  (Turk's  Island  etc)  14  2-3  10  1-8  9  1-3  10  1-4  10  7-8 

France  on  the  Mediterranean 8   1-2  10  1-4  7  7-8  6  5-8  7   1-2 

Spain  on  the  Atlantic 7  1-5  7  3-4  6  3-4  4  2-3  4  2-3 

Spain  on  the  Mediterranean 9  5-8  8  1-4  8  3-4  5   1-2  4  2-3 

Portugal 10  9  8  6  1-10  6  1-2 

Cape  de  Verds 81-3  87-8  75-8  91-4  71-2 

J,1.31? 9  3-4  61-5  55-8  41-3  45-8 

%lc^y-- : 3  3-4  23-4  25-8 

Colombia 103-4  20  7  1-4  5   1-3 

But,  sir,  we  imported,  in  1840,  8,183,203  bushels  of  salt,  at  a  cost  of  $1,015,426. 
We  made,  according  to  the  census  of  1840,  6,179,174  bushels.  Upon  this  whole 
amount  of  14,362,376  bushels,  we  have  to  pay  the  duty  upon  the  article  imported,  of 
course,  upon  the  article  made,  in  the  increased  price  of  it — making,  in  fact,  a  sum 
paid  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  upon  the  article  of  salt,  that  would  more  than 
buy  every  bushel  made  in  the  Union.  This  is  the  consequence  of  incidental  pro- 
tection. 

The  same  illustrations  might  be  given  in  reference  to  every  public  want;  but  it 
is  needless.  I  will,  however,  remark,  that  we  imported  and  retained  for  use,  in  1840, 
about  $45,000,000  of  goods.  During  the  same  year  we  manufactured  articles  like 
those  imported  to  about  the  amount  of  $225,000,000.  Now,  if  we  levy  an  additional 
duty  of  20  per  cent,  upon  the  articles  imported,  it  causes  a  like  increase  of  price  on 
the  like  articles  made  by  our  manufacturers;  and  thus,  we  pay  $54,000,000  a  year  to 
get  $9,000,000  into  the  treasury.  This  is  the  grand  result  of  the  doctrine  of  incidental 
protection.  Am  I  not,  then,  warranted  in  my  position,  that  the  policy  of  protection 
is  grossly  unequal,  oppressive  and  unjust. 

CAUSES  OF  PUBLIC  DISTRESS. 

I  hold,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the  true  and  proper  causes  of  the  universal  distress 
which  pervades  this  country,  are  debt,  extravagance  and  idleness.  I  class,  among 
the  idlers,  all  who  are  unprofitably  employed;  as  they  do  not  produce,  but  destroy 
the  common  wealth.  Among  these  are  to  be  found  all  manufacturers  who  cannot 
exist  without  a  tariff.  Extravagance,  to  which  I  allude,  is  the  consequence,  mainly, 
of  our  false  system  of  credits;  which  have  unsettled,  in  the  public  mind,  the  true 
estimate  of  values,  and  caused  the  personal  expenses  of  the  people,  as  well  as  the 
operations  of  industry,  to  be  carried  on  without  regard  to  a  true  and  proper  economy. 
Debt  is  the  result  of  many  causes,  but  chiefly  of  banking.  Banking,  as  it  exists,  is 
destructive,  to  a  serious  extent,  of  virtue  and  morality;  and,  incidentally,  sends  more 
legions  of  souls  to  the  devil  than  any  other  one  of  his  instruments.  To  me  it  is  a 
matter  of  amazement  that  those  who  teach  the  importance  of  self-denial  should  advo- 
cate or  sustain  a  system  which  leads  us  continually  into  temptation,  and  which  feeds, 
by  its  facilities,  all  that  is  worldly  in  our  nature.  Were  we  out  of  debt,  would  not 
the  country  be  prosperous,  and,  I  may  add,  happy  ?  Every  element  of  wealth  is 
abundant.  The  country  never  more  abounded  in  all  that  ministers  to  the  necessities, 
the  appetites  and  the  elegant  comforts  of  man.  Money,  in  its  legitimate  function  of 
superseding  barter,  is  abundant.  But  we  are  in  debt.  And  the  convulsion,  which 
now  wrings  with  anguish  every  branch  of  business,  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a 
mighty  effort  to  adjust  and  liquidate  our  almost  universal  indebtedness.  This  effort 
promotes  industry,  which  increases  production.  It  also  arrests  extravagance,  which 
diminishes  consumption.  And  thus,  increased  production  and  decreased  consump- 
tion, by  giving  a  vast  surplus,  lower  prices  enormously,  which,  while  the  general 
comfort  of  the  whole  people  is  prodigiously  improved,  leaves  the  debtor  class  in  the 
greatest,  and  frequently  most  inextricable  distress.  Many  of  the  fairest  fields  of  the 
South  have  been  abandoned  by  their  late  happy  and  apparently  prosperous  owners. 
All  the  great  staple  interests  are  gloomy  and  depressed.  And  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at,  that  the  manufacturing  interests  should  not  have  escaped  from  the  influence  of 
causes  that  have  operated  so  disastrously  upon  all  other  industry. 

But,  sir,  do  the  manufacturers  suffer  more  than  the  planters,  the  farmers,  or  the 
stock-raisers?  I  maintain  they  do  not.  A  few  days  ago  I  saw  it  stated  that  several 
new  factories  were  about  to  be  erected  in  Pennsylvania,  and  I  cut  from  a  Northern 
paper,  about  three  months  ago,  the  following  editorial: 

"  Factories. — We  learn  from  the  Troy  Whig  that  Mr.  Benjamin  Marshall,  of  New 
York,  is  about  erecting  four  factories  on  the  Poestenkill,  in  addition  to  the  two  already 


304 

in  progress  there.  The  amount  of  money  to  be  expended  is  about  $500,000;  and  the 
mills,  when  in  operation,  will  afford  employment  to  more  than  1,500  persons." 

The  operations  at  Lowell  have  been  recently  enlarged;  and  if  stoppages  have 
occurred,  they  are  few  and  far  between,  and  rather  indicate  deficient  capital  or  skill, 
than  deficient  profit.  Is  this  state  of  things  attributed  to  low  duties?  Surely  not. 
In  England,  where  we  are  told  the  highest  duties  exist,  the  distress  is  frightful.  This 
is  so  notorious  that  proofs  must  be  unnecessary.  But  I  will  ask  attention  to  a  single 
extract  concerning  the  state  of  things  at  Manchester,  in  England,  by  the  last  arrival: 

"Two  mills  belonging  to  Mr.  Richard  Roberts,  Manchester,  will  cease  working 
this  day  (Saturday).  The  very  extensive  mills  of  Messrs.  Stirling  and  Becton,  in 
which,  it  is  said,  2,000  hands  have  been  employed,  have  not  been  working  since  last 
Saturday.  Another  mill — and  an  extensive  one — belonging  to  a  company,  will  either 
totally  close  to  day  or  next  Saturday,  or  the  greatest  part  of  the  machinery  will  stand 
still.  The  Oxford  road  Twist  Company  will  stop  400  looms  this  day.  Messrs.  Sharp, 
Roberts  &  Co.,  the  well-known  and  very  celebrated  locomotive  engineers,  gave  notice 
a  few  days  ago,  it  is  said,  to  200  or  300  mechanics,  that  unless  some  orders  were 
received  before  to-day,  they  would,  this  and  the  succeeding  week,  be  discharged." 

Now,  if  low  duties  stop  our  factories  they  ought  to  keep  those  in  England  going. 
But  this,  it  is  shown,  is  not  the  fact.  Far,  far  from  it;  as  the  groans  and  starvation 
of  the  oepratives  of  England  attest.  The  fact  is,  the  whole  world  is  in  debt;  and  the 
whole  world,  in  trying  to  pay,  have,  to  a  great  extent,  stopped  consumption.  If  an 
individual  refuses  to  buy  his  usual  suit  of  clothes,  determining  to  make  the  old  stock 
answer,  he  perceives  the  value  of  the  retrenchment.  But  he  does  not  look  to  the 
consequences  of  a  whole  nation  thus  acting,  which  are  prodigious.  We  are  now 
practising  this  economy;  and  the  great  consequence  is,  that  our  manufacturers  want 
purchasers  only.  In  support  of  this  view,  I  ask  attention  to  a  single  extract  from  a 
recent  Northern  paper: 

"Goods  in  Market. — It  is  stated  in  the  Portland  Argus,  that  Messrs.  A.  and  A. 
Lawrence  &  Co.,  Boston,  who  sell  the  Lowell  cotton  goods,  have  on  hand  28,000  bales, 
or  about  25,000,000  yards.  This  includes  the  goods  from  the  York  mills,  Dover  and 
the  Cocheco  mills,  Saco.  James  W.  Page  &  Co.,  and  James  H.  Mills  &  Co.,  from  the 
various  other  establishments  in  New  England,  have  about  an  equal  amount;  making 
50,000,000  of  yards  of  goods  piled  up  in  the  stores  of  merchants,  wating  for  market." 

This  speaks  only  of  a  single  city.  Now,  how  can  government  justly  relieve  these 
distresses?  Can  they,  also,  relieve  the  distresses  of  other  branches  of  industry?  I 
have  prices  of  two  periods  of  time  at  the  city  of  Pittsburg.     Hear  ! 

"Two  Pictures. — The  way  that  provisions  and  other  articles  have  fallen  at  the 
west  is  a  caution  to  pork  dealers  and  hucksters.  The  following  is  a  list  of  prices  at 
Pittsburg  at  the  two  periods  therein  mentioned: 

April  4,  1839.  July,  1842. 

Bacon,  assorted . .  o7,  to  10                              2  to    2.1 

Lard 10                              4  to    4.I 

Butter — keg 16                              5  to    6 

"         roll 22                              6  to    7 

Oats 62}                                    20 

Blooms $100  00                                $50  00 

Pig  iron 43  00                                  20  00 

Lead 6                                      3 

Whiskey 43    to  45                             13  to  15 

Molasses 46                                    26 

Salt 212                                     1 

Cloverseed $1 1  50  to    $12  00  $4  to    S4  50 

Dry  peaches 3  50   tn        4  00                                    1  75 

In  these  prices  it  will  be  seen  that  the  farmer's  bacon,  oats,  etc.,  have  fallen 
greatly  more  than  the  pigs  and  the  blooms  of  the  iron-master:  yet  he  is  to  be  cared 
for,  while  the  farmer,  in  fact,  has  no  benefit  from  this  bill;  but  has  to  pay  (indirectly, 
it  is  true)  tin-  whole  sum  secured  to  the  iron-master.  Sir,  can  this  be  tolerated?  Will 
it  be  borne  by  the  free  and  intelligent  people  of  this  country? 

THE  BILL. 

Contemporaneous  with,  or  preceding  the  bill  now  under  consideration,  we  had 
three  reports  upon  the  subject  of  duties  upon  foreign  imports:  The  first  from  the 
Committee  on  Manufactures;  the  second  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  and  the 
third  from  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means.  These  three  organs  are  important 
agents  in  the  legislation  of  the  country,  inasmuch  as  they  are  expected  to  take 
enlarged  and  comprehensive  views  of  the  public  interests,  and   to  give  to  Congress 


305 

the  results  of  their  most  impartial  inquiries,  and  of  their  best  considered  reflections. 
But  I  charge — deliberately  charge — that  no  interest  was  regarded  in  either  of  these 
reports,  except  that  of  the  manufacturer.  The  general  inquiry  was,  how  much  articles 
would  bear  so  as  not  to  exclude  them  entirely  from  the  country  ?  and  even  this,  in 
many  instances,  was  disregarded;  I  charge  that,  pending  the  preparation  of  these 
reports,  and  the  bills  which  accompany  them,  numbers  of  manufacturers  were  in 
daily  and  hourly  attendance;  that  the  bills  were,  in  the  general,  made  to  suit  them; 
altered  to  suit  them;  and  that,  too,  at  their  instance,  in  some  particulars,  after  the 
items  had  been  agreed  upon.  I  charge  that  the  bill  that  will  probably  pass  this 
House  will  be  the  manufacturers'  bill;  and  is  only  subjected  to  the  formality  of  a 
passage  here,  to  comply  with  the  forms  of  the  Constitution.  Sir,  can  such  a  bill  pos- 
sess the  affection,  or  command  the  confidence  of  the  country?  No,  sir,  never.  It  is 
destined  to  evasion  in  every  form  human  wit  can  devise;  to  a  short  life  and  in- 
glorious end. 

WHAT  IS  TO  BE  DONE  FOR  REVENUE? 

Sir,  this  inquiry  presents  but  little  difficulty.  It  is  known  that  our  import  for 
1841  increased  considerably  over  that  of  1840,  which  is  the  year  assumed  as  the  basis 
of  calculation  for  the  future. 

The  imports  for  1840  were $107,141,519 

"  "  "    1841     "     127,949,177 

The  duties  on  imports  for  the  first  half  of  the  present  year  are  known  to  exceed 
those  of  the  corresponding  half  of  the  last  year  by  nearly  $2,000,000. 

The  receipts  for  the  first  half  of  the  year  1841  were $6, 1 13,410 

"  "  "        "      "       "  "      1842      "    7,974,689 


Increase $1,801,270 


Domestic  exports  in  1840 $113,895,624 

Foreign  "  1840 18,190,312 

Exports $132,085,936 

Domestic  exports  in  1841 $106,382,322 

Foreign  "  1841 15,469,081 

Exports $121,851,403 

From  these  tables  it  is  obvious  our  foreign  trade  is  in  a  most  healthy  state. 
Importations  must  increase  with  our  increase  of  capacity  to  buy  them;  especially  as, 
owing  to  their  cheapness,  the  number  of  consumers  must  be  greatly  increased;  and 
thus  we  may  safely  calculate  for  the  future.  I  then  assume,  sir,  that  the  revenue 
from  customs,  for  the  present  half  year,  will  equal  what  it  was  for  the  first,  which 
will  make  a  revenue  for  this  year,  from  customs,  under  the  compromise  act  and  that 
of  the  extra  session,  of  $15,949,378.  I  would,  then,  impose  a  duty  upon  tea  and 
coffee  and  sundry  other  articles.  I  select  tea  and  coffee,  especially,  because  they  are 
articles  of  universal  use;  and  such  portion  of  the  public  tax,  at  least,  would  be  borne, 
in  nearly  just  proportions,  by  the  whole  American  people.  I  know  this  tax  is  opposed 
upon  the  ground  that  it  would  be  oppressive  to  the  poor.  But  those  who  make  this 
objection,  and  yet  go  for  high  taxes  on  coarse  cloths,  salt,  sugar  and  iron  (articles  of 
much  more  general  necessity  and  use  than  tea  or  coffee),  pay  but  a  poor  compliment 
to  their  sincerity.  Impose  a  tax  upon  tea  and  coffee  equal  to  that  of  1830,  and  we 
should  have  an  ample  revenue. 

1830.  Pounds.  Duties. 

Imports  of  tea 8,609,415  $2,908, 197 

"   coffee 51,488,248  2,574,412 

Revenue  from  tea  and  coffee $5'482>6o9 

1840                                                                          Pounds.  Duties. 

Imports  of  coffee 94,996,095  $4*749<S°4 

"           "    tea 19,703,620  6,655,738 

Revenue  from  tea  and  coffee $H54°5>542 

This  is  the  amount  of  duty  that  would  have  been  collected  in  1840  on  these  two 
articles,  had  such  duty  been  levied.     Were  such  duty  now  levied  there  could  be  no 


306 

doubt  but  we  should  realize  an  amount  of  revenue  fully  equal  to  the  sum  above 
stated.     The  result  would  be — 

From  customs,  under  existing  laws $15,949,378 

From  tea  and  coffee 11,405,542 

From  other  free  goods,  say 1,000,000 

Annual  revenue $28,354,920 

Add  to  this  the  revenue  from  the  public  lands,  which,  properly  put  into  market, 
and  under  a  steady  state  of  public  affairs,  would  give  $3,000,000  more;  and,  after  de- 
ducting from  the  estimated  charge  on  account  of  the  army,  which  will  be  unquestion- 
ably reduced,  we  shall  have  an  ample  revenue  for  all  proper  and  healthful  purposes. 
This  system  of  revenue  adopted,  there  would  no  longer  be  room  for  the  play  of  sel- 
fish interests.  The  disturbing  subject  of  the  tariff  would  no  longer  distract  the  public 
councils;  and  the  industrial  pursuits  of  the  country  would  quietly  adjust  themselves 
to  each  other,  in  harmony  and  peace.  Sir,  is  not  this  a  consummation  most  devoutly 
to  be  wished  ? 

This  policy  ought  to  meet  with  the  hearty  approbation  of  one  great  school  of 
economists  on  this  floor,  which  claims  to  reduce  prices  and  reverse  balances  of  trade 
by  simple  acts  of  legislation.  According  to  the  admirable  logic  of  my  colleague  [Mr. 
Stuart],  this  heavy  tax  upon  coffee,  of  $4,749,804,  would  be  no  tax  at  all  upon  us — it 
not  increasing  the  price  of  that  article — and  being,  in  fact,  collected  from  the  coffee- 
growers.  It  must,  moreover,  find  favor  in  his  eyes;  for  it  will  carry  out  his  well- 
known  views  as  to  the  compromise  act,  and  yet  secure  sufficient  revenue  for  the 
government.     1  trust,  therefore,  to  see  this  policy  adopted. 

GENERAL  REMARKS  IN  CONCLUSION. 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  well  known  that,  ever  since  the  general  pacification  of 
Europe,  there  has  been  a  great  rivalry  among  the  nations  thereof,  in  all  the  industrial 
pursuits  of  man.  The  consequence  has  been,  enormous  over-production  in  every 
branch  of  the  factory  system.  Supply  being  thus  greater  than  demand,  prices  have 
ruinously  fallen.  And  the  question  is,  shall  we,  in  this  condition  of  the  world,  en- 
large this  over-production  in  this  country,  by  high  bounties,  under  the  vain  and  delu- 
sive hope  of  relieving  manufactures?  Or  shall  we  follow  common  sense,  and  quietly 
permit  supply  to  adjust  itself  to  demand?  That  I  do  not  mistake  the  fact,  I  will  ask  at- 
tention to  sundry  extracts  as  to  the  condition  of  the  laboring  poor  in  England.  They 
are  from  a  letter  published  in  the  London  Morning  Chronicle: 

"  On  the  same  evening  I  proceeded  to  Burnley,  and  the  contrast  was  perfectly 
heart-rending.  Groups  of  idlers  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  street;  their  faces  haggard 
with  famine,  and  their  eyes  rolling  with  that  fierce  and  uneasy  expression  which  I 
have  often  noticed  in  maniacs.  I  went  up  to  some  of  them,  and  entered  into  conver- 
sation. They  were  perfectly  candid  and  communicative;  for  the  men  of  this  part  of 
Lancashire  retain  much  of  the  sturdy  independence  of  the  ancient  foresters — they 
will  go  miles  to  do  you  a  service,  but  they  will  not  stir  one  inch  to  do  homage  to 
wealth  or  station.     Each  man  had  his  own  tale  of  sorrow  to  tell;  their  stories  were  not 

'  The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor,' 

they  were  complicated  details  of  misery  and  suffering,  gradual  in  their  approach,  and 
grinding  in  their  result;  borne,  however,  with  an  iron  endurance,  such  as  the  Saxon 
race  alone  displays,  and  with  the  sternness  belonging  to  that  noblest  form  of  pride — 
the  pride  of  independent  labor.  'We  want  not  charity,  but  employment,'  was  their 
unanimous  declaration;  and  proofs  of  their  truth  were  abundant  in  the  anecdotes  told 
and  verified  of  men  having  traveled  miles  to  obtain  a  job,  however  heavy  the  labor, 
and  however  wretched  the  remuneration. 

"On  reaching  Colne,  I  went  to  the  market-place,  and  addressed  myself  to  the 
most  intelligent  looking  of  the  many  idle  operatives  by  whom  it  was  crowded.  I 
asked  him  to  guide  me  to  the  streets  where  the  unemployed  work-people  resided, 
that  I  might  see  with  my  own  eyes  the  condition  to  which  they  had  been  reduced.  As 
I  had  never  been  in  this  part  of  the  country  before,  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  col- 
lect specimens,  and  I  took  care  that  my  guide  should  not;  for,  though  he  led  to  the 
streets,  I  took  the  houses  at  random.  In  all,  I  visited  eighty-three  dwellings,  selected 
at  hazard;  they  were  destitute  of  furniture,  save  old  boxes  for  tables,  and  stools,  or 
even  large  stones,  for  chairs;  the  beds  were  composed  of  straw  and  shavings,  some- 
times with  torn  pieces  of  carpet,  or  packing  canvas,  for  a  covering,  and  sometimes 
without  any  kind  of  covering  whatever.  The  food  was  oatmeal  and  water  for 
breakfast;  flour  and  water,  with  a  little  skimmed  milk,  for  dinner;  oatmeal  and 
water  again,  for  a  third  supply,  with  those  who  went  through  the  form  of  eating 
three    meals    a   day.     I   was  informed  in  fifteen  families,   that  their  children  went 


307 

without  the  "blue  milk,"  or  milk  from  which  the  cream  had  been  taken,  on  al- 
ternate days.  I  was  an  eye-witness  to  children  appeasing  the  craving  of  the 
stomach  by  the  refuse  of  decayed  vegetables  in  the  root  market.  I  saw  a  woman 
in  the  very  last  stage  of  extenuation  suckling  an  infant,  which  could  scarcely 
draw  a  single  drop  ot  nutriment  from  her  exhausted  breast. 

"  From  the  excellent  clergyman  of  the  town  I  learned  that,  out  of  a  population 
of  53,000,  no  less  than  13,000  were  receiving  parish  relief;  that  the  poor  rates  had 
risen  from  3s  to  10s  in  the  pound;  that  the  relief  granted  was  deemed  by  the  paupers 
so  inadequate  to  their  wants,  that  the  relieving  officer  in  one  district  was  oblighed  to 
be  protected  by  a  military  guard;  and  that  the  general  ruin  was  fast  absorbing  the 
shop-keepers  of  Colne,  and  the  dairy-farmers  in  the  neighborhood.  I  went  into  sev- 
eral of  the  shops;  the  same  tale  was  told  by  all;  they  saw  nothing  before  them  but 
bankruptcy  and  ruin." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  Association  of  Manchester,  England,  it  was 

" Resolved,  That,  believing  this  country  to  be  on  the  eve  of  a  revolution,  and 
being  utterly  without  hope  that  the  Legislature  will  accord  justice  to  the  starving 
millions,  a  requisition  be  forthwith  prepared,  signed,  and  forwarded  to  the  mem- 
bers of  this  borough,  calling  upon  them  (in  conjunction  with  other  Liberal  members), 
to  offer  every  opposition  and  impediment  to  the  taxation  of  a  prostrate  people,  for  the 
purposes  of  a  bread-taxing  aristocracy — that  the  wheels  ot  government  may  be  at 
once  arrested,  through  the  rejection  or  prevention  of  votes  of  supply." 

In  pursuance  of  this  resolution,  a  petition  was  forwarded  to  Parliament,  which[re- 
ceived  30,000  signatures  in  one  day.  Can  it  be  possible,  in  this  starving  condition  of 
the  laboring  classes,  for  manufactures  still  to  decline  in  price  ?  Unquestionably  not, 
without  improvement  in  machinery,  or  reduction  in  the  price  of  the  raw  material. 
This  being  true,  the  whole  duty  laid  upon  importation  must  fall  ttpon  the  consumer;  be- 
cause, to  the  extent  of  the  duty,  the  price  must  be  enhanced.  That  this  is  known 
to  be  so,  is  evinced  in  the  anxiety  of  the  manufacturers  for  the  tariff".  Why  should 
they  want  a  tariff,  unless  it  would  enhance  the  foreign  article,  and  enable  them  to 
get  a  better  price  for  their  own  ? 

We  exported  the  following  amounts  of  articles  from  the  United  States  : 

1839.  1840.  1841. 

Cotton $61,238,982  $63,870,307  $54»330,34i 

Tobacco 9,832,947  9.883,957  12,576,703 

Flour 6,925,170  10,143,615  7,759,646 

Pork 1.774,230  1,894,894  2,621,537 

Rice 2,460,198  1,942,076  2,010,107 

Manufactures 10,927,529  12,848,840 

From  this  table  you  will  see,  sir,  the  immense  superiority  of  our  agricultural  in- 
terest. The  manufacturing  interest  has,  as  I  have  previously  shown,  in  the  great 
essentials,  nearly  possessed  itself  of  the  home  market;  and,  by  this  table,  it  will  be 
seen  that,  in  proportion  to  capital  and  labor,  its  export  is  larger  than  that  of  agricul- 
ture. It  will  also  be  observed  that  this  is  done  under  a  declining  tariff  at  home,  and 
without  any  tariff  abroad.  In  the  name  of  all  that  is  just,  then,  I  demand  to  know 
why  it  is  that  the  agricultural  and  planting  interest  is  to  be  depressed,  that  the  manu- 
facturing may  be  enriched?  It  is  not  the  most  profitable  business  in  the  country,  I 
suppose,  for  it  is  the  only  one  that  is  begging  that  it  may  be  made  profitable  by  law. 
Shall  we  maintain  it  as  a  public  charge  ? 

It  is  deeply  interesting  to  us,  as  a  people,  that  our  capital  and  labor  should  be 
engaged  in  the  most  profitable  way.  What  we  make  to  sell,  is  designed  to  be  con- 
verted into  what  we  wish  to  buy;  and  thus  the  quantity  we  produce  is  not  more  in- 
teresting than  the  quantity  for  which  we  can  exchange  it.  A  farmer  makes  a  thou- 
sand bushels  of  wheat  annually  for  sale;  five  hundred  of  which  he  is  in  the  habit  of 
laying  out  in  supplies  for  his  family.  A  tariff  of  100  per  cent,  is  imposed  upon  such 
articles;  and  he  is  either  compelled  to  give  up  his  whole  crop,  or  stint  his  family  of 
one-half  of  their  usual  supplies.  Now,  if  this  five  hundred  bushels  of  wheat  really 
went  into  the  treasury,  the  farmer  might  find  some  comfort  in  the  reflection;  but 
when  he  knows  that  nine-tenths  of  it  has  been  sunk  in  a  losing  business,  or  has  gone 
to  enrich  distant  manufacturers,  he  can  but  feel  the  most  profound  indignation  at  the 
folly  or  rapacity  by  which  he  is  undone.  The  Englishman  would  cheerfully  give  us 
200  yards  of  brown  cotton  cloth  for  a  barrel  of  flour;  but  our  own  manufacturer  will 
not  give  us  more  than  100.  To  get  the  200  yards  would  be  a  great  advantage  to  the 
poor  man— his  comforts  would  be  greatly  increased;  yet  the  law  interferes,  and  im- 
poses such  a  duty  that  the  Englishman  cannot  give  us  more  than  our  own  manufac- 
turer.    Is  not  this  most  oppressive  ? 

Again:  a  manufacturer,  with  a  capital  of  $10,000  we  will  suppose,  will  make  1,000 
yards  "of  broadcloth  a  year.     A  farmer,  with  the  same  capital,  we  will  suppose  can 


308 

make  1,500  bushels  of  wheat,  which  he  can  exchange  with  the  foreigner  for  1,500 
yards  of  broadcloth.  Does  not  the  farmer,  substantially,  make  more  cloth  than  the 
manufacturer  ?  And  is  it  not  better  for  the  country  to  have  cloth  made  by  the  farmer, 
than  the  manufacturer,  in  this  view  of  the  subject  ?  And  that,  this  is  the  true  view, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  fact,  that  the  manufacturer  cannot  get  along  upon  his  oivn  hook, 
but  is  compelled  to  call  upon  the  farmer  to  help  him.  I  know  it  is  said  that,  if  the 
labor  in  manufactures  were  to  go  to  agriculture,  it  would  cause  so  great  an  increase 
in  the  supply  of  cotton,  flour,  etc.,  that  they  would  not  be  worth  raising.  If  this 
would  be  so,  it  is  plain  to  every  mind  that  the  manufacturers  would  not  quit  their 
business.  They  would  hold  on  to  it.  They  would  practice  greater  economy  and 
industry,  and  put  up  with  smaller  profits. 

But  sir,  would  we  cease  to  wear  clothes  if  our  own  countrymen  ceased  to  make 
them  ?  No  one  will  pretend  to  this.  If  our  own  manufacturers  did  not  supply  them, 
foreign  manufacturers  would;  and  this  would  create  a  demand  for  any  increased  sur- 
plus we  might  have  to  spare,  creating  a  most  active  commerce,  and  giving  us  two 
hundred  yards  of  cloth  for  a  barrel  of  flour,  instead  of  one  hundred  yards,  as  before 
illustrated;  thus,  in  fact,  largely  increasing  the  farmer's  crop,  by  diminishing  the 
quantity  of  it  necessary  to  supply  the  annual  wants  of  his  family. 

It  is,  however,  insisted  that  foreigners  will  not  buy  of  us.  I  have  already  suffi- 
ciently met  this  question  of  fact,  and  I  trust,  satisfactorily  refuted  it.  But  if  they 
will  not  buy  of  us,  we  cannot  buy  of  them,  as  has  been  previously  shown;  in  which 
event,  we  should  find  it  profitable  to  manufacture,  and  would,  of  course,  do  so. 

A  tariff  imposes  upon  a  part  of  the  people  the  taxes  necessary  for  the  support  of 
government.  This,  all  must  agree,  is  unjust;  and  a  brief  illustration  will  make  it 
plain.  A  manufacturer  and  a  farmer  are  neighbors.  Free  trade  exists.  Each  makes 
$1,000  a  year,  and  each  pays  $50  a  year  for  taxes.  The  manufacturer  comes  to  Con- 
gress, says  he  cannot  make  a  living  profit  on  his  capital,  and  prays  the  imposition  of 
a  high  duty  on  the  imported  article  which  comes  in  competition  with  his  manufac- 
ture. The  duty  is  imposed.  The  manufacturer  gets  more  for  his  article,  and  re- 
ceives $1,100  instead  of  $1,000  as  before.  The  farmer  has  to  pay  more  for  his  goods, 
of  course,  and  then  receives  $900  only,  instead  of  $1,000  as  before — the  manufac- 
turer's excess,  and  the  farmer's  deficiency,  being  necessarily  the  same.  Both,  how- 
ever, continue  to  pay,  nominally,  the  same  amount  of  taxes.  But,  under  this  tariff, 
the  manufacturer,  in  effect,  not  only  pays  no  tax,  but  has  his  income  increased. 
Without  a  tariff,  after  paying  his  taxes,  he  had  $950;  with  a  tariff,  after  paying  his 
taxes,  he  has  $1,050.  The  farmer,  without  a  tariff,  after  paying  his  taxes,  had  $950; 
with  a  tariff,  after  paying  his  taxes,  he  has  but  $850.  He,  in  truth,  not  only  pays  his 
own  taxes,  but  the  manufacturer's  taxes,  and  $50  besides.  This  is  an  individual 
illustration  of  a  great  result;  and  establishes  the  fact,  that,  under  a  tariff  policy  the 
manufacturers  are  practically  relieved  from  all  participatioruin  the  public  burdens. 

It  is  conceded  by  all  that  free  trade  would  be  right,  were  it  universal.  What  is 
this  but  a  concession  that  a  single  nation  of  fools  can  utterly  abrogate  one  of  the 
most  vital  laws  of  political  economy  ?  Now,  sir,  I  contend  that  the  laws  of  free  trade 
are  never  departed  from,  without  a  public  mischief.  I  have  1,000  barrels  of  flour  for 
sale;  I  take  them  to  market,  I  sell  them  for  a  sum  which  I  am  willing  to. take,  and  at 
which  I  can  afford  to  produce  them.  They  are  taken  to  England,  to  be  consumed, 
where  a  duty  is  imposed  upon  them.  Is  it  not  plainly  a  matter  of  the  most  perfect 
indifference  to  me,  what  that  duty  is  ?  Far  different,  however,  is  it  as  to  the  articles 
I  have  to  buy.  My  interest  is  to  have  them  as  cheap  as  they  can  be  bought — to  in- 
vite the  sellers  of  the  world  to  our  market,  that,  by  competition  among  them,  I  may 
purchase  at  the  lowest  rates.  The  wisdom  of  this  policy,  every  man  must  recognize 
in  his  own  dealings.  But,  gentlemen  insist  that  as  our  flour,  etc.,  are  taxed  abroad, 
we  must  retaliate;  we  must  incumber  commerce  with  burdens;  and  consume  dear, 
instead  of  cheap  goods.  Sir,  this  policy  is  too  preposterous  for  my  adoption.  I  must 
be  allowed  to  think  that  our  people  are  wise  enough,  shrewd  enough,  and  enterpris- 
ing enough,  to  be  trusted  with  the  power  of  selling  as  they  please,  and  buying  as 
they  please.  Let  us,  I  pray  you,  freed  from  all  legal  restraints,  buy  as  cheap  as  we 
can,  and  sell  as  dear  as  we  can. 

Sir,  the  privilege  of  buying  and  selling  as  we  choose,  is  of  the  first  importance  in 
adjusting  the  employments  of  industry,  and  preserving  a  due  relation  between  them. 
Manufactures  can  easily  be  overdone.  A  single  year  of  non-consumption,  of  hard 
times,  of  determination  to  make  old  clothes  answer  the  place  of  new  ones,  overwhelms 
them  with  distress.  Not  so  with  agriculture.  There  never  was  yet,  in  the  history  of 
man,  too  much  meat  and  bread.  People  may  refuse  to  wear  new  clothes;  but  every  re- 
turning day  must  bring  us  a  new  breakfast.  Why,  then,  should  we  disturb  the  action  of 
that  great  system,  which,  if  let  alone,  would  quietly  preserve  those  harmonious  re- 
lations, without  which  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  civilized  man  cannot  be  steadily 
advanced  or  permanently  secured? 

Mr.  Chairman,  in  the  views  which  I  have  had  the  honor  to  submit  to   the  con- 


309] 

sideration  of  this  committee,  I  pray  you  not  to  regard  me,  for  a  moment,  as  hostile  to 
domestic  industry.  But  I  cannot,  will  not,  bound  my  views  of  this  vast  interest  by 
the  tilt-hammer,  the  shuttle,  and  the  loom.  A  writer  in  the  New  York  Saratoga  Senti- 
nel, has  justly  and  beautifully  said: 

"  Home  industry  !  A  captivating  name  ! — Who  is  not  in  favor  of  protecting 
'home  industry?'  Not  one.  It  is  our  highest  boast  that  we  are  in  favor  of  protect- 
ing '  home  industry.'  In  what  does  '  home  industry  '  really  consist?  Look  abroad 
over  our  thousand  hills  and  boundless  plains.  See  the  emigrant  cutting  down  the 
trees,  building  his  log  cabin,  and  turning  up  the  prairie,  where  golden  harvests  have 
slept  ever  since  the  flood.  There  is  '  home  industry.'  Look  at  the  farmer  improv- 
ing his  worn-out  fields,  feeding  his  cattle,  and  taking  his  crops  to  market.  There  is 
'home  industry.'  Look  at  his  wife  and  daughters  cooking  his  food,  making  his 
clothes,  doing  everything  to  save  what  he  has  earned,  and  giving  comfort  to  his  habita- 
tion.    Here  is  'home  industry.' 

"This  class  exceeds  all  others  in  society,  both  in  numbers  and  importance.  It 
is  they  who  give  value  to  a  country.  Without  them,  our  wide-spread  and  fertile 
lands  would  be  as  valueless  as  the  deserts  of  Arabia.  Not  a  house  would  be  built, 
did  they  not  feed  the  builders.  Not  a  city  or  village  would  spring  into  existence,  or 
continue  to  exist,  did  they  not  draw  substance  and  wealth  from  the  farmers  around 
them.  Not  a  ship  floats,  whose  freight  is  not,  in  the  first  instance,  the  product  of  his 
toil,  or  of  the  labor  of  those  wjiom  he  feeds.  The  lawyer,  the  doctor,  the  divine,  the 
mechanic,  the  seaman,  the  soldier,  the  public  officer,  the  merchant,  the  banker,  the 
broker,  the  poet,  the  painter,  the  idler,  and  the  knave,  are  all  fed  by  his  hands — 
clothed  by  his  toil.  The  wealth  of  the  Girards  and  the  Astors  is  the  accumulation  of 
his  industry;  it  is  he  who  fills  the  treasuries  of  states  and  nations,  builds  navies,  and 
supports  armies.  Without  him,  society  cannot  exist,  and  the  world  would  be  sur- 
rendered to  a  few  wandering  savages. 

"  His  is  the  '  home  industry  '  which,  above  all  others,  merits  '  protection.'  But 
what  '  protection  '  does  it  obtain  or  ask  ?  or  what  is  it  possible  for  government  to 
give  ?  Does  the  emigrant  expect  to  ask  the  government  to  cut  down  the  tree  for  him, 
or  build  his  cabin,  and  plough  up  the  prairie?  Does  the  farmer  ask  or  expect  the 
government  to  build  his  fences,  cultivate  his  fields,  or  cover  them  with  manure? 
Does  he  go  to  his  government,  and  say,  '  My  land  is  poor;  I  can  scarcely  get  a  living, 
I  beg  you  for  protection;  I  beg  you  to  impose  a  tax  on  the  produce  of  my  neighbor's 
more  productive  lands,  that  my  crops  may  sell  higher,  and  I  may  get  rich?'  If  he 
were  to  approach  Congress  or  the  State  Legislature  with  such  a  petition,  he  would  be 
laughed  to  scorn.  He  would  be  told  that  'he  had  himself  chosen  his  occupation,  and 
selected  his  home;  that  he  must  encounter  the  hazards  of  the  one,  and  the  incon- 
veniences of  the  other;  that  it  would  be  as  unjust  to  tax  his  neighbor's  crops,  to  ena- 
ble him  to  sell  his  good  at  a  higher  price,  as  it  would  be  to  take  his  neighbor's 
property  without  consideration,  and  give  it  to  him." 

"There  are  few  men  in  society  who  advocate  an  equal  distribution  of  property 
through  the  instrumentality  of  law,  and  these  are  stigmatized  as  agrarians  and  level- 
lers. But  is  not  a  protective  tariff,  so  called,  founded  on  the  same  principle  ?  When, 
the  law  steps  in,  and  compels  me  to  pay  more  for  a  hat  than  I  should  otherwise  be 
obliged  to  pay,  does  it  not  take  a  part  of  my  property  and  give  it  to  the  hatter?  If 
the  law  compels  the  farmer  to  give  five  bushels  of  wheat  for  goods  which  he  could 
otherwise  purchase  for  four,  does  it  not  take  from  him  a  part  of  his  property,  and 
give  it  to  the  manufacturer? 

"And  this  is  called  'protecting  home  industry!''  The  industry  of  thousands  is 
taxed  to  swell  the  income  of  one;  but  the  thousands  are  forgotten,  and  the  one  only 
remembered  !  Because  the  one,  in  being  enabled  by  law  to  appropriate  to  himself, 
in  part,  the  fruits  of  the  industry  of  thousands,  gets  rich,  a  protective  tariff,  incidental 
and  direct,  is  hailed  as  a  happy  measure,  all  important  to  the  country.'  " 

I  must,  therefore,  resist  this  michievous  policy — this  system  of  plunder— this 
outrage  upon  the  laws  of  God  on  high.  From  the  hill-top  and  the  vale — from  private 
and  official  place — I  will  cry  aloud  and  spare  not.  The  experience  of  all  mankind 
has  attested  that  physical  divisions  of  labor  are  essential  to  the  highest  perfection 
art.  And  God  himself  has  proclaimed,  in  terms  not  to  be  mistaken  by  anyone  who 
venerates  His  holy  name,  His  regard  for  this  principle,  in  the  great  geographical  divi- 
sions of  labor  and  production  into  which  he  has  divided  this  earth.  Why  should  we 
not  follow  this  unerring  guide  ?  Why  should  we  vainly  attempt  to  produce  in  a 
single  latitude  that  which,  by  the  providence  of  God,  can  only  be  produced  prosper- 
ously and  happily  in  them  all?  Those  now  in  power  here  might  plant  themselves  in 
the  affections  of  this  Age  by  redeeming  plighted  faith,  and  following  out  to  their  con- 
sequences a  few  great  and  obvious  principles. 

But  this  is  not  to  be  expected.     When  did  Federalism  ever  illustrate   its  day  of 


310 

power  by  measures  bright  and  beautiful,  calculated  to  gladden  the  heart  and  make 
the  millions  smile  with  joy?  In  the  day  of  the  elder  Adams,  its  alien  and  sedition 
laws  aroused  the  fiercest  passions  of  our  nature,  and  filled  the  public  mind  with  ap- 
prehension and  alarm.  Its  return  to  power  was  signalized  by  the  tariff  of  1828,  com- 
monly known  as  the  "  bill  of  abominations,"  which  came  near  producing  a  civil  war, 
and  the  consequent  destruction  of  our  Union.  And  now,  sir,  upon  its  return  again  to 
power,  with  the  first  opportunity  it  seeks  to  devise  a  new  "bill  of  abominations," 
and  plunge  us,  probably,  into  all  the  dangers  from  which  we  had  so  happily  escaped. 
And  shall  it  be,  sir?  Shall  this  country  again  experience  civil,  and,  perhaps,  mili- 
tary commotion  ?  The  prospect,  is,  indeed,  gloomy  enough;  but  it  is  not  without 
hope.  The  people  are  awake;  and  if  the  signs  are  not  misunderstood,  they  will  take 
power  from  those  who  now  possess,  and  seem  incompetent  wisely  to  use  it. 

"The  darkest  cloud  may  wear 
A  sunny  face  to-morrow." 


SPEECH  OF  MR.  SMITH,  OF  VIRGINIA, 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  March  29,  1842,  in  Committee  of  the  Whole, 

on  the  Loan  Bill. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  observed,  that  if  he  had  consulted  his  own  physical  con- 
dition, he  certainly  should  have  given  his  assent  to  the  motion  for  the  committee  to 
rise;  but  he  would  not  allow  his  own  feelings  to  interfere  with  the  wishes  of  other 
gentlemen  who  desired  to  be  heard  on  this  question.  He  felt  a  particular  desire,  in 
consequence  of  the  remarks  of  some  gentlemen  in  the  course  of  this  debate,  and  the 
statements  that  had  been  made  with  regard  to  the  indebtedness  of  the  government 
under  the  late  administration,  to  get  the  Moor  in  order  that  he  might,  by  a  reference 
to  the  public  documents,  correct  the  errors  into  which  they  had  fallen,  and  set  the 
matter  in  a  proper  light  before  the  country. 

In  the  progress  of  this  debate,  which  has  certainly  been  a  most  discursive  one,  it 
has  been  affirmed  by  the  honorable  member  from  Kentucky,  [Mr.  Marshall,]  and  the 
honorable  member  from  North  Carolina,  [Mr.  Rayner,]  that  the  bill  now  under  con- 
sideration was  one  to  pay  the  public  debt,  incurred  by  the  late  administration,  and 
for  which  the  Whigs  were  in  nowise  responsible.  The  printers  to  this  House,  the 
editors  of  the  ATational  Intelligencer,  whose  position  justifies  the  inference,  at  least, 
that  they  are  well  informed  of  the  true  condition  of  public  affairs,  and  whose  state- 
ments have  consequently  a  more  than  ordinary  weight  with  the  country,  in  their  tri- 
weekly paper  of  the  22d  of  March,  1842,  remark,  in  a  leading  editorial: 

"  Happy  for  the  country  (was  it  not?)  that  these  same  Whigs  get  the  reins  out  of 
the  hands  of  these  great  economists  at  the  end  of  the  last  four  years,  or  heaven  knows 
where  they  would  have  landed  us,  having  contrived,  during  those  four  short  years  of 
profound  peace,  to  spend  seventeen  millions  of  surplus  revenue  which  they  found  in 
the  treasury,  and  to  contract  a  debt  of  some  twenty  millions  of  dollars  besides;  and, 
what  is  the  worst  of  it,  without  leaving  anything  to  show  for  the  enormous  expendi- 
ture." 

At  the  late  extra  session,  the  honorable  member  from  New  York,  [Mr.  Barnard,] 
in  his  speech,  to  be  found  in  the  9th  volume  of  the  Congressional  Globe,  page  233,  put 
the  existing  debt  of  the  country  on  the  4th  of  March,  1841,  at  $36,015,000.  An  hon- 
orable member  from  Georgia,  [Mr.  Meriwether,]  also  stated  it  at  upwards  of  $24,000,- 
000.  The  newspaper  Whig  press  also  charged  it  to  be  $40,000,000.  And  one,  more 
specific  than  some  others,  says:  "  Keep  it  before  the  people — it  is  now  officially 
announced,  that  the  national  debt  incurred  by  Mr.  Van  Buren,  during  the  four  years 
of  his  administration,  amounts  to  thirty-one  MILLIONS  three  hundred  and  ten  thousand 
fourteen  dollars  and  twenty  cents."  One  of  the  charges  during  the  Presidential  election 
against  Mr.  Van  Buren,  was  the  debt  he  had  created.  And  the  cry  by  the  Whigs  was, 
"  Let  us  open  a  new  set  of  books  !" 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  these  statements  thus  repeatedly  made,  I  propose  to  in- 
vestigate. It  is  due  to  historical  truth,  as  well  as  to  the  official  conduct  of  those  pub- 
lic servants,  who  have  been  driven  by  these  and  such  like  charges,  from  the  service 
of  their  country.  In  my  examination,  I  shall  be  materially  assisted  by  the  develop- 
ments of  the  past  year,  and  shall  rely  mainly  upon  the  official  statements  made  by  the 
Whigs  themselves. 

What  was  the  debt  created  by  the  late  administration,  and  left  as  a  charge  to  its 
successor?     This  is  the  question. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1841  Harrison  was  inaugurated — the  reins  of  government  were 
in  his  hands.     A  satisfactory  cabinet — satisfactory  at  least  to  the  ereat  mass  of  the 


311 

Whig  party— was  selected.  This  cabinet  was  composed  of  partisans  who  had  fought 
before  the  country  for  their  places,  and  who  stood  pledged  to  expose  those  atrocities, 
that  profligacy  and  extravagance,  they  had  unqualiliedly  charged  to  exist.  The  deep 
recesses  of  official  privacy  were  theirs;  "the  secrets  of  the  prison-house"  were  in 
their  keeping.  With  every  facility  that  power  could  give,  they  had  every  induce- 
ment that  could  operate  upon  the  passions  of  the  man  to  expose  to  the  country  every- 
thing that  was  exceptionable  in  the  conduct  and  management  of  their  predecessors. 
Accordingly,  Mr.  Ewing  ordered  "a  rest  "  for  the  4th  of  March,  1841.  The  accounts 
of  the  late  administration  were  run  up  to  that  period,  and  those  of  the  new  were 
dated  therefrom.  The  creditor  is  never  slow  in  presenting  his  demand,  and  a 
magnificent  array  of  public  debts  was  no  doubt  confidently  anticipated. 

Well,  sir,  three  months  rolled  away— Congress  was  in  session— and  on  the  3d  of 
Tune,  1841,  Mr.  Ewing  submitted  his  report  on  the  state  of  the  Treasury  to  the  con- 
sideration  of  that  body.  During  this  period,  he  had  ample  time  to  ascertain  the 
amount  of  the  acknowledged  and  undisputed  obligations  of  the  country,  and,  of 
course,  to  report  the  correct  amount  thereof. 

I  ask  attention  to  the  following  extract  on  this  subject,  taken  from  said  report. 
(See  pages  2,  3,  and  12:) 
"  Treasury  notes  issued  prior  to  the  1st  January,  1841,  and  outstanding 

on  the  4th  March,  1841 •     $3,873,220  00 

Do.  issued   under  the  act  of  1840,   from   the   1st  January,  to  the  4th 

March,  1841,  which  may,  and  most  of  which  probably  will,  be  pre-  • 

sented  in  pavment  of  public  dues  during  the  year  1841 i,iio,6ii  08 

Interest  estimated  at  about 300,000  00 

$5,283,831  08 
For  pavment  of  arrearages  and  current  expenses,  and  taking  care  of 

public  property  on  roads,  harbors,  rivers,  etc o4°'I99  11 

For  arrearages  for  preventing  and  suppressing  Indian  hostilities .  025,637  80 

The  whole  amount  of  debt  as  claimed  by  Mr.  Ewing  to  have  been  left  

by  the  late  administration ~~  ~~Z     " 

'  $6,149,060  00 

This  statement  is,  however,  to  some  extent,  inaccurate.  The  item  of  $40,199.12  is 
for  current  expenses  as  well  as  for  arrearages.  And  the  last  item  is  grossly  inaccurate, 
scarcely  any  of  it  being  for  arrearages.  One  item  in  said  last  amount  is  a  requisi- 
tion of  the  Quartermaster-General,  which  is  for  the  service  of  1841,  and  not  arrear- 
ages of  the  late  administration,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  subjoined  letter: 

"Quartermaster-General's  Office,        I 
Washington  City,  May  29,  1841.  \ 

"  Sir  :  In  reply  to  your  inquiry  whether  any  further  appropriation  will  be  re- 
quired for  this  Department  during  the  present  year,  I  have  the  honor  to  report,  that 
at  least  $440,040,  will  be  necessary  tor  the  service  of  this  Department  connected  with 
the  operations  in  Florida.  ,      ,.     „.     .  ,      „„„:„„ 

"On  the  14th  of  November,  1840,  I  presented  an  estimate  for  the  Florida  service 
of  $1,300,000,  of  which  onlv  the  sum  of  $859,960  was  appropriated,  leaving  a  defici- 
ency of  the  sum  I  now  ask.  The  reduced  appropriation,  I  have  no  doubt,  was  111 
consequence  of  the  belief,  generally  entertained,  that  the  war  would  soon  terminate; 
I  did  not  then,  and  do  not  now,  concur  in  that  belief.  My  estimate  was  founded  on  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  the  difficulties  to  be  encountered,  and  of  the  wants  ot  the  ser- 
vice in  Florida;  fnd,  if  I  am  not  greatly  mistaken,  it  will  be  found  before  the  close  of 
the  year,  that  it  was  a  minimum  estimate,  every  dollar  of  which  will  be  necessary. 
"I  am,  sir,  most  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"Th.  S.  Jesup,  Quartermaster-General. 

"  The  Hon.  John  Bell,  Secretary  of  War,  Washington." 

The  other  items  of  the  said  amount  of  $825,637  86  are,  to  a  great  extend  subject 
to  the  same  remarks.  But  as  their  examination  will  take  more  time  than  1  can  spare, 
I  will  surrender  them  as  a  charge  against  the  late  administration,  and  P*«*ed.  , 

I  will  next,  Mr.  Chairman,  inquire  for  the  amount  of  cash  on  hand  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1841.  This  is  essential  to  an  exact  balance  sheet  between  t^^™™^ 
tions.  On  reference  to  the  report  of  Mr.  Ewing,  I  find  the  following  entry  on 
page  3  : 

The  available  balance  in  the  Treasury  on  the  4th  of  March,  1841  (see 

statement  B) *4'     J 

On  reference  to  statement  B,  of  said  report,  page  15,  I  find  the  follow- 
ing entry  : 


312 

Deduct  amount  in  mint  and  branches  for  purchasing  bullion  for  coin- 
age         215.151  88 

This  is,  however,  cash  on  hand,  left  by  the  late  administration,  and 
must,  of  course,  be  added.  On  page  2  of  said  report,  exhibiting 
the  receipts  from  the  1st  of  January  to  the  4th  of  March,  1841,  is  to 
be  found  the  following  item  : 

Bond  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States $I7>9!3 

But  in  exhibit  D,  of  said  report,   page  18,  there  was  re- 
ceived from  bond  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States..     530,049  17 

Difference  to  be  added  to  cash  on   hand  on  the  4th  of 

March,  1841 512,136  17 

Making  actual  cash  on  hand  on  the  said. 4th  of  March, 

1841 $1,374,091  \L 

Indebtedness  as  claimed  by  Mr.  Ewing 6,149,688  00 

Deduct  above  item,  see  above  letter 440,000  00 

Deduct  cash  on  hand 1,374,091    17 

— —  1,814,091   17 

Debt  of  the  late  administration $4,335,596  89 

But  during  the  present  session,  nearly  a  year  having  intervened  since  the  4th  of 

March,  1841,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  required  to  inform  the  Senate  as  to 

the  amount  of  the  public  debt  at  the  date  aforesaid.     To  this  he  responded  as  follows: 
Statements  of  the  public  debt  on  the  3d  of  March,  1841  : — 

Treasury  notes  outstanding $6,607,361  54 

Debt  of  the  corporate  cities  of  the  District  of  Columbia  as- 
sumed by  the  United  States 1,440,000  00 

The  (old)   funded  and  unfunded  debt,   viz:    The  funded 

debt — principal $53,174  38 

Interest 243, 106  36 

296,280  74 

The  unfunded  debt — registered  certificates 26,622  44 

Do.  Treasury  notes  issued  during  the  late  war 4-475  °° 

Do.  Mississippi  certificates 4.320  09 

$35>4I7  13  381.698  27 

$8,379,059  8l 

This  amount  is  exclusive  of  notes  received  for  duties  and  lands  subsequent  to  the 
31st  of  December,  1840,  which  were  not  reported  on  the  3d  of  March,  1841,  by  the 
accounting  officers. 

The  debt  for  the  District  of  Columbia  is  one  she  owed  to  Holland,  and  which 
Congress  assumed  for  her  relief  during  General  Jackson's  administration,  agreeing 
to  pay  the  interest  thereof  quarterly,  and  sixty  thousand  dollars  a  year  of  the  princi- 
pal. The  other  items,  amounting  to  $331,698.27,  are  remnants  of  our  public  debt, 
from  the  Revolution  to  this  day,  which  have  never  been,  and  probably  never  will  be, 
presented  for  payment.  Neither  of  these  items  can  be  charged  to  the  administra- 
tion of  Mr.  Van  Buren. 
Take    the    debt    of    the  country   (as  reported   by  Mr. 

Secretary  Forward)  on  the  3d  of  March,  1841 $8,379,059  81 

Deduct  the  account  of  debt  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 

and  of  the  funded  and  unfunded  debt  (see  above. . .  1,771,698  27 

$6,607,361  54 
Deduct  for  Treasury   notes  received,  but  not  entered, 
before  the  4th  of  March,    1841,    (as  see  Ewing's  re- 
port, p.  2) $500,000  00 

Deduct  cash  on  hand 1,374,091   17 

1,874,091   17 

Indebtedness  by  this  calculation $4,736,270  37 


313 

I  have  now  presented,  Mr.  Chairman,  for  the  information  of  the  committee — 

1st.  The  many  different  statements  made  at  many  different  periods,  as  to  the  in- 
debtedness of  the  country  when  the  late  administration  retired  from  power. 

2d.  An  account  of  that  indebtedness  compiled  from  the  official  report  of  Mr. 
Secretary  Ewing,  dated  June  3,  1841,  correcting  that  report  as  to  an  error,  admitted 
by  him  in  his  report  to  the  Senate  of  the  30th  of  June. 

3d.  An  account  of  that  indebtedness  as  reported  by  Mr.  Secretary  Forward,  in  re- 
ply to  an  express  call  from  the  Senate,  during  its  present  session. 

The  charge  was  a  debt  of  near $40,000,000  00 

The  proof  is,  by  first  statement 4.335)596  89 

second     "  4.773.27»37 

Here,  then,  is  the  charge,  and  here  the  proof;  and  I  might  be  content.     But  there 
have  been  in  some  quarters  such  gross   misrepresentations,  and  in   others   such   sur- 
prising misconceptions  of   the  facts,    that  I   trust  the  committee  will  excuse  me  if  I 
make  them  still  more  plain. 
By  reference  to  the  Treasury  report  of  December,  1837, 

there  was  in  the  Treasury  on  the  1st  of  January  of 

that  year,  the  vast  sum  of $45,968,528 

Of  this  sum  there  was  deposited  with  the  States $28,101,644 

Unavailable  funds,  consisting   of   the    notes  of   broken 

banks,  the  accumulations  of  fifty  years  about 1,100,000 

Unavailable  from  suspended  banks 3,500,000 

Certain  trust  funds 37°. 797 

33,072,441 

Real  balance  on  hand $12,896,087 

Receipts   from   customs,    etc.      (Report  Jan.,    3d   1841, 

page  23) 84,503,993 

Receipts  from  extraordinary  sources  of  revenue,  same 

report,  page  19 9,124,747 

Miscellaneous  receipts,  report,  p.  23 31 1,566 

Receipts  from  1st  January  to  4th  March,  1841,  exclusive 

of  Treasury  notes,  see  same  report,  page  2 2,428,248 

Whole  cash  receipts  from  1st  January,  1837,  to  4th  March, 

1841,  of  available  funds,  Treasury  notes  excepted.  . .  $109,264,641 

The  honorable  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  in  an  elaborate 
statement,  no  doubt  very  carefully  prepared  by  him,  states  the  expenses  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  be  : 

For  the  year  1837 $31,610,000 

1838 31,544,000 

1839 25,443,000 

1840 22,289,000 

Mr.  Secretary  Ewing,  in  his   report,  before  referred  to, 
page  2,  states  the  expenditures  from  1st  January   to 

4th  March,  1841,  exclusive  of  Treasury  notes,  to  be.  3,979,044 

Whole  expenditures $1 14>9°5>°44 

Deduct  receipts  above 109,264,641 

Balance  as  debt $5>7°°>4°3 

This  amount  is  to  be  still  further  reduced  by  cash  in  the  mints. 

Now  the  committee  cannot  fail  to  see,  that  when  I  show,  as  I  have  done,  from 
the  official  data,  the  entire  receipts  and  the  entire  expenditures,  the  difference  con- 
stitutes the  real  debt.  Every  man  of  business  must  admit  the  conclusive  character  of 
this  reasoning. 

But  again,  Mr.  Secretary  Ewing,  in  his  report,  page  3,  says  : 
There  will  be  required  for  the  services  of  the  current 

vear.  $24,210,000 

Sundry  additional  appropriations 2,526,336 

Making $26,731,336 

The  actual  and  estimated  means  under  existing  laws,  to 

meet  these  demands  are 20.73°'395 

Leaving  unprovided   for,    of  the  dernands  for  the  present 

year,  the  sum  of $6,000,941 


314 

There  were,  then,  no  demands  against  the  government  which  this  sum  would  not 
pay.  Of  course  there  was  no  large  outstanding  debt  left  by  the  late  administration 
as  a  legacy  to  the  present  administration.  But  this  sum  of  six  millions  is  to  be  re- 
duced by  the  cash  on  hand,  and  omitted  by  Mr.  Ewing  as  formerly  shown.  And,  ac- 
cording to  Mr.  Secretary  Forward's  report,  every  demand  against  the  Treasury  for 
the  year  1841  was  met,  except  to  the  amount  of  only  $623,557.  Where,  then,  is  the 
mighty  debt,  about  which  we  have  heard  so  much  said  ?  One  year  has  passed.  The 
reformers  have  had  unobstructed  possession  of  the  government.  Every  disposition 
to  make  the  worse  appear  the  better  side,  evinced — the  rest  formed — and  I  presume 
the  "new  set  of  books"  opened,  as  promised.  And  I  ask,  nay  I  demand,  to  be 
shown  the  so  much  vaunted  debt  of  the  late  administration.  My  object  in  this  ex- 
amination is  the  truth.  It  is  due  to  the  country  that  it  should,  upon  this  subject  at 
least,  stand  unquestioned.  If,  in  any  of  my  statements,  I  have  committed  any  essen- 
tial error,  I  pray  gentlemen  to  correct  me.  I  particularly  call  upon  the  honorable 
chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means.  He  is,  of  all  others,  qualified,  upon 
this  subject,  to  detect  error  and  expose  it.  And  if  none  speak,  I  shall  assume  it  as 
established,  beyond  all  human  doubt,  that  the  debt  left  and  created  during  the  late 
administration,  was  only  about  some  five  millions  of  dollars,  in  the  shape  of  Treasury 
notes.  Here,  then,  is  this  mighty  spectre,  raised  by  party  misrepresentation,  to 
frighten  the  good  people  of  the  country,  shrunk  into  an  inconsiderable  debt  of  about 
five  millions  of  dollars.     This  much  I  admit,  no  more. 

But  it  is  alleged  that  during  the  late  administration  there  was  spent  of  cash  on 
hand,  when  it  came  into  power,  and  collections  made  from  other  than  ordinary 
sources  of  revenue,  $31,310,014.  This  is  Mr.  Ewing's  statement,  in  his  report,  before 
referred  to,  (p.  5.)  It  is  singularly  inaccurate,  hardly  to  be  satisfactorily  explained. 
I  will,  however,  give  the  true  amount. 

I  have  already  shown  that  the  cash  on  hand  was  only $12,896,087 

Collections  from  extraordinary  sources,  see  doc.  p.  19 9,124,747 

Treasury  notes  outstanding  on  3d  March,  1841,  p.  12 5,283,  831 

27,304,665 
From  which  deduct  amount  in  Treasury  on  4th  March,  1841 1,374,091 


$25.93°>574 

The  real  amount  spent  during  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration,  over  and  above 
the  current  revenue. 

But  how  ?     Why,  as  any  prudent  man  having  money,  and  debts  to  collect,  would 
have  done   in  the   management  of  his  private  affairs,  improved  the  estates  he  had, 
bought  others,  and  removed  away  those  from  whom  he  had  purchased,  if  such  were 
the  contract. 
In  the  three  first  years  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration    (I  have  no 

calculation   for  the  fourth  year,)  there  was  expended  in  permanent 

public  buildings $3,927,909 

In  purchasing  Indian  lands 8,795,825 

In  removing  Indians,  and  consequent  wars 13,794,217 

For  three  items  only. $26,517,951 

Here  we  have,  in  three  items  alone  of  permanent  investment,  an  amount  greater 
than  the  cash  on  hand,  the  debts  collected,  and  the  debts  created  during  the  last 
administration,  showing  an  application  of  a  part  of  the  current  revenue  to  these  per- 
manent and  important  objects.  By  these  expenditures  thousands  of  Indians  have 
been  removed  beyond  the  Mississippi.  The  States  have  been  relieved  of  a  most 
troublesome  population;  and  the  Federal  government  has  acquired  millions  of  acres 
of  land  of  inexhaustible  fertility.  But  the  objection  to  this  expenditure  can  but  ex- 
cite our  surprise — nay,  our  indignation,  when  we  remember  that  those  who  now 
make  it,  are  among  those  who  directed  the  expenditure.     Yet  such  is  the  fact. 

But,  sir,  this  complaint  never  would  have  been  made,  had  the  recommenda- 
tions of  the  late  administration  been  respected.  Economical  estimates  were  sub- 
mitted, and  economical  appropriations  earnestly  pressed  upon  Congress.  But  under 
the  prodigal  system  introduced  by  an  overflowing  Treasury,  economy  was  urged  in 
vain.     The  Executive  recommended  appropriations  to  the  amount  of — 

For  1837 $22,720, 107 

For  1S38 22,735,209 

For  1839 , . 23,509,089 

For  1840 19,856,600 

(88,821,005 


315 

Amount  received  during  above  four  years 106,288,342 

The  sum   that  would  have  been  in  the  Treasury  on  the  1st  of  January, 

1841,   had  Mr.  Van   Buren's  recommendations  been  followed $17,467,337 

The  actual  appropriations  made  by  Congress  were — 

For  1837 34, 126,807 

For  1838 33.138,371 

For  1839 23,862,560 

For  1840 21,658,872 

$112,786,610 

From  these  tables,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  appropriations  made  by  Congress  ex- 
ceeded the  sum  Mr.  Van  Buren  regarded  sufficient  for  the  support  of  the  govern- 
ment, economically  administered  $23,965,605,  demonstrating  that  the  fault,  if  any, 
was  not  with  him. 

But  the  honorable  gentleman  from  North  Carolina,  [Mr.  Stanly,]  in  an  early  stage 
of  this  debate,  charged  that  the  late  administration  submitted  estimates  below  what 
was  requisite  for  the  public  service,  with  a  view  to  win  popularity  by  creating  a 
character  for  economy.  This  is  a  grave  charge,  imputing  to  a  high  functionary,  in 
the  discharge  of  his  official  duty,  a  paltry  and  contemptible  purpose.  If  true,  I  will 
agree  with  the  gentleman  that  it  deserves  our  unmitigated  contempt.  But  I  must 
have  the  proofs. 

[Here  Mr.  Stanly  inquired  if  he  should  give  them  now?] 

Mr.  Smith.     Yes,  now;  I  will  yield  the  floor  for  the  purpose. 

[Mr.  Stanly  thereupon  arose  and  said,  that  he  was  surprised  that  the  gentleman 
from  Virginia  should  be  uninformed  of  the  facts,  when  they  were  embodied  in  docu- 
ments accessible  to  every  member.  Why,  he  said,  at  the  extra  session  the  Quarter- 
master-General required  an  appropriation  of  some  three  or  four  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  which  had  been  refused  to  be  submitted  at  the  preceding  session,  for  the 
reason  stated.  He  said  he  would  name  another  instance  of  an  appropriation  of  fifty- 
six  thousand  dollars  for  the  public  buildings,  grossly  inadequate,  and  exhausted 
early  in  the  year.] 

Mr.  Smith  resumed.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  really  amazed  at  the  gentleman  from 
North  Carolina.  How  he  can  have  brought  his  mind  to  believe  that  the  late  adminis- 
tration, in  submitting  estimates  to  the  amount  of  some  twenty  millions,  could  have 
hoped  to  advance  its  popularity  by  withholding  estimates  for  two  sums,  together  less 
than  half  a  million,  passeth  my  comprehension.  But  the  first  item  is  fully  shown  not 
to  have  been  withheld  for  the  reason  stated,  by  General  Jesup's  letter,  to  which  I 
have  before  adverted,  and  to  which  I  again  refer.  As  to  the  appropriation  for  the 
public  buildings,  I  have  only  to  say,  that  is  an  item  within  the  control  of  a  committee 
of  this  House,  with  the  operations  of  which  I  believe  the  honorable  gentleman  inti- 
mately conversant;  and  if  there  be  any  fault  in  this  respect,  it  was  not  at  the  door  of 
the  late  administration.     I  ask  attention  to  the  following  letter  : 

Treasury  Department,  Jan.,  23,  1841. 

Sir  :  In  reply  to  your  inquiries  of  this  date,  whether  payments  for  labor  on  the 
public  buildings  in  this  city  have  been  postponed  until  the  1st  of  April  next,  or  the 
amount  of  wages  proposed  to  be  reduced,  and,  if  so,  the  reasons  therefor,  I  have  the 
honor  to  submit  the  following  statement  : 

All  the  labor  on  these  buildings,  carried  on  under  the  immediate  charge  of  the 
Commissioners,  has  been  paid  for  as  soon  as  done,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  extends. 
So  has  that  performed  by  contractors,  it  is  presumed;  as  all  the  requisitions  for  money 
to  pay  them  have  been  promptly  met. 

But,  in  a  case  of  necessity,  since  the  appropriation  was  exhausted,  and  during 
the  present  month,  I  understood  that  the  Committee  on  Public  Buildings  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  have,  on  application  of  the  workmen,  advised  the  Superintendent 
of  the  Public  Buildings  to  permit  some  of  the  laborers  to  work  on  some  of  the  stone 
till  the  new  appropriation  pass;  and  I  presume  that  he  has  acquiesced  in  the  advice. 
The  Board  of  Commissioners,  however,  has  not  interfered  in  this  case;  nor  has  this 
department,  nor  has  either  of  them,  proposed  any  reduction  in  wages. 

Respectfully,  Levi  Woodbury. 

P.  S.— To  obviate  any  mistake,  I  would  add  that  the  claim  by  some  workmen  for 
lost  time,  under  a  resolution  to  indemnify  them,  passed  by  Congress  at  the  last 
session;  but  this  is  not  for  work  done,  but  rather  for  inability  to  obtain  work;  and  as 
no  appropriation  has  yet  been  made  to  pay  the  claim,  of  course  it  has  not  been  and 
cannot  be  paid  till  Congress  think  proper  to  make  one.  L.  \\ . 


316 

But  these  items  thus  selected  by  the  honorable  gentleman  to  sustain  his  charge, 
are,  (the  principel  one,  if  not  both)  for  the  service  of  the  year  1841,  and  could  only  have 
been  embraced  in  the  estimates  submitted  in  December,  1840,  after  the  Presidential 
election  was  over,  and  after  all  reason  for  the  motives  imputed  had  ceased  to  exist;  so 
that  it  is  palpable,  the  gentleman,  in  this  respect  at  least,  has  done  injustice  to  the 
late  administration. 

When  Mr.  Van  Buren  came  into  power,  he  found  economy  destroyed  by  a  flood 
of  revenue,  which  many  thought  it  would  be  impossible  to  exhaust.  The  surplus 
was  ordered  to  be  deposited  among  the  States — which  being  done,  suspension,  like 
thunder  in  a  cloudless  sky,  burst  upon  the  country.  Prosperity,  vast  and  mighty, 
its  like  unknown  in  ancient  story,  shrunk  into  "airy  nothingness."  The  lowing 
herd,  the  murmuring  brook,  the  teeming  field,  the  laughing,  joyous  crowd,  presented 
a  scene,  over  which  the  angel  of  fate  must  have  looked  with  sympathy.  But  a 
sirocco  swept  over  the  scene,  and  all  was  death.  Amid  difficulties  such  as  these, 
Mr.  Van  Buren  had  to  steer  the  ship  of  State;  with  a  revenue  rapidly  diminishing 
from  these  great  causes,  as  well  as  from  act  of  law,  he  had  to  maintain  the  public 
service;  and  well  and  truly  did  he  meet  the  crisis.  He  retrenched  the  public  expend- 
iture, and  yet  upheld  the  public  defences.  He  expended  in  public  buildings  millions 
of  dollars.  He  purchased  from  the  Indians  a  territory  sufficient  to  found  an  empire. 
He  met  every  engagement  to  the  public  creditor  promptly.  And  at  the  termination 
of  his  official  career,  without  ever  adding  one  dollar  of  tax  to  the  existing  burdens  of 
the  people,  nay,  with  the  taxes  reduced  by  millions,  he  handed  over  to  his  successor 
the  vast  acquisitions  to  which  I  have  adverted;  a  high  and  unsullied  public  credit,  and 
$1,374,091  in  cash  —  "the  hard"  with  which  to  commence  the  performance  of  the 
important  duties  the  sovereign  people  had  devolved  upon  him. 

Here,  Mr.  Chairman,  are  the  facts,  the  reality.  Facts  that  are  to  be  found  in  the 
official  records  of  the  country,  and  upon  which  every  Republican  can  dwell  with 
pleasure.  Here  is  '■'■the  rest"  for  the  late  administration,  at  which  its  successor 
promised  to  "open  a  new  set  of  books"  that  the  depravity,  mismanagement,  and  ex- 
travagance of  the  late  administration;  and  the  integrity,  skill  and  economy  of  the 
present  Whig  party,  might  be  demonstrated  to  the  eyes  of  an  expectant  people.  One 
year  has  passed  away.  Let  us  see  how  far  the  public  expectation  has  been  realized, 
and  the  promises  of  the  Whigs  redeemed. 

I  have  stated,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  Mr.  Van  Buren  reduced  the  expenditures  from 
$31,610,000  in  the  year  1837,  to  $22,389,356  in  1840.  Under  the  operation  of  the 
causes  before  stated,  and  especially  the  compromise  act,  the  revenues  were  rapidly 
sinking;  and  the  severest  economy  for  1841  was  an  indispensable  duty,  if,  for  no 
other  reason,  to  prevent  the  current  expenditures  from  exceeding  the  current  re- 
sources of  the  country.  Accordingly  the  estimates  submitted  for  the  service  of  the 
year  1841,  by  Mr.  Van  Buren,  were  $16,621,520.  But  the  actual  appropriations  made 
by  Congress  were  $18,381,197. 

These  appropriations  were  made  with  an  eye  to  the  strictest  economy,  rendered 
indispensable  by  the  shrinking  means  of  the  treasury.  The  means,  however,  to 
meet  them,  were  considered  sufficient,  leaving  on  hand,  in  cash,  the  sum  of  $824,273 
on  the  31st  of  December,  1841.  These  official  results,  formed  by  experienced  states- 
men— pregnant  with  admonition,  were,  however,  unheeded  by  their  successors. 
Flushed  with  success — madly  drunk  with  power — conscious  that  the  public  income, 
with  all  proper  economy,  wouid  barely  preserve  the  public  faith  inviolate,  the  Whigs, 
on  assuming  the  reins  of  power,  instantly  enlarged  expenditure  over  the  average  of 
the  two  months  preceding  the  4th  of  March,  1841,  first  deducting  treasury  notes,  as  is 
the  case  in  all  calculations,  and  averaging  the  pensions  which  were  paid  to  the  agents 
previous  to  the  4th  of  March,  the  enormous  monthly  sum  of  $539,699. 

The  actual  expenditure  for  1841,  exclusive  of  treasury  notes $26,396,996 

Deduct  expenditures  from  1st  of  January,  1841,  to  4th  of  March,  1841,  ex- 
clusive of  treasury  notes,  and  after  averaging  pension  payments. . . .       3,500,000 

Expenditures  for  ten  months $22,896,996 

Monthly  average $2,289,698 

Monthly  average  previous  to  March  4,  1841 1,750,000 

Monthly  excess  after  1st  of  March,  1841 $539,699 

No  wonder  that  the  Whigs  ordered  an  extra  session  for  the  alleged  purpose  of 
providing  the  ways  and  means,  which  their  predecessors  had  failed  to  supply.  For 
such  prodigality  as  this,  certainly  no  provision  was  made.  By  this  means  the  Whigs 
created  the  necessity  of  an  extra  session;  and  then  sought  to  throw  the  blame  upon 
the  Republicans.     "Oh,  shame,  where  is  thy  blush  !  " 

But  when    the  extra  session  came,  did    the  Whigs  arrest   the  expenditure  which 


317 

had  been  commenced  by  Harrison  and  continued  by  his  chosen  cabinet  ?  No,  sir; 
new  appropriations  were  made,  and  new  expenditures  authorized.  This  was  done, 
too,  that  there  would  be  a  deficit,  according  to  the  treasurer's  report  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  of  upwards  of  $6,000,000.  And  according  to  the  statements  of  the  lion,, ruble 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  [Mr.  Fillmore],  a  permanent  and 
annual  one  of  $17,488,000.  It  was  as  plain  as  the  sun  in  Heaven's  bright  and  cloud- 
less sky,  that  the  revenues  were  unable  to  support  a  system  of  expenditure  so 
extended  and  enlarged.  To  arrest  prodigality  then,  restore  economy,  cut  oft"  all  use- 
less and  unnecessary  offices,  was  not  only  demanded  by  stern  necessity,  but  was 
loudly  called  for  in  redemption  of  the  solemn  promises  made  to  the  country.  "Re- 
trench !  retrench  !  "  Mr.  Clay  had  proclaimed. 

In  his  speech  (to  be  found  in  the  National  Intelligencer  of  July  15,  1840)  when 
treating  of  the  public  expenditures,  he  says,  that  "  the  annual  expenditure  may,  in  a 
reasonable  time,  be  brought  down  from  its  present  amount  of  almost  forty  millions  to  near 
one -third  of  that  sum." 

In  every  town  and  hamlet,  from  every  vale  and  hill-top,  it  was  proclaimed  that 
$13,000,000  to  $15,000,000  a  year  were  amply  sufficient  to  support  the  government, 
economically  administered.  The  honorable  gentleman  from  North  Carolina  [Mr. 
Staidey],  in  an  early  part  of  the  session,  had  said,  if  the  Whigs  were  allowed  time — 
but  a  single  year — they  would  show  that  the  government  would  be  sustained  on  $15,- 
000,000. 

[Here  Mr.  Stanley  remarked  he  had  never  said  so.] 

I,  Mr.  Speaker,  certainly  so  understood  the  gentleman.  '  I  have  this  moment  shown 
that  his  great  leader  [Mr.  Clay]  had  said  that  a  third  of  forty  millions  would  soon  be 
enough;  and  surely  he  would  not  dissent  from  an  opinion  coming  from  a  quarter  to 
which  he  owed  so  much  deference. 

But  sir,  the  Whigs,  instead  of  attempting  retrenchment — instead  of  holding  on  to 
that  which  had  been  made  to  their  hands,  assumed  the  expenditures,  not  of  the  last 
year,  but  of  the  four  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration,  as  furnishing  the  true 
standard  of  future  expenditure. 

Mr.  Fillmore  says  "if  the  experience  of  the  past  is  to  be  the  guide  for  the 
future,  that  our  annual  expenditures  for  the  current  four  years  will  be  near  $28,000,- 
000." — Speech  of  July  24,  1841. 

He  goes  on  and  says:  "Then,  according  to  this  calculation,  taking  the  law  as  it 
now  stands,  and  judging  of  the  future  by  the  past,  the  amount  stands  thus: 

Probable  annual  expenditure $27,697,000 

Gross  amount  of  duties  after  July  1,  1842 $13,950,000 

Deduct  for  expenses  of  collection,  drawbacks,  etc 3,741,000 

Making  your  net  revenue  per  annum 10,209,000 

And  leaving  an  annual  deficit  of $17,488,000 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  when  it  is  remembered  that  it  has  been  the  habit  of  Whig 
orators  to  denounce,  without  stint,  the  expenditures  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administra- 
tion, as  not  only  profligate,  but  extravagant,  we  can  but  smile  at  the  cool,  veteran 
hardihood  with  which  those  gentlemen  refer  to  those  very  expenditures  thus  de- 
nounced, as  furnishing  a  standard  for  the  future. 

Mr.  Van  Buren  spent  in  1840,  $22,389,356,  and  was  denounced  for  his  extrava- 
gance. The  Whigs  spent  in  1841,  $26,394,996,  and  are,  I  suppose,  economical.  For 
the  year  1842  they  have  estimated  the  expenditure,  exclusive  of  treasury  notes,  at 
about  $26,000,000,  an  amount  below  the  mark,  if  they  can  raise  the  wind.  Mr.  Clay 
himself,  after  having  declared,  in  1840,  that  a  third  of  $40,000,000  was  enough,  now, 
in  a  solemn  resolution,  adopted  that  extent  of  expenditure  which  he  had  formally 
reproved.     He  says: 

"Resolved,  therefore,  That  the  rate  of  duties  on  foreign  imports  ought  to  be  aug- 
mented beyond  the  rate  of  20  per  cent,  so  as  to  produce  a  nett  revenue  of  $26,000,000 
— $22,000,000  for  the  ordinary  expenses  of  government,  $2,000,000  for  the  payment  of 
the  existing  debt,  and  $2,000,000  as  a  reserved  fund  for  contingencies." 

Sir,  from  all  this  heedless  expenditure  of  the  public  moneys — this  disregard  of 
the  plainest  principles  of  common  prudence — what  was  to  have  been  expected?  In- 
creased taxes,  loans,  debts,  discredit,  bankruptcy.  At  the  extra  session,  new  taxes 
were  imposed  to  the  amounts  of  several  millions,  and  a  loan  of  $12,000,000  ordered. 
Notwithstanding  all  which,  the  public  credit  is  dishonored,  and  this  great  Republic 
is  unable  to  meet  the  demands  upon  her.  Shame!  Shame  upon  it!  And  now,  to 
crown  the  whole,  the  bill  under  consideration  proposes  a  heavy  loan,  authorizes  the 
bonds  of  the  government  to  be  put  in  the  market  and  sold  for  whatever  they  will  bring. 
To  such  dire  extremity  are  we  reduced  ! 


318 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  reported  the  public  debt  to  be,  on  the  23d  Decem- 
ber, 1841,  $14,728,085.70;  on  the  1st  March,  1842,  it  is  ascertained  to  have  been  $19,- 
756,938,  exclusive  of  the  debt  for  the  district,  and  the  small  amount  of  old  debt.  And  it 
will  probably  be  near  $30,000,000  at  the  end  of  the  year.  This  is  the  road  to  ruin, 
with  a  vengence. 

The  prospect  is  indeed  most  gloomy.  In  a  recent  message  the  President  has 
said: 

"From  present  indications,  it  is  hardly  doubtful  that  Congress  will  find  it  neces- 
sary to  lay  additional  duties  on  imports,  in  order  to  meet  the  ordinary  current  expenses 
of  the  government. 

On  the  24th  of  March,  1842,  Mr.  Rives,  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  said: 

"What,  Mr.  President,  is  the  mortifying  situation  to  which  we  are  reduced? 
With  a  current  revenue  hardly  equal  to  one-half  of  the  current  expenditures  of  the 
government,  we  have  been  driven  to  every  variety  of  desperate  shifts  and  expedients 
to  meet  the  daily  demands  of  the  public  service.  Already,  since  our  assembling,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  has  been  compelled  to  come  before  us  again  and  again 
with  the  report  of  an  empty  and  bankrupt  treasury,  showing  quarterly  deficits  of 
large  amount,  for  each  of  the  first  two  quarters  of  the  current  year.  And  how  have 
we  been  compelled  to  meet  them  ?  By  a  new  issue  of  the  notes  of  the  government, 
which,  as  soon  as  they  were  put  out,  though  bearing  six  per  cent,  interest,  have  been 
actually  sold,  I  learn,  in  the  streets  of  the  National  Capital,  at  a  discount  of  from  three 
to  four  per  cent.  At  the  same  time  the  treasury  notes,  which  had  fallen  due,  have 
been  protested,  in  repeated  instances,  on  the  public  mart,  for  non-payment,  with  the 
view,  as  we  are  told,  of  recurring  to  the  responsibility  of  individual  indorsers,  as 
having  become  a  better  guarantee  than  the  credit  of  the  government  itself  !  And 
last,  though  not  least,  so  pressing  have  become  the  necessities  of  the  government, 
and  so  precarious  the  public  credit,  that  we  have  seen  the  proposition  seriously  enter- 
tained to  put  the  stock  of  a  new  loan  into  market  for  whatever  it  will  bring." 

"Is  this  the  entertainment  to  which  we  were  invited?  This  the  consequence  of 
Whig  rule!  Far  better  would  it  have  been  for  the  country  had  the  reviled  Republi- 
can party  been  permitted  to  retain  the  administration  of  public  affairs. 

During  the  administration  of  the  younger  Adams  in  1828,  the  public  taxes  were 
enormously  increased.  During  the  administration  of  his  Republican  successors, 
Jackson  and  Adams,  the  taxes  were  reduced  to  the  amount  of  many  millions.  But 
Federalism,  true  to  its  instincts,  imposed  new  taxes  in  the  first  six  months  of  its  restoration 
to  power. 

Under  the  law  reducing  the  public  taxes,  and  so  reducing  the  public  revenue, 
Mr.  Van  Buren  felt  himself  bound,  by  the  most  laborious  and  practical  economy,  to 
confine  expenditure  to  income.  But  Federalism,  regardless  of  the  laws  of  prudence  and 
economy,  instantly  increased  expenditures  with  their  eyes  wide  open,  millions  beyond  our 
income. 

The  Democratic  party  has  always  been  opposed  to  a  permanent  public  debt.  But 
Federalism,  in  its  first  year  of  poiver,  created  one  to  the  amount  of  twelve  millions  of  dollars, 
now  proposed  to  be  increased  by  many  millions  more. 

Once  a  debt  always  a  debt  until  paid,  is  the  great  principle  of  the  Republican 
party.  But  Federalism,  in  its  first  year  of  power,  has  passed  a  bankrupt  law,  thus  spong- 
ing out,  at  a  word,  hundreds  of  millions  of  debt,  justly  and  honestly  due. 

The  Republican  party  advocates  low  tariffs,  cheap  goods,  and  a  consequent 
increase  of  the  wealth  and  comfort  of  the  people.  But  Federalism  has  already  increased 
the  tariff,  and  proposes  to  do  it  again  at  the  present  session,  and,  as  I  have  learned,  to  an 
enormous  extent;  thus  fostering  classes  and  interests  at  the  expense  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
people. 

When  public  revenues  are  deficient,  alive  to  the  preservation  of  the  public  credit, 
the  Republican  policy  is  to  arrest  expenditure  until  the  treasury  can  be  replenished. 
But  the  Federal  policy  is  to  spend  first,  and  provide  the  means  of  payment  afterwards. 
Hence  the  destruction  of  the  public  credit,  and  the  alarming  proposition  to  sell  the  bonds  of 
government  for  what  they  will  bring. 

But  of  all  the  acts  of  unmitigated  folly  that  have  made  the  one  year  of  Whig  rule 
distinguished,  not  illustrious,  that  of  giving  away,  amid  bankruptcy  and  discredit,  nay, 
absolute  want,  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands,  is  the  most  signal  and  amazing.  A  re- 
source that  had  existed  from  a  period  prior  to  the  Constitution — that  had  been  enriched 
by  successive  acquisitions — for  the  enlargement  of  which  over  $25,000,000  were  paid 
during  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration  alone — all  gone,  all,  all,  at  one  fell  swoop.  And 
upon  the  shallow  pretext  that  it  was  but  restoring  to  the  people  their  own,  so  long 
and  unjustly  withheld;  as  if  the  people  had  not  to  restore  the  amount  in  another  form, 
more  than  doubled,  by  the  operations  of  an  unjust  system,  and  the  costs  and  charges 
of  collection.  Truly,  it  was  a  mighty  triumph  of  folly  over  wisdom,  faction  over 
patriotism,  and  plunder  over  the  Constitution. 


319 

The  Whigs,  sir,  sensible  that  the  present  disastrous  condition  of  public  affairs  is 
likely  to  involve  them  in  serious  consecpuences  with  the  people,  are  seeking  to  throw 
the  responsibility  from  themselves.  At  one  moment  they  undertake  to  throw  it  upon 
the  Republican  party.  But,  driven  from  that  vain  and  most  ridiculous  effort,  they 
then  undertake  to  throw  it  upon  John  Tyler.  This  will  not,  shall  not  do.  For  the 
present  condition  of  things,  the  Whigs,  and  they  alone,  are  responsible. 

When  Harrison  assumed  his  official  duties,  with  a  cabinet  around  him,  enjoying 
the  confidence  of  his  party,  their  first  act  of  power  was  to  swell  the  public  expendi- 
tures monthly  upwards  of  $500,000.  In  the  then  condition  of  the  treasury  this  was 
an  act  of  supreme  folly.     But,  for  this,  Tyler  is  not  certainly  responsible. 

When,  by  the  act  of  God — and  who  can  doubt  His  wisdom  ? — Tyler  came  to  the 
head  of  public  affairs,  he  allowed  Harrison's  cabinet  to  continue  the  government  in 
the  march  it  had  commenced.     Will  the  Whigs  say  he  was  responsible  for  that? 

When  the  extra  session  came,  in  the  face  of  a  certain  deficiency,  the  extravagant 
expenditure  which  had  commenced,  was  sanctioned  and  approved;  and  taxes  were 
laid  and  money  authorized  to  be  borrowed  to  sustain  it.  Will  the  perpetrators  of 
this  folly  dare  to  hold  Tyler  responsible  for  that? 

The  truth  is,  John  Tyler,  when  called  to  his  present  eminent  position,  brought 
with  him  a  kind,  and  amiable,  and  a  gentle  spirit;  and  it  was  played  upon,  and  fatally 
played  upon  by  the  selfish  and  designing  to  keep  him  from  that  proud  position,  to 
which  his  principles,  his  cherished  principles,  impelled  him.  He  felt  himself  under 
obligations  to  the  party  which  had  elected  him,  which  his  own  amiable  nature  inclined 
him,  as  far  as  possible,  to  redeem.  And  he,  substantially  under  the  influence  of 
these  considerations,  which  every  gentleman  will  appreciate,  surrendered  the  govern- 
ment to  the  cabinet  Harrison  had  left  him — to  the  Whig  party.  He  yielded  every- 
thing, with  one  great  exception.  And  those  to  whom  he  so  confided — who  shaped 
and  directed  public  affairs  to  their  own  liking,  are  seeking  to  make  him  responsible 
for  their  own  mismanagement  and  folly. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  Whigs  shall  not  thus  escape.  They,  and  they  alone,  are 
responsible  for  the  tarnished  credit  and  honor  of  our  country.  And  I  charge  the 
honorable  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  [Mr.  Fillmore]  as  the  chief 
among  the  sinners,  with  being  especially  responsible  for  our  present  deplorable 
condition. 

The  honorable  gentleman  from  Kentucky  most  feelingly  deplores  the  overthrow 
of  the  Whig  party,  and  imputes  it  to  the  fragments  into  which  it  is  broken.  Sir,  the 
gentleman  does  not  trace  the  causes  of  its  dissolution  with  his  usual  perspicacity. 
They  are  to  be  found  in  their  gross  and  palpable  errors  of  management  and  legisla- 
tion; in  promises  broken  and  pledges  unredeemed.  Have  you  practiced  economy? 
Have  you  reduced  expenditures?  Have  you  abolished  unnecessary  offices?  Have 
you  proscribed  proscription?  No,  sir!  no!  Economy  has  run  into  prodigality — 
the  expenditures  have  been  greatly  enlarged — no  offices  have  been  abolished — and 
proscription,  instead  of  being  proscribed,  feeds  like  a  vampyre  upon  the  blood  of  its 
victims.  A  distinguished  Whig  Senator  proclaimed  that  the  mere  election  of  Harrison 
would  be  worth  $100,000,000 — that  prices  would  advance  and  the  crushed  and  ruined 
interests  of  the  country  would  at  once  spring  up  and  "smile  and  blossom  as  the 
rose."  Has  this  promise  been  redeemed?  Let  the  universal  fall  of  prices,  the 
bankruptcy  of  the  treasury,  the  wail  of  distress,  deep  and  loud  and  agonizing,  which 
now  resounds  throughout  the  land,  answer.  Sir,  the  people  feel  that  they  have  been 
deluded  and  imposed  upon — that  amid  the  hard  cider  revels  into  which  they  were 
seduced,  they  committed  a  great  wrong  upon  their  country,  for  which  they  are  eager 
to  make  atonement.  Hence  the  overthrow  of  the  Whig  party;  hence  the  almost 
uninterrupted  triumph  of  the  Democratic  party  throughout  the  Union  since  the  extra 
session. 

But,  sir,  it  may  be  asked,  will  I  do  nothing  to  restore  the  public  credit?  I  answer, 
yes.  I  will  retrench  expenditure  to  the  standard  fixed  by  the  late  administration.  I 
will  reclaim  the  public  lands.  I  will  continue  the  issue  of  treasury  notes,  until  I 
ascertain  whether  a  reformed  and  healthier  system  will  not  invigorate  and  enlarge  the 
sources  of  public  supply  to  the  proper  measure  of  the  public  wants.  But  under  no 
circumstances  will  I  vote  for  the  present  bill.  Sell  the  bonds  of  the  government  for 
what  they  will  bring !  no,  never.     Nor,  Mr.  Chairman,  do  I  consider  it  necessary. 

The  Secretary  reports  a  deficiency  at  the  end  of  1842  of $14,210,570 

Of  this  sum   there  are  in  treasury  notes,  which  can  be  renewed 7,000,000 

$7,218,570 

By  reclaiming  the  public  lands,  and  vigorously  prosecuting  their  sale, 

we  can  easily  procure  this  year 3,000.000 

$4,218,570 


320 

The  appropriations  for  the  army,  fortifications,  etc.,  for 

the  year  1841,  were $7,725,440 

Those  asked  for  1842  are 11,717,791 

Cut  this  down  to  1841,  and  deduct  the  difference 3^992i35I 

Deficiency $226,219 

To  show  that   this   is  no  extravagant  estimate  as  to  the  public  lands,  I  give   their 

proceeds  for  a  series  of  years: 

"The  sales  of  the  public  lands  from  1833  to  1841  were  as  follows: 

In  the  year  1833 $4,972,284 

"    "   1834 6,099,981 

"  183S 15,999,804 

"  1836 25,167,833 

"  1837 7,007,523 

"  1838 4,305,564 

"  ^839 6,464,556 

"    "  1840 2,252,202 

"  1841 i,454,o63 

It  is  true  they  shrunk,  in  1841,  to  a  veiy  small  amount;  but  this  was,  in  part, 
the  consequence  of  great  causes,  and  in  part  for  want  of  pressing  the  lands  into 
market. 

To  come  certainly  within  our  means,  I  would  also,  in  certain  respects,  reduce  the 
pay  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  certain  branches  of  the  civil  service.  And  if  all  this 
did  not  do,  I  would  increase  the  duties  on  imported  articles,  of  which  a  like  kind  is 
not  produced  in  this  country,  as  the  only  tax  which  will  operate  equally  upon  the 
whole  people.  These  measures  would  soon  place  us  upon  high  and  lofty  ground, 
exempt  from  oppressive  taxation,  and  freed  from  Jews  and  Shylocks. 

And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  will  rapidly  bring  my  remarks  to  a  close.  Let  us, 
however,  look  back  to  the  great  election  of  1840.  And  what  do  we  see?  The  Whigs 
appealing  to  the  country,  inflaming  the  public  mind  and  debauching  the  public 
morals,  by  bacchanalian  songs,  drunken  revels,  and  all  the  disgusting  mummery  of 
log-cabins,  hard  cider  and  coon  skins.  It  was  enough  to  make  the  lover  of  his  kind 
weep  tears  of  bitterness  and  sorrow.  The  immortal  bard  of  Avon,  second  only  to  the 
inspired  fathers,  to  "point  a  moral  and  adorn  a  tale,"  has  most  felicitously  remarked 
that— 

"There  is  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends. 
Rough  hew'them  how  we  will." 

This  unquestioned  truth,  which,  in  all  the  affairs  of  men  should  ever  be  remem- 
bered, was  entirely  forgotten  or  contemned  by  the  Whigs  in  their  mad  eagerness  for 
victory. 

And  when  victory  perched  upon  their  banner;  when,  after  years  of  struggle  and 
hope  long  deferred,  they  found  the  sway  of  empire  theirs;  when,  in  the  foolishness 
of  their  imagination,  they  thought  their  spoils  and  power  were  without  end;  and  in 
the  pride  and  weakness  of  their  hearts,  said,  as  the  rich  man  of  old,  "Soul,  thou 
hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years,  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink  and  be  merry;" 
all  our  long  and  cherished  aspirations  are  about  to  be  gratified;  Oh  !  it  might  have 
disarmed  the  wrath  from  on  high,  and  averted  that  fearful  catastrophe  which 
shrouded  their  pride  and  folly  in  gloom  and  despondency,  had  they  but  remembered 
that— 

"  There  is  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough  hew  them  how  we  will." 


SPEECH    OF    MR.    SMITH,    OF   VIRGINIA. 

On  the  Veto  Message  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  on  the  Provisional 
Tariff  Bill,  July  2,  1842. 
House  of  Representatives,  Congressional  Globe,  Vol.  XI. 

Mr.  Fillmore  having  called  for  the  orders  of  the  day — 

The  Speaker  announced,  as  the  unfinished  business,  the  message  of  the  Presi- 
dent, returning  the  provisional  tariff  bill  with  his  objections. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  who  was  entitled  to  the  floor,  said  that  he  had  been 
requested  to  yield  it  for  a  few  moments  to  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Calvary 
Morris],  in  order  that  he  might  have  the  opportunity  of  making  a  personal  explan- 
ation; and  he  acceded  to  the  request  with  much  pleasure. 


321 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  then  rose  and  addressed  the  House  up  to  the  expiration 
of  his  hour,  with  great  force  and  ability,  in  support  of  the  veto.  He  said  that,  from 
the  first  commencement  of  the  debate,  he  felt  no  little  solicitude  with  regard  to  this 
question.  Every  step  the  debate  had  taken  had  increased  that  solicitude,  because  he 
found,  in  the  progress  of  the  discussion,  feelings  displayed,  principles  advanced  and 
facts  asserted,  altogether  incompatible  with  our  system  of  government.  It  was  for 
this  reason  that  he  felt  a  desire  to  take  part  in  this  discussion;  and  he  would  not  hesi- 
tate to  say  that  he  felt  a  degree  of  personal  interest  in  the  subject,  because  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  had  been  assailed  by  those  who  recently  were  in  intimate 
connection  with  him,  in  terms  and  in  manner  equally  unworthy  of  him  and  of  his 
assailants.  It  had  been  his  lot  to  know  the  President  for  many  years;  he  had  served 
with  him  in  the  councils  of  his  native  State;  and  he  would  say  that,  however  he  may 
have  differed  with  him  on  political  matters,  he  never  knew  anything  of  him  to  justify 
the  language  that  had  been  applied  to  him  here.  On  the  contrary,  he  knew  him  to 
be  a  high-minded,  honorable  man,  possessing  all  those  kind  and  benevolent  feelings 
which  dignify  and  ennoble  human  nature. 

In  treating  this  question,  Mr.  S.  said  that  he  should  confine  himself  to  certain 
public  questions,  and  then  address  himself  to  those  who  had  preceded  him  in  debate, 
when  he  should  take  occasion  to  express  the  deep  indignation  and  scorn  of  the  unfair, 
unmanly  and  ungenerous  manner  in  which  the  Executive  had  been  treated  on  this 
occasion.  In  doing  so,  he  had  not  one  personal  feeling  to  gratify;  but  he  should  treat 
the  subject  with  candor  and  fairness,  and  award  justice  where  justice  was  due.  In 
the  first  place,  he  should  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  act  of  1833,  commonly 
called  the  compromise  act,  because  it  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  subject  he  was 
treating,  and  because  he  entertained  different  opinions  with  regard  to  the  meaning 
and  intent  of  that  law  from  those  expressed  by  gentlemen  on  this  floor;  and,  in  some 
measure,  he  differed  from  the  President  himself  in  his  construction  of  it.  The  view 
that  he  entertained  of  it  was,  that  it  was  the  great  bond  of  peace  to  this  Union;  that 
to  disturb  or  violate  it  was  an  outrage  that  deserved  the  indignation  of  the  world;  and 
that  those  who  believed  that  the  preservation  of  that  bond  of  union  was  essential  to 
the  peace  and  harmony  of  the  country  were  bound  by  every  principle  of  honor  and 
of  patriotism  to  adhere  to  it. 

What  were  the  circumstances  that  preceded  it?  Did  not  every  gentleman 
remember  that,  amid  the  angry  contests  of  that  period,  the  Union  was  almost  severed? 
Did  not  every  gentleman  remember  the  jealousies  and  heart-burnings  between  the 
plundered  on  the  one  side,  and  the  oppressors  on  the  other — which  had  reached  such 
a  height  as  to  carry  alarm  into  the  bosom  of  every  patriot?  Then  it  was  that  Mr. 
Clay  stepped  forward  with  that  bill  of  peace,  and  accompanied  it  with  a  speech  in 
which  he  fully  explained  the  principles  on  which  it  was  founded.  Would  gentlemen 
advert,  for  a  brief  moment,  to  the  principles  of  that  compromise,  as  explained  by 
their  great  leader,  Mr.  Clay  ?  A  high  tariff  existed— it  was  regarded  by  those  who 
did  not  participate  in  its  benefits  with  deep  abhorrence,  and  looked  upon  as  little 
short  of  plunder.  In  short,  such  was  the  determined  spirit  with  which  it  was  opposed, 
that  it  was  found  to  be  impossible  to  sustain  it  much  longer,  without  endangering  the 
Union;  and  the  question  arose,  whether  some  compromise  could  not  be  effected,  by 
which  the  opponents  of  protection  could  be  satisfied,  without  relinquishing  it 
altogether.  What  were  the  terms  of  compromise  that  were  proposed  and  carried 
into  effect  ?  Why,  that,  through  a  course  of  nine  years,  the  existing  duties  should  be 
gradually  reduced  until  brought  down  to  20  per  cent,  ad  valorem.  Every  gentleman 
will  recollect  that,  and  they  would  also  recollect  that  there  were  serious  apprehen- 
sions on  the  part  of  the  manufacturers  that  these  terms  would  not  be  observed.  Did 
gentlemen  not  remember  that,  in  1832,  President  Jackson  recommended  that  the  tariff 
should  be  reduced  to  a  revenue  standard?  And  what  did  Mr.  Clay  say?  Mr.  S. 
here  quoted  some  passages  from  Mr.  Clay's  speech  on  presenting  the  compromise 
bill,  in  which  he  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  tariff  was  in  imminent  danger— that 
it  was  at  the  last  gasp;  and  that,  without  some  liberal  concessions  to  the  South,  it  could 
not  be  preserved  till  the  next  session  of  Congress.  Some  further  extracts  were  quoted 
by  Mr.  S.  from  the  same  speech,  showing  the  necessity  of  passing  the  bill  in  order  to 
preserve  the  peace  and  harmony  of  the  Union.  Here,  in  the  strongest  and  most 
emphatic  language,  Mr.  Clay  declared  that  the  tariff  was  at  the  last  gasp,  and  that  it 
was  necessary  for  the  interest  of  the  manufacturers  that  there  should  be  a  gradual 
reduction  of  duties.  The  gentlemen  of  the  South,  with  unequaled  generosity,  yielded 
to  the  terms  proposed,  and  consented,  with  the  power  in  their  hands  to  allow  the 
manufacturers  the  benefits  of  protection  for  nine  years  longer,  on  the  condition  of  a 
gradual  reduction  during  that  period.  Now,  he  would  inquire,  in  the  language  of 
Mr.  Clay,  "What  statesman  would  ever  venture  to  stand  up  before  the  country  and 
disturb  this  bond  of  union?  "  Yes,  this  was  the  language  of  a  man  when  he  had  a 
bargain  to  make;  yet,  after  a  few  years  have  elapsed,  and  he  is  called  on  to  comply 


322 

with  the  conditions  upon  which  it  was  made,  he  is  seeking  to  disturb  it,  and  to  violate 
the  solemn  contract  guarantied  by  himself. 

He  would  now  (Mr.  S.  said)  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  another  part  of  the 
subject,  which  was  the  act  of  September,  1841,  called  the  distribution  act.  What 
did  that  act  say?  with  a  view  to  preserve  the  character  of  this  legislature;  with  a  view 
to  preserve  the  faith  pledged  in  this  compromise  inviolate,  it  was  provided  in  that  act 
that  whenever  it  should  be  found  necessary  to  raise  the  duties  beyond  20  per  cent., 
the  distribution  should  cease.  Then  there  were  two  acts  of  solemn  legislation  on 
which  the  faith  of  the  Legislature  was  equally  pledged — the  compromise  act,  passed 
under  the  circumstances  he  had  adverted  to;  and  the  distribution  act,  passed  with 
that  solemn  and  express  reservation  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  the  faith  pledged 
in  the  first.  It  was  conceded  on  all  hands  that,  without  that  proviso,  the  last-named 
act  never  could  have  passed  the  Senate;  and  it  was  also  conceded  that,  without  it,  it 
could  not  have  received  the  sanction  of  the  President;  and  yet  they  saw  gentlemen, 
after  having  got  these  measures,  seeking  to  violate  the  solemn  conditions  on  which 
they  obtained  them. 

They  had  heard  gentlemen,  who  were  in  favor  of  distribution,  say  to  the  manu- 
facturing interests  that  "unless  you  hold  on  to  the  distribution,  you  shall  get  no  pro- 
tection." He  would  ask  gentlemen  if  there  was  any  principle  of  honor  or  morality 
that  would  justify  such  an  outrageous  violation  of  the  most  solemn  pledges  ever 
entered  into  by  man.  Under  the  circumstances  he  had  explained,  this  distribution 
bill  was  passed  through  this  and  the  other  House,  and  sent  to  the  President  for  his 
signature.  Mr.  S.  here  averted  to  the  "  race- horse  speed"  with  which  the  measure 
was  hurried  through;  and  observed  that,  notwithstanding  the  plausible  reasons  given 
by  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  for  this  hurried  legislation, 
when  sent  to  the  Senate  it  was  suffered  to  remain  on  the  table  for  several  days,  in 
order,  as  he  supposed,  that  it  might  be  passed  at  a  period  so  near  the  30th  of  June 
that  the  President  would  feel  himself  under  the  necessity  of  sactioning  it.  The  bill 
then  went  to  the  President  under  circumstances  which  induced  a  belief  that  the  Presi- 
dent was  placed  in  such  a  situation  as  compelled  him  to  sign  it,  and  thus  violate  the 
faith  he  had  pledged  in  the  compromise  act,  as  well  as  commit  an  act  contrary  to  his 
known  and  recorded  opinions.  This,  however,  like  many  other  attempts  that  had 
been  made  to  head  Captain  Tyler,  failed,  and  he  returned  the  bill  with  his  veto. 
What  were  the  grounds  on  which  his  objections  were  placed?  Mr.  S.  here  went  into 
a  recapitulation  of  the  reasons  given  by  the  President,  in  his  veto  message,  for 
returning  the  bill  to  the  House  in  which  it  originated,  explaining  and  commenting  on 
them  as  he  went  on. 

In  relation  to  the  distribution  act,  Mr.  S.  said  that  the  President,  who  had  been 
arraigned  here  as  in  favor  of  unqualified  distribution,  had  expressly  declared  that  he 
would  go  for  it  only  so  far  as  that  it  should  not  interfere  with  the  compromise  act.  In 
1841,  when  the  distribution  act  was  presented  to  him  for  his  signature,  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  give  his  assent  to  it;  though  he  saw,  in  the  condition  of  the  treasury,  good 
reasons  for  withholding  it,  yet  he  gave  his  assent  to  it,  because  it  contained  a  proviso 
that  the  distribution  was  to  be  arrested  the  moment  the  duties  should  be  raised  above 
20  per  cent.  Now,  when  he  was  called  upon  to  give  his  assent  to  a  bill  involving  a 
breach  of  the  compromise  act,  and  a  breach  of  the  distribution  act,  he  would  ask 
gentlemen  if  he  was  not  under  a  high  moral  obligation  to  reject  it,  which  he  could 
not  well  have  disregarded. 

The  compromise  act  had  been  observed  in  good  faith  by  one  party,  while  the 
other  had  reaped  all  the  benefits  from  it;  but  now  that  the  South  was  to  receive  its 
share  of  the  advantages  held  out  by  it,  gentlemen  were  anxious  to  violate  it,  and 
arraigned  the  President  because  he  would  not  assist  them  in  doing  so.  What,  in  the 
name  of  sense,  did  the  South  gain  by  that  compromise,  if  it  was  not  that  the  duties 
should  be  ultimately  brought  down  to  a  revenue  standard  ?  They  agreed  to  submit 
to  the  collection  of  duties  that  the  treasury  did  not  want,  for  nine  years,  for  the  sake 
of  manufacturers,  on  the  condition  that,  at  the  end  of  that  period,  a  protective  tariff 
should  cease.  They  would  have  made  a  bad  bargain  without  that  condition;  and 
they  would  not,  without  it,  have  agreed  to  the  compromise,  when  they  had  the  power 
in  their  own  hands  to  destroy  protection  altogether. 

Mr.  S.  then  went  on  to  explain  how  the  bill  that  was  vetoed  by  the  President 
violated  the  compromise  and  the  distribution  acts,  and  asked  gentlemen  if  they  did 
not  know  it.  They  knew  that  the  distribution  act  never  could  have  passed  the  Senate, 
nor  have  received  the  sanction  of  the  President,  without  that  proviso  which  they 
sought  to  repeal.  He  asked  them  how  they  could  reconcile  such  a  system  of  legisla- 
tion to  their  consciences.  He  was  startled  at  a  proposition  made  by  the  gentleman 
from  New  York  [Mr.  Granger].  He  called  upon  the  manufacturing  interest  to  stand 
firm  by  their  principles.  This  was  an  appeal  to  the  selfish  feelings  and  interests,  that 
he  had  not  been  accustomed  to  in  legislation. 


323 

Mr.  Granger  (by  permission  of  Mr.  Smith)  explained  what  he  had  said.  It  was, 
that,  rather  than  be  driven  from  the  ground  he  had  taken,  by  Executive  dictation,  he 
called  upon  the  manufacturing  interest  to  stand  upon  their  arms,  and  exist  as  they 
could  exist  under  this  glorious  compromise  act,  till  the  result  should  show  who  could 
stand  the  existing  state  of  things  longest. 

Mr.  W.  Smith.     Then  I  am  to  understand  that  the  gentleman  is  willing  to  stand 
by  the  compromise  act? 
Mr.  Granger.     No,  sir. 

Mr.  W.  Smith.  I  confess  I  don't  understand  the  gentleman.  I  presume  he 
understands  himself.  The  gentleman,  then,  did  call  on  the  manufacturing  interest 
to  stand  to  their  arms — thus  appealing  to  their  selfish  feelings  in  a  manner  altogether 
unsuited  to  legislation.  We  came  here  (said  Mr.  S.)  to  settle  great  questions,  involv- 
ing the  interests  of  the  whole  Union — not  to  legislate  for  selfish  or  sectional  interests. 
But  this  was  not  all;  the  gentleman  called  upon  his  friends  to  stand  by  their  princi- 
ples.    He  should  like  to  know  what  they  were. 

Mr.  Granger  said  his  principles  were  these:  He  believed  that  the  interests  of 
the  country  required  such  a  tariff  as  would  give  protection  to  domestic  manufactures, 
under  a  revenue  sufficient  for  the  economical  wants  of  the  government.  His  princi- 
ples were,  that  the  public  lands  belonged  to  the  States  of  this  Union,  and  not  to  the 
Federal  government;  and  that  their  proceeds  should  long  ago  have  been  distributed 
to  them.     This,  he  said,  would  have  prevented  the  excesses  of  1835. 

Mr.  Smith.  Well  I  have  got  the  gentleman's  principles;  and  what  are  they? 
The  five  loaves  and  seven  fishes — protection  and  distribution — plunder  and  division. 
Mr.  S.  then  referred  to  the  avowal  made  by  Mr.  Granger,  that,  when  Postmaster- 
General,  he  had  dismissed  1,700  postmasters;  and,  if  he  had  been  permitted  to 
remain  in  office  a  year  longer,  he  would  have  removed  3,000  more — an  avowal  which 
the  gentleman  made  with  a  degree  of  chuckling  satisfaction,  evincing  a  bloody  spirit, 
equal  to  that  of  Danton,  Marat,  or  Robespierre.  This  too,  coming  from  a  member  of 
a  party  which  came  into  power  under  the  pledge  of  proscribing  proscription  !  After 
repelling,  in  terms  of  indignation,  the  imputation  thrown  out  by  another  member 
from  New  York  [Mr.  Fillmore],  that  the  veto  was  the  result  of  a  coalition  between 
the  President  and  Locofocos,  as  he  was  pleased  to  term  them,  Mr.  S.  inquired  of  the 
gentleman  whether  this  imputation  was  thrown  out  on  any  evidence  to  support  it — 
or  was  it  merely  the  outpouring  of  disappointed  spleen  ?  The  gentleman,  he  remem- 
bered, commenced  his  remarks  by  saying  that  he  should  treat  the  President  and  his 
message  with  all  proper  respect.  Now,  was  it  treating  him  with  proper  respect  to 
charge  him  with  an  act  involving  the  highest  moral  turpitude? 
Mr.  Fillmore  rose  to  make  an  explanation. 

Mr.  Smith  said  he  only  wished  the  gentleman  to  reply  yes  or  no  to  the  question 
he  asked:  Had  he  any  evidence  in  support  of  the  charge,  or  was  it  the  result  only 
of  his  own  disappointment  and  spleen  ?  The  limited  time  alloted  him  by  the  rules 
was  too  short  to  allow  him  to  enter  into  a  colloquy  with  the  gentleman,  which  he 
should  otherwise  be  glad  to  do;  and  he  should  like,  also,  to  propound  a  few  inter- 
rogatories to  the  ex-Postmaster-General.  Mr.  S.  then  went  on  to  reply  to  the  remarks 
of  his  colleague  [Mr.  Stuart],  who  took  the  extraordinary  ground  that  the  principle 
of  distribution  was  contained  in  the  compromise  act.  This  position  of  his  col- 
league Mr.  S.  entered  into  a  refutation  of. 

He  then  alluded  to  the  fact  that,  at  the  time  the  compromise  act  was  passed,  the 
treasury  was  overflowing,  and  possessed  more  money  than  it  was  known  what  to  do 
with;  and  the  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  was  known  to  be  but 
a  temporary  measure. 

He  next  alluded  to  the  vetoes  of  General  Washington,  who,  from  his  position, 
was  capable  of  judging  of  the  intent  with  which  the  veto  power  was  conferred;  and 
asserted  that  one  of  his  vetoes  was  simply  on  the  ground  of  expediency,  and  not  on 
the  ground  of  constitutionality.  But  the  wisdom  of  General  Washington  was  here 
rebuked  by  the  new  lights  which  had  sprung  up  to  dazzle  and  astonish  them. 

He  (Mr.  S.)  regarded  the  veto  power  as  one  of  the  most  important  powers  con- 
ferred by  the  Federal  Constitution;  and  it  was  a  remarkable  fact,  that  it  had  never 
been  exercised  without  meeting  the  approval  of  the  people.  It  was  a  power  calcu- 
lated to  preserve  public  liberty;  and  the  vituperation  with  which  it  was  here  assailed, 
it  was  worthy  of  observation,  came  from  the  disappointed  faction  which  had  been 
foiled  in  all  their  high  aspirations.  But  what  was  this  veto  power?  Was  it  a  legis- 
lative, executive  or  judicial  power?  If  it  was  not  a  legislative  power,  he  knew  not 
what  it  was.  It  was  certainly  not  executive,  nor  was  it  judicial;  and/<?r  st  it  must  be 
legislative. 

He  prayed  the  House  to  bear  with  him  while  he  took  occasion  to  state  the  relations 
which  he  bore  to  the  President  of  the  United  States;  and,  after  a  few  observations  on 
this  subject,  he  was  cut  short  by  the  expiration  of  his  allotted  hour. 


324 

SPEECH  OF  MR.  SMITH,  OF  VIRGINIA, 

On  the  Tariff,  July,  1842. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Fillmore,  the'House  resolved  itself  into  Committee  of  the  Whole 
on  the  state  of  the  Union,  (Mr.  McKennan,  of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  chair,)  and  re- 
sumed the  consideration  of  the  bill  to  provide  revenue  from  imports,  and  to  modify 
the  several  acts  imposing  duties  on  imports;  the  question  being  on  the  motion  of  Mr. 
Saltonstall  to  amend  the  bill,  by  substituting  for  it  the  tariff  bill  reported  by  the  Com- 
mittee on  Manufactures. 

Mr.  Summers,  who  was  entitled  to  the  floor,  addressed  the  committee  in  an  hour's 
speech,  in  support  of  the  policy  of  laying  discriminating  duties,  and,  in  that  way, 
giving  incidental  protection  to  domestic  manufactures. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  then  obtained  the  floor,  and  addressed  the  committee 
during  the  hour.  He  commenced  by  saying  that  there  were  four  modes  of  collecting 
revenue  for  the  government;  first,  by  imposts  on  articles,  none  of  which  were  made  in 
this  country;  secondly,  by  imposts  alike  on  all  articles  entering  our  ports — a  horizon- 
tal tariff;  thirdly,  by  imposts  upon  articles  manufactured  in  the  country,  with  a  view 
to  protection;  and,  fourthly,  by  a  system  of  internal  taxes.  Speaking  for  himself 
alone,  he  had  no  hesitation  in  avowing  that  he  believed  that  a  system  of  internal 
taxes  was  the  true  and  proper  policy  of  this  country,  and  would  operate  more  equally 
than  any  other  upon  every  section  of  the  Union.  The  system  of  protection  he  re- 
garded as  a  system  of  plunder.  When  he  spoke  of  protection  to  the  industry  of  the 
country,  he  meant  the  manufacturing  industry — protection  to  the  manufacturers. 
Theirs  was  the  least  interest  of  the  country.  Yet  such  was  the  zeal  of  their  advo- 
cates, that  the  people  were  made  to  believe  that  the  welfare  of  the  nation  depended 
upon  their  prosperity  or  adversity.  The  commercial  interests  of  the  country  were 
more  important,  and  had  more  capital  invested  in  them.  Agriculture,  however,  was 
the  great  interest  on  which  all  others  rested  for  support.  It  was  an  interest  in  which 
seven  times  as  much  capital  was  invested  as  there  was  in  manufactures  and  com- 
merce. 

The  question  before  the  committee,  and  which  he  should  discuss,  was  the  amend- 
ment to  the  bill  offered  by  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Manufactures,  [Mr. 
Saltonstall.]  He  regarded  it,  then,  as  a  question  involving  the  protection  of  the 
manufacturing  interests;  for  the  subject  would  not  have  been  referred  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  Manufactures,  had  it  not  been  with  a  view  to  give  protection.  What,  he 
asked,  was  the  principle  of  protection,  but  a  direct  attempt  to  levy  on  the  other 
branches  of  industry  ?  The  great  interests  of  agriculture  and  commerce,  which  con- 
stituted the  great  body  of  the  wealth  of  the  country,  were  to  be  taxed  for  the  benefit 
of  manufacturing  industry.  One  interest  came  forward  and  said  it  was  languishing, 
and  must  be  revived  by  legislative  enactments.  This  interest  confessedly  could  not 
subsist  without  aid  from  the  government.  The  remaining  great  interests  of  the 
country  must  be  taxed  for  its  support.  What  was  the  reason  the  manufactures  could 
not  thrive  without  this  invidious  distinction  in  their  favor?  Plainly  because  labor 
and  capital  employed  in  other  avocations  were  more  profitable  and  attended  with 
richer  rewards.  It  would  be,  he  maintained,  a  species  of  the  most  extreme  folly  for 
Congress,  by  its  legislation,  to  take  away  labor  and  capital  from  agriculture,  and  turn 
it  to  the  less  profitable  business  of  manufacturing.  Would  such  a  policy  be  wise  ? 
Should  Congress  interfere  with  the  pursuits  of  life,  to  diminish  the  agricultural  wealth 
of  the  country  ? 

He  replied  to  the  views  of  his  colleague,  [Mr.  Stuart,]  who  had  said  that,  if  the 
consumer  paid  the  duty  on  imports,  it  would  be  equally  true,  if  the  same  duties  were 
placed  on  exports,  that  the  consumer  of  those  exports  would  also  pay  that;  and  had 
hence  argued  that  England  would  have  to  pay  any  tax  that  our  government  might  im- 
pose upon  its  exports  to  her.  He  replied  to  this  position,  by  saying  that,  if  England 
were  obliged  to  buy  our  exports,  she  would  of  course  pay  any  tax  we  might  impose 
upon  them.  But  England  was  not  compelled  to  take  the  productions  of  the  United 
States.  She  might  look  to  other  countries,  and  thence  receive  her  supplies.  To  prove 
that  it  was  true  that  the  consumer  paid  the  tax  imposed  on  imports,  he  would  quote 
from  the  language  of  one  who  was  good  authority  in  certain  quarters  of  the  House. 
He  quoted  from  the  speech  of  Henry  Clay  a  passage,  in  which  it  was  insisted  "that 
the  consumption  of  an  article  was  in  proportion  to  its  price,"  etc.  This  was  the 
opinion  of  the  father  of  the  American  system,  spoken  in  the  debate  upon  the  com- 
promise bill. 

But  if  it  was  not  true  that  the  amount  of  duty  imposed  entered  into  the  price  of 
the  article  and  was  paid  by  the  consumer,  why  did  the  manufacturing  interest  wish 
the  tariff  increased  ?  Why  was  a  high  tariff  so  strenuously  advocated,  and  so  many 
petitions  sent  here  from  the  manufacturers  all  over  the  country  in  its  favor,  if  the  effect 


325 

would  be  an  increase  in  prices  ?  The  object  was  plain.  It  was  to  raise  the  prices  of 
their  goods,  and  add  to  their  profit.  But  gentlemen  had  said  that  this  bounty,  paid  to 
the  manufacturers,  went  towards  the  benefit  of  the  consumers.  Let  them  take  Eng- 
land,  and  view  her  pauper  population.  There  was  an  evidence  of  the  benefit  of  the 
protective  system  !  Her  population,  generally,  living  upon  the  lowest  pittance;  and 
her  operatives  reduced  to  a  state  of  beggary.  The  bounties  afforded  the  manufac- 
turers had  forced  them  into  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  had  compelled  them  to  sell 
at  the  lowest  rates.  He  pointed,  emphatically,  to  England,  for  an  example  of  the 
bounty  system.  What  was  more  extraordinary  and  more  obnoxious,  the  farmers  of 
the  country,  who  raised  millions  of  bushels  of  wheat,  had  to  pay  those  bounties  for 
the  benefit  of  the  manufacturers. 

lie  replied  to  the  arguments  of  his  colleague  from  the  Kenawha  district  [Mr. 
Summers,]  in  favor  of  a  duty  on  salt.  His  colleague  had  complained  of  the  reduc- 
tion in  the  price  of  that  article;  but  did  not  that  reduction  result  from  the  breaking  up 
of  an  odious  salt  monopoly  which  formerly  existed  in  the  country  ?  This  monopoly 
actually  paid  individuals  who  had  salt-springs  for  not  opening  them,  and  they  carried 
on  their  operations  at  a  ruinous  cost  to  the  country  around,  who  had  to  buy  their  salt. 
He  thought  that  with  16  cents  a  bushel  for  their  salt,  which  his  colleague  had  said  was 
the  present  price,  they  could  do  a  very  profitable  business. 

But  he  objected  to  the  revenue  system  which  was  proposed.  With  such  high 
rates  of  duties,  he  held  it  would  be  impossible  to  collect  the  revenue  which  would 
arise.  He  pointed  to  England,  with  her  immense  naval  and  military  establishments, 
and  her  powerful  and  well-organized  custom-house  corps;  even  she,  with  all  these  ad- 
vantages, and  with  but  a  small  territory,  could  not  enforce  her  revenue  laws,  and 
was  unable  to  prevent  smuggling.  He  referred  to  the  various  operations  which 
were  proposed  to  get  goods  into  England  free  of  duty,  and  the  frequent  instances  of 
travelers  buying  goods  in  France,  at  an  advance  of  only  20  or  30  per  cent.,  delivera- 
ble free  of  charge  in  London.  If,  in  spite  of  all  the  regulations  adopted  in  England, 
duties  could  not  be  collected  upon  the  whole  of  the  imports  of  the  country,  how  could 
we  expect  to  accomplish  such  an  object  with  our  8,000  miles  of  frontier  ?  Did  gentle- 
men suppose  that  the  system  of  plunder  legalized  by  a  high  protective  tariff  would  be 
tolerated?  He  assured  them  it  would  not.  Smugglers  would  run  into  the  thousand 
inlets  upon  our  coast,  and  laugh  at  the  custom-house  regulations.  He  gave  instances 
of  the  smuggling  carried  on  in  France  and  Germany,  and  thence  inferred  that  it  could 
not  be  prevented  under  any  high  tariff  that  might  be  adopted. 

It  should  be  remarked  that  gentlemen  who  advocated  this  bill  were,  for  the  most 
part  advocates  of  high  expenditures  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  government.  Some 
there  were  who  seemed  reckless  as  to  the  amount  of  money  which  they  voted  to  ex- 
pend. Claims,  as  old  as  the  government  itself — claims  which  had  been  rejected  year 
after  year — were  ripped  up  from  their  oblivion,  for  the  purpose  of  swelling  the 
amount  of  Federal  expenditures.  The  cry  was,  "Give  us  but  a  revenue  tariff;  "  yet, 
if  all  the  appropriations  urged  by  the  advocates  of  this  "  revenue  tariff"  should  be 
voted,  the  amount  would  be  such  as  to  afford  the  most  enormous  protection,  if  not  the 
effect  of  an  entire  prohibition. 

He  then  entered  into  a  statement  of  the  amount  of  tonnage  entering  our  ports 
from  foreign  countries  at  various  periods.  In  1800,  when  our  population  was  five 
millions,  the  tonnage  was  669,000;  in  1S10,  984,000;  and  in  1841,  with  a  population  of 
seventeen  millions,  but  899,000 — thus  showing  an  actual  falling  off,  though  the  popu- 
lation of  the  country  had  increased  at  an  unparalleled  rate.  Here  was  one  of  the 
consequences  of  the  protective  system. 

He  entered  into  a  statement  and  comparison  of  the  home  tonnage  of  England, 
France,  and  the  United  States — showing  the  power  of  our  country  in  this  respect;  and 
how,  if  not  cramped,  she  would  become  the  first  tiation  in  the  world. 

He  replied  to  the  argument  that  our  cotton-planters  should  find  a  home  market 
for  their  produce.  The  production  of  the  United  States  was  21,000,000  bales.  Of  this, 
350,000  would  supply  all  the  manufacturers  of  this  country.  Where,  then,  was  the 
home  market  which  those  gentlemen  spoke  of  ?  It  would  take  700,000  bales  to  sup- 
ply the  country;  but  that  included  whites,  blacks,  and  all.  350,000  would  supply  all 
those  connected  with  the  manufacturing  interest.  He  went  into  a  variety  of  illustra- 
tions to  prove  the  truth  of  these  views. 

He  next  proceeded,  by  tabular  statements,  to  show  how  the  system  operated  on 
American  prices.  He  also  examined  the  doctrine  that  a  tariff  produced  low  prices. 
He  likewise  glanced  at  the  land  question,  and  was  proceeding  with  an  elaborate 
speech  when  his  hour  expired. 


326 

NEBRASKA  AND  KANSAS. 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  WILLIAM   SMITH,  OF  VIRGINIA, 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  April  27,  1854. 

The  House  being  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union — 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  said: 

Mr.  Chairman:  I  am  sensible  of  the  difficulty  under  which  I  labor  in  occupying 
the  floor  at  this  time,  in  consequence  of  the  protracted  debate  which  has  already 
taken  place  upon  the  subject  of  the  organization  of  the  Territories  of  Nebraska  and 
Kansas — the  subject  to  which  I  wish  now  to  call  the  attention  of  the  committee.  I 
feel  deeply  upon  this  subject.  It  is  not  in  my  nature  to  feel  coldly  upon  any 
question  which  interests  me;  and  I  acknowledge  that  I  feel  strongly  on  this  question, 
because  I  do  feel,  and  feel  deeply  and  acutely,  too,  that  a  great  wrong  has  been  per- 
petrated in  the  past  legislation  of  the  country,  a  great  outrage  on  the  interests  which 
I  represent,  on  the  interests  of  that  section  with  which  I  am  associated,  and  which 
wrong  and  outrage  it  is  proposed  by  these  bills  to  correct. 

Mr.  Chairman,  when  a  wrong  is  done,  and  perpetrated  under  deliberate  and 
solemn  circumstances,  when  a  great  outrage  has  been  perpetrated  on  the  Constitu- 
tion, time  cannot  canonize  the  error,  even  if  the  argument  of  time  should  apply  to 
this  question.  And  I,  gentlemen,  I  pray  you  to  understand,  rejoice  from  the  very 
bottom  of  my  heart  that  there  is  now  some  indication  in  the  proposed  bills  to  repair 
the  wrong  that  was  done.  In  this  view  of  the  subject,  I  ask  how  it  is  that  gentlemen 
from  the  same  section  of  the  country  as  myself,  are  found  here  in  opposition  to  this 
effort  to  repair  the  injury  that  has  been  done  ?  I  ask  how  the  country  could  have 
anticipated  that  gentlemen  from  that  section  of  the  Union  which  is  interested  in  this 
question,  could  have  hurried  themselves  into  this  debate,  even  before  the  bills  had 
come  up  for  action,  and  could  have  manifested  the  deep  hostility  which  they  have 
shown  to  the  redress  which  they  propose  ? 

I  must  say,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  nothing  was  better  calculated  to  excite  my  sur- 
prise and  to  provoke  my  astonishment  than  that  manifestation;  and  I  must  be  at 
liberty  to  say,  also,  that  I  was  particularly  astonished  at  the  remarks  of  the  gentle- 
man from  Louisiana  [Mr.  Hunt],  as  well  as  at  the  remarks  of  the  gentleman  from 
Tennessee  [Mr.  Cullom],  on  this  question,  and  to  whom  I  propose  to  address,  after 
awhile,  if  my  time  will  permit,  a  few  remarks.  In  the  first  instance,  and  at  present, 
however,  it  is  made  necessary,  by  the  course  of  remarks  here,  that  I  should  some- 
what refer  in  limine  to  the  origination  of  the  question  of  slavery.  I  believe  that  it  is 
known  to  this  committee,  and  to  every  man  in  the  House  and  in  the  country,  that 
slavery  was  not  introduced  into  these  States  by  any  act  of  law.  I  suppose  it  is  per- 
fectly well  known  to  every  one,  within  the  hearing  of  my  voice  at  least,  that  on  the 
discovery  of  this  country  and  on  its  occupation  by  the  Cavaliers  at  Jamestown,  and 
by  the  Puritans  at  Plymouth  Rock,  the  whole  country  was  a  tabula  rasa,  in  which  no 
slavery  was  found  and  no  provision  for  its  institution. 

It  is  also  known  as  a  historical  fact  that  slavery  came  into  Virginia  first  of  all 
other  portions  of  our  great  Republic.  It  was  brought  there  by  a  Dutch  man-of-war, 
I  think,  from  which  slaves  were  landed  to  the  number  of  some  20.  They  were  sold, 
and  purchased  by  planters;  they  were  purchased  as  slaves  and  held  as  slaves  in  that 
tabula  rasa,  without  any  thought  of  the  necessity  of  having  the  institution  of  slavery 
recognized  or  established  by  any  enactment  of  man;  and  the  very  first  act  in  which 
slavery  was  ever  recognized  within  the  limits  of  this  Republic,  was  an  act  passed  by 
the  State  of  Virginia,  in  the  Legislature  of  1660,  40  years  after  the  first  introduction  of 
slaves.  And  that  act,  strange  and  curious  as  it  is,  was  an  act  punishing  English 
servants  for  running  away  with  negroes. 

I  call  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  this  particular  point,  for  the  purpose  of 
illustrating  the  manner  and  circumstances  under  which  slavery  came  into  the  country. 
From  Georgia  to  Maine  slavery  was  thus  introduced  here.  There  never  was  one 
single  law  passed  introducing  slavery  or  establishing  it.  It  came  into  the  country  as 
a  matter  of  course,  as  every  other  variety  of  property  came  into  it;  as  cattle,  which 
were  for  the  first  time  imported  about  the  same  period,  by  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  and 
bought  and  sold,  following  the  laws  regulating  the  disposition  of  property  among  the 
living,  and  when  dead,  among  their  representatives,  as  all  other  descriptions  of 
property.  I  mention  it  now,  because  it  must  relieve  my  friend  and  colleague  here 
from  the  Norfolk  district  [Mr.  Millson]  of  much  of  his  apprehension  of  what  will  be 
the  fate  of  the  slavery  institution,  when  that  great  territory  north  of  360  30'  shall  be- 
come a  tabula  rasa—ii,  indeed,  it  can,  under  our  Constitution,  ever  be  made  so,  by 
any  legislation  of  ours. 

I  will   not  dwell  upon  this  matter  further  than  to  call   the  attention  of  this  com- 


327 

mittee  to  a  fact,  a  remarkable  fact,  that  this  subject  endangered  no  feeling  of  hos- 
tility and  bitterness  among  the  provinces,  which  as  States  now  cluster  in  our  Union. 
Up  to  the  period  of  the  revolution,  although  slavery  existed  in  every  State,  although 
there  were  no  regulations  even  for  the  reclamation  of  fugitive  slaves  among  them, 
yet  the  Provinces  moved  on  in  a  career  of  beautiful  harmony,  without  engendering 
the  slightest  ill-feeling  upon  this  subject.  And  when  the  old  Articles  of  Confeder- 
ation became  the  law  of  the  land,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  they  contained  no  pro- 
visions whatever  for  the  restoration  of  slaves  when  they  escaped  from  one  Province 
or  State  to  another. 

I  mention  these  things  for  the  purpose  of  letting  this  committee  understand  that 
in  that  day  there  was  no  difficulty  in  recognizing  the  right  of  property,  no  effort  to 
mar  the  general  harmony  which  then  prevailed,  and  no  difficulty,  no  effort  of  anti- 
slavery  fanaticism  to  divide  them  in  the  approaching  conflict  of  the  Revolution. 

Well,  sir,  during  that  Revolution,  indeed,  I  may  say  after  its  termination,  an 
effort  was  made,  as  is  well  known,  to  introduce,  for  the  first  time,  this  question  of 
slavery  into  the  powers  of  the  country.  The  ordinance  passed  in  1784,  as  the 
gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Taylor]  stated  yesterday,  in  relation  to  this  question  of 
slavery,  and  for  the  first  time  made  it  a  power  in  the  State.  It  was,  however,  re- 
pealed upon  a  motion  of  a  gentleman  from  North  Carolina   [Mr.  .]      It  being 

repealed,  the  Northwest  Territory  moved  on  in  its  career  of  prosperity  for  three 
years,  until  the  ordinance  of  1787,  as  it  was  termed,  was  enacted.  I  say  as  it  was 
termed,  beceuse  gentlemen  will  remember  that  it  is  a  question  whether  that  ordinance 
— and  here  allow  me  to  say  that  this  term  "ordinance"  was  the  usual  and  general 
mode  of  describing  any  enactment  of  legislation  by  the  Confederacy;  it  was  the 
common  term  for  all  acts  of  legislation.  I  say  I  wish  to  be  understood  by  tin's  com- 
mittee that  it  is  doubtful — I  may  say  more  than  doubtful — whether  that  ordinance 
itself  ever  had  a  legal  existence.  The  old  Articles  of  Confederation  required  for  the 
passage  of  an  act  of  that  description,  if  they  gave  any  power  over  it  at  all,  the  con- 
currence of  nine  States  of  the  Confederacy,  and  the  ordinance  of  1787  received  the 
sanction  of  eight  States  only.  And  this  view  is  strengthened  into  conviction,  for 
according  to  the  perliminary  examination  which  I  have  been  able  to  give  to  the  sub- 
ject, it  appears  that  these  amendments  and  modifications  proposed  to  the  bill,  through 
all  its  various  stages  to  final  consummation,  all  received  the  sanction  and  the  appro- 
bation of  Congress  upon  that  principle.  But  when  it  was  enacted,  we  find  that  but 
eight  States  concurred  in  its  enactment — not  the  nine  States  which  the  Articles  of 
Confederation  required.     I  have  the  Articles  of  Confederation  here.     It  says: 

"Each  State  retains  its  sovereignty,  freedom  and  independence,  and  every 
power,  jurisdiction,  and  righ,  which  is  not,  by  this  confederation,  expressly  delegated 
to  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled." 

And  the  only  grant  of  power  in  the  Articles  of  Confederation  which,  in  the  least 
degree,  countenance  the  power  exercised  in  the  passage  of  the  ordinance  of  1787, 
which  it  may  be  insisted  is  a  quasi  treaty,  is  in  the  following  passage  of  it: 

"The  United  States  in  Congress  assembled  shall  never  engage  in  a  war,  or  grant 
letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  in  time  of  peace,  nor  enter  into  any  treaties  or  alliances, 
nor  coin  money,  nor  regulate  the  value  thereof,  nor  ascertain  the  sums  and  expenses 
necessary  for  the  defense  and  welfare  of  the  United  States  or  any  of  them,  nor  emit 
bills,  nor  borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the  United  States,  nor  appropriate  money, 
nor  agree  upon  the  number  of  vessels  of  war  to  be  built  or  purchased,  or  the  number 
of  land  or  sea  forces  to  be  raised,  nor  appoint  a  commander- in-chief  of  the  army  or 
navy,  unless  nine  States  assent  to  the  same;  nor  shall  a  question  on  any  other  point, 
except  for  adjourning  from  day  to  day,  be  determined,  unless  by  the  votes  of  a 
majority  of  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled." 

In  passing,  let  me  take  occasion  to  refer  to  the  gentleman  from  Missouri,  who 
made  reference  to  the  deed  of  cession  from  Virginia,  in  a  manner  and  in  a  way 
which  seemed  to  countenance  the  idea  that  that  old  commonwealth  had  approved  and 
sanctioned  the  slavery  restriction  feature  of  the  ordinance  of  1787.  Now,  sir,  if  such 
was  his  intention,  he  was  under  a  great  mistake.  And  I  here  take  occasion  to  say 
that,  throughout  all  the  legislation  connected  with  the  public  domain,  the  government 
of  Virginia  has  never  recognized  the  doctrine  of  intervention  with  slavery  in  any 
respect  whatever.  Sir,  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Taylor]  yesterday  said  that 
the  principle  of  abolishing  slavery  in  the  States  after  the  year  1800,  was  recognized  in 
the  days  of  the  Revolution.  Sir,  I  deny  it.  A  proposition  was  made  that  there  should 
be  no  slavery  in  the  Slates  after  1800;  it  was  voted  down,  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  whose 
name  has  been  so  often  invoked  in  reference  to  this  subject,  voted  against  the  propo- 
sition.    But,  sir,  time  will  not  permit  me  further  to  allude  to  these  matters. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  ordinance  of  1787  was  passed  by  a  Congress  in  which  but 
eight  States  were  represented,  and  of  those  States  but  18  members  were  present. 
The  convention  which  framed  our  present  Constitution  was  then  in  session,  and  was 


328 

the  great  point  of  interest  to  the  country.  In  this  state  of  things  the  ordinance  was 
passed  by  18  persons,  representing  eight  States,  clearly  in  violation  of  their  constitu- 
tional powers,  and  for  the  first  time,  it  may  be  said,  recognizing  the  anti-slavery 
principle.  This  has  proved  the  fountain  of  bitter  waters,  flowing  in  gentle  and  un- 
important volume,  exciting  no  apprehension,  producing  no  uneasiness,  until  by  the 
addition  of  the  turbid  stream  of  1820,  it  has  grown  into  a  flood,  that  has  repeatedly 
threatened  to  engulf  our  glorious  Union. 

But,  whether  the  ordinance  of  1787  was  legally  enacted  or  not,  is  now  matter  rather 
of  antiquarian  research  than  of  practical  utility,  and  is  only  referred  to,  to  trace  the 
beginning,  the  humble  beginning,  to  our  present  troubles. 

Well,  sir,  when  the  Constitution  was  formed,  that  instrument  was  intended  and 
designed  to  settle  all  questions  between  the  different  members  of  the  American 
Union.  It  was  intended  to  settle  and  adjust  the  principles  upon  which  the  future  was 
to  be  regulated.  Sir,  in  its  adoption  no  reference  whatever  was  had  to  the  ordinance 
of  1787;  on  the  contrary,  with  that  ordinance  before  them,  with  that  ordinance  be- 
fore the  country,  what  was  done  in  reference  to  the  public  lands,  for  instance  ?  It  pro- 
vides expressly  with  reference  to  them — in  express  terms,  but  not  in  conformity  with 
the  ordinance  of  1787. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  now  propose  to  call  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  some  pro- 
visions which  are  to  be  found  in  the  Constitution.  What  does  the  Constitution  say? 
It  says: 

"  Congress  shall  have  power  to  exercise  exclusive  legislation  in  all  cases  what- 
soever, over  such  district  (not  exceeding  ten  miles  square)  as  may,  by  cession  of 
particular  States,  and  the  acceptance  of  Congress,  become  the  seat  of  government  of 
the  United  States,  and  to  exercise  like  authority  over  all  places  purchased  by  the  con- 
sent of  the  Legislature  of  the  State  in  which  the  same  shall  be,  for  the  erection  of 
forts,  magazines,  arsenals,  dock-yards,  and  other  needful  buildings." 

But  when  it  comes  to  dwell  upon  the  subject  of  the  Territories  of  the  United 
States — when  it  comes  to  speak  upon  that  particular  subject,  what  does  it  say?  Here 
it  is: 

"The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  dispose  of,  and  make  all  necessary  rules 
and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  or  other  property  belonging  to  the  United 
States;  and  nothing  in  this  Constitution  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  prejudice  any 
claims  of  the  United  States,  or  of  any  particular  State." 

Now,  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  I  pray  you  to  mark  that,  under  the  clause  in 
which  exclusive  power  is  given  to  Congress  over  the  district,  and  over  the  dock- 
yards, arsenals,  etc.,  with  the  same  subject  before  them,  with  the  subject  of  the  pub- 
lic lands  expressly  included  in  this  ordinance  providing  expressly  for  the  introduction 
of  new  States,  in  reference  to  that  very  property,  it  expressly  declares  that  Congress 
shall  have  power  only  to  dispose  of,  and  make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  over 
it  and  all  other  property  of  the  United  States. 

Sir,  I  ask  this  committee,  has  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  the  same  power 
over  the  public  domain  that  it  has  over  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  dock-yards,  the 
arsenals,  etc?  Sir,  upon  well-established  principles  of  statutory  construction,  and 
constitutional  construction  also,  we  know  perfectly  well  that  there  can  be  no  sound, 
legitimate  argument  in  reply  to  this  view  of  the  subject.  An  exception  limits  the 
power  to  which  it  applies;  and  a  grant  of  "exclusive  jurisdiction "  over  certain 
specified  subjects  of  property  of  the  United  States,  denies  "exclusive  jurisdiction" 
in  the  United  States  over  the  property  not  enumerated. 

But,  sir,  the  tenth  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  founded  in  a  profound  jealousy 
of  power,  however  carefully  restrained,  marks  the  sense  of  that  instrument  so  dis- 
tinctly, that  he  who  runs  may  read.     It  is  short,    and  I  will  give  it: 

"  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution,  nor  pro- 
hibited by  it  to  the  States,  are  reserved   to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the  people." 

A  plain  and  palpable  distinction  thus  exists  in  reference  to  these  subjects.  In 
connection  with  this  subject,  I  would  beg  also  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  what 
I  am  about  to  read,  as  laid  down  by  the  Federal  court,  and  with  most  conclusive 
force;  although,  by  reading  it,  I  consume  much  of  my  time.  I  would  ask  gentlemen 
to  ponder  deliberately  and  well  on  the  subject: 

"In  America  the  case  is  widely  different.  Every  State  of  the  Union  has  its  Con- 
stitution redticed  to  written  exactitude.  A  Constitution  is  the  form  of  government 
delineated  by  the  mighty  hand  of  the  people,  in  which  certain  first  principles  of 
fundamental  law  are  established.  The  Constitution  is  certain  and  fixed;  it  contains 
the  permanent  will  of  the  people,  and  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land;  it  is  paramount 
to  the  power  of  the  Legislature,  and  can  be  revoked  or  altered  only  by  the  power 
that  made  it.  The  life-giving  principle  and  the  death-dying  stroke  must  proceed 
from  the  same  hand.  The  Legislatures  are  creatures  of  the  Constitution;  they  owe 
their  existence  to  the  Constitution;  they  derive  their  powers  from  the  Constitution;  it 


321) 

is  their  commission,  and  therefore  all  their  acts  must  be  conformed  to  it,  or  else  they 
will  be  void.  The  Constitution  is  the  work  or  will  of  the  people  themselves,  in  their 
original,  sovereign  and  unlimited  capacity.  Law  is  the  work  or  will  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, in  their  derivative  and  subordinate  capacity.  The  one  is  the  work  of  the  Cre- 
ator, and  the  other  of  the  creature.  The  Constitution  lixes  limits  to  the  exercise  of 
the  legislative  authority,  and  prescribes  the  orbit  in  which  it  must  move.  Whatever 
may  be  the  case  in  other  countries,  yet  in  this  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  every  act 
of  the  Legislature,  repugnant  to  the  Constitution,  is  absolutely  void." 

This,  sir,  is  the  decision  of  the  Federal  court  in  the  case  of  Vanhornes's  lessee, 
vs.  Dorrance;  and  there  is  an  abundance  of  similar  decisions.  If  these  decisions  be 
so,  then,  I  ask  you,  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  what  is  the  character  of  the  pro- 
ceedings which  were  had  on  the  6th  of  March,  1820?  If  there  be  no  right  to  exercise 
a  power  unless  clearly  given — if  there  be  no  power  to  legislate  here,  except  within 
the  scope  and  limits  of  the  Constitution — and  if  the  Federal  government,  this  govern- 
ment, has  less  control  over  the  lands,  politically  speaking,  than  she  has  over  this 
district,  and  the  dock-yards,  and  so  on,  I  ask,  what  power  there  was  in  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  on  the  6th  of  March,  1820,  to  say  that  there  should  be  no  slavery 
north  of  360  30'  ? 

And  here  permit  me  to  remark,  assuming  that  it  was  a  clearly  unconstitutional 
act,  as  other  evidence  abundantly  shows,  and  as  I  shall  make  still  plainer  before  I 
take  my  seat — here,  I  say,  just  allow  me  to  call  your  attention  to  the  condition  of 
things  prior  to  that  period.  I  have  shown  that  there  was  no  agitation  on  the  subject 
of  slavery  prior  to  the  Revolution,  although  slavery  prevailed,  in  a  greater  or  lesser 
degree,  throughout  the  provinces.  And  from  the  close  of  the  Revolution  up  to  1818, 
when  this  controversy  began,  all  was  peace  and  harmony  and  brotherly  love.  Here 
and  there  existed  a  fanatic.  Here  and  there  came  a  petition,  but  it  did  not  disturb 
the  general  surface  of  our  relations;  and  we  went  on  careering  in  our  high  destiny 
as  brethren.  But  the  element  of  discord  was  introduced  on  the  attempt  to  put 
Missouri  into  the  Union;  and  what  has  been  the  consequence  since  ?  The  gentleman 
from  Missouri  [Mr.  Benton]  says  peace !  peace  !  peace  !  but  I  say  that  there  has  been 
no  peace,  and  appeal  to  history  to  bear  out  the  truth  of  my  declaration.  The  passage 
of  the  act  of  1820  was  an  encouragement  to  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  and  feeling  of 
the  country.  That  proposition  opened  the  door  to  agitation,  and  that  door  has  been 
kept  wide  open  to  the  present  hour.  I  say  to  this  committee,  that  up  to  the  year  1820 
peace,  without  a  single  element  of  disturbance,  was  the  law  of  the  republic;  but  from 
that  day  to  the  present  there  has  been  no  peace.  Why,  do  we  not  all  know  that  that 
subject  has  been  introduced  into  these  Halls  for  the  last  20  years?  Do  we  not  know 
that  a  distinguished  man,  now  no  more,  stepped  down  from  the  Chief  of  Magistracy 
of  the  Republic  and  entered  this  Hall  to  agitate  that  very  question  ?  Do  we  not 
know  that  he  proclaimed  upon  this  floor,  that  sooner  than  stop  abolition  he  would 
see  5,000.000  of  Southern  hearts  deluged  in  blood  ?  That  was  the  effect  of  his  declar- 
ation here.  Do  we  not  know  that  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Giddings],  when 
I  was  in  Congress  some  years  ago,  offered  resolutions  declaring  that  it  was  lawful,  in 
effect,  for  the  negro  to  slay  the  wife  and  children  of  his  master? 

Mr.  Giddings.     May  I  correct  the  gentleman  ? 

Mr.  Smith.     I  have  no  time  to  spare. 

Mr.  Giddings.  Ah !  but  when  a  gentleman  misrepresents  another  upon  this 
floor,  he  should  permit  a  correction. 

Mr.  Smith.     Well,  then,  take  it  out  of  my  time,  and  you  may  go  on. 

Mr.  Giddings.  I  only  wish  to  say  distinctly,  that  I  never  made  any  such  state- 
ment, as  that  the  wives  and  children  of  those  who  hold  their  fellow- men  as  slaves, 
ought  to  be  slain  by  the  negroes. 

Mr.  Smith.  Oh,  no;  of  course  not,  directly.  You  dare  not.  That  would  have 
been  too  provoking,  too  insufferable.  But  for  his  act,  the  gentleman  received  the 
benefit  of  a  resolution  or  resolutions  of  the  House,  that  induced  him  to  retire  from 
this  Hall,  that  induced  him  to  retire  from  this  Hall  and  go  home,  that  he  might  get 
Congress  rebuked  by  his  people. 

Mr.  Giddings.     Thev  rebuked  me  by  sending  me  back. 

Mr.  Smith.  They  sent  him  back  by  a  majority  diminished  two  thousand,  and 
he  was  afraid  to  continue  the  experiment. 

Mr.  Giddings.     Will  the  gentleman  permit  a  further  correction  ? 

The  Chairman.     The  gentleman  from  Ohio  is  out  of  order. 

Mr.  Giddings.  I  suppose  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  is  not  out  of  order,  if  the 
gentleman  from  Virginia  will  permit  a  correction. 

Mr.  Smith.  If  the  gentleman  will  not  take  it  out  of  my  time,  I  shall  be  very 
happy  to  let  him  interrupt  me. 

Mr.  Giddings.  The  gentleman  will  find  that  my  majority  was  greatly  increased 
beyond  the  year  before,  and  vastly  beyond  any  ever  given,  either  before  or  since. 

Mr.  Smith.     Well,  my  recollection  is  that  the  gentleman  had  obtained  a  majority 


330 

of  4,000,  and  that  he  only  got  a  majority  of  2,000  on  that  occasion.  At  any  rate,  the 
gentleman  did  not  get  the  resolutions  repealed.  He  came  back  here,  and  had  the 
grace  actually  to  ask  Congress  to  repeal  the  resolutions. 

Mr.  Giddings.  Does  the  gentleman  mean  to  make  such  an  assertion  as  that  upon 
this  floor? 

The  Chairman.  Does  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  yield  to  the  gentleman  from 
Ohio  ? 

Mr.  Smith.  No,  sir,  I  do  not.  And  instead  of  getting  the  resolutions  repealed, 
the  proposition  was  received  with  a  loud  laugh,  and  that  was  thought  to  be  the  end 
of  it. 

Mr.  Giddings.     I  never  made  such  a  proposition. 

Mr.  Smith.  The  gentleman  from  Ohio  did  not  make  the  proposition,  but  one  of 
his  colleagues  did,  I  presume  with  his  consent.     However  let  that  pass. 

Well,  sir,  I  was  going  on  to  remark,  that  up  to  1820  there  was  peace,  and  since 
that  period  there  has  been  discord  and  distraction,  and  I  was  utterly  amazed,  when  I 
heard  a  gentleman  who  has  lived  through  the  whole  of  this  period  of  time  since  the 
introduction  of  the  Missouri  restriction,  proclaim  that  there  had  been  peace.  Why, 
the  gentleman  has  figured  in  many  a  storm  and  peril  since  that  time  in  connection 
with  this  question  of  slavery,  and  even  as  late  as  1850,  most  prominently  and  with  his 
characteristic  distinction  and  ability.  Nor,  has  he  ever  let  it  alone,  but  as  late  as  1852, 
he  was  out  upon  this  question,  as  I  shall  show  before  I  close  my  remarks.  Sir,  as  I 
was  saying,  this  has  been  the  battle-ground  upon  which  this  question  has  been 
fought.  I  well  recollect  the  scenes  of  1841,  1842  and  1843  upon  this  floor.  Why,  sir, 
such  was  the  active,  incendiary  character  of  the  anti-slavery  sentiment,  originating 
in  this  particular  restrictive  clause,  and  encouraged  by  it  into  life  and  vigor,  that  we 
had  actually  to  pass  a  law  authorizing  an  invasion  of  the  sacred  character  of  the  post- 
office  transmission.  Yes,  sir,  they  were  scattering  all  over  the  country  incendiary 
publications,  agitating  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  in  every  way  and  form,  disturb- 
ing the  repose  and  peace  of  the  country.  Nor  was  that  all.  A  great  State  even  sent 
her  missionaries  into  the  Southern  States,  for  the  purpose  of  raising  questions  as  to  the 
constitutionality  of  their  police  laws.  She  issued  manifestoes  to  all  the  States  of  the 
Union  arraigning  the  States  of  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana  in  consequence  of  their 
course  in  reference  to  those  agents.  And  the  great  struggle  of  1850,  growing  out  of 
an  attempt  to  put  an  end  to  this  question,  and  which  shook  the  columns  of  our  Union 
to  their  very  foundation,  originated  in  this  compromise  of  1820,  and  it  was  then  hoped 
and  believed  that  the  adjustment  then  arrived  at,  put  an  end  to  the  question,  and  for- 
ever. Yes,  sir;  we  are  daily  told  in  solemn  and  impressive  tones  by  men  of 
eminence  and  distinction,  that  this  Missouri  compromise,  the  Pandora's  box  of  this 
Republic,  has  brought  peace  and  quiet  to  the  country. 

In  1820,  however,  contrary  to  the  brief  constitutional  view  which  I  have  pre- 
sented of  this  question — contrary  to  the  undoubted  right  of  Missouri  under  the  Con- 
stitution, when  she  applied  for  admission  into  the  Union,  which  she  did  in  1S1S,  and 
then  in  1819,  what  was  the  course  then  pursued  by  the  North?  The  question  of  her 
admission  was  not  opposed  by  gentlemen  representing  slave  interests,  but  by  gentle- 
men from  the  North,  who  took  ground  against  her  admission,  unless  slavery  was  pro- 
hibited within  the  limits  of  the  territory  acquired  from  France,  and  who  required  that 
such  territory  should  be  forever  afterwards  kept  free  from  the  influence  of  slavery. 
This  was  the  proposition.  I  have  not  time  to  refer  to  the  resolutions  admitting  this 
Territory,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  truth  of  what  I  now  state,  but  I  am  well 
aware  that  I  have  no  occasion  to  do  so,  because  the  matter  has  been  so  ably  discussed 
by  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  [Mr.  Stephens]  and  the  gentleman  from  Alabama 
[Mr.  Phillips],  as  to  command  my  unqualified  admiration.  Their  arguments  covered 
the  whole  ground,  and  their  demonstrations  were  so  complete  that  there  is  but  little 
occasion  for  me  to  allude  to  this  subject  at  any  great  length,  and  I  shall  only  do  so  in 
a  very  brief  and  rapid  manner. 

What  was  the  purpose  and  motive  of  this  movement ?  Was  it  humanity?  No. 
Was  it  for  the  right  of  the  negro?  No;  it  was  for  political  power,  and  humanity  to 
the  negro  was  the  cover  under  which  it  was  sought  to  give  strength  and  interest  to 
the  struggle.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Northern  and  Eastern  States,  or  rather  the 
New  England  States,  particularly,  were  hostile  for  half  a  century,  at  least,  to  the 
growth  of  the  West,  and  to  the  increase  of  Western  and  Southwestern  interests.  This 
hostility  was  embodied  in  form  by  the  Hartford  convention,  and  in  1820  in  the  Mis- 
souri debate.  What  did  Mr.  Rufus  King,  of  New  York,  say  upon  this  subject?  He 
says,  "that  no  interest  ought  to  be  put  into  competition  with  political  power;  if  it 
was,  as  one  of  the  original  parties  to  the  compact,  lie  felt  himself  in  honor  bound  to 
not  to  submit."  He  said,  moreover,  that  "the  admission  of  Louisiana  itself  made  a 
new  confederacy  or  compact;  and  if  the  attempt  to  extend  slavery  beyond  the  Mis- 
sissippi succeeded,  the  people  of  the  North  ought  not  to  submit  for  any  interest  what- 
ever."    Yes,  sir,  here  is  a  gentleman  acting  under  instructions,  and  who  had   taken 


331 

an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  actually  proclaiming  that  it 
would  be  a  matter  of  honor  for  him  to  disagree  to  its  sacred  provision^. 

I  advert  to  this  because  I  wish  the  committee  and  country  to  understand  that  this 
thing  originated  in  no  love  of  justice  and  humanity,  but  in  a  desire  for  political  power. 
This  was  the  motive  of  the  originators,  as  avowed  by  the  great  men  at  the  North,  and 
especially  by  Rufus  King,  of  New  York— a  gentleman  whose  opinions  always  com- 
manded  the    highest  degree  of  respect.     We  all  recollect  the  close  of  this  struggle. 

Well,  sir,  it  was  thought  that  the  struggle  had  closed  with  the  passage  of  the  act 
of  6th  of  March,  1820.  And,  sir,  what  was  this  act?  It  consisted  of  eight  sections, 
seven  of  which  were  almost  copies  of  other  laws,  which  had  been  passed  in  relation 
to  the  admission  of  other  States  into  this  Union.  There  is  not  in  these  seven  clauses 
one  single  reference  to  a  contract,  or  compromise,  or  agreement.  And  it  is  a  little 
remarkable  that  this  eighth  section,  about  which  so  much  has  been  said,  is  a  section 
which  is  irrelevant  to  the  balance  of  the  bill,  to  its  previous  section;  and  under  the 
rules  of  this  House,  as  now  understood,  that  section,  if  offered  under  similar  circum- 
stances, would  be  ruled  out  as  not  in  order.  I  say  to  this  committee  that  it  is  a  re- 
markable fact,  that  that  section  was  wholly  independent  of  the  legitimate  object  of 
the  bill.  What  had  Missouri  to  do  with  the  restriction  of  slavery  in  the  country  out- 
side of  her  own  limits  ?  Why,  I  say,  that  if  such  a  bill  as  that  were  now  up,  and  this 
proposition  was  submitted,  by  way  of  amendment,  the  Chair  would  rule  it  out  as 
wholly  irrelevant  to  the  body  of  the  bill,  and  the  purpose  for  which  the  bill  was  in- 
troduced. 

Now,  what  was  the  purpose  of  the  bill  of  the  6th  of  March,  1820?  It  was  to  allow 
Missouri  permission  to  form  a  constitution;  and,  if  she  furnished  to  Congress  evi- 
dence that  she  possessed  a  population  sufficient  to  justify  her  admission  into  the 
Union,  it  was  the  duty  of  Congress  not  only  to  allow  her  the  permission  she  asked, 
but  also  to  admit  her  into  the  Union  upon  equal  terms  with  the  original  States — I  re- 
peat it — the  duty  of  Congress  to  admit  her.  Congress  has  no  power  to  withhold  ad- 
mission into  the  Union  of  States  formed  out  of  the  territory  of  the  Union,  with  the 
requisite  population,  provided  such  States  have — in  the  language  of  the  Constitution 
— a  republican  form  of  government.  "New  States  may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress 
into  this  Union."  May,  here  means,  s/ia//,  upon  well  established  principles  known 
to  every  intelligent  lawyer  and  statesman;  and,  within  the  limitation  and  requirement 
before  specified,  imposes  an  obligation  which  Congress  cannot  constitutionally  disre- 
gard. It  is  not  beneficial  to  the  Union  for  the  government  to  hold  provinces,  even  if 
constitutionally  competent  to  do  so;  but  it  is  beneficial  to  admit  States,  and  Congress, 
therefore,  as  before  stated,  must  admit  them. 

Well,  Mr.  Chairman,  this  provision,  this  eighth  section,  was  inserted  in  the  act; 
and  the  gentleman  from  Missouri,  [Mr.  Benton,]  in  his  speech  the  other  day,  says — 
and  I  believe  he  says  so  in  his  "Thirty  Years  in  the  Senate  " — that  that  proposition, 
or  compromise,  was  imposed — yes,  sir,  he  said  so  in  his  speech  the  day  before  yes- 
terday— was  imposed  upon  the  North  by  the  South.  Sir,  I  utterly  deny  the  correct- 
ness of  that  historical  statement.  The  gentlemen  to  whom  I  have  referred — the  gen- 
tlemen from  Georgia  and  Alabama  [Messrs.  Stephens  and  Phillips]  have  demonstrated 
that  so  clearly  and  so  unmistakably,  that  a  minute  reference  to  it  by  me  is  wholly  un- 
necessary. But  I  shall  be  excused,  I  am  sure,  for  calling  particular  attention  to  the 
amendments  of  the  Senate,  and  the  disagreeing  votes  of  the  House  thereon,  and 
especially  to  that  on  the  eighth  section,  then  known  as  the  ninth  : 

"A  division  of  the  question  on  said  motion  was  called  for. 

"And,  on  the  question,  '  Will  the  House  disagree  to  so  much  of  the  said  amend- 
ments as  is  comprised  in  the  words  following,  to  wit  : 

"' And  to  enable  the  people  of  Missouri  Territory  to  form  a  constitution  and 
State  government,  and  for  the  admission  of  such  State  into  the  Union  on  an  equal 
footing  with  the  original  States  : 

"'Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  inhabitants  of  that  portion  of  the 
Missouri  Territory  included  within  the  boundaries  hereinafter  designated,  be,  and 
they  are  hereby,  authorized  to  form  for  themselves  a  constitution  and  State  govern- 
ment, and  to  assume  such  name  as  they  shall  deem  proper.' 

"It  passed  in  the  affirmative — yeas  93,  nays  72."  • 

The  amendment  being  defeated  by  the  free  State  vote. 

The  residue  of  the  amendments  being  disagreed  to,  except  the  ninth,  being  the 
eighth,  as  it  now  stands  in  the  statute  : 

"  The  question  was  then  taken,  will  the  House  disagree  to  the  said  ninth  section  ? 
(being  the  last  of  said  amendments,)  contained  in  the  words  following,  to  wit  : 

"  'Sfx.  9.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  in  all  that  territory  ceded  by  France  to 
the  United  States,  under  the  name  of  Louisiana,  which  lies  north  of  thirty-six  degrees 
and  thirty  minutes  north  latitude,  excepting  only  such  part  thereof  as  is  included 
within  the  limits  of  the  State  contemplated  by  this  act,  slavery  and  involuntary  servi- 


332 

tude,  otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been 
duly  convicted,  shall  be,  and  is  hereby,  forever  prohibited  :  Provided  always,  That 
any  person  escaping  into  the  same,  from  whom  labor  or  service  is  lawfully  claimed 
in  any  State  or  Territory  of  the  United  States,  such  fugitive  may  be  lawfully  re- 
claimed, and  conveyed  to  the  person  claiming  his  or  her  labor  or  services  as  afore- 
said.' 

"And  also  determined  in  the  affirmative — yeas  150,  nays  18." 

So  the  House  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote,  refused  to  concur  with  the  Senate  in 
this  amendment. 

It  was  then  ordered  by  the  House  "  that  the  Clerk  acquaint  the  Senate  therewith." 
This  was  on  the  23d  of  February.  On  the  28th  the  House  was  informed  that  "the 
Senate  insist  on  their  amendments  to  the  bill,"  etc.  Immediately  "  the  House  pro- 
ceeded to  consider  their  disagreements  to  the  said  amendments."  Various  efforts 
were  made  by  Southern  members  to  postpone  the  subject;  but  in  vain.  An  inexora- 
ble free  State  majority  crushed  every  effort. 

"And  on  the  question  '  Will  the  House  insist  on  their  disagreement  to  all  the  said 
amendments,  except  the  ninth  section  thereof  ?  ' 

"  It  was  determined  in  the  affirmative— yeas  97,  nays  76." 

And  so  determined  by  the  Northern  vote. 

' '  The  question  was  then  taken,  Will  the  House  insist  on  their  disagreement  to  the 
ninth  section  of  the  said  amendments. 

"  And  passed  in  the  affirmative — yeas  160,  nays  14." 

Again  defeated  by  a  still  stronger  vote. 

At  the  instance  of  the  Senate,  a  conference  between  the  two  Houses  was  agreed 
to. 

On  the  29th  of  February,  the  House  proceeded  to  consider  their  own  bill,  with 
the  amendments  reported  from  the  Committee  of  the  Whole;  and  the  said  amend- 
ments being  read,  were  concurred  in  by  the  House,  with  the  exception  of  the  follow- 
ing. 

"  And  shall  ordain  and  establish  that  there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involun- 
tary servitude  in  the  said  State,  otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes  whereof 
the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted  :  Provided  always,  That  any  person  escap- 
ing within  the  same,  from  whom  labor  or  service  is  lawfully  claimed  in  any  other 
State,  such  fugitives  may  be  lawfully  reclaimed,  and  conveyed  to  the  person  claim- 
ing his  or  her  labor  or  service  as  aforesaid  :  Provided,  nevertheless,  That  the  said 
division  shall  not  be  construed  to  alter  the  condition  or  civil  rights  of  any  person  now 
held  to  service  or  labor  in  the  said  Territory."  < 

"  After  certain  proceedings,  the  question  was  then  taken  to  concur  with  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole  House  in  the  amendment  above  stated. 

"  And  passed  in  the  affirmative — yeas  94,  nays  86." 

Again  by  the  free  State  vote. 

The  bill  was  then  engrossed,  and  read  a  third  time,  by  a  vote  of  93  to  84,  and  so 
again  carried  by  the  free  State  vote.  On  the  next  day  the  question  was  put,  "  Shall 
the  bill  pass  ?  "  and  it  passed  in  the  affirmative,  by  a  vote  of  91  to  82 — again  by  the 
free  State  vote — and  was  sent  to  the  Senate  for  its  concurrence. 

Sir,  I  presume  it  is  known  to  this  House  that  the  Senate,  foreseeing  the  coming 
storm,  had  the  tact  to  unite  Maine,  then  also  asking  for  admission  into  the  Union, 
with  Missouri.  I  well  recollect  the  incidents  of  that  day  in  connection  with  this  ques- 
tion. Many  of  them  dwell  now  freshly  in  my  memory.  Had  not  these  States  been 
thus  happily  united,  they  perhaps  would  never  have  entered  into  our  Union,  and  the 
Union  itself  might  have  been  dissolved.  A  proposition  was  made  in  the  Senate  to 
dissolve  the  Union  formed  by  the  bill,  but  it  was  defeated,  and  thus  associated,  the 
bill  was  sent  by  the  Senate  into  this  House.  A  Committee  of  Conference  between  the 
two  Houses  was  proposed  and  finally  agreed  to. 

The  Committee  of  Conference  having  agreed,  and  the  question  coming  up  upon 
agreeing  to  their  report,  and  the  previous  question  having  been  ordered, 

"The  said  main  question  was  then  put,  to  wit :  '  Will  the  House  concur  with  the 
Senate,  in  so  much  of  said  amendments,  as  proposes  to  strike  out  from  the  fourth 
section  of  the  bill  the  provisions  prohibiting  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude  in  the 
contemplated  State,  otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes,  as  recited  in  the  re- 
port of  the  Committee  of  Conference,'  and  passed  in  the  affirmative — yeas  90, 
nays  87." 

And  passed  under  all  the  solemn  and  imposing  circumstances  attending  the  vote, 
with  the  aid  of  only  fourteen  votes  from  the  free  States. 

The  question  then  came  up  on  the  eighth  section  before  given,  and  passed  in  the 
affirmative    by   a   vote   of   1341042.     Of  the  negative  vote,  "  Nile's  Register  "  says, 


333 

five  so  voted  "  because  they  were  in  favor  of  an  entire  restriction  on  all  the  country 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  except  in  the  State  of  Louisiana;  and  the  thirty-seven  others 
united  with  the  preceding  because  opposed  to  any  restriction  whatever.  Of  the 
thirty-seven,  one  was  from  Maryland,  eighteen  from  Virginia — [God  bless  her!]  — 
six  from  North  Carolina,  four  from  South  Carolina,  four  from  Georgia,  one  from  Ken- 
tucky, and  two  from  Tennessee."  Thus,  under  all  the  remarkable  circumstances  of 
this  exciting  subject,  and  at  the  risk  of  losing  the  State,  a  majority  of  the  Southern 
votes  in  the  House  was  against  the  restriction  of  the  line  36°  30'.  Virginia  had  then 
but  twenty-three  Representatives  upon  this  floor.  Eighteen  of  those  votes  were  from 
Virginia,  and  whether  the  other  members  from  that  State  voted  or  not,  I  do  not 
know;  but  here  was  eighteen  who  voted  against  it. 

I  ask,  then,  the  gentleman  from  Missouri,  [Mr.  Benton,]  and  I  ask  other  gentle- 
men, how  they  can  say  that  the  South  imposed  this  restrictive  feature  upon  the  North? 
Sir,  all  the  facts  show  the  contrary. 

But  it  is  now  insisted  that  this  is  a  contract.  Yes,  sir,  it  is  now  contended  that 
it  is  a  solemn  contract,  and  upon  that  subject  I  have  again  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
committee  to  the  subsequent  Journals  of  the  House.  In  1820,  or  1821,  when  Missouri 
came  here  with  a  constitution  already  framed,  and  presented  it  for  the  consideration 
of  the  House,  and  demanded  admission,  what  were  the  facts  of  the  case  ?  Was  she 
admitted?  No,  sir.  The  proposition  reported  by  Mr.  Lowndes  for  admitting  her 
was  voted  down.  By  whom  ?  By  the  North,  and  not  by  the  South,  for  every  South- 
ern man  voted  for  the  resolution.  If  it  was  a  contract,  it  was  faithless.  I  put  the 
question,  who  was  faithless  ? 

It  is  alleged  that  this  compromise  of  1820  was  a  sacred  and  binding  obligation.  I 
ask  the  question  again,  when  Missouri  knocked  for  admission,  who  voted  against  it  ? 
Who  voted  it  down  ?  It  was  the  free  State  vote  which  did  it.  Not  all,  I  admit;  but, 
nevertheless,  it  was  the  free  State  vote.  Are  they  incapable  of  recognizing  the  obli- 
gations of  a  contract  ?  All  the  subsequent  propositions  for  the  admission  of  Missouri 
were  treated  in  the  same  way,  until,  finally,  a  joint  committee  of  the  two  Houses  of 
Congress  was  formed  for  the  adjustment  of  this  question.  I  shall  not  stop  to  intro- 
duce the  resolution  which  they  reported;  but  we  know  that,  in  its  terms,  it  was  a  con- 
tract. But  it  was  not  a  contract  upon  the  line  of  36°  30'.  It  was  a  compromise  that 
Missouri  should  not  pass  any  law  prohibiting  a  citizen — a  person  entitled  to  the  rights 
of  a  citizen  in  the  different  States — from  admission  within  her  limits.  That,  and  that 
alone,  was  the  compromise  of  1821.  But  all  the  efforts  made  to  exclude  her  from  ad- 
mission, because  of  her  pro-slavery  institutions,  failed.  Mr.  Clay — then  not  the 
Speaker  of  this  House,  but  its  presiding  genius,  no  doubt — interposed,  and  threw  his 
influence  in  the  scale  to  effect  this  adjustment.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  Mr. 
Clay's  name  is  now  invoked  here  by  gentlemen,  and  by  the  gentleman  from  Ten- 
nessee, [Mr.  Cullom,]  as  the  author  of  the  act  called  the  compromise  of  1820.  Why, 
sir,  does  not  the  gentleman  know  that  Mr.  Clay  himself  declared  that  he  was  not  the 
author  of  the  compromise  of  1820?  In  1850,  in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  he  said  dis- 
tinctly that  nothing  was  more  remarkable  than  the  facility  with  which  the  public  for- 
get the  incidents  of  history;  nothing  more  remarkable  than  that  he  was  held  respon- 
sible for  the  compromise  of  1820. 

Mr.  Cullom.     Will  the  gentleman  allow  me  a  single  word  ? 

Mr.  Smith.     I  have  but  a  few  minutes,  and  I  hope  the  gentleman  will  be  short. 

Mr.  Cullom.  But  Mr.  Clay  insisted  in  the  same  speech  that  he  had  supported  it 
in  common  with  his  Southern  brethren;  for,  as  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  although 
the  Journal  did  not  show  it,  he  had  no  doubt  that  he  should  have  voted  in  favor  of  the 
measure. 

Mr.  Smith.  I  understand  all  that.  But  Mr.  Clay  did  not  express  himself  so 
strongly  as  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee  represents  him  as  doing.  He  said  he  did 
not  know  whether  he  had  voted  for  it  or  not.     That  is  the  language. 

Mr.  Cullom.     He  said  he  had  no  doubt 

Mr.  Smith.     The  gentleman  has  no  doubt  that  he  said  it,  I  am  very  sure. 

Mr.  Cullom.     No,  sir;  those  were  Mr.  Clay's  words. 

Mr.  Smith.     If  they  were,  I  do  not  recollect  them. 

Mr.  Cullom.     I  do  recollect  them. 

Mr.  Smith.  Well,  sir,  let  it  pass.  I  now  propose  to  read  from  the  National  In- 
telligencer. 

Mr.  Cullom.     Of  what  date  ? 

Mr.  Smith.     February,  1820.     It  says  : 

"The  House  then  again  went  into  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  [Mr.  Baldwin  in 
the  chair,]  the  restrictive  amendment  being  still  under  consideration.  Mr.  Speaker 
Clay  rose  and  addressed  the  Committee  nearly  four  hours,  against  the  right  and  ex- 
pediency of  the  proposed  restriction." 


334 

So  that  he  not  only  went  against  the  right,  but  he  went  against  the  expediency  of  the 
proposed  restriction. 

Mr.  Cullom.     That  was  the  restriction  upon  the  State,  and  not  the  line  of  360  30'. 

Mr.  Smith.     The  restriction  was  general. 

Mr.  Cullom.     But  I  insist  that  it  was  the  restriction  upon  the  State. 

Mr.  Smith.  No,  sir,  the  restriction  was  general.  It  was  not  Mr.  Clay  who  intro- 
duced that  measure,  as  it  has  been  sometimes  supposed.  It  was  well  known  that  it 
was  introduced  by  a  member  from  one  of  the  free  States.  But  here  is  what  the  In- 
telligencer says  upon  the  occasion  :  "  Mr.  Speaker  Clay  rose  and  addressed  the  Com- 
mittee nearly  four  hours  against  the  righ\and  expediency  of  the  proposed  restric- 
tion." There  was,  then,  a  restriction,  and  What  was  that  restriction  then  under 
consideration  ?  It  was  not  only  to  prevent  Missouri  from  coming  into  the  Union  as  a 
State,  without  the  abolition  of  slavery  within  its  limits,  but  it  was  also  a  restriction 
upon  all  the  territory  in  the  Louisiana  purchase,  even  through  to  the  Pacific  ocean, 
that  was  under  discussion. 

1  am  admonished,  however,  that  my  time  is  short.  I  had  intended  to  have  noticed 
those  courtly  gentlemen,  the  editors  of  the  National  Intelligencer,  to  show  that  they 
were  then  against  restriction;  that  in  that  day  they  came  out  and  said  that  the  exten- 
sion of  slavery  did  not  extend  the  principle. 

Mr.  Cullom.  I  am  very  certain  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  would  not  misrep- 
resent either  the  editors  of  the  National  Intelligencer  or  Mr.  Clay  upon  so  vital  a 
question  as  this.  Does  not  the  gentleman  know  that  the  speech  and  the  editorials  to 
which  he  has  referred  have  reference  to  the  restriction  of  slavery  within  the  limits  of 
the  State  of  Missouri,  and  not  to  the  line  of  360  30'  ? 

Mr.  Smith.  1  know  they  do  not,  but  I  will  make  that  matter  plain  when  I  come 
to  speak  of  the  subject  in  its  order.  The  Intelligencer  expressly  says  that  the  expan- 
sion of  slavery  does  not  effect  the  principle  of  slavery.  I  suppose  that  is  an  answer 
to  the  gentleman's  question  as  to  them.  But  what  is  more,  they  say,  and  strange  it 
is  that  the  excitement  upon  this  question  is  greater  in  that  portion  of  the  country 
which  is  not  affected  by  it,  than  in  the  whole  South  and  West  which  is  calm  upon  this 
question.  Sir,  let  me  tell  the  gentleman  that  I  am  sorry  I  have  not  time  to  pay  him 
more  fully  my  respects.  I  do  deplore  my  want  of  time  to  fully  enter  into  the  matter. 
Let  me  tell  the  gentleman,  furthermore,  that  the  South  rarely  comes  here  as  a 
petitioner.  He  knows  that,  indeed,  full  well.  She  moves  and  resolves  through  her 
Legislatures.  That  is  the  position  of  the  South  now.  She  never  petitions,  but  re- 
solves, as  she  has  on  this  occasion.  She  has  spoken.  Four  States  have  spoken, 
and  yet  gentlemen  tell  us  that  they  have  not. 

Mr.  Cullom.     Had  any  State  spoken  before  the  introduction  of  this  bill? 

Mr.  Smith.     I  wish  I  had  time  to  refer  to  all  that.     I  would  like  it  of  all  things. 

The  gentleman  from  Missouri,  [Mr.  Benton,]  in  his  remarks  the  other  day,  said 
that  "  the  Constitution  was  not  made  for  Territories,  but  for  States."  I  ask  the  gen- 
tleman how  it  is  that  we  have  exercised  so  much  power  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Constitution  to  the  present  day  over  Territories  ?  I  ask  him  how  he  recognizes  them 
as  wards  in  chancery,  as  infants  of  tender  years,  unless  this  government  has  a  con- 
stitutional power  over  them  ? 

But  the  gentleman  says: 

"  This  compromise  of  1820  is  not  a  mere  statute,  to  last  for  a  day;  it  was  intended 
for  perpetuity,  and  so  declared  itself.  It  is  an  enactment  to  settle  a  controversy — 
and  did  settle  it— and  cannot  be  abrogated  without  reviving  that  controversy. 

"It  has  given  the  country  peace  for  above  thirty  years;  how  many  years  of  |dis- 
turbance  will  its  abrogation  bring?  That  is  the  statesman's  question;  and  without 
assuming  to  be  much  of  a  statesman,  I  claim  to  be  enough  so  to  consider  the  con- 
sequences of  breaking  a  settlement  which  pacified  a  continent." 

There  is  much  other  matter  which  I  intended  to  lay  before  the  committee,  but 
under  the  operation  of  the  home  rule  I  am  deprived  of  that  pleasure. 

This,  then,  being  the  sentiment  of  the  gentleman  from  Missouri,  two  days  ago, 
and  delivered  with  his  usual  impressive  manner,  let  us  see  what  he  said  in  1852.  He 
told  this  House  in  this  debate  that  the  ordinance  of  1787,  the  compromises  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  the  compromise  of  1820,  were  necessary  parts  of  a  great  whole,  all 
essential  to  the  peace  and  repose  of  the  country.  I  think  the  following  is  his  language 
of  1852;  and  if  I  am  wrong,  he  will  correct  me: 

"I  do  not  believe  in  a  guardianship  over  the  people;  do  not  believe  in  the  mis- 
sion of  any  man,  or  set  of  men,  to  save  the  Union.  That  creed  belongs  to  the  polit- 
ical party  who  believe  that  the  people  cannot  take  care  of  themselves.  '  We,  the 
people"  made  the  Constitution — so  says  the  instrument  itself,  in  its  first  line;  'and 
we,  the  people,'  can  save  it — so  say  the  masses.  The  salvation  of  this  Union  is  not 
in  the  contrivances  of  politicians,  but  in  the  love  and  affection  of  the  people;  not  in 
force,  or   cataplasms,  but   in   justice! — in  doing  justice  to  all   the  members  of    the 


335 

Union.  It  is  libel  to  say  of  the  authors  of  our  Constitution,  that  they  did  such  bung- 
ling work  that  it  cannot  hold  together  without  periodical  patching;  and  it  is  another 
libel,  and  upon  the  people,  to  say  that  they  cannot  take  care  of  the  Constitution  which 
their  fathers  made  for  them. 

"  I  believe  in  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution,  and  swore  allegiance  to  them, 
and  keep  the  oath.  I  do  not  believe  in  the  compromises  made  by  politicians,  candi- 
dates for  the  Presidency.     I  have  seen  too  much  of  such  work." 

Admirable !  And  the  gentleman  does  not  believe  in  compromises  made  by 
politicians  !     He  has  seen  too  much  of  such  work  !     but  to  proceed: 

"What  was  ever  more  boasted  than  the  compromise  of  1833?  or  more  worshiped 
in  its  day  ?  or  more  sworn  by  ?  or  more  relied  upon  to  save  the  Union  ?  or  more 
ferociously  adhered  to  for  its  hour  as  the  watchword  of  party?  or  more  omnipotent 
over  delicate  nerves  and  attenuated  pates?  or  made  a  more  inexorable  test  of  polit- 
ical salvation  or  damnation?  and  what  more  utterly  and  ignominiously  abandoned, 
and  by  all  its  followers,  high-priests,  and  disciples,  the  moment  it  was  found  that  it 
would  make  nobody  President?  It  was  my  prerogative  to  see  through  their  contriv- 
ance at  the  time  of  its  device,  and  to  think  as  little  of  it  at  its  birth  as  its  author  did  at 
its  death.  The  compromise  of  1820  also  had  its  day  of  laudation  and  glory;  but  it 
made  nobody  President,  and  now  it  is  despised  !  " 

"Despised!"  gentlemen  of  the  committee!  You  are  told  by  this  distinguished 
gentleman,  who  so  long  graced  the  Senate,  that  it  is  now  "despised  !  " 

Mr.  Benton.     Despised  by  nullifiers.     [Great  laughter  and  applause.] 

Mr.  Smith.      "It  is  not  so  nominated  in  the  bond." 

Mr.  Benton.     That  was  my  meaning. 

Mr.  Smith.     I  cannot  tell  what  the  meaning  was,  except  from  what  is  written. 

Mr.  Benton.     Read  who  it  was  despised  by. 

Mr.  Smith.     Despised  by  the  country,  of  course. 

Mr.  Benton.  No,  sir;  no,  sir.  By  the  nullifiers — nullifiers.  Do  not  falsify  my 
words,  sir.  The  nullifiers,  sir.  Don't  falsify  my  words,  sir.  Don't  try  to  do  it.  I 
was  speaking  of  the  nullifiers. 

Mr.  Phillips.     I  would  ask  the  gentleman  if  there  were  any  nullifiers  in  1820? 

Mr.  Smith.     I  never  heard  that  there  were  any  nullifiers  at  that  time. 

Mr.  Benton.     No,  sir.     I  was  speaking  of  the  time  when  that  was  said. 

Mr.  Smith.  Wait,  sir.  I  have  not  got  through  yet.  I  have  more  of  it  here  for 
the  gentleman: 

"Abjuration  of  it  is  the  order  of  the  day." 

Mr.  Benton.     By  the  nullifiers,  again.     [Laughter.] 

Mr.  Smith.  Why,  I  thought  the  nullifiers  were  a  small  body.  But  it  was  "  the 
order  of  the  day."  Did  the  nullifiers  give  the  "  order  of  the  day"  to  the  country  ? 
Most  assuredly  not,  but  that  is  not  all  : 

"Repudiation  of  the  authority  to  make  it  is  a  test  for  the  Presidency;  and  judicial 
decisions  treat  it  as  a  nullity.  The  compromise  of  1850  is,  in  the  first  place,  a  decep- 
tion, the  compromise  bill  having  failed,  and  its  conglomerated  measures  passed  sep- 
arately as  independent  measures,  and  with  very  little  help  from  their  present 
assumptious  guardians.  In  the  second  place,  it  was  contrived  upon  the  avowed 
ground  that  it  was  to  make  its  champions  Presidents." 

Mr.  Benton.     Certainly. 

Mr.  Smith.  "And  judicial  decisions  treat  it  as  a  nullity."  Why,  are  they  nulli- 
fiers too?  I  ask  the  question.  Surely  the  judges  are  not  nullifiers.  John  C.  Cal- 
houn was  not  upon  the  bench.  But  that  is  not  all.  Speaking  of  the  compromise  of 
1850,  the  gentleman  said,  further  : 

"And  is  now  stuck  to  upon  that  principle;  and  if  it  fails  to  do  the  job,  it  will  take 
the  track  of  its  two  defunct  predecessors,  and  soon  be  with  them,  '  in  the  tomb  of 
the  Capulets.'  " 

Yes,  the  gentleman  actually  buries  the  compromise! 

"This  is  my  experience  of  Congress  compromises,  and  nobody  need  to  set  up 
these  little  clay-gods  for  me  to  worship,  especially  when  those  who  set  them  up  do  it 
for  a  purpose,  and  knock  them  down  when  they  don't  answer  it." 

Not  for  the  nullifiers  to  worship,  but  for  me  to  worship.  There  the  gentleman 
buries  the  compromise  of  1820,  and  says  expressly  that  compromises  shall  not  be 
made  for  him.  And  yet  the  gentleman  tells  us  that  he  came  into  Congress  upon  the 
compromise  of  1820,  and  that  he  has  continued  to  stand  upon  that  compromise,  and 
with  a  grateful  heart  expresses  his  obligations  to  his  Northern  friends. 

Sir,  here  is  the  gentleman  now.  I  give  him  in  evidence  upon  this  question.  But 
I  know  that  my  time  is  limited.  Would  that  I  could  array  before  you  all  the  elements 
that  I  could  bring  to  bear  upon  this  question.     But  I  shall  soon  be  buried,  although 


336 

not  in  the  tomb  of  all  the  Capulets  with  the  Missouri  compromise;  for  I  trust  to  rise 
again  some  other  day.  I  advert  to  these  things  for  the  purpose  of  expressing  my  as- 
tonishment and  amazement  at  the  position  now  assumed  by  the  gentleman  from  Mis- 
souri in  reference  to  this  question. 

Allow  me  to  generalize  here  a  little,  and  to  appeal  to  Northern  gentlemen,  and 
ask  them  how  they  can  recognize  the  justice  of  this  thing  ?  You  talk  about  our  divid- 
ing this  territory.  We  took  our  half,  says  the  gentleman  from  Missouri.  But  what 
was  it?  A  compromise  means  an  adjustment  between  two  parties,  in  which  each 
concedes  something.  What  have  the  free  States  conceded  ?  They  have,  like  a  giant 
or  tyrant,  thrown  us  upon  our  backs  and  throttled  us.  They  take  millions  of  square 
miles  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  and  say  that  slavery  shall  be  excluded 
therefrom,  and  what  do  they  give  us? 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  the  line  established  by  the  treaty  of  Spain  and  the 
act  of  1820  leaves  to  the  slave  owner  no  territory  for  his  occupation  whatsoever, 
except  that  which  is  already  embraced  within  the  States,  or  in  the  territory  West  of 
Arkansas,  permanently  occupied  by  Indians,  and  about  the  size  of  that  State.  I 
appeal  to  you  as  men  of  justice  ;  I  appeal  to  every  Northern  man  who  has  a  heart, 
what  justice  is  there  in  taking  about  a  million  of  square  miles  of  land  to  yourselves, 
excluding  the  slave  owner,  and  saying  that  slavery  shall  not  set  foot  within  it,  and 
yet  give  us  no  corresponding  equivalent  ?  Are  gentlemen  disposed  to  disregard  the 
original  principles  upon  which  our  Government  is  established,  and  under  which  we 
have  heretofore  excluded  all  disorganizing  questions?  Are  you  to  take  millions  of 
acres  of  land  and  leave  us  nothing,  then  turn  around,  like  the  gentleman  from  Ohio 
[Mr.  Taylor],  and  say,  for  God's  sake  do  not  break  the  compromises?  It  is  a  good 
deal  in  the  style  of  the  Irishman  who  swore  that  he  was  the  best-natured  fellow  in  the 
world,  if  nobody  made  him  mad.  So  these  gentlemen  say,  give  us  all,  for  the  sake 
of  harmony  and  Union.  In  pursuance  of  this  spirit,  they  took  possession  of  the  Ter- 
ritory of  Oregon.  In  pursuance  of  this  spirit,  they  took  possession  of  California  ;  and 
what  a  disagreeable  development  would  be  presented  if  the  secret  history  of  the 
organization  of  that  State  could  be  obtained !  She  was  without  resources.  No  foster- 
ing Federal  power  was  there  to  protect  her  infancy  and  supply  her  wants  ;  compelled 
to  pay  taxes  to  the  Federal  Government  through  the  custom-house,  and  in  a  state  of 
social  dissolution,  she  was  constrained  to  organize  a  State  government,  and  in  so 
doing  was  made  to  believe  that,  without  an  anti-slavery  clause  in  her  constitution, 
she  could  not,  even  then,  be  admitted  into  the  Union.  Federal  officers  figured  in  her 
convention,  wielding  a  large  power,  under  the  then  existing  circumstances  ;  and 
California,  the  golden  and  the  beautiful,  and  the  lovely  of  the  earth,  more  admirably 
adapted  to  slave  labor  than  any  spot  under  the  sun,  was  closed  against  nearly  one- 
half  the  Union.  Sir,  it  was  a  rank  injustice  to  the  South,  and  a  great  injury  to  Cali- 
fornia. 

Yes,  the  anti-slavery  interest  has  almost  monopolized  all  that  is  really  valuable 
of  our  public  domain.     Is  this  justice  ?     Can  it  be  defended  ? 

My  God !  is  it  possible  that  an  American  Congress  can  continue  this  gross  injus- 
tice ?  And  it  is  a  most  remarkable  illustration  of  the  Union  sentiment  of  the  South, 
that  they  have  so  long  acquiesced  in  their  wrongs.  They  have  submitted  until  at  last, 
I  fear,  that  proud  spirit  has  been  somewhat  broken  which  caused  her  to  resist  the 
British  power  on  the  point  of  a  penny  per  pound.on  tea,  and  which  caused  her  to  be 
among  the  first  actors  in  the  Revolution.  That  spirit  then  led  the  United  States  to 
resist  the  mother  country  on  principle — yes,  on  principle  ;  because  Virginia  was  not 
oppressed  or  affected  ;  but  the  Old  Dominion  came  in  and  joined  the  North  in  its  revo- 
lutionary struggle,  regarding  the  strife  as  one  of  a  general  character.  Her  sons  came 
forward  to  rescue  the  city  of  Boston,  which  was  not  even  completely  invested  until 
the  Virginians  arrived.  Yes,  sir,  I  state  it  as  a  historical  fact,  that  Boston  had  to  wait 
for  Virginia  to  come,  before  she  could  be  rescued  from  the  red-coats  and  the  lion  of 
Old  England. 


337 


SPEECH   OF  HON.  WILLIAM   SMITH,  OF  VIRGINIA, 

IN    REPLY    TO 

HON.  J.   R.  GIDDINGS,  OF  OHIO. 


The  following  is  the  speech  delivered  by  Mr.  Smith  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  reply  to  a  bitter  and  vindic- 
tive attack  made  by  the  celebrated  Mr.  Giddings,  of  Ohio,  in 
the  alleged  defense  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  ex-President  of 
the  United  States,  and  recently  a  Member  of  the  House  of 
Representatives. 

It  created  great  sensation  in  Congress  and  generated 
throughout  the  country,  at  the  time,  intense  excitement.  It 
was  one  of  those  memorable  Congressional  episodes  intimately 
connected  with  the  Resolutions  of  Censure  on  Mr.  Adams 
and  Mr.  Giddings,  introduced  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
by  the  distinguished  Thomas  F.  Marshall,  of  Kentucky,  and 
advocated  by  ex-Governor  Smith,  ex-Governor  Wise  and  ex- 
Governor  Gilmer,  of  Virginia,  and  other  gentlemen  of  distinc- 
tion in  Congress,  and  the  country. 

House  of  Representives,  Friday,  April  28,  1S54. 

Mr.  Smith  :  Mr.  Chairman,  we  have,  indeed,  had  an  interesting  display,  char- 
acterized by  those  manners  which  we  should  naturally  expect  from  the  gentleman  irom 
whom  it  comes.  We  have  seen  a  gentleman  here  aspiring  to  be  sarcastic.  We  have 
seen  him  rising  here  and  assailing  members  of  this  House  with  a  display  of  coarse- 
ness and  vulgarity  which  he  alone  understands  how  to  use;  just  the  sort  of  defamation 
and  scandal  which  would  find  no  place  in  the  association  of  gentlemen;  nay,  such 
only  as  could  have  been  taught  and  learned  by  an  association  with  free  negroes. 

Sir,  it  is  within  the  recollection  of  this  committee  that,  on  yesterday,  when  I  was 
replying  to  the  extraordinary  position  which  had  been  taken  here  by  those  who  had 
preceded  me,  that  the  Missouri  compromise,  as  it  was  called — that  the  act  of  1820  had 
given  peace  and  quiet  to  the  country.  I  say,  when  I  was  replying  to  that  most  extra- 
ordinary position,  and  confronting  it  with  the  truth  of  history,  I  referred,  by  way  of 
illustration,  to  a  distinguished  man,  supreme  in  his  eminent  ability,  who  had  pre- 
viously occupied  the  highest  official  position  in  the  country,  and  who  descended  from 
that  high  position  into  this  arena,  for  the  purpose  of  creating  agitation  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery.  I  stated  that  as  an  illustration.  I  stated  that  he  forgot  the  high  dig- 
nities with  which  he  had  been  honored,  the  distinguished  offices  which  he  had  filled, 
the  mighty  part  he  had  played  as  a  national  man;  and  that  he  came  here  to  agitate 
for  the  wild,  disorganized  purposes  of  anti-slavery.  That  was  an  illustration;  and  I 
referred  on  that  occasion  to  sentiments  which  he  uttered  on  this  floor,  and  which  I 
would  make  good.  Indeed  they  are  substantially  admitted  by  the  gentleman  who  has 
just  addressed  the  House. 

I  referred  to  him,  [Mr.  Giddings,]  also,  as  an  illustration.  I  had  no  occasion  to 
misrepresent  him.  I  alluded  to  him  as  one  of  those  who  had  been  continued  here  by 
constituents,  no  doubt  worthy  of  him,  and  whose  chief  office,  instead  of  being  to 
minister  peace  and  good  will  unto  all  men,  had  been  to  agitate  the  great  country  of 
which  he  is  a  most  unworthy  member,  and  to  seek  to  distract  and  divide,  and  ruin  the 
Union  of  this  Republic — in  the  perpetuation  of  which  the  destinies  of  the  world  are  at 
once  and  forever  bound.  Is  not  that  true  ?  Speaking  from  memory,  I  do  not  perhaps 
specify  in  exact  and  literal  verbiage  the  sense  which  had  been  communicated  ;  but  I 


338 

am  here  with  the  record,  prepared,  substantially,  to  sustain  the  position  which  I  took. 
The  member — and  according  to  polite  parliamentary  parlance  the  honorable  member 
— and  I  suppose  that  we  are  all  honorable  men — the  honorable  member  has  thought 
fit,  his  own  job  not  being  sufficient,  and  being  ambitious  of  that  unity  which  he 
sought  to  establish,  when  the  distinguished  man,  to  whom  I  previously  referred,  had 
a  living  place  on  this  floor — he  has  thought  fit  to  get  some  grace  and  strength  for  his 
position,  by  a  union  with  one  who  had  genius  and  intellect  to  redeem  the  errors  of 
his  principles,  and  to  commend  him  to  the  interest,  at  least,  if  not  to  the  affections  of 
the  country. 

He  sought  to  acquire  some  distinction  by  that  association.  Not  content  to  rest 
himself  here  on  his  own  defense,  he  undertakes  to  vindicate  that  man,  superseding 
the  duty  of  some  gentleman  from  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  The  member — the 
honorable  member — really  conceded  the  strength  of  my  remarks.  In  vindicating  Mr. 
Adams,  he  actually  acknowledges  the  ascription  which  I  made.  But  I  might  be 
relieved  from  the  duty  of  meeting  this  question,  if  I  chose  to  remind  the  gentleman 
that  he  has  been  guilty  of  a  very  great  defect  in  memory,  if  not  of  a  gross  misstate- 
ment. 

Mr.  Chairman,  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  let  me  call  your  attention  to  an 
incident  which  occurred  the  22d  of  February,  1844,  a  day  pregnant  with  the  dearest 
associations,  as  connected  with  the  name  of  one  who  was  "first  in  war,  first  in  peace, 
and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen."  On  that  day,  Mr.  Dillet,  of  Alabama,  a 
distinguished  Whig  member — I  say  Whig  member,  because  at  that  day  political  liga- 
ments were  stronger  than  local  subordination  or  independence.  I  speak  from  the 
record.  In  referring  to  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Adams  on  the  question  of  slavery,  with- 
out going  much  into  the  quotation,  and  which  I  had  hastily  collected,  not  expecting 
to  be  called  on  from  the  source  which  I  have,  to  justify  my  remarks,  Mr.  Dillet,  in 
addressing  this  House  on  the  22d  of  February,  1844,  said: 

"And  whence  this  language:  '  That  slavery  will  be  abolished  in  this  country, 
and  throughout  the  world,  I  firmly  believe  ;  whether  it  will  be  done  peaceably  or  by 
blood,  God  only  knows.  But  that  it  shall  be  accomplished,  I  have  not  a  doubt;  and 
by  whatever  means,  I  say  let  it  come.  Yes,  by  whatever  means,  I  say,  let  it  come.' 
That  was  the  prayer  offered  in  transitu  to  the  Throne  of  Mercy.  By  blood,  or  other- 
wise, let  it  come. 

"  Mr.  Adams.     Let  it  come. 

"Mr.  Dillet.  Yes,  sir,  these  were  the  prayers  of  this  man,  [Mr.  Adams,]  who, 
if  he  had  retired  from  the  Presidency  to  the  shades  of  private  life,  which  he  would 
so  much  have  dignified  and  adorned,  would  have  gone  down  to  the  tomb  with  the 
united  admiration  and  applause  of  a  mighty  nation.  This  man  comes  here  upon  this 
floor,  and  says  :     'Let  it  come;  let  it  come,  by  blood  or  otherwise;  let  it  come.'  " 

Mr.  Adams  here  threw  in  the  words  :   "Let  it  come." 

"  Mr.  Dillet.  Yes,  let  it  come,  no  matter  what  havoc  shall  ensue  amongst  the 
five  millions  of  men,  women  and  children  of  the  South;  let  them  all  be  served  up  to 
satiate  the  Moloch  of  those  assailants  of  the  Constitution  ;  and  for  the  purpose  of 
offering  up  sweet  incense  to  the  holy,  thrice    holy  Abolitionists,"  etc. 

Well,  sir,  Mr.  Dillet  went  on  a  good  deal  in  that  strain,  and  then  Mr.  Adams  pro- 
claims, not  let  it  come  even  at  the  expense  of  the  blood  of  five  millions,  as  I  stated 
and  as  my  memory  enabled  me  to  speak  of  it  after  the  lapse  of  years,  but  he  even 
goes  further  and  says,  without  restrictions  as  to  numbers  :  "Let  it  come."  Yes,  sir, 
even  if  it  cause  the  blood  of  the  entire  slaveholding  section  of  this  Union  to  flow. 

But,  sir,  Mr.  Dillet  goes  on  to  say  : 

"He  was  one  among  those  who,  in  1824,  preferred  the  civil  qualifications  of  the 
gentleman  to  those  of  a  military  character,  in  the  selection  of  a  Chief  Magistrate  of 
the  Union.  He  need  not  ask  to  be  pardoned  by  the  gentleman,  but  he  did  ask  the 
forgiveness  of  his  country." 

Yes,  sir,  so  shocking,  so  horrid  to  every  humane  and  gentle  affection  were  the 
sentiments  of  this  man — this  Mr.  Adams,  who  had  come  here  to  agitate  upon  this 
question  that  he  had  proclaimed:  "Let  it  come,  though  at  the  peril  of  the  entire 
South."  And  Mr.  Dillet,  a  political  and  personal  friend,  in  the  agony  of  his  heart, 
said  "  I  was  one  of  those  who,  in  1824,  preferred  the  civil  qualifications  of  the  gentle- 
man to  a  military  chieftain,  and  gave  him  my  support.  I  now  say  here,  in  the  face 
of  this  House,  in  the  face  of  the  assembled  country,  that  I  ask  pardon  of  my  country- 
men for  so  doing."  And  yet  this  act,  this  sacrilege,  this  outrage  upon  every 
sentiment  of  humanity,  this  treason — I  use  the  word — this  moral  treason  to  the  Con- 
stitution of  our  Republic,  finds  vindication  upon  this  floor.  But  no  other  man  has 
dared  to  vindicate  it  but  such  a  man  as  that  from  Ohio.  Sir,  have  I  not  made  good  my 
reference?     Can  I  not  stand  up  here  proudly  and  say  that  my  case  is  made  out?  Sir, 


339 

although  the  member  wishes  to  be  tacked  to  the  illustrious  name  of  Adams,  let  me 
tell  him  that  he  is  but  the  tail ;  and  long,  long  must  it  be,  if  there  is  any  connection 
between  the  two.      [Laughter.] 

But,  sir,  I  come  now  to  the  honorable  member  himself.  That  honorable  member 
gives  us  to  understand  that  his  ancestors  rendered  important  services  in  the  war  of 
the  Revolution,  but  his  modesty  will  not  permit  him  to  speak  of  the  services  which 
he  himself  rendered  in  the  war  of  1812.  I  wish  he  had  delighted  us  by  recounting 
them  here,  for  I  believe  his  military  achievements  have  not  yet  been  sung  in  son«-  or 
told  in  story.  But  the  gentleman,  on  account  of  his  capital  good  nature,  forbears  to 
say  what  otherwise  he  might  say,  in  reference  to  myself  ;  but  what  can  we  think  of 
the  supreme  gentleness  of  disposition  of  the  man  who  can  get  up  here  and  perform 
such  a  part  as  he  has  done  to-day? 

The  display  which  ihe  gentleman  made  upon  this  floor  was  the  malignity  of  a  fiend 
— a  coward  fiend.  I  was  a  member  of  this  House  when  the  particular  incident  took 
place  which  has  brought  out  this  difficulty.  After  the  honorable  member  from  Ohio 
resigned  his  seat,  he  went  around  the  Hall  bidding  good-bye  to  his  friends.  I  was 
sitting  very  near  the  place  where  I  am  now  standing  ;  and  when  he  came  to  me, 
offering  his  hand,  I  did  not  pretend  to  be  very  busy,  as  some  Southern  members  did, 
who  turned  their  backs  upon  him,  but  I  said  to  him,  "  I  do  not  shake  hands  with 
you."  "Just  as  you  please,"  replied  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  ;  and  that  is  the  way 
in  which  I  treated  his  conduct,  and  that  is  the  way  he  deserved  to  be  treated  by  all. 

The  gentleman  has  been  pleased  to  refer  to  my  political  history,  and  my  retire- 
ment from  these  Halls.  I  will  state  to  this  House  that,  for  eighteen  years  I  was  an 
active  party  man,  before  I  ever  sought  a  seat  in  legislative  hall.  My  time,  money, 
and  such  humble  talents  as  God  has  blessed  me  with,  were  freely  dedicated  to  the 
propagation  of  the  great  principles  of  the  Democratic  party,  in  season  and  out  of 
season.  Until  1836,  when  the  muttering  thunder  which  was  heard  in  the  distance 
was  about  to  burst  upon  the  country,  I  did  not  attempt  to  go  into  public  life  ;  but  at 
that  time,  being  called  upon  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  State  Senate,  I,  under  protest, 
yielded  to  the  call,  after  having  once  declined  a  nomination.  I  then  ran  for  Congress, 
and  had  the  honor  of  succeeding  against  a  Democrat  and  a  Whig,  with  only  about  six 
hundred  majority,  and  the  Democrat,  the  then  incumbent  in  office,  which  is,  with  us, 
almost  conclusive  in  favor  of  re-election.  When  I  retired  from  these  Halls,  I  was  a 
candidate  for  re-election,  under  a  peculiar  state  of  things — for  it  so  happened  that  the 
district  was  reorganized,  and  a  Federal  district  was  formed.  I  allowed  my  name  to 
be  used,  and  I  reduced  a  Whig  majority  of  twelve  hundred  to  some  two  hundred  and 
sixty-five.  I  then  resumed  the  duties  of  private  life,  but  not  in  retirement,  as  the 
mendacious  speaker  says — for  I  was  elected  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Vir- 
ginia, without  ever  having  written  a  letter  or  expressed  a  wish  for  the  office.  I  ask  if 
any  man  can  furnish  a  prouder  and  higher  memorial  of  the  estimation  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  than  that — elected  to  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  the  Old  Dominion  without  an 
expressed  wish  for  the  proud  distinction  ? 

When  I  returned  from  California,  where  I  had  gone  to  mend  my  fortunes,  I  had 
scarcely  reached  home  before  my  friends  began  to  talk  of  returning  me  to  Congress. 
Circumstances,  not  my  wishes,  made  me  a  candidate,  and  I  was  elected  without  ever 
organizing  a  county  ;  without  ever  treating  a  voter  ;  without  ever  holding  a  private 
conversation  but  with  two  worthy,  but  plain  and  unambitious  persons,  to  affect  their 
votes  before  my  election.  I  proudly  stood  up  and  relied  upon  my  character  and 
principles,  and  upon  the  liberal  sentiments  of  the  noble  people  whose  suffrage  I 
expected  ;  and  I  am  here. 

Well,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  member  from  Ohio  has  read  the  resolutions  for  which 
the  House  condemned  him.  I  shall  not  pause  to  comment  upon  them,  but  I  will 
bring  you  to  the  result.  The  first  item — for  there  is  a  good  deal  here  on  the  subject 
— the  first  item  to  which  I  call  the  attention  of  the  committee,  is  the  remark  of  Mr. 
Everett — Mr.  Everett,  of  Vermont  ;  from  the  green  hills  ;  a  cold,  hard  man— I  hope 
that  no  one  will  pitch  into  me  for  this.  But  yet  I  shall  beg  the  attention  of  the  com- 
mittee to  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Everett  on  the  subject,  because  I  am  one  of  those  who 
never  speak  lightly,  and  when  I  take  a  position,  I  am  proud  to  believe  that  I  can 
maintain  it.     I  read  from  the  Journal — 

Mr.  Everett  rose  and  begged  to  be  excused  from  voting.  He  assigned  his  reasons: 

"And  he  wished  also  on  this  occasion  to  express  his  utter  abhorrence  of  the  fire- 
brand course  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Giddings]." 

Yes,  sir,  Mr.  Everett  asked  to  be  excused  from  voting;  and  he  did  it  because  he 
wanted  an  opportunity  of  expressing  his  deep  abhorrence — I  repeat — his  deep  abhor- 
rence of  the  fire-brand  course  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio.  Well,  now,  when  that 
man  could  act  in  such  a  way  in  these  Halls  as  to  provoke  such  a  fierce  denunciation 
from  a  party  associate,  from  a  man  who  was  engaged  in  a  common  cause,  and  ani- 
mated by  a  common  feeling,  what,  sir,  what  must  have  been  the  deep  damnation  of 
the  act  ? 


340 

There  are  various  other  references  on  this  subject.  I  shall  not  dwell  upon  them. 
But  such  was  the  howling  storm  of  indignation  in  this  entire  Hall,  such  was  the  deep 
abhorrence  of  the  vile  and  atrocious  conduct  of  that  member,  that  he,  in  view  of 
that  storm,  and  shrinking  from  it,  asked  if  he  had  the  power  to  withdraw  his  resolu- 
tions. The  Chair  pronounced  that  he  had,  against  the  positions  taken  to  the  contrary. 
But  I  will  read  a  line  or  two  from  the  record  : 

"  Mr.  Giddings  said, that  when  he  had  risen  to  offer  his  resolutions,  he  had  stated 
that  they  were  important,  and  that  he  merely  laid  them  before  the  House. 
"  Cries  of  'Order  !'   'Order!' 

"  The  Speaker.     The  gentleman  will  either  withdraw  his  resolutions  or  not. 
"Mr.  Giddings.     I  was  merely  saying  that  I  was  about  to  reply — 
"The  Speaker.    Do  you  withdraw  the  resolutions  or  not? 
"Mr.  Giddings  withdrew  his  resolutions." 

Yes,  sir,  that  man  who  boasts  that  he  has  uttered  nothing  in  the  world  but  proper 
and  correct  sentiments  ;  who  said  that  his  resolutions  were  important,  and  that  he 
merely  laid  them  on  the  table  for  consideration,  when  he  saw  the  howling  blast  of 
indignation  against  him  which  raged  around  the  Hall,  skulked  from  its  fury,  and,  in 
the  face  of  such  a  howling  tempest,  sought  to  shelter  himself  by  withdrawing  his 
resolutions. 

Well,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  member  from  Ohio  resigned.  He  resigned  to  go  home, 
to  get  the  rebuke  of  his  people  upon  this  House,  it  may  be  :  perhaps  to  pocket  his 
mileage,  for  the  question  was  raised  whether  he  intended  to  charge  double  mileage 
or  not  ;  and  that  question  was  not  answered.  So,  I  suppose,  he  got  it.  Of  course 
he  got  it — of  course.  No  moral  sentiment  could  have  restrained  him,  no  feeling  of 
personal  honor. 

Well,  sir,  I  say  he  resigned.  I  cannot  undertake  to  give  you  chapter  and  verse 
for  the  common  talk  of  this  Hall.  But  it  was  said  that  he  resigned  and  went  home, 
to  get  the  rebuke  of  his  people  upon  the  action  of  this  Hall. 

I  stated  yesterday,  and  I  repeat  it  now,  that  it  was  bruited  around  this  Hall  that 
it  was  the  common  understanding  that  he  went  home,  relying  upon  that  people  whom 
he  represents,  of  whom  he  appears  so  proud,  and  with  whom  he  so  cordially  sympa- 
thizes. Yes,  sir,  I  say  it  was  so  understood,  and  I  am  going  to  give  some  sort  of  proof 
of  it.  It  was  understood  that  he  would  come  back  here  and  renew  his  resolutions, 
until  those  resolutions  of  censure  were  repealed. 

But  here  is  the  record,  and  I  ought  not  to  omit  it.  The  resolution  of  censure 
brought  out  by  the  honorable  member's  atrocious  resolutions,  denounced  him  for 
offering  resolutions  which  embodied  rapine  and  murder.  Yes,  sir,  that  embodied 
rapine  and  murder  !  After  the  resolutions  were  withdrawn,  the  House  was  not  satis- 
fied with  his  retreat — with  his  cowardly  retreat — with  his  skulking  from  the  storm 
which  he  had  raised.  I  say  the  House  was  not  satisfied,  and  a  resolution  of  the  char- 
acter of  which  I  have  spoken  was  offered.  He  had  offended  the  House  and  the  coun- 
try, and  though  his  resolutions  were  withdrawn,  it  was  felt  in  this  Hall  that  they  still 
left  an  offense  which  must  be  avenged,  and  Mr.  Botts,  of  Virginia,  offered  resolutions 
which,  not  being  in  order,  were  offered  by  his  noble  colleague,  Mr.  Weller,  in  which 
the  resolutions  of  the  gentleman  were  denounced  for  justifying  rapine  and  murder. 
This  House  passed  them  by  a  vote  of  nearly  two  to  one,  after  nearly  every  parlia- 
mentary effort  had  been  resorted  to  to  prevent  their  adoption.  The  judgment  of  this 
House,  not  upon  party  grounds,  the  judgment  of  the  American  Congress,  by  nearly 
two-thirds  out  of  nearly  two  hundred  votes,  solemnly  pronounced  that  the  resolutions 
of  the  gentleman  legalized  and  justified  rapine  and  murder,  and  that  he  deserved  not 
only  the  censure  of  the  country,  but  of  this  House  in  particular. 

For  that  he  resigned  and  went  home  ;  and  I  say  now  that  during  his  absence,  the 
understanding  was  that  he  was  to  come  back  here  by  the  election  of  his  people,  and 
that  he  was  to  renew  those  resolutions,  and  was  to  press  them  until  the  resolutions  of 
censure  were  revoked.     Did  he  ever  renew  them  ?     Never  !  never  ! 

I  find,  in  the  resolutions  offered  by  Mr.  Goode,  of  Ohio,  the  following  : 

"Resolved,  That  the  Hon.  J.  R.  Giddings,  on  his  return  to  Congress,  be,  and  is 
hereby,  instructed,  at  the  first  moment  after  it  shall  be  in  order,  to  offer  the  identical 
resolutions  over  again  which  he  had  before  offered,  and  insist  that  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives act  upon  them  by  a  direct  vote." 

Instructed  by  his  beloved  constituents  !  Did  he  obey  that  instruction?  No,  sir  ; 
his  white-livered  heart  skulked  from  it.  He  even  disregarded  the  instructions  of  his 
dear  and  much  loved  people,  who  sent  him  here,  with  instructions  to  carry  out  his 
original  purpose.  Big,  sir,  with  pride  and  consequence,  and  offended  feeling,  he  left 
this  Hall  with  a  determination  to  do  or  die.  He  was  backed  up  by  his  people  at  home 
— better  men  than  himself,  I  nave  no  doubt  ;  yet  when  he  came  into  the  presence  of 
the  majesty  of  the  Representatives  of  the  American  people,  he  quailed  ;  yes,  sir,  he 


341 

quailed  liefore  it,  and  did  not  obey  his  instructions,  or  carry  out  his  original  purpose. 

But,  sir,  having  adverted  to  the  facts  connected  with  this  pel  iently,  and 

having  vindicated,  from  the  record,  the  truth  of  my  former  assertions,  I  pass  on. 
The  gentleman  from  Ohio  came  back  to  this  House  on  the  5th  of  May,  I  think  it  was. 
and  was  qualified  by  being  sworn.  But  what  are  oaths  to  those  who  believe  not  in 
their  value?  But  I  was  proceeding  to  say,  he  came  back  here,  and  on  the  5th  of  May 
was  sworn  to  observe  the  Constitution,  and  to  respect  all  its  compromises.  He  took 
his  seat. 

Well,  sir,  I  said  this  member  from  Ohio  offered  a  resolution  to  rescind  the  former 
vote  of  censure.  Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  one  of  those  who  never  disregard  or 
refuse  to  recognize  the  act  of  an  agent.  I  am  one  of  those  who  regard  what  is  done 
by  my  agent  as  having  been  done  by  myself  ;  and  if  it  is  necessary  I  could  give  you 
law  and  Latin  to  show  that  it  is  an  established  legal  principle.  I  am  not  here  to  draw 
nice  distinctions.  I  do  not  split  hairs— not  I.  But  the  member  from  Ohio  says  he 
did  not  offer  this  resolution.  Well,  sir,  he  did  not,  but  his  colleague  did  ;  and  I  sup- 
pose his  colleague  would  not  have  done  anything  of  the  sort  without  his  concurrence. 
I  appeal  to  this  committee  to  decide  whether  it  is  likely  that  he  would  have  permitted 
one  of  his  colleagues — one  who  sympathized  with  him  in  his  original  determination, 
who  prevented  him  from  undertaking  to  defend  himself  on  that  occasion,  although 
the  opportunity  was  again  and  again  tendered  to  him  ;  who  seemed  to  be  his  friend, 
associate  and  counselor — does  the  member  himself  suppose  he  shall  be  able  to  make 
this  House  believe  that  this  colleague  of  his  would  have  taken  this  step  without  his 
knowledge  and  consent  ?  And,  therefore,  it  is  that  I  say  the  member  from  Ohio 
draws  nice  distinctions,  and  disproves  at  most  the  letter,  but  not  the  spirit  of  my 
charge. 

Well,  sir,  I  have  shown  what  was  the  resolution  which  was  offered  by  the  coun- 
selor and  advisor  of  the  member  from  Ohio,  and  I  leave  it  to  the  intelligent  judgment 
of  every  member  of  this  House  to  decide  whether  he  is  responsible  for  the  resolution 
— that  is  all. 

Mr.  Giddings.     Will  the  gentleman  read  the  resolution  ? 

Mr.  Smith.     You  may  read  it  if  you  wish. 

Mr.  Giddings.     Either  read  it  or  back  out. 

Mr.  Smith.     I  have  the  resolution  before  me,  and  I  will  not  back  out. 

Mr.  Giddings.     There  is  no  such  resolution. 

Mr.  Smith.  No,  sir  ;  there  is  no  such  resolution  in  express  terms,  but  it  was 
designed  indirectly  to  accomplish  the  purpose  I  have  stated  ;  for  if  received  by  the 
House,  that  would  revoke  the  censure,  and  that  will  explain  what  follows  hereafter. 

Mr.  Giddings.     Read  it. 

Mr.  Smith.  I  will  not  read  it.  Mr.  Chairman,  how  did  it  get  in  here  ?  I  recollect 
the  circumstances  distinctly  ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  the  committee  understand  them. 
I  have  refused  to  read  the  resolution  because  the  whole  debate  to  which  it  gave  rise 
would  have  to  be  read,  to  make  it  intelligible.  I  would  not  be  guilty  of  such  a 
foul  transaction  as  to  refuse  to  read  a  resolution  for  the  purpose  of  misrepresenting 
it.  I  have  the  resolution  before  me,  and  the  whole  proceedings  in  connection  with 
it.  Every  member  has  them  in  his  possession.  I  wish  the  member  from  Ohio  to 
understand  that  I  do  not  consider  it  necessary  to  resort  to  any  such  meals  to 
strengthen  my  exposition  of  such  a  case  as  his. 

And  how  did  it  come  into  the  House.  I  recollect  when  the  gentleman  from  Ohio 
[Mr.  Goode],  against  whose  character  I  know  nothing,  other  than  is  found  on  this 
record,  and  I  am  happy  to  so  express  myself — I  recollect  when  he  got  up  and  offered 
the  resolutions,  there  was  one  general  laugh  throughout  the  House;  and  I  believe, 
and  it  was  the  general  belief,  as  the  records  show,  that  that  was  the  end  of  them.  But 
no.  He  took  the  laugh;  said  not  a  word;  but  marched  up  to  the  Clerk's  desk,  and 
under  pretense  of  their  being  of  the  character  of  a  petition,  filed  them  with  the  Clerk 
for  the  purpose  of  entry  on  the  Journal.  There  is  honesty  and  fair  dealing  for  you ! 
And  the  member  knew  nothing  about  it !  Of  course  he  did  not !  He  was  as  inno- 
cent of  the  matter  as  the  unborn  child.  He  was  perfectly  good-natured,  and  could 
not  inquire  into  anything  of  the  sort. 

When  the  Journal  was  read  next  morning  a  statement  of  the  facts  was  made.  It 
appeared,  from  the  Journal,  that  the  resolutions  were  presented  and  received.  Mr. 
Botts  immediately  rose  in  his  place,  and  moved  that  they  be  stricken  out.  He  did 
not  like  to  say  expunged;  but  he  moved  that  the  entire  paragraph — and  I  have  the 
whole  of  it  here — that  the  paragraph  in  reference  to  the  resolutions,  one  of  which  I 
have  read,  and  one  of  which  led  the  member  to  repeat  his  own  resolutions,  be 
stricken  out.  Considerable  debate  resulted.  A  great  deal  of  excuse  was  offered.  A 
strong  impression  of  a  fraudulent  movement  was  declared.  Mr.  Goode  obtained  the 
floor,  and  announced  to  the  House  that  he  had  had  no  fraudulent  purpose  whatsoever. 
Such  was  the  loathsome,  vile,  miserable,  contemptible  character  of  the  proceeding, 
that  the  House  struck  out  the  paragraph  with  the  implied  imputation  of  fraud.     Yes, 


342 

sir,  these  resolutions,  which  had  for  their  end  the  redeeming  of  the  member  from 
Ohio  from  the  deep  damnation  of  his  conduct  in  advocating  mutiny  and  murder, 
were  expunged  from  the  record.  They  were  stricken  from  the  Journal,  and  now 
they  have  no  place  except  in  the  papers  of  the  day. 

This,  then,  being  the  condition  of  things,  I  would  ask  wherein  I  have  misstated? 
The  gentleman  says  that  I  stated  that  he  was  elected  by  a  diminished  majority.  I 
will  advert  to  that  now,  though  a  little  out  of  the  regular  course.  Of  course,  I  spoke 
on  the  subject  from  memory,  and  I  really  ask  the  member  for  information.  When 
facts  are  involved,  however,  I  do  not  rest  satisfied  until  I  am  fully  convinced.  Had 
not  the  gentleman  Whig  and  Democratic  opposition?  Was  he  not  elected  by  a  plu- 
rality and  not  a  majority  ?  This  I  distinctly  know:  that  the  impression  was,  that 
the  operation  of  another  resignation  was  considered  too  dangerous  for  another  trial 
by  the  member.  I  know  the  understanding  was,  that  if  the  Democrats  had  not  been 
so  foolish  in  that  district — where  Democracy,  perhaps,  cannot  live  for  lack  of  neces- 
sary congeniality  of  elements  and  respiration — had  it  not  been  that  they  brought 
out  a  candidate,  it  is  believed  that  the  gentleman  would  have  gone  to  the  tomb  of  all 
the  capulets.  His  race  would  have  terminated  against  his  will.  Why,  sir,  it  was 
believed  that  a  genteel  Whig — such  was  the  language  of  the  day — would  have  filled 
the  place  which  the  member  has  so  much  dishonored. 

These  are  my  views.  I  have  presented  the  record.  I  have  shown  the  course  of 
Mr.  Adams.  I  have  shown  the  course  of  the  member  from  Ohio;  and  to  show  that 
he  is  still  in  character,  he  is  compelled  to  misrepresent  the  laws  of  a  Southern  State  to 
this  committee.  He  has  directly,  and  in  the  face  of  the  explanation  of  the  distinguished 
gentleman  from  Louisiana  [Mr.  Perkins],  distorted  and  misstated  them;  that  decision 
being,  that  when  a  slave  went  into  territory  where  freedom  was  established — God 
save  the  mark  ! — he  was  free.  He  partakes  of  the  character  of  the  country  in  which 
he  is  placed.  That  is  the  effect  of  the  decision  which  the  member  has  chosen  to 
mistify  and  distort. 

But,  sir,  Othello's  occupation  is  not  gone  so  long  as  the  member  has  a  place  here. 
Even  during  the  present  session  of  Congress  he  has  uttered  the  same  damnable  and 
abhorrent  sentiments.  Sir,  look  at  the  records  of  a  previous  debate  during  the  present 
session.     He  says: 

"Sir,  I  would  intimidate  no  one;  but  I  tell  you  there  is  a  spirit  in  the  North 
which  will  set  at  defiance  all  the  low  and  unworthy  machinations  of  this  Executive, 
and  of  the  minions  of  its  power.  When  the  contest  shall  come;  when  the  thunder 
shall  roll  and  the  lightning  flash;  when  the  slaves  shall  rise  in  the  South;  when,  in 
imitation  of  the  Cuban  bondmen,  the  Southern  slaves  of  the  South  shall  feel  that 
they  are  men;  when  they  feel  the  stirring  emotions  of  immortality,  and  recognize  the 
stirring  truth  that  they  are  men,  and  entitled  to  the  rights  which  God  has  bestowed 
upon  them;  when  the  slaves  shall  feel  that,  and  when  masters  shall  turn  pale  and 
tremble  when  their  dwellings  shall  smoke,  and  dismay  sit  on  each  countenance,  then, 
sir,  I  do  not  say  '  we  will  laugh  at  your  calamity,  and  mock  when  your  fear  cometh,' 
but  I  do  say,  when  that  time  shall  come,  the  lovers  of  our  race  will  stand  forth,  and 
exert  the  legitimate  powers  of  this  government  for  freedom.  We  shall  then  have 
constitutional  power  to  act  for  the  good  of  our  country,  and  do  justice  to  the  slave. 
Then  will  we  strike  off  the  shackles  from  the  limbs  of  the  slave.  That  will  be  a 
period  when  this  government  will  have  power  to  act  between  slavery  and  freedom, 
and  when  it  can  make  peace  by  giving  freedom  to  the  slaves.  And  let  me  tell  you, 
Mr.  Speaker,  that  that  time  hastens.  It  is  rolling  forward.  The  President  is  exerting 
a  power  that  will  hasten  it,  though  not  intended  by  him.  I  hail  it  as  I  do  the 
approaching  dawn  of  that  political  and  moral  millennium  which  I  am  well  assured 
will  come  upon  the  world." 

Yes,  sir,  that  period  when  our  slaves  shall  rise;  that  period  when  our  houses 
shall  smoke;  that  period  when  "fear  cometh  upon  the  hearts  of  the  masters;"  that 
period  when  rapine,  and  bloodshed,  and  desolation  shall  stalk  o'er  the  land,  the  member 
will  hail  as  the  dawning  day  preceding  the  approach  of  the  millennium  !  "Oh  shame, 
where  is  thy  blush  !  "  Yes,  he  gets  up  here,  in  the  presence  of  this  assembly  of  Ameri- 
can freemen,  the  representatives  of  millions,  a  large  portion  of  them  from  the  Southern 
States,  and  he  tells  them  here  to  their  faces,  that  he  hails  this  day  which  is  to  deso- 
late the  whole  South  with  fire  and  bloodshed,  as  he  would  the  dawn  antecedent  to  the 
millennium.  Sir,  I  ask  you  if  it  is  not  fully  made  out  by  what  I  have  previously 
read,  and  by  this  very  speech  itself,  that  he  would  rejoice,  as  he  would  rejoice  at  the 
dawning  of  that  day  preceding  the  millennium,  to  see  our  slaves  rise,  and  sacrifice 
the  wives  and  daughters  of  their  masters  ? 

I  would  remark  that  this  question  of  slavery  is  one  in  which  T  am  deeply  inter- 
ested. Gentlemen  will  be  held  to  a  strict  accountability  by  their  constituents  for  sit- 
ting quietly  here,  day  after  day,  and  submit  to  insults,  such  as  have  been  inflicted 
upon  them  in  days  past. 


343 

The  gentleman  from  Ohio  says  that  I  did  not  answer  him  on  certain  occasions. 
Does  he  imagine  for  a  single  moment,  that  when  he  speaks,  and  there  is  no  resp 
it  is  because  he  is  unanswerable?  From  whence,  in  the  name  of  God,  did  then-  spring 
such  conceit !  When  he  speaks— as  never  man  spake  before,  for  he  is  really  with- 
out a  parallel— and  gentlemen  are  silent,  has  he  never  imagined  it  was  because  of 
their  pity  and  contempt  for  him  and  his  sentiments? 

I  know  I  am  wearying  the  House,  but  I  plead  as  my  excuse  the  deep  interest 
I  feel  in  this  subject.  I  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  a  noble  one;  that  it 
is  necessary  for  the  good,  the  well-being  of  the  negro  race.  Looking  to  history,  I  go 
further,  and  I  say,  in  the  presence  of  this  assembly,  and  under  all  the  imposing  cir- 
cumstances surrounding  me,  that  I  believe  it  is  God's  institution.  Yes,  sir,  it  mere 
is  anything  in  the  action  of  the  great  Author  of  us  all;  if  there  is  anything  in  the 
conduct  of  His  chosen  people;  if  there  is  anything  in  the  conduct  of  Christ  himself,  who 
came  upon  this  earth  and  yielded  up  his  life  as  a  sacrifice,  that  all  through  his  death 
might  live;  if  there  is  anything  in  the  conduct  of  his  Apostles,  who  inculcated  obedience 
upon  the  part  of  slaves  towards  their  masters  as  a  Christian  duty,  then  we  must  believe 
that  the  institution  is  from  God. 

Has  there  ever  been  a  nation  that  so  pre-eminently  distinguished  itself  as  a  nation 
of  masters?  Go  to  Judea.  Go  to  Greece,  where  there  was  400  slaves  to  90  freemen. 
Go  to  Rome,  where,  in  the  pride  of  her  imperial  power,  you  found  some  thirty  to 
forty  millions  of  slaves;  and  come  to  our  own  favored  land,  and  what  do  you  see? 
Where  is  any  evidence  of  inferiority  between  the  North  and  South  ?  We  see  in  the 
South  those  "first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  their  countrymen;" 
not  one  alone,  but  many,  always  distinguishing  themselves  upon  every  crisis,  and  in 
every  place  where  their  services  were  needed  in  behalf  of  their  country.  Go  into 
your  halls  of  legislation;  go  into  the  battle-fields,  and,  I  ask,  where  is  the  evidence  of 
that  inferiority  which  gentlemen  attempt  to  establish  between  those  who  own  and 
those  who  do  not  own  slaves  ?  The  owners  of  slaves  are  no  better  than  their  fellows, 
it  is  true;  but  they  will  not  suffer  in  the  comparison. 

I  ask,  then,  how  does  the  institution  of  slavery  operate  upon  the  black  race?  It 
operates  like  a  charm.  We  have  slaves  among  us  eminently  worthy  of  respect  and 
confidence.  We  have  female  servants  that,  in  point  of  manners,  morals  and  princi- 
ples, far  surpass  many  white  servants.  But  free  them,  and  they  are  valueless;  they 
are  valueless  the  moment  you  knock  their  shackels  off.  I  appeal  to  those  around  me 
in  support  of  the  position  I  take.  I  contrast  the  slave  of  the  South,  the  genteel,  well 
raised,  obedient  slave  of  the  South,  with  the  free  negro  of  the  North.  It  is  a  prin- 
ciple universally  understood,  known  and  conceded  as  a  fact,  that  if  you  take  the 
best  raised,  best  cultivated  slave,  break  off  his  shackels  and  send  him  a  freeman,  to 
the  North  especially,  or  even  if  you  free  him  at  home,  the  chances  are  nine  out  of 
ten  that  he  becomes  a  degraded  man  and  a  worthless  vagabond. 

I  advert  to  these  things  now,  sir,  not  in  reproach  or  anger.  I  can  only  say  to 
the  House,  in  the  name  of  God,  spare  us  from  the  polished  and  elegant  language  of 
the  member  from  Ohio.  [Laughter.]  Let  this  Hall  be  no  longer  desecrated  or  de- 
graded by  such  unbecoming,  unworthy,  unfraternal  displays  as  we  have  had  here  to- 
day. Let  us  cultivate  a  refined  and  delicate  form  of  speech,  so  that  we  may  utter  no 
word  of  unkindness  or  reproach  calculated  to  disturb  the  relations  which  should  ani- 
mate us.  Let  us  alone,  gentlemen  of  the  North.  I  repeat,  in  the  name  of  God  and 
the  country,  let  us  alone.  Give  us  our  equal  rights.  Convert  us,  if  you  can  but 
give  us  our  equal  rights;  and  we  will  never  utter  a  word  to  compromise  harmony 
and  amity. 

I  thank  the  committee,  and  I  thank  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  for  the  patience  with 
which  my  remarks  have  been  listened  to.     I  have,  I  trust, 

"  Nothing  extenuated,  nor  aught  set  down  in  malice." 


344 


MR.  CLAY'S  OPINIONS  OF  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE. 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  WILLIAM   SMITH,  OF  VIRGINIA, 
In  the  House  of  Representatives,  May,  1854. 

The  House  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union — 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  said: 

Mr.  Chairman:  When  I  had  the  honor  of  addressing  this  committee  on  the  27th 
of  April  last,  a  question  of  fact  was  raised  between  the  honorable  gentleman  from 
Tennessee  [Mr.  Cullom]  and  myself  as  to  the  position  of  Mr.  Clay  on  the  act  of  1820. 
commonly  but  erroneously  termed  the  Missouri  Compromise.  The  issue  will  be  best 
presented  by  the  following  extract  from  my  speech  on  that  occasion: 

"Mr.  Smith.  Well,  sir,  let  it  pass.  I  now  propose  to  read  from  the  National  In- 
telligencer. 

"  Mr.  Cullom.     Of  what  date  ? 

"  Mr.  Smith.     February,  1820.     It  says  : 

"The  House  then  again  went  into  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  [Mr.  Baldwin  in 
the  chair,]  the  restrictive  amendment  being  still  under  consideration.  Mr.  Speaker 
Clay  rose  and  addressed  the  Committee  nearly  four  hours,  against  the  right  and  ex- 
pediency of  the  proposed  restriction. 

"  So  that  he  not  only  went  against  the  right,  but  he  went  against  the  expediency  of  the 
proposed  restriction. 

"Mr.  Cullom.  That  was  the  restriction  upon  the  State,  and  not  the  line  of  36°  30'. 

"Mr.  Smith.     The  restriction  was  general. 

"  Mr.  Cullom.     But  I  insist  that  it  was  the  restriction  upon  the  State. 

"Mr.  Smith.  No,  sir,  the  restriction  was  general.  It  was  not  Mr.  Clay  who  intro- 
duced that  measure,  as  it  has  been  sometimes  supposed.  It  was  well  known  that  it 
was  introduced  by  a  member  from  one  of  the  free  States.  But  here  is  what  the  In- 
telligencer says  upon  the  occasion  :  '  Mr.  Speaker  Clay  rose  and  addressed  the  Com- 
mittee nearly  four  hours  against  the  right  and  expediency  of  the  proposed  restric- 
tion.' There  was,  then,  a  restriction,  and  what  was  that  restriction  then  under 
consideration  ?  It  was  not  only  to  prevent  Missouri  from  coming  into  the  Union  as  a 
State,  without  the  abolition  of  slavery  within  its  limits,  but  it  was  also  a  restriction 
upon  all  the  territory  in  the  Louisiana  purchase,  even  through  to  the  Pacific  ocean, 
that  was  under  discussion." 

I  have  watched  sedulously  up  to  the  present  hour  for  a  fitting  opportunity  to 
make  good  my  position  that  Mr.  Clay,  in  his  elaborate  speech  of  four  hours,  was 
dealing  with  the  subject  in  general,  and  in  no  respect  in  a  limited  sense;  and  now,  in 
this  closing  hour  of  debate  on  this  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  owe  this  opportunity  of 
vindicating  my  position  before  the  country  to  the  indulgence  of  the  committee. 

Mr.  Chairman,  in  consequence  of  the  non-publication  of  Mr.  Clay's  speech,  on 
the  occasion  referred  to,  it  is  necessary  to  look  into  the  records  of  the  day,  which  are 
happily  of  a  character  so  complete  as  to  leave  the  fact  at  issue  without  a  cloud  to  cast 
the  slightest  shade  upon  it. 

On  the  8th  of  December,  1819,  the  subject  of  admitting  Missouri  into  the  Union 
as  a  State  was  referred  to  a  select  committee.  On  the  next  day  a  bill  in  the  usual 
form,  without  restriction  as  to  slavery,  was  reported,  and  committed  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole.  On  the  15th  the  order  of  the  day  for  the  consideration  of  said 
bill  was  postponed  to  the  second  Monday  in  January  next.  The  discussion  of  the  bill, 
however,  did  not  take  place  until  the  25th  of  January,  when  "  the  House  resolved 
itself  into  a  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  bill,"  "and  on  sundry  petitions  and 
memorials  relating  to  the  subject."  The  debate  continued  until  the  28th  of  Feb- 
ruary, "and  after  some  time  spent  therein,  the  Speaker  resumed  the  chair,  and  Mr. 
Cobb  reported  the  said  bill  with  amendments."  These  facts  are  taken  from  the 
Journal  of  the  House. 

On  the  day  the  subject  was  referred  to  the  special  committee,  Mr.  Strong  gave 
notice  of  a  purpose  to  bring  in  "  A  bill  to  prohibit  the  further  extension  of  slavery  -within 
the  United  States. 'J  On  the  14th  of  December,  Mr.  Taylor,  of  New  York,  offered  the 
following  resolution  : 

'■'■Resolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  pro- 
hibiting the  introduction  of  slaves  into  the  Territories  of  the  United  States  west  of  the 
Mississippi;  with  leave  to  report  by  bill  or  otherwise." 

This  resolution  was  on  the  next  day  agreed  to  by  the  House.  On  the  28th  the 
committee  was  discharged  from  the  further  consideration  of  said  resolution;  and  on 


345 

the  same  day  Mr.  Taylor  offered  a  similar  resolution,  which  was  referred  to  the  <'<>m- 
mittee  of  the  Whole  for  consideration  on  the  same  day  upon  which  the  Missouri  bill 
was   to  be  considered.     Several  other  resolutions  of   similar  character  were  offered* 

but  those  given  are  sufficient  for  illustration. 

The  memorials  referred  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  were  substantially  of  the 
same  character.  They  remonstrated  "against  the  further  introduction  of  slavery  into 
the  Territories  of  the  United  State,  and  against  the  admission  of  slavery  into  any 
State  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union  west  of  the  Mississippi." 

The  resolves  of  States  went  to  the  same  extent;  some  of  them  are  here  given. 
The  Legislature  of  New  Jersey  reported  and  passed  the  following  resolution,  among 
others,  prior  to  January  22,  1820: 

"They  do  resolve  and  declare,  that  the  further  admission  of  Territories  into  the 
Union,  without  restriction  of  slavery,  would,  in  their  opinion,  essentially  impair  the 
right  of  this  and  other  existing  States  to  equal  representation  in  Congress  (a  right  at 
the  foundation  of  political  compact),  inasmuch  as  such  newly  admitted  slaveholding 
States  would  be  represented  on  the  basis  of  their  slave  population,  a  concession 
made  at  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  in  favor  of  the  then  existing  States,  but 
never  stipulated  for  new  States,  nor  to  be  inferred  from  any  article  or  clause  in  that 
instrument." 

The  Legislature  of  Delaware  reported  and  passed,  prior  to  January  22,  1820, 
among  others,  the  following  resolution: 

' ' Resolved,  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Delaware,  in 
General  Assembly  met,  That,  in  the  opinion  of  the  General  Assembly,  the  future  intro- 
duction of  slaves  into  the  Territories  of  the  United  States,  and  into  such  new  States 
as  may  be  hereafter  admitted  into  the  Union,  ought  to  be  prohibited  by  Congress." 

Prior  to  February  5,  1820,  the  following  resolves  passed  the  General  Assembly  of 
Ohio: 

"Whereas,  The  existence  of  slavery  in  our  country  has  ever  been  deemed  a 
great  moral  and  political  evil,  and  its  tendency  directly  calculated  to  impair  our 
national  character,  and  materially  affecting  our  national  happiness;  and,  inasmuch 
as  the  extension  of  a  slave  population  in  the  United  States  is  fraught  with  the  most 
fearful  consequences  to  the  permanency  and  durability  of  our  republican  institutions; 
and  whereas,  the  subject  of  the  admission  of  slavery  in  the  new  State  of  Missouri  is, 
at  this  time,  before  the  Congress  of  the  United  States;  therefore, 

"Resolved,  by  the  General  Assembly  of  Ohid,  That  our  Senators  and  Representatives 
in  Congress  be  requested  to  use  their  zealous  endeavors  to  prevent  the  adoption  of  so 
odious  and  dangerous  a  measure." 

Prior  to  February  5,  1820,  the  following  resolution  passed  the  House  of  Assembly 
of  New  York,  nearly  unanimously  : 

"Whereas,  The  inhibiting  the  further  extension  of  slavery  in  these  United  States 
is  a  subject  of  deep  concern  among  the  people  of  this  State;  and,  whereas,  we  con- 
sider slavery  as  an  evil  to  be  deplored,  and  that  every  constitutional  barrier  should 
be  imposed  to  prevent  its  further  extension,  and  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  clearly  gives  Congress  the  right  to  require  of  new  States,  not  comprised  within 
the  original'  boundaries  of  these  United  States,  the  prohibition  of  slavery  as  a  con- 
dition of  their  admission  into  the  Union;  therefore, 

"Resolved  (if  the  honorable  Senate  concur  herein),  That  our  Senators  in  Congress 
be  instructed,  and  our  Representatives  be  requested,  to  oppose  the  admission,  as  a 
State,  into  the  Union,  of  any  Territory  not  comprised  as  aforesaid,  without  making 
the  prohibition  of  slavery  therein  an  indispensable  condition." 

In  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania,  Harrisburg,  December  21,  1819. 

"  Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Penn- 
sylvania, That  the  Senators  and  Representatives  of  this  State  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  be,  and  they  are  hereby,  requested  to  vote  against  the  admission  of 
any  Territory,  as  a  State,  into  the  Union,  unless  'the  further  introduction  of  slavery, 
or  involuntary  servitude,  except  for  the  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof  the  party 
shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  be  prohibited;'  and  all  children  born  within  the 
said  Territory,  after  its  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  State,  shall  be  free,  but  may  be 
held  to  service  until  the  age  of  twenty-five  years." 

I  give  these  as  a  few,  only,  of  the  evidences  out  of  Congress,  of  what  was  the  real 
question  in  the  public  mind  on  the  admission  of  Missouri. 

I  will  now  give  two  only,  out  of  many  of  those  at  hand,  of  the  real  question  in 
Congress,  in  the  shape  of  resolves,  bills,  etc.: 

In  the  Senate,  January  18,  1820.— Aggreeably  to  notice  given,  Mr.  Thomas  asked 
and  obtained  leave  to  bring   in  the  following  bill,  which  was  read  and  passed  to  a 


346 

second  reading  :  A  bill  to  prohibit  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  the  Territories  of 
the  United  States  north  and  west  of  the  contemplated  State  of  Missouri. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  January  27,  1820. — Mr.  Foot,  of  Connecticut, 
moved  the  postponment  of  the  order  of  the  day  to  this  day  week.  His  object  was,  in 
the  meantime,  to  consider,  in  the  hope  of  its  adoption,  a  proposition  for  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  further  introduction  of  slavery  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Should  such  a 
measure  be  adopted,  the  Territories  in  that  quarter  would  be  placed  on  the  same 
footing  as  the  ordinance  of  1787  had  placed  the  Northwestern  Territory. 

The  following  resolution,  among  others,  was  reported  and  passed  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  Kentucky  prior  to  January  22,  1820 : 

"In  passing  the  following  resolutions,  the  General  Assembly  refrains  from 
expressing  any  opinion  either  in  favor  or  against  the  principles  of  slavery,  but  to 
support  and  maintain  State  rights,  which  it  conceives  necessary  to  be  supported  and 
maintained  to  preserve  the  liberties  of  the  free  people  of  these  United  States.  It 
avows  its  solemn  conviction  that  the  States  already  confederated  under  one  common 
Constitution  have  not  a  right  to  deprive  new  States  of  equal  privileges  with  them- 
selves, and  from  a  contest  of  this  nature  awful  consequences  to  the  Union  may  be 
apprehended;  therefore, 

'■'■Resolved  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Kentucky,  That  the 
Senators  in  Congress  from  this  State  be  instructed,  and  the  Representatives  be  re- 
quested to  use  their  efforts  to  procure  the  passage  of  a  law  to  admit  the  people  of 
Missouri  into  the  Union  as  a  State,  whether  those  people  will  sanction  slavery  by 
their  Constitution  or  not." 

In  the  face  of  this  condition  of  the  slave  question  on  the  Missouri  debate,  Mr. 
Clay  obtained  the  floor,  and  on  the  8th  of  February,  1820,  as  the  National  Intelligencer 
"informs  us,"  rose  and  addressed  the  committee  nearly  four  hours,  against  the  right 
and  expediency  of  the  proposed  restriction.  To  that  restriction,  it  is,  however,  insisted, 
Mr.  Clay  confined  himself;  and  it  is  necessary  to  see  what  amendment  was  pending 
when  he  addressed  the  committee.     The  amendment  was  as  follows  : 

"  And  shall  ordain  and  establish  that  there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involun- 
tary servitude  in  the  said  State,  otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof 
the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted  :  Provided,  always,  That  any  person  escaping 
into  the  same,  from  whom  labor  or  service  is  lawfully  claimed  in  any  other  State, 
such  fugitive  may  be  lawfully  reclaimed  and  conveyed  to  the  person  claiming  his  or 
her  labor  or  service,  as  aforesaid  :  And  provided  also,  That  the  said  provision  shall 
not  be  construed  to  alter  the  condition  or  civil  rights  of  any  person  now  held  to  ser- 
vice or  labor  in  the  said  Territory." 

Now,  this  amendment  embodied  the  principle  of  excluding  slavery  from  all  ter 
ritory  where  it  did  not  at  that  time  exist,  excluded  the  further  immigration  of  slavery 
into  Missouri,  and  declared  the  fredom  of  all  born  of  slave  mothers,  after  the  passage 
of  the  act.  So  that  it  necessarily  involved  the  whole  question  of  slavery,  and  the  dis- 
tinction attempted  by  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee  [Mr.  Cullorn],  and  the  plausible 
article  of  three  columns  in  length,  of  the  Actional  Intelligencer,  is  not  perceived.  That 
the  whole  question  of  slavery  was  discussed  on  both  sides,  under  this  particular 
amendment,  by  all  who  spoke  upon  the  subject,  whose  speeches  have  been  pub- 
lished, does  not  admit  a  doubt,  and  it  would  be  most  remarkable  that  Mr.  Clay,  of  all 
men,  should,  in  a  four  hours'  speech,  have  treated  this  great  and  exciting  subject  in  a 
limited  and  restricted  sense. 

But  Mr.  Clay's  speech  has  never  been  published  (although  full  notes  of  it,  as  I 
have  heard,  are  in  the  hands  of  the  editors  of  the  National  Intelligencer),  and  we  can- 
not, from  such  authentic  source,  state  the  grounds  he  actually  occupied  ;  yet  we  can 
refer  to  the  gentleman  [Mr.  Sergeant],  who  followed  him  in  reply,  not  only  as  to  the 
grounds  taken  by  Mr.  Clay,  but  also  the  general  grounds  taken  in  the  debate.  I  refer 
to  the  conclusive  evidence  of  Mr.  Sergeant  with  the  greater  satisfaction,  because  of 
his  high  standing  and  consummate  ability,  and  because,  for  those  reasons,  this 
speech  was  selected  for  publication  by  the  Intelligencer  and  "  Niles's  Register,"  where 
it  can  now  be  found.  I  shall  be  excused  for  making  copious  extracts  from  it  ;  and  it 
will  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  speech  is  headed  by  the  amendment  referred  to. 

On  the  9th  of  February,  1820,  Mr.  Sergeant,  in  a  most  elaborate  speech,  delivered 
the  following  sentiments,  statements,  etc.: 

"Another  member,  the  gentleman  to  whom  the  committee  had  lately  listened 
with  so  much  attention  [Mr.  Clay],  after  depicting,  forcibly  and  eloquently,  what  he 
deemed  the  probable  consequences  of  the  proposed  amendment,  appealed  emphatic- 
ally to  Pennsylvania,  '  the  unambitious  Pennsylvania,  the  Keystone  of  the  Federal 
Arch,'  whether  she  would  concur  in  a  measure  calculated  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
Union." 


347 

After  sundry  remarks,  Mr.  Sergeant  proceeded  : 

"Steadfastly  as  Pennsylvania  holds  the  position  here  taken,  she  will  not  offi- 
ciously obtrude  her  opinions  upon  her  sister  States.  One  of  the  grounds  of  her 
rejoicing,  and  one  of  the  causes  of  her  gratitude  was,  that  '  she  had  it  in  her  power  to 
abolish  slavery.''  She  will  not,  in  this  respect,  presume  to  judge  for  others,  though 
she  will  rejoice  if  they,  too,  should  have  the  power,  and  feel  the  inclination.  But 
whenever  the  question  presents  itself,  in  a  case  where  she  has  a  right  to  judge,  i 
trust  she  will  be  true  to  her  own  principles,  and  do  her  duty.  Such  I  take  t<«  l-(7the 
case  now  before  the  committee." 

That  is,  according  to  Mr.  Sergeant,  "  the  case  now  before  the  committee."  was 
the  "power  to  abolish  slavery."     He  proceeds  : 

"  I.  We  are  about  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  new  State  beyond  the  Mississippi, 
and  to  admit  that  State  into  the  Union.  The  proposition  contained  in  the  amend- 
ment is,  in  substance,  to  enter  into  a  compact  with  the  new  State,  at  her  formation, 
which  shall  establish  a  fundamental  principle  of  her  government  not  to  be  changed 
without  the  consent  of  both  parties  ;  and  this  principle  is  that  every  human  being  born, 
or  hereafter  brought  within  the  State  shall  be  free." 

"  To  come  nearer  to  the  question,  I  beg  leave  to  ask,  is  it  essential,  by  the  prin- 
ciples of  our  Constitution,  to  the  character  of  a  State,  that  it  should  have  the  power 
of  originating,  establishing,  or  perpetuating  the  condition  of  slavery  within  its 
limits?" 

"But  when  I  am  told  that  there  is  a  silent,  dormant  principle  in  the  Constitution 
— a  sullen  power  that  forbids  us  to  check  the  extension  of  slavery — I  confess  to  you 
that  I  involuntarily  shrink  from  the  process  of  reasoning  by  which  it  is  deduced,  and 
revolt  involuntarily  from  the  conclusion." 

"Most  of  those  who  have  opposed  the  amendment  have  agreed  with  us  in  char- 
acterizing slavery  as  an  evil  and  a  curse,  in  language  stronger  than  we  should,  per- 
haps, be  at  liberty  to  use.  One  of  them,  only,  the  member  from  Kentucky  who  last 
addressed  the  committee  [Mr.  Clay],  rather  reproves  his  friends  for  this  unqualified 
admission.  He  says  it  is  a  very  great  evil,  indeed,  to  the  slave  ;  but  it  is  not  an  evil  to 
the  master  ;  and  he  challenges  us  to  deny  that  our  fellow-citizens  are  as  hospitable,  as 
generous,  as  patriotic,  as  public-spirited,  as  their  brethren  of  the  North  or  East.  Sir, 
they  are  all  this  and  even  more." 

Did  Mr.  Clay  discuss  the  general  question  ? 

"  I  beg  leave  further  to  say  that  I  do  not  consider  this  a  question  of  humanity, 
or  a  question  of  policy,  or  interest,  or  profit,  or  ease  ;  it  is — disguise  or  argue  it  as 
you  will — a  question  of  the  extension  of  slavery.  It  is  a  question,  too,  not  for  the  pres- 
ent only,  but  for  future  ages;  and  the  glorious  example  of  our  ancestors  admonishes 
us  to  make  the  sacrifice,  if  sacrifice  it  be,  as  we  would  have  the  blessings  or  curses  of 
posterity.     Why  should  we  spread  an  acknowledged  evil?" 

"  Has  any  one  really  considered  the  scope  of  this  doctrine  ?  It  leads  directly  to 
the  establishment  of  slavery  throughout  the  world.  The  same  reasoning  that  will 
justify  the  extension  of  slavery  into  one  region  or  country,  will  equally  justify  its 
extension  to  another." 

"We  are  told,  however,  that  it  is  not  extension,  it  is  only  diffusion  that  is  to  be  the 
effect." 

"I  confess  that  I  do  not  well  understand  the  distinction.  The  diffusion  of  slaves 
is  an  extension  of  the  system  of  slavery,  with  all  its  odious  features  ;  and  if  it  were  true 
(as  it  certainly  is  not)  that  their  numbers  would  not  be  increased  by  it,  still  it 
would  be  at  least  impolitic.  But  for  what  purpose  is  this  diffusion  to  be  encour- 
aged?" 

"By  enlarging  the  limits  for  slavery  you  are  thus  preparing  the  means  for  its  indefi- 
nite increase  and  extension,  and  the  result  will  be  to  keep  the  present  slaveholding 
States  supplied  to  their  wishes  with  this  description  of  population,  and  to  enable  them 
to  throw  off  the  surplus,  with  all  Us  productive  power,  on  the  West,  as  long  as  the  country 
shall  be  able  and  willing  to  receive  them.  To  what  extent  you  will  in  this  way  increase 
the  slave  population  it  is  impossible  to  calculate  ;  but  that  you  will  increase  it  there 
can  be  no  doubt ;  and  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  increase  will  be  at  the  expense  of 
the  free  population.  The  same  gentleman,  to  whom  I  have  several  times  referred  before 
[Mr.  Clay]  insists  that  this  will  not  be  the  case." 

"And  now,  let  me  ask,  gentlemen,  where  this  diffusion  is  to  end?" 

"/«  this  long  view  of  remote  and  distant  consequences,  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky 
[Mr.  Clay]  thinks  he  sees  how  slavery,  when  thus  spread,  is  at  last  to  find  its  end" 

"The  question  is,  indeed,  an  important  one,  but  its  importance  is  derived  alto- 
gether from  its  connection  with  the  extension,  indefinitely,  of  negro  slavery  over  a 
land  which,  I  trust,  Providence  has  destined  for  the  labor  and  support  of  freemen.  ' 

"  Admit  the  State  without  restriction,  the  power  is  gone  forever,  and  with  it  are 


348 

forever  gone  all  the  efforts  that  have  been  made  by  the  non-slaveholding  States  to 
repress  and  limit  the  sphere  of  slavery  and  enlarge  and  extend  the  blessings  of  freedom." 

"It  will  be  remembered  that  this  is  the  first  step  beyond  the  Mississippi — the  State 
of  Louisiana  is  no  exception,  for  there  slavery  existed  to  an  extent  which  left  no 
alternative  ;  it  is  the  last  step,  too,  for  this  is  the  last  stand  that  can  be  made.  Com- 
promise is  forbidden  by  the  principles  contended  for  on  both  sides  ;  any  compromise  that 
would  give  slavery  to  Missouri  is  out  of  the  question.  It  is,  therefore,  the  final,  irre- 
trievable step,  that  can  never  be  recalled,  and  must  lead  to  an  immeasurable  spread  of 
slavery  over  the  country  beyond  the  Mississippi.  If  any  one  falter,  if  he  be  tempted  by 
insinuations,  or  terrified  by  the  apprehension  of  losing  something  desirable — if  he 
finds  himself  drawn  aside  by  views  to  the  little  interests  that  are  immediately  about 
him — let  him  reflect  upon  the  magnitude  of  the  question,  and  he  will  be  elevated 
above  all  such  considerations.  The  eyes  of  the  country  are  upon  him — the  interests 
of  posterity  are  committed  to  his  care — let  him  beware  how  he  barters,  not  his  own, 
but  his  children's  birth-right  for  a  mess  of  pottage." 

"  But  if  beyond  this  smiling  region,  they  should  descry  another  dark  spot  upon 
the  face  of  the  new  creation — another  scene  of  negro  slavery  established  by  our- 
selves, and  spreading  continually  towards  the  further  ocean,  what  shall  we  say  then? 
No,  sir,  let  us  follow  up  the  work  our  ancestors  have  begun.  Let  us  give  to  the  world 
a  new  pledge  of  our  sincerity.  Let  the  standard  of  freedom  be  planted  in  Missouri 
by  the  hands  of  the  Constitution,  and  let  its  banner  wave  over  the  heads  of  none  but 
freemen,  men  retaining  the  image  impressed  upon  them  by  their  Creator,  and  de- 
pendent upon  none  but  God  and  the  laws." 

These  extracts  are  full  and  positive  evidence  not  only  as  to  the  broad  and  gen- 
eral character  of  the  Missouri  debate,  but  as  to  the  character  of  Mr.  Clay's  position  in  it. 

However,  during  this  debate,  the  National  Intelligencer,  then  a  leading  journal, 
took  a  deep  interest  in  the  question,  and  then  battled  on  the  side  of  the  South.  On  the 
5th  of  February,  1820,  that  paper,  only  three  days  before  Mr.  Clay  addressed  the 
committee,  took  the  ground,  that  was  the  great  question.  That  paper  reaffirms  its 
former  position  that  diffusion  is  not  an  extension  of  the  principle  of  slavery.  I  ask  atten- 
tion to  the  editorial,  which  I  now  give  in  full.  It  puts  that  paper  at  that  time  in  strong 
contrast  with  its  present  obnoxious  course  : 

"  An  unexpected  debate,  short  but  pithy,  took  place  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives yesterday,  on  the  proposition  to  authorize  the  publication  of  the.  '  Secret  Journal ' 
of  the  Congress  of  the  old  Confederation,  from  the  treaty  of  1783,  up  to  the  formation 
of  the  present  Constitution.  [By  an  act  of  the  last  Congress,  it  may  be  recollected, 
the  publication  of  that  Journal  was  authorized,  up  to  the  treaty  of  peace.]  Some 
hints  were  thrown  out  in  the  course  of  the  debate,  which  show  the  feelings  of  the 
times.  It  is  enough  to  say,  that  the  Missouri  question  was  visible  through  the  whole 
texture  of  this  debate  on  a  totally  different  matter. 

"  The  excitement  occasioned  by  the  Missouri  question  continues  to  be  spoken  of, 
but  it  appears  to  us  is  less  seriously  felt  in  Congress,  than  it  is  earnestly  deprecated. 
And,  what  is  wonderful,  and  to  us,  inexplicable,  is,  that  the  excitement  at  a  distance 
appears  to  be  greater  than  in  Congress  ;  still  more,  that  it  should  be  more  violent  in 
the  States  east  of  us,  than  in  those  who  believe  their  political  rights  and  domestic 
tranquility  to  be  endangered." 

"  Are  we  asked  for  proof  of  this?  We  produce  the  following  outrageous  assault 
on  the  character  and  feelings  of  the  honorable — we  do  not  call  them  honorable  in  a 
titular  sense — the  honorable  members  of  the  Senate  who  voted  for  the  union  of  Maine 
and  Missouri  in  one  bill : 

"  'Let  that  day  be  darkness;  let  not  the  sun  shine  upon  it  with  its  usual  splendor, 
in  which  it  shall  be  said  that  a  member  from  Maine  shall  have  so  defiled  his  reputa- 
tion and  outraged  humanity,  and  so  abused  and  disgraced  his  constituents,  as  to 
have  lifted  up  his  hands  as  expressive  of  their  sentiments  for  the  admission  of  Maine 
on  this  most  unprecedented,  unjust  and  diabolical  condition,  [of  the  simultaneous 
admission  of  Missouri.'  "] — Portland  Gazette. 

"How  detestable,"  the  Intelligencer  continues,  "is  this  vindictive  spirit  of  perse- 
cution, let  loose  upon  individuals  for  a  conscientious  discharge  of  their  duty.  The 
same  furious  spirit  would  drive  a  dagger  to  the  heart,  or  apply  a  torch  to  the  dwelling 
of  a  political  opponent.  Few  instances,  thank  Heaven,  of  such  a  spirit  are  to  be 
found  in  our  country.  Once,  only,  have  we  seen  something  like  it,  when  the  late 
war  raged  most  hotly,  and  when  desperate  politicians  talked  of  bringing  to  the  block 
the  heads  of  the  administrators  of  the  government. 

"We  are  sorry  to  find  a  paper  sustaining  the  general  fair  character  to  which  the 
New  York  Evening  Post  has  a  just  claim,  exhibiting  symptoms  of  having  caught  the 
infection  from  his  neighbor,  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Daily  Advertiser.  The  latter, 
we  apprehend,  is  incurable.     The  afflicted  being  laboring  under  the  hydrophobial 


349 

disease,  has  not  a  greater  antipathy  to  the  liquid  element,  than  he  to  Southern  men 
and  Southern  principles.  It  is  inate,  and  all  attempts  to  counteract  it  appear  but  to 
aggravate  the  unfortunate  prejudice.  In  this  manner  has  operated  our  intimation 
that  the  diffusion  of  slaves  over  a  greater  extent  of  territory,  or  among  free  population, 
is  not  an  extension  of  the  principle  of  slavery.  This  intimation  we  now  reassert' 
with  an  additional  remark  on  the  following  observation  of  the  editor  of  the  Gazette': 
'Has  it  [the  Missouri  question]  no  relation  to  the  millions  yet  unborn,  whose  destiny 
will  be  fixed  in  perpetual  bondage  by  the  decree  that  permits  the  curse  to  be  planted 
in  the  new  soil  of  Missouri?  "  It  has;  it  has  a  relation  to  the  amelioration  of  the  con- 
dition of  slaves;  it  opens  the  only  practical  path  to  a  gradual  improvement  of  their 
condition,  and  to  the  accomplishment  of  that  object  which  the  warmest  advocates  of 
it  are,  in  our  opinion,  doing  all  in  their  power  to  circumvent. 

"But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  following  quotation  from  the  Evening  Post  -. 

"'The  Virginians  talk  of  dividing  from  us,  and  breaking  up  the  Union,  sooner 
than  yield  the  point.  Let  them  first  consider  who  could  then  defend  them  from  this 
black  population. 

"We  hope  this  is  the  language  of  inadvertence.  We  will  for  the  present  regard 
it  as  such.  Considered  in  any  other  view,  it  could  not  be  reprobated  with  too  much 
severity.  One  word  more.  Let  the  friends  of  the  Union  read  the  debates  on  the  ques- 
tion before  they  commit  themselves  too  far." 

It  is  also  known  to  the  country,  that  previous  to  the  great  contest  between  Mr. 
Clay  and  Mr.  Van  Buren,  in  1836,  and  with  especial  reference  to  that  contest,  a  North- 
ern gentleman  wrote,  at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  a  biography  of  Mr.  Clay,  in  which  he 
gives  Mr.  Clay's  course  on  the  Missouri  question,  he  says : 

"From  the  first  introduction  of  this  unhappy  topic  into  the  House  of  Represent- 
atives, Mr.  Clay,  who,  at  one  rapid  glance,  foresaw  all  its  fearful  consequences,  took 
a  decided  and  active  part  against  the  proposed  condition." 

On  the  16th  of  January,  1821,  Mr.  Clay  arrived  in  Washington,  took  an  active 
part,  and  submitted  the  proposal  which  was  adopted.     This  biographer  says  : 

"  It  is  obvious  that  this  proposal  did  not  involve  a  sacrifice  of  any  of  the  princi- 
ples for  which  Mr.  Clay,  and  all  those  who  were  in  favor  of  the  unqualified  admission  of 
the  State,  had  contended." 

He  says  that  Mr.  Clay  "  saw  the  necessity  of  giving  them  (the  Missouri  restric- 
tionists)  some  opportunity  for  a  decent  retreat  ;  and  this  was  done  by  the  require- 
ment of  the  solemn  act  from  the  Legislature  of  Missouri." 

During  the  agitation  of  the  Missouri  subject  in  the  session  of  i8iq-'20,  Mr.  Clay 
was  Speaker  of  the  House,  and  the  record  nowhere  shows  any  vote  of  his,  but  it  does 
show  that  he  was  active  against  the  anti-slavery  party  of  the  House.  On  two  occa- 
sions the  line  of  360  30'  embodie  in  the  Senate  bill  was  rejected  by  the  House — at  one 
time  on  the  23d  of  February,  1820,  by  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  yeas  to  eighteen 
nays  ;  and  again  on  the  28th  of  same  month  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  yeas 
to  fourteen  nays.  With  the  facts  before  us,  of  instructions  from  Kentucky  and  the 
votes  of  her  delegation,  can  it  be  doubted  how  Mr.  Clay  stood  upon  this  question  ? 

Mr.  Clay  subsequently  resigned  the  Speakership,  and  did  not  appear  at  the  next 
session  of  Congress  until  January,  1821,  when  he  found  the  question  of  admitting 
Missouri  again  under  fierce  debate.  He  took  an  active  part — introduced  that  compro- 
mise  of  terms,  not  of  principles,  which  excited  his  contempt,  and  which,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  his  biographer,  "  did  not  involve  a  sacrifice  of  any  of  the  principles  "  for 
which  he  had  contended,  and  were  only  designed  to  allow  the  restrictionists  "some 
opportunity  for  a  decent  retreat.'''' 

I  maintain,  then,  that  I  am  fully  warranted  in  my  orignal  position,  to  wit  :  that 
Mr.  Clay  was  against  the  right  and  the  expediency  of  the  proposed  restriction,  not  as 
confined  to  Missouri  ;  but  as  involving  the  general  policy  of  extending  slavery  into 
the  vast  region  beyond  the  Mississippi.  I  go  further,  and  say  that  throughout  that 
exciting  question  no  record  is  to  be  found  showing  that  Mr.  Clay  took  ground  against 
the  most  extreme  Southern  views.  Indeed,  according  to  Mr.  Sergeant,  he  upraided 
Southern  men  for  admitting  slavery  to  be  a  moral  evil.  And  I  say  that  Southern  gen- 
tlemen, in  the  unnatural  and  unbecoming  position  which  they  have  taken,  as  I  most 
respectfully  think,  can  find  no  shelter  or  support  in  the  brilliant  history  of  Henry 
Clay. 

I  confess,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  attempting  to  uproot  a  long-established  prejudice, 
in  which  I  largely  participated.  Often,  often,  I  have  held  Mr.  Clay  responsible  to  the 
people  of  Virginia  for  the  foul  outrage  upon  the  Constitution,  perpetrated  by  the  line 
of  36^  30'.  I  deeply  regret  my  unintentional  error,  and  cheerfully,  here,  contribute 
my  effort  to  vindicate  the  truth  of  history,  comforted  with  the  reflection  that  if,  even  in 
this  I  am  in  error,  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  National  Intelligencer  to  make  all  clear,  by 
publishing  Mr.  Clay's  speech  against  the  right  and  expediency  of  the  Missouri  restric- 
tion, full  notes  of  which,  as  I  have  heard,  are  alone  in  the  possession  of  its  editors.    | 


SPEECH  OF 

HON.    WILLIAM    SMITH, 

OF    VIRGINIA, 

ON    THE 

BILL  FOR  THE  ADMISSION   OF    MINNESOTA, 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  MAY  6,   1858. 


The  Constitution  has  conferred  on  Congress  the  right  to  establish  a  uni- 
form rule  of  naturalization,  and  this  is  evidently  exclusive,  and  has  always 
been  held  by  this  court  to  be  so. — Bred  Scott  vs.  Sanford;  Federalist,  Nos. 
32  and  42,  etc. 

Naturalization  is  the  means  by  which  an  alien  is  introduced  into  the 
body-politic  and  clothed  with  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  one  born  in  the 
country.  —  Vattel. 

Can  a  State  by  any  provision  of  her  constitution  or  law  in  conformity 

thereto,  annul  in  effect  the  naturalization  law  of  our  Union  without  violating 

the  Federal  Constitution  ? 

"I  should  be  exceedingly  sorry,  sir,  that  our  rule  of  naturalization  excluded  a 
single  person  of  good  fame  that  really  meant  to  incorporate  himself  into  our  society; 
on  the  other  hand,  I  do  not  wish  that  any  man  should  acquire  the  privilege  but  such 
as  would  be  a  real  addition  to  the  wealth  or  strength  of  the  United  States." 

Here  is  the  doctrine,  as  laid  down  by  Mr.  Madison,  that  I  maintain. 
This  is  the  position  that  I  occupy.  This  is  the  ground  upon  which  I  can 
stand  before  the  country.  —  William  Smith,   of  Virginia. 


ADMISSION  OF  MINNESOTA. 

The  House  having  under  consideration  the  bill  for  the  admission  of  Minnesota  as 
a  State  into  the  Union — 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  said  : 

Mr.  Speaker  :  Various  views  have'been  presented  on  this  important  question, 
the  importance  of  which  I  myself  feel,  and  which  I  am  disposed  to  consider;  and  I 
now  ask  the  attention  of  the  House,  while  I  present  the  results  of  this  consideration. 
I  hold  that  it  is  very  clear  that  we  ought  not  lightly,  and  without  due  and  proper  con- 
sideration, to  add  to  the  number  of  States  in  our  Federal  Union.  We  ought,  at  least, 
to  see  that  they  come  in,  in  strict  conformity  with  our  Constitution.  In  the  considera- 
tion of  this  subject  I  shall  beg  leave  to  state  a  few  general  principles,  and  to  make 
some  considerable  references  to  authorities.  I  shall  not  indulge  in  many  speculations 
of  my  own;  but  I  shall  seek,  from  the  establishment  of  principles,  to  demonstrate 
the  propriety  of  the  conclusion  to  which  I  think  this  House  ought  to  come. 

It  becomes  interesting  to  inquire — and  the  House  will  readily  see  that  this  ques- 
tion is  involved — what  constitutes  a  country  or  a  nation  ?  I  should  suppose  it  to  be 
clear  and  undoubted,  that  in  the  creation  of  our  Federal  system  and  in  the  adoption 
of  our  Constitution,  it  was  designed  to  cover  the  citizens  or  the  people  of  the  United 


351 

States,  and  them  only.  Is  it  possible,  can  it  be  seriously  considered,  that  in  the  for- 
mation of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  it  was  the  purpose  and  intention  of 
our  fathers  to  provide  a  Constitution  for  persons  who  were  not  citizens  of  the  United 
States  ?  I  beg  gentlemen  to  pause  here,  and  to  look  at  the  question  in  this  single 
light.  In  the  formation  of  our  Federal  Constitution  was  it  designed  for  any  others 
than  the  people  of  the  United  States,  being  citizens  thereof?  I  maintain  sir — I  have 
frequently  maintained,  and  am  prepared,  if  1  can  gain  the  attention  of  the  House,  to 
maintain  now — that  in  the  action  of  our  system,  in  all  of  its  ramifications  and  parts, 
we  must  look  to  this  great  fundamental  principle,  that  our  Constitution  was  framed 
for  the  people  of  the  Union,  being  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  for  no  others.  I 
will  refer  to  Vattel — in  sections  122,  212,  213,  and  214 — for  the  purpose  of  showing 
that  the  term  "  country  "  signifies  "the  State  of  which  one  is  a  member;"  and  is 
"  thus  understood  in  the  law  of  nations." 

This  doctrine  is  fully  maintained  in  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Chief  Justice  Taney, 
in  delivering  the  opinion  of  the  court,  said  : 

"  The  words  'people  of  the  United  States  '  and  'citizens,'  are  synonymous  terms, 
and  mean  the  same  thing." 

He  also  said  : 

"  It  is  true,  every  person,  and  every  class  and  description  of  persons,  who  were 
at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  recognized  as  citizens  in  the  several 
States,  became  also  citizens  of  this  new  political  body,  but  none  other.  It  was  formed 
by  them,  and  for  them  and  their  posterity;  but  for  no  one  else.  And  the  personal 
rights  and  privileges  guarantied  to  citizens  of  this  new  sovereignty  were  intended  to 
embrace  those  only  who  were  then  members  of  the  several  State  communities,  or 
who  should  afterwards  by  birthright  or  otherwise  become  members,  according  to  the 
provisions  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  principles  on  which  it  was  founded.  It  was 
the  Union  of  those  who  were  at  that  time  members  of  distinct  and  separate  political 
communities,  into  one  political  family,  whose  power,  for  certain  specified  purposes, 
was  to  extend  over  the  whole  territory  of  the  United  States." 

This  is  the  true  doctrine;  and,  if  remembered  and  respected,  will  furnish  an  easy 
solution  of  many  of  the  questions  involved  in  this  discussion. 

The  distinction  between  citizens  and  aliens  will  be  found  laid  down  in  Vattel,  sec- 
tions 212  and  213.  The  distinction  between  citizens  and  foreigners  is  clearly  marked 
there.  In  the  214th  section  it  is  laid  down  that  naturalization  is  one  means,  and  the 
only  means  by  which  a  foreigner  can  be  declared  a  citizen  of  a  country. 

This  being  the  doctrine,  I  propose  now  to  read  from  various  authorities  on  the 
subject,  to  show  not  only  the  policy,  but  the  true  doctrine  which  bears  on  this  sub- 
ject. It  is  known  to  us  all  that,  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  there  is  a 
clause  designed  to  secure  uniformity  throughout  the  Union  in  the  naturalization  of 
foreign  born.  But  it  is  a  subject  so  clearly  demonstrated  that  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  that  the  power  should  be  confined  to  the  Federal  Government,  that  it  did 
not  produce  the  briefest  discussion.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that,  in  the  convention  which 
framed  the  Constitution,  there  was  not  one  word  of  discussion  on  that  subject.  Mr. 
Randolph,  who  was  the  chairman  of  the  committee  to  whom  the  subject  of  drafting 
the  Constitution  was  first  referred,  says  : 

"  But  as  the  convention  had  originated  from  Virginia,  and  his  colleagues  sup- 
posed that  some  proposition  was  expected  from  them,  they  had  imposed  this  task 
upon  him." 

Mr.  Randolph  also  said  : 

"A  provision  for  harmony  among  the  States,  as  in  trade,  naturalization,  etc.,  must 
be  made.'''' 

Mark  you,  sir,  that  Mr.  Randolph,  in  making  his  report,  said  that  there  were  cer- 
tain great  subjects  in  which  there  should  be  no  division  of  opinion,  in  which  there 
should  be  harmony  between  all  the  States.     One  of  these  is  naturalization. 

That  is  not. all.  In  May,  1787,  Mr.  C.  Pinckney  submitted  a  draft  of  a  constitu- 
tion, in  which  is  found  the  power  "  to  establish  uniform  rules  of  naturalization." 
June  15,  1787,  Mr.  Patterson,  of  New  Jersey,  submitted  a  draft  of  a  constitution,  in 
which  he  found  a  power  "that  the  rule  of  naturalization  ought  to  be  the  same  in 
every  State." 

Sir,  as  I  said  before  on  this  specific  grant  of  power,  there  appears  to  have  been 
no  discussion.  Its  necessity,  its  propriety,  its  fitness,  seem  to  have  been  universally 
conceded;  and  I  desire  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the 
House  to  follow  me,  I  trust  satisfactorily,  to  the  conclusions  which  I  shall  draw. 

But,  sir,  that  is  not  all.  Judge  Story,  in  his  essay  on  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  treats  this  subject.     He  depicts  the  evils  to  be  avoided;  and,  although 


352 

I  may  weary  the  House,  yet  I  will  read  from  that  book.  In  sections  1098  and  1099, 
volume  three,  of  the  edition  in  my  possession,  Judge  Story  says : 

"  1098.  The  propriety  of  confiding  the  power  to  establish  a  uniform  rule  of 
naturalization  to  the  National  Government  seems  not  to  have  occasioned  any  doubt 
or  controversy  in  the  convention.  For  ought  that  appears  in  the  journals,  it  was  con- 
ceded without  objection.  Under  the  Confederation,  the  States  possessed  the  sole 
authority  to  exercise  the  power;  and  the  dissimilarity  of  the  system  in  different  States 
was  generally  admitted,  as  a  prominent  defect,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  many  deli- 
cate and  intricate  questions.  As  the  free  inhabitants  of  each  State  were  entitled  to 
all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  all  the  other  States,  it  followed  that  a 
single  State  possessed  the  power  of  forcing  into  every  other  State,  with  the  enjoy- 
ment of  every  immunity  and  privilege,  any  alien  whom  it  might  choose  to  incorpor- 
ate into  its  own  society,  however  repugnant  such  admission  might  be  to  their  polity, 
convenience,  and  even  prejudices.  In  effect,  every  State  possessed  the  power  of 
naturalizing  aliens  in  every  other  State — a  power  as  michievous  in  its  nature  as  it 
was  indiscreet  in  its  actual  exercise.  In  one  State,  residence  for  a  short  time  might, 
and  did,  confer  the  rights  of  citizenship.  In  others,  qualifications  of  greater  impor- 
tance were  required.  An  alien,  therefore,  incapaciated  for  the  possession  of  certain 
rights  by  the  laws  of  the  latter,  might,  by  a  previous  residence  and  naturalization  in 
the  former,  elude  at  pleasure  all  their  salutary  regulations  for  self-protection.  Thus, 
the  laws  of  a  single  State  were  preposterously  rendered  paramount  to  the  laws  of  all 
others,  even  within  their  own  jurisdiction.  And  it  has  been  remarked,  with  equal 
truth  and  justice,  that  it  was  owing  to  mere  casualty  that  the  exercise  of  this  power, 
under  the  Confederation,  did  not  involve  the  Union  in  the  most  serious  embarrass- 
ments. There  is  great  wisdom,  therefore,  in  confiding  to  the  National  Government 
the  powerto  establish  a  uniform  rule  of  naturalization  throughout  the  United  States.  It 
is  of  the  deepest  interest  to  the  whole  Union  to  know  who  are  entitled  to  enjoy  the  rights 
of  citizens  in  each  State,  since  they  thereby,  in  effect,  become  entitled  to  the  rights  of 
citizens  in  all  the  States.  If  aliens  might  be  admitted  indiscriminately  to  enjoy  all 
the  rights  of  citizens  at  the  will  of  a  single  State,  the  Union  itself  might  be  endangered 
by  an  influx  of  foreigners,  hostile  to  its  institutions,  ignorant  of  its  powers,  and  in- 
capable of  a  due  estimate  of  its  privileges. 

"  1099.  It  follows,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  power,  that  to  be  useful,  it  must 
be  exclusive;  tor  a  concurrent  power  in  the  States  would  bring  back  all  the  evils  and 
embarrassments  which  the  uniform  rule  of  the  Constitution  was  designed  to  remedy. 
And,  accordingly,  though  there  was  a  momentary  hesitation,  when  the  Constitution 
first  went  into  operation,  whether  the  power  might  not  still  be  exercised  by  the  States, 
subject  only  to  the  control  of  Congress,  so  far  as  the  legislation  of  the  latter  extended, 
as  the  supreme  law,  yet  the  power  is  now  firmly  established  to  be  exclusive.  (See 
the  Federalist,  No.  32,  42;  Chiracs.  Chirac,  2  Wheat.  R.  259,  269;  Rawle  on  the  Const, 
ch.  9,  p.  84.  85,  to  88;  Housten  v.  Moore,  5  Wheat.  R.  48,  49;  Golden  v.  Prince,  3 
Wash.  Cir.  Ct.  R.  313,  322;  1  Kent's  Comm.  Lect.  19,  p.  397;  1  Tuck.  Black.  Comm. 
App.  255  to  259.)  The  Federalist,  indeed,  introduced  this  very  case,  as  entirely  clear, 
to  illustrate  the  doctrine  of  an  exclusive  power  by  implication,  arising  from  the  re- 
pugnancy of  a  similar  power  in  the  States.  '  This  power  must  necessarily  be  exclu- 
sive,'  say  the  authors;  because,  if  each  State  had  power  to  prescribe  a  distinct  rule, 
there  could  be  no  uniform  rule.'  " 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  called  attention  to  these  clauses  in  this  standard  authority 
upon  the  Constitution,  for  the  purpose  of  marking  what  I  deem  important  in  reference 
to  the  ultimate  conclusion  at  which  I  propose  to  arrive.  It  is  a  doctrine  which  will 
not  be  questioned  by  anyone;  but  it  will  be  contended  that  it  does  not  present  the 
real  question  involved  in  the  bill  before  us.     I  propose  to  show  that  it  does. 

I  desire  now  to  call  attention  to  what  is  said  in  the  Federalist  upon  the  subject, 
because  it  was  a  cotemporaneous  exposition  of  the  Constitution;  it  was  designed  to 
present  the  Constitution  in  such  a  light  to  the  American  people  as  to  secure  its  adop- 
tion; it  was  the  exposition,  too,  of  great  and  impartial  minds,  and  I  propose  to  read 
from  two  of  the  numbers,  one  by  Mr.  Hamilton,  and  the  other  by  Mr.  Madison.  In 
the  one  by  Mr.  Hamilton,  he  goes  on  to  classify  the  circumstances  under  which 
powers  are  denied  to  the  States.  He  says  they  are  of  three  descriptions  or  classes. 
One  is  where  exclusive  power  is  granted  in  terms  to  the  General  Government; 
another  is  where  powers  are  denied  to  the  States;  and  the  third  is  where  the  power  is 
totally  contradictory  and  repugnant  if  exercised  by  the  States;  and  I  take  this  occa- 
sion here  to  read  his  emphatic  and  delightful  doctrine  upon  the  subject  of  the  true 
construction  of  the  Constitution.     He  says  : 

"  But  as  the  plan  of  the  convention  aims  only  at  a  partial  union  or  consolidation, 
the  State  governments  would  clearly  retain  all  the  rights  of  sovereignty  which  they 
before  had,  and  which  were  not,  by  that  act,  exclusively  delegated  to  the  United 
States." 


353 

Again : 

"  And  where  it  granted  an  authority  to  the  Union  to  which  a  similar  authority  in 
the  States  would  be  absolutely  and  totally  contradictory  and  repugnant." 

Further  on  he  says  : 

"  The  third  will  be  found  in  that  clause  which  declares  that  Congress  shall  have 
power  to  establish  a  uniform  rule  of  naturalization  throughout  the  United  States. 
This  must  necessarily  be  exclusive;  because  if  each  State  had  power  to  prescribe  a 
distinct  rule,  there  could  be  no  uniform  rule  !  " 

But  Mr.  Madison  wrote  upon  this  subject  also,  and  I  desire  to  call  particular  at- 
tention to  his  views  upon  it.  Mr.  Madison,  in  treating  the  same  question,  for  it  was 
one,  I  beg  you  to  remember,  that  interested  deeply  the  American  people,' goes  over 
the  same  ground  with  his  characteristic  power  and  clearness. 

In  the  forty-second  number  of  the  Federalist,  Mr.  Madison  says  : 

"The  dissimilarity  in  the  rules  of  naturalization  has  long  been  remarked  as  a 
fault  in  our  system,  and  as  laying  a  foundation  for  intricate  and  delicate  questions. 
In  the  fourth  article  of  the  Confederation  it  is  declared  '  that  the  free  inhabitants  of 
each  of  the  States,  paupers,  vagabonds,  and  fugitives  from  justice  excepted,  shall  be 
entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  oifree  citizens  in  the  several  States;  and 
the  people  of  each  State  shall,  in  every  other,  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  trade  and 
commerce,  etc'  There  is  a  confusion  of  language  here,  which  is  remarkable.  \\  hv 
the  terms  fr ee  inhabitants  are  used  in  one  part  of  the  article,  free  citizens  in  another 
and  people  in  another;  or  what  was  meant  by  superadding  to  'all  privileges  and  im- 
munities of  free  citizens,'  'all  the  privileges  of  trade  and  commerce,'  cannot  easily 
be  determined.  It  seems  to  be  a  construction  scarcely  avoidable,  however,  that  those 
who  come  under  the  denomination  oifree  inhabitants  of  a  State,  although  not  citizens 
of  such  State,  are  entitled,  in  every  other  State,  to  all  of  the  privileges  oifree  citizens  of 
the  latter;  that  is,  to  greater  privileges  than  they  may  be  entitled  to  in  their  own 
State;  so  that  it  may  be  in  the  power  of  a  particular  State,  or  rather  every  State  is 
laid  under  a  necessity,  not  only  to  confer  the  rights  of  citizenship  in  other  States  upon 
any  whom  it  may  admit  to  such  rights  within  itself,  but  upon  any  whom  it  may  allow 
to  become  inhabitants  within  its  jurisdiction.  But  were  an  exposition  of  the  term 
'inhabitants'  to  be  admitted,  which  would  confine  the  stipulated  privileges  to  citi- 
zens alone,  the  difficulty  is  diminished  only,  not  removed.  The  very  improper  power 
would  still  be  retained  by  each  State,  of  naturalizing  aliens  in  every  other  State.  In 
one  State,  residence  for  a  short  term  confers  all  the  rights  of  citizenship;  in  another, 
qualifications  of  greater  importance  are  required.  An  alien,  therefore,  legally  in- 
capacitated for  certain  rights  in  the  latter,  may,  by  previous  residence  only  in  the 
former,  elude  his  incapacity;  and  thus  the  law  of  one  State  be  preposterously 
rendered  paramount  to  the  law  of  another,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  other. 

"  We  owe  it  to  mere  casualty  that  very  serious  embarrassments  on  this  subject 
'have  been  hitherto  escaped.  By  the  laws  of  several  States,  certain  descriptions  of 
aliens,  who  had  rendered  themselves  obnoxious,  were  laid  under  interdicts  inconsis- 
tent, not  only  with  the  rights  of  citizenship,  but  with  the  privileges  of  residence. 
What  would  have  been  the  consequence  if  such  persons,  by  residence  or  otherwise, 
had  acquired  the  character  of  citizens  under  the  laws  of  another  State,  and  then  as- 
serted their  rights  as  such,  both  to  residence  and  citizenship,  within  the  State  proscrib- 
ing them  ?  Whatever  the  legal  consequences  might  have  been,  other  consequences 
would  probably  have  resulted,  of  too  serious  a  nature  not  to  be  provided  against. 
The  new  Constitution  has,  accordingly,  with  great  propriety,  made  provision  against 
them,  and  all  others,  proceeding  from  the  defect  of  the  Confederation  on  this  head, 
by  authorizing  the  General  Government  to  establish  a  uniform  rule  of  naturalization 
throughout  the  United  States." 

In  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  before  referred  to,  the  same   doctrine  is  maintained  : 

"  The  Constitution  has  conferred  upon  Congress  the  right  to  establish  a  uniform 
rule  of  naturalization,  and  this  right  is  evidently  exclusive,  and  has  always  been  held 
by  this  court  to  be  so." 

I  advert  to  these  important  authorities  for  the  purpose  of  letting  this  House  see 
that  every  evil  depicted  there,  and  every  evil  designed  to  be  averted  by  the  power 
thus  exclusively  conferred  upon  the  Federal  Government,  is  to  be  revived  and  re- 
stored under  the  system  which  now  seems  likely  to  be  adopted.  If,  then,  this  power 
be  exclusive,  I  ask  how  the  States  can  concern  with  it  ?  I  maintain  that  until  naturali- 
zation is  completed,  the  power  of  Congress  over  the  foreigner  remains.  I  repeat, 
and  I  desire  it  to  be  understood,  that  Federal  authority  does  not  relinquish  its  control 
over  the  foreigner  until  his  right  to  naturalization  is  perfected. 

What  is  requisite  to  give  a  foreigner  the  right  of  suffrage?     He  must  make  his 


354 

declaration;  he  must  be  five  years  in  the  country,  and  that  must  be  proved  by  two 
citizens  of  the  United  States;  he  must  show  himself  to  be  a  man  of  probity  and  good 
demeanor,  and  to  have  borne  an  unquestionable  character;  he  must  show  that  he  is 
acquainted  with  our  institutions,  and  attached  to  the  principles  of  our  government. 
Suppose  that  the  foreigner  should  ask  to  be  naturalized,  and  should  fail  in  any  of 
these  requisites;  can  he  acquire  the  right  of  citizenship  ?  Suppose  that  he  turns  out 
to  be  a  man  of  bad  character;  suppose  it  is  notorious  that  he  is  anything  but  friendly 
to  our  free  institutions;  suppose,  instead  of  showing  he  is  attached  to  the  principles 
of  our  government,  that  it  is  shown  that  he  is  still  a  monarchist;  he  cannot  acquire  the 
rights  of  naturalization;  and  thus  it  is,  sir,  he  may  be  rejected  in  the  very  last  mo- 
ment, after  having  been  five  years  in  the  country,  and  when  he  appears  in  court  to 
perfect  his  right  to  citizenship.  Congress,  then,  does  not  lose  its  hold  of  him  until 
the  last  hour;  and,  until  he  becomes  an  American  citizen,  the  State  has  no  power  to 
confer  upon  him  the  rights  of  suffrage  in  any  Federal  election.  I  think  that  this  is 
one  of  those  propositions  which  cannot  be  controverted;  and  I  think  that,  as  Con- 
gress controls  him  until  all  the  conditions  required  by  the  naturalization  laws  are 
fully  complied  with,  it  is  conclusive  evidence  that  the  State  has  no  power  to  confer 
upon  him  any  political  right  under  the  Federal  Constitution  whatever. 

It  is  said,  in  this  connection,  that  the  States  have  always  exercised  this  power. 
That  was  said  by  some  gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me  in  this  debate.  Allow  me 
to  say,  that  I  think  that  is  a  great  mistake.  You  know  that  this  subject  anxiously  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  those  who  preceded  us;  and  without  dwelling  upon  it,  I  beg 
leave  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  what,  in  debating  the  naturalization  laws 
in  1795,  Mr.  Gallatin  said.  The  question  came  up  in  connection  with  the  right  of 
suffrage  in  his  own  State.  There  were  many  persons  naturalized  under  the  State 
law  who  were  excluded  from  all  the  rights  of  United  States  citizenship.  I  get  what  I 
extract  from  Gales  &  Seaton's  Annals  : 

"Mr.  Gallatin  wished  to  know  whether  the  provisions  of  this  act  are  intended 
to  extend  to  persons  who  were  in  the  country  previous  to  the  passing  of  the  law  of 
January,  1795,  which  requires  a  residence  of  five  years  before  an  alien  can  become  a 
citizen,  but  who  have  neglected  to  become  citizens,  as  well  as  to  all  those  aliens  who 
have  come  to  this  country  since  January,  1795  ' 

"Again,  he  said,  one  reason  which  led  him  to  mention  this  circumstance  was, 
that  there  are  a  great  number  of  persons  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  many  in 
the  district  from  whence  he  came,  who,  though  they  are  not  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  really  believe  they  are.  This  mistake  has  arisen  from  (an  error  common  to 
most  of  the  districts  of  the  United  States)  a  belief  that  an  alien's  being  naturalized  by 
the  laws  of  a  State  government,  since  the  act  of  1790,  made  him  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States.  He  always  thought  that  construction  to  be  wrong,  Congress  having  the 
power  to  pass,  and  having  passed,  a  uniform  naturalization  law,  which,  in  his 
opinion,  excluded  the  idea  of  admission  to  citizenship  on  different  terms  by  the  in- 
dividual States.  But  he  knew  the  contrary  opinion,  till  lately,  generally  prevailed. 
Indeed,  he  knew  that  at  the  late  election  in  that  city,  the  votes  of  respectable  mer- 
chants, who  had  obtained  American  registers  for  their  vessels,  on  a  presumption  of 
their  being  citizens,  were  refused  on  this  ground.  The  same  mistake  had  extended 
to  other  parts  of  the  Union. 

"  Mr.  Gallatin  supposed  that  since  the  year  1790,  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand 
emigrants  had  come  into  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  two-thirds  of  whom  believed,  till 
lately,  that  they  were  citizens  of  the  United  States,  from  their  having  been  naturalized 
by  the  laws  of  that  State.  It  has  now  been  discovered  that  they  are  not  citizens;  but 
since  that  discovery  was  made, they  have  not  had  an  opportunity  of  being  admitted 
according  to  the  law  of  the  United  States." 

Here  you  see,  in  reference  to  naturalization  under  State  laws,  Mr.  Gallatin  con- 
cedes that  those  thus  naturalized  were  not  citizens,  and  that  consequently  the  right  of 
suffrage  should  be  denied  them.  He  himself  was  of  foreign  birth,  and  of  course 
interested   in   the  question,  and  would  not  hastily  have  decided  as  he  did. 

Mr.  Bliss.     Will  the  gentleman  yield  to  me  for  a  moment  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Certainly. 

Mr.  Buss.  1  rise  simply  for  the  purpose  of  asking  the  gentleman  from  Virginia 
to  give  us,  if  he  has  the  act  before  him,  the  language  of  the  Pennsylvania  statute  upon 
that  subject. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  have  it  not.     I  have  read  from  the  debate  of  1795. 

Mr.  Bliss.  I  asked  the  question  because  I  did  not  know  exactly  what  that  statute 
was. 

Mr.  SMITH,  of  Virginia.     The  debate  was  upon  the  subject  of  naturalization. 

Mr.  BLISS.     The  question  is  this;  whether  the  Pennsylvania  statute,  to  which  the 


355 

gentleman   refers,    conferred    the     elective    franchise,    or    undertook    to    naturalize 
generally  ? 

Mr.  Reagan.  I  desire  to  say  a  word  upon  the  point  on  which  the  gentleman 
from  Ohio  has  interrupted  the  gentleman  from  Virginia.  I  will  call  the  attention  of 
the  gentleman  from  Virginia  to  the  fact  that,  by  ail  early  decision  of  the  courts  of 
Pennsylvania,  it  was  held  that  a  State  had  concurrent  jurisdiction  with  the  Federal 
Government  in  the  matter  of  the  naturalization  of  foreigners;  and  to  the  debate  grow- 
ing out  of  that  matter,  I  apprehend  that  the  clause  which  the  gentleman  read  re- 
ferred. It  did  not  relate  to  the  question  of  the  right  of  a  citizen  to  vote,  but  related 
alone  te  the  power  to  naturalize. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     What  is  naturalization  ?     It  is   the   giving  to   foreigners 
rights    which    they    did    not    previously    possess,  and  among  them  the  right  to  vote. 
Did  the  Pennsylvania  law  confer  that  right  ?      If  it  be  the  decision  of  a  statute,  I  care 
not;   but  did  the  Pennsylvania  law  give  that  right?     The  answer  is  at  hand. 
Gallatin  : 

"  Indeed,  we  knew  that,  in  the  late  election  in  this  city,  the  votes  of  respectable 
merchants,  who  had  obtained  American  registers  for  their  vessels  on  a  presumption 
of  their  being  citizens,  were  refused  on  this  ground.  The  same  mistake  had  extended 
to  other  parts  of  the  Union." 

On  what  ground  were  they  refused  the  right  of  suffrage?  Gentlemen  talk  about 
this  Pennsylvania  law  not  conferring  the  right  of  suffrage;  and  yet  here  it  is  expressly 
said  that  it  did  confer  the  right  of  suffrage,  and  these  men  sought  to  exercise  that 
right  under  the  Pennsylvania  naturalization  law.  I  may  not  understand  it;  but  here 
it  is,  and  "he  who  runs  may  read."  If  a  man  who  came  forward  to  vote  under  the 
provisions  of  that  law  was  excluded,  he  was  excluded  upon  the  ground  that  he  was 
not  a  citizen  of  the  United  States;  and  if  he  was  permitted  to  vote,  it  would  be  upon 
the  presumption  that  he  was  a  citizen  of  the  United  States;  and  I  undertake  to  say, 
and  I  have  no  doubt  such  will  be  the  fact,  that  this  Pennsylvania  law  was  passed 
prior  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  It  was,  no  doubt,  the  old  Pennsylvania  con- 
stitution regulating  this  question,  which  was  superseded,  as  was  decided  in  a  case  in 
the  State  of  Maryland,  by  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  That  will  no 
doubt  be  found  to  be  the  state  of  things,  and  those  respectable  merchants  were  de- 
nied the  right  of  suffrage,  though  located  permanently  in  the  country,  because  they 
were  not  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  not  because  of  any  other  provision,  citizen- 
ship being  the  fundamental  condition  to  the  exercise  of  this  high  attribute  of  pop- 
ular sovereignty.     I  think  it  will  be  found  that  this  is  the  clew  to  the  subject. 

But  without  dwelling  at  large  upon  this  subject,  let  me  proceed.  In  a  case  which 
came  directly  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  as  reported  in  second 
Wheaton,  the  court  went  into  a  discussion  of  the  question  of  property,  and  they 
superseded  the  law  of  the  State  of  Maryland,  and  gave  the  property  a  different  direc- 
tion from  what  it  would  have  taken  if  the  party  claiming  it  had  been  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States.  And  why?  Because  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  founders  of  the  Re- 
public to  confine  the  right  of  suffrage,  that  great  fundamental  political  right  of  popu- 
lar liberty,  to  those  who  were  citizens  of  the  United  States,  whether  native  or  foreign- 
born. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  sentiments  of  our 
fathers.  Gentlemen  have  extraordinary  notions  upon  this  subject.  They  have  the 
notion  that  anybody  who  comes  here  is  at  once  entitled  to  participate  in  the  right  of 
suffrage.  Every  year  adds  some  three  hundred  thousand  foreigners  to  our  popula- 
tion, and  they  are  not  required  to  wait  the  period  of  time  specified  by  the  act  of  Con- 
gress, prescribing  the  rule  of  naturalization,  but  they  are  precipitated  in  hot  haste 
upon  the  ballot-box,  and  introduced  into  the  political  struggles  of  the  day.  Is  that 
right  ? 

I  beg,  in  this  connection,  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  what  passed  in  the 
Federal  "convention.  I  know  it  is  thought  that  there  was  a  policy  in  that  day  which 
required  us  to  encourage  emigration.  Yes,  sir,  there  was  a  policy  which  required  it 
to  a  limited  extent.  But  how  ?  To  that  matter  I  now  call  your  attention.  Colonel 
Mason,  of  Virginia,  then  one  of  the  leading  members  of  Congress,  who  was  for  open- 
ing a  wide  door  for  emigrants,  but  did  not  choose  to  let  foreigners  make  laws  for  us, 
said  : 

"Were  it  not  that  many,  not  natives  of  this  country,  had  acquired  great  credit 
during  the  Revolution,  he  should  be  for  restraining  the  eligibility  into  the  Senate  to 
natives." 

Mr.  Butler,  a  very  distinguished  man  of  that  day,  said  that  he— 

"Was  decidedly  opposed  to  the  admission  of  foreigners  without  a  long  residence 
in  the  country.  They  bring  with  them,  not  only  attachments  to  other  countries,  but 
ideas  of  gove'rnment  so  distinct  from  ours  that  in  every  point  of   view  they  are  dan- 


356 

gerous.  He  acknowledged  that,  if  he  himself  had  been  called  into  public  life  within 
a  short  time  after  his  coming  to  America,  his  foreign  habits,  opinions  and  attach- 
ments would  have  rendered  him  an  improper  agent  in  public  affairs." 

"  Mr.  Randolph  did  not  know  but  it  might  be  problematical  whether  emigrants 
to  this  country  were,  on  the  whole,  useful  or  not." 

"Mr.  Gerry  wished  that,  in  future,  the  eligibility  might  be  confined  to  natives." 

"Mr.  Williamson  moved  to  insert  nine  years  instead  of  seven.  He  wished  this 
country  to  acquire,  as  fast  as  possible,  national  habits.  Wealthy  emigrants  do  more 
harm,  by  their  luxurious  habits,  than  good  by  the  money  they  bring  with  them." 

"Mr.  Butler  was  strenuous  against  admitting  foreigners  into  our  public 
councils." 

"Mr.  Sherman.  The  United  States  have  not  invited  foreigners,  nor  pledged 
their  faith  that  they  should  enjoy  equal  privileges  with  native  citizens.  The  indi- 
vidual States  alone  have  done  this.  The  former,  therefore,  are  at  liberty  to  make 
any  discriminations  they  may  judge  requisite." 

"Mr.  Madison  animadverted  on  the  peculiarity  of  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Sherman. 
It  was  a  subtilty  by  which  every  national  engagement  might  be  evaded." 

"Colonel  Mason  was  struck,  not  like  Mr.  Madison,  with  the  peculiarity,  but  the 
Propriety  of  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Sherman.  The  States  have  formed  different  qualifi- 
cations themselves  for  enjoying  different  rights  of  citizenship." 

I  read  these  remarks  for  the  purpose  of  letting  the  House  see  and  understand 
what  was  the  temper  and  tone  and  sentiment  of  those  who  framed  our  organic  law. 
I  want  the  House  to  understand  that  even  at  that  day,  when  we  were  in  a  state  of 
almost  political  dissolution — a  weak  and  feeble  people,  threatened  with  the  anger  of 
the  British  lion — even  then  the  rights  of  American  citizens  were  highly  appreciated, 
and  the  privilege  of  foreigners  sharing  in  them  was  guarded  with  jealousy  and  care. 
Nor  is  that  all.  I  propose  to  read,  for  the  information  of  the  House,  the  debate  on 
the  first  bill  passed  on  the  subject  of  naturalization,  in  which  the  healthy  tone  of 
public  sentiment,  on  the  part  of  our  fathers,  cannot  fail  to  be  highly  refreshing  to  us, 
their  sons. 

On  the  first  bill  establishing  a  uniform  rule  of  naturalization,  a  protracted  debate 
sprang  up,  in  which  the  following  sentiments  were  expressed,  in  which  it  was  as- 
sumed that  naturalization  was  necessary  to  give  the  right  of  suffrage.  The  debate 
commenced  February  3,  1790.     Mr.  Hartley  said  : 

"  The  policy  of  the  old  nations  of  Europe  has  drawn  a  line  between  citizens  and 
aliens;  that  policy  has  existed,  to  our  knowledge,  ever  since  the  foundation  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  Experience  has  proved  its  propriety,  or  we  should  have  found 
some  nation  deviating  from  a  regulation  inimical  to  its  welfare.  From  this  it  may  be 
inferred  that  we  ought  not  to  grant  this  privilege  on  terms  so  easy  as  is  moved  by  the 
gentleman  from  South  Carolina.  If  he  had  gone  no  further  in  his  motion  than  to 
give  aliens  a  right  to  purchase  and  hold  lands,  the  objection  would  not  have  been  so 
great;  but  if  the  words  are  stricken  out  that  he  has  moved  for,  an  alien  will  be  en- 
titled to  join  in  the  election  of  your  officers  at  the  first  moment  he  puts  his  foot  on 
shore  in  America,  when  it  is  impossible,  from  the  nature  of  things,  that  he  can  be 
qualified  to  exercise  such  a  talent." 

Mr.  Madison  said : 

"I  should  be  exceedingly  sorry,  sir,  that  our  rule  of  naturalization  excluded  a 
single  person  of  good  fame  that  really  meant  to  incorporate  himself  into  our  society; 
on  the  other  hand,  I  do  not  wish  that  any  man  should  acquire  the  privilege,  but  such 
as  would  be  a  real  addition  to  the  wealth  or  strength  of  the  United  States." 

Here  is  the  doctrine,  as  laid  down  by  Mr.  Madison,  that  I  maintain.  This  is 
the  position  I  occupy.  This  is  the  ground  upon  which  I  can  stand  before  the  country. 
But  to  proceed  : 

"Mr.  Smith,  of  South  Carolina,  thought  some  restraint  proper,  and  that  they 
would  tend  to  raise  the  Government  in  the  opinion  of  good  men,  who  are  desirous  of 
emigrating;  as  for  the  privilege  of  electing  or  being  elected,  he  conceived  a  man 
ought  to  be  some  time  in  the  country  before  he  could  pretend  to  exercise  it. 

"He  said,  the  intention  of  the  present  motion  is,  to  enable  foreigners  to  come 
here,  purchase  and  hold  lands;  but  this  will  go  beyond  what  the  mover  has  required; 
and,  therefore,  it  will  be  better  to  draft  a  separate  clause,  admitting  them  to  purchase 
and  hold  lands  upon  a  qualified  tenure  and  pre-emption  right,  than  thus  admit  them 
at  once  to  interfere  in  our  politics.  The  quality  of  being  a  freeholder  is  requisite,  in 
some  States,  to  give  a  man  a  title  to  vote  for  corporation  and  parish  officers.  Now, 
if  every  emigrant  who  purchases  a  small  lot.  but  perhaps  for  which  he  has  not  paid, 
becomes  in  a  moment  qualified  to  mingle  in  their  parish  or  corporation  politics,  it  is 
possible  it  may  create  great  uneasiness  in  neighborhoods  which  have  been  long 
accustomed  to  live  in  peace  and  unity." 


357 

"Mr.  Hartley  said,  an  alien  has  no  right  to  hold  lands  in  any  country;  and, 
if  they  are  admitted  to  do  it  in  this,  we  are  authorized  to  annex  to  it  such  conditions 
as  we  think  proper. 

"  He  also  said,  with  respect  to  the  policy  of  striking  out  the  words  altogether 
from  the  clause,  and  requiring  no  residence  before  a  man  is  admitted  to  the  rights  of 
election,  the  objections  are  obvious.  If,  at  any  time,  a  number  oi  people  emigrate 
into  a  seaport  town — for  example,  from  a  neighboring  colony  into  the  State  oi 
York  will  they  not  by  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance,  be  able  to  decide  an  election 
contrary  to  the  wishes  and  inclinations  of  the  real  citizens." 

"Mr.  Madison  said,  whether  residence  is,  or  is  not,  a  proper  quality  to  be 
attached  to  the  citizen,  is  the  question?  "  In  his  own  mind,  he  had  no  doubt  but 
residence  was  a  proper  pre-requisite,  and  he  was  prepared  to  decide  in  favor  of   it." 

"Mr.  Sedgwick  said,  some  kind  of  probation,  as  it  has  been  termed,  is  abso- 
lutely requisite,  to  enable  them  to  feel  and  be  sensible  of  the  blessing.  Without  that 
probation,  he  should  be  sorry  to  see  them  exercise  a  right  which  we  have  gloriously 
struggled  to  attain." 

"  Mr.  Smith,  of  South  Carolina,  said,  for  his  part,  he  was  of  opinion,  that  a  uni- 
form rule  of  naturalization  would  tend  to  make  a  uniform  rule  of  citizenship  pervade 
the  whole  continent,  and  decide  the  right  of  a  foreigner  to  be  admitted  to  elect,  or  be 
elected,  in  any  of  the  States." 

"Mr.  Tucker  said,  he  was  otherwise  satisfied  with  the  clause,  so  far  as  to  make 
residence  a  term  of  admission  to  the  privilege  of  election." 

Mr.  Bishop.  Do  I  understand  the  gentleman  to  take  the  ground  that  no  person 
is  entitled  to  vote  in  any  State  except  he  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Yes,  sir,  in  all  Federal  elections. 

Mr.  Bishop.  And  that  a  person  born  out  of  the  country  must  be  in  the  United 
States  a  certain  number  of  years  before  he  is  a  citizen,  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
country? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Yes,  sir;  he  must  be  naturalized. 

Mr.  Bishop.  I  would  now  like  to  inquire  how,  on  that  ground,  when  Texas  was  ad- 
mitted into  the  Union,  the  persons  living  in  Texas  could  be  entitled  to  vote  in  that 
State  until  Texas  had  been  in  the  Union  for  a  period  of  five  years? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  That  was  under  a  separate  clause,  and  a  power  alto- 
gether different  in  its  character,  providing  for  such  a  case. 

Mr.  Stevenson.  I  would  like  to  propound  this  question  to  the  gentleman  from 
Virginia.  I  find,  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  that  there  is  a  limitation 
on  the  qualifications  of  electors  for  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States; 
but  I  find,  by  the  same  clause,  that  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  the 
whole  number  of  the  electors  may  be  aliens;  that  there  is  no  restriction  of  citizen- 
ship in  anv  part  of  the  Constitution.  Although  there  is  a  limitation  as  to  offices, 
there  is  none  as  to  citizenship  as  a  qualification  of  electors  for  President  and  Vice- 
President;  and  I  should  like  to  hear  from  the  gentleman  on  that  point. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  the  gentleman  for  bringing 
me  to  that  point.  He  is  an  American  citizen.  He  has  a  country  which  extends  its 
wings  over  him.  He  has  a  country's  flag  to  stand  by,  and  sustain  him;  and  will  he 
ever  forget  that  that  country  is  composed  of  those  who  are  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  citizens  thereof  ?  The  Constitution  had  no  more  idea  of  providing 
against  the  man  in  France,  or  the  man  in  Turkey,  being  an  elector,  than  against  any 
other  absurdity.  In  speaking  of  electors,  and  declaring,  in  the  preamble  and  else- 
where, that  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  formed  this  Constitution,  its  framers, 
exvi  termini,  restricted  its  character,  and  confined  it  in  all  its  relations  to  the  people 
for  whom  it  was  formed.  Will  the  gentleman  remember  that  the  rights  of  foreigners 
are  grants— that  even  the  right  to  gentle  treatment  is  strictly  social,  and  particularly 
that  political  rights  are  never  his  except  by  express  grant,  and  that  presumptions  are 
always  against  and  never  for  him? 

Why,  sir,  I  am  amazed— perfectly  amazed,  that  here,  in  this  Government  ot  ours, 
under  our  Constitution,  in  this  glorious  land,  there  should  be  an  idea  that,  because  a 
Constitution  framed  for  the  people  or  citizens  of  the  United  States  does  not  exclude 
foreigners  from  the  highest  functions  of  Government,  therefore  that  foreigners  have  a 
right  to  them.  Foreigners  have  no  rights  except  what  are  granted  to  them.  1 hey 
have  no  right  even  to  hold  land  in  the  United  States,  or  in  the  States  thereof,  without 
the  power  is  conferred.  They  are  aliens  outside  of  our  system,  and  are  as  u  tern 
destitute  of  power  as  the  man  in  the  moon.  Instead  of  showing  that  there  is  notninS 
against  it,  you  have  to  show  that  the  power  exists  and  is  granted.  I  lay  it  down  that 
the  Federal  Constitution  gives  to  this  Government  the  exclusive  power  of  saying  wno 
of  the  foreign-born  shall  be  citizens,  and  having  exercised  that  authority  and  said  wno 


358 

shall  be  citizens,  the  exclusive  power  is  in  the  State  government  to  say  who  of  her 
citizens  shall  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage.  I  might  produce  authorities  if  I  had  time. 
I  might  refer  to  Chancellor  Kent,  who  assumes,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  nobody 
but  a  citizen  has  a  right  to  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage.  It  is  a  political  postulate 
which  he  does  not  consider  it  worth  while  to  argue. 

Having  stated  the  principles — all  that  I  can  do  in  the  present  exigency,  my  time 
being  nearly  exhausted — I  now  apply  them.  Let  us  look  at  the  evils  which  this  sys- 
tem is  to  inaugurate.  A  majority  of  foreigners  settle  one  of  the  States  of  the  Ameri- 
can Republic.  They  give  form  to  the  fundamental  organization  of  that  Siate.  That 
is  not  all;  they  say  who  shall  vote.  Here  is  the  section  of  this  Minnesota  Constitution 
upon  the  subject  of  suffrage  : 

"  Sec.  i.  Every  male  person  of  the  age  of  twenty-one  years  or  upwards,  belonging 
to  either  of  the  following  classes,  who  shall  have  resided  in  the  United  States  one  year, 
and  in  this  State  for  four  months  next  preceding  any  election,  shall  be  entitled  to  vote 
at  such  election,  in  the  election  district  of  which  he  shall  at  the  time  have  been  for 
ten  days  a  resident,  for  all  officers  that  now  are,  or  hereafter  may  be,  elective  by  the 
people  : 

"I.  White  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

"2.  White  persons  of  foreign  birth,  who  shall  have  declared  their  intentions  to 
become  citizens,  conformably  to  the  laws  of  the  United  States  upon  the  subject  of 
naturalization. 

"3.  Persons  of  mixed  white  and  Indian  blood,  who  have  adopted  the  customs 
and  habits  of  civilization. 

"4.  Persons  of  Indian  blood  residing  in  this  State,  who  have  adopted  the 
language,  customs  and  habits  of  civilization,  after  an  examination  before  any  district 
court  of  the  State,  in  such  manner  as  may  be  provided  by  law,  and  shall  have  been 
pronounced  by  said  court  capable  of  enjoying  the  rights  of  citizenship  within  the 
State." 

Now,  for  whom  are  they  to  vote?  They  are  to  vote  for  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives.  He  comes  here,  and  we  have  a  right  to  look  into  the  qualifications 
of  the  voters  who  sent  him  here,  and  we  have  a  direct  right  to  ascertain  whether  he 
has  been  duly  elected  by  citizens  of  the  United  States.  That  is  not  all,  sir.  By  their 
votes  the  Legislature  of  the  State  is  elected,  which  elects  United  States  Senators,  and 
we  have  a  right  to  ascertain  whether  those  Senators  have  been  elected  by  proper 
persons.  But  that  is  not  all.  These  same  persons  have  a  right,  it  is  contended,  to 
cast  their  suffrages  for  electors  of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  They  may  de- 
cide a  presidential  election.  And  that  is  not  all.  The  election  of  President  may 
come  into  this  House,  and  may  turn  upon  the  vote  of  a  single  State,  and  the  election 
in  that  State  may  have  depended  on  the  vote  of  one  individual,  and  that  an  unnatural- 
ized foreigner  just  landed.  Will  any  gentleman  say  that  the  introduction  of  such  a 
system,  affecting,  as  it  does,  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  Senate  and  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  United  States,  would  not  lead  to  a  frightful  mass  of  evils  to  the  Federal 
organization?  If  such  an  idea  could  have  been  thought  of,  dreamed  of,  or  imagined 
by  those  who  framed  the  Federal  Constitution,  when  they  were  seeking  to  secure 
uniformity  in  social  intercourse  among  the  States,  is  it  to  be  supposed  for  an  instant 
that  they  would  not  have  provided  against  it?  But  no  man  ever  dreamed  that  voters 
were  to  be  made  out  of  any  but  citizens  of  the  United  States;  that  the  law  for  the 
naturalization  of  foreigners  was  itself  to  be  practically  repealed,  and  that  foreigners, 
before  they  had  remained  here  five  years,  and  had  acquired  the  moral  and  intellectual 
qualifications  required,  were  to  be  put  into  full  fellowship  with  our  native-born 
citizens,  and  allowed  to  wield  as  large  a  mass  of  political  power. 

Look  at  the  consequences  of  such  a  condition  of  things.  From  three  to  five  hun- 
dred thousand  foreigners — many  of  them,  I  admit,  very  meritorious  and  unexception- 
able persons — come  into  this  country  every  year,  and  settle  in  our  new  States  and 
Territories;  and  under  this  system  they  are  to  be  permitted  at  once  to  organize  them- 
selves into  States,  to  send  representatives  to  this  House  and  to  the  Senate,  and  to 
participate  in  the  election  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  without  ever  having 
conformed  to  the  requisition  of  the  naturalization  laws.  In  the  name  of  God  !  is  it  not 
necessary  to  put  a  stop  to  this  state  of  things?  We  are  running  downward  with  hot 
haste.  We  are  disregarding  our  ancestors  and  their  wise  and  patriotic  example.  A 
new  element  of  progress  has  been  introduced,  but  all  progress  is  not  improvement — 
facilis  descensus  Averni,  sed  revocare  gradum,  etc.  I  insist  upon  it,  then,  that  in  view  of 
the  principles  and  doctrines  of  the  Constitution,  we  ought  not  to  tolerate  the  intro- 
duction of  a  system  of  franchise  that  must  be  productive  of  such  consequences,  and 
which  admits  to  the  ballot-box  men  who,  it  may  be,  are  unable  to  speak  our  language, 
unacquainted  with  our  institutions,  and  unfriendly  to  the  principles  of  our  govern- 
ment. My  time  will  not  allow  me  to  expand  this  subject,  and  give  other  views  which 
I  would  be  glad  to  lay  before  the  country.  \ 


SPEECH  OF 

HON.    WILLIAM    SMITH. 

OF     VIRGINIA, 

ON   THE 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  HOUSE, 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  DEC.  24,  26,  and  27,  1859. 


Mr.  Smith,  of  Viginia,  said  : 

Mr.  Clerk  :  It  was  not  my  purpose  to  engage  in  the  general  debate  which  has 
been  indulged  in  by  the  House  for  the  last  two  or  three  weeks.  The  only  part  that  I 
have  taken  heretofore  in  debate  has  been  in  reference  to  the  personal  position  of  two 
members,  as  is  well  known  ;  one  of  the  gentlemen  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Hick- 
man], and  the  other  the  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.  Haskin].  But,  sir,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  course  of  remark  which  has  been  indulged  in,  and  especially  in 
consequence  of  the  course  of  remark  which  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania 
[Mr.  Grow]  indulged  in  a  few  days  ago,  I  felt  impelled,  under  the  impulse  of  the 
moment,  to  take  my  part  in  the  drama  which  is  being  enacted  here  and  before  the 
country. 

A  question  has  been  raised  in  the  course  of  our  proceedings  involving  the  real 
position  of  the  House  in  regard  to  the  proper,  legitimate  mission  before  it ;  and  it  is 
right  that  I  should  call  attention  to  it  in  the  view  that  I  have,  and  that  I  should  pre- 
sent that  view  to  the  country. 

When  this  House  assembled,  it  was  upon  the  heels  of  a  remarkable  incident  in 
the  history  of  the  American  country.  A  sovereignty  had  been  invaded.  It  had 
awakened,  aroused,  and  excited  the  public  mind  throughout  the  country.  That 
occurrence  caused  revelations  which  startled  the  country.  It  was  revealed  that  some 
sixty-eight  members  of  the  last  Congress,  besides  numerous  other  gentlemen  of  the 
highest  position  in  the  land,  both  socially  and  politically,  had  endorsed  a  pamphlet, 
known  as  the  Helper  pamphlet,  inaugurating  a  crusade  of  blood,  murder,  treason, 
and  insurrection  against  one  large  section  of  the  Union.  When  we  assembled  here 
with  this  revelation  before  us — this  revelation  that  had  gone  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  country,  and,  perhaps,  throughout  the  world,  what  was  the  first  development? 
An  effort  to  put  in  nomination  and  elect  one  of  these  very  gentlemen  who  had  in- 
dorsed these  atrocious  doctrines  as  the  Presiding  Officer  of  the  House.  Sir,  the  Pre- 
siding Officer  of  this  House,  it  is  known,  holds,  necessarily,  the  most  intimate, 
personal  and  social  relations  with  the  members  over  whose  deliberations  he  presides. 
It  is  of  the  very  highest  consequence,  therefore,  that  in  principle,  social  conduct,  and 
elevated  character,  he  should  be  of  that  stamp  which  will  enable  members  to  approach 
him  in  all  the  frankness  which  should  characterize  the  relations  that  should  exist  be- 
tween them.  But,  as  I  have  said,  the  effort  was  made  by  the  largest  party  in  the 
House  to  put  in  that  position  a  man  who,  as  far  as  we  could  know,  was  obnoxious  to 
the  most  serious  objections  ;  who  had,  in  advance,  proclaimed  that  he  could  hold  no 
fellowship  whatever  with  one  class  of  the  Representatives  of  this  Union.  He  stood 
indorsed  before  the  country  as  having  proclaimed  non-fellowship  with  slaveholders  ; 
as  having  proclaimed  that  slavery  was  to  end,  and  end  in  blood,  if  necessary. 

Now,  I  ask  it  of  this  House,  and  I  pause  for  a  reply  ;  I  ask  it  of  any  gentleman 
upon  the  other  side  of  the  House,  if  they  love  this  Union  and  are  disposed  to  cultivate 
the  friendly  social  relations  upon  which  so  much  public  utility  depends  ;  I  ask  them, 
and  I  ask  the  country,  if  they  could  rightfully  and  truly  approve,  as  a  great  social 
and  political  duty,  the  election  of  a  man  to  preside  over  the  deliberations  of  this  body 
who  is  obnoxious  to  these  objections  ?  I  put  it  here,  and  I  desire  the  country  to 
understand  it ;  I  desire  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  to  look  at  it  in  its  social  aspect. 
They  may  by  power,  they  may  by  force  of  numbers,  elect  a  man  who  is  a  murderer, 


360 

a  robber,  a  thief  ;  a  man  who  proclaims  his  undying  hostility  to  one-half  this  Union, 
but  I  ask  them  is  it  right  that  they  should  do  it  ?  I  ask  them  if  they  could  stand  vin- 
dicated to  themselves  as  gentlemen  of  heart  and  honor,  as  the  representatives  of 
constitutional  liberty  in  this  country,  if  the  election  of  a  man  under  these  circum- 
stances  

Mr.  Sherman.  I  desire  to  inquire  of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  if  he  applies 
those  words  to  me  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  am  illustrating  what  I  was  saying,  and  he  will  hear  me 
if  he  is  quiet.  I  did  not  say  that  the  gentleman  is  a  murderer  ;  I  had  no  such  thought, 
and  I  was  about  to  say  so  ;  and  it  would  have  come  with  more  grace  than  after  an 
interruption. 

Mr.  Sherman.     I  will  say  to  the  Clerk  that  I  misunderstood  the  gentleman. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  was  saying,  would  you  vote  for  a  murderer  to  go  into 
that  chair  ? 

Several  voices  on  the  Republican  side.     You  know  none  of  us  would. 

Mr.  Curtis.  I  call  the  gentleman  to  order.  I  consider  the  gentleman's  language 
a  reflection  upon  members  in  this  Hall — unworthy  of  being  uttered  by  any  gentleman 
in  this  Hall — and  I  cannot  but  infer  that  he  impeaches  the  honor  of  every  man  upon 
this  side  of   the  House.     I  ask  the  gentleman  to  recall  it. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  When  I  have  anything  to  recall,  I  will  do  it  without 
being  asked.  [Applause  in  the  galleries.]  And  if  gentlemen  will  keep  cool  and 
easy,  they  will  perhaps  fare  better  by  it. 

I  charge  nobody  upon  this  floor  with  being  murderers  ;  I  charge  nobody  with 
being  robbers.  But  I  was  going  on  to  remark  and  to  charge  that,  when  we  came  here, 
we  found  that  sixty-eight  members — not  on  this  floor  to  be  sure  ;  but  sixty-eight  mem- 
bersjof  the  last  Congress,  many  of  whom  are  now  here — did  indorse  that  which,  as  we 
had  the  right  to  believe  and  suppose,  was  just  as  bad,  just  as  damnable,  and  just  as 
offensive.     Will  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  deny  it?     [Applause  in  the  galleries.] 

The  Clerk.  The  Clerk  gave  notice  yesterday,  if  the  order  of  the  House  was  further 
violated  by  this  indecorum  in  the  galleries,  he  should  call  upon  the  officers  of  the 
House  to  suppress  it.  In  accordance  with  that  notice,  he  now  calls  upon  the  Ser- 
geant-at-Arms  and  the  Doorkeeper  of  the  House  to  perform  that  duty. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  hope  that  will  be  forborne  at  present,  and  that  the 
galleries  will  refrain  from  any  further  interruption,  as  it  is  certainly  a  violation  of  the 
rules  of  the  House  and  of  proper  decorum. 

Mr.  Grow.  I  hope  the  Clerk  will  merely  order  the  officer  to  preserve  order  in 
the  galleries.     [A  voice  in  the  gallery,  "  I  will  leave  the  galleries,  for  one."] 

The  Clerk.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  Clerk  to  order  the  galleries  to  be  cleared. 
He  is  aware  that  there  are  a  great  many  orderly  persons  in  the  galleries  ;  and  he  has 
only  requested  the  officers  of  the  House  to  preserve  order,  nothing  more.  The  Clerk 
has  not  ordered  the  galleries  to  be  cleared,  because  he  knows  there  are  a  great  many 
persons  there  who  have  come  here  to  look  upon  these  proceedings,  who  do  not  desire 
to  see  the  decorum  of  the  House  violated.  If  there  are  persons  in  the  galleries  who 
continue  to  be  disorderly,  the  Clerk  hopes  the  officers  of  the  House  will  suppress  it. 
It  is  for  the  benefit  of  members  of  the  House  that  the  Clerk  makes  this  request. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  was  proceeding  to  illustrate  the  position  which  had 
been  taken  by  the  Democracy,  and  with  that  view  I  was  using  strong  figures  of 
speech.  I  did  so  for  the  purpose  of  marking  it  in  a  way  from  which  there  could  be 
no  escape,  and  for  the  purpose  of  vindicating  this  side  of  the  House  against  the 
aspersion  which  has  been  cast  upon  the  Democrats  from  day  to  day,  of  trifling  with 
the  business  of  the  country  by  the  non-organization  of  this  body.  I  now  repeat  in 
consequence  of  this  interruption — and  a  repetition  will  not  be  amiss,  I  am  sure — that 
when  we  came  here,  under  the  circumstances  to  which  I  have  adverted,  it  was  our 
duty  to  raise  the  question  which  was  raised  by  the  gentleman  from  Missouri  ;  and  I 
am  glad  to  see  that  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Iowa  [Mr.  Curtis]  shows  a  becom- 
ing sensitiveness.  I  know  how  he  feels  upon  that  subject,  nor  did  I  mean,  in  any 
sense,  to  intimate  that  that  gentleman  had  done  anything  dishonorable  or  exception- 
able. But  I  put  the  question  to  him,  not  whether  he  would  vote  to  put  in  that  chair  a 
man  who  would  rob  his  neighbor,  or  filch  money  from  his  pocket,  for  I  am  sure  he 
would  not  ;  but  I  ask  that  gentleman,  and  I  ask  all  who  think  as  he  does,  if  he  be- 
lieves that  the  nominee  of  the  Republican  party  upon  this  floor  for  the  Speakership 
of  this  House,  did  indorse  the  doctrine  of  this  Helper  pamphlet,  which  I  will  read  to 
the  gentleman  if  he  desires  it  ;  if  he  did  adopt  the  doctrine  therein  contained,  of  non- 
intercourse  of  non-slaveholders  with  slaveholders  ;  if  he  did  adopt  the  doctrine  that 
abolition  should  go  on,  and  go  on  with  a  strong  hand,  without  hesitating  as  to  the 
means  -I  sav  if  thev  believed  that,  would  he,  would  thev  vote  for  such  a  man  as 
that  ? 


361 

Mr.  Curtis.  The  gentleman  knows  that  I  would  not,  and  I  believe  he  knows 
that  the  honorable  member  we  have  nominated  for  Speaker,  would  not  sanction  any 
assault  upon  the  rights  of  the  people  of  Virginia,  or  any  other  State. 

I  misunderstood  the  gentleman  when  he  was  putting  his  proposition  ;  but  I  still 
think  that,  by  asking  the  question,  whether  he,  we,  or  I,  or  any  other  man,  would 
put  a  murderer  or  a  villain  in  the  chair,  was  in  the  nature  of  an  imputation  upon 
members  on  this  floor.  The  question  itself  is  horrible.  I  cannot  suppose  that  the 
gentleman  sincerely  believes  that  any  Republican  member  on  this  floor  is  so  insensi- 
ble to  Justice,  so  insensible  to  honor,  as  to  dare  to  bring  before  this  House,  and 
tain  for  the  Speakership,  a  man  who  would  knowingly  indorse  any  hook,  the  senti- 
ments  of  which  would  lead  to  an  outrage  such  as  that  of  John  Brown  into  Virginia,  or 
which  would  tend  to  excite  an  insurrection  in  Virginia,  or  anywhere  else.  I  would 
consider  it  one  of  the  greatest  of  crimes.  Such  a  crime  includes  all  crimes  on  the 
catalogue.  I  know  the  gentleman  did  not  intend  to  do  that.  I  do  not  blame  him  or 
anybody  else  for  making  inquiry  and  drawing  out  explanations.  I  think  that  honor- 
able gentlemen  on  that  side  should,  themselves,  vindicate  us  against  the  imputation. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  The  gentleman  is  like  certain  Senators  and  other  gen- 
tlemen— (the  gentleman  from  Illinois  among  them) — who  do  not  hear  the  world  pass 
as  it  goes  along.  Every  sort  of  atrocity  is  recommended  in  this  Helper  book  against 
the  slaveholder.  Every  foul  epithet  has  been  habitually  applied  to  Southern  men 
for  half  a  century.     Does  not  the  gentleman  know  it  ? 

Mr.  Curtis.  I  am  told  that  that  book  contains  infamous  matter — matter  which  I 
denounce  and  disclaim  ;  and  I  say  that  every  honorable  man  in  the  House  has  dis- 
claimed or  will  disclaim  it. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Well,  sir,  your  candidate  has  not  done  it.  I  have  got 
here  what  he  said.  And  I  may  be  permitted  to  express  my  surprise  that  the  gentle- 
man from  Tennessee  [Mr.  Nelson]  should  have  fallen  yesterday  into  the  error  of 
stating  that  Mr.  Sherman  had  disclaimed  the  atrocities  of  the  Helper  pamphlet.  Where 
did  that  honorable  gentleman  get  his  information  ? 

Mr.  Nelson.  My  recollection  is  that  Mr.  Sherman  rose,  and,  in  reply  to  some 
question,  said,  in  substance,  that  he  did  not  recollect,  to  a  certainty,  whether  he  had 
subscribed  to  that  publication  or  not.  But  I  think  Mr.  Sherman  said  that  he  did  not 
approve  its  ultra  doctrines. 

Several  Democratic  Members.     No  ;  he  did  not. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Oh,  no,  sir  ;  I  Jhave  got^  his~  remarks  Jhere,  and  ^I'/was 
surprised 

Mr.  Nelson.  I  do  not  wish  to  misrepresent  Mr.  Sherman, "or  anybody  else  ;  but 
that  is  the  way  that  I  understood  it. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  say  I  was  surprised  that  the  honorable  gentleman  from 
Tennessee  should  have  made  such  a  statement.  He  is  a  clear-headed  gentleman,  as 
he  has  shown  to  this  House,  a  man  of  talent,  a  man  of  'critical  observation.  Now,  L 
will  read  what  Mr.  Sherman  did  say  : 

"Mr.  Clerk,  I  have,  until  this  moment,  disregarded  this  debate,  because  I  pre- 
sumed it  was  simply  thrown  at  the  House  at  this  time  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
an  organization.  But  the  manner  of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  [Mr.  Millson]  -my 
respect  for  his  long  experience  in  this  House  ;  my  respect  for  his  character,  and  the 
serious  impression  which  this  matter  seems  to  have  made  on  his  mind — induce  me  to 
say  now  what  I  have  to  say.     I  ask  that  the  letter  which  I  send  up  may  be  read. 

"  The  following  letter  was  thereupon  read  from  the  Clerk's^desk  : 

^Washington  City,  December  6,  1859. 

"Dear  Sir:  I  perceive  that  a  debate  has  arisen  in  Congress  in  which  Mr. 
Helper's  book,  the  'Impending  Crisis,'  is  brought  up  as  an  exponent  of  Republican 
principles.  As  the  names  of  many  leading  Republicans  are  presented  as  recommending 
a  compendium  of  the  volume,  it  is  proper  that  I  should  explain  how  those  names  were 
obtained  in  advance  of  the  publication.  Mr.  Helper  brought  this  book  to  me  at  Silver 
Spring  to  examine  and  recommend,  if  I  thought  well  of  it,  as  a  work  to  be  encour- 
aged by  Republicans.  I  had  never  seen  it  before.  After  its  perusal,  I  either  wrote 
to  Mr.  Helper,  or  told  him  that  it  was  objectionable  in  many  particulars,  to  which  1 
adverted  ;  and  he  promised  me,  in  writing,  that  he  would  obviate  the  objections  by- 
omitting  entirely  or  altering  the  matter  objected  to. 

"  I  understand  that  it  was  in  consequence  of  his  assurance  to  me  that  the  obnox- 
ious matter  in  the  original  publication  would  be  expurgated,  that  members  ot  Con- 
gress and  other  influential  men  among  the  Republicans  were  induced  to  give  their 
countenance  to  the  circulation  of  the  edition  so  to  be  expurgated. 

"  Hon.  John  Sherman.  F.  P.  BLAIR,  Silver  Spring. 


362 

"  Mr.  Sherman.  I  do  not  recollect  signing  the  paper  referred  to  ;  but  I  presume, 
from  my  name  appearing  in  the  printed  list,  that  I  did  sign  it.  I  therefore  make  no 
excuse  of  that  kind.  I  never  have  read  Mr.  Helper's  book,  or  the  compendium 
foundedupon  it.  I  have  never  seen  a  copy  of  either.  And  here,  Mr.  Clerk,  I  might 
leave  the  matter  ;  but  as  many  harsh  things  have  been  said  about  me,  I  desire  to  say 
that  since  I  have  been  a  member  of  this  House  I  have  always  endeavored  to  cultivate 
the  courtesies  and  kind  relations  that  are  due  from  one  gentleman  to  another.  I 
never  addressed  to  any  member  such  language  as  I  have  heard  to-day.  I  never 
desire  such  language  be  addressed  to  me,  if  I  can  avoid  it.  I  appeal  to  my  public 
record,  during  a  period  of  four  years,  in  this  body  ;  and  I  say  now  that  there  is  not  a 
single  question  agitating  the  public  mind,  not  a  single  topic,  on  which  there  can  be 
sectional  jealousy  or  sectional  controversy,  unless  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of 
the  House  thrust  such  subjects  upon  us.  I  repeat,  not  a  single  question.  We 
have  pursued  a  course  of  studied  silence.  It  is  our  intention  to  organize  the  House 
quietly,  decently,  in  order,  without  vituperation  ;  and  we  trust  to  show  to  members 
on  all  sides  of  the  House,  that  the  party  with  which  I  have  the  honor  to  act  can  ad- 
minister this  House  and  administer  this  Government  [applause  from  the  galleries  and 
the  Republican  benches]  without  trespassing  on  the  rights  of  any." 

Mr.  Grow.     Is  that  all  that  was  said  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     That  is  all  I  have  got  here. 

Mr.  Grow.     There  is  more. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Yes  ;  I  find  this  : 

"Mr.  Keitt,  (in  his  seat).     Only  one-half  of  it. 

"Mr.  Sherman.  I  say  then  that  I,  for  one,  would  not  trespass  on  a  right  of  a 
single  Southern  citizen  ;  and  I  defy  any  man  to  show,  anywhere,  a  word  that  I  have 
uttered  that  would  lead  to  a  different  conclusion.  The  signing  of  that  paper,  and 
the  book,  every  member  of  the  House  can  appreciate  without  my  saying  a  word 
about  it. 

"  I  have  said  more  than  I  designed,  and  I  trust  that  hereafter  gentlemen  on  the 
other  side  of  the  House  will  observe  the  courtesies  due  from  one  gentleman  to  an- 
other. I  have  always  observed  such  courtesies  to  them.  While  newspapers  may  call 
names,  let  me  say,  that  this  is  not  the  place  for  epithets  ;  it  is  the  place  for  reason 
and  argument." 

Mr.  Grow.  In  answer  to  some  inquiry,  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  also  said  that 
he  distinctly  stated  five  times'on  this  floor,  that  he  would  not  interfere  with  the  rela- 
tions of  master  and  slave. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Yes,  sir  ;  he  would  not  march  into  the  slave  States  .  he 
would  not  legislate  in  regard  to  that  subject.  We  know  what  that  means.  But  I  ask 
now,  does  he  disclaim  the  doctrines  of  the  Helper  book?  Every  gentleman  knows 
that  there  are  different  ways  of  operating  on  slavery  ;  and  I  shall  take  occasion  to 
show,  before  I  take  my  seat,  many  of  these  ways.  I  ask  here,  in  the  presence  of  the 
candidate  on  that  side  of  the  House,  does  that  gentleman  disclaim  the  doctrines  of 
the  Helper  book  ?  In  fifteen  years,  said  Helper,  pursue  my  advice,  and,  my  life 
upon  it,  there  will  not  be  a  slave  on  the  ground  of  free  America.  There  are  many 
means  other  than  those  which  John  Brown  resorted  to.  Does  the  gentleman  disclaim 
the  doctrines  of  that  book,  as  they  have  been  read  here?  The  gentleman  is  dumb, 
he  is  silent.  I  desire  to  get  the  gentleman  to  speak.  He  is  silent — dumb  as  an  oyster 
[laughter] ;  and  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  wants  to  speak  for  him. 

Mr.  Grow.     No,  sir  ;  I  only  want  you  to  represent  the  record  right. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  No,  sir  ;  but  let  the  party  most  interested  correct  me,  if 
I  do  him  injustice.  I  do  not  want  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  to  do  it,  as  the 
gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Stanton]  cut  in  yesterday  to  save  the  gentleman  from 
Illinois.  No  doubt,  he  was  afraid  he  would  commit  some  blunder,  perhaps  indorse 
the  Helper  book,  and  therefore  he  cut  in  to  disclaim  it. 

Mr.  Nelson.     My  remarks,  in  regard  to  Mr.  Sherman,  were  as  follows  ; 

"  I  cannot  consistently  cast  my  vote  for  Mr.  Sherman,  as  Speaker,  because  I 
think  his  election,  at  this  time,  would  produce  an  unhappy  alienation  of  feeling  on 
the  part  of  the  South.  While  I  say  this,  in  perfect  respect  to  him,  I  am  free  to  declare 
that,  when  a  man,  who  is  technically  my  peer,  arises  upon  this  floor  and  says,  in  sub- 
stance, that,  if  he  indorsed  the  Helper  book,  he  did  it  through  inadvertence,  and  docs  net 
approve  its  extreme  doctrines,  I  am  constrained  to  accept  his  statements  as  true  until  the 
contrary  appears.  This  assertion  of  his  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that,  in  the  dis- 
cussions of  1856,  Mr.  Sherman  drew,  broadly  and  distinctly,  the  line  of  demarkation 
between  the  Republicans  and  Abolitionists,  and  showed  that  the  former,  in  that  day, 
at  least,  did  not  sympathize  with  the  extreme  views  of  the  latter.". 


363 

In  speaking  of  Mr.  Sherman,  it  is  proper  for  me  to  say  that  I  am  not  his  organ, 
and  am   not  in  his  confidence.     I  do  not  think  1  misunderstood  him,  and  certainly 

have  no  desire  to  misrepresent  him.     My  object  has  been  to  do  an  act  of  simple  jus- 
tice.    Some  of  the  most  obnoxious  doctrines  of  the  Helper  book,  as  published  in  the 
papers,  are,  "  through  organization  and  independent  political  action  on   the  part  of 
the  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the  South  ;"  "no  co-operation  with  pro-slavery  ]">li 
ticians  ;  no  fellowship  with  them  in  religion  ;  no  affiliation  with  them  in  society  ;  no 
patronage  to  pro-slavery  merchants,"  "  lawyers,  waiters  or  physicians  ;  and  no  audi 
ence  to  pro-slavery  persons."     When  Mr.  Sherman  said,  during  the  debate  oi  the  6th 
instant,  on  this  floor,  that  he  had  said  it  five  times  on  this  floor  that  "he  was  opi 
to  any  interference,  whatever,  by  the  people  of  the  free  States  with  the  relations  oi 
master  and  slave  in  the  slave  States,"  I  considered  him  as  saying,  in  substance,  that 
he  did  not  approve  the  extreme  doctrines  of  Helper's  book.     And,  when  1  referred, 
on  yesterday,  to  the  discussions  of  1856,  1  alluded  especially  to  Mr.  Sherman's  an- 
swer to  Mr.  Smith,  of  Tennessee,  in  the  Congressional  Globe,  volume  thirty-four,  pages 
55  and  56,  where  he  said  : 

"I  never  had  any  affiliation  with  what  is  known  as  the  Abolition  party.     I  was 
attached  to  the  Whig  party." 
And  again,  when  he  said  : 

"If  I  had  my  voice,  I  would  not  have  one  single  political  Abolitionist  in  the 
Northern  States.  I  am  opposed  to  any  interference,  by  the  Northern  people,  with 
slavery  in  the  slave  States.  I  act  with  the  Republican  party,  with  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  others,  because  the  Republican  party  resists  the  extension,  but  does  not 
seek  the  abolition  of  slavery." 

This,  as  I  suppose,  is  one  of  the  five  utterances  on  this  floor,  to  which   Mr.  S 
man  referred, 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  will  not  go  into  this  thing  now,  but  we  all  know  that 
the  Helper  book  proclaims  that  nine  negroes  out  of  ten  would  cheerfully  cut  theii 
masters'  throats  ;  and  that  the  white  non-slaveholders  of  the  slave  States  would  be 
one  of  the  greatest  agents  of  abolition.  I  was  calling  the  attention  of  the  House  and 
of  the  country  to  the  circumstances  under  which  this  debate  sprung  up.  My  object 
was  to  show  that  it  was  not  consistent  with  the  patriotism  of  a  majority  of  the  House 
to  place  in  the  Speaker's  chair  a  gentleman  who  would  not  disclaim,  broadly  and 
unequivocally,  as  the  gentleman  from  Iowa,  [Mr.  Curtis,]  the  gentleman  from  Ohio, 
[Mr.  Stanton,]  and  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Kellogg,]  have  done,  the  atro- 
cious doctrines  of  this  book.  How,  then,  I  ask,  should  we  deal  with  this  question  ? 
How,  I  ask,  under  these  circumstances,  was  this  house  to  deal  with  it  ?  The  gentle- 
man himself  says — let  us  go  on  quietly  and  organize  the  House. 

Mr.  Morris,  of  Pennsylvania.  Will  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  allow  me  to 
interrupt  him  ?  He  used  the  word  "all,"  in  speaking  of  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Sherman, 
supposing  them  all  to  be  implicated — so  far  as  the  implication  goes  for  anything — in 
the  indorsement  of  the  Helper  book.  As  I  said,  when  I  had  the  honor  of  addressing 
the  House,  I  have  in  no  way  indorsed  it.  Nevertheless,  I  am  a  supporter  of  Mr.  Sher- 
man; but  I  am  his  supporter  knowing  what  he  thinks  on  these  matters — knowing 
that  he  is  free  from  all  fair  charge  of  implication  in  anything  of  a  treasonable  char- 
acter, or  anything  in  this  book  that  recommends  murder  and  arson,  and  also  because 
I  know  Mr.  Sherman  to  be  eminently  conservative.  If  the  gentleman  will  allow  me, 
I  will  send  to  the  Clerk's  desk  an  extract  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Sherman,  which  may 
be  read  to  show,  among  other  reasons,  why  I  support  Mr.  Sherman  as  a  conservative 
member  of  the  House,  and  not  as  a  member  of  the  pure  Republican  party. 

The  Clerk  read,  as  follows: 

"Isay  this  charge  [interference  with  slaveryin  the  Southern  States]  is  unfounded. 
The  people  of  Ohio,  the  State  which  I  have  the  honor,  in  part,  to  represent  on  this 
floor,  do  not  wish  or  design  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  any  Southern  State.  We  di> 
not  wish  or  design  to  interfere  with  the  relations  existing  between  the  white  and  black 
races  in  the  slave  States.  I  have  observed  that  the  relations  existing  between  these 
classes  in  the  South  are  often  more  kindly  in  their  character  than  those  exi-tin^ 
between  the  same  classes  in  the  Northern  States.  We  do  not,  and  never  did,  claim  the 
power  to  interfere. 

"Our  claim  is  this:  that,  in  violation  of  the  pledges  of  the  President,  made  at  the 
outset  of  his  Administration,  and  in  violation  of  the  pledges  and  platforms  of  the  two 
great  parties  of  the  country,  four  years  ago,  the  party  acting  with  the  President  and 
his  advisers  repealed  the  Missouri  compromise,  and  perpetrated  what  our  sense  of 
justice  and  honor  tells  us  was  an  infamous  wrong.  That  is  all,  1  hat  is  the  long  and 
short  of  it,  and  it  is  the  only  cause  which  called  the  Republican  party  into  being."  *   • 

"If  I  had  my  voice  I  would  not  have  one  single  political  Abolitionist  in  the 
Northern    States.  '  I  am  opposed  to  any  interference  by  the  Northern    people  with 


364 

slavery  in  the  slave  States.  I  act  with  the  Republican  party,  with  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  others,  simply  because  the  Republican  party  resists  the  extension,  but 
does  not  seek  the  abolition,  of  slavery." 

Mr.  Morris,  of  Pennsylvania.  1  will  add,  by  the  leave  of  the  gentleman  from 
Virginia,  that  it  is  because  I  know  Mr.  Sherman  to  hold  those  sentiments  now,  that  I, 
as  one  not  bound  to  the  Republican  party,  support  him.  I  thank  the  gentleman  for 
his  courtesy. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  give  notice  that  I  will  not  allow,  whilst  I  am  upon  the 
floor,  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  to  speak  by  proxy.  He  is  no  Speaker  yet.  I  demand 
that  when  he  wants  to  be  vindicted  before  the  country,  he  shall  speak  for  himself. 
We  have  come  really  to  a  pretty  pass.  A  gentleman  here  in  nomination  for  the 
Speakership  is  not  allowed  to  speak.  Why,  sir,  it  is  the  case  with  the  whole 
Republican  party.  Some  of  them,  however,  have  broken  loose  and  spoken  once, 
and  some  of  them  twice;  and  I  suppose  as  Balaam's  ass  spoke  three  times,  we  shall 
hear  from  them  again.      [Laughter.] 

Sir,  I  say,  let  the  gentleman  speak  for  himself.  We  are  dealing  with  the  present; 
and  I  now  ask  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  to  say  what  are  his  sentiments  at  this  time? 
Does  he  indorse  the  Helper  book  ?  Speak,  or  forever  after  hold  your  peace  !  [Great 
laughter.] 

Mr.  Clerk,  I  have  mentioned  these  things  because  I  wish  the  country  distinctly 
to  understand  that  it  was  under  these  circumstances  that  the  House  assembled;  and 
that,  having  assembled  under  these  circumstances,  and  with  the  revelations  to  which 
I  have  adverted,  we  on  this  side  of  the  House  deemed  it  right  and  proper  to  offer  the 
resolution  which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  and  which  was  offered  by  the  gentleman  from 
Missouri.     What  is  it,  sir? 

"Resolved,  That  the  doctrines  and  sentiments  of  a  certain  book  called  the  'Im- 
pending Crisis  of  the  South,.'  purporting  to  have  been  written  by  one  Hinton  R. 
Helper,  are  insurrectionary  and  hostile  to  the  peace  and  tranquility  of  the  country; 
and  no  member  of  this  House  who  has  indorsed  or  recommended  the  doctrines  and 
sentiments  therein  affirmed,  is  fit  to  be  Speaker  of  this  House." 

I  submit  this  question  cheerfully  to  the  judgment  of  the  country;  and  I  ask  the 
country,  and  I  ask  the  Representatives  of  the  country,  when  could  we  make  that 
objection,  if  that  objection  existed?  There  is  the  question.  I  know  gentlemen  will 
want  to  hold  us  responsible  for  the  consequences  of  the  failure  to  organize  this 
House,  as  illustrated  by  the  extraordinary  manner  and  conduct  of  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Grow]  the  other  day.  But  I  ask  the  country — I  ask  those  gentle- 
men upon  the  other  side  who  represent  it  in  part,  when  we  could  make  the  objection 
except  precisely  at  the  time,  under  the  circumstances  and  in  the  manner  that  was 
adopted  by  the  gentleman  from  Missouri  ?  So  much  for  that  then,  and  so  much  for 
the  clamor  that  may  be  raised  upon  this  question  elsewhere.  We  raised  the  objec- 
tion; we  have  sustained  the  objection;  and  the  objection  stands  good,  because  the 
gentleman  from  Ohio,  though  he  has  spoken,  has  refused  to  disclaim  the  doctrines  of 
the  Helper  book.  Sir,  it  would  have  been  just  as  easy — and  he  could  have  said  it  in 
much  fewer  words — it  would  have  been  just  as  easy  for  him  to  have  said,  in  a  few 
remarks,  that  he  disapproved  of  the  doctrines  of  that  book,  as  he  then  understood 
them,  as  it  was  to  go  into  the  lawyer-like  exposition  of  his  position  with  which  he 
indulged  the  House.  I  repeat  the  question,  sir,  are  you  down  upon  Helper's  book? 
Are  you  against  the  doctrines  therein  contained?  He  will  not  say  it;  and  I  say  then, 
before  God  and  the  country  and  before  this  goodly  assembly,  that  it  is  our  duty  to 
our  institutions  and  our  high  duty  to  ourselves  to  protest  against  his  election  as  Pre- 
siding Officer  of  this  House. 

Having  disposed  of  that  question — and  I  might  add  other  things  in  this  connec- 
tion—I proceed  now  to  indulge  in  some  few  other  remarks.  The  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania,  [Mr.  Grow,]  who  spoke  the  other  day,  indulged  in  most  extraordinary 
bravado  of  manner.  Sir,  one  might  have  thought  that  our  Jupiter  was  thundering;  that 
we  had  a  Jupiter  Tonans  in  this  body;  and  that  when  he  spoke  all  minor  gods  must 
tremble.  [Laughter.]  He  graciously  told  us  that  the  New  York  Herald  had  supplied  this 
side  of  the  House  with  brains.  I  would  like  to  know  who  has  supplied  him  with  that 
essential  commodity.  [Laughter.]  Sir,  he  is  not  even  entitled  to  originality  for 
inventing  that  phrase  himself,  for  he  got  it  from  Mr.  Greeley;  at  least  from  the  New 
York  Tribune.  But  that  is  not  the  whole  or  the  worst  of  it.  He  proclaimed  that  by 
this  discussion  we  were  engaged  in  disseminating  Helper's  book.  I  will  take 
occasion  to  say  here  that  we  care  not  about  its  circulation.  Let  them  circulate  it  as 
much  as  they  can.  But  we  care  for  its  doctrines,  and  for  the  indorsement  that  has 
been  given  to  them  upon  this  floor.  He  says  that  we  have  given  it  the  best  of  adver- 
tising, and  that  we  have  done  what  the  Republican  committee  tried  for  a  year  or  two 
to  effect,  but  in  vain. 


365 


Mr.  Grow.  The  gentleman  will  allow  me.  I  would  not  interrupt  him  except  to 
correct  the  record.  If  I  used  the  word  "Republican,"  it  was  a  slip  of  the  tongue;  I 
meant  the  publishing  committee.  It  was  published  by  gentlemen  whose  names  the 
gentleman  will  find  in  the  book;  and  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Anthon  is  the  only 
man  I  know  of  who  is  connected  with  the  publication. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  am  only  dealing  with  what  the  gentleman  said. 

Mr.  Grow.  But  the  gentleman  will  find  in  the  Globe  that  I  said  the  publishing 
committee.     If  I  used  the  word  "Republican,"  it  was  a  slip  of  the  tongue. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  presume  the  gentleman  put  it  so  in  the  Globe;  but,  by 
the  Herald,  we  see  that  "Republican  committee  "  was  the  phrase  he  used.     I  supp 
the  o-entleman  corrected  it  in  the  Globe;  but  this  New  York  Herald  seems  to  hai 
reporter  here  who  catches  things  as  they  fall  from  our  lips,  and  he  has  got  it  as  I  said 
it—"  Republican  committee."     Then  I  understand  the  gentleman  to  say  that  it  is  not 
"Republican,"  but    "publishing  committee."     Well,   now,  sir,   upon  that  subject 
should  like  to  hear  what  difference  the  gentleman  finds  between  them.     I  believe  that 
Horace  Greely  is  the  chief  head  of  the  Republican  committee. 

Mr  Grow.  All  I  want  is  a  correct  record.  If  the  gentleman  will  quote  correctly 
what  I  did  say,  he  is  at  liberty  to  argue  from  it  as  much  as  he  pleases;  I  shall  not 
interrupt  him  in  his  argument. 

Mr  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Well,  sir,  I  suppose  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania 
feels  "ratified  at  what  we  are  now  doing.  He  says  as  I  have  got  him  down  here.  He 
thanks  us  for  doing  what  the  Republican  (or  publishing,  if  he  will  have  it  so,)  com- 
mittee have  attempted  and  failed  to  do. 

Mr  Grow.  Will  the  gentleman  allow  me?  I  do  not  think  I  ever  used  any  such 
lancrua^e.  If  the  gentleman  will  take  the  Globe  he  will  find  exactly  what  I  did  sav. 
He  wilf  find  it  prectsely  as  I  uttered  it,  with  the  exception  of  the  word  "Republican 
which  is  changed  to  "  publishing,"  which  was  a  mistake  as  I  uttered  »t  The  gentle- 
man,  I  understand,  is  reading  from  a  telegraphic  report  That  ,s  just  what  1  have 
been  complaining  of,  that  gentlemen  read  newspapers  instead  of  using  arguments. 

Mr    Smith,  of  Virginia.     It  is  very  well  known  that  gentlemen  reform  them.- 
very  much  on  what  they  say  in  this  House,  when  their  revised  remarks  get  into  the 
Globe.     Here  is  what  the  gentleman  said,  according  to  the  stenographer  of  the  New 

YOrl"  AnT'yet,  gentlemen,  we  have  sat  here  for  almost  three  weeks,  and  listened  to 
nothing  in  the  world-with  three  or  four  exceptions-but  the  editorials  of  the  New 
York  Herald  for  the  last  month,  rehashed  and  given  to  us  piecemeal  in  the  form  ol 
speeches.  (Applause.)  The  Herald  has  furnished  brains  for  the  whole  discuss 
wPh?ch  has  onf/lacked  its  terseness  of  style.  I  must  say  that  he  editorials  o  the 
Herald  are  usually  spicy,  and  we  read  them  with  a  good  deal  of  mterest; but  lam 
forced  to  say  that  this  discussion,  and  the  speeches  of  members  opposite,  have  lacked 
the  terseness  of  style  and  spiciness  of  diction  which  is  such  afeaurem  the  He, 
from  whose  columns  they  have  extracted  their  ideas,  such  as  hey  are.  (Loud 
laughter.)  Now,  if  gentlemen  are  satisfied  with  advertising  broadcast  through  th< 
and  this  pamphlet,  which  they  say  is  so  destructive  to  their  peace  and ^  tranqu,  l.ty- 
if  you  areP  satisfied  to  give  a  circulation  to  that  pamphlet  of  £«££cPlta£ 
scarcely  a  solitary  one  before-then  you  have  performed  a  work  thai t  the *  Black :  Repub 
lican  Committee  of  New  York  would  thank  you  and  did,  ndeed, 'J\^tJmlhM 
That  committee  had  tried  for  more  than  a  year  to  get  up  a  circulation  for _that  I  a^>h  . 
and  they  failed  to  do  so;  but  you,  gentlemen,  on  that  side,  have  advertised  a 
circulated  it  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 

Mr.    Grow.     What   is    that?     Black    Republican.!     Is   that   in    the    gentleman  s 
report  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Yes,  sir.  ,.to«„l. 

Mr.  Grow.     I  used  the  word  "  Republican."     I  did  not  use  the  phrase     Black 
Republican."     I  leave  such  phrases  where  they  belong. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     The  gentleman  has  got  so  accustomed  to  it  that  1 
pose  he  knows  his  name  by  this  time. 

Mr.  Grow.     I  know  my  name  better  than  you  do  on  the  other  side. 
Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  suppose  so.     Be  it  so.     But  let  us  proceed, ^leave 
this  subject  for  the  present  and  go  to  another.     The  gent  eman  talk,    nos    ear, 
and  most  anxiously  of  the  importance  of  organizing  the  House  ^ th    h  e  ™wOt 
viding  for  the  public  creditors;  and  he  has  especial  reference  to  the  . mart  con  menr* 
Sir,   I  am   anxious,    sincerely  anxious,  that  we   should    organ,  e  this  ^^   ^ 
purpose  of  providing  for  them.     The  are  a  very  mer.toriou    class ,oi  tn^credjtoy  ot 
this  Government.     We  ought   to  meet  our  engagements  with  them,     je  ™g« 
organize  the  House.     And  let  me  tell  the  gentleman  from  Pennsyh  ania  that        ougni 


366 

to  come  over  and  help  put  a  good  Democrat  or  a  good  American  into  the  chair,  as  an 
atonement  for  the  deep  transgressions  he  perpetrated  against  those  contractors  in  the 
last  Congress.  I  say  here  to  them,  if  there  are  any  who  hear  me,  that  the  man  who 
wronged  them,  and  wronged  them  for  a  purpose  which  he  knows,  is  the  man  who 
now  affects  to  be  their  friend,  but  is  unwilling  to  make  any  sacrifices  to  repair  the 
mischief  he  has  created.  And,  sir,  I  have  got  the  book  here  and  choose  to  call  atten- 
tion to  it.  I  mean  to  put  what  passed  in  the  last  Congress  before  the  country.  I 
mean  to  put  it  in  my  speech,  and  publish  it,  that  it  may  go  abroad,  and  that  the 
country  may  understand  how  it  is  that  that  gentleman  can  have  the  cool  assurance  to 
get  up  here  and  talk  about  want  of  faith  upon  the  part  of  the  Government  to  the 
public  creditors,  and  mouths  out  his  words  as  though  he  would  enlist  their  sympathies 
in  support  of  his  side  of  the  House.  When  the  Post  Office  appropriation  bill  was  under 
consideration,  on  the  3d  of  March  last,  which  was  only  one  day  from  adjournment; 
when  this  imporant  bill  for  moving  on  the  wheels  of  Government,  and  in  transmitting 
intelligence  in  every  direction,  was  in  a  condition  to  admit  of  no  delay,  at  that  time 
Mr.  Grow  introduced  a  resolution,  which  I  will  ask  the  Clerk  to  read,  in  connection 
with  the  proceedings  which  followed. 

The  Clerk  read,  as  follows: 

"Mr.  Grow.  I  rise  to  what  seems  to  me  a  privileged  question.  I  do  not 
propose  to  discuss  this  question,  but  I  want  to  state  it,  and  have  the  House  act  upon 
it.  Section  seven,  article  one  of  the  Constitution,  provides  that  all  bills  for  raising 
revenue  shall  originate  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  I  propose  now  to  offer  the 
following  resolution: 

Resolved,  That  House  bill  No.  872,  making  appropriations  for  defraying  the 
expenses  of  the  Post  Office  Department  for  the  year  ending  30th  June,  i860,  with  the 
Senate  amendments  thereto,  be  returned  to  the  Senate,  as  section  thirteen  of  said 
amendments  is  in  the  nature  of  a  revenue  bill. 

"I  want  to  state  the  reason  for  this  resolution. 
*********** 

"Mr.  Grow.  I  hold  the  course  I  propose  is  the  proper  one,  when  one  House 
thinks  its  privileges  have  been  invaded  by  the  other.  The  thirteenth  section  of  the 
amendments  of  the  Senate,  referred  to  in  my  resolution,  provides  for  raising  the 
postages.  The  postages  are  collected  and  paid  into  the  Treasury,  and  we  appropriate 
them,  the  same  as  any  other  revenue,  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  the  Department. 
The  postages  for  ocean  mail  service  are  collected  in  the  same  way,  and  paid  into  the 
Treasury.  So  that  this  kind  of  revenue,  I  take  it,  comes  within  that  clause  of  the 
Constitution  which  prohibits  the  Senate  from  originating  revenue  bills.  I  can  see  no 
difference  between  collecting  ten  cents  on  a  letter  and  collecting  ten  cents  on  broad- 
cloth. In  the  one  case  the  duty  is  collected  from  the  citizens  who  consume  the 
imported  goods.  But  suppose  a  citizen  does  not  consume  any  imported  goods:  then 
he  is  not  taxed;  and  so  the  person  who  sends  no  letters  through  the  mails  is  not 
taxed." 

*********** 

"Mr.  Houston.  I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman  whether  it  is  not  competent  for 
the  Senate  to  originate  a  bill  proposing  to  bring  unsold  lands  into  market,  and  direct 
their  sale  ?  And  I  desire  to  ask  him  if  it  is  not  competent  for  the  Senate  to  originate 
a  bill  increasing  the  minimum  price  of  the  public  lands  from  $1.25  per  acre  to  any 
greater  sum  they  may  see  fit? 

"Mr.  Grow.  The  first  part  of  the  gentleman's  question  I  answer  in  the  affirma- 
tive; but  the  last  part  of  it  in  the  negative.  The  Senate  cannot  originate  a  bill  increas- 
ing the  price  of  the  public  lands,  for  that  is  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  Government. 
If  they  can  do  that,  they  can  originate  a  bill  to  raise  revenue  in  any  other  way. 

"But,  sir,  I  did  not  rise  to  argue  the  question,  but  merely  to  state  my  point. 
This  thirteenth  section  proposes  to  increase  the  present  rates  of  postage  to  five  cents, 
and  in  some  cases,  to  ten  cents;  which  would  increase  the  taxation  0:1  those  who  use 
the  mails.  Now,  I  take  it  that  that  is  just  exactly  the  same  as  if  they  were  to  attempt 
to  raise  the  tariff  on  imported  goods,  and  increase  the  taxes  on  those  who  consume 
them.  I  can  see  no  distinction  between  the  two  cases.  Without  further  remarks,  I 
ask  for  a  vote  on  my  resolution. 

"Mr.  Ritchie.  I  desire  to  say  that  I  never  will  consent  to  see  the  Speaker  o1 
this  House  decide  questions  of  the  constitutional  power  of  the  House  as  points  of 
order,  and  say  whether  we  shall  receive  bills  from  the  Senate,  or  not.  It  is  putting 
the  whole  constitutional  power  of  this  House  in  the  hands  of  the  Speaker.  It  is  a 
question  for  the  House  to  decide,  what  is  its  own  constitutional  power;  and  I  would 
trust  no  Speaker  with  any  such  power. 

"Mr.  Grow.  I  thought  the  understanding  was,  that  we  were  to  have  a  vote  on 
my  resolution,  as  a  question  of  the  privileges  of  the  House. 


367 

"Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri.  I  think  the  point  of  order  has  been  well  answered 
by  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  [Mr.  Ritchie.]  The  section  of  the  Constitution 
to  which  the  gentleman  refers  is  not  applicable  to  any  case  of  this  kind.  That  .section 
of  the  Constitution  is  in  these  words: 

"  'All  bills  for  raising  revenue  shall  originate  in  the  House  of  Representative  s; 
but  the  Senate  may  propose  or  concur  with  amendments,  as  on  other  bills.' 

"  That  section  undoubtedly  prescribes  that  bills  for  raising  revenue,  such  as  are 
enumerated  in  the  first  clause  of  the  eighth  section  of  the  Constitution,  must  origi- 
nate  in  the  House  of  Representatives.     That  section  reads  as  follow^  : 

"  'The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and 
excises.' 

"The  amendment  of  the  Senate  provides  for  no  taxes  upon  the  people,  as  con- 
templated by  the  section  of  the  Constitution  conferring  upon  Congress  the  power  ol 
raising  taxes.  But  we  look  to  the  public  lands  as  a  source  of  revenue;  and  we  look 
to  the  deduction  from  the  pay  of  mariners  for  the  purpose  of  supporting  marine  hos- 
pitals, as  a  portion  of  the  revenue,  as  well  as  to  the  postages.  If  the  point  made  by 
the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  be  correct,  then  the  Senate  has  no  power  to  pro- 
vide for  the  sale  of  the  public  lands,  because  they  are  a  source  of  revenue;  the  Sen 
ate  have  no  right  to  provide  for  imposing  light  dues  or  tonnage  dues,  and  has  no 
right  to  provide  for  a  deduction  from  the  wages  of  seamen  for  the  support  of  marine 
hospitals,  because,  in  his  opinion,  they  would  be  bills  raising  revenue. 

"  Mr.  Grow.  I  propose  this  as  a  question  of  the  privileges  of  the  House  under 
the  Constitution,  and  not  as  a  point  of  order,  as  gentlemen  say." 

********** 

"  Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri.     I  move,  then,  to  lay  the  resolution  on  the  table." 
"Mr.  Grow.     I  demand  the  yeas  and  nays  upon  that  motion. 
"The  yeas  and  nays  were  ordered. 

"The  question  was  taken;  and  it  was  decided  in  the  negative — yeas  80, 
nays  106." 

*********** 

"So  the  House  refused  to  lay  the  resolution  on  the  table." 

*********** 

"The  question  was  taken;  and  it  was  decided  in  the  affirmative — yeas  117, 
nays  76." 

*********** 

"So  the  resolution  was  adopted." 
*********** 

"Mr.  Grow  moved  to  reconsider  the  vote  just  taken;  and  also  moved  that  the 
motion  to  reconsider  be  laid  upon  the  table. 

"The  latter  motion  was  agreed  to." 

Mr.  Vallandigham.  I  rise  to  suggest  to  the  gentleman  that  we  proceed  to  a 
ballot,  and  then  adjourn.  The  gentleman  can  finish  his  speech  on  the  next  day  the 
House  is  in  session. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  will  finish  this  particular  subject  before  I  yield.  Mr. 
Clerk,  when  I  was  speaking  on  the  subject  of  the  speech  of  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania  the  other  day,  I  was  not  appraised  as  I  have  been  since  of  the  fact, 
and,  I  confess,  I  am  very  much  astonished  that  it  should  be  so,  when  the  gentleman 
scouted  my  reading  of  the  telegraphic  report  of  his  speech,  that  the  reporters  of  this 
House  had  it  down  totidem  verbis,  as  1  have  read  it  from  the  telegraphic  reports,  and 
that  the  changes  made  were  made  by  the  gentleman  himself. 

Mr.  Grow.  I  state  to  the  gentleman  again,  that  in  the  paragraph  he  has  read,  I 
made  no  change,  except  to  substitute  the  word  "publishing"  for  "Republican." 
So  far  as  the  report  in  the  Herald  is  concerned,  I  know  nothing  about  it.  I  will  say 
that  I  never  used  the  words  "Black  Republican  "  upon  this  floor. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Well,  let  it  go  at  that.  I  am  very  glad  the  gentleman 
disclaims  the  word,  though  it  may  have  been  improperly  implied.  But  to  proceed: 
stated  that  on  the  third  of  March,  a  few  hours  before  the  adjournment,  the  gentleman 
from  Pennsylvania  introduced  the  amendment  which  has  been  read;  at  that  very  tune 
raising  a  constitutional  question  between  the  two  Houses.  I  charge  that  the  gentle- 
man  expected  that  his  so  doing  would  involve  a  loss  of  the  bill,  and  that  he  desired 
that  it  should  be  lost.  And  here  I  say,  and  let  the  mail  service  of  the  country 
remember  it,  that  on  the  last  day  of  the  session  this  important  bill  was  embarrassed 
by  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  by  raising  a  constitutional  question  with  the 
Senate.  I  said  upon  this  floor  that  it  was  an  insult  to  the  coordinate  branch  of  this 
Congress,  which  had  as  much  right  to  judge  of  its  constitutional  powers  as  we  had  to 
judge  of  ours;  that  it  was  no  time  to  raise  a  question  of  that  sort;  and  that  it  would 


368 

be  the  loss  of  the  bill.  The  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  after  a  brief  argument, 
still  persisted  in  holding  on  to  his  amendment,  and  the  question  was  finally  taken  by 
yeas  and  nays;  and  it  was  decided  in  the  manner  I  have  stated — yeas  80,  nays  106;  the 
result  of  which  was,  as  nearly  as  I  recollect,  to  lay  the  resolution  upon  the  table. 
I  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  matter,  because  I  wish  to  present  the  whole 
subject. 

Well,  Mr.  Clerk,  the  bill  went  to  the  Senate  with  that  amendment  on  it.  The 
resolution  went  back  to  the  Senate.  It  was  lecturing  them  upon  their  duty;  it  was 
arranging  them  for  exceeding  their  constitutional  powers;  and  the  Senate,  very 
properly,  in  reply,  said  what  I  will  now  proceed  to  read,  in  connection  with  the  pro- 
ceedings in  the  house. 

Mr  Phelps  was  then  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means: 

"Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri.  There  is  a  message  which  has  been  sent  from  the 
Senate,  in  relation  to  the  Post  Office  appropriation  bill.     I  desire  to  have  it  read. 

Mr.  Grow.  I  desire  to  understand,  first,  whether  the  reading  of  the  message 
will  bring  up  the  bill  to  be  acted  on.  I  want  to  understand  that,  for  I  thought  I  had 
an  understanding  with  the  House  on  the  vote  on  this  question  this  morning;  but  there 
seemed  to  be  a  disposition  not  to  carry  it  out  very  well.  I  only  want  to  understand 
now  the  effect  of  the  motion. 

"Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri.     I  only  ask  that  the  message  may  be  read. 

The  Clerk  read  the  message,  as  follows: 

In  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  March  3,  1859. 

"  The  House  of  Representatives  having  communicated  to  the  Senate  a  resolution, 
in  the  following  words,  to  wit: 

"  '•Resolved,  That  the  House  bill  (No.  872)  making  appropriations  for  defraying 
the  expenses  of  the  Post  Office  Department  for  the  year  ending  the  30th  June,  i860, 
with  the  Senate  amendments  thereto,  be  returned  to  the  Senate,  as  section  thirteen 
of  said  amendments  is  in  the  nature  of  a  revenue  bill.' 

"  Resolved  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  That  the  Senate  and  the  House  being 
of  right,  equally  competent  each  to  judge  of  the  propriety  and  constitutionality  of  its 
own  action,  the  Senate  has  exercised  said  right  in  its  action  on  the  amendments  sent 
to  the  House,  leaving  to  the  House  its  right  to  adopt  or  reject  each  of  said  amend- 
ments at  its  pleasure. 

"Resolved,  That  this  resolution  be  communicated  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  that  the  bill  and  amendments  aforesaid  be  communicated  therewith. 

Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri.  I  move  to  suspend  the  rules,  to  take  up  that  message 
and  the  bill  and  amendments. 

"Mr.  Harris.  I  desire  to  ask  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means,  whether  he  is  not  prepared  to  report  a  new  bill  making  appropriations  for  the 
Post  Office  Department? 

"Mr.  Greenwood.     If  he  is,  I  hope  he  will  not  do  it. 

"Mr.  Harris.     Very  well,  I  desire  to  ask  the  question." 

"The  question  recurred  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri,  to  suspend  the 
rules." 

"  Mr.  Dean  demanded  the  yeas  and  nays. 

"  The  yeas  and  nays  were  ordered. 

"Mr.  Harris.  I  should  be  glad  if  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means  would  answer  my  question. 

"  Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri.     I  will  answer  it. 

"Mr.  Houston.     I  object. 

"  Mr.  Harris.     Then  I  hope  the  bill  will  not  be  taken  from  the  table. 

"The  question  was  taken;  and  it  was  decided  in  the  negative — yeas  94, 
nays  85." 

"So  (two  thirds  not  voting  in  favor  thereof)  the  rules  were  not  suspended. 

"Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri.  I  now  call  up  the  message  from  the  Senate,  relative 
to  the  resolution  adopted  by  the  House,  returning  the  Post  Office  appropriation  bill. 

"The  message  was  read,  as  follows: 

"In  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  March  3,  1859. 

"  The  House  of  Representatives  having,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Senate,  departed 
from  the  proper  parliamentary  usages  and  method  of  transacting  business  between 
the  two  Houses  by  its  action  in  regard  to  the  bill  of  the  House  (No.  872)  making 
appropriations  for  the  expense  of  the  Post  Office  Department  for  the  year  ending 
June,  i860:     Therefore 


369 

"Resolved,  That  the  Senate  appoint  a  committee  of  conference,  to  meet  a  like 
committee  on  the  part  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  for  the  purpose  of  consulting 
as  to  what  action  ought  to  be  had  by  the  respective  Houses  in  respect  to  the  said  bill 

"Ordered,  That  Mr.  Stuart,  Mr.  Pearce,  and  Mr.  Foot,  be  appointed  managers  of 
the  said  conference  on  the  part  of  the  Senate. 

"  Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri.  I  move  that  a  committee  of  conference,  on  the  part 
of  the  House,  be  appointed  to  meet  the  committee  which  has  been  appointed  on  the 
part  of  the  Senate. 

"Mr.  Grow.  Does  this  message  bring  up  the  bill  itself?  If  it  does,  I  shall 
object  to  its  being  taken  up. 

"  Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri.  It  is  merely  a  request  on  the  part  of  the  Senate  for  a 
committee  of  conference  as  to  the  propriety  of  the  action  on  the  part  of  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress. 

"  Mr.  Grow.  I  object  to  the  bill  being  taken  up  at  all.  I  have  no  objection  to 
this  request  for  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  conference  being  granted,  if  it  will 
not  be  construed  to  bring  up  the  bill. 

"The  Speaker.  The  Chair  supposes,  if  the  motion  of  the  gentleman  from 
Missouri  should  be  agreed  to,  it  would  be  necessary  for  the  committee  of  conference 
to  have  the  bill  in  their  possession. 

"Mr.  Grow.  I  do  not  see  why  that  should  be  necessary.  We  sent  to  the  Senate 
a  bill  making  appropriations  for  the  support  of  the  Post  Office  Department  for  the 
year  ending  30th  June,  i860.  They  returned  the  bill  with  a  provision  on  it  for  raising 
revenue.  We  sent  a  resolution  returning  the  bill,  with  our  reasons  therefor.  They 
have  returned  us  this  answer.  Now,  if  the  effect  of  the  motion  of  the  gentleman  from 
Missouri  is  simply  to  appoint  a  committee  of  conference  on  the  resolution,  I  have  no 
objection.     If  it  is  to  take  up  the  bill,  then  I  object. 

"The  Speaker.  The  Chair  supposes  it  will  be  necessary  for  them  to  have  the 
bill  before  them,  in  order  to  determine  the  character  of  the  amendments  objected  to 
by  the  House. 

"Mr.  Grow.  The  preamble  of  the  resolution  sent  to  the  House  sets  forth  the 
ground  of  their  request  for  a  committee  of  conference  ;  that  we  have  not  complied 
with  the  parliamentary  usage  in  the  method  of  transacting  business  between  the  two 
Houses.  I  suppose  that  is  what  the  committee  of  conference  would  have  to  act  upon. 
If  that  is  the  understanding,  I  have  no  objection  to  it." 

"Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri.  I  have  this  to  say  to  the  House  :  there  has  been  a 
deliberate  expression  of  opinion  on  the  part  of  the  House  in  reference  to  the  action 
of  the  Senate,  and  it  is  probable  that,  if  a  committee  is  appointed,  a  majority  of  that 
committee  will  be  composed  of  gentlemen  whose  opinions  correspond  with  the  action 
of  the  House.  I  have  had  no  conference  with  the  Speaker  as  to  whom  he  would 
appoint  ;  but  that  would  be  the  proper  parliamentary  course." 

•*#-**■#■•*#*■•*#■■*•** 

"Mr.  Grow.  I  wish  to  say  a  word  upon  the  subject  of  the  action  of  the  House. 
The  proceedings  we  have  instituted  here  in  respect  to  this  bill  are  in  accordance  with 
parliamentary  usage  ;  and  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  House  that  it  is,  I  propose 
to  read  a  paragraph  from  Ferral's  Law  of  Parliament,  page  103.     He  says  : 

"On  the  24th  July,  1661,  the  Lords  sent  down  a  bill  for  paving  the  streets  and 
highways  of  Westminster,  to  which  they  desire  the  concurrence  of  the  Commons.*" 
As  soon  as  the  bill  is  read  the  first  time,  'the  House  observing  that  said  bill  was  to 
alter  the  course  of  the  law  in  part,  and  to  lay  a  charge  upon  the  people  ;  and  conceiv- 
ing that  it  is  a  privilege  inherent  to  this  House,  that  bills  of  that  nature  ought  to  be 
first  considered  here,'  the  bill  is  laid  aside,  and  it  is  ordered  'that  the  Lords  be  ac- 
quainted therewith,  and  with  the  reasons  inducing  the  House  thereto  ;  and  the  Lords 
are  to  be  desired,  for  that  cause,  not  to  suffer  any  mention  of  the  said  bill  to  remain 
on  the  journals  of  their  House  ;  and  that  the  Commons,  approving  the  purport,  have 
ordered  in  a  bill  of  the  same  nature.' 

"  'On  the  15th  February,  1664,  a  bill  somewhat  similar  was  laid  aside  on  the  same 
grounds.' 

"Now,  that  is  what  we  have  done.  We  have  not  approved  of  the  revenue  por- 
tion of  the  bill  of  the  Senate. 

"  Here  is  another  case  : 

"  'On  the  27th  of  April,  1640,  upon  the  report  of  a  conference,  in  which  the  Lords 
had  proposed  that  the  subject  of  supply  should  have  precedence  before  any  other 
matters,  the  Commons  resolved  that  their  Lordships  voting,  propounding,  touching 
matters  of  supply  of  such  sort  as  is  contained  in  this  report  before  it  arrived  from  this 
House,  is  a  breach  of  the  privileges  of  this  House.' 


370 

"Now,  we  have  kept  within  the  parliamentary  usage.  The  Senate,  by  this 
resolution,  simply  say  that  they  have  the  right  to  judge  of  their  powers  under  the 
Constitution,  and  they  ask  us  to  confer  with  them  on  this  question  of  power.  I  am 
willing  to  confer  with  them  on  that  question,  but  I  am  not  willing  to  take  up  the  bill, 
which  we  have  once  laid  aside. 

"Mr.  Washburn,  of  Maine.  This  bill  is  upon  the  Speaker's  table,  and  the 
House  has  refused  to  take  it  up.  Now,  I  want  to  know  if,  by  the  legerdemain  of  a 
conference,  the  bill  can  be  taken  up  without  a  two-thirds  vote  ? 

"  Mr.  Grow.  I  want  the  Chair  to  understand  that,  if  the  taking  up  of  the  message 
involves  the  taking  up  of  the  bill,  I  object. 

"The  Speaker.  The  Chair,  in  the  hope  of  being  able  to  effect  something  that 
will  lead  to  a  result  that  will  be  satisfactory  to  the  House,  will  retain  possession  of 
the  bill  if  the  message  of  the  Senate  is  concurred  in,  so  that  the  question  before  the 
committee  of  conference  will  be  one  of  form  rather  than  of  substance. 

"Mr.  Grow.     I  demand  the  previous  question. 

"Mr.  Walbridge.  I  would  inquire  if  the  bill  still  remains  upon  the  Speaker's 
table  ? 

"The  Speaker.     It  does. 

"Mr.  Walbridge.     And  it  will  require  a  two-thirds  vote  to  take  it  up? 

"The  Speaker.     It  will. 

"The  previous  question  was  seconded,  and  the  main  question  ordered;  and 
under  the  operation  thereof  the  motion  of  Mr.  Phelps,  of  Missouri,  that  a  committee 
of  conference  be  appointed  to  meet  the  committee  on  the  part  of  the  Senate,  was 
agreed  to." 

Here,  you  see,  that  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  fought  this  question  to  the 
iast.  Deeply  interested  as  he  professes  to  be,  in  this  important  arm  of  the  public  service, 
you  see  him  still  quarreling  with  the  Senate,  and  hanging  on  to  this  bill  in  the  last 
expiring  hours  of  the  session.  I  will  not  dwell  further  upon  this  point.  Suffice  it  to 
say  the  bill  failed  in  the  manner  I  have  stated: 

"Mr.  Letcher.  I  rise  to  a  question  of  privilege.  I  am  instructed  by  the  com- 
mittee of  conference  on  the  disagreement  of  the  two  Houses  relative  to  the  action  of 
the  Senate  on  the  Post  Office  appropriation  bill,  to  make  a  report. 

"The  report  was  read  as  follows  : 

"  The  committee  of  conference  on  the  disagreement  between  the  two  Houses  on 
the  resolutions  adopted  by  them,  respectively,  in  relation  to  the  action  of  the  House 
on  the  Senate's  amendments  to  the  bill  (H.  R.  872)  making  appropriations  for  defray- 
ing the  expenses  of  the  Post  Office  Department  for  the  year  ending  the  30th  of  June, 
i860,  having  met,  after  full  and  free  conference  have  agreed  as  follows  :  That  while 
neither  House  is  understood  to  waive  any  constitutional  right  which  they  may  re- 
spectively consider  to  belong  to  them,  it  be  recommended  to  the  House  to  pass  the  ac- 
companying bill,  and  that  the  Senate  concur  in  the  same  when  it  shall  be  sent  to 
them. 

<  iiaki.es  E.  Stuart,    ] 

J.  A.  Pearce,  >  Managers  on  the  part  of  the  Senate. 

Solomon  Foot,  ; 

J.  Lei ciier,  J 

L.  O'B.  Branch,  >  Managers  on  the  part  of  the  House. " 

Galusha  A.  Grow,       ) 

Mr.  Grow.  The  gentleman  will  allow  me  to  say  that  a  bill  passed  the  House 
before  that,  and  was  sent  to  the  Senate. 

Mr.   SMITH,  of  Virginia.     I  know. 

Mr.   Grow.     I  only  wanted  the  whole  record  to  be  produced. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  The  bill  reported  by  the  committee  of  conference  here 
follows,  but  it  is  unnecessary  that  I  should  read  it. 

The  following  proceedings  were  had  upon  that  report : 

"  The  bill  was  read  a  first  and  second  time. 

"Mr.  Letcher  demanded  the  previous  question  upon  its  engrossment  and  third 
reading. 

"The  previous  question  was  seconded,  and  the  main  question  ordered  to  be  put. 

"  Mr.   Mason.     I  call  for  the  yeas  and  nays  upon  the  engrossment. 

"  Mr.  LETCHER.  It  is  now  eleven  o'clock.  There  is  but  one  hour  of  the  session 
left,  and  the  Senate  has  yet  to  act  upon  the  bill.  I  hope  the  yeas  and  nays  will  not 
be  ordered. 

"Mr.  Mason.  I  see  there  is  an  appropriation  of  about  two  million  dollars  for 
building  houses  all  over  the  country.     I  insist  on  my  call  for  the  yeas  and  nays. 


371 

"  The  yeas  and  nays  were  not  ordered. 

"  Mr.  Mason.     I  call  for  tellers  on  the  yeas  and  nays. 

"Tellers  were  not  ordered. 

"Mr.  Mason.     I  call  for  tellers  on  the  question. 

"  Tellers  were  not  ordered. 

"The  bill  was  ordered  to  be  engrossed  and  read  a  third  time ;  and  being  en- 
grossed, it  was  read  the  third  time,  and  passed. 

"  Mr.  Letcher  moved  to  reconsider  the  vote  by  which  the  bill  was  passed  ;  anu 
also  moved  to  lay  the  motion  to  reconsider  on  the  table. 

"  The  latter  motion  was  agreed  to." 

So  you  see  that  the  proposition  of  the  gentleman  delayed  action  upon  this  bill 
until  within  one  hour  of  the  adjournment,  and  we  passed  the  bill  within  that  hour. 
The  Senate,  incumbered  already  with  the  load  of  business  before  it,  had  also  to  act 
upon  it.  The  result  was  that  the  bdl  failed — failed  by  the  opposition  of  Mr.  Toombs, 
it  is  said.  But  it  failed,  as  it  was  expected  to  fail  by  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylva- 
nia, 1  have  no  sort  of  doubt.  Its  failure  was  the  act  of  that  gentleman  ;  and  it  he 
expects  to  make  capital  out  of  it  for  the  benefit  of  himself  and  his  party,  I  hope  this 
exposition  will  render  the  hope  futile,  and  place  the  responsibility  where  it  properly 
belongs. 

I  have  had  occasion  to  refer  to  this  subject  on  several  occasions  before  ;  and  I 
now  repeat,  that  there  was  a  bill,  upon  the  last  day  of  the  session,  providing  for  car- 
rying on  this  very  meritorious  branch  of  the  public  service  ;  and  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania,  at  that  hour,  undertook  to  raise  a  constitutional  question.  A  second 
"Daniel  come  to  judgment  "  undertakes  to  set  up  his  voice  against  the  judgment  of 
the  United  States  Senate.  He  said  the  Senate  had  not  the  power  which  it  had  asserted 
and  exercised,  and  he  introduced  a  proposition,  the  effect  of  which  was  to  leave  this 
branch  of  the  public  service  in  its  present  embarrassed  condition.  I  say,  then,  that 
he  is  responsible  to  the  country,  as  well  as  to  those  persons  immediately  interested, 
for  the  grand  catastrophe  or  result  that  has  occurred. 

Mr.  Branch.  It  was  my  fortune,  during  the  last  session  of  Congress,  to  be  on 
the  committee  of  conference  that  had  charge  of  the  disagreeing  votes  of  the  two 
Houses  on  the  Post  Office  bill.  The  committee,  on  the  part  of  the  House,  was  com- 
posed of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia — the  Governor-elect  of  that  State — (Mr.  Letcher) 
the  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  (Mr.  Grow),  and  myself  ;  and  I  may  say 
to  the  House  that  nothing  could  have  surprised  me  more  than  to  hear,  the  day  before 
yesterday,  the  loud  lamentation  that  was  made  by  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania 
over  the  loss  of  that  bill,  and  the  present  unhappy  fate  of  the  mail  contractors  of  the 
country. 

My  friend  from  Virginia  has  stated  very  well  a  large  part  of  the  history  of  that 
bill.  I  had  an  opportunity  of  having  some  peculiar  knowledge  on  the  subject  ;  and 
I  say  here,  in  the  presence  of  the  House,  in  the  presence  of  the  gentleman  from  Penn- 
sylvania himself,  and  where  it  may  be  known  and  heard  by  the  mail  contractors  of 
the  country,  that  that  gentleman,  and  he  alone,  is  responsible  for  the  defeat  of  the 
bill  making  appropriations  for  the  support  of  the  Post  Office  Department  for  the  present 
year.  The  gentleman  from  Virginia  has  caused  to  be  read  a  resolution  offered  by 
the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  by  which,  when  we  received  that  appropriation 
bill  from  the  Senate,  he  proposed  to  send  it  back,  and  he  and  his  party  succeeded  in 
sending  it  back  into  the  teeth  of  the  Senate.  The  pretense  on  which  that  resolution 
was  passed 

Mr.  Grow.  I  suppose  the  gentleman  does  not  mean  exactly  to  say  that  the  Senate 
sent  us  any  bill?     It  was  our  own  bill  that  was  returned. 

Mr.  Branch.  Yes.  We  passed  a  bill  making  appropriations  for  the  support  of 
the  Post  Office  Department.  That  bill  went  to  the  Senate.  The  Senate,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  its  constitutional  powers  and  rights,  amended  that  bill  in  many  particulars  ; 
and,  among  other  things,  inserted  a  proviso  for  the  increase  of  the  rates  of  postage. 
When  the  bill  and  amendments  came  before  the  House,  the  honorable  gentleman 
from  Pennsylvania  offered  the  resolution  that  has  been  read.  The  ground  on  which 
it  was  proposed  to  return  the  bill  was,  that  the' Senate  had  transcended  its  constitu- 
tional powers  in  inserting  a  proviso  which  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  con- 
strued to  be  a  provision  for  raising  revenue. 

Now,  Mr.  Clerk,  without  intending  to  impeach  the  motives  of  the  gentleman 
from  Pennsylvania,  I  say,  and  I  think  I  can  show,  that  that  was  not  the  real  motive 
which  the  honorable  gentleman  had  in  offering  that  resolution.  I  undertake  to  say, 
and  I  think  I  can  show,  that  the  object  which  he  had  in  view  was  to  defeat  the  bill,  in 
order  to  compel  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  call  Congress  together  in  extra 
session,  so  that  he  and  his  friends  might,  at  an  earlier  day  than  they  otherwise  could, 
get  control  of  the  organization  of  the  House. 


372 

Mr.  Grow.     Mr.  Clerk 

Mr.  Branch.     Let  me  complete  my  statement. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  wish  it  understood  that  I  would  rather  hear  the  gentle- 
man from  Pennsylvania  speak  in  his  own  time.  I  do  not  want  to  publish  his  remarks. 
It  is  enough  for  me  to  publish  my  own.  Let  the  gentleman  from  North  Carolina 
go  on. 

Mr.  Branch.  I  think  I  can  show  that  the  real  object  of  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania,  and  of  his  friends  on  this  floor,  was  to  defeat  the  Post  Office  appropria- 
tion bill,  in  order  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  might  be  obliged  to  call 
Congress  together,  and  that  they  might  thereby,  at  an  early  day,  get  control  of  the 
organization  of  the  House.  And  why  do  I  think  so  ?  Why  do  I  say  that  the  charge 
of  the  Senate's  having  transcended  its  constitutional  power  was  a  pretense?  I  say  so 
because  the  resolution,  passed  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  sent  to  this 
House  in  response  to  that  which  has  been  read,  indicated  clearly  that  the  Senate 
would  not  insist  on  its  amendment  increasing  the  postage.  Here  is  the  resolution. 
It  was  offered  by  a  Senator,  whose  name  and  fame  are  as  intimately  connected  with 
the  Senate,  as  the  name  and  fame  of  any  other  member  of  that  body.  Mr.  Crittenden, 
of  Kentucky,  offered  the  following  resolution;  which  was  passed  : 

"The  House  of  Representatives  having  communicated  to  the  Senate  a  resolution 
in  the  following  words,  to  wit : 

"  '  Resolved,  That  House  bill  (No.  872)  making  appropriations  for  defraying  the 
expenses  of  the  Post  Office  Department  for  the  year  ending  30th  June,  i860,  with  the 
Senate  amendments  thereto,  be  returned  to  the  Senate,  as  section  thirteen  of  said 
amendments  is  in  the  nature  of  a  revenue  bill.' 

"  Resolved  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  That  the  Senate  and  House  being,  of 
right,  equally  competent  each  to  judge  of  the  propriety  and  constitutionality  of  its 
own  action,  the  Senate  has  exercised  said  right  in  its  action  on  the  amendments  sent 
to  the  House,  leaving  to  the  House  its  right  to  adopt  or  reject  each  of  said  amend- 
ments at  its  pleasure. 

'■'■Resolved,  That  this  resolution  be  communicated  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  that  the  bill  and  amendments  aforesaid  be  transmitted  therewith." 

Now,  I  say  that  this  resolution,  on  the  face  of  it,  conveyed  the  information  to  the 
House  that  all  the  Senate  asked  of  it  was  that  the  House  should  not  cast  an  insult  on 
the  Senate;  should  not  throw  this  bill  back  into  their  teeth,  but  should  relieve  them  of 
the  parliamentary  discourtesy  which,  as  every  man  knows,  was  implied  in  the  resolu- 
tion which  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  had  offered,  and  which  the 
House  had  adopted.  If  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  had  been  anxious  to  pass 
the  bill  for  the  support  of  the  Post  Office  Department,  and  to  save  the  mail  contractors 
from  ruin,  he  had  notice  in  the  very  terms  of  the  resolution  that  all  he  had  to  do  was 
to  take  up  the  amendments  and  let  the  House  disagree  to  that  which  proposed  to 
increase  the  rates  of  postage.  The  Senate  would  have  receded  from  it,  and  the  bill 
would  have  been  passed. 

Mr.  Grow.  Did  not  the  House  afterwards,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  pass  a  new  bill 
making  appropriations  for  the  Post  Office  Department,  and  send  it  to  the  Senate  ? 

Mr.  Branch.  I  repeat  that  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  had 
notice  in  that  resolution  of  the  Senate  that  all  that  the  Senate  objected  to  was  the  insult 
implied  in  the  action  of  the  House.  If  the  House  had  taken  up  the  amendments  and 
disagreed  to  the  one  increasing  the  rates  of  postage,  the  Senate  would  have  receded, 
and  would  have  passed  the  bill  in  the  form  acceptable  to  the  House. 

I  do  not  intend  to  divulge  anything  that  occurred  in  the  committee  of  conference; 
but  I  assert  here,  that  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  knew  then,  and 
knows  now,  that  if  the  House  had  taken  up  the  bill  and  disagreed  to  that  amendment, 
the  Senate  would  have  receded  from  it  unanimously.  I  assert  that,  with  a  knowledge 
of  that  fact;  with  the  knowledge  that  if  we  would  only  pursue  that  course,  the  bill 
would  become  a  law;  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  persisted  in  refusing  to 
adopt  that  course,  and  insisted  on  compelling  the  Senate  to  swallow  an  insult  or  to 
reject  the  bill.  I  assert  it  here,  in  the  presence  of  the  gentleman,  and  I  challenge 
contradiction,  that  the  gentleman  knew  that  all  the  Senate  asked  was  that  the  House 
would  take  up  the  bill  and  disagree  to  the  Senate's  amendment,  and  then  the  Senate 
was  ready  to  recede  from  that  amendment. 

Moreover,  Mr.  Clerk,  I  have  another  proof.  The  gentleman  asserted  that  his 
reason  for  refusing  to  take  the  bill  from  the  table  was  because  the  Senate  had  trans- 
cended its  constitutional  authority  in  inserting  that  amendment.  I  ask  the  gentleman 
why  it  was  that  he  voted  against  the  bill  before  it  went  to  the  Senate,  and  before  the 
Senate  had  ever  put  that  amendment  on  it?  That  is  a  point  that  I  want  understood  by 
the  House,  and  by  the  mail  contractors  of  the  country — that  when  the  bill  making 
appropriations  for  the  support  of  the  Post  Office  Department  was  pending  before  the 


373 

House,  on  the  26th  of  February,  before  it  had  ever  been  to  the  Senate,  or  had  any 
unconstitutional  amendment  upon  it,  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  and  the 
whole  body  of  his  friends,  with  two  exceptions,  voted  against  the  bill  and  rejected  it. 
But  two  members  on  that  side  of  the  House  voted  for  its  passage.  Where  was  all 
their  sympathy  for  the  mail  contractors  then  ?  How  was  it  that  some  of  this  tender- 
ness of  conscience  that  they  feel  now,  some  of  this  ardent  sensibility  that  seems  to  be 
actuating  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  now,  was  not  felt  then?  There  was  no 
Senate  amendment  on  the  bill  then;  and  yet  a  clean  bill,  perfected  in  Committee  of 
the  Whole  of  this  House,  and  with  no  provisions  in  it  but  such  as  had  been  inserted 
by  a  majority  of  the  House,  was  rejected  by  that  gentleman  and  his  friends,  but 
two  members  of  the  Republican  party  voting  in  favor  of  it,  and  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  present  candidate  of  the  other  side  for  Speaker,  voting  against  it! 
The  bill  then  stood  rejected.  The  Democratic  side  of  the  House,  anxious  to  make 
provision  for  the  support  of  the  Government,  and  for  the  relief  of  the  mail  contractors 
of  the  country,  moved  a  reconsideration  of  the  bill;  it  was  brought  before  the  House 
by  a  reconsideration,  and  the  House  again  voted  on  it.  And,  sir,  upon  that  second 
vote — the  bill  being  still  without  any  amendment  from  the  Senate,  for  it  had  never  been 
to  the  Senate — the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  the  Republican  candidate  for 
Speaker  at  this  time,  and  the  whole  body  of  the  Republican  party,  with  but  seven 
exceptions,  again  voted  against  the  passage  of  the  bill !  They  voted  against  it  the 
second  time  after  it  had  been  announced  that,  having  been  once  reconsidered, 
another  motion  to  reconsider  would  not  be  in  order,  and  that,  if  rejected  then,  it 
would  have  to  stand  rejected  altogether.  All  this,  Mr.  Clerk,  occurred  before  the  bill 
had  been  to  the  Senate.  If  the  object  of  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  was  to 
prevent  the  Senate  from  encroaching  upon  the  prerogatives  of  the  House — if  that  was 
his  sole  object  in  having  his  resolution  passed — what  reason  can  he  give  to  the  mail 
contractors  of  the  country  for  having  voted  against  the  bill  twice  before  the  Senate 
amendment  had  been  put  upon  it. 

Now,  I  think  I  am  justifiable,  in  the  face  of  these  facts,  in  saying  that  the  design 
which  the  gentleman  had  in  view  was  to  kill  the  bill,  and  that  the  motive  and  the 
object  that  he  had  was  to  compel  the  President  to  call  Congress  together  shortly  after 
the  4th  of  March.  Why,  who  of  those  of  us  who  were  here  in  the  last  Congress,  and  were 
in  this  Hall  on  the  last  night  of  the  session,  has  forgotten  with  what  frantic  vehemence, 
when  a  conference  committee  was  applied  for  by  the  Senate  and  was  about  to  be 
appointed,  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  got  up  and  resisted  it,  until  he  had  an 
assurance  that  the  bill  itself  could  not  go  to  the  committee  ?  So  much  was  he  afraid 
that  the  committee  of  conference  would  agree  upon  some  bill  that  could  pass  and 
become  a  law,  and  that  the  cherished  object  of  himself  and  his  friends  to  have  an  extra 
session  would  thus  be  defeated,  that  he  stood  here  just  before  daybreak  on  the  4th  of 
March  last,  and  resisted  to  the  very  uttermost  allowing  the  committee  of  conference 
to  have  possession  of  the  bill. 

Now,  I  say— and  I  think  I  am  justifiable  in  saying— that  the  most  surprising  thing 
I  have  witnessed  on  this  floor  is  the  attempt  of  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  to 
hold  this  side  of  the  House  responsible  for  the  defeat  of  that  bill,  when  the  records  of 
the  country  show  that  he  himself  is  responsible  for  its  defeat;  and  that  he  and  his 
party  are  alone  responsible  now  to  the  country  and  to  the  mail  contractors  for  the 
failure  of  the  Government  to  meet  its  obligations. 

Nor  is  this,  sir,  all  the  proof.  We  all  remember  that  when  they  had  succeeded  in 
defeating  the  bill,  and  thev  knew  full  well  that  their  course  would  defeat  it,  and  the 
President  undertook  to  carry  on  the  Department  without  calling  Congress  together— 
has  any  gentleman  in  this  House  forgotton  how  they  denounced  the  Postmaster 
General,  the  President,  and  the  whole  Administration,  for  issuing  certificates,  that 
method  having  been  resorted  to  as  a  means  of  relieving  the  mail  contractors  from 
the  consequences  of  the  act  of  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  and  his  friends  ? 
They  denounced  the  President  and  everybody  connected  with  the  Administration  as 
being  guilty  of  usurpation  of  power,  and  a  violation  of  law,  because  in  their  anxiety 
to  relieve  the  mail  contractors  from  the  danger  and  embarrassment  which  the  gentle- 
man from  Pennsylvania  had  brought  upon  them,  they  were  endeavoring  to  issue 
certificates  under  which  the  mail  contractors  might  raise  money. 

I  conclude,  Mr.  Clerk,  with  a  repetition  of  my  question  to  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania;  and  I  hope  he  will  answer  it  before  the  House,  and  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  country;  if  his  motive  in  defeating  that  bill  was  to  prevent  the  Senate  from  usurping 
a  part  of  the  prerogatives  of  this  House,  why  was  it  that  he  voted  against  the  bill 
twice  before  the  amendment  of  the  Senate  had  ever  been  put  upon  it? 

I  return  my  thanks  to  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  for  his  courtesy  in  affording 
me  an  opportunity  of  submitting  these  remarks. 

Monday,  December  26,  1859. 
Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  continued: 


374 

In  looking  over  the  field  before  us,  as  I  said  on  Saturday,  I  see  an  effort  made  to  put 
into  the  chair  of  the  Presiding  Officer  of  the  House,  a  gentleman  who  does  not  stand, 
according  to  our  view  of  the  subject,  fair  before  the  country;  who  was  understood,  at 
least,  as  not  denying  the  indorsement  of  sentiments  highly  obnoxious  and  offensive 
to  the  last  degree  to  a  portion  of  this  House.  Upon  that  subject  I  have  not,  at  this 
time,  anything  further  to  say.     I  shall  advert  to  it  again  before  I  close  my  remarks. 

It  is  known  to  this  House,  and  also  to  the  country,  that  it  has  been  the  fashion  in 
the  agitation  of  the  question  of  slavery,  from  the  very  highest  men  in  the  country 
down  to  the  lowest  "slang-whangers  "  in  the  land,  to  quote  a  single  sentence  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  to  justify  them  in  their  efforts  to  inflame  the  public 
mind  of  the  country  upon  that  question,  and  also  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  a 
certain  political  policy  inconsistent,  according  to  my  view,  with  their  duties  to  the 
Constitution. 

I  am  here,  Mr.  Clerk,  and  gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  a  sincere 
and  loyal  friend  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  I  am  here  the  advocate  of  no  new 
or  inflammatory  doctrine.  I  am  here  the  advocate  of  no  modern  innovations;  but  I 
am  here  the  advocate  of  the  Constitution  as  it  was  penned  by  our  fathers,  and  handed 
down  to  us,  to  hand  it  down  unsullied  and  untouched  to  the  latest  posterity.  I  wish  I 
could  say  that  such  was  the  purpose  and  policy  of  many  of  those  who  are  in  the  habit 
of  frequently  charging  disunion  sentiments  upon  the  people  in  that  section  of  the 
Union  in  which  I  reside. 

I  will  beg  leave  to  run  over  these  subjects  with  as  much  rapidity  as  possible,  and 
only  claim  the  attention  of  the  House  in  order  to  show  the  particular  ground 
which  is  taken  not  only  by  the  distinguished  champion  of  the  "irrepressible  conflict," 
which  is  so  much  talked  about,  but  also  that  which  is  held  by  Senators  and  members 
of  this  House  upon  this  provision  which  furnishes  the  staple  of  almost  every  inflam- 
matory appeal  to  the  country.  Upon  referring  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
I  find  this  clause,  upon  which  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  so  much  rest: 

"We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  created  equal;  that 
they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights;  that  among  these 
are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

Here  is  the  quotation  that  is  bandied  about  in  the  non-slaveholding  States 
as  authority  for  the  violation  of  the  sacred  obligations  imposed  by  the  Constitution, 
and  which,  in  my  view,  no  man  can  conscientiously  disregard.  I  am,  for  one,  willing 
to  concede  this  doctrine,  as  I  understand  it.  I  am  willing  to  concede  it,  sir,  because 
I  am  one  of  those  who  believe  in  the  improvement  of  our  race,  and  of  their  gradual 
elevation  in  the  scale  of  intellectuality  and  civilization.  But  I  ask,  here,  what  race  of 
people  was  referred  to  in  that  instrument?  Did  it  have  reference  to  the  negro?  I 
ask  again,  and  I  ask  confidently,  if  the  slaves  of  those — for  at  that  time  all  were  slave- 
holders— who  were  parties  to  the  declaration  of  that  great  truth,  were  parties  compre- 
hended within  its  provisions? 

Upon  this  subject,  Mr.  Clerk,  I  will  read  another  paragraph: 

"When  in  the  course  of  human  events  " — 

It  is  the  first  clause  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence— 
"  it  becomes  necessary  for  one  people  to  dissolve  the  political  bands  which  have 
connected  them  with  another,  and  to  assume  among  the  Powers  of  the  earth  the 
separate  and  equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of  nature  and  nature's  God  entitle  them, 
a  decent  respect  to  the  opinions  of  mankind  requires  that  they  should  declare  the 
causes  which  impel  them  to  the  separation." 

I  ask  gentlemen — I  ask  those  who  speak  of  this  declaration  of  equal  rights — 
whether  or  not  our  slaves  were  parties  to  this  declaration  ? 

"When,  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes  necessary  for  one  people  to 
dissolve  the  political  bands  which  have  connected  them  with  another." 

Do  gentlemen,  in  that  language,  find  any  warrant  for  the  idea  that  the  negro 
slave  of  the  masters,  who  were  parties  to  this  declaration,  was  included  in  that  great 
movement  of  separating  the  political  bands  which  bound  the  American  colonies  to 
their  mother  country?  I  put  the  question  with  confidence.  I  appeal,  without  hesita- 
tion, to  all  the  members  of  this  House.  I  ask  if,  in  this  declaration,  a  slave  was  a 
party  to  the  movement  which  was  designed  to  sever  the  political  bands  between  the 
colonies'and  the  mother  country? 

But  that  is  not  all;    the  declaration  proceeds: 

"That,  to  secure  these  rights,  Governments  are  instituted  amongst  men,  deriving 
their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed;  that,  whenever  any  form  of 
Government  becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter 
or  to  abolish  it,  and  to  institute  a  new  Government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such  prin- 
ciples, and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to 
effect  their  safety  and  happiness." 


Yes,  sir;  that  declaration  is  contained  in  this  great  instrument:  that,  it  a  pi 
are  dissatisfied  with  their  form  of  government,  theyjhave  the  right  : 
it,  and  to  lay  it  down  upon  such  foundation  as  to  them   ma)  seem  fit.  with 

that  doctrine  fully;  and  I  ask  again,  in  speaking  ot   the  people  who  have  tl  • 
do  this  thing,  were  the  slaves  of  the  masters  who  promulgated  tin's    great    potil 
truth  parties  included  in  this  declaration  ? 

I  choose  to  press  this  point: 

"Prudence,  indeed,  will  dictate,  that  Governments  long  established  should  not 
be  changed  for  light  and  transient  causes;  and  accordingly  all  experience  hath  shown, 
that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to  suffer,  while  evils  are  sufierable,  than  to  right 
themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  are  accustomed."  *  '  *  Su«  tl 
has  been  the  patient  sufferance  of  these  colonies;  and  such  is  now  the  ■ 
which  constrains  them  to  alter  their  former  systems  of  government." 

Who  were  these  colonies?  Who  were  the  people  embraced  in  that  provision  ?  Who 
were  they,  sir,  who  were  proposing  to  alter  their  former  systems  of  govern m< 
Were  they  the  slaves?  Will  any  man  pretend  that  they  were  included  ?  I  mention 
this  view  of  the  subject,  because  I  wish  gentlemen  to  remember  when  they  an-  deal- 
ing with  this  instrument,  that  that  instrument  itself  says  that  the  people  of  the  country 
may  change  their  form  of  government,  and  plant  it  upon  such  principles,  and  con- 
struct it  in  such  form,  as  to  their  judgment  may  seem  proper.  The  Dei  I  ation 
goes  on: 

"  The  history  of  the  present  king  of  Great  Britain  is  a  history  of  repeated  injuries 
and  usurpations,  all  having  in  direct  object  the  establishment  of  an  absolute  tyranny 
over  these  States." 

In  respect  to  those  usurpations  and  that  tyranny,  were  negroes  referred  to  ?  I 
put  the  question,  sir,  without  fear  or  hesitation,  whether  the  very  terms  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  do  not  exclude  the  ascription  given  to  it  in  the  politii  s 
of  the  day. 

But  again,  sir.     Here  is  the  conclusion  of  that  instrument: 

"We,  therefore,  the  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  general 
Congress  assembled,  appealing  to  the  Supreme  Judge  of  the  world  for  the  rectitude 
of  our  intentions,  do,   in  the  name  and  by  authority  of  the  good  people  of  ti 
colonies,  solemnly  publish  and  declare  " — 

You  see  that  it  is  the  good  people.  Were  they  the  slaves,  or  the  masters  of  the 
slaves?  Was  it  not  the  latter  who  were  thus  declaring?  The  slaves  were  not  tin- 
good  people  of  these  colonies.  In  thus  declaring,  of  course,  they  meant  none  but 
those  who  were  parties  to  this  Declaration  of  Independence: 

— "that  these  united  colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  independent 
States;  that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  Crown,  and  that  all 
political  connection  between  them  and  the  State  of  Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be, 
totally  dissolved;  and  that,  as  free  and  independent  States,  they  have  full  power  to 
levy  war,  conclude  peace,  contract  alliances,  establish  commerce,  and  to  do  all  other 
acts  and  things  which  independent  States  may  of  right  do." 

Can  anything  be  clearer?  Yet,  sir,  the  prominent  Republicans  of  this  country 
are  eternally  dwelling  upon  this  Declaration,  in  the  face  of  the  clear  and  irrefragible 
testimony  embodied  in  this  instrument,  as  a  justification  for  the  agitation  which 
disturbs  our  peace  and  threatens  our  Union. 

But,  sir,  let  us  go  on.  Two  years  after  the  enunciation  of  independence  I  have 
read  from,  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  the  bond  between  the  colonies,  then  in  a 
state  of  war,  was  made.     Article  fourth  is  as  follows: 

"The  better  to  secure  and  perpetuate  mutual  friendship  and  intercourse  among 
the  people  of  the  different  States  of  this  Union,  the  free  inhabitants  of  each  of  these 
States,  paupers,  vagabonds,  and  fugitives  from  justice  excepted,  shall  be  entitled  to 
all  privileges  and  immunities  of  free  citizens  in  the  several  States;  and  the  people  of 
each  State  shall  have  free  ingress  and  egress  to  and  from  any  other  State,"  &c. 

Here,  you  see,  then,  that  two  years  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  in 
conformity  with  the  great  principle  of  that  instrument,  these  States  agreed  to  a  com- 
pact of  perpetual  Union,  confining  the  Government  thus  formed,  expressly  to  "the 
free  inhabitants  of  each  of  these  States,  paupers,  vagabonds,  and  fugitives  from 
justice  excepted." 

Shall  not  that  contemporaneous  exposition  utterly  exclude  forever  the  argument 
dwelt  upon  so  much  by  the  people  of  the  Northern  States,  and  with  so  much  effect,  no 
doubt,  so  far  as  it  was  designed  to  produce  an  effect? 

"And  whereas  it  hath  pleased  the  great  Governor  of  the  world  to  incline  the  hearts 
of  the  Legislatures  we  respectively  represent  in  Congress,  to  approve  of,  and  to 
authorize  us  to  ratify  the  said  Articles  of  Confederation  and  perpetual  union,  know 


376 

ye,  that  we,  the  undersigned  delegates,  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  authority  to  us 
given  for  that  purpose,  do,  by  these  presents,  in  the  name  and  in  behalf  of  our 
respective  constituents,  fully  and  entirely  ratify  and  confirm  each  and  every  of  the 
said  Articles  of  Confederation  and  perpetual  union,  and  all  and  singular  the  matters 
and  things  therein  contained.  And  we  do  further  solemnly  plight  and  engage  the 
faith  of  our  respective  constituents,  that  they  shall  abide  by  the  determinations  of  the 
United  States,  in  Congress  assembled,  on  all  questions  which  by  the  said  Confedera- 
tion are  submitted  to  them;  and  that  the  Articles  thereof  shall  be  inviolably  observed 
by  the  States  we  respectively  represent,  and  that  the  Union  shall  be  perpetual." 

Here  you  see  that  the  concluding  stipulation  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation 
declares  that  the  Government  was  for  the  free  people  of  the  colonies,  and  not  for  the 
slaves.  I  have  mentioned  these  things  in  order  that  the  country,  so  far  as  they  may 
see  tit  to  examine  into  the  subject,  may  understand  that  this  argument  about  all 
people  being  born  free  and  equal  is  mere  clap-trap,  and  intended  to  mislead,  and  that 
the  stipulation  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  which  the  parties  framing  the  instru- 
ment agreed  upon,  was  the  true  measure  of  obligation  by  which  we  were  then 
bound. 

Hut,  sir,  this  Article  of  Confederation  and  perpetual  union  was  found  not  to 
answer  its  purpose.  Under  the  pressure  of  the  revolutionary  war,  common  interests 
and  common  necessities  bound  the  people  together  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  their 
efforts  effective.  But  when  the  war  terminated,  the  Government,  as  it  were,  fell  to 
pieces.  The  Articles  of  Confederation  were  found  totally  ineffective,  and  it  became 
absolutely  necessary,  in  order  to  a  preservation  of  the  Union,  that  a  new  bond  of 
union  should  be  formed  by  the  people.  Accordingly  we  have  that  new  bond  of  union 
in  the  present  Constitution  of  the  United  States.     It  says: 

"  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  union, 
establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquility,  provide  for  a  common  defense,  promote 
the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity, 
do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  America." 

Who  are  the  parties  to  that  contract  ?  The  slaves  ?  The  free  negroes  even  ?  No, 
sir;  but  the  white  people  of  the  United  States,  as  we  all  know,  who  entered  into  this 
■compact,  and  who  framed  it  in  the  manner  I  shall  proceed  to  mention.  It  is  well 
known  that  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  this  Constitution  there  were  very  many 
conflicting  interests.  There  was  the  slavery  question  itself  to  be  adjusted;  there  was 
the  great  interest  of  commerce  and  navigation  to  be  regulated.  The  whole  Constitu- 
tion itself  was  full  of  difficulties  and  compromises.  But  finally,  by  the  blessing  of 
God  and  the  wisdom  of  our  forefathers,  this  instrument  was  the  offspring  of  the  joint 
intelligence  and  patriotism  of  its  framers.  What  are  its  stipulations?  Are  they 
entitled  to  be  respected  and  observed?  I  ask  gentlemen  upon  the  other  side  is  it  a 
bond  to  which  their  forefathers  became  parties,  and  do  they  recognize  the  obligation 
faithfully  to  redeem  it?  That  is  the  question.  I  beg  leave  to  send  to  the  Clerk  to  be 
read  a  letter  from  a  man  who  is  described  by  a  very  distinguished  citizen  of  Virginia 
(Mr.  Rives)  as  a  chimin  el  venerabile  nomen — I  refer  to  Mr.  Madison.  It  was  published 
only  two  or  three  years  ago,  and  its  publication  was  designed  to  let  the  country  know 
the  views  of  that  distinguished  man  upon  the  questions  touched  upon  by  it.  The 
letter  refers  to  two  or  three  very  exciting  subjects,  and  I  desire  to  have  the  letter 
read,  so  far  as  it  was  published  in  the  ATalio>ial  Intelligencer: 

The  Clerk  read  the  letter  as  follows: 

Montpelier,  November  27,  1819. 

"  Dear  SlR:— Your  btter  of  the  nth  was  duly  received,  and  I  should  have  given  it 
a  less  tardy  answer  but  for  a  succession  of  particular  demands  on  my  attention,  and  a 
wish  to  assist  my  recollections  by  consulting  both  manuscript  and  printed  sources  of 
information  on  the  subjects  of  your  inquiry.  Of  these,  however,  I  have  not  been 
able  to  avail   myself  but  very  partially. 

"As  to  the  intention  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  in  the  clause  relating  to 
the  '  migration  and  importation  of  persons,'  &c,  the  best  key  may  perhaps  be  found 
in  the  case  which  produced  it.  The  African  trade  in  slaves  had  long  been  odious  to 
most  of  the  States,  and  the  importation  of  slaves  into  them  had  been  prohibited. 
Particular  States,  however,  continued  the  importation,  and  were  extremely  averse  to 
any  restriction  on  their  power  to  do  so.  In  the  convention  the  former  States  were 
anxious,  in  framing  a  new  Constitution,  to  insert  a  provision  for  an  immediate  and 
absolute  stop  to  the  trade.  The  latter  were  not  only  averse  to  any  interference  on 
the  subject,  but  solemnly  declared  that  their  constituents  would  never  accede  to  a 
Constitution  containing  such  an  article.  Out  of  this  conflict  grew  the  middle  measure, 
providing  that  Congress  should  not  interfere  until  the  year  1808;  with  an  implication 
that  after  that  date  they  might  prohibit  the  importation  of  slaves  into  the  States  then 
existing,  and  previous  thereto  into  the  States  not  then  existing.  Such  was  the  tone  of 
opposition   in  the  States  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  and  such  the  desire  to  gain 


377 

their  acquiescence  in  a  prohibitory  power,  that  on  a  question  between  the  epochs  of 
1800  and  1808,  the  States  of  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  (all  the 
Eastern  States  in  convention)  joined  in  the  vote  for  the  latter— influenced,  however, 
by  the  collateral  motive  of  reconciling  those  particular  States  to  the  power  over  com- 
merce and  navigation,  against  which  they  felt,  as  did  some  other  States,  a  very  strong 
repugnance.  The  earnestness  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  was  further  manifi  st.  d 
by  their  insisting  on  the  security  in  the  fifth  article  against  any  amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution affecting  the  right  reserved  to  them,  and  their  uniting  with  the  small  States, 
who  insisted  on  a  like  security  for  their  equality  in  the  Senate. 

"  But  some  of  the  States  were  not  only  anxious  for  a  constitutional  provision 
against  the  introduction  of  slaves;  they  had  scruples  against  admitting  the  term 
'slaves  '  into  the  instrument.  Hence  the  descriptive  phrase,  '  migration  or  importa- 
tion of  persons; '  the  term  migration  allowing  those  who  were  scrupulous  of  ac- 
knowledging expressly  a  property  in  human  beings  to  view  imported  persons  as  a 
species  of  emigrants,  while  others  might  apply  the  term  to  foreign  malefactor 
or  coming  into  the  country.  It  is  possible,  though  not  recollected,  that  some  might 
have  had  an  eye  to  the  case  of  freed  blacks  as  well  as  malefactors. 

"  But,  whatever  may  have  been  intended  by  the  term  'migration'  or  the  term 
'  persons,'  it  is  most  certain  that  they  referred  exclusively  to  a  migration  or  importa- 
tion from  other  countries  into  the  United  States,  and  not  to  a  removal,  voluntary  <>r 
involuntary,  of  slaves  or  freemen  from  one  to  another  part  of  the  United  States. 
Nothing  appears,  or  is  recollected,  that  warrants  this  latter  intention.  Nothing  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  State  conventions  indicates  such  a  construction  there.  Had 
been  the  construction,  it  is  easy  to  imagine  the  figure  it  would  have  made,  in  many  of 
the  States,  among  the  objections  to  the  Constitution  and  among  the  numerous  amend- 
ments to  it,  proposed  by  the  State  conventions,  not  one  of  which  amendments  refers 
to  the  clause  in  question.  Neither  is  there  any  indication  that  Congress  have  here- 
tofore considered  themselves  as  deriving  from  this  clause  a  power  over  the  migration 
or  removal  of  individuals,  whether  freemen  or  slaves,  from  one  State  to  another, 
whether  new  or  old;  for  it  must  be  kept  in  view  that  if  the  power  was  given  at  all,  it 
has  been  in  force  eleven  years,  over  all  the  State  existing  in  1808,  and  at  all 
times  over  the  States  not  then  existing.  Every  indication  is  against  such  a  construc- 
tion by  Congress  of  their  constitutional  powers.  Their  alacrity  in  exercising  their 
powers  relating  to  slaves  is  a  proof  that  they  did  not  claim  what  they  did  not  exercise. 
They  punctually  and  unanimously  exercised  the  power  accruing  in  1808,  again.-t  the 
further  importation  of  slaves  from  abroad.  They  had  previously  directed  their  power 
over  American  vessels,  on  the  high  seas,  against  the  African  trade.  They  lost  no 
time  in  applying  the  prohibitory  power  to  Louisiana,  which,  having  maritime  ports, 
might  be  an  inlet  for  slaves  from  abroad.  But  they  forbore  to  extend  the  prohibition 
to  the  introduction  of  slaves  from  other  parts  of  the  Union.  They  had  even  pro- 
hibited the  importation  of  slaves  into  the  Mississippi  Territory,  from  without  the  limits 
of  the  United  States,  in  the  year  1798,  without  extending  the  prohibition  to  the  intro- 
duction of  slaves  from  -within  those  limits;  although,  at  the  time,  the  ports  of  ( ieorgia  and 
South  Carolina  were  open  for  the  importation  of  slaves  from  abroad,  and  increasing 
the  mass  of  slavery  within  the  United  States. 

"If  these  views  of  the  subject  be  just,  a  power  in  Congress  to  control. the  inh  rior 
migration  or  removal  of  persons  must  be  derived  from  some  other  source  than 
section  nine,  article  first;  either  from  the  clause  giving  power  'to  make  all  needful 
rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  or  other  property  belonging  to  the 
United  States,'  or  from  that  providing  for  the  admission  of  new  States  into  the  Union. 

"The  terms  in  which  the  first  of  these  powers  is  expressed,  though  of  a  ductile 
character,  cannot  well  be  extended  beyond  a  power  over  the  territory  as  property, 
and  a  power  to  make  the  provisions  really  needful  or  necessary  for  the  government 
of  settlers  until  ripe  for  admission  as  States  into  the  Union.  It  may  be  inferred  thai 
Congress  did  not  regard  the  interdict  of  slavery  among  the  needful  regulations  con- 
templated by  the  Constitution,  since  in  none  of  the  territorial  governments  created  by 
them  is  such  an  interdict  to  be  found.  The  power,  however,  be  its  import  what  it 
may,  is  obviously  limited  to  a  Territory  while  remaining  in  that  character,  as  distinct 
from  that  of  a  State. 

"  As  to  the  power  of  admitting  new  States  into  the  Federal  compact,  the  questions 
offering  themselves  are:  Whether  Congress  can  attach  conditions  or  the  new  Mate 
concur  in  conditions  which,  after  admission,  would  abridge  or  enlarge  the  constitu- 
tional rights  of  legislation  common  to  other  States;  whether  Congress  can,  by  a 
compact  with  a  new  member,  take  power  either  to  or  from  itself,  or  place  the  new 
member  above  or  below  the  equal  rank  and  rights  possessed  by  the  others;  whether 
all  such  stipulations,  expressed  or  implied,  would  not  be  nullities,  and  so  pronounced 
when  brought  to  a  practical  test  ?  It  falls  within  the  scope  of  your  inquiry  to  state 
the  fact  that  there  was  a  proposition  in  the  convention  to  discriminate  between  the  old 


378 

and  the  new  States,  by  an  article  in  the  Constitution  declaring  that  the  aggregate 
number  of  Representatives  from  the  States  thereafter  to  be  admitted  should  never 
exceed  that  of  the  States  originally  adopting  the  Constitution.  The  proposition,  hap- 
pily, was  rejected.     The  effect  of  such  a  discrimination  is  sufficiently  evident."    *     * 

"With  respect  to  what  has  taken  place  in  the  Northwest  Territory,  it  may  be 
observed  that  the  ordinance  giving  its  distinctive  character  on  the  subject  of  slave- 
holding  proceeded  from  the  old  Congress,  acting  with  the  best  intentions,  but  under 
a  charter  which  contains  no  shadow  of  the  authority  exercised;  and  it  remains  to  be 
decided  how  far  the  States  formed  within  that  Territory  and  admitted  into  the  Union 
are  on  a  different  footing  from  its  other  members  as  to  their  legislative  sovereignty."*  * 

"  Whether  the  convention  could  have  looked  to  the  existence  of  slavery  at  all  in 
the  new  States  is  a  point  on  which  I  can  add  little  to  what  has  been  already  stated.  The 
great  object  of  the  convention  seemed  to  be  to  prohibit  the  increase  by  the  importation 
of  slaves.  A  power  to  emancipate  slaves  was  disclaimed;  nor  is  anything  recollected 
that  denoted  a  view  to  control  the  distribution  of  those  within  the  country.  The  case 
of  the  Northwestern  Territory  was  probably  superseded  by  the  provision  against  the 
importation  of  slaves  by  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  which  had  not  then  passed  laws 
prohibiting  it.  When  the  existence  of  slavery  in  that  Territory  was  precluded  the 
importation  of  slaves  was  rapidly  going  on,  and  the  only  mode  of  checking  it  was  by 
narrowing  the  space  open  to  them.  It  is  not  an  unfair  inference  that  the  expedient 
would  not  have  been  undertaken  if  the  power  afterwards  given  to  terminate  the  im- 
portation everywhere  had  existed  or  been  anticipated.  It  has  appeared  that  the 
present  Congress  never  followed  the  example  during  the  twenty  years  preceding  the 
prohibitory  epoch."   -**-*tt######### 

"Under  one  aspect  of  the  general  subject  I  cannot  avoid  saying  that,  apart  from 
its  merits  under  others,  the  tendency  of  what  has  passed  and  is  passing  fills  me  with 
no  slight  anxiety.  Parties,  under  some  denomination  or  other,  must  always  be 
expected  in  a  Government  as  free  as  ours.  When  the  individuals  belonging  to  them 
are  intermingled  in  every  part  of  the  whole  country,  they  strengthen  the  union  of  the 
whole  while  they  divide  every  part.  Should  a  state  of  parties  arise  founded  on  geo- 
graphical boundaries  and  other  physical  and  permanent  distinctions  which  happen  to 
coincide  with  them,  what  is  to  control  those  great  repulsive  masses  from  awful  shocks 
against  each  other  ?  " 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  The  House  will  'see  that  this  letter  of  Mr.  Madison, 
written  in  1819,  is  a  review  of  the  slavery  features  of  the  Constitution.  It  is  a  veiy 
interesting  document,  and  one  which  will  address  itself,  I  have  no  doubt,  with  great 
force,  to  the  understanding  of  every  Jfair-minded  man.  It  was  written  when  the 
Missouri  question  was  under  agitation.  It  was  called  out  in  reply  to  a  letter  of  Mr. 
Walsh,  of  Philadelphia,  and  it  made  its  first  appearance  in  print  in  1856.  I  trust  the 
House  will  not  fail  to  remember  that,  upon  Mr.  Madison's  testimony  it  appears  that 
this  slavery  question  was  one  of  the  deepest  excitement  in  the  convention;  that  it 
exercised  the  most  anxious  consideration  of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic;  that  its 
adjustment  was  deemed  of  the  first  and  most  vital  consequence;  that,  so  far  from  its 
being  a  common  sentiment  of  that  body  or  of  the  country,  that  slavery  was  to  end, 
there  was  an  earnest  and  determined  purpose  that  it  should  be  protected  and  pre- 
served. In  the  final  settlement  of  the  question,  what  do  we  see  ?  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  New  Hampshire,  the  only  non-slaveholding  States  now  which  were  then 
represented  in  that  convention,  voting  for  the  extension  of  the  time  for  the  importa- 
tion of  African  slaves,  while  Virginia  voted  against  it. 

Now,  this  being  the  state  of  the  case,  gentlemen,  let  me  call  your  attention  to  the 
provisions  of  the  Constitution.  The  consideration  on  the  part  of  the  Northern  States, 
for  yielding  this  protection  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  was  the  power  over  com- 
merce and  navigation — a  power  fraught  with  the  greatest  mischief  to  the  country,  as 
many  of  us  believe,  and  one  which  has  been  the  source  of  innumerable  woes  to  one 
portion  of  the  Union.  But  that  was  the  consideration,  if  this  high  testimony  is  to  be 
believed.  Accordingly,  when  this  Constitution  was  formed;  when  it  was  submitted 
to  the  people;  when  the  various  conventions  of  the  different  States  passed  upon  it; 
they  had  all  these  views  upon  the  subject  of  slavery  before  them,  and  they  knew  that 
the  adoption  of  this  feature  in  the  Constitution  was  essential  to  the  adoption  of  other 
provisions  to  which  the  other  States  were  averse;  indeed,  to  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution itself.      Hear  how  the  clauses  designed  for  the  protection  of  slavery  read; 

"Representatives  (says  the  Constitution)  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  apportioned 
among  the  several  States  which  may  be  included  within  this  Union,  according  to 
their  respective  numbers,  which  shall  be  determined  by  adding  to  the  whole  number 
of  free  persons,  including  those  bound  to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  and  excluding 
Indians  not  taxed,  three-fifths  of  all  other  persons." 

I  pray  gentlemen  to  pause  here  a  moment,  while  I  consider  this  feature.  The 
solemn  declaration  which  the  Declaration  of  Independence  contains,  that  the  people 


379 

have  a  right  to  establish  their  form  of  government  on  such   principles  and  in  such 
forms  as  to  them  may  seem  lit,  is  here  again  illustrated.     I  hey  confined  tin 
Government,  in  express  terms,  to  the  people  then  in  des<  ribed.     I  hey  re<  ognized 
existence  of  slavery;  and,  instead  ol  giving  to  the  South  the  full  benefit 
ing  population,  they  cut  her  down  to  three-fifths.    They  thus  recognized  the  principle 
that  they  were  not  parties  to  the  compact.     They  created  a  form  mentDy 

which  these  people  are  excluded,  and  gave  a  representation,  according  to  the  usual 
conception  of  it,  of  three-fifths  of  their  property,  in  order  that  there  mi^ht  be  a  uai 
antee  for  its  protection — a  guarantee  against  the  invasion  that  has  been  seduously 
attempted  from  the  first  year  of  the  Constitution.  Is  that  compact  an  obligation  upon 
you,  gentlemen?  When  you  take  your  oaths  at  that  desk,  to  support  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  do  you  or  do  you  not  take  an  oath  to  stand  by  and  hold  -a 
this  provision  ? 

But  that  is  not  all.  Here  is  another  provision  to  which  I  desire  to  call  your  atten- 
tion.    The  ninth  section  provides  that — 

"  The  migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as  any  of  the  States  now  existing 
shall  think  proper  to  admit  shall  not  be  prohibited  by  the  Congress  prior  to  the 
1808." 

There  is  another  express  stipulation  that  until  i8c8,  the  preexisting  right  of  im- 
portation of  African  slaves  should  not  be  prohibited.     Did  you,  or  did  you  not,  a 
to  that  obligation  ?     Did  the  people  of  the  free  states  agree  to  it?     Mr.  Madisi  n  tells 
you  that  every  one  of  the  States  now  free,  then  represented  in  the  con:  1  eed 

unanimously  to  extend  the  privilege  of  importation  up  to  the  year  1808.     \ 
that  privilege  accorded?     That  slaves  might  be  imported;  that  they  might  1  e   ; 
served  as  such;  that   they   might   be  used  as  such.     Were   they   imported    foi 
purpose  of  manumission  ?     Were  they  imported  to  be  set  free,  in  accordance  with  the 
views  now  spread   over  the  country,  that  our  forefathers  expected  slavery  to  end 
shortly  ?     Were  they  brought  into  the  country,  at  the  expense  of  the  purchaser,  under 
an  obligation  to  set  them  free?     I  put  the  question  to  you,  gentlemen,  and  to  every 
person.  Is  not  the  argument  violative  of  all  the  principles  of  probability,  and  is  it  not 
directly  in  the  teeth  of  the  plainest  obligations?    1  say,  then,  that  the  power  to  import, 
which  was  recognized  and  continued  up  to  the  year  1808,  imposed,  ex  vi  termini,  an 
obligation  to  protect  and  preserve,  and  not  destroy  and  annul,  that  institution. 

But  that  is  not  all.  The  next  clause  to  which  I  invite  the  attention  of  the  House 
is  this: 

"No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws  thereof,  escap- 
ing into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged 
from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom 
such  service  or  labor  may  be  due." 

Again,  article  five  provides: 

"The  Congress,  whenever  two-thirds  of  both  Houses  shall  deem  it  necessary, 
shall  propose  amendments  to  this  Constitution,  or,  on  the  application  of  the  Legisla- 
tures of  two-thirds  of  the  several  States,  shall  call  a  convention  for  proposing 
amendments,  which,  in  either  case,  shall  be  valid  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
part  of  the  Constitution,  when  ratified  by  the  Legislatures  of  three-fourths  <>t  the 
several  States,  or  by  conventions  in  three-fourths  thereof,  as  the  one  or  the  other 
mode  of  ratification  may  be  proposed  by  the  Congress:  Provided,  that  no  amendment 
which  may  be  made  prior  to  the  year  1808  shall,  in  any  manner,  affect  the  first  and  fourth 
clauses  in  the  ninth  section  of  the  first  article;  and  that  no  State,  without  its  consent,  shall 
be  deprived  of  its  equal  suffrage  in  the  Senate." 

Here,  sir,  is  the  privilege  to  import  up  to  the  year  1808,  broadly  conceded— and 
for  a  consideration,  as  Mr.' Madison  tells  you.  The  Constitution  itself,  quo  ad  hoe, 
should  not  be  disturbed  till  after  that  period.  Does  this  look  like  our  forefathers 
expected  that  slavery  would  speedily  end  ? 

I  ask  gentlemen  how  it  is  possible  that  they  can  be  within  the  pale  of  their  consti- 
tutional duties  when  they  undertake  to  agitate  and  nullify  these  provisions.     \  ou  had 
not  only 
the  Constitution 
ask  you,  gentler..^.. 

parties  to  that  compact,  you  do  not  see  that  good  faith,  honorable  sentiment,  and 
manly  bearing,  demand  your  hearty  cooperation  in  the  preservation  of  that  institution, 
and  not  in  its  destruction?  . 

Now,  in  regard  to  this  fugitive  slave  feature  of  the  Constitution.  I  shall,  even  at 
the  expense  of  boring  the  House,  trouble  them  to  hear  the  sentiments  of  those  who 
have  preceded  them.  This  feature  was  put  into  the  Constitution,  and  was  perhaps, 
the  only  one  that  made  a  perfect  nationality  of  the  whole  American  Union. 

That  clause  was  inserted  in  the  Constitution  for  the  purpose  of   giving   to   tne 


380 

slaveholder  the  same  power  for  the  reclamation  of  his  slave  in  all  the  States  that  he 
possessed  within  his  own  State.  I  repeat,  and  I  wish  gentlemen  to  remember  it,  that 
when  a  slave  escapes — in  Virginia,  for  instance  his  owner  has  a  right  to  claim  him 
in  any  county  within  the  broad  limits  of  the  Old  Dominion.  This  clause  of  the  Con- 
stitution was  designed  to  give  the  master  whose  servant  had  escaped  the  same  power 
within  the  limits  of  the  Union  that  he  had  within  the  limits  of  his  own  State.  I  ask 
the  Representatives  from  New  Hampshire,  from  Massachusetts,  from  Connecticut, 
whether  their  States  did  not  give  their  sanction  to  these  slavery  features  ?  I  ask 
them,  whether  their  States  did  not  agree  by  their  solemn  bond,  which  they  entered 
into  with  their  sister  States,  faithfully  to  observe  the  compacts  contained  therein?  I 
ask  them,  if  they  admit  that— and  they  cannot  deny  it — how  they  can  unite  in  a  policy 
which  repudiates  the  obligation  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  seek  to  defeat  the 
sanctity  of  the  protection  which  was  bought  from  their  representatives  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  other  States  ?  Have  you  not  received  in  full  the  enormous  advantage 
of  power  over  commerce  and  navigation  ?  But,  apart  from  all  that,  here  is  an  obliga- 
tion, here  is  a  solemn  stipulation,  gentlemen,  which  you  solemnly  entered  into,  or 
your  ancestors  did,  against  which  all  the  representatives  of  the  State  I  in  part  repre- 
sent voted,  and  will  you  faithfully,  honestly,  uprightly  respect  and  maintain  it? 

Well,  after  the  Constitution  went  into  operation,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
were  called  upon  to  pass  the  act  of  1793,  the  object  of  which  was  to  provide  by  law 
for  the  enforcement  of  that  clause  of  the  Constitution  which  secures  to  the  master  the 
right  to  reclaim  his  slave.  And,  sir,  why  was  it  passed?  To  redeem  the  obligations 
of  the  Constitution.  And  it  is  a  little  remarkable,  I  state  it  as  a  fact,  mentioned  a  few 
days  ago  by  the  gentleman  from  Iowa,  (Mr.  Curtis,)  that  the  very  first  case  that  ever 
occurred  under  the  fugitive  slave  act  of  1793, was  that  of  General  Washington  himself. 
It  is  a  curious  fact  that  General  Washington,  in  1796,  had  a  slave  woman  who  left  the 
service  of  his  wife  and  went  into  New  England.  He,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Whipple,  of 
one  of  the  New  England  States,  I  do  not  know  which,  asked  for  her  restoration  under 
the  law  of  1793.  Was  his  woman  restored  to  him  ?  Did  he,  the  Father  of  his  Country, 
the  man  who  approved  this  act,  obtain  its  benefit?  He  wrote  to  Mr.  Whipple,  stating 
the  fact  of  the  escape,  and  claiming  the  benefit  of  the  law;  but  at  the  same  time, 
while  he  asked  for  the  return  of  the  woman,  said  if  there  was  to  be  a  fuss  about  it,  let 
them  keep  her.  And  what  think  you,  gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
was  the  result?     Her  restoration  was  refused,  and  General  Washington  lost  her. 

This,  sir,  was  the  way  in  which  New  England,  even  at  this  early  day,  vindicated 
her  plighted  faith,  and  fulfilled  her  obligations.  Yes,  she  denied  to  the  Father  of  his 
Country  his  constitutional  rights. 

But,  sir,  the  first  case  that  came  up  judicially  connected  with  the  exposition  of 
this  subject,  occurred  in  the  case  of  Prigg  vs.  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania; 
and  I  shall  be  pardoned,  I  am  sure,  for  calling  attention  to  some  features  of  that  case. 
It  was  in  1842.  It  was  a  case  of  the  first  impression.  It  happened  that  two  dis- 
tinguished gentlemen  were  on  the  bench  from  the  non-slaveholding  States,  and  the 
opinion  of  the  court  was  unanimous.  Mr.  Justice  Story,  one  of  the  most  able  and  dis- 
tinguished lawyers  of  that  day,  was  the  gentleman  selected  to  deliver  the  opinion  of 
the  court.  On  that  occasion  Mr.  Justice  McLean  was  also  upon  the  bench,  and  although 
he  differed  in  some  particulars,  yet  he  concurred,  in  the  main,  in  the  general  doctrines. 
We  have  a  striking  illustration  of  the  estimate  in  which  Mr.  Justice  Story  was  held  by 
one  of  his  colleagues,  equally  if  not  more  conspicuous.  It  is  represented  that  Chief 
Justice  Marshall,  who  was  for  so  long  a  time  the  president  of  the  court,  was  in  the 
habit  of  taking  up  the  record  of  the  case  under  consideration,  and,  looking  closely  into 
its  merits,  make  up  his  opinion.  Submitting  his  views  to  his  associates,  if  approved 
by  them,  it  is  said  his  habit  was  to  say,  "  Well,  brother  Story,  be  good  enough  to 
hunt  up  the  authorities."  Such  was  the  high  estimate  in  which  he  was  held  for  his 
learning.  Mr.  Justice  Story,  on  this  occasion,  delivered  the  opinion  of  the  court, 
in  the  case  of  Prigg  vs.  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  In  the  consideration  of  the  case, 
the  constitutionality  of  the  act  of  1793  was  involved.  I  ask  the  Clerk  to  read  from  the 
opinion  of  the  court,  the  passages  I  have  marked. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 

"  Few  questions  which  have  ever  come  before  this  court  involve  more  delicate 
and  important  considerations;  and  few  upon  which  the  public  at  large  may  be  pre- 
sumed to  feel  a  more  profound  and  pervading  interest.  We  have  accordingly  given 
them  our  most  deliberate  examination;  and  it  has  become  my  duty  to  state  the  result 
to  which  we  have  arrived,  and  the  reasoning  by  which  it  is  supported." 

*********** 

"The  last  clause  is  that  the  true  interpretation  whereof  is  directly  in  judgment 
before  us.  Historically,  it  is  well  known,  that  the  object  of  this  clause  was  to  secure 
to  the  citizens  of  the  slaveholding  States  the  complete  right  and  title  of  ownership  in 
their  slaves,  as  property,  in  eveiy  State  in  the  Union  into  which  they  might  escape 


381 

from  the  State  where  they  were  held  in  servitude.     The  full  recognition  ol  this  right 

and  title  was  indispensable  to  the  security  of  this  species  of  propel  ty  in  all  the  slave 
holding  States;  and,  indeed,  was  so  vital  to  the  preservation  ol  their  domestic  ii 
and  institutions  that  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  it  constituted  a  fundamental  article, 
without  the  adoption  of  which  the  Union  could  not  have  been  formed.  Its  true  design 
was  to  guard  against  the  doctrines  and  principles  prevalent  in  the  non  slave-holding 
States,  by  preventing  them  from  intermeddling  with  or  obstructing  or  abolishing  the 
rights  of  the  owners  of  slaves. 

"By  the  general  law  of  nations,  no  nation  is  bound  to  recognize  the  state  of 
slavery,  as  to  foreign  slaves  found  within  its  territorial  dominions,  when  it  is  in 
opposition  to  its  own  policy  and  institutions,  in  favor  of  the  subjects  of  other  nations 
where  slavery  is  recognized.  If  it  does  it,  it  is  as  a  matter  of  comity,  and  not  as  a  matter 
of  international  right.  The  state  of  slavery  is  deemed  to  be  a  mere  municipal  regula- 
tion, founded  upon  and  limited  to  the  range  of  the  territorial  laws.  This  was  fully 
recognized  in  Somerset's  case,  Lofft's  Rep.  i;  S.  C.  n;  State  Trials  by  Harg.  340;  5. 
C,  20  Howell's  State  Trials,  79;  which  was  decided  before  the  American  Revolution. 
It  is  manifest  from  this  consideration  that,  if  the  Constitution  had  not  contained  tin* 
clause,  every  non-slaveholding  State  in  the  Union  would  have  been  at  liberty  to  have 
declared  free  all  runaway  slaves  coming  within  its  limits,  and  to  have  given  them 
entire  immunity  and  protection  against  the  claims  of  their  masters;  a  course  which 
would  have  created  the  most  bitter  animosities  and  engendered  perpetual  strife 
between  the  different  States.  The  clause  was,  therefore,  of  the  last  importance  to  the 
safety  and  security  of  the  Southern  States;  and  could  not  have  been  surrendered  by 
them  without  endangering  their  whole  property  in  slaves.  The  clause  was  accord- 
ingly adopted  into  the  Constitution  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  framers  of  it;  a 
proof  at  once  of  its  intrinsic  and  practical  necessity  ? 

"How,  then,  are  we  to  interpret  the  language  of  the  clause?  The  true  answer 
is,  in  such  a  manner  as,  consistently  with  the  words,  shall  fully  and  completely 
effectuate  the  whole  objects  of  it.  If  by  one  mode  of  interpretation  the  right  must 
become  shadowy  and  unsubstantial,  and  without  any  remedial  power  adequate  to  the 
end;  and  by  another  mode  it  will  attain  its  just  end  and  secure  its  manifest  purpose; 
it  would  seem,  upon  principles  of  reasoning,  absolutely  irresistable,  that  the  latter 
ought  to  prevail.  No  court  of  justice  can  be  authorized  so  to  construe  any  clause  of 
the  Constitution  as  to  defeat  its  obvious  ends,  when  another  construction,  equally 
accordant  with  the  words  and  sense  thereof,  will  enforce  and  protect  them. 

"The  clause  manifestly  contemplates  the  existence  of  a  positive,  unqualified 
right  on  the  part  of  the  owner  of  the  slave,  which  no  State  law,  or  regulation  can  in 
any  way  qualify,  regulate,  control,  or  restrain.  The  slave  is  not  to  be  discharged 
from  service  or  labor  in  consequence  of  any  State  law  or  regulation.  Now,  certainly, 
without  indulging  in  any  nicety  of  criticism  upon  words,  it  may  fairly  and  reasonably 
be  said  that  any  State  law  or  State  regulation  which  interrupts,  limits,  delays,  or 
postpones  the  right  of  the  owner  to  the  immediate  possession  of  the  slave,  and  the 
immediate  command  of  his  service  and  labor,  operates,  pro  tanlo,  a  discharge  of  the 
slave  therefrom.  The  question  can  never  be,  how  much  the  slave  is  discharged  from ; 
but  whether  he  is  discharged  from  any,  by  the  natural  or  necessary  operation  of  State 
laws  or  State  regulations.  The  question  is  not  one  of  quantity  or  degree,  but  of  with- 
holding or  controlling  the  incidents  of  a  positive  and  absolute  right. 

"We  have  said  that  the  clause  contains  a  positive  and  unqualified  recognition  of 
the  right  of  the  owner  in  the  slave,  unaffected  by  any  State  law  or  regulation  whatso- 
ever, because  there  is  no  qualification  or  restriction  of  it  to  be  found  therein;  and  we 
have  no  right  to  insert  any  which  is  not  expressed  and  cannot  be  fairly  implied; 
especially  are  we  estopped  from  so  doing  when  the  clause  puts  the  right  to  the 
service  or  labor  upon  the  same  ground  and  to  the  same  extent  in  every  other  State  as 
in  the  State  from  which  the  slave  escaped  and  in  which  he  was  held  to  the  service  or 
labor.  If  this  be  so,  then  all  the  incidents  to  that  right  attach  also;  the  owner  must, 
therefore,  have  the  right  to  seize  and  repossess  the  slave,  which  the  local  laws  of  his 
own  State  confer  upon  him  as  property;  and  we  all  know  that  this  right  of  seizure 
and  recaption  is  universally  acknowledged  in  all  the  slaveholding  States.  Indeed, 
this  is  no  more  than  a  mere  affirmance  of  the  principles  of  the  common  law  applicable 
to  this  very  subject.  Mr.  Justice  Blackstone  (3  Bl.  Com.,  4)  lays  it  down  as  unques- 
tionable doctrine.  '  Recaption  or  reprisal  (says  he)  is  another  species  of  remedy  by 
the  mere  act  of  the  party  injured.  This  happens  when  anyone  hath  deprived  another 
of  his  property  in  goods  or  chattels  personal,  or  wrongfully  detains  one  s  wife,  child, 
or  servant;  in  which  case  the  owner  of  the  goods,  and  the  husband,  parent,  or  master 
may  lawfully  claim  and  retake  them,  wherever  he  happens  to  find  them,  so  it  be  not 
in  a  riotous  manner,  or  attended  with  a  breach  of  the  peace.'  Upon  this  ground  we 
have  not  the  slightest  hesitation  in  holding  that,  under  and  in  virtue  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, the  owner  of  a  slave  is  clothed  with  entire  authority,  in  every  State  in  the  Union, 
to  seize  and  recapture  his  slave,  whenever  he  can  do  it  without  a  breach  of  the  peace 


382 

or  any  illegal  violence.  In  this  sense  and  to  this  extent  this  clause  of  the  Constitu- 
tion may  properly  be  said  to  execute  itself,  and  to  require  no  aid  from  legislation, 
State  or  national." 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  now  ask  the  Clerk  to  read,  as  marked,  from  the  opinion 
of  Mr.  Justice  McLean  in  the  same  case. 

The  Clerk  read,  as  follows: 

"That  the  Constitution  was  adopted  in  a  spirit  of  compromise,  is  matter  of 
history.  And  all  experience  shows  that  to  attain  the  great  objects  of  this  fundamental 
law,  it  must  be  construed  and  enforced  in  a  spirit  of  enlightened  forbearance  and 
justice.  Without  adverting  to  other  conflicting  views  and  interests  of  the  State  repre- 
sented in  the  general  convention,  the  subject  of  slavery  was  then,  as  it  is  now,  a  most 
delicate  and  absorbing  consideration.  In  some  of  the  States  it  was  considered  an 
evil,  and  a  strong  opposition  to  it,  in  all  its  forms,  was  felt  and  expressed.  In  others  it 
was  viewed  as  a  cherished  right,  incorporated  into  the  social  compact,  and  sacredly 
guarded  by  law. 

"Opinions  so  conflicting,  and  which  so  deeply  pervaded  the  elements  of  society, 
could  be  brought  to  a  reconciled  action  only  by  an  exercise  of  exalted  patriotism. 
Fortunately  for  the  country,  this  patriotism  was  not  wanting  in  the  convention  and  in 
the  States.  The  danger  of  discord  and  ruin  was  seen  and  felt  and  acknowledged; 
and  this  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Confederacy.  The  Constitution,  as  it  is,  cannot 
be  said  to  have  embodied,  in  all  its  parts,  the  peculiar  views  of  any  great  section  of 
the  Union;  but  it  was  adopted  by  a  wise  and  far-reaching  conviction  that  it  was  the 
best  which,  under  the  circumstances,  could  be  devised;  and  that  its  imperfections 
would  be  lost  sight  of,  if  not  forgotten,  in  the  national  prosperity  and  glory  which  it 
would  secure. 

"  A  law  is  better  understood  by  a  knowledge  of  the  evils  which  led  to  its  adoption. 
And  this  applies  most  strongly  to  a  fundamental  law. 

"At  an  early  period  of  our  history,  slavery  existed  in  all  the  colonies;  and  fugi- 
tives from  labor  were  claimed  and.delivered  up  under  a  spirit  of  comity  or  conventional 
law  among  the  colonies.  The  Articles  of  Confederation  contained  no  provision  on 
the  subject,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  provision  introduced  into  the  Consti- 
tution was  the  result  of  experience  and  manifest  necessity.  A  matter  so  delicate, 
important,  and  exciting,  was  very  properly  introduced  into  the  organic  law." 

"  It  was  designed  to  protect  the  rights  of  the  master,  and  against  whom  ?  Not 
against  the  State,  nor  the  people  of  the  State,  in  which  he  resides;  but  against  the 
people  and  the  legislative  action  of  other  States  where  the  fugitive  from  labor  might 
be  found.  Under  the  Confederation,  the  master  had  no  legal  means  of  enforcing 
his  rights  in  a  State  opposed  to  slavery.  A  disregard  of  rights  thus  asserted  was' 
deeply  felt  in  the  South.  It  produced  great  excitement,  and  would  have  led  to  results 
destructive  of  the  Union.     To  avoid  this,  the  constitutional  guarantee  was  essential." 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  have  adverted  to  that  authority  for  the  reason  that 
it  was  the  first  elaborate  judicial  construction  of  this  constitutional  provision.  On 
that  occasion,  gentlemen,  this  important  case  engaged  the  most  solemn  consideration  of 
the  highest  judicial  tribunal  of  the  country — a  tribunal  at  that  time  enjoying  the 
reverence  of  all  the  people  of  the  land;  it  will  be  seen  that  the  northern  and  western 
judges  equally  concurred.  As  this  stipulation  was  the  result  of  a  compromise  upon 
which  turned  the  possibility  of  union,  it  will  be  seen  that  they  recognized  and  laid 
down  the  doctrine,  in  the  fullest  sense,  that  the  slave  owner  had  the  same  right  to 
pursue  his  property  into  each  and  all  of  the  States  of  the  Confederacy  that  he  had 
within  the  State  in  which  he  resided.  And,  sir,  I  ask  gentlemen,  when  they  look  at 
this  grave  question  in  this  view,  when  they  remember  Mr.  Madison's  exposition  of 
the  history  of  that  day,  whether  they  could  have  obtained  some  of  the  provisions 
which  inure  to  their  advantage  without  the  amplest  protection  of  this  particular  inter- 
est? I  ask  them  how  they  have  proceeded  to  execute  this  law  within  their  limits  ?  It  is  a 
little  remarkable,  and  I  desire  to  call  attention  to  it,  that,  although  this  interest  was 
thus  protected  by  a  compact  to  which  all  the  States  of  the  Union  were  parties,  and 
after  full  and  careful  consideration,  yet,  sir,  a  year  had  not  passed  after  the  Constitution 
went  into  operation,  before  slavery  agitation  began. 

I  beg  gentlemen  also  to  remember  that  this  agitation  did  not  come  from  the  South; 
no,  sir,  let  it  be  known  to  gentlemen  of  this  House  and  to  the  country  that  that  agita- 
tion came  from  the  North.  In  the  first  volume  of  the  Annals  of  Congress,  1789-90-91, 
gentlemen  will  find,  under  date  of  nth  February,  1790,  that  an  elaborate  memorial 
was  presented  by  Mr.  Fitzsimmons,  addressed  to  the  Senate  and  the  House  of 
Representatives.  That  memorial  gave  rise  to  a  lively  and  animated  debate  which 
covers  a  number  of  pages.  I  advert  to  it  here,  so  that  those  who  are  curious  may 
consult  it.  That  debate,  sir,  is  interesting,  as  it  illustrates  a  dawning  disregard,  at 
that  early  day,  of  solemn  constitutional  obligations.  It  exhibits  the  source,  the 
fountain  of  those  bitter  waters  that  have  spread  gradually  over  the  whole  country, 


383 

poisoning  not  only  the  political  but  even  the  social  relations.  This  agitation  began  to 
strengthen.  The  excitement  increased.  Memorials  were  offered  in  large  and  larger 
numbers.  The  policy  of  antagonism  to  Southern  property  at  that  time,  although  in  its 
infancy,  yet,  sir,  was  fully  developed.  It  was  agitate,  agitate,  agitate;  rei  • 
insecure  and  unsafe  the  property  of  the  slaveholder;  that  property,  sir,  which  ought, 
under  solemn  constitutional  obligations,  to  have  l><-<-n  prote<  ted  and  je<  ured;  that 
property  which,  for  the  stipulations  in  the  Constitution  securing  mil   and 

ample  price  had  been  paid. 

They  went  on  agitating  year  after  year,  until  finally,  sir,  what  di 
not  necessary  for  me  to  call  attention  to  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana;  it  is  not 
necessary  for  me  to  speak  of  the  fact  that  it  was  a  Territory  in  which  the  institution 
of  slavery  had  already  been  planted;  that  it  existed  and  had  been  planted  by  force 
of  the  civil  law  throughout  its  vast  limits.  Missouri  asked  to  come  into  the  Union; 
then,  sir,  we  saw  an  effort  made  to  keep  her  out,  which  shook  this  Union  to  its  f oundal 
Mr.  Kincr,  of  New  York,  proclaimed  upon  that  occasion  that  the  subj<  not 

of  humanity  but  of  power.    He  said  that  no  interest  ought  to  be  put  in  competition 
with  political  power.     If  it  was,  as  one  of  the  original  parties   to   the  compact,  he 
said  that  he  felt  himself  in  honor  bound  not  to  submit.     He  said,  moreover,  that  the 
admission  of  Louisiana  itself  created  a  new  confederacy,  a  compact,  and  that  if  an 
attempt  to  extend  slavery  beyond  the  Mississippi  succeeded  the  people  of  the  North 
ouo-ht  not  to  submit  for  any  interest  whatsoever.     I  call  attention  to  these  declaration-, 
of  "that   man,  not  only   because  of  his  ability  and  distinction  in  the   country  at  that 
time,  but  because  it  proclaims  the  real  motive  which  has  disturbed  this  Union,    r 
a  question  of  political  power,  a  question  which  overrode  all  other  interests,  obligal 
of  sacred  compacts  and  all.     All,  all,  sir,  were  as  nothing  compared  with  the 
of  political  power. 

It  has  been  the  fashion,  Mr.  Clerk,  to  'charge   upon  the  Democratic  party  the 


the  House  to  a  letter  from  Henry  Clay  to  Mr  .Woods,  of  Albemarle,  Virginia.  I 
trust  that  there  are  still  some  here  who  were  old  Whigs  that  have  not  lost  all  affection 
and  veneration  for  the  memory  of  that  distinguished  statesman.  The  Clerk  will  read 
what  I  send  to  him. 

The  Clerk  read,  as  follows:  .   . 

Albemarle,  Virginia,  September  2,  1&50. 

Dear  Sirs:— In  a  conversation,  a  few  days  since,  with  a  Representative  in 
Congress  from  this  State,  allusion  being  made  to  a  letter  from  Mr.  Clay  to  my  late 
brother,  William  S.  Woods,  giving  the  part  which  he  had  taken  in  bringing  about 
the  Missouri  compromise,  considerable  anxiety  was  expressed  that  the  letter  might  be 
published;  and  I  herewith  inclose  to  you,  his  ever  constant  and  devoted  friends,  the 
original,  that  you  may  do  with  it  as  you  think  proper. 

Yours  most  truly, 
Messrs.  Gales  &  Seaton,  Washington.  JOHN  R.  WOODS. 

Ashland,  July  16,  1835. 

Dear  Sir:— I  have  duly  received  your  favor  of  the  8th  instant,  and  feel  greatly 
obliged  by  the  friendly  sentiments  and  the  constancy  with  which  you  have  adhered 
to  me.  I  regret  extremely  that  I  can  supply  you  with  no  copy  of  any  speech  that 
I  ever  made  on  the  Missouri  question.  The  debate  was  long,  arduous,  and,  dur- 
ing the  last  agitation  of  the  question,  I  spoke  almost  every  day  for  two  or  t hree  we ek* 
on  the  main  or  collateral  questions.  The  set  or  prepared  speech  which  made  of 
three  or  four  hours'  duration  was  never  published.  Of  my  share  in  the  debate  there 
is,  therefore,  only  a  meager  account  to  be  gleaned  from  the  papers  of  the  J** 

The  question  first  arose  in  the  session  of  1819-20  When  the  bd  for  a  dm  tw  g 
Missouri  into  the  Union  was  on  its  passage,  Mr.  Taylor,  of  New  York,  proposed  to 
insert  in  it,  as  a  condition  on  which  the  State  was  to  become  a  nu.nl,,-,  ,  c  Con- 
federacy, that  it  should  never  tolerate  slavery  or  involun jary  *e  ttt,,  .  1  u 
argument  by  which  that  proposition  was  maintained  by  himself  and  others  was,  tha 
slavery  was  contrary  to  divine  law  and  to  the  acknowledged  rights  of  man  that  1 
ought  not  to  exist;  that  it  is  an  admitted  evil;  that,  if  the  General  G°7hr"m^n/nccra^°t 
extirpate  it  in  the  old  States,  it  can  prevent  its  extension  to  the  W  *«M£Sf.  ^ 
tracted  within  a  limited  sphere,  it  will  be  less  pernicious  and  more  console,  that 
Congress,  having  the  power  to  admit  new  States,  may  prescribe  *he  c^itio"S  of  their 
admission;  and  that  in  all  preceding  instances  of  the  admission  of  new  States  »ome 

conditions  were  annexed.  .»,:«»  fA<1nviththe 

To  all  this  we  replied  that  the  General  Government  had  no  thing  to dow.th  the 
subject  of  slavery,  which  belonged  exclusively  to  the  several  States,  that  they  al 


384 

were  to  j  udge  of  the  evil  and  the  remedy ;  that  every  State  had  such  entire  control  over 
the  matter  that  those  which  tolerated  slavery  might  abolish  it,  and  those  which  never  had 
it  or  had  abolished  it  might  now  admit  it  without  any  interference  from  the  General 
Government;  that  although  Congress  had  the  power  to  admit  new  States,  when 
admitted,  by  the  express  terms  of  the  Constitution,  they  were  on  the  same  footing  in 
every  respect  whatever,  with  the  senior  States,  and  consequently  had  a  right  to  judge 
for  themselves  on  the  question  of  slavery;  that,  if  Congress  could  exercise  the  power 
of  annexing  a  condition  respecting  slavery,  they  might  annex  any  other  condition, 
and  thus  it  might  come  to  pass  that,  instead  of  a  confederacy  of  States  of  equal 
power,  we  should  exhibit  a  mongrel  association;  that,  in  the  case  of  other  new  States, 
they  were  not  conditions  upon  their  sovereignty,  but  voluntary  compacts,  relating 
chiefly  to  the  public  lands,  and  mutually  beneficial;  that  the  extension  of  slavery  was 
favorable  to  the  comfort  of  the  slave  and  to  the  security  of  the  white  race,  &c. 

The  proposition  by  Mr.  Taylor  (which  I  think  had  been  made  at  the  previous  ses- 
sion) was  defeated  by  a  small  majority,  and  the  bill  passed  without  the  obnoxious 
condition. 

Missouri  assembled  her  convention,  formed  a  constitution  and  transmitted  it  to 
Congress.  In  that  constitution  she  unfortunately  inserted  a  clause  against  free  blacks, 
and  when,  at  the  session  of  1820-21,  it  was  proposed  to  admit  her  into  the  Union,  the 
same  party  who  had  supported  the  condition,  taking  advantage  of  that  exceptionable 
clause,  now  opposed  her  admission. 

I  did  not  reach  Washington  until  in  January,  and  when  I  got  there  I  found  the 
members  from  the  slave  States,  and  some  from  others,  in  despair.  All  efforts  had 
been  tried,  and  failed,  to  reconcile  the  parties.  Mr.  Lowndes  had  exhausted  all  his 
great  resources  in  vain.  Both  parties  appealed  to  me,  and,  after  surveying  their  con- 
dition, I  went  to  work.  I  saw  that  each  was  so  committed  and  so  wedded  to  its 
opinion  that  nothing  could  be  effected  without  a  compromise;  and  the  point  with  me 
was  to  propose  some  compromise  which  should  involve  no  sacrifice  of  principle.  I  got 
a  committee  of  thirteen  appointed  by  the  House,  and  furnished  to  the  Speaker  (Mr. 
Taylor)  a  list  of  such  members  as  I  wished,  embracing  enough  of  the  Restrictionists  to 
carry  any  measure,  if  they  would  agree  with  us.  In  that  committee  I  proposed,  and, 
with  its  assent,  reported  to  the  House  a  clause,  by  way  of  condition,  to  be  annexed  to 
the  act  admitting  her,  substantially  like  that  which  was  finally  adopted.  It  was 
defeated  in  the  House  by  Mr.  Randolph  and  Messrs.  Edwards  and  Burton,  of  North 
Carolina,  voting  against  it. 

My  next  movement  was  to  get  a  joint  committee  of  twenty-four  appointed  by  the 
two  Houses.  That  on  the  part  of  the  House  was  chosen  by  ballot,  and  a  list  which  I 
made  out  were  appointed,  with  a  few  exceptions.  They  reported  the  resolution,  now 
to  be  found  on  the  statute-book,  which  was  finally  passed  2d  of  March,  1821,  and  set- 
tled the  question. 

Never  did  a  party  put  so  much  at  hazard  as  the  Restrictionists  did  on  so  small  a 
question  as  that  was  which  arose  on  the  second  occasion,  growing  out  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  Missouri.  Never  have  I  seen  the  Union  in  such  danger.  Mr.  King,  of  New 
York,  was  understood  to  concur  in  all  the  measures  of  the  Restrictionists.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Senate,  spoke  largely  on  the  subject,  and  was  most  triumphantly 
refuted  in  one  of  the  ablest  speeches  of  Mr.  Pinkney,  of  Maryland,  that  I  ever  heard. 

Besides  the  topics  employed  in  the  first  instance,  on  this  second  occasion  the 
main  effort  of  our  opponents  was  procrastination;  they  urging  that  the  matter  should 
be  put  off  until  the  new  Congress.  We  believed  that  their  real  purpose  was  to  con- 
solidate their  party  and  to  influence  the  presidential  election  then  approaching.  I 
never  was  in  better  health  and  spirits,  and  never  worried  my  opponents  more.  I 
coaxed,  soothed,  scorned,  defied  them  by  turns,  as  I  thought  the  best  effect  was  to 
be  produced.  Towards  those,  of  whom  there  were  many  from  the  free  States, 
anxious  for  the  settlement  of  the  controversy,  I  employed  all  the  persuasion  and 
conciliation  in  my  power. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  business  I  was  exhausted;  and  I  am  perfectly  satisfied 
that  I  could  not  have  borne  three  weeks  more  of  such  excitement  and  exertion. 

This  account  of  that  memorable  question  is  written  for  your  own  satisfaction,  and 
not  for  publication.     It  is  the  first  draft,  and  I  retain  no  copy. 

Your  letter  has  brought  on  you  a  great  infliction  in  this  long  epistle.     You  must 
ascribe  it  to  the  friendly  feelings  excited  by  yours.     I   rarely  commit  this  sort  of 
offense.     With  great  respect,  I  am  yours,  faithfully, 
Wluam  S.  Woods,  Esq.  H.  CLAY. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  have  read,  Mr.  Clerk,  and  gentlemen  of  the  House, 
that  letter  of  Mr.  Clay,  as  containing  a  sort  of  review  of  the  great  struggle  upon  that 
occasion,  a  struggle  of  power,  before  which  the  obligations  due  to  the  Constitution 
had  to  go  down.  There,  sir,  was  the  first  introduction  of  the  principle,  assuming  the 
exercise  of  an  unconstitutional  power,  but  which  the  South,  for  the  sake  of  the  Union, 
reluctantlv  consented  to  submit  to. 


385 

But,  sir,  I  have  not  done  with  tin's  subject;  I  choose  to  be  full  upon  the  bud  •    I 
and  I  now  ask   the  Clerk  to  read  a  letter  from  Mr.  Jefferson   t"  Mi.  Holm.  v.  .,,,,; 
also  to  Mr.  John  Adams. 

The  Clerk  read  the  letters,  as  follows  : 

"  Musi  icki.i.o.  April  22,  1X20. 

"I  thank  you,  dear  sir,  for  the  copy  you  have  been  BO  kind  a-  to  Bend  me  "I   the 
letter  to  your  constituents  on  the  Missouri  question.     It  is  a  perfect   justification   !•> 
them.     I   had   for  a  long   time  ceased   to  read   newspapers,  or  pay   any  att< 
public  affairs,  confident  they  were  in   good   hands,  and  content   to  be  a   passenger 
in  our  bark  to  the  shore  from  which  I  am  not  distant.     But  this  momentous  qu«  Si 
like  a  fire-bell  in  the  night,  awakened  and   filled   me  with  terror.     I  considi  red  it  at 
once  as  the  knell  of  the  Union.     It  is  hushed,  indeed,  for  the  moment.      Bui  H  la 
reprieve   only,  not   a  final   sentence.     A  geographical  line,  coinciding  with  .1  marked 
principle,  moral  and  political,  once  conceived  and  held  up  t"  the  angry  passions  of 
men,  will    never  be  obliterated  ;  and  every  new  irritation  will   mark   it   deeper  and 
deeper.      I  can  say,  with  conscious  truth,  that   then-  is  not  a  man  on  earth  who  would 
sacrifice  more  than  I  would  to  relieve  us  from  this   heavy  reproach,  in  any  practicable 
way.     The   cession   of   that  kind  of   property,  for  so  it  is  misnamed,  is   a  b  • 

which  would  not  cost  me  a  second  thought,  if,  in  that  way,  a  general  emancipation 
and  expatriation  could  be  effected  ;  and,  gradually,  and  with  due  sacrifii  es,  1  think  it 
might  be.  But  as  it  is,  we  have  the  wolf  by  the  ears,  and  we  can  neither  hold  him, 
nor  safely  let  him  go.  Justice  is  in  one  scale,  and  self-preservation  in  the  other.  <  >f 
one  thing  I  am  certain,  that  as  the  passage  of  slaves  from  one  State  to  another,  would 
not  make  a  slave  of  a  single  human  being  who  would  not  be  so  without  it.  s>>  their 
diffusion  over  a  greater  surface  would  make  them  individually  happier,  and  pro- 
portionally  facilitate  the  accomplishment  of  their  emancipation  by  dividing  the  burden 
on  a  greater  number  of  coadjutors.  An  abstinence,  too,  from  this  act  of  power,  would 
remove  the  jealousy  excited  by  the  undertaking  of  Congress  to  regulate  the  condition 
of  the  different  descriptions  of  men  composing  a  State.  This  certainly  is  the  exclusive 
right  of  every  State,  which  nothing  in  the  Constitution  has  taken  from  them  and  given 
to  the  General  Government.  Could  Congress,  for  example,  say  that  the  non  freemen 
of  Connecticut  shall  be  freemen,  or  that  they  shall  not  emigrate  into  any  other  State  ? 

"  I  regret  that  I  am  now  to  die  in  the  belief  that  the  useless  sacrifice  oi  themselves 
by  the  generation  of  1776,  to  acquire  self-government  and  happiness  to  their  country, 
is  to  be  thrown  away  by  the  unwise  and  unworthy  passions  of  their  sons,  and  that  my 
only  consolation  is  to  be,  that  I  live  not  to  weep  over  it.  If  they  would  but  dispas- 
sionately weigh  the  blessings  they  will  throw  away,  against  an  abstract  principle 
more  likely  to  be  effected  by  union  than  by  secession,  they  would  pause  before  they 
would  perpetrate  this  act  of  suicide  on  themselves,  and  of  treason  against  the  hopes 
of  the  world.  To  yourself,  as  the  faithful  advocate  of  the  Union,  I  tender  the  offering 
of  my  high  esteem  and  respect." 

"  Monticki.i.o,  January  22.  182L 
*********** 
"Our  anxieties  in  this  quarter  are  all  concentrated  in  the  question,  what  does  the 
Holy  Alliance  in  and  out  of  Congress  mean  to  do  with  us  on  the  Missouri  question  ? 
And  this,  by-the-by,  is  but  the  name  of  the  case,  it  is  only  the  John  Doe  or  Richard 
Roe  of  the  ejectment.  The  real  question,  as  seen  in  the  States  afflicted  with  this 
unfortunate  population,  is,  are  our  slaves  to  be  presented  with  freedom  and  a  dagger? 
For  if  Congress  has  the  power  to  regulate  the  conditions  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
States  within  the  States,  it  will  be  but  another  exercise  of  that  power  to  declare  that 
aW  shall  be  free.  Are  we  then  to  see  again  Athenian  and  Lacedemonian  confed- 
eracies ?  To  wage  another  Peloponnesian  war  to  settle  the  ascendency  between 
them  ?  Or  is  this  the  tocsin  of  merely  a  servile  war?  That  remains  to  be  seen  ;  but 
not,  I  hope,  by  you  or  me.  Surely,  they  will  parley  awhile  and  give  us  time  to  get 
out  of  the  way.  What  a  Bedlamite  is  man  ?  But  let  us  turn  from  our  own  ui 
to  the  miseries  of  our  southern  friends.  Bolivar  and  Morillo,  it  seems,  have  come  to 
the  parley,  with  dispositions  at  length  to  stop  the  useless  effusion  of  human  blood  in 
that  quarter,  I  feared  from  the  beginning,  that  these  people  were  not  yet  sufficiently 
enlightened  for  self-government ;  and  that  after  wading  through  blood  and  slaughter, 
they  would  end  in  military  tyrannies,  more  or  less  numerous.  Y<  t  as  they  wished  to 
try  the  experiment,  I  wished  them  success  in  it  ;  they  have  now  tried  it,  and  will 
possiblv  find  that  their  safest  road  will  bean  accommodation  with  the  mother  country, 
which  shall  hold  them  together  by  the  single  link  of  the  same  chief  magistrate, 
leaving  to  him  power  enough  to  keep  them  in  peace  with  one  another,  and  to  them- 
selves the  essential  power  of  self-government  and  self-improvement,  until  they  shall 
be  sufficiently  trained  by  education  and  habits  of  freedom,  to  walk  safely  by  them- 
selves.    Representative  government,    native  functionaries,  a  qualified  negative  on 


386 

their  laws,  with  a  previous  security  by  compact  for  freedom  of  commerce,  freedom  of 
the  press,  habeas  corpus,  and  trial  by  jury,  would  make  a  good  beginning.  This  last 
would  be  the  school  in  which  their  people  might  begin  to  learn  the  exercise  of  civic 
duties  as  well  as  rights.  For  freedom  of  religion  they  are  not  yet  prepared.  The 
scales  of  bigotry  have  not  sufficiently  fallen  from  their  eyes  to  accept  it  for  them- 
selves individually,  much  less  to  trust  others  with  it.  But  that  will  come  in  time,  as 
well  as  a  general  ripeness  to  break  entirely  from  the  parent  stem.  You  see,  my 
dear  sir,  how  easily  we  prescribe  for  others  a  cure  for  their  difficulties,  while  we 
cannot  cure  our  own.  We  must  leave  both,  I  believe,  to  Heaven,  and  wrap  ourselves 
up  in  the  mantle  of  resignation,  and  of  that  friendship  of  which  I  tender  to  you  the 
most  sincere  assurances." 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  ask  the  Clerk  also  to  read,  in  this  connection,  an 
article  in  reference  to  the  same  subject. 

The  Clerk  read,  as  follows  : 

"  President  Monroe  drew  up  a  draft  of  a  veto  message  which  he  intended  to  send 
into  Congress,  in  1820,  upon  its  passing  a  law  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  territory 
north  of  36 D  30',  as  a  condition  precedent  upon  which  Missouri  was  to  be  admitted  into 
the  Union  as  a  slave  State.  From  that  message,  which  yet  exists  in  Mr.  Monroe's 
handwriting,  the  following  extract  is  made  : 

"'The  purposed  restriction  of  Territories  which  are  to  be  admitted  into  the 
Union,  if  not  in  direct  violation  of  the  Constitution,  is  repugnant  to  its  principles, 
since  it  is  intended  to  produce  an  effect  on  the  future  policy  of  the  new  States, 
operating  equally  upon,  and  in  regard  to,  the  original  States,  injuring  those  affected 
by  it  in  an  interest  protected  from  such  injury  by  the  Constitution,  without  benefitting 
any  State  in  the  Union.' 

"  As  a  matter  of  policy,  which  was  afterward  proved  to  be  mistaken,  Mr.  Monroe 
waived  his  constitutional  objections,  and  signed  the  bill.  His  message  above  quoted 
shows  his  opinion  of  the  Republican  creed.  The  following  letter  from  Mr.  Madison 
shows  why  the  celebrated  ordinance  of  1787,  in  regard  to  slavery  in  the  Northwest 
Territory,  was  passed  : 

"  'I  have  observed,  as  yet,  in  none  of  the  views  taken  of  the  ordinance  of  1787, 
interdicting  slavery  northwest  of  the  Ohio,  an  allusion  to  the  circumstance  that  when 
it  passed  the  Congress  had  no  authority  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  slaves  from 
abroad  ;  that  all  the  States  had,  and  some  were,  in  the  full  exercise  of  the  right  to 
import  them  ;  and,  consequently,  that  there  was  no  mode  in  which  Congress  could 
check  the  evil  but  the  indirect  one  of  narrowing  the  space  open  for  the  reception  of 
slaves. 

"  '  Had  a  Federal  authority  then  existed  to  prohibit,  directly  and  totally,  the 
importation  from  abroad,  can  it  be  doubted  that  it  would  have  been  exerted,  and  that 
a  regulation  having  merely  the  effect  of  preventing  the  interior  disposition  of  slaves 
actually  in  the  United  States,  and  creating  a  distinction  among  the  States  in  the 
degrees  of  their  sovereignty,  would  not  have  been  adopted,  or,  perhaps,  thought  of. 

"'I  find  the  idea  is  fast  spreading  that  the  zeal  with  which  the  extension  [so 
called]  of  slavery  is  opposed,  has,  with  the  coalesced  leaders,  an  object  very  different 
from  the  welfare  of  slaves,  or  a  check  to  their  increase,  and  that  the  real  object  is,  as 
you  intimated,  to  form  a  new  state  of  parties  founded  on  local  instead  of  political  dis- 
tinctions.'— Letter  of  James  Madison  to  President  Monroe,  dated  Montpelier,  February 
20,  1820." 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  wish  you,  gentlemen,  the  House,  and  the  country,  to 
bear  in  mind  distinctly,  that  here  are  authorities  of  the  fullest  and  amplest  character 
against  the  constitutionality  of  the  Missouri  line.  It  is  from  men  of  the  very  highest 
character — men  personally  acquainted  with  the  earliest  days  of  the  Constitution  ;  and 
they  all  testify  to  the  same  conclusion.  Nor  is  that  all.  Mr.  Jefferson's  name  is  used  ; 
Mr.  Madison's  name  is  used  ;  Mr.  Clay's  name  is  used,  everywhere,  in  certain  sec- 
tions of  the  Union,  as  evidence  of  a  deep-seated  hostility  to  slavery  ;  and  here  are 
those  distinguished  men  recognizing  the  solemn  obligation  of  the  compact,  and 
looking  upon  the  Missouri  question  with  apprehension  and  alarm.  Mr.  Jefferson  says 
that  when  the  Missouri  question  broke  out,  it  struck  upon  his  ear  like  a  tire-bell  in  the 
nio-ht,  and  that  it  filled  him  with  terror  and  alarm  ;  Mr.  Madison  says  nothing,  in  his 
reminiscences  of  that  day,  justifying  that  action  ;  Mr.  Monroe  himself  had  prepared 
a  message  vetoing  the  bill  ;  and  Mr.  Clay  resisted  the  Missouri  restriction  with  all  his 
great  resources. 

And  be  it  remembered,  furthermore,  that  the  starting,  and  the  agitation  of  this 
question,  was  from  the  North  ;  not  in  a  spirit  of  urbanity  and  affection,  but  as  a 
question  of  power,  pushed  to  the  very  extreme,  almost  to  the  dissolution  of  the  Union 
itself.  Hear  Mr.  Clay  upon  the  subject.  When  he  returned  here  in  January*,  1821,  he 
found  Congress  in  deep  apprehension  and  alarm,  and  the  most  patriotic  men  full  of 
fear  and  horror.     Even  the  great  Lowndes  himself,  with  a  heart  full  of  love  for  his 


387 

country,  had  surrendered  the  struggle  in  despair.  It  was  at  such  a  time  as  that  and 
under  such  circumstances,  that  Mr.  Clay  interfered  for  the  adjustment  of  this  matter 
and  ultimately  succeeded,  at  the  expense  of  the  Constitution,  in  preserving  peace.  I 
say  at  the  expense  of  the  Constitution  ;  for,  according  to  the  clearest  and  highest 
evidence,  not  only  of  these  menw  horn  I  have  quoted,  but  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  (he 
United  States  in  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  the  act  was  an  usurpation  of  power,  unwar- 
ranted by  the  Constitution,  and  destructive  to  the  equal  rights  of  the  country. 

Mr.  Kilgork.  Will  the  gentleman  permit  me  to  ask  him,  if  Congress  has  power, 
under  the  Constitution,  to  restrict  or  limit  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  the  Terri'- 
tories,  would  not  that  necessarily  include  a  power  to  prohibit  it?  Then,  what  dis- 
position will  the  gentleman  make  of  the  act  of  1804,  organizing  the  Territory  of 
Orleans,  approved  by  Mr.  Jefferson  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  understand  that.  Mr.  Madison  explains  it.  He  says, 
moreover,  that  the  ordinance  of  1787,  which  had  not  the  slightest  warrant  in  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  was  introduced  for  the  purpose  of  restricting  or  narrowing 
the  space  to  which  slaves  could  be  carried,  and  thus  to  diminish  the  inducements  to 
import  them.  It  was  the  intention  of  the  Constitution  to  confine  the  foreign  importa- 
tion of  slaves  to  the  States  then  existing. 

Mr.  Kilgore.  The  gentleman  has  not  answered  my  question.  I  asked  the  gen- 
tleman to  reconcile  the  approval  of  Mr.  Jefferson  of  that  bill  to  the  position  which  he 
now  represents  Mr.  Jefferson  to  have  held  upon  the  question. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  have  no  doubt  it  is  reconcilable.  Louisiana  was 
acquired  by  purchase  ;  and  the  right  to  import  slaves  was  confined  to  the  States 
existing  at  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and,  by  necessary  implication,  the  power 
of  restraining  importations  into  other  States  or  Territories  was  yielded  to  the  Federal 
Government. 

I  will  not  undertake  to  deal  with  that  question  now  ;  when  it  comes  up  properly, 
I  will  be  prepared  to  meet  the  gentleman.  Suffice  it  to  say,  here  is  the  authority  you 
so  frequently  invoke — Madison,  Jefferson,  and  Monroe — and  they  were  against  this 
invasion  of  the  Constitution  in  the  adoption  of  the  Missouri  line. 

But,  sir,  that  is  not  all.  What  I  want  the  country  to  understand,  what  I  want  their 
attention  particularly  called  to,  is  the  fact  that  this  great  question  which  shook  the 
Union  to  its  foundation,  originated  at  the  North — originated  there  in  no  patriotic  or 
humane  purpose,  but  from  a  lust  of  power.  Mr.  King,  the  great  leader  in  this 
question,  broadly  stated  that  to  be  the  doctrine.  It  was  a  question  of  power,  which 
should  override  all  other  interests  and  all  other  considerations.  It  is  that  point  I  wish 
the  country  to  understand.  The  encroachments  of  the  slave  power  have  been  so  often 
and  so  unjustly  denounced,  that  I  want  the  country  to  remember  that  this  great  first 
movement,  disturbing  the  equipose  of  the  Constitution,  was  from  the  North,  and  was 
a  question  of  power  ;  that  it  was  pressed  almost  to  a  disruption  of  the  Union.  Proclaim 
it,  then,  in  all  the  highways  and  byways  of  the  country,  that  the  first  great  agitation 
of  this  question  arose  from  a  lust  of  power  by  the  North,  and  was  pressed  to  the  last 
extreme,  and,  at  last,  the  Union  was  only  rescued  from  the  impending  peril  by  the 
extraordinary  exertions  of  Henry  Clay. 

Well,  the  question  passed  ;  and  having  passed,  let  me  now  call  your  attention,  if 
you  please,  to  the  great  sacrifices  made  by  the  South  on  that  occasion,  It  was  one  of 
the  highest  evidences  of  love  of  the  Union  that  is  furnished  in  the  history  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. While  the  South  strongly  resisted  this  Missouri  line,  so  long  as  they  could  ; 
while  they  had  firm  and  profound  convictions  of  its  injustice,  as  well  as  of  its  uncon- 
stitutionality, yet,  in  the  last  extremity,  when  all  seemed  to  be  lost,  the  South,  in  that 
spirit  of  fraternal  love  which  laid  the  foundations  of  the  Constitution,  yielded  their 
objections  to  this  demand  of  power,  surrendered  their  views  of  interest,  agreed  to  the 
demolition  of  the  Constitution,  in  that  particular,  and  assented  that  the  line  of  36 '  30' 
might  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  compromises  of  the  Union. 

Sir,  the  history  of  that  transaction  proves,  in  the  southern  heart,  the  highest 
veneration  and  devotion  to  the  Union.  The  North  cared  not.  They  meant  to  have 
their  pound  of  flesh.  They  meant  to  have  a  limitation  placed  on  the  expansion  of 
slavery,  at  whatever  peril.  At  last,  in  the  exigency  of  the  moment,  the  South  per- 
mitted this  violation  of  their  rights. 

I  say,  then,  that  instead  of  assailing  the  South  as  being  hostile  to  the  Union,  the 
history  of  that  transaction  presents  the  South  in  a  high  moral  light  of  glorious  and 
beautiful  devotion  to  the  finest  fabric  of  government  that  was  ever  raised  by  the 
inspiration  of  mortal  man.  I  stand  up  here  before  the  country  and  say  that  the  history 
of  that  transaction  is  the  highest  compliment  to  our  patriotic  devotion  to  the  Union 
that  is  furnished  in  our  immortal  and  eventful  history.  We  went  for  the  measure  for 
the  sake  of  peace.  We  went  for  it  against  our  convictions.  We  went  for  it  against 
our  interests.  We  did  it  all  for  the  sake  of  the  Union.  Even  Mr.  Monroe,  that  good 
and  just  man,  after  he  had  prepared  his  veto,  when  the  measure  passed  both  Houses, 


388 

under  the  inspiring  exertions  of  Henry  Clay,  yielded  his  convictions,  and  laid  down 
his  sense  of  duty  and  of  right  on  the  altar  of  his  country.  And,  great  God  !  is  the 
South  to  be  arraigned  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion  on  the  charge  that  it  is  incendiary 
in  its  character  and  hostile  to  this  holy  ark  of  our  covenant  ?  But,  fellow-citizens 
was  the  anti-slavery  power  satisfied  with  that  invasion  of  the  Constitution  ?  No,  sir 
the  work  was  not  yet  finished;  the  power  was  not  yet  completely  theirs.  Agitation 
continued);  memorials  poured  in  on  Congress  day  after  day  and  year  after  year. 
Finally,  in  1835,  a  profound  agitation  again  shook  the  Union  to  its  center. 

I  mention  this  fact,  because  it  is  very  common  for  gentlemen  to  say  that  this 
measure  gave  us  peace  and  settled  the  controversies  of  the  country.  Sir,  it  is  not  so. 
It  was  but  the  beginning  of  aggression.  It  was  one  of  the  steps  of  successful  outrage 
upon  the  South  and  upon  the  Constitution,  and  it  inspired  to  renewed  exertion.  I 
could  go  minutely  into  the  history  of  that  day,  and  establish  beyond  a  peradventure 
what  I  have  stated,  but  I  will  refer  to  one  single  matter,  as  illustrative  of  the  general 
accuracy  of  the  position  that  I  take. 

In  1835,  notwithstanding  the  great  concession  which  had  been  made  by  the  South 
she  again  became  the  theme  of  every  species  of  northern  vituperation  and  detraction. 
Though  the  South  had  conceded  so  much,  she  gained  no  favor.  The  thing  was  agitated 
still;  and  the  cry  still  was,  there  shall  be  agitation,  until  the  Union  again  became 
profoundly  agitated 

"  From  turret  to  foundation-stone." 

I  refer  to  but  one  single  piece  of  testimony,  and  that  is  pregnant  and  full;  and  it 
will  establish  beyond  a  question  the  fact  that  1  maintain. 

Such  was  the  intensity  of  agitation,  such  the  profound  excitement  in  the  public 
mind,  that  old  Faneuil  Hall  again  echoed  with  the  voices  of  patriotic  devotion  to  the 
Union.  In  1835,  fifteen  years  after  the  Missouri  agitation,  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  a 
clarum  et  venerabile  nomen,  (I  will  say  also,)  appeared  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and  there 
addressed  an  assembly  of  his  fellow-citizens  on  the  subject.  I  ask  attention  to  the 
extract  which  I  send  to  the  Clerk's  desk. 

The  following  was  read  from  the  Clerk's  desk  : 

"The  meeting  of  1835  was  at  the  dawning  of  the  modern  fearful  abolition  move- 
ment, and  just  as  adroit  politicians  began  to  use  it  for  political  purposes.  In  his  speech 
at  this  meeting,  Harrison  Gray  Otis  pointed  out  the  evident  direction  of  this  abolition 
movement  towards  a  political  association,  and  its  tendency  to  bear  directly  on  the 
ballot-box  and  influence  the  elections.     His  words  are  striking: 

"  'Already  we  know  that  the  member  of  Congress  elect  for  this  district  was  inter- 
rogated upon  his  intended  course  respecting  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
witli  an  independence  which,  apart  from  his  other  merit,  evinces  his  qualifications  for 
his  place,  he  refused  to  pledge  himself,  and  reserved  the  right  to  act  as  his  judgment 
might  dictate  when  obliged  to  act.  And  can  you  doubt,  fellow-citizens,  that  these 
associations  will  act  together  for  political  purposes  ?  Is  it  in  human  nature  for  such 
combinations  to  forbear?  If,  then,  their  numbers  should  be  augmented,  and  the 
success  they  anticipate  realized  in  making  proselytes,  how  soon  might  you  see  a 
majority  in  Congress  returned  under  the  influence  of  the  associations  ?  And  how  long 
afterwards  would  this  Union  last?' 

"  The  veterati  speaker  went  on  to  deprecate  the  tendency  of  these  associations. 
'  Some,'  he  remarked,  '  already  maintain  that  the  duties  of  religion  and  morality 
transcend  those  which  result  from  constitutions  and  treaties;'  and  in  exposing  and 
denouncing  the  very  doctrine  now  known  as  the  higher  law,  he  declared  that  'no  man 
can  vindicate  a  breach  of  the  Constitution  by  setting  up  the  standard  of  a  different  law 
for  his  own  government.'  In  support  of  this,  he  brought  to  bear  that  eloquence  which 
was  heard,  by  political  friend  and  opponent,  with  such  delight.  His  plea  was  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  Federal  compact;  for  a  manifestation  of  the  spirit  in  which  it  was 
made;  and  as  violations  of  this  spirit,  he  held  up  the  words  then  freely  used  against 
slaveholders.  Almost  all  the  epithets  of  vituperation  which  the  language  affords,  he 
said,  '  have  been  applied  to  the  slaveholders  and  their  principles — to  the  principles  of 
Washington  and  Jefferson  and  Madison  and  the  Rutledges  and  Pinckneys,  and  the 
thousands  of  other  great  and  estimable  persons  who  have  held  or  yet  hold  slaves.'  He 
pointed  to  the  portraits  of  Hancock  and  Washington,  which  hung  in  the  hall,  and 
said  : 

"  'Let  us  imagine  an  interview  between  them,  in  the  company  of  friends,  just 
after  one  had  signed  the  commission  for  the  other — and  in  ruminating  on  the  lights 
and  shadows  of  futurity,  Hancock  should  have  said,  "  I  congratulate  my  country  on 
the  choice  she  has  made,  and  I  forsee  that  the  laurels  you  gained  in  the  field  of  Brad- 
dock's  defeat  will  be  twined  by  those  which  will  be  earned  by  you  in  the  war  of  Inde- 
pendence; yet  such  are  the  prejudices  in  my  part  of  the  Union  against  slavery,  that 
although  your  name  and  services  may  screen  you  from  opprobrium  during  your  life, 
your  countrymen,  when  the  willows  weep  over  your  tomb,  will  be  branded  by  mine 


389 

as  men-stealers  and  murderers,  and  the  stain  of  it  consequently  annexed  to  your 
memory."  Would  not  such  a  prophecy  have  been  imputed  to  a  brain  disturbed  by 
public  cares,  and  its  accomplishment  regarded  as  a  mere  chimera  ■' 

"  Such  was  the  patriotic  sentiment  which  the  Boston  of  1835  applauded.  Mr.  Otis 
accurately  delineated  the  poisonous  cast  of  the  seed  which  the  Abolitionists  were  then 
sowing,  and  which,  to-day,  has  sprung  up  into  a  fruitful  crop  ol  treason  and  murder. 
Shame  that  public  meetings  held  here  should  justify  a  slave  revolt!  Shame  that 
clergymen  should  so  far  iorget  what  is  due  to  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws,  under  which  they  enjoy  the  priceless  boon  of  security,  as  to  pronounce  from 
their  desks  with  respect  the  name  of  a  criminal  who  wantonly  violated  them,  and 
who,  if  he  could,  would  have  desolated  Virginia  with  fire  and  sword  I" 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Is  it  not  a  shame  that  such  should  be  the  fact?  I  have  had 
this   extract   read   for  the  purpose  of  letting   the  House   understand  that  at  ti. 
fifteen  years  after  the  Missouri  compromise,  the  country,  instead  of  having 
was   deeply  agitated;  and   Faneuil  Hall  had  again  to  speak  out  in  favor  of   the  Union 
and  the  country.     It  was  on   that  occasion,  at  a  time  when  we  are  told  all  over  the 
country  that  this  great  measure  brought  healingon  its  wings,  that  the  people oi  I 
again    assembled  in    the    name  of  patriotism,  and    that  tneir  great  man  of    that  day 
addressed  them  in  the  language  I  have  had  read.  And  yet,  my  countrymen,  yet,  Mr. 
Clerk,  and  gentlemen  of  the  House,  even  after  the  sacrifice  that  had  been  exacted 
from  us  by  the  Missouri  compromise,  we  were,  at  that  early  day,  the  common  theme 
of  vituperation.   And  the  memory  of  Washington  himself  was  not  even  spared.  Evel  • 
epithet  that  could  be  invented  was  then  applied  to  us,  according  to  this  unmistakable 
testimony. 

Well,  sir,  this  was  in  the  year  1835.  Boston  then  spoke.  Boston  poured  out 
her  strains  of  patriotic  eloquence  in  behalf  of  the  Union  and  the  country.  Did  it  bring 
us  peace?  Did  it  allay  the  heart-burnings  that  existed?  No,  no,  the  agitation  1 
•want  gentlemen  to  understand — continued  still,  notwithstanding  this  attempt  to  allay 
it.  It  continued  until  the  Twenty-Sixth  Congress,  when  the  Halls  of  Congress,  in  both 
Houses,  were  overwhelmed  with  petitions  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 

I  say  that  a  petition  was  presented  by  John  Quincy  Adams,  ex-President  of  the 
United  States,  and  a  member  of  Congress  from  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  asking  for 
a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  You  all  know,  at  least  all  of  us  who  are  familiar  with  the 
history  of  that  day,  know  the  deep  and  profound  excitement  which  immediately 
occurred.  A  motion  was  made  bearing  directly  upon  him,  and  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  political  controversies  upon  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representath  ■ 
perhaps  ever  existed  in  any  legislative  body  was  the  consequence  and  the  result.  Sir, 
there  was  a  strong  disposition  to  deal  harshly  with  the  old  gentleman — to  impeach 
him,  to  drive  him  from  the  Hall;  but  he  made  a  glorious  fight  of  it;  he  stood  here  and 
battled  before  the  assembled  wisdom  of  the  country,  with  a  perseverance  and  power 
that  I,  at  least,  have  never  seen  surpassed. 

I  was  here  then,  not  as  a  member,  but  as  "a  looker  on  in  Vienna;"  and,  sir,  his 
successful  vindication  of  himself,  so  far  as  it  was  a  success,  was  founded  upon  his 
eminent  ability  and  in  that  respect  which  we  all  insensibly  feel  for  distinguished  ser- 
vices and  venerable  age.     I  will  not  go  into  the    peculiar  circumstances  of  tha 
Suffice   it  to  say  that  there  was  an  adjustment  of  the  question  and  it  passed  quietly 
from  the  consideration  of  the  House  it  being  understood— at  least,  I  so  understood  at 
the  time,  and  perhaps  there  may  be  some  evidence  of   it— that  he  would   not 
offend  the  feelings  of  the  South  by  the  presentation  of  offensive  memorials.     I  men- 
tion this    because  I  desire  to  have  it  understood  that  it  was  in  consequence  ot    the 
agitation  and  of  the  multiplication  of   these  memorials  at  that  day  that  the  celebrated 
21st  rule  was  established.     That  rule  was  established  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
repose  and  giving  us  peace.     Every  day  a  memorial  was  presented,  and  every  day  an 
inflammatory  speech  was  made;  and  the  21st  rule  was  introduced  for  the  purp 
putting  down  this  agitation.     Who  resisted  it  ?     Not  the  South.  No,  the  South  d< 
to  end  the  agitation  and  to    have  peace  and  repose;  but  it  interfered  with   the   anti- 
slavery  sentiment  of  the  country.     The  North  wanted  memorial  after  memorial  to  be 
poured  in  here,  and  every  memorial  to  be  followed  by  an  inflammatory  speech  at  the 
expense  of  the  repose,  the  peace,  and  the  quiet  of  the  country. 

That  was  the  origin,  that  the  history  of  the  21st  rule;  but  instead  of  bringing  us 
peace,  it  was  a  new  "  apple  of  discord  "  to  the  country.  The  sacred  right  of  petition 
was  said  to  be  invaded.  It  was  in  vain  that  gentlemen  upon  this  side  of  the  House 
said,  "Why,  gentlemen,  your  memorials  bearing  upon  a  subject  not  within  the  scope 
of  our  constitutional  powers,  ought  not,  of  course,  to  be  received.  \\  hat  is  the  use  ot 
our  Constitution,  what  the  use  of  the  limitation  on  our  powers  if  the  hmeoi 
House  is  to  be  occupied,  and  its  business  and  duties  are  to  be  interfered  with  by  UU 
introduction  of  matters  foreign  to  our  functions  ?"  It  was  in  vain  that  Mr.  Wise,  men 
a  member  of  the  House,  introduced  this  precedent  to  which  I  call  attention,  and 
which  I  will  ask  the  Clerk  to  read  : 


390 

The  Clerk  read,  as  follows  : 

"Mr.  Wise  said  he  wished  to  read  from  the  Journals  of  1 800  an  authority  which 
he  thought  would  settle  the  minds  of  the  members  of  this  House,  and  stop  the  debate. 
He  would  call  the  particular  attention  of  gentlemen  representing  the  non-slaveholding 
States  to  the  action  of  the  fathers  of  the  Constitution  on  this  very  question.  He  would 
read  from  the  Journals  of  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  Congresses,  from  1797  to  1801  : 

"  'Upon  the  2d  of  January,  1800,  Mr.  Wall,  of  Pennsylvania,  presented  a  petition 
from  Absalom  Jones  and  others,  people  of  color  and  freemen,  within  the  city  and 
suburbs  of  Philadelphia,  "complaining  that  the  slave  trade  to  the  coast  of  Guinea  is 
carried  on  in  a  clandestine  manner  from  the  United  States;  that  freemen  of  color  are 
seized,  fettered,  and  sold  as  slaves,  in  various  parts  of  the  country;  that  the  law  not 
long  since  enacted  by  Congress,  called  the  fugitive  bill,  is,  in  its  execution,  attended 
with  circumstances  peculiarly  hard  and  distressing;  and  stating  further,  that,  although 
they  do  not  ask  for  the  immediate  emancipation  of  all  who  are  now  in  unconditional 
bondage  in  these  States,  they  humbly  desire  that  Congress  may  exert  every  mean  in 
their  power  to  undo  the  heavy  burden,"  '  &c. 

"  Mark  (said  Mr.  W.)  the  humility  of  this  petition;  it  is  far  less  objectionable  than 
the  abolition  petitions  of  the  present  day.  'They  humbly  desire  that  Congress  may 
exert  every  mean  in  their  power  to  undo  the  heavy  burdens,  and  prepare  the  way  for 
the  oppressed  to  go  free,  that  every  yoke  may  be  broken.' 

"  I  ask  attention  (continued  Mr.  W. )  to  the  proceeding  on  this  petition  : 

"  'A  motion  was  made  and  seconded  that  the  House  do  come  to  the  following 
resolution,  to  wit : 

"  '■Resolved,  That  so  much  of  the  petition  as  relates  to  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  respecting  the  slave  trade  from  the  United  States  to  any  foreign  place  or 
country,  and  the  laws  respecting  fugitives  from  justice  and  persons  escaping  from 
the  service  of  their  masters,  be  referred  to  the  committee  appointed,  on  the  12th  day 
of  December  last,  to  inquire  whether  any,  and  if  any,  what  alterations  ought  to  be 
made  in  the  law  entitled  "An  act  to  prohibit  the  carrying  on  the  slave  trade  from  the 
United  States  to  any  foreign  place  or  country." 

"  '  And,  debate  arising  thereupon,  an  adjournment  was  called  for.' 

"  Thus  far  (continued  Mr.  W.)  on  the  2d  of  January,  1800.  Then  they  adjourned. 
On  the  next  day  '  the  House  resumed  the  consideration  of  the  motion,  depending 
yesterday,  for  the  reference  of  certain  parts  of  the  petition  of  Absalom  Jones  and 
others;  whereupon,  a  motion  was  made  (by  a  gentleman  of  the  North,  although  that 
does  not  appear  on  the  Journals,  yet  I  have  a  history  of  the  whole  matter)  to  amend 
the  same  by  adding,  "and  that  parts  of  the  said  petition  which  invite  Congress  to 
legislate  upon  a  subject  from  which  the  General  Government  is  precluded  by  the 
Constitution,  have  a  tendency  to  create  disquiet  and  jealousy,  and  ought  therefore 
to  receive  no  encouragement  of  countenance  from  this  House."  '  " 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Mr.  Clerk,  I  have  read  this  authority  for  the  purpose  of 
snowing  that  the  position  I  have  stated  was  vindicated  by  a  precedent.  The  whole 
House  of  Representatives,  in  the  year  1800,  with  a  single  exception,  voted  to  exclude 
that  memorial,  upon  the  ground  that  it  embraced  subjects  not  within  the  constitu- 
tional scope  of  the  powers  of  this  House.  That  single  exception  was  George  Thatcher. 
I  know  not  where  he  was  from,  but  I  have  no  doubt  he  was  from  "down  East." 
There  were  eighty-five  affirmative  votes  to  one  negative.  And  how  did  Mr.  Adams, 
that  grave,  venerable,  intellectual  gentleman,  meet  it? 

"Mr.  Adams.     And  the  mountain  was  delivered  of  his  mouse." 

That  is  the  way  in  which  that  able  man  met  a  precedent  in  1800,  covering  the  very 
point  in  discussion  between  these  gentlemen.  1  want  the  House  to  understand  the 
ground  upon  which  we  sustained  the  propriety  of  the  21st  rule,  and  also  the  ground 
upon  which  that  rule  was  opposed.  The  Opposition  sought  to  introduce  into  the  con- 
sideration of  the  subject  matter  outside  of  the  Constitution,  whilst  we  adhered  to  the 
matter  and  obligations  of  the  Constitution.  We  showed  that  our  position  was  right  by 
the  deliberate  action  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote 
in  the  year  1800.  I  hold  that  that  vindication  of  our  position  is  such  a  one  as  cannot 
be  met  by  an  answer.  But,  sir,  agitation  continued,  and  it  brought  forth  some  of  the 
most  extraordinary  doctrines  ever  enunciated  in  this  Hall.  I  call  attention  to  these 
doctrines  because  it  will  be  perceived  that  in  them  we  find  a  key  to  much  of  the  sub- 
sequent agitation  in  which  the  country  has  been  involved. 

Mr.  Adams  himself,  in  that  celebrated  debate,  enunciated  the  doctrine  that,  if  a 
servile  insurrection  should  be  gotten  up  in  the  slave  States,  that  if  by  any  possibility 
a  servile  war  could  be  engendered,  then  the  Federal  Constitution  could  give  power  to 
the  Federal  Government  over  the  subject  of  slavery;  that  then  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment would   have  the  right  to  put  an  end  to  the  institution   of  slavery.     I  want  the 


391 

country   to   understand  this   extraordinary  doctrine,   because   it  is   the  unhesitating 

avowal,  by  an  eminent  man,  of  the  most  dangerous  doctrine,  whi<  h  h 

and  respected  by  others,  and  of  which  the  foray  of  John  Brown  is  but  an  illustration. 

I  want  the  country  to  know  that  the   object  of    many  in    this  country  is    I 

servile   insurrection,  in  order  that  they  may   call  upon    the  Federal   <-• 

suppress  it,  and  in  that  way  to   acquire   a   constitutional   powei    ovei    thi 

of  the  institution  of   slavery.     Such  was  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Adams.     On   the  ath  ol 

June,  1841,  Mr.  Ingersoll,  commenting  on  what  Mr.  Adams  had  said,  said  : 

"Mr.  I.  went  on  to  express  his  astonishment  and  horror  at  what  bad  [alien  f t<ai> 
the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Adams]  the  other  day  when  Bpeaking  on  this 
subject.  He  understood  the  gentleman  as  saying  that,  in  the  event  of  a  servile  war 
breaking  out  in  the  South,  there  would  be  an  end  of  the  Constitution.  Il<  would  be 
glad  to  know  whether  he  (Mr.  I.)  had  understood  him. 

"  Mr.  Adams  rose  and  said  :  If  the  gentleman  wished  him  to  repeal  what  he  had 
said,  he  had  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  he  had  said  no  such  thing  as  that,  in  that 
event,  there  would  be  an  end  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  What  he  had 
said  was,  that  in  the  event  of  a  servile  war,  his  own  opinion  would  be  that  it  tin-  tree 
portion  of  the  people  of  this  Union  were  called  upon  to  support  the  institutions  of  the 
South  by  suppressing  the  slaves,  and  a  servile  war  in  consequence  ol  it,  in  that  case 
he  would  not  say  that  Congress  had  no  right  to  interfere  with  the  institutions  of  the 
South;  that  the  very  fact,  perhaps,  of  the  fiee  portions  of  this  Union  being  called  t<> 
sacrifice  their  blood  and  their  treasure  for  the  purpose  of  suppressing  war  in  a  case 
in  which  a  most  distinguished  southern  man,  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, had  declared  that  in  that  event  the  Almighty  had  no  attribute  that  sided 
with  the  master— he  would  say  that  if  the  free  portion  of  this  Union  were  called  upon  to 
expend  their  blood  and  their  treasure  to  support  that  cause  which  had  the  1  urse  and  the 
displeasure  of  the  Almighty  upon  it,  he  would  say  that  this  same  CongT<  ss  would  sanc- 
tion an  expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure,  for  that  cause  itself  would  tome  within  the 
constitutional  action  of  Congress,  and  that  there  would  be  no  longer  any  pretension 
that  Congress  had  not  the  right  to  interfere  with  the  institutions  of  the  South,  inas- 
much as  the  very  fact  of  the  people  of  a  free  portion  of  the  Union  marching  to  the 
support  of  the  masters  would  be  an  interference  with  those  institutions;  and  that,  in 
the  event  of  a  war  the  result  of  which  no  man  could  tell,  the  treaty-making  power 
would  become  to  be  equivalent  to  universal  emancipation.  This  was  what  he  had 
then  said,  and  he  would  add  to  it  now,  that,  in  his  opinion,  if  the  decision  of  this 
House,  taken  two  days  ago,  should  be  reversed,  and  a  rule  established  that  the  House 
would  receive  no  petition  on  this  subject,  the  people  of  the  North  would  1  e  ipso  facto 
absolved  from  all  obligation  to  obey  any  call  from  Congress.  If  the  petitions  were 
refused,  then  no  call  could  be  made  upon  them.  If  the  free  people  of  the  North  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  South,  then  they  should  not  be  called  upon  to  support  the 
South." 

Mr.  Ingersoll  interrupted  Mr.  Adams  with  the  expression  of  the  deep  indignation 
of  his  soul  at  the  utterance  of  such  a  doctrine;  that  in  case  of  a  servile  insui 
the  Federal  Government  would  have  the  constitutional  right,  under  the  treaty  making 
power,  to  abolish  slavery  if  called  upon  to  comply  with  the  obligations  of  the  Consti- 
tution, which  required  it  to  exercise  its  giant  strength  for  the  repression  of  invasion. 
and  the  suppression  of  domestic  violence.  Mr.  Adams  reiterated  that  doctrine  -•> 
that  it  was  not  a  hurried  opinion,  but  a  deliberate  judgment.  He  repeated  his  ad- 
herence to  that  doctrine,  which  every  man,  it  seems  to  me,  ought  to  pronounce 
atrocious. 

I  repeat  that  Mr.  Adams  restated  his  doctrine.  He  again  affirmed  that  in  case  of 
a  servile  war  the  Federal  Government  would  have  jurisdiction  over  the  subject  of 
slavery  within  the  States,  that  it  would  have  the  right,  under  the  treaty-making 
power,  to  put  an  end  to  the  institution  of  slavery.  Sir,  that  doctrine  of  course  cannot 
fall  like  water  upon  the  sands.  It  fructified.  It  was  repeatedly  adverted  to  by  a  dis- 
tinguished member  from  the  State  of  Ohio.  One  of  the  members  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Cox]  the  other  day  referred  to  the  language  of  one  of  the  former  members  from  that 
State  to  whom  I  refer.  I  allude  to  the  extract  of  a  speech  make  in  this  House  by  Mr. 
Giddings.     Said  Mr.  Giddings  : 

"  Sir,  I  would  intimidate  no  one;  but  [  tell  you  there  is  a  spirit  in  the  North 
which  will  set  at  defiance  all  the  low  and  unworthy  machinations  of  this  Executive, 
and  of  the  minions  of  its  power.  When  the  contest  shall  come;  when  the  thunder 
shall  roll  and  the  lightning  flash;  when  the  slaves  shall  rise  in  the  South:  when,  in 
imitation  of  the  Cuban  bondmen,  the  southern  slaves  of  the  South  shall  feel  that  they 
are  men;  when  they  feel  the  stirring  emotions  of  immortality,  and  recognize  the 
stirring  truth  that  they  are  men,  and  entitled  to  the  rights  which  God  has  bestowed 
upon  them;  when  the  slaves  shall  feel  that,  and  when  masters  shall  turn  pale  and 
tremble,  when   their  dwellings   shall  smoke,  and   dismay  sit  on    each  countenance, 


392 

then,  sir,  I  do  not  say  '  we  will  laugh  at  your  calamity,  and  mock  when  your  fear 
cometh;'  but  I  do  say,  when  that  time  shall  come,  the  lovers  of  our  race  will  stand 
forth  and  exert  the  legitimate  powers  of  this  Government  for  freedom.  We  shall  then 
have  constitutional  power  to  act  for  the  good  of  our  country,  and  do  justice  to  the 
slave.  Then  will  we  strike  off' the  shackles  from  the  limbs  of  the  slaves.  That  will 
be  a  period  when  this  Government  will  have  power  to  act  between  slavery  and  free- 
dom, and  when  it  can  make  peace  by  giving  freedom  to  the  slaves.  And  let  me  tell  you, 
Mr.  Speaker,  that  that  time  hastens.  It  is  rolling  forward.  The  President  is  exerting  a 
power  that  will  hasten  it,  though  not  intended  by  him.  I  hail  it  as  I  do  the  approaching 
dawn  of  that  political  and  moral  millennium  which  I  am  well  assured  will  dawn  upon 
the  world." 

Here,  then,  you  see  that  in  the  Thirty-Third  or  Thirty-Fourth  Congress,  a  member 
upon  this  floor  dared  to  utter  this  atrocious  sentiment.  Yes,  sir,  the  period  is  hastening 
on  when  the  horrors  of  civil  war  will  be  abroad  upon  the  face  of  the  land.  The  incen- 
diary torch  is  to  illumine  our  land;  murder  and  rapine  are  to  run  in  riot  over  the 
sunny,  glorious  South. 

But,  sir,  though  this  21st  rule  was  repealed,  under  the  lead  of  John  Minor  Botts 
and. Kenneth  Raynor,  of  North  Carolina,  yet  it  brought  no  peace;  gave  us  no  quiet. 
Agitation  still  continued;  and  again  I  must  introduce  to  the  attention  of  this  House, 
Henry  Clay,  of  Ashland,  Kentucky. 

Tne  Clerk  read  the  following  letter  to  Mr.  Colton  : 

Ashland,  September  2,  1843. 

My  dear  Sir  :  Allow  me  to  suggest  a  subject  for  one  of  your  tracts,  which, 
treated  in  your  popular  and  condensed  way,  I  think  would  be  attended  with  great  and 
good  effect.     I  mean  Abolition. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  ultras  of  that  party  are  extremely  mischievous,  and  are 
hurrying  on  the  country  to  fearful  consequences.  They  are  not  to  be  conciliated  by 
the  Whigs.  Engrossed  with  a  single  idea,  they  care  for  nothing  else.  They  would 
see  the  administration  of  the  Government  precipitate  the  nation  into  absolute  ruin 
before  they  would  lend  a  helping  hand  to  arrest  its  career.  They  treat  worst,  and 
denounce  most,  those  who  treat  them  best,  who  so  far  agree  with  them  as  to  admit 
slavery  to  be  an  evil.  Witness  their  conduct  towards  Mr.  Briggs  and  Mr.  Adams  in 
Massachusetts,  and  towards  me. 

I  will  give  you  an  outline  of  the  manner  in  which  I  would  handle  it  :  Show  the 
origin  of  slavery.  Trace  its  introduction  to  the  British  Government.  Show  how  it  is 
disposed  of  by  the  Federal  Constitution;  that  it  is  left  exclusively  to  the  States,  except 
in  regard  to  fugitives,  direct  taxes,  and  representation.  Show  that  the  agitation  of 
the  question  in  the  free  States  will  first  destroy  all  harmony,  and  finally  lead  to  dis- 
union —perpetual  war — the  extinction  of  the  African  race — ultimate  military  despotism. 

But  the  great  aim  and  object  of  your  tract  should  be  to  arouse  the  laboring 
classes  in  the  free  States  against  abolition.  Depict  the  consequences  to  them  of  im- 
mediate abolition.  The  slaves,  being  free,  would  be  dispersed  throughout  the  Union; 
they  would  enter  into  competition  with  the  free  laborer  -with  the  American,  the 
Irish,  the  German — reduce  his  wages,  be  confounded  with  him,  and  affect  his  moral 
and  social  standing.  And,  as  the  ultras  go  both  for  abolition  and  amalgamation,  show 
that  their  object  is  to  unite  in  marriage  the  laboring  white  man  and  the  laboring  black 
woman,  to  reduce  the  white  laboring  man  to  the  despised  and  degraded  condition  of 
the  blaclc  man. 

I  would  show  their  opposition  to  colonization,  Show  its  humane,  religious  and 
patriotic  aim.  That  they  are  to  separate  those  whom  God  has  separated.  Why  do 
the  Abolitionists  oppose  colonization  ?  To  keep  and  amalgamate  together  the  two 
races,  in  violation  of  God's  will,  and  to  keep  the  blacks  here,  that  they  may  interfere 
with,  degrade,  and  debase  the  laboring  whites.  Show  that  the  British  Government  is 
so  cooperating  with  the  Abolitionists  for  the  purpose  of  dissolving  the  Union,  &c.  You 
can  make  a  powerful  article,  that  will  be  felt  in  every  extremity  of  the  Union.  I  am 
perfectly  satisfied  it  will  do  great  good.     Let  me  hear  from  you  on  this  subject. 

HENRY  CLAY. 

Mr.  Burnett.     I  ask  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  to  yield  me  the  floor. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  do,  sir. 

[Cries  of  "Object!  "  from  the  Republican  benches.] 

Mr.  Burnett.  Gentlemen  cannot  object.  The  gentleman  from  Virginia  has  the 
right  to  yield  for  a  motion  to  adjourn;  which  motion  I  now  make. 

The  motion  was  agreed  to;  and  thereupon  (at  twenty  minutes  past  three  o'clock, 
p.  in  ,1  the  House  adjourned. 


Tuesday,  December  27,  1S59. 
Mr.  SMITH,  of  Virginia.     Mr.  Clerk,  during   my    remarks  on  yesterday,  I  under- 


393 

took  to  show  that  the  whole  slavery  question  was  solemnly   and  deliberately  adjusted 
in  the  convention  that  framed  the  Federal  Constitution,     I  undertook  then  to  demon- 
strate that  the  fathers  of  the  Republic,  impressed  with  a  full  Bense  of  the  high  respon 
sibility  of  the  position  they  occupied,  sought  to  give  peace  to   this  Confedei 

sovereign  and  independent  States  by  adjusting  all  possible  points  of  collision  between 
them.  I  undertook  to  show  that,  so  far  from  this  being  a  Constitution  which  looked  to 
the  speedy  termination  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  it  expressly  provided  for  it-  con- 
tinuance; that,  in  the  sternest  and  most  exacting  manner,  it  sought  to  give  perpetua- 
tion to  that  institution  so  long  as  it  was  the  pleasure  of  those  interested  in  it.  I  under- 
took to  show  that,  so  far  as  the  Constitution  itself  and  the  common  sense  oi  the 
country  were  expressed  by  it,  there  was  no  doubt  it  was  the  clear,  explicit,  and  manifest 
purpose  of  those  who  framed  that  instrument,  to  fence  round  the  institution  of  slavery 
with  the  highest  and  most  acceptable  guarantees.  Having,  as  1  trust,  sufficiently  de- 
monstrated that  position  upon  yesterday,  I  then  proceeded  to  show  that,  notwith- 
standing this  solemn  purpose,  indicated  in  the  official  history  of  the  country,  as  well 
as  in  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  itself,  agitation  commenced  upon  this  subject 
the  very  first  year  of  the  new  Constitution.  That  agitation  is  shown  in  the  debates 
which  took  place  then;  and  those  debates  show  that  the  agitation  was  the  fountain 
from  which  flowed  all  the  troubles  to  the  country.  I  then  went  on  to  show,  sir,  that 
this  subject  continued  to  excite  the  attention  of  the  country  time  after  time,  until  at 
last,  in  1820,  upon  the  application  of  Missouri  for  admission  into  the  Union,  violent 
opposition  was  made  against  the  acknowledged  rights,  as  I  conceive,  not  only  of 
Missouri  herself,  but  of  the  institution  of  slavery  as  it  exists  in  the  country — a  violent 
opposition,  sir,  for  the  purpose  of  power,  as  proclaimed  by  the  chief  mover  of  that 
struggle.  I  explained  to  you  the  fearful  crisis  which  then  presented  the  experiment 
of  man's  fitness  for  self-government.  I  showed  you  that  when  the  hearts  of  the 
stoutest  sunk  in  despair,  Mr.  Clay  stepped  in  to  the  rescue,  and,  by  hi*  extraordinary 
activity,  succeeded  in  compromising  and  adjusting  the  difficulty  for  the  time.  I  also 
showed  that  Mr.  Jefferson,  with  prophetic  warning,  said  that  it  was  only  a  suspension, 
only  a  lulling,  for  the  time  being,  of  the  storm  which  would  shake  the  country  to  its  base. 
I  then,  sir,  went  on  to  show  that,  notwithstanding  this  adjustment— an  adjustment 
created  under  the  most  solemn  and  imposing  circumstances — agitation  still  continued 
against  the  rights  of  the  South.  Aggression,  successful  once,  always  engenders  a  dispo- 
sition for  another;  and  1  showed  that  agitation  was  again  resumed,  and  continued,  with 
much  fierceness,  up  to  1835;  that  old  Faneuil  Hall,  called  the  cradle  of  liberty,  was 
again  roused, with  the  thunder-tones  of  patriotic  eloquence,  by  Otis,  one  of  the  most 
renowned  and  eloquent  of  Massachusetts'  sons.  1  showed  that,  notwithstanding  this 
appeal,  the  agitation  still  continued,  and  continued  with  such  increasing  and  multi- 
plying volume  that  at  last  this  House  established  what  is  called  the  2ist  rule,  the 
object  of  which  was  to  repress  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question.  I  showed,  also, 
that  that  rule  failed  in  its  object.  On  the  contrary,  I  showed  that  it  furnished  a  new 
theater  of  agitation  and  discussion.  I  showed  that  in  the  Twenty-Seventh  Congress 
Mr.  Adams  boldly  proclaimed  upon  the  floor  of  this  House,  and  before  the  country, 
that  in  case  of  a  servile  insurrection  and  the  Federal  authorities  were  called  upon  to 
suppress  it,  the  Constitution  gave  the  Federal  Government  jurisdiction  over  the  sub- 
ject, and  that,  under  the  treaty-making  power,  it  would  have  the  right  to  provide  for 
the  emancipation  of  slaves.  I  showed  that  this  sentiment  had  been  pressed  forward, 
and  that  Mr.  Giddings,  of  Ohio,  in  the  Thirty-Fourth  Congress,  boldly  announced  the 
same  doctrine.  I  then  showed  that,  in  1843, '.Mr.  Clay  wrote  a  letter  to  his  biographer, 
Mr.  Colton,  requesting  him  to  write  an  article  upon  the  subject  of  the  existing  agita- 
tion, pointing  out  how  the  question  was  to  be  dealt  with.  I  asked  members  of  this 
House  to  look  particularly  to  that  letter,  fraught  as  it  is  with  the  most  solemn  sug- 
gestions. Just  at  that  time  I  gave  way  for  the  purpose  of  adjournment.  I  was  in  the 
midst  of  a  subject  upon  which  I  was  dwelling.  I  now  proceed  with  the  argument  I 
was  submitting,  and  the  collation  of  authorities  supporting  the  opinions  I  expn 
do  so  with  the  hope  that  they  may  not  fall  without  profit  upon  the  country.  lean 
assure  the  House  and  the  country  that  by  my  age  and  experience  alike  1  am  unwilling 
to  trifle  with  the  important  duties  before  us.  I  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to  review  the 
past  with  a  view  to  conclusions  bearing  upon  the  present. 

Now,  sir,  if  I  get  the  attention  of  the  House,  I  will  proceed,  in  the  same  spirit 
which  governed  me  yesterday,  to  collate  the  authorities  upon  the  various  points  I 
wish  to  make,  and  so  to  make  clear  certain  important  and  essential  conclusions. 
Whilst  Mr.  Clay  was  urging  upon  Mr.  Colton  to  press  upon  the  country,  in  his  happy 
manner,  the  views  suggested  in  his  letter  of  1843.  a  distinguished  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts,  then  occupying  a  position  upon  this  floor,  was  stirring  up,  by  his 
eloquence  and  intellect, the  bitter  waters  of  sectional  strife.  1  have  here  taken  from 
the  interview,  to  which  I  believe  I  once  referred  upon  this  subject,  what  passed  ""the 
21st  of  February,  1843.  Gentlemen,  I  pray  vou  not  to  close  your  ears  against  it,  but 
itolook  upon  this,  with  the  other  evidence  I  have  introduced,  as  calculated  to  arouse  an 


394 

apprehension,  on  the  part  of  the  South,  that  the  equilibrium  of  the  Union  was  to  be 
disturbed  for  the  purpose  of  sacrificing  the  dearest  and  cherished  interests  of  one  of 
the  most  important  portions  of  the  Union.  And  I  also  pray  gentlemen  of  the  other 
side,  when  they  come  to  contemplete  the  review  to  which  I  have  adverted,  to  make 
some  allowance  for  the  excitability  sometimes  manifested  by  the  South,  under  the 
deep  provocations  to  which  they  are  continually  subject.  I  beg  leave,  now,  to  read 
an  extract  in  reference  to  a  memorable  debate  between  John  Quincy  Adams,  and  Mr. 
Dellet,  of  Alabama,  on  the  21st  of  February,  1843  : 

"  Mr.  Dellet,  of  Alabama,  reviewed  in  succession  all  the  speeches  against  the  21st 
rule,  and  finally  coming  to  Mr.  Adams's  remarks  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
concluding  with  the  prayer  that  in  God's  good  time  it  would  come,  and  let  it  come. 

"  Mr.  Dellet  asked  Mr.  Adams  if  he  understood  him  ! 

"  Mr.  Adams  nodded  assent,  and  said,  with  great  earnestness,  'Let  it  come.' 

"  Mr.  Dellet.  Yes,  let  it  come.  No  matter  what  the  consequences,  let  it  come, 
said  the  gentleman.  Let  it  come,  though  women  and  children  should  be  slain,  though 
blood  should  flow  like  water,  though  the  Union  should  be  destroyed,  though  the  Gov- 
ernment be  broken  up,  no  matter  though  five  millions  of  the  people  of  the  South 
perish ! 

"Mr.  Adams,  (in  his  seat.)  Five  hundred  millions  !  Yes,  let  it  come." 

Mr.  Cobb.     Was  that  the  sentiment  of  an  Alabamian? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     No,  sir;  it  was  the  reply  of  Mr.  Adams  to  Mr.  Dellet. 

Mr.  Cobb.  I  was  going  to  say  that  if  an  Alabamian  held  such  doctrines  we  would 
hang  him  up. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Yes,  sir,  upon  this  floor  and  in  the  face  of  the  American 
Union,  Mr.  Adams  boldly  proclaimed  "  let  it  come,  though  five  hundred  millions 
perish;  let  it  come."     The  extract  continues  : 

"The  remark  of  Mr.  Adams  here  excited  considerable  sensation  in  the  House, 
and  Mr.  Dellet  proceeded  :  '  I  am,'  said  he,  'one  of  the  few  who,  in  1824,  believed 
that  it  was  better  to  have  a  civilian  elected  to  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people 
than  a  military  chieftain.  It  was  then  I  voted  for  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts; 
I  cannot  ask  my  country  to  forgive  me  for  this  offense,  but  I  do  ask  pardon  of  my 
God  for  it.'  " 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  will  now,  Mr.  Clerk,  proceed  historically  with  the  sub- 
ject I  have  been  treating.  I  will  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  a  declaration  of  Mr. 
Seward,  in  1848.  I  do  that  for  two  purposes.  I  do  it,  first,  for  the  purpose  of  illus- 
trating unmistakably  the  progress  of  this  agitation,  by  showing  that  there  was  a  per- 
sistent agitation  on  the  question  from  the  first  year  of  the  Constitution.  I  wish  to 
show  the  sentiments  uttered  by  the  most  important,  and  perhaps  the  most  distin- 
guished man  of  the  present  day;  because  I  hold  that  these  are  not  the  mere  senti- 
ments of  a  man,  for  he  is  the  type  of  a  great  party,  whose  sentiments  he  speaks.  I 
therefore,  call  the  attention  of  the  House  and  of  the  country  to  an  extract  from  the 
speech  of  Mr.  Seward,  delivered  at  Cleveland,  in  1848.     On  that  occasion  he  said  : 

"Slavery  can  be  limited  to  its  present  bounds;  it  can  be  ameliorated;  it  can  be 
and  it  must  be,  abolished;  and  you  and  I  can  and  must  do  it.  The  task  is  as  simple 
and  easy  as  its  consummation  will  be  beneficient  and  its  rewards  glorious.  It  requires 
to  follow  only  this  simple  rule  of  action  :  to  do  everywhere,  and  on  every  occasion, 
what  we  can,  and  not  to  neglect  or  refuse  to  do  what  we  can,  at  any  time,  because,  at 
that  precise  time,  and  on  that  particular  occasion,  we  cannot  do  more.  Circumstances 
determine  possibilities."         *  ********** 

"  Correct  your  own  error  that  slavery  has  constitutional  guarantees  which  may 
not  be  released,  and  ought  not  to  be  relinquished."  *  *  *  "You  will  soon 
bring  the  parties  of  the  country  into  an  effective  aggression  upon  slavery." 

Here,  then,  you  see  that  it  is  proclaimed  by  this  gentleman  in  the  midst  of  an 
exciting  slavery  agitation  in  the  free  States,  that  abolition  can  be  effected,  and  that 
"you  and  I  (in  his  own  language)  can  and  must  do  it."  The  programme  is  to  agitate, 
to  do  everything  you  can,  whether  it  seems  to  involve  an  important  consequence  or 
not;  to  do  everything  you  can,  although,  for  the  time  being,  it  may  not  be  valuable 
or  important.  You  may  soon,  (said  he,)  by  this  course,  bring  back  the  parties  of  the 
country  to  "  an  effective  aggression  upon  slavery." 

How  pregnant  were  these  words;  how  full  of  warning;  and  how  fruitful  of  trying 
results  !  Having  brought  this  subject  to  the  year  1848,  I  propose  now  to  read  another 
extract  from  the  speech  of  the  same  gentleman,  delivered  last  year.  I  do  it  for  two 
reasons  :  first,  to  show  the  continuation  of  the  agitation  during  the  intervening  period 
from  that  time,  and  to  show  that  Mr.  Seward  was  adhering  to  the  policy  indicated  in 
1848.  In  this  speech  delivered  on  the  25th  of  October,  1858,  in  the  city  of  Rochester, 
which  was  deliberately  prepared,  and  on  which  I  may  have  occasion  to  comment,  he 


395 

designed  to  arouse  and  awake  public  feeling,  and  to  lead  these    people  on  to  their 
work  of  death  on  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.     Says  Mr.  Seward  : 

"  Martin  Van  Buren — the  first  non-slaveholding  citizen  of  a  free  State  to  whose 
election  the  Democratic  party  ever  consented — signalized  his  inauguration  into 
the  Presidency  by  a  gratuitous  announcement  that  under  no  circumstances  would  he 
ever  approve  a  bill  for  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  From  1838  to 
1844,  the  subject  of  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  in  tlie  national 
dock-yards  and  arsenals  was  brought  before  Congress  by  repeated  popular  appeals. 
The  Democratic  party  thereupon  promptly  denied  the  right  of  petition,  and  effectually 
suppressed  the  freedom  of  speech  in  Congress,  as  far  as  the  institution  of  slavery 
was  concerned." 

In  i848,  Mr.  Douglas,  acting  on  the  idea  that  the  Missouri  compromise  was  an 
adjustment;  that  it  was  to  remain  the  law  of  the  land,  offered  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  a  proposition  to  extend  the  line  of  360  30'  to  the  Pacific  <><ean  : 

"Mr.  Badger.  Now,  Mr.  President,  I  propose  to  come  to  the  inquiry  whether 
the  principle  of  the  legislation  of  1820  has  not  been  in  fact  departed  from,  overturned, 
and  repudiated.  First,  sir,  I  call  your  attention  to  an  amendment  moved  in  the 
Senate  to  the  bill  to  establish  the  territorial  government  of  Oregon.  By  reference  to 
the  Journal  of  August  10,  1848,  it  will  be  seen  : 

"  'On  motion  by  Mr.  Douglas  to  amend  the  bill,  section  fourteen,  line  one,  by 
inserting  after  the  word  "  enacted  " — 

"  '  That  the  line  of  360  30'  of  north  latitude,  known  as  the  Missouri  compromise 
line,  as  defined  by  the  eighth  section  of  an  act  entitled,  '  An  act  to  authorize  the  people 
of  the  Missouri  Territory  to  form  a  constitution  and  State  government,  and  for  the 
admission  of  such  State  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original  States. 
and  to  prohibit  slavery  in  certain  Territories,"  approved  March  6,  1820,  be,  and  the 
same  is  hereby,  declared  to  extend  to  the  Pacific  ocean;  and  the  said  eighth  section, 
together  with  the  compromise  therein  effected,  is  hereby  revived  and  declared  to  be 
in  full  force  and  binding  for  the  future  organization  of  the  Territories  of  the  United 
States,  in  the  same  sense  and  with  the  same  understanding  with  which  it  was  orig- 
inally adopted.'  " 

Now,  here  was  a  distinct  proposition,  made  by  a  Democratic  Senator  at  the  head 
of  the  Territorial  Committee  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  to  extend  the  Missouri 
compromise  line  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Can  any  man  doubt  that  if  that  proposition 
had  prevailed,  it  would  not  have  prevented  any  disturbance  of  the  question  ?  But, 
no;  those  who  now  cry  out  in  favor  of  the  Missouri  line,  and  denounce  the  bad  faith 
involved  (as  they  charge)  in  its  repeal,  opposed  this  proposition  with  all  their  power. 
What  says  Mr.  Badger  ?  After  speaking  of  the  proposition  of  the  honorable  Senator 
from  Illinois,  he  proceeds  : 

"Well,  sir,  it  was  carried  in  the  Senate.  I  must  pause  here  and  say  that  right 
things  are  very  apt  to  be  carried  in  the  Senate.  The  vote  was  :  yeas  33,  nays  21.  I 
believe  that  every  gentleman  representing  a  southern  constituency  here  voted  for 
that  provision.     I  find  the  yeas  were  : 

"  'Messrs.  Atchison,  Badger,  Bell,  Benton,  Berrien,  Borland,  Bright,  Butler,  Cal- 
houn, Cameron,  Davis  of  Mississippi,  Dickinson,  Douglas,  Downs,  Fitzgerald,  Foote, 
Hannegan,  Houston,  Hunter,  Johnson  of  Maryland,  Johnson  of  Louisiana,  Johnson  of 
Georgia,  King,  Lewis,  Mangum,  Mason,  Metcalf,  Pierce,  Sebastian,  Spruance, 
Sturgeon,  Turney,  and  Underwood — 33.' 

"The  nays  were  : 

'"Messrs.  Allen,  Atherton,  Baldwin,  Bradbury,  Breese,  Clarke,  Corwin,  Davis  of 
Massachusetts,  Dayton,  Dix,  Dodge,  Felch,  Greene,  Hale,  Hamlin,  Miller,  Niles, 
Phelps,  Upham,  Walker,  and  Webster — 21.'  " 

Here,  then,  you  see  the  South  manifesting  a  willingness  to  permit  the  Missouri 
line  to  remain  as  the  fixed  law  of  the  land.  Here  you  see  the  spirit  of  peace  and 
brotherhood  to  which  I  alluded  vesterday.  They  were  willing  to  allow  that  line  to 
extend  to  the  Pacific  ocean.  But,  sir,  it  was  defeated;  not  by  the  Senate,  for  they 
passed  it;  it  was  defeated  in  this  House.  It  came  here,  and  was  defeated;  and, 
would  you  believe  it?  the  very  men  who  are  now  talking  so  much  of  the  sanctity  of  the 
Missouri  compromise;  who  have  mouthed  it  through  the  country  for  the  purpose  of 
misleading  the  public  mind,  as  I  must  insist;  the  very  men  who  are  clamoring  fast 
and  furious  upon  this  subject,  were  the  men  who  themselves  defeated  this  measure. 
Look  to  the  history  of  this  subject  since  the  measure  received  its  quietus,  you  will 
find  the  same  men  and  the  same  party  voting  against  the  principle  and  the  extension 
of  the  Missouri  line  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  now  clamoring  and  denouncing  the  repeal  ot 
the  Missouri  line  as  a  breach  of  faith  of  the  most  glaring  character. 

But,  sir,  that  is  not  all.  Mr.  Hale,  himself,  made  a  speech,  as  I  will  show  you 
presently,  in  which  his  views  were  fairly  indicated.     I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 


396 

that  if  the  proposition  were  now  pending  to  reestablish  the  Missouri  compromise  line, 
and  extend  it  to  the  Pacific,  the  Black  Republican  party  would  promptly  vote  it  down. 
Well,  sir,  I  now  pass  on  to  1850.  All  recollect  that  the  measures,  commonly  known 
as  the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  excited  the  country  to  the  profoundest  depths. 
The  patriotic  heart  of  the  country  was  again  stirred  up.  Faneuil  Hall  again  spoke 
out  and  endeavored  to  lull  the  storm.  The  settlement  then  made  by  the  compromise 
measures  of  1850,  I  insist,  and  I  shall  endeavor  to  show  you,  was  an  adjustment  of 
the  whole  territorial  question  before  the  country.  I  beg  leave  to  read  an  extract  from 
Mr.  Clay's  famous  speech  of  March,  1850.  I  put  it  in  here,  because  I  desire  to  have 
it  published  and  go  to  the  country. 

In  answer  to  the  allegation  that  the  compromise  measures  repealed  the  Missouri 
restriction,  a  prominent  man  said: 

"But  they  tell  you  also  that  the  compromise  measures  of  1850  repealed  the  com- 
promise measures  of  1820.  In  the  first  place,  I  would  like  to  ask — who  said  so?  then, 
next,  I  would  like  to  ask — who  thought  so?  Nobody !— nobody  thought  so,  and 
nobody  said  so;  and  the  man  who  would  have  said  so  would  have  been  regarded  as 
a  fit  subject  for  a  lunatic  asylum." 

Now,  sir,  I  answer  that  Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Toombs,  and  Mr.  Foote  said  so.  These 
citations  are  from  Mr.  Clay's  famous  speech  of  March  6,  1850: 

"  Sir,  while  I  was  engaged  in  anxious  consideration  upon  this  subject,  the 
idea  of  the  Missouri  compromise,  as  it  has  been  termed,  came  under  my  review,  was 
considered  by  me,  and  finally  rejected,  as  in  my  judgment  less  worthy  of  the  com- 
mon acceptance  of  both  parties  of  this  Union  than  the  project  which  I  offer  to  your 
consideration. 

"  But  I  wish  to  contrast  the  plan  of  accommodation  which  is  proposed  by  me  with 
that  which  is  offered  by  the  Missouri  line,  to  be  extended  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  and  to 
ask  gentlemen  from  the  South  and  from  the  North  too,  which  is  most  proper,  most 
just,  to  which  is  there  the  least  cause  of  objection  ?  What  was  done,  sir,  by  the 
Missouri  line?  Slavery  was  positively  interdicted  north  of  that  line.  The  question 
of  admission  or  exclusion  of  slavery  south  of  that  line  was  not  settled.  There  was  no 
provision  that  slavery  should  be  admitted  south  of  that  line.  In  point  of  fact,  it 
existed  there.  In  all  the  territory  south  of  36°  30',  embraced  in  Arkansas  and  Louisi- 
ana, slavery  was  then  existing.  It  was  not  necessary,  it  is  true,  to  insert  a  clause  admit- 
ting slavery  at  that  time.  But,  if  there  is  a  power  to  interdict,  there  is  a  power  to 
admit;  and  I  put  it  to  gentlemen  from  the  South,  are  they  prepared  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  line  of  36°  30',  interdicting  slavery  north  of  that  line,  and  giving  them  no 
security  for  the  admission  of  slavery  south  of  that  line  ? 

"  When  I  came  to  consider  the  subject,  and  to  compare  the  provisions  of  the  line 
360  30' — the  Missouri  compromise  line — with  the  plan  which  I  have  proposed  for  the 
accommodation  of  this  question,  said  I  to  myself,  if  I  offer  the  line  of  36°  30',  to  interdict 
the  question  of  slavery  north  of  it,  and  to  leave  it  unsettled  and  open  south  of  it,  I 
offer  that  which  is  illusory  to  the  South — I  offer  that  which  will  deceive  them,  if  they 
suppose  that  slavery  will  be  secured  south  of  that  line.  It  is  better  for  them — I  said 
to  myself — it  is  better  for  the  South  that  there  should  be  non-action  as  to  slavery  both 
north  and  south  of  the  line — far  better  that  there  should  be  non-action  both  sides  of 
the  line,  than  that  there  should  be  action  by  the  interdiction  on  the  one  side,  without 
action  for  admission  upon  the  other  side  of  the  line.  Is  it  not  so?  What  is  there 
gained  by  the  South,  if  the  Missouri  line  is  extended  to  the  Pacific,  with  the  interdic- 
tion of  slavery  north  of  it?"  &c. 

"I  hope,  then,  to  keep  the  whole  of  these  matters  untouched  by  any  legislation 
of  Congress  upon  the  subject  of  slavery,  leaving  it  open  and  undecided.  Non-action 
by  Congress  is  best  for  the  South,  and  best  for  all  the  views  which  the  South  have 
disclosed  to  us  from  time  to  time,  as  corresponding  to  their  wishes.  I  know  it  has 
been  said  with  regard  to  the  Territories,  and  especially  has  it  been  said  with  regard 
to  California,  that  non-legislation  upon  the  part  of  Congress  implies  the  same  thing 
as  the  exclusion  of  slavery.  That  we  cannot  help.  That  Congress  is  not  responsible 
for.  If  nature  has  pronounced  the  doom  of  slavery  in  these  Territories — if  she  has 
declared,  by  her  immutable  laws,  that  slavery  cannot  and  shall  not  be  introduced 
there— who  can  you  reproach  but  nature  and  nature's  God?  Congress  you  cannot. 
Congress  abstains.  Congress  is  passive.  Congress  is  non-acting,  south  and  north 
of  the  line;  or  rather,  if  Congress  agrees  to  the  plan  which  I  propose — extending  no 
line — it  leaves  the  entire  theater  of  the  whole  cession  of  these  Territories  untouched 
by  legislative  enactments,  either  to  exclude  or  enact  slavery." 

Again  Mr.  Clay  said: 

"  The  field  has  been  left  open  for  both  (sections)  to  be  occupied,"  &c. — Appendix 
Congressional  Globe,  first  session  Thirty -First  Congress,  page  614. 

Aeain: 


397 

"  Senators  may  go  home  and  say  that  these  vast  territories  are  left  open." 

Mr.  Foote  said,  in  a  speech  on  the  compromise  measures,  (Congressional  Globe, 

1st  session,  Thirty-First  Congress,  page  1273:) 

"This  bill  opens  the  whole  territory  to  both  sections  of  the  Union  alike." 

Mr.  Toombs  declared  with  still   more   distinctness,  in   a  letter  addressed   to   hi* 

constituents,  in  1850   that — 

'I  This  great  principle  of  State  equality  and  Federal  non-intervention  thus  com- 
promised  away  in  1820,  has  been  rescued,  reestablished,  and  (irmly  planted  in  our 
political  system  by  the  recent  action  of  Congress," 

Again,  Mr.  Clay  said: 

"It  was  high  time  that  the  wounds  which  the  Wilmot  proviso  had  inflicted  (this 
anti-slavery  restriction  was  the  same  in  effect  to  the  territory  where  it  applied  with 
the  Wilmot  proviso)  should  be  healed  up  and  closed;  and  that  to  avoid,  in  all  tuture 
time,  the  agitation  which  must  be  produced  by  the  conflict  of  opinion  on  the  slavery 
question,  the  true  principle  which  ought  to  regulate  the  action  of  (.<■  n  form- 

ing territorial  governments  for  each  newly  acquired  domain,  is  to  refrain  fr.  in  all 
legislation  on  the  subject  in  the  territory  acquired,  so  long  as  it  retains  the  territorial 
form  of  government." 

During  the  reading  of  the  abovejextract, 

Mr.  Potter  asked  if  it  was  the  President's  message  which  was  being  read. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Certainly,  if  the  gentleman  desires  to  have  the   1 
dent's  message  read,  I  will  cheerfully  give  way  for  a  motion  to  that  effect.     Do  I 
understand  the  gentleman  from  Wisconsin  to  make  that  motion  ? 

Mr.  Potter.  I  will  merely  state,  in  reply  to  the  gentleman  from  Virginia,  that  I 
understood  him  on  Saturday  to  say  he  was  unwilling  to  have  the  speeches  of  other 
gentlemen  incorporated  in  his  speech  and  published  at  his  expense,  and  I  did  not 
know  but  the  President's  message  was  now  getting  in  the  same  way.     [Laughter.] 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  did  not  know  whether  the  gentleman  wanted  to  give 
us  an  exhibition  of  his  smartness  or  not.  If  so,  I  hope  he  has  been  gratified  at  the 
result.  I  presume,  and  I  have  no  doubt,  the  country  will  be  greatly  edified. 
[Laughter.] 

Mr.  Clerk,  the  House  cannot  fail  to  perceive  that  1  have  here  furnished  distin- 
guished evidence  that  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States  were  henceforth  to  be 
considered  as  free  for  every  class  of  labor.  All  the  restrictions  which  had  been 
placed  upon  any  of  these  Territories  were  to  be  removed.  The  effect  of  the  compro- 
mise measures  of  i8qo  was  to  repeal  the  Missouri  and  all  other  restrictions  upon  the 
Territories.  It  was  "to  lay  the  whole  country  open.  The  argument  of  Mr.  Clay, 
addressed  mainly  to  the  South,  was  conclusive  in  this  respect.  The  Missouri  line 
placed  a  positive  restriction  upon  all  the  territory  north  of  360  30'  .  South  of  that  line 
there  was  no  such  prohibition,  but  there  was  no  distinct  declaration  that  slavery 
should  be  seated  there.  He  went  on  and  undertook  to  prove  that  it  was  better  for 
the  South  that  this  whole  country  should  be  laid  open;  that  all  the  restrictions  result- 
ing from  past  legislation  should' be  removed.  That  was  the  declaration  of  Mr.  Clay; 
and  I  mention  these  things  to  show  what  ground  there  is  for  the  clamor  which  gentle- 
men are  in  the  habit  of  indulging  against  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise. 
These  compromise  measures,  however,  were  passed,  and  they  brought  no  peace  to 
the  country.  I  propose  to  show  that  it  is  an  entire  mistake  that  it  produced  repose. 
The  evidence  upon  the  subject  is  full  and  ample.  It  was  early  proclaimed,  I  think, 
on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  that  slavery  agitation  should  never  cease  until  the  fugitive 
slave  law  was  repealed;  that  there  should  be  no  peace;  that  agitation  was  the  word 
until  that  measure  was  repealed.  It  was  under  the  influence  of  this  profound  agita- 
tion that  Mr.  Clay  and  his  friends  got  up  the  paper  which  was  signed,  and  which  I 
now  propose  to  have  read.  I  allude  to  the  paper  signed  by  Mr.  Clay  and  others,  and 
which  was  referred  to  in  the  resolution  of  the  gentleman  from  North  Carolina.  (Mr. 
Gilmer),  on  the  first  day  of  the  session. 

"Whereas,  the  circumstances  and  condition  of  the  country  require  that  the  asperi- 
ties and  animosities  which,  for  the  last  few  years,  have  been  rapidly  alienating  one  sec- 
tion of  the  country  from  another,  and  destroying  those  fraternal  sentiments  which  are 
the  strongest  supports  of  the  Constitution,  should  be  allayed:  whereas,  inasmuch ,  as 
the  history  of  the  Government  furnishes  instances  of  success  in  giving  quiel  to  me 
country  by  the  united  exertions  of  conservative  national  men,  irrespective  ol  party, 
there  is  reason  to  hope  for  a  like  result  from  similar  labors:  whereas,  in  I»5I,  when 
the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  North  and  of  the  South  were  inflamed  on  the  subject  of 
slavery,  national  men  appealed  to  the  country  as  follows,  to  wit: 

"  '  The  undersigned,  members  of  the  Thirty-First  Congress  of  the  United  States, 


398 

believing  that  a  renewal  of  sectional  controversy  upon  the  subject  of  slavery  would 
be  both  dangerous  to  the  Union  and  destructive  of  its  objects,  and  seeing  no  mode  by 
which  such  controversy  can  be  avoided,  except  by  a  strict  adherence  to  the  settle- 
ment thereof  effected  by  the  compromise  acts  passed  at  the  last  session  of  Congress, 
do  hereby  declare  their  intention  to  maintain  the  said  settlement  inviolate,  and  to  resist 
all  attempts  to  repeal  or  alter  the  acts  aforesaid,  unless  by  the  general  consent  of  the 
friends  of  the  measure,  and  to  remedy  such  evils,  if  any,  as  time  and  experience  may 
develop. 

"  'And  for  the  purpose  of  making  this  resolution  effective,  they  further  declare, 
that  they  will  not  support  for  office  of  President  or  Vice-President,  or  of  Senator  or 
of  Representative  in  Congress  or  as  member  of  a  State  Legislature,  any  man,  of  what- 
ever party,  who  is  not  known  to  be  opposed  to  the  disturbance  of  the  settlement 
aforesaid,  and  to  the  renewal,  in  any  form,  of  agitation  upon  the  subject  of  slavery. 
■*'  '  Henry  Clay,  Robert  Toombs,         H.  A.  Bullard,  Geo.  R.  Andrews, 

Howell  Cobb,  James  Cooper,  C.  H.  Williams,  J.  M.  Anderson, 

C.  S.  Morehead,         M.  P.  Gentry,  T.  S.  Haymond,         W.  P.  Mangum, 

William  Duer,  Thomas  G.  Pratt,       J.  Phillips  Phoenix,    John  B.  Kerr, 

Robert  L.  Rose,         Henry  W.  Hilliard,    A.  H.  Sheppard,        Jeremiah  Morton, 
H.  S.  Foote,  William  M.  Gwin,      A.M.Schermerhorn,  L.  P.  Caldwell, 

William  C.  Dawson,  F.  E.  McLean,  David  Breck,  R.  I.  Bowie, 

James  Brooks,  Samuel  Eliot,  John  R.  Thurman,    Edmund  Deberry, 

Thomas  J.  Rusk,       A.  G.  Watkins,  James  L.  Johnson,    E.  C.  Cabell 

Alex.  H.  Stephens,    David  Outlaw,  D.  A.  Bokee,  Humphrey  Marshall 

Jeremiah  Clemens,    Alexander  Evans,      J.  B.Thompson,        Allen  F.  Owen.' 
"  The  effects  of  which  on  the  popular  mind  were  to  induce  the  Democratic  party 
in  their  National  Convention  at  Baltimore,  in  1852,  to  resolve  and  pledge  themselves 
to  the  nation,  as  follows,  to  wit : 

"  '  That  Congress  has  no  power  under  the  Constitution  to  interfere  with  or  control 
the  domestic  institutions  of  the  several  States,  and  that  such  States  are  the  sole  and 
proper  judges  of  everything  appertaining  to  their  own  affairs,  not  prohibited  by  the 
Constitution;  that  all  efforts  made  to  induce  Congress  to  interfere  with  questions  of 
slavery,  or  to  take  incipient  steps  in  relation  thereto,  are  calculated  to  lead  to  the 
most  alarming  and  dangerous  consequences ;  and  that  all  such  efforts  have  an  inevitable 
tendency  to  diminish  the  happiness  of  the  people  and  endanger  the  stability  and  per- 
manency of  the  Union,  and  ought  not  to  be  countenanced  by  any  friend  of  our  political 
institutions. 

"  '  That  the  foregoing  proposition  covers,  and  was  intended  to  embrace,  the 
whole  subject  of  the  slavery  agitation  in  Congress;  and,  therefore,  the  Democratic 
party  of  the  Union,  standing  upon  the  national  platform,  will  abide  by  and  adhere  to 
the  faithful  execution  of  the  acts  known  as  the  compromise  measures  settled  by  the 
last  Congress,  the  act  for  the  reclaiming  of  fugitives  from  service  included,  which 
act  being  designed  to  carry  out  an  express  provision  of  the  Constitution,  cannot,  with 
fidelity  thereto,  be  repealed  or  so  changed  as  to  destroy  or  impair  its  efficiency. 

"  '  Resolved,  That  we  will  resist  all  attempts  at  renewing,  in  Congress  or  out  of  it, 
the  slavery  agitation,  under  whatever  shape  and  color  the  attempt  may  be  made.' 

"  And  the  Whig  party  in  the  same  year,  at  the  same  place,  resolved  and  pledged 
■themselves,  as  follows,  to  wit : 

"  'That  the  series  of  measures  commonly  known  as  the  compromise,  including 
the  fugitive  slave  law,  are  acquiesced  in  by  the  Whig  party  of  the  United  States,  as  a 
settlement,  in  principle  and  substance,  a  final  settlement  of  the  dangerous  and  excit- 
ing questions  which  they  embrace;  and  so  far  as  the  fugitive  slave  law  is  concerned, 
we  will  maintain  the  same,  and  insist  on  its  strict  enforcement,  until  time  and  experi- 
ence shall  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  further  legislation  to  guard  against  evasion  or 
abuse,  not  impairing  its  present  efficiency;  and  we  deprecate  all  further  agitation  of 
slavery  questions  as  dangerous  to  our  peace,  and  will  discountenance  all  efforts  at  the 
renewal  or  continuance  of  such  agitation,  in  Congress  or  out  of  it,  whatever,  where- 
ever,  or  however  the  attempt  may  be  made;  and  we  will  maintain  this  system  as 
essential  to  the  nationality  of  the  Whig  party,  and  the  integrity  of  the  Union..  " 

Why  was  it  necessary  to  come  out  with  such  an  extraordinary  paper  as  that 
signed  by  Mr.  Clay,  and  others?  The  laws  had  passed;  and  why,  sir,  was  it  neces- 
sary for  these  distinguished  and  prominent  men  to  come  out  with  such  a  solemn 
pledge  ?  It  was  because  of  the  profound  agitation  and  excitement  created  by  the 
compromise  measures  of  1850.  Gentlemen  have  been  in  the  habit  of  saying  that  they 
brought  healing  to  the  country;  and  I  advert  to  this  paper  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
that  it  did  no  such  thing;  that,  on  the  contrary,  agitation  and  excitement  were  still  the 
order  of  the  day.  Even  the  cooperation  of  the  two  great  party  conventions  availed 
nothing. 


399 

I  go  on  now  further  to  illustrate.  I  read  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, now  a  Senator  from  that  State,  which  was  delivered  in  1851,  and  immediately 
after  the  adoption  of  the  compromise  measures.  I  do  this  because  then-  is  no  ques- 
tion, perhaps,  which  has  been  more  unfairly  dealt  with  than  the  adjustment  measures 
of  1850.  Here,  sir,  are  the  deliberate  sentiments  of  a  member  oi  the  Senate  oi  the 
United  States.     True,  he  was  not  a  Senator  when  they  were  delivered. 

Hon.  Henry  Wilson,  at  an  anti-slavery  festival,  held  in  Cochituate  Hall,  boston, 
on  the  evening  of  January  21,  1851,  to  celebrate  the  completion  ol  the  twentieth  year 
of  the  existence  of  the  Liberator,  said  : 

"Sir,  allusion  has  been  made,  to-night,  to  the  small  beginning  of  the  great  anti- 
slavery  movement,  twenty  years  ago,  when  the  Liberator  was  launched  upon  the 
tide.  These  years  have  been  years  of  devotion  and  of  struggle  unsurpassed  in  any 
age  or  in  any  cause.  But,  notwithstanding  the  treachery  of  public  men,  notwith- 
standing the  apostacy  for  which  the  year  1850  was  distinguished,  1  venture  to  say  that 
the  cause  of  liberty  is  spreading  throughout  the  whole  land,  and  that  the  day  is  not  far 
distant  when  brilliant  victories  for  freedom  will  be  won.  We  shall  arrest  the  extension 
of  slavery,  and  rescue  the  Government  from  the  grasp  of  the  slave  power.  We  shall 
blot  out  slavery  in  the  national  capital.  We  shall  surround  the  slave  States  with  a  cor- 
don of  free  States.  We  shall  then  appeal  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  men,  and,  in  a 
few  years,  notwithstanding  the  immense  interests  combined  in  the  cause  of  oppression, 
we  shall  give  liberty  to  the  millions  in  bondage.  [Hear,  hear.]  I  trust  that  many  of 
us  will  live  to  see  the  chain  stricken  from  the  limbs  of  the  last  bondman  in  the  Re- 
public !  But,  sir,  whenever  that  day  shall  come,  living  or  dead,  no  name  connected 
with  the  anti-slavery  movement  will  be  dearer  to  the  enfranchised  millions  than  the 
name  of  your  guest,  William  Lloyd  Garrison.     [Prolonged  applause.]" 

He  proclaims  hostility  to  these  measures,  and  speaks  of  the  defection  and 
treachery  of  public  men.  He  avows  the  most  undoubted  abolition  sentiments,  and 
he  winds  up  with  a  eulogy  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison.  Sir,  if  I  understand  who  that 
man  Garrison  is,  he  is  a  British  subject.  I  understand  that  William  Lloyd  Garrison 
never  became  a  naturalized  citizen  of  this  country;  and  I  understand  that  he  refuses 
ever  to  become  a  citizen.  If  I  do  him  injustice  I  will  be  glad  to  be  corrected.  I  un- 
derstand that  Garrison  is  a  British  subject;  that  he  has  never  been  naturalized,  and  is 
now  a  British  subject.  If  I  am  wrong,  I  will  be  glad  to  be  corrected.  I  am  acting 
upon  information  that  commands  my  confidence.  I  speak  thus  deliberately  upon  this 
point,  because  I  desire  gentlemen,  his  confre'res,  to  speak  if  I  do  him  wrong.  He  is 
then  a  British  subject.  He  refuses  to  become  a  party  to  our  Constitution,  which  he 
•calls  a  league  with  death  and  a  covenant  with  hell.  He  exercises  no  right  of  suffrage, 
but  in  the  midst  of  a  great  community  he  preaches  treason,  and  does  his  best  to  sever 
the  bonds  which  bind  this  Union  together.  That,  sir,  is  his  avocation,  and  that  the 
man  that  Senator  Wilson  eulogizes. 

Now,  sir,  to  show  that  there  is  hostility — fixed,  determined  hostility— in  the 
northern  pulpit  to  the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  I  will  call  attention  to  the  fol- 
lowing extract  from  a  treasonable  discourse  recently  pronounced  in  the  Unitarian 
church  of  Dover,  New  Hampshire,  by  the  Rev.  Edwin  M.  Wheelock,  to  a  large  and 
approving  congregation  : 

"  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  term  this  act  (Brown's)  the  beginning  of  bloodshed  and 
•civil  war.  Never  could  there  be  a  greater  error.  We  have  had  bloodshed  and  civil 
war  for  the  last  ten  years;  yes,  for  the  last  ten  years.  The  campaign  began  on  the  7th 
of  March,  1850.  The  dissolution  of  the  Union  dates  from  that  day,  and  we  have  had  no 
Constitution  since.  On  that  day  Daniel  Webster  was  put  to  death;  ah,  and  such  a  death  ! 
And  from  that  time  to  this,  there  has  not  been  a  month  that  has  not  seen  the  sod  of 
freedom  invaded  and  attacked,  our  citizens  kidnapped,  imprisoned,  or  shot,  or  driven 
by  thousands  into  Canada." 

I  have  read  this  extract  for  the  purpose  of  letting  the  House  see  that  there  was  no 
pacification  under  the  compromise  measures  of  1850;  that  even  the  pulpit  has  made 
war  against  it.  Mr.  Seward  himself,  instead  of  leading  the  sanction  of  his  great  name 
to  this  contemplated  pacification,  in  his  Rochester  speech  denounced  the  compromise 
measures  in  strong  and  bitter  terms.     He  said  : 

"When,  in  1850,  governments  were  to  be  instituted  in  the  Territories  of  Cali- 
fornia and  New  Mexico,  the  fruits  of  that  war,  the  Democratic  party  refused  to  admit 
New  Mexico  as  a  free  State,  and  only  consented  to  admit  California  as  a  free  State  on 
the  condition,  as  it  has  since  explained  the  transaction,  of  leaving  all  of  New  Mexico 
and  Utah  open  to  slavery;  to  which  was  also  added  the  concern  of  perpetual  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the  passage  of  an  unconstitutional,  cruel,  and  hu- 
miliating law  for  the  recapture  of  fugitive  slaves,  with  a  further  stipulation  that  the 
subject  of  slavery  should  never  again  be  agitated  in  either  Chamber  of  Congress. 

Sir,  the  fact  that  there  was  a  stipulation  that  there  should  be  no  further  agitation 


400 

upon  this  subject  of  slavery  is,  by  Mr.  Seward  himself,  seized  upon  as  a  ground  of 
objection  to  the  adjustment  measures  of  1850.  He  said,  that  the  repressing  of  the 
agitation,  as  it  was  attempted  in  that  day,  was  a  crime.  It  interfered  with  his  policy. 
Agitation  was  the  order  of  the  day.  That  was  one  of  the  great  means  by  which  the 
slavery  institution  was  to  be  effected. 

Well,  sir,  this  being  the  adjustment,  and  this  being  the  manner  in  which  it  was 
received  by  the  country,  I  take  another  step  forward.  I  go  a  step  forward  chrono- 
logically, at  least,  and  I  hope  a  step  further  in  effective  illustration.  A  great  deal 
has  been  said,  we  all  know,  in  reference  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill.  The  country 
has  been  profoundly  agitated  upon  it,  but  after  the  history  I  have  given  of  the  subject, 
will  it  be  pretended  that  if  Kansas  had  never  appeared  there  would  have  been  any  the 
less  agitation  than  has  existed?  Would  not  other  pretexts  have  furnished  the  materials 
for  that  agitation  which  was  proclaimed  to  be  the  policy  of  the  anti-slavery  party  of 
the  country  ? 

I  now  ask  the  attention  of  the  gentlemen  upon  the  other  side,  and  especially 
that  of  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee,  [Mr.  Nelson,]  for  a  brief  period,  to  that  branch 
of  the  exposition  which  I  am  now  about  to  present,  for,  if  I  remember  the  remarks  of 
that  honorable  gentleman  some  days  ago,  he  held  the  Democratic  party  responsible 
for  all  this  slavery  agitation.  The  fourteenth  section  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  as 
originally  reported  by  Mr.  Douglas,  is  as  follows  : 

"That  the  Constitution  and  all  laws  of  the  United  States,  which  are  not  locally 
inapplicable,  shall  have  the  same  force  and  effect  within  the  said  Territory  of  Nebraska 
as  elsewhere  within  the  United  States." 

Why  was  it  thus  reported?  It  was  so  reported  because,  as  I  have  shown  you  in 
reference  to  the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  there  was  no  further  necessity  of 
having  geographical  lines.  But  Mr.  Dixon,  a  Senator  from  Kentucky,  a  Whig,  a  gen- 
tleman of  intelligence  and  character,  thought  there  might  be  possibly  some  question 
made  upon  the  subject,  and  he  saw  no  occasion  for  allowing  it.  Accordingly,  Mr. 
Dixon — Mr.  Dixon,  a  Whig,  a  patriotic,  high-toned  gentleman  however,  for  I  had  the 
happiness  of  knowing  him — proposed  an  amendment  which,  after  various  modifica- 
tions, was  afterwards  reported  in  this  form,  following  immediately  after  the  original 
clause  already  read : 

"  Except  the  eighth  section  of  the  act  preparatory  to  the  admission  of  Missouri  into 
the  Union,  approved  March  6,  1820,  which  being  inconsistent  with  the  principle  of 
non-intervention  by  Congress  with  slavery  in  the  States  and  Territories,  as  recog- 
nized by  the  legislation  of  1850,  commonly  called  the  'compromise  measures,'  is 
hereby  declared  inoperative  and  void;  it  being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this 
act  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State,  nor  to  exclude  it  therefrom, 
but  to  leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  f  1  ee  to  form  and  regulate  their  domestic 
institutions  in  their  own  way.  subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of    the  United  States." 

Here,  then,  you  see,  if  there  is  any  responsibility  for  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
compromise,  it  is  a  responsibility  for  which  the  Whig  party,  as  such,  is  mainly  and 
immediately  responsible.  This  provision,  in  words,  repealing  the  Missouri  com- 
promise, is  offered  by  Mr.  Dixon,  a  Whig,  and  a  Whig  Senator  from  Kentucky.  To 
this  amendment,  however,  the  honorable  Senator  from  North  Carolina,  Mr.  Badger, 
submitted  this  proviso  : 

"Provided,  That  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  construed  to  revive  or  put  in 
force  any  law  or  regulation  which  may  have  existed  prior  to  the  act  of  the  6th  of 
March,  1820,  either  protecting,  establishing,  prohibiting,  or  abolishing  slavery." 

Now,  let  us  pause  here  a  moment.  There  are  three  gentlemen  leading  in  this 
movement.  Mr.  Douglas,  a  Democrat,  arising  in  his  place,  reports  the  proposition 
which  I  have  read.  He  says  nothing  about  the  Missouri  compromise  line.  He  does 
not  propose  to  annul  it.  True,  I  suppose  he  considered  it  annulled;  and  so  did 
others.  But  a  Whig  steps  into  the  ring  and  proposes  not  to  leave  it  as  a  question  of 
inference  by  the  public.  He  proposes,  in  explicit  terms,  a  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
compromise  line.  And  another  Whig  steps  in  and  adds  a  proviso  to  it,  which  gives 
the  law  as  it  now  stands  upon  the  statute  book.  There  is  the  responsibility  which  the 
country  will  understand,  and  apply  it  as  they  may. 

But  that  is  not  all.  Mr.  Dixon  was  assailed  as  embarrassing  the  Democratic  party 
by  his  amendment;  whereupon  he,  in  a  speech  on  the  24th  of  January,  1854,  (see 
Congressional  Globe,  first  session  Thirty-Third  Congress,  Part  I,  page  240,)  said  : 

"I  have  been  charged,  through  one  of  the  leading  journals  of  this  city,  with 
having  proposed  the  amendment  which  I  notified  the  Senate  I  intended  to  offer,  with  a 
view  to  embarrass  the  Democratic  party.  It  was  said  that  I  was  a  Whig  from  Ken- 
tucky, and  that  the  amendment  proposed  by  me  should  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion 
by  the  opposite  party.  Sir,  I  merely  wish  to  remark  that,  upon  the  question  of 
slavery,  I  know  no  Whiggery  and  I  know  no  Democracy.     I  am  a  pro-slavery  man — 


101 

I  am  from  a  slayeholding  State     [represent  a  slaveholding  constituency— and   I  am 
here  to  maintain  the  rights  of   that  people  whenever  they  are  presented  before   tht- 

Senate. 

"  The  amendment,  which  I  notified  the  Senate  that  I  should   otter  at  the  pi 

time,  has   been  incorporated  by  the  Senator  from  Illinois  into  the  bill  which 
reported  to  the  Senate.     The  bill,  as  now  amended,  meet-,  my  views,  and  I  have  nu 
objection  to  it.     I  shall,  at  the  proper  time,  as  far  as  1  am  able  to  do  so.  aid  and 
the  Senator  from  Illinois,  and  others  who  areanxious  to  carry  through  tins  proposition, 
with  the  feeble  abilities  I  may  be  able  to  bring  to  bear  upon  it.      I  think  it  due  to  m. 
self  to  make  this  explanation,  because   I  do  not  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  upon  a 
question  like   this  I  have,  or  could   have,  any   motive  except  that  which  should  in- 
fluence a   man   anxious   to  secure  what   he  believes  to  be  a  great  principle     that  i-*. 
congressional  non-interference  in  all  the  Territories,  so  far  as  the  great  question  oi 
slavery  is  concerned." 

So  spoke  the  father  of  this  amendment  repealing  the  Missouri  compromise;  and 
that  father  was  a  Whig.  But  that  is  not  all.  Was  that  gentleman  alone  ?  DidhealoiK 
of  the  Whigs  cooperate  with  the  Senate  in  that  policy?  The  evidence  on  that  sub] eel 
is  likewise  ample  and  conclusive.  T  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  remarks  ol 
Mr.  Badger,  at  that  time  the  honorable  Senator  from  the  Old  North  State.  Mr.  Badger, 
in  concluding  the  speech,  said  : 

"Mr.  President,  I  desire  to  say  that,  though  I  hold  none  oi  my  Southern  friend- 
on  this  floor  responsible  for  the  course  of  argument  which  I  have  offered,  or  any  of 
the  intermediate  views  I  have  expressed,  I  think  it  right  to  say,  and  1  think  I  have 
their  authority  to  say,  that,  with  regard  to  the  results  to  which  I  come  upon  this 
measure,  we  all  agree  as  one  man — every  Southern  Whig  Senator.  I  wish  that  to 
be  understood,  that  the  position  of  gentlemen  may  not  be  mistaken  because  they 
have   not  yet   had   the   opportunity  of  speaking  or  voting  upon  this  bill." 

It  is  true,  Mr.  Clerk,  as  the  history  of  those  days  shows,  that  one  Senator  [Bell,  ol 
Tennessee]  afterwards  withdrew  from  that  position — an  act  which  gave  rise,  both  in 
this  House  and  the  other,  to  no  little  excitement.  But.  suffice  it  to  say,  that  Mr.  Badger 
spoke  by  authority.  He  said  he  had  the  authority  of  every  Whig  Senator;  and  that 
statement  was  made  in  the  presence  of  Senator  Bell  himself.  How  did  he  obtain  that 
authority?  Why,  the  Whig  Senators,  it  is  known,  had  a  caucus  on  the  question,  and 
adopted  the  line  of  policy  to  be  pursued.  During  the  period  ol  that  agitation,  it  hap- 
pened  that  the  old  National  Intelligencer — a  paper  which,  with  all  its  errors,  I  respect 
— took  ground  against  the  action  of  the  Whig  party  in  the  Senate.  On  that  occasion 
Senators  took  the  conduct  of  the  Intelligencer  under  their  consideration,  and  adopted 
the  following  resolution  : 

il  Resolved,  That  we  disapprove  the  course  of  the  National  Intelligencer  upon  the 
Nabraska  bill;  and  that,  in  our  opinion,  it  does  not  truly  represent  the  opinionsof  the 
Whig  party  of  the  South." 

Sir,  I  ask  gentlemen  now  how  it  is  that  we  can  be  charged—  the  Democratic  party 
— with  the  sole  responsibility  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise  ?  Does  it  lii 
in  the  mouth  of  our  old  Whig  friends  now  to  undertake  to  arraign  the  Democracy  on 
this  question  anywhere,  or  under  any  circumstances  ?  I  could  go  on,  and  adduce 
evidence  upon  evidence  in  connection  with  this  question,  but  I  do  not  deem  it  neces- 
sary. The  evidence  here  is  complete.  But  as  various  statements  have  -one  ' 
the  country  in  former  days,  and  no  doubt  still  go  forth  on  this  subject,  I  pro: 
give  the  vote  on  this  bill  in  tabular  form. 

The  vote  on  the  passage  of  the  bill  stood: 


IN    THE   SENATE.  FOR. 

Northern  Democrats    ....    14 
Whios  - 


IN    THE    HOUSE.  FOR.       A.GAINS1 

Northern  Democrats 44  43 

"        Whigs -  48 


Southern  Democrats 14  I  Southern  Democrats 55 

Whigs  : 9  I 


Abolitionists. 


Whisjs 14 


37  13  "3  ,0° 

It  is  curious  that  if  the  Southern  Whigs  had  voted  as  a  body  against  the  bill,  it 
would  have  been  lost;  but  they  voted  as  a  body  for  it,  and  it  became  a  law.  I  hope 
then,  that  whatever  responsibility  there  may  be  for  this  measure,  the  Whigs  and 
Democrats  of  the  South  will  at  least  be  one  in  regard  to  the  question.  And  must 
be  allowed  to  sav  in  this  connection,  that  I  was  rather  surprised  to  hear  the  gentleman 
from  North  Carolina  (Mr.  Gilmer)  say  the  other  day  that  all  concurred  now  in  denun- 
ciation of  what  is  called  the  Lecompton  bill.  The  gentleman  19  mistaken.  I  he 
gentleman  voted  against  the  bill,  but  he  need  not  lay  the  flattering  unction  to  his  soul 
that  all  concur  with  him.  I  will  not  go  into  that  question,  although  it  is  equally  frr.i 
ful  of  vindication. 


402 

In  this  connection,  and  with  a  view  to  illustrate  the  subject,  I  beg  leave  to  read 
the  remarks  of  Mr.  Hale,  on  the  proposition  to  adopt  the  line  of  36°  30'  in  the  Utah 
bill,  and  I  give  it  as  being  the  common  sentiment  of  the  North. 

"  Mr.  Hale.  I  wish  to  say  a  word  as  a  reason  why  I  shall  vote  against  the 
amendment.  I  shall  vote  against  36;  30'  because  I  think  there  is  an  implication  in  it. 
[Laughter.]  I  will  vote  for  37°  or  35' either,  just  as  it  is  convenient;  but  it  is  idle  to  shut 
our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  here  is  an  attempt  in  this  bill — I  will  not  say  it  is  the  intention 
of  the  mover — to  pledge  this  Senate  and  Congress  to  the  imaginary  line  of  36 :  30, 
because  there  are  some  historical  recollections  connected  with  it  in  regard  to  this 
controversy  about  slavery.  I  will  content  myself  with  saying  that  I  never  will,  by 
vote  or  speech,  admit  or  submit  to  anything  that  may  bind  the  action  of  our  legisla- 
tion here  to  make  the  parallel  of  36°  30'  the  boundary  line  between  slave  and  free 
territory.  And  when  I  say  that,  I  explain  the  reason  why  I  go  against  the 
amendment." 

Allow  me  to  present  a  few  extracts  from  papers  and  a  few  opinions  of  prominent 
men  in  reference  to  the  South  and  slavery,  as  eminently  illustrative  and  suggestive. 

The  celebrated  General  James  Watson  Webb,  of  the  Courier  and  Enquirer,  one  of 
the  organs  of  the  Republican  party,  and  I  believe  the  special  organ  of  Senator  Seward, 
publishes  the  following  sentiments: 

"If  we  [meaning  the  Republicans]  fall  there,  [at  the  ballot  box,]  what  then  ?  We 
will  drive  it  [slavery]  back,  sword  in  hand;  and,  so  help  me  God!  believing  that  to 
be  right,  I  am  with  them." 

Here  is  a  great  organ  of  the  Republican  party,  a  paper  of  extensive  influence 
and  circulation,  a  paper  of  giant  dimensions — a  gentleman  of  traveled  intelligence — 
this  man,  with  great  bravado,  sends  his  papers  abroad  in  the  land,  telling  us  that  "We 
will  drive  slavery  back,  sword  in  hand." 

He  do  it  ?  I  will  not  dwell  upon  it,  but  I  simply  emphasize  the  word;  and  those 
who  are  familiar  with  that  gentleman  will  understand  the  might  of  the  threat. 

But  Mr.  Henry  Wilson,  who  spoke  upon  this  subject,  in  a  speech  in  Boston,  in 
1855,  said: 

"Send  it  abroad  on  the  wings  of  the  wind  that  I  am  committed,  fully  committed, 
committed  to  the  fullest  extent,  in  favor  of  immediate  and  unconditional  abolition  of 
slaverv,  wherever  it  exists  under  the  authority  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States." 

In  a  letter  to  Wendell  Phillips,  written  on  July  20,  1855,  the  same  Wilson  wrote: 

"  Let  us  remember  that  more  than  three  million  of  bondsmen,  groaning  under 
nameless  woes,  demand  that  we  shall  reprove  each  other,  and  that  we  labor  for  their 
deliverance."  ********** 

"  I  tell  you  here  to  night  that  the  agitation  of  this  question  of  human  slavery  will 
continue  while  the  foot  of  a  slave  presses  the  soil  of  the  American  Republic. 

In  1S55.  at  a  public  meeting  in  Massachusetts,  the  following  resolution  was 
adopted: 

"  Resolved,  That  we  should  rejoice  in  a  successful  slave  insurrection  in  the  South, 
and  that  in  killing  a  slaveholder  to  obtain  freedom,  the  slave  is  not  guilty  of  any  crime; 
that  the  slaveholder  should  be  made  to  dream  of  death  in  his  sleep,  and  to  apprehend 
death  in  his  dish  and  tea-pot;  that  fire  should  meet  him  in  his  bed,  and  poison  should 
meet  him  at  the  table." 

From  Seward's  Ohio  speech: 

"It  [slavery]  can  and  must  be  abolished,  and  you  and  I  must  do  it."  *  *  *  * 
"Correct  your  own  error  that  slavery  has  constitutional  guarantees  which  may  not 
be  released,  and  ought  not  to  be  relinquished."  *  *  *  *  You  will  soon  bring  the 
parties  of  the  country  into  an  effective  aggression  upon  slavery." 

GOVERNOR    CHASK    OK    OHIO. 

The  following  incident,  related  by  a  correspondent  of  the  Huntsville  (Alabama) 
Democrat*  will  afford  our  readers  an  opportunity  of  learning  something  of  the  kind 
feelin0'  with  which  slaveholders  are  regarded  by  that  precious  Ohio  Abolition  official: 

Dkak  Sir:  In  compliance  with  your  request,  I  furnish,  briefly,  the  particulars  of 
an  interview  had  by  myself  with  S.  P.  Chase,  Governor  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  in  regard 
to  emancipated  slaves. 

Near  the  close  of  the  winter  of  1857,  I  visited  Ohio  at  the  instance  of  S.  D.  Cabi- 
ness,  Esq.,  and  Samuel  C.  Townsend,  for  the  purpose  of  selecting  a  home  for  a  num- 
ber of  slaves  belonging  to  the  estate  of  Samuel  Townsend,  deceased,  and  who, 
according  to  his  la,st  will  were  to  be  liberated  and  settled  in  some  free  State.  Having 
letters  to  several  distinguished  gentlemen  in  Cincinnati,  mainly  of  the  clergy  and  the 
bar,  and  having  made  their  acquaintance,  I  obtained  from  them  letters  to  other 
intelligent  and  influential  citizens  in  different  portions  of  the  State. 


403 

Among  many  others,  I  had  letters  to  his  Excellency  Governor  S.  P.  Chase.  I  called 
on  him  among  the  first  men,  after  my  arrival  in  Columbus,  believing,  from  what  1  had 
learned  of  him  from  others,  who  knew  him  well,  that  lie  would  take  a  deep  interest 
in  the  matter  of  my  mission,  and  that,  owing  to  his  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 
physical  and  moral  developments  of  the  State  generally,  he  would  be  found  an 
efficient  friend  of  those  I  represented.  I  was  received  by  the  Governoi  with  ap- 
parant  cordiality,  and  received  from  him  much  information  in  regard  to  the  various 
negro  schools,  colonies,  &c,  in  the  State.  But,  to  my  utter  astonishment,  Governor 
Chase  closed  his  conversation  on  the  subject  by  remarking,  with  emphasis,  ili.it  -tor 
his  part,  he  would  rather  never  see  another  free  negro  set  his  fool  upon  Ohio  aoiL" 
I  asked  his  reason.  "  Because,"  said  lie,  "their  moral  influence  is  degrading."  I 
then  remarked  that  it  appeared  to  me  a  "glaring  inconsistency,  in  him  and  others 
in  Ohio,  to  love  our  Southern  slaves  so  much  as  to  desire  their' freedom  and 
for  their  emancipation,  and  yet  hate  them  so  much  as  to  be  unwilling  to  allow  th<  m  a 
home  in  their  own  State;  especially  so  since,  by  the  existing  laws  in  the  slave  States 
the  negro  cannot  be  liberated  and  remain  where  he  is."  He  replied:  "I do  nol  wish  the 
slave  emancipated  because  I  love  him,  but  because  I  hate  his  master  I  bate 
— I  hate  a  man  that  will  own  a  slave." 

The  above  statements,  Mr.  Editor,  are  at  your  disposal. 

Yours,  truly,  WM.  D.  CHADICK. 

"There  is  really  no  union  now  between  the  North  and  the  South;  and  lie  believed 
no  two  nations  upon  the  earth  entertain  feelings  of  more  bitter  rancor  towards  each- 
other  than  these  two  nations  of  the  Republic.  The  only  salvation  of  the  Union, 
therefore,  was  to  be  found  in  dividing  it  entirely  from  all  taint  of  slavery." — Senator 
Wade. — Republican  (Ohio)  Leader. 

Mr.  Adams,  in  a  letter  written  to  the  Abolitionists  of  Pittsburgh,  on  the  subject  of 
anti-slavery  societies,  said: 

"On  the  subject  of  abolition,  abolition  societies,  anti-slavery  societies,  or  the 
liberty  party,  I  have  never  been  a  member  of  any  of  them.  But,  in  opposition  to 
slavery,  I  go  as  far  as  any  of  these;  my  sentiments,  I  believe,  very  nearly  accord 
with  theirs.  That  slavery  will  be  abolished  in  this  country,  and  throughout  the 
world,  I  firmly  believe.  Whether  it  shall  be  done  peaceably  or  by  blood,  God  only 
knows;  but  it  will  be  accomplished,  I  have  no  doubt;  and  by  whatever  way,  I  say 
let  it  come." 

I  have  given  you,  gentlemen,  the  opinions  of  your  public  men.  Among  them 
will  be  found  a  statement  of  the  opinions  of  Governor  Chase,  of  Ohio,  of  the  free 
negro  and  the  slave  owner,  by  Mr.  William  B.  Chadick,  of  Huntsville,  Alabama. 

And,  sir,  if  I  mistake  not,  the  present  Governor,  or  Governor  elect,  of  Ohio,  pro- 
claimed broadly  and  boldly  in  his  canvass  that  the  fugitive  slave  law  should  not  be  exe- 
cuted within  the  limits  of  that  State  if  he  was  elected,  that  he  would  invoke  the  the  win  tie 
power  of  the  State  authority  to  prevent  the  execution  of  that  act  of  Congress.  Can  it 
be  expected  that  we  should  close  our  ears  to  such  insults  and  defamations,  or  shut 
our  eyes  against  such  aggressions  ? 

But,  sir,  the  most  pregnant  and  alarming  doctrine  that  has  been  deliberately  put 
forth  to  the  country,  is  to  be  found  in  the  speech  of  Governor  Seward,  at  Rochester, 
on  the  25th  of  October,  1858.  It  is  a  speech  which  was  carefully  prepared,  voluntarily 
and  without  necessity  delivered  to  an  audience  assembled  to  hear  him.  He  occupied 
a  large  space  in  the  public  eye.  He  was  deemed  a  man  of  wisdom  and  ability.  He 
had  troops  of  friends.  He  possessed  great  power  over  the  passions  and  conclusions 
of  men.  The  public  mind  was  greatly  excited  on  Kansas  affairs;  and  the  opportunity 
was  a  glorious  one  to  sooth  existing  excitement,  and  rouse  up  that  love  of  union  with- 
out which  it  is  in  vain  to  hope  for  its  preservation.  Let  us  see  how  he  performed  the 
noble  and  glorious  duty  which  lay  so  invitingly  before  him.  In  the  speech  to  which 
[  have  referred,  he  says: 

"Our  country  is  a  theatre,  which  exhibits  in  full  operation,  two  radically  different 
political  systems;'  the  one  resting  on  the  basis  of  servile  or  slave  labor,  the  other  on 
the  basis  of  voluntary  labor  of  freemen. 

"The  laborers  who  are  enslaved  are  all  negroes,  or  persons  more  or  less 
purelv  of  African  derivation.  But  this  is  only  accidental.  The  principle  of  the  system 
is,  that  labor  in  every  society,  by  whomsoever  performed,  is  necessarily  unintel- 
lectual,  groveling  and  base;  and  that  the  laborer,  equally  for  his  own  good  and  for 
the  welfare  of  the  State,  ought  to  be  enslaved.  The  white  laboring  man  whether 
native  or  foreigner,  is  not  enslaved  only  because  he  cannot,  as  yet,  be  reduced  to 
bondage. 

"You  need  not  be  told  now  that  the  slave  system  is  the  older  of  the  two,  and 
that  once  it  was  universal. 

"The  emancipation  of  our  own  ancestors,  Caucasians  and  Europeans,  >s  they 
were,  hardly  dates  beyond  a  period  of  five  hundred  years. 


404 

"The  two  systems  are  at  once  perceived  to  be  incongruous,  they  are  incom- 
patible. They  never  have  permanently  existed  together  in  one  country,  and  they 
never  can." 

It  is  difficult  to  read  the  above  statement,  with  which  Mr.  Seward  opens  his 
speech,  with  patience.  He  was  surrounded  by  an  audience  of  free  laborers.  It  was 
a  devilish  conceit  of  his,  to  impress  such  an  audience  with  the  idea  that  "  the  white 
laboring  man,  whether  native  or  foreigner,  is  not  enslaved  only  because  he  cannot, 
as  yet,  be  reduced  to  bondage."  But  "  the  two  systems  are  at  once  perceived  to  be 
incongruous,  they  are  incompatible.  They  never  have  permanently  existed  together 
in  one  country,  and  they  never  can."  And  why  not?  Cannot  free  labor  exist  in 
New  York,  and  slave  labor  exist  in  Virginia  ?  The  two  systems  may  be  incongruous, 
but  how  are  they  incompatible  ?  They  cannot  exist  together — that  is,  slave  labor  in 
Virginia  destroys  free  labor  in  New  York;  and  free  labor  in  New  York  destroys  slave 
labor  in  Virginia !  What  absurdity  !  But  the  two  systems  exist  in  Virginia.  They 
are  not  found  either  incongruous  or  incompatible,  but  have  existed  there  since  1620. 
Not  exist  together!  Look  to  Judea:  there  we  see  the  master  race  engaged  in  the 
trades,  husbandry,  fisheries,  &c.  Did  not  the  two  systems  exist  there  for  centuries  ? 
In  Greece  the  two  systems  prevailed  throughout  ages.  And  in  Rome,  for  over  twelve 
centuries,  with  some  forty  million  of  slaves,  the  systems  prevailed,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  ten  bloody  insurrections,  in  harmony  and  success.  I  think  imperial 
Rome,  on  one  occasion,  when  reduced  to  the  greatest  distress,  sent  some  of  her 
noblest  citizens  to  select  Cincinnatus  to  take  command  of  her  armies.  They  found 
him  at  his  plow,  tilling  his  petty  farm  of  forty  acres;  and  I  have  seen  a  fine  painting 
of  the  noble  scene,  in  which  the  messengers  are  represented  as  disclosing  their  mis- 
sion; and  Cincinnatus  harkening  to  the  call  of  his  country,  is  seen  unharnessing  his 
team  of  oxen  from  the  plow,  as  it  stands  in  the  furrow.  Did  the  Senator  never  hear 
of  this  noble,  inspiring  incident?  It  is  taught  down  South  in  our  schools,  to  excite 
in  our  boys  a  love  of  noble  and  patriotic  sentiments. 

He  proceeds: 

"The  slave  States,  without  law,  at  the  last  national  election,  successfully  forbade, 
within  their  own  limits,  even  the  casting  of  votes  for  a  candidate  for  President  of  the 
United  States  supposed  to  be  favorable  to  the  establishment  of  the  free  system  in 
the  new  States." 

I  give  this  extract  to  deny  it.  No  one  was  denied  the  right  of  suffrage.  None. 
But  it  was  well  known  that  the  Black  Republican  party,  confident  of  carrying  the  last 
presidential  election,  did  not  wish  to  be  embarrassed  with  Southern  support,  even 
could  they  have  obtained  it. 

Speaking  of  our  railroad  improvements  as  approximating  rapidly,  he  proceeds: 

"Shall  I  tell  you  what  this  collision  means?  They  who  think  that  it  is  accidental 
unnecessary,  the  work  of  interested  or  fanatical  agitators,  and  therefore  ephemeral, 
mistake  the  case  altogether.  It  is  an  irrepressible  conflict  between  opposing  and  en- 
during forces,  it  means  that  the  United  States  must  and  will,  either  sooner  or  later, 
become  either  entirely  a  slaveholding  nation,  or  entirely  a  free-labor  nation.  Either 
the  cotton  and  rice  fields  of  South  Carolina  and  the  sugar  plantations  of  Louisiana 
will  ultimately  be  tilled  by  free  labor,  and  Charleston  and  New  Orleans  become  marts 
for  legitimate  merchandise  alone,  or  else  the  rye  and  wheat  fields  of  Massachusetts 
and  New  York  must  again  be  surrendered  by  their  farmers  to  slave  culture  and  to  the 
production  of  slaves,  and  Boston  and  New  York  become  once  more  markets  for  trade 
in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men." 

Can  any  one  believe,  for  an  instant,  that  Mr.  Seward  entertains  the  smallest  idea 
that  an  attempt  ever  will  be  made  to  introduce  slave  labor  into  the  free  States,  much 
more  that  it  can  ever  be  accomplished?  But,  if  not,  then  "  the  cotton  and  rice  fields 
of  South  Carolina,  and  the  sugar  plantations  of  Louisiana  will  ultimately  be  tilled  by 
free  labor."  Does  he  mean  by  the  free  negro?  Then  he  knows  it  never  will  be  done. 
The  thriftless  condition  of  that  class  of  population  throughout  the  Union  and  the 
world;  the  melancholy  results  of  the  experiments  in  St.  Domingo,  Jamaica,  &c,  leave 
no  room  for  speculation  or  doubt.  By  free  white  labor?  Alas,  for  our  race  when  its 
necessities  compel  it  to  seek  its  living  in  the  rice  swamps  and  the  cotton  and  sugar 
plantations  of  the  South.  Then,  indeed,  it  will  have  become  the  slave  of  a  master — 
without  a  throb,  without  a  tear  for  human  suffering;  a  master  hard,  inexorable,  and 
exacting—  the  money  of  the  country.      He  proceeds  : 

"Our  forefathers  regarded  the  existence  of  the  servile  system  in  so  many  of  the 
States  with  sorrow  and  shame,  which  they  openly  confessed,  and  they  looked  upon 
the  collision  between  them,  which  was  then  just  revealing  itself,  and  which  we  are 
now  accustomed  to  deplore,  with  favor  and  hope.  They  knew  that  either  the  one  or 
the  other  system  must  exclusively  prevail." 

I  have  heretofore   sufficiently  exposed   the  disingenuous  misstatements  of  this 


•105 

paragraph.   But  yet,  I  will  add  that  it  is  a  well-known  historical  truth.  th;.l  the  I 
tution  never  would  have  received  the  sanction  of  the  Federal  convention   without  the 
guarantees  for  the  protection  of  slavery  which  it  contains. 

Again,  he  says  : 

"  But  the  very  nature  of  these  modifications  fortifies  my  position  that  the  fathers 
knew  that  the  two  systems  could  not  endure  within  the  Union,  and  expei  ted  that  within 
ashort  period  slavery  would  disappear  forever.     Moreover,  in  ordei  that 
fications  might  not  altogether  defeat  their  grand  design  ol  a   Republic  maintaining 
universal  equality,  they  piovided  that  two-thirds  of  the  States  might  ami  nd  i!  • 
stitution." 

Strange    logic  this.     Our  "fathers  knew  that  the  two  systems  could  not  endure 

within  the  Union,  and  expected  that  within  a  short  period  slavery  would  >\     ipi  ■ 
ever."     And  yet,  as  if  to  embarrass,  if  not  to  prevent  such  a  result,  the  Constitution 
provides  that  its  guarantees  for  slavery  shall  not  be  changed  01  expui  ■■•  d   i  ■■  •  pi  by 
the  vote  of  three-fourths  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  not  two-thirds,  as  stated  by  the 
gentleman. 
He  says  : 

"  The  strife  and  contentions  concerning  slavery,  which  gently-disposed  pel 
do  habitually  deprecate,  is  nothing  more  than  the  ripening  of  the  conflii  t  wlm  h  the 
fathers  themselves  not  only  thus  regarded  with  favor,  but  which  they  may  be  said  to 
have  instituted." 

I  have  sufficiently  exposed  this  paragraph;  but  will  remark  that,  so  far  from  our 
fathers  having  "instituted  "  this  "conflict,"  they  deliberately,  and  by  the  most  i  are- 
fully-prepared  provisions,  guarded  against  it;  and  then,  to  prevent  them  I  rum  being 
lightly  disturbed,  solemnly  agreed  that  those  provisions  should  not  be  disturbed, 
except  by  the  concurring  vote  of  three-fourths  of  all  the  States. 

Again : 

"It  is  not  to  be  denied,  however,  that  thus  far  the  course  of  that  contest  has  not 
been  according  to  their  humane  anticipations  and  wishes.  In  the  field  of  Federal 
politics,  slavery,  deriving  unlooked-for  advantages  from  commercial  changes,  and 
energies  unforseen  from  the  facilities  of  combination  between  members  of  the  slave- 
holding  class,  and  between  that  class  and  other  property -classes,  early  rallied,  and 
has  at  length  made  a  stand,  not  merely  to  retain  its  original  defensive  position,  but  to 
extend  its  way  throughout  the  whole  Union.  It  is  certain  that  the  slaveholding  class 
of  American  citizens  indulge  this  high  ambition,  and  they  derive  encouragement  for  it 
from  the  rapid  and  effective  political  successes  which  they  have  already  obtained. 
The  plan  of  operation  is  this  :  By  continued  appliances  of  patronage,  and  threats  of 
disunion,  they  will  keep  a  majority  favorable  to  these  designs  in  the  Senate,  where 
each  State  has  an  equal  representation.  Through  that  majority  they  will  defeat,  as 
they  best  can,  the  admission  of  free  States,  and  secure  the  admission  of  slave  States. 
Under  the  protection  of  the  judiciary,  they  will,  on  the  principle  of  the  Dred  Scott 
case,  carry  slavery  into  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States  now  existing,  and  here- 
after to  be  organized.  By  the  action  of  the  President  and  the  Senate,  usin<;  the  treaty- 
making  power,  they  will  annex  foreign  slaveholding  States.  In  a  favorable  con- 
juncture they  will  induce  Congress  to  repeal  the  act  of  1808,  which  prohibits  the 
foreign  slave  trade,  and  so  they  will  import  from  Africa,  at  the  cost  of  only  $20  a 
head,  slaves  enough  to  fill  up  the  interior  of  the  continent.  Thus  relatively  increasing 
the  number  of  slave  States,  they  will  allow  no  amendment  to  the  Constitution  pre- 
judicial to  their  interest;  and  so,  having  permanently  established  their  power,  they 
expect  the  Federal  judiciary  to  nullify  all  State  laws  which  shall  interfere  with  internal 
or  foreign  commerce  in  slaves.  When  the  free  States  shall  be  sufficiently  demoralized 
to  tolerate  these  designs,  they  reasonably  conclude  that  slavery  will  be 
those  States  themselves.  I  shall  not  stop  to  show  how  speedy  or  how  complete  would 
be  the  ruin  which  the  accomplishment  of  these  slaveholding  schemes  would  bring 
upon  the  country.  For  one,  I  should  not  remain  in  the  country  to  test  the  sad  ex- 
periment.  Having  spent  my  manhood,  though  not  my  whole  life,  in  a  free  State,  no 
aristocracv  of  any  kind,  much  less  an  aristocracy  of  slaveholders,  shall  ever  make  the 
laws  of  the  land  in  which  I  shall  be  content  to  live.  Having  seen  the  society  around 
me  universally  engaged  in  agriculture,  manufacture,  and  trade,  which  were  innocent 
and  beneficient,  I  shall  never  be  a  denizen  of  a  State  where  men  and  women  are  reared 
as  cattle,  and  bought  and  sold  as  merchandise.  When  that  evil  day  shall  come,  and 
all  further  effort  at  resistance  shall  be  impossible,  then,  if  there  shall  be  no  better  hope 
for  redemption  that  I  can  now  foresee,  I  shall  say  with  Franklin,  while  looking  abroad 
over  the  whole  earth  for  a  new  and  more  congenial  home— 'Where  Liberty  dwells, 
there  is  my  country.'  " 

He  here  says  that  slavery  "early  rallied,"  "to  extend  its  sway  throughout  the 
whole  Union,"  and  by  various  appliances  he  proceeds  to  show  how  slavery  will  extend 


406 


its  sway  over  the  whole  Union  Of  all  the  perversions  of  fact,  truth,  history,  and 
argumentation,  this  is  the  most  remarkable.  It  is  notorious,  and  to  none  better  known 
than  to  Mr.  Seward,  that  the  slaveholding  States  have  always  been  in  a  minority,  and 
the  majority  against  them  is  yearly  becoming  larger  and  larger.  I  have  met  nowhere 
an  answer  so  complete  to  the  charge  which  Mr.  Seward  has  made,  and  which  is  re- 
peated habitually  by  the  Black  Republicans,  as  that  which  follows  : 

"  Paste  this  in  your  Hat. — The  following  table  which  (says  the  Journal  of  Com- 
merce) has  been  prepared  to  show  the  apportionment  of  Representatives  in  Congress 
from  1811  to  1852  among  the  free  and  slave  States,  should  be  pasted  in  the  hat  of 
every  Democrat,  so  that  when  a  '  freedom  shrieker '  talks  about  the  'growing  and 
overpowering  influence  of  the  slave  power,'  as  all  of  them  do  every  time  they  talk,  he 
can  take  off  his  hat  and  politely  show  the  disciple  of  Giddings,  Greeley,  &  Co.,  that 
he  is  slightly  mistaken  : 

FREE    STATES.  SLAVE   STATES. 


New  Hampshire  6 
Massachusetts.  .20 

Vermont 6 

Rhode   Island.  .    2 
Connecticut     . .   7 

New  Yoik 27 

New  Jersey. ...   6 
Pennsylvania.  ..23 

Ohio 6 

Maine - 

Indiana - 

Illinois - 

Michigan - 

Wisconsin - 

Iowa - 

California - 


1811      1822.     1832.     1842      1852. 


6 
'3 

5 
2 
6 

34 

6 
26 
14 

7 


5 
12 

5 
2 
6 

40 
6 

28 

l9 

8 

7 
3 


4 
10 

4 
2 

5 
34 

5 
23 
21 

7 
10 

7 


3 
10 

3 
2 

5 

33 
5 

25 

21 
6 

11 
9 
4 
3 


Total  . . 


103      123     141     135 


1811. 

1822. 

1832. 

1842. 

1852 

Delaware 

1 

I 

I 

I 

I 

Maryland    . . . 

9 

9 

8 

6 

5 

Virginia 

23 

22 

21 

IS 

n 

North  Carolina 

18 

n 

13 

9 

S 

South  Carolina 

9 

9 

9 

7 

6 

Georgia 

6 

7 

9 

8 

8 

Kentucky 

TO 

12 

13 

10 

10 

n 

9 

i> 

11 

10 

- 

2 

S 

7 

7 

Mississippi 

- 

1 

2 

4 

5 

Louisiana  .... 

- 

3 

3 

4 

4 

- 

1 

2 

S 

7 

- 

- 

- 

2 

- 

- 

- 

- 

2 

Florida 

1 

Total 82 

Difference  in  favor 
of  the  free  States  21 


89       99       87       89 
34      42       48       54 


The  majority  is  now  fifty-seven,  and  in  the  next  House  of  Representatives  the 
non  slaveholding  States  will  have  more  than  two-thirds  of  that  body.  What  "ap- 
pliances of  patronage  "  then,  are  at  the  command  of  slavery  ?  How  is  a  minority 
to  obtain  a  "majority?"  How  can  a  minority  defeat  "the  admission  of  free 
States,  and  secure  the  admission  of  slave  States  ?"  &c.  Never!  Slavery  cannot  hope 
to  succeed  in  "the  free  States"  until  they  "shall  be  sufficiently  demoralized  to 
tolerate  these  designs."  And,  full  of  sadness  at  the  melancholy  prospect  before  him, 
he  gloomily  proclaims,  "For  one,  I  should  not  remain  in  the  country  to  test  the  sad 
experiment;"  but  "while  looking  abroad  over  the  whole  earth  for  a  new  and  more 
congenial  home,"  I  shall  say  with  Franklin,  "where  liberty  dwells,  there  is  my 
country."  What  wretched,  shameful  hypocrisy  is  this  !  How  utterly  beneath 
contempt  ! 

In  1838,  when  Mr.  Seward  was  a  candidate  for  the  office  of  Governor  of  New  York, 
there  was  a  law  in  the  State  protecting  the  rights  of  masters  in  their  slaves  while  in 
transitu.  The  question  was  put  to  him,  to  know  if  he  was  in  favor  of  its  continuance, 
to  which  he  promptly  answered  in  the  affirmative.     In  his  reply,  he  said  : 

"But,  gentlemen,  being  desirous  to  be  entirely  candid  in  this  communication,  it 
is  proper  to  say  that  I  am  not  convinced  that  it  would  be  either  wise,  expedient,  or 
humane  to  declare  to  our  fellow-citizens  of  the  Southern  and  Southwestern  States  that, 
if  they  travel  to  or  from,  or  pass  through  the  State  of  New  York,  they  shall  not  bring 
with  them  the  attendants  whom  custom  or  education  or  habit  may  have  rendered 
necessary  to  them.  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  any  good  object  to  be  obtained 
by  such  an  act  of  inhospitality." 

In  some  ten  years,  and  perhaps  less,  we  hear  him  proclaiming  to  the  people  of 
Ohio.  "We  can  abolish  slavery,  and  you  and  I  must  do  it."  And  now  we  see  him 
speaking  of  the  "  irrepressible  conflict  "  calmly,  as  if  an  ordinary  matter,  utterly 
falsifying  the  truths  of  history,  imputing  motives  and  charging  designs  never  enter- 
tained, expressing  opinions  as  to  the  probability  of  results  which  he  knows  are  philo- 
sophically and  physically  impossible.     "Oh  !  shame,  where  is  thy  blush  ?" 

What  do  the  Abolitionists  say  upon  this  subject  ?  I  know  that  Helper  in  his  book 
draws  a  distinction  between  the  Abolitionists  and  Republicans;  that  the  Republican  is 
the  tadpole,  in  the  infancy  of  development,  and  the  Abolitionist  the  full-grown  frog. 
That  is  the  distinction  which  he  draws;  and,  sir,  just  as  certain  as  the  shadow  follows 


407 

the  substance  which  creates  it,  so  certainly  will  this  tadpole,  ui    i  I  out  by  the 

patriotic  intelligence  of  the  American  people,  grow  into  the  Al 

in  what  character  the  Republican  party  is  held  by  the  Ab<  those  who 

must  know  them,  let  us  see  what  the  Boston  Liberator  says  ?  'I  I 

—the  organ  of  that  man  so  warmly  eulogized  by  Senatoi   Wilson,  ol    Ma 

Says  the  Liberator  : 

"The  Republican  party  is  molding  public  sentiment  in  I  lire*  lion  i 

specific  work  the  Abolitionists  arc  striving    to  accomplish,  name  y,  the  du 
the  Union  and  the  abolition  of  slavery  throughout  the  land." 

Yes,  gentlemen,  and  I  beg  it  may  be  remembered  that  the  avowed  obj© 
itionism    is  to   promote  the   dissolution  of  this   Union,  and  the  abolition 
throughout  the  land.     Yes,  sir,  "  the  Republican  party  is  molding  public  aentin 
the  right  direction  for  the  specific  work  the  Abolitionists  are  striving  to  a 
Here  is  the  testimonial  of  one  who  knows.     Here  is  the  testimony  ><i    one  who 
dorsed  by  a  Senator  of  the  United  States.     Wendell  Phillips,  to  tfa 
says  : 

"  There  is  merit  in  the  Republican  party.     It  is  this:  It  is  the  Srsl 
ever  organized  in  this  country.     It  is  the  North  arrayed  against  the  South.     The  finrt 
crack    in  the    iceberg   is  visible;  you  will   yet  hear  it   go  with  a  i  ra   ;    throi 
center." 

Here  Wendell  Phillips  hails  the  action  of  the  Republican  party  as  leading  to  that 
consummation  so  much  desired. 

I  ask  this  House,  if  these  successive  demonstrations  of  public  opinion  from  the 
highest  sources  are  not  of  the  most  unfriendly  character?     I  ask  whether  they  <i"  not 
compel  us  to  the  conviction  that  we  are  to  be  the  victims  of  a  vindictive  and  d< 
tive  effort  which,  it  is  feared,  will  have  no  ending  until  this  Union  is  dissolved? 

I  have  then,  Mr.  Clerk,  followed  this  whole  question  of  slavery  in  skeleton 
it  is  true,  from  its  solemn  adjustment  in  the  Federal  Constitution  to  the  present   hour. 
I  ask,  if  I  have  not  stated  matters  enough,  with  many  others  which  my  time  will  not 
allow  me  to  enumerate,  to  excite  the  wrath  of  the  South,  and  to  arouse  our  vigilance, 
and  indeed  to  make  us  distrustful  of  those  with  whom  it  was  expected  we  would  live 
on  terms  of  cordiality  and  affection.     At  this  time,  and  under  such  circumstai 
Sunday  night,  the  16th  of  October  last,  John  Brown,  with  his  confederates,  stealthily 
moved  into  the  little  town  of  Harper's  Ferry.     He  made  no  noise,  quietly  captured 
those  persons  with  whom  he  chanced  to  meet,  took  possession  of  the  public  armory, 
which  was  wholly  unprotected,  and  took  many  of  the  workmen  of  the  public   work- 
shops  prisoners,  as  they  severally  repaired  on  Monday  morning  to  their  daily  toil. 
Under  the  circumstances,  this  achievement  was  only  remarkable  for  its  audacity.    1  he 
news,  however,  soon  took  wings.     Early  on  Monday  morning  it  reached  Charlestown, 
ten  miles  off.     The  Jefferson  Guards  were  promptly  ordered  under  arms,  and  by  half 
past  eleven  o'clock  on  Monday,  had  reached  Harper's  Ferry,  which  place  wa 
pletely  invested  by  noon;  between  three   and  four  o'clock,   p.  m..   although   in   the 
midst  of  a  severe  storm,  three-fourths  of  the  invaders  had  been  killed  and  w< 
and  taken  prisoners,  and  Brown  and  the  remnant  of  his  party  driven  into  the  armory. 
Then  it  was,  that  Brown  sent  out  a  flag  with  a  proposition,  which  was  declined,   but 
which  brought  night,  and  with  night  came  the  United  States  marines.  I  •  e,  in 

command  of  the  marines,  for  the  same  reasons  which  had  influenced  the  volunteers, 
postponed  all  further  attack  until  the  following  morning,  Tuesday.  In  truth,  the 
work  in  effect  was  ended  on  Monday.     Yet,  see  how  the  North  recites  th( 

"Mr.  Phillips.     For  this  is  the  testimony  of    every   man  at  Charlestowi 
Harper's  Ferry;  for  there  was  not  a  man  in  all  Virginia  who  looked  in   Ihe   I 
John  Brown  who  was  not  melted  into  admiration  of  the  man  and  his  motives.  Bui  I  waa 
trying  to  trace  him.      In  the  first  place  he  said  :    'With  twenty  men  I  can  take   | 
sion  of  a  Southern  town  and  keep  it  for  twenty-four  hours,  and  I  shall    ■ 

know  it.  and  they  can  come  to  me  if  they  wish.'     He  did  it:  \\<-  look  | 

Harper's  Ferry,  and  held  it  from  Sunday  night  to  Monday  night,  unattacked.   He  a 
lected  some  thirty  slaves  there,  and  sixteen  of  them  stand  to-day  safe  Erom  Ihe  vulture 
of  thirty  States,  under  the  shelter  of  the  English  flag  in  Canada.    [Prolonged  apj 
That  is  something.     Well,  then,  he  stood  there  unchecked.     On  Monday  night,  atten 
o'clock-,   he  was  the  master  of  the  State  of  Virginia.     On  Tuesday  mount,-  two  \ 
ginia  companies    arrived  in  his  vicinity,   looked  into  the  faces  of  these  twenty  two 
Northern  men,  and  what  did  they  do?     Why,  according  to  a  Maryland  colonel,  who 
described  the  scene  to  a  friend  of  mine,  they  ran  until  they  got  to  the  tavern. 
they  would  have  got  under  the  beds  if  it  had  been  necessary.     [App.^ 
and  groans.] 

"  The  same  stranger  in  the  audience.     That  is  a  lie. 
'  Well,  now,  I  am  going  on  with  the  account.     John  Brown  stood  there  on    I 


408 

day  morning  until  the  Martinsburg  company  made  the  first  assault  and  were  re- 
pulsed. What  followed  ?  Sixteen  of  your  agents,  marines,  selling  their  bodies  to 
your  service  for  eight  or  ten  dollars  a  month,  approached.  He  had  conquered  Vir- 
ginia, and  held  her  under  his  foot.  [Hisses  and  applause.]  Well,  if  he  had  not, 
why  did  not  she  send  him  away?  [Applause  and  laughter.]  There  he  had  stood 
thirty-six  hours.  The  telegraph  had  flashed  the  news  over  half  of  Virginia.  Three 
companies  had  approached  twenty-two  men,  and  had  been  repulsed.  That  cannot  be 
excepted  to,  for  it  is  the  fact.  If  they  had  not  run  away,  they  would  have  been 
driven  away.  [Hisses  and  applause.]  The  United  States  marines  approached.  Now 
stop  a  moment.  Suppose  they  had  not  approached.  Suppose  the  United  States,  in 
the  shape  of  your  agents,  had  not  approached  him.  Say  that  as  a  matter  of  bullets 
his  enterprise  was  a  failure.  Suppose  he  had  stood  there  Tuesday  morning  without 
your  interference,  and  fifty  black  men  from  the  northern  counties  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  and  from  Pennsylvania,  where  black  men  shoot  slave  hunters  as  in 
Louisiana — suppose  they  had  joined  him,  and  he  had  had  seventy-five  men  instead 
of  the  twenty-two — my  impression  is  that  he  would  have  gone  down  to  Richmond  and 
—pardoned  Governor  Wise.  [Laughter,  applause,  and  hisses.]  Yes,  my  impression 
is,  that  if  the  Union  had  not  faced  John  Brown,  and  he  had  had  another  twelve  hours 
to  gather  about  him  the  colored  men  of  northern  Virginia  and  southern  Pennsyl- 
vania, he  would  have  marched  over  the  State. 

"Stranger.     You  know  better  than  that." 

I  repeat  that,  in  one  hour  after  the  news  reached  Charlestown,  the  Jefferson  Guards 
were  under  arms,  and,  by  half  past  eleven  o'clock,  they  were  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
having  had  to  travel  on  foot  some  ten  miles.  In  three  and  a  half  hours  after  that,  in 
the  midst  of  a  storm  of  rain,  not  only  had  the  place  been  thoroughly  and  completely 
invested,  but  three-fourths  of  these  marauders  had  been  killed,  captured  or  taken. 
Not  a  slave,  not  a  white  man  had  joined  John  Brown;  and  the  few  he  took  embraced 
every  opportunity  to  escape.  Not  one  escaped  to  the  free  States,  much  less  sixteen, 
as  stated  in  the  above  extract. 

After  the  capture  of  Brown  and  his  party,  they  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
civil  authorities,  and  proceeded  against  according  to  law.  No  hasty  and  unusual  step 
was  taken.  And,  when  sentenced,  the  day  fixed  for  his  execution  was  postponed  over 
thirty  days.  Never  were  criminals  treated  with  greater  kindness.  John  Brown  him- 
self so  testified.  But  that  is  not  all.  Previous  to  proceeding  to  his  execution,  Brown 
executed  his  will,  and  made  his  jailor  and  the  sheriff  the  executors  to  carry  out  that 
will.  I  mention  these  things  simply  to  vindicate  Virginia  against  the  aspersions  of 
public  opinion  in  the  North. 

The  following  is  the  true  last  will  and  testament  of  Old  John  Brown,  "revoking 
all  others,"  as  published  in  the  papers,  copied  from  the  original  in  the  Charlestown 
jail,  with  Brown's  own  pen,  &c. ; 

I,  John  Brown,  a  prisoner,  now  in  the  prison  of  Charlestown,  Jefferson  County, 
Virginia,  do  hereby  make  and  ordain  this  as  my  last  will  and  testament. 

I  will  and  direct  that  all  my  property,  being  personal  property,  which  is  scattered 
about  in  the  States  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  should  be  carefully  gathered  up  by  my 
executor,  hereafter  appointed,  and  disposed  of  to  the  best  advantage,  and  the  pro- 
ceeds thereof  paid  over  to  my  beloved  wife,  Mary  A.  Brown. 

Many  of  these  articles  are  not  of  a  warlike  character,  and  I  trust  as  to  such  and  all 
other  property  that  I  may  be  entitled  to,  that  my  rights  and  the  rights  of  my  family 
may  be  respected. 

And  lastly,  I  hereby  appoint  Sheriff  John  W.  Campbell  executor  of  this,  my  last 
will,  hereby  revoking  all  others. 

Witness  my  hand  and  seal,  this  2d  day  of  December,  1859. 

JOHN  BROWN,     [seal.] 

Signed,  sealed,  and  declared  to  be  the  true  last  will  of  John  Brown,  in  our  pres- 
ence, who  attested  the  same  at  his  request,  in  his  presence  and  in  the  presence  of  each 
other.  JOHN    AVIS, 

ANDREW  HUNTER. 

Codicil. — I  wish  my  friends,  James  W.  Campbell,  sheriff,  and  John  Avis,  jailor,  as 
a  return  for  their  kindness,  each  to  have  a  Sharp's  rifle  of  those  belonging  to  me,  or  if 
no  rifle  can  be  had,  then  each  a  pistol. 

Witness  my  hand  and  seal,  this  2d  day  of  December,  1859. 

JOHN  BROWN,     [seal.] 

Signed,  sealed,  &c,  same  as  above. 

I  here  drop  this  subject  as  I  know  the  Representative  of  that  district  will  do  it 
justice  hereafter,  but  I  deemed  it  right  to  correct  the  statements  which  were  abroad  in 
the  land,  thus  far. 


409 

Well,  under  this  state  of  things  I  ask  this  House  what  were  we  to  expect?  A  gen- 
erous  and  indignant  uprising  of  the  whole  land  against  this  atrocious  movement — an 
atrocious  movement  which  filled  us  not  with  alarm,  but  with  amazement.  I  ask  if  it 
has  been  received  by  the  country  in  that  spirit?  I  have  abundant  material  which  I 
will  publish  which  will  show  that  so  far  from  the  moral  and  patriotic  sentiment  of  the 
country  rising  up  and  trampling  under  foot  this  atrocious  aggression,  the  Northern 
country  have  united  in  doing  the  man  honor,  by  the  ringing  of  bells,  by  indulging  in 
lectures  and  sermons  on  the  subject,  by  large  assemblages  of  people,  and  by  running 
a  parallel  between  John  Brown  and  Christ,  in  which  he  was  placed  higher  than  Christ 
himself. 

"The  Execution  and  its  Effects. — The  manner  in  which  popular  feeling  has 
manifested  itself  at  the  North  with  regard  to  Brown's  execution,  proves  the  wisdom  of 
his  own  remark,  when  he  said  he  could  in  no  way  so  well  serve  the  cause  he  had  at  heart 
as  by  hanging  for  it.  We  do  not  so  much  allude  to  the  outward  manifestations  of 
respect  for  his  name  and  memory — the  devotion  of  the  hour  of  his  death  to  prayer  in 
a  great  number  of  churches,  the  tolling  of  bells  in  many  towns,  the  firing  of  minute- 
guns  in  others — though  these  have,  in  themselves,  a  marked  significance — as  to  the 
pity  which  every  one  whose  pity  is  worth  having,  has  openly  expressed  for  the  old 
man's  fate,  the  sympathy  which  almost  everyone  seemed  glad  to  avow  for  his  simple 
and  manly  virtues,  and  the  silence  with  which,  for  the  sake  of  those  virtues,  the  faults 
and  follies  of  a  wild  and  wayward  life  have  been  covered  almost  by  the  whole 
community. 

•'The  death  of  a  criminal  on  the  gallows,  of  whom  half  the  nation  speaks  ten- 
derly, and  whose  last  hours  the  prayers  and  fastings  of  many  thousands  of  sincere 
religious  men  have  sought  to  hallow,  is  certainly  not  an  incident  to  be  dismissed  with 
newspaper  paragraphs. 

"  He  has  been  dismissed  from  the  bar,  with  his  judgment  indeed  impeached,  but 
with  no  weightier  condemnation  of  his  acts  than  that  they  were  marked  by  folly.  In  war 
all  is  folly  which  does  not  succeed;  the  rule  is  harsh,  perhaps,  but  necessary.  Napo- 
leon said  Leonidas  was  no  doubt  a  very  fine  fellow,  but  'he  let  himself  be  turned  at 
Thermopylae.'  Virginia,  to  be  sure,  thinks  Brown  more  a  knave  than  fool;  but  in 
this  matter  the  Virginians  bear  much  the  same  relation  to  him,  in'the  eyes  of  the  world 
at  large,  that  Francis  Joseph  bears  to  Kossuth.  A  large  part  of  the  civilized  public 
will,  as  a  large  part  of  the  world  does  already,  lay  on  his  tomb  the  honors  of  martyr- 
dom, and  while  those  honors  remain  there,  his  memory  will  be  more  terrible  to 
slaveholders  than  his  living  presence  could  ever  have  been;  because  it  will  bring 
recruits  to  his  cause  who  would  never  have  served  under  his  banner  while  he  was 
wielding  carnal  weapons. 

"  If  all  these  be  facts,  they  are  no  doubt  unpleasant  facts  for  every  one  who  has 
the  future  welfare  of  his  country  at  heart  to  contemplate.  But  that  is  certain  not  a 
reason  for  trying  to  hide. 

"  It  is,  therefore,  we  think,  a  sign,  not  of  national  decline,  but  of  growth  in  all  the 
real  elements  of  national  greatness  that  sorrowing  hundreds  of  thousands  should  have 
been  found  to  overlook  this  man's  errors  in  admiration  for  his  heroism,  for  his  forti- 
tude, and  for  his  hatred  of  oppression.  It  is  to  such  qualities  as  these,  and  not  a  holy 
horror  of  mere  disorder,  that  we  owe  our  existence  as  a  nation;  and  when  the  day 
comes  in  which  no  man  will  be  found  in  America  to  cry  bravo  !  when  he  sees  them, 
our  final  extinction  will  not  be  very  far  distant." — New  York  Evening  rost,  {Republi- 
can,} December  j. 

The  following  are  extracts  from  a  villainous  and  treasonable  discourse  recently 
pronounced  in  the  Unitarian  Church,  of  Dover,  New  Hampshire,  by  the  Rev.  Edwin 
M.  Wheelock,  to  a  large  and  approving  congregation  : 

"No,  it  is  not  true  that  the  conflict  of  Harper's  Ferry  is  the  beginning  of  a  civil 
war.  That  would  be  like  saying  that  the  capture  of  Yorktown  was  the  beginning  of 
the  Revolutionary  struggle.  The  meaning  of  that  new  sign  is  this:  Freedom,  for  ten 
years  weakly  standing  on  the  defensive,  and  for  ten  years  defeated,  has  now  become 
the  assailant,  and  has  now  gained  the  victory.  The  Bunker  Hill  of  our  second 
Revolution  has  been  fought,  and  the  second  Warren  has  paid  the  glorious  forfeit  of 
his  life."  *  *  *  "  If  an  honest  expression  of  the  wishes  of  the  North  could 
be  taken  to-morrow,  John  Brown  would  be  the  people's  candidate  for  the  next  Presi- 
dency, and  he  would  receive  a  million  votes."  *  *  *  "Editors  and  politicians 
call  Brown  mad— and  so  he  is  to  them;  for  he  has  builded  his  manly  life  of  more  than 
three-score  years  upon  the  faith  and  fear  of  God— a  thing  which  editors  and  politicians 
from  the  time  of  Christ  till  now,  have  always  counted  as  full  proof  of  insanity.  One 
such  man  makes  total  depravity  impossible",  and  proves  that  American  greatness  died 
not  with  Washington.  The  gallows  from  which  he  ascends  into  Heaven  will  be  in  our 
politics  what  the  cross  is  in  our  religion— the  sign  and  symbol  of  supreme  self-devot- 
edness;  and  from  his  sacrificial  blood  the  temporal  salvation  of  four  millions  of  people 


410 

shall  yet  spring.  On  the  second  day  of  December  he  is  to  be  strangled  in  a  Southern 
prison  for  obeying  the  sermon  on  the  Mount.  But  to  be  hanged  in  Virginia  is  like- 
being  crucified  in  Jerusalem — it  is  the  last  tribute  which  sin  pays  to  virtue." 

Boston,  December  12,  1859. 
Sir  :  In  the  New  York  Herald  of  the  8th  instant  you  are  reported  as  having  spoken 
in  the  United  States  Senate  Chamber  on  the  preceding  day,  as  follows : 

"lie  [Mr.  Fessenden]  represented  the  public  sentiment  of  his  State,  and  he  had 
not  met  the  first  man  of  any  party  or  sect  who  had  not  denounced  the  act  of  Brown 
and  his  associates  as  criminal  in  the  highest  degree,  and  deserving  of  death;  and  this, 
he  ventured  to  assert,  was  the  almost  universal  sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  free 
States.  He  made  these  remarks  to  show  he  was  not  to  be  put  upon  the  defensive 
about  this  matter  " 

Now,  sir,  presuming  that  you  have  been  correctly  reported,  I  ask,  how  can  you 
make  such  a  statement  as  the  above  in  the  face  and  eyes  of  the  real  facts  ?  Can  you 
name  the  first  individual  member  of  your  Black  Republican  party  in  New  England 
who  has  ever  denounced  the  act  of  John  Brown  as  "  deserving  death  ?"  If  so,  1  chal- 
lenge you  to  give  it  to  the  public.  In  this  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  I  further 
challenge  you  to  name  the  first  newspaper  of  your  party  (the  Boston  Journal  excepted) 
which  has  ever  reprobated  his  crime.  That  paper  did,  on  a  single  occasion,  declare 
his  course  to  be  "bad — nothing  but  bad;"  but,  after  being  taunted  therefor  by  the 
Boston  Atlas  and  Bee,  the  accredited  organ  of  Governor  Banks  was  compelled  totakt 
back  what  it  had  said,  and  now  declares  that  the  punishment  of  Brown  will  be  a  '  blot 
upon  the  escutcheon  of  Virginia  !'  Do  you  not,  sir,  take  the  Journal  and  read  it  daily 
as  regularly  as  you  take  your  breakfast.  Have  you  not  perused,  in  your  copy  of  the 
Boston  Journal,  the  report  of  the  prayer  of  Rev.  Rollin  H.  Neale,  pastor  of  one  of  the 
largest  Baptist  societies  in  this  city,  at  the  John  Brown  sympathy  meeting  held  inTre- 
mont  Temple,  where  some  two  thousand  of  your  brother  Black  Republicans  had 
assembled  ?     Have  you  never  read  this,  sir  ? 

"  We  pray,  oh  God,  that  Thou  wilt  be  with  us  on  the  present  occasion;  guide  us 
in  the  proceedings  of  the  present  meeting.  We  pray  especially  for  him  who  has  so 
extensively  excited  the  public  sympathy  and  approbation.  We  render  thanks  to  Thee 
for  the  noble  spirit  of  generosity  and  of  fidelity  and  of  bravery  which  he  has  man- 
ifested, and  his  deep  sympathy  with  the  oppressed.  We  thank  Thee  that  he  is  sus- 
tained in  the  present  trying  hour  by  a  consciousness  of  having  acted  in  accordance 
with  his  sense  of  obligation  to  God;  and  we  pray  that  he  may  be  sustained  to  the  last. 
May  he  enjoy  the  light  of  Thy  presence  and  Thy  sustaining  power,  and  a  hope  full  ot 
immortality,  looking  forward  to  a  world  where  there  is  no  sin,  no  suffering,  no  op 
pression  of  any  kind." 

Again,  have  you  never  read  the  language  used  at  the  same  meeting  by  Rev.  J. 
M.  Manning,  assistant  pastor  of  the  "Old  South,"  the  oldest,  largest,  and  most  influ- 
ential Orthodox  Congregational  Society  in  this  city?  It  was  reported  in  the  same 
paper  as  follows  : 

"I  could  not  have  advised  him  (Brown)  to  it,  and  yet,  now  that  the  event  has  taken 
place,  I  stand  before  it  wondering  and  admiring,  [applause,]  remembering  that  it  is 
something  which  he  has  been  revolving  in  his  mind  for  years,  until  his  soul  has  be- 
come possessed  with  this  idea.  He  says  he  is  not  insane.  I  believe  he  is  a  good  man, 
and  has  been  doing  that  which  he  thought  was  right;  and  the  only  explanation  which 
I  can  give  now  is,  that  he  has  been  the  instrument  of  Providence  in  this.  The  distin- 
guished speaker  who  is  to  follow  me  (Ralph  Waldo  Emerson)  would  call  it  destiny;  I 
should  prefer  to  call  it  God,  my  Heavenly  Father,  who  has  used  this  man,  John  Brown, 
as  his  sword  to  inflict  a  wound  on  the  slave  power.  Whatever  we  may  say  of  it,  ht- 
has  been  possessed  by  some  higher  power  than  man's  power.  As  I  view  it,  he  is  God's 
finger  going  forth  in  the  halls  of  the  great  modern  Belshazzar,  and  writing  over  against 
the  wall  those  mysterious  and  appalling  words  at  which  the  monarch  trembles  and. 
turns  pale  on  his  throne." 

To  Hon.  William  P.  Fessenden,  Senator  from  the  State  of  Maine. 
As  said  Senator  Hamlin,  so  said  Senator  Wade,  of  Ohio.  He  said: 
"And  here  I  will  say  before  I  pass  from  this  branch  of  the  subject,  that  in  my 
intercourse  with  all  the  people  who  knew  old  John  Brown,  in  my  intercourse  with  all  the 
men  who  have  sympathized  with  him  in  his  last  trial,  I  have  never  yet  heard  of  a  man, 
woman,  or  child,  that  stood  forth  as  a  justifier  of  his  raid  upon  Virginia.  If  the  people 
sympathized  with  a  felon  upon  the  gallows,  anybody  would  know  without  inquiry  that 
it  was  no  ordinary  case.  Our  people  do  not  sympathize  with  crime;  but  they  do  feel 
those  emotions  which  are  elicted  by  those  traits  of  heroism  that  characterized  thiV 
leader  during  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  and  shone  most  conspicuously  in  hi- 
death." 


411 

One  of  the  most  alarming  evidences  of  the  demoralization  of  public  sentiment  is 
the  higher  law  doctrine  of  Mr.  Seward.  The  influence  of  his  name  is  spreading  the 
fatal  heresy.  Virginia  is  wrong  for  executing  John  Brown,  because  he  thought  h<- 
was  right,  although  Virginia  denounced  his  act  as  wrong. 

"Mr.  Phillips.  If  the  audience  request  an  answer,  my  answer  is  this:  So  God 
made  him  when  he  made  him  a  man.  Every  human  being  is  bound  to  judge  the 
righteousness  of  a  law  before  he  obeys  it.  [Applause.]  If  his  conscience  tells  him  it 
is  unrighteous,  he  has  no  right  to  obey  it.  [A  voice.  How  is  it  with  a  criminal  ?]  John 
Brown  had  a  right  to  judge  of  the  slave  laws  of  Virginia  on  this  account. 

"Mr.  Cheever.  Two  hundred  years  ago,  after  the  completed  action  oi  Oliver 
Cromwell  and  the  regicides,  John  Milton  took  his  pen,  and  in  his  work  on  the  Tenure 
of  Kings  and  Magistrates,  proved  that  it  is  lawful  and  right  to  call  to  account  a  tyrant 
or  a  wicked  king,  and  to  put  him  to  death.  On  the  same  principle,  but  with  still 
greater  power  of  demonstration,  would  John  Milton  have  approved  John  Brown's 
efforts  to  deliver  an  enslaved  race  in  these  United  States  from  the  cruelty  of  a  tyran- 
nical and  wicked  Government.      [Applause  and  hisses  for  some  time.] 

"Under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  by  the  word  of  God,  John 
Brown  had  a  perfect  right  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  enslaved  and  to  labor  for  their 
deliverance.  [Loud  applause  and  hisses.]  If  the  Constitution  had  forbidden  him 
to  do  this,  while  the  word  of  God  commanded  him,  then  he  would  have  been  bound 
to  obey  the  word  of  God,  anything  in  the  Constitution  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 
[Renewed  applause  and  hisses.]  But  there  is  nothing  in  the  Constitution  requiring 
John  Brown,  or  any  other  man,  to  defend  slavery  or  not  to  oppose  it.  [Applause  and 
hisses.] 

["  The  police  here  put  out  a  man  who  was  disturbing  the  meeting.] 

"Mr.  Cheever  continued:  If  God's  word  required  him  to  oppose  it,  he  could 
commit  no  treason  against  the  Constitution  or  against  the  country  by  obeying  God. 
It  was  John  Brown's  natural  right  to  protest  against  slavery,  and  in  every  just  and 
righteous  way  to  put  that  protest  into  action;  [disturbance:]  and  any  State  establish- 
ing slavery  by  law,  though  God  has  forbidden  it,  and  forbidden  such  a  protest  by  law, 
though  God  has  required  it,  [disturbance,]  instantly  makes  such  a  protest  not  only 
right,  but  a  duty,  and  doubly  both. 

"I  stand  here  to  night  to  vindicate  the  majesty  and  supremacy  of  God's  law  over 
man's;  to  say  that  man's  law,  if  against  God's,  has  no  authority,  but  on  the  contrary, 
you  and  I,  and  the  whole  country,  are  forbidden  to  obey  it.  Such  obedience  would 
be  treason  both  against  God  and  the  Constitution,  which  not  only  does  not  profess 
to  lay  upon  us  any  obligation  contrary  to  natural  and  divine  law  and  right,  but 
recognizes  such  natural  and  divine  right  as  the  supreme  law.  [Hisses.]  Freedom, 
equity,  and  the  most  perfect  justice  are  declared  to  be  the  objects  of  our  Constitution, 
and  any  law  that  contradicts  and  renders  impossible  its  object  and  spirit  is  null 
and  void,  both  in  itself  and  because  it  is  unconstitutional.  ['Amen,'  and  hisses.] 
John  Brown  was  indicted  for  treason  and  murder,  neither  of  which  crimes  was  proven 
against  him,  and  of  neither  of  which  was  he  guilty.  He  did  not  intend,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  but  simply  intended  to  give  liberty  to  as  many  of  the  enslaved  as  pos- 
sible, and  without  insurrection  or  the  shedding  of  blood.  The  insurrection  was  on 
the  part  of  the  slaveholders  and  the  slaveholding  government  in  defense  of  the  un- 
righteous claim  of  property  in  man. 

"Mr.  Phillips.  I  do  not  couple  John  Brown  and  Joseph  Warren— not  a  bit  of  it. 
Joseph  Warren  sits  to-day  in  that  heaven  where  both  live,  and  is  not  tall  enough  to 
touch  the  hem  of  the  garment  of  John  Brown,  of  Harper's  Ferry.  [Applause  and 
hisses.]  Joseph  Warren  was  an  honest  man;  Joseph  Warren  was  a  patriot;  he  was  a 
brave  soul;  he  was  an  honest  citizen;  but  John  Brown  was  more  than  that.  [A  voice: 
'  You  ain't.']  It  is  no  matter  what  I  am;  not  the  least  bit;  I  am  utterly  indifferent  to 
what  you  may  say;  I  say  Joseph  Warren  died  for  himself;  he  died  for  the  whites;  he 
died  in  arms  for  his  own  country  and  his  own  law.  Joseph  Warren  was  only  a  soldier- 
nothing  more.  If  John  Brown  had  been  shot  at  the  door  of  that  armory,  the  world 
never  would  have  known  that  he  was  anything  more  than  Joseph  Warren;  but  God, 
in  his  providence,  said  to  the  old  man,  'Come" up  higher;  I'll  melt  a  million  of  hearts 
by  that  old  Puritan  soul  of  thine.'     [Great  hissing,  mingled  with  applause."] 

Under  such  atrocious  doctrines,  if  controlling,  no  Government  could  stand;  all 
would  be  anarchy  and  disorder. 

And  who  is  John  Brown,  to  whom  such  extraordinary  ovations  are  paid?  A 
murderer  and  a  robber.  It  is  not  long  since  he  sold,  at  public  outcry,  at  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  a  number  of  horses,  which,  as  I  see  from  the  papers,  he  announced  to  be  those 
of  which  he  had  robbed  the  Missourians;  and  such  was  the  state  of  public  sentiment, 
that  the  announcement  rather  enhanced  than  diminished  the  sale.  Some  diversity  of 
statement  has  been  attempted  about  the  atrocious  murders  imputed  to  him,  but 
some  recent  revelations^mark  him  as  a  cold  blooded,  heartless  murderer,  without  a 
single  doubt. 


412 

The  Cincinnati  Gazette  publishes  the  following  extract  from  the  Kansas  corres- 
pondence of  the  Indianapolis  Journal.  It  will  attract  attention  as  associating  the  late 
John  Brown  with  an  atrocious  act  in  Kansas,  concerning  which  there  has  recently 
been  some  controversy  in  a  portion  of  the  public  press: 

Lawrence,  Kansas,  December  17,  1859. 

A  "John  Brown"  anti-slavery  meeting  was  held  in  Lawrence  last  evening, 
December  16. 

After  some  of  the  speakers  had  lauded  Brown  as  a  second  Jesus,  and  one  of  them 
alluded  to  the  Pottawatomie  massacre,  which  had  been  laid  at  John's  door, 

Mr.  Stevens  said  he  did  not  believe  John  Brown  had  anything  to  do  with  it;  but 
there  was  a  gentleman  present  who  could  testify  to  that  fact.  "  Name  him  !  "  "Name 
him  !  "  several  cried  out.  "  It  is  Captain  Walker,"  [now  sheriff  of  Douglas  county, 
and  one  of  the  bravest  of  the  free-State  leaders."] 

Captain  Walker  rose,  and  said:  "  Gentlemen,  there  is  no  use  in  keeping  back  the 
truth  or  perverting  facts.  John  Brown  told  me  himself  that  he  was  present  at  the 
murder  of  those  men  on  Pottawatomie  creek."  [This  startled  like  a  thunder  clap  the 
defenders  of  old  Brown.]  He  proceeded:  "lam  ready  to  take  an  oath  that  John 
Brown  made  such  a  statement  to  me.  I  know  more  about  this  matter  than  I  can  state, 
especially  as  it  would  implicate  as  actors  in  that  murder  some  persons  now  in  this 
room.  John  Brown  had  those  men  in  his  power,  and  he  could  have  kept  them 
prisoners.  For  himself,  he  never  could  justify  taking  a  man  prisoner,  and  then  deliber- 
ately cutting  his  throat.  Old  Titus,  whom  he  took  prisoner,  had  threatened  to  cut  his 
throat,  had  insulted  his  wife  and  threatened  her  life,  yet  he  never  felt  justified  in 
taking  his  life  when  his  prisoner." 

Governor  Charles  Robinson  also  said  that  he  believed  John  Brown  had  acknow- 
ledged to  him  he  was  present  and  approved  of  the  killing  of  those  men  on  Potta- 
watomie creek.  He  had  not,  and  could  not,  justify  the  excesses  committed  by  free- 
State  men  after  they  had  the  civil  power  in  their  hands. 

Dr.  Adair,  a  nephew  of  John  Brown,  was  questioned  in  reference  to  John  Brown's 
connection  with  the  Pottawatomie  massacre.  He  said  John  Brown  had  told  him  that 
he  was  present  at  the  killing  of  those  men.  But  there  were  palliating  circumstances 
connected  with  it. 

I  may  add  that  there  is  no  question  whatever,  from  what  I  have  heard  from 
persons  who  know  the  facts,  that  John  Brown  planned  and  carried  out  that  massacre. 
The  facts  come  to  me  from  men  who  stand  among  the  most  truthful  of  any  in  Kansas. 
The  truth  is,  the  less  Republicans  lionize  old  Brown  the  better.  KANSAS. 

Well,  Mr.  Clerk  and  gentlemen,  may  I  not  be  excused  for  a  rapid  resume  of  the 
main  history  to  which  it  has  been  my  object  to  invite  attention. 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  revolutionary  war,  every  foot  of  British  territory, 
south  of  the  great  lakes,  was  open  to  slavery.  But  the  ordinance  of  1787,  by  express 
provision,  excluded  slavery  from  the  Northwest  Territory.  It  will  strike  every  one 
that  a  preexisting  right  was  thus  taken  way.  By  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
by  which  slavery  was  recognized,  regulated,  and  protected,  the  whole  subject  was 
adjusted  upon  terms  agreed  upon,  and  the  States,  by  their  assent  to  the  compact, 
pledged  their  faith  to  maintain  them.  I  have  shown  that  this  part  of  the  compact  was 
broken,  in  spirit  at  least,  in  the  first  year  of  the  Constitution;  that  General  Washington 
himself  was  denied,  in  1796,  the  benefit  of  the  fugitive  slave  law;  and  that  the  slavery 
provisions  of  the  Constitution  have  been  the  object  of  ceaseless  assault.  I  have 
shown,  or  stated,  that  the  Louisiana  purchase  was  open  to  slavery,  and  that  the  Mis- 
souri restriction  was  unconstitutional;  and  by  attempting  to  exclude  slavery  from  the 
territory  to  which  it  applied,  a  gross  invasion  of  the  clear  rights  of  the  slaveholding 
was  perpetrated  by  the  non-slaveholding  States  of  the  Union.  I  have  shown  the 
continued  excitement  on  the  subject,  growing  out  of  Northern  agitation;  the  avowal 
of  most  alarming  doctrines;  the  violent  resistance  to  the  execution  of  the  fugitive  slave 
law;  the  nullification  of  the  acts  of  Congress  by  State  legislation,  and  the  denouncing 
of  those  acts  as  unconstitutional  by  State  courts;  and  finally,  an  armed  invasion  of  a 
sovereign  State  by  a  band  of  Northern  fanatics,  with  an  avowed  purpose  of  carrying 
out  the  policy  I  have  traced,  and  to  revolutionize  the  social  condition  of  the  Southern 
States. 

Fifteen  States  demand  to  know  of  their  sister  States  what  this  persistent  hostility 
means  ?  they  demand  to  know  why  the  common  bond  is  thus  habitually  broken  ? 
why  the  ties  of  interest  and  of  blood  are  no  longer  regarded? 

Senator  Wilson,  of  Massachusetts,  in  his  speech,  delivered  in  Syracuse  on  the  28th 
ultimo,  said: 

"  The  Harper's  Ferry  outbreak  was  the  consequence  of  the  teachings  of 
Republicanism." 

Is  this  state  of  things,  indeed,  the  consequence  of  Republican  teachings,  or  is  it 
the  "  irrepressible  conflict  "  of  Mr.  Seward  ? 


413 

Long  before  our  amazement  and  indignation  at  the  foray  of  John  Brown  had 
subsided,  a  new  revelation  broke  upon  the  country.  A  man  by  the  name  of  Hinton 
R.  Helper,  born  in  North  Carolina,  ambitious,  it  seems,  of  notoriety,  and  who  ••  left 
his  country  for  his  country's  good,"  commences  his  publishing  career,  in  1855,  by  a 
strong  pro-slavery  work.  In  that  year,  it  appears,  he  published  a  volume  entitled 
The  Land  of  Gold:  Reality  versus  Fiction,  with  the  imprint — "  Baltimore,  Henry  Tay- 
lor, Sun  Iron  Building."     The  following  are  extracts  from  the  work: 

"Nicaragua  can  never  fulfill  its  destiny  until  it  introduces  negro  slavery." 

"Nothing  but  slave  labor  can  ever  subdue  its  forests  or  cultivate  its  untimbered 
lands." 

"White  men  may  live  upon  its  soil  with  an  umbrella  in  one  hand  and  a  fan  in 
the  other;  but  they  can  never  unfold  or  develop  its  resources.  May  we  not  safely 
conclude  that  negro  slavery  will  be  introduced  into  this  country  before  the  lapse  ot 
many  years?     We  think  so.     The  tendency  of  events  fully  warrants  this  inference." 

There  are  many  other  passages  exhibiting  his  then  affiliation  with  slavery.  In 
one  place  he  speaks  of  the  slaves  in  California  as  tampered  with  and  "enticed  by- 
meddling  Abolitionists." 

Finding,  I  presume,  that  this  movement  did  not  pay,  he  turned  his  attention  to 
the  other  side  of  the  question,  and  published  The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South:  How 
to  meet  it. 

It  is  a  great  principle  of  international  law  that  every  people  is  entitled  to  regulate- 
their  political  and  social  institutions  in  their  own  way.  Italy  has  expelled  her  dukes, 
and  claims  this  right,  which  will,  no  doubt,  be  conceded  to  her  by  the  despotic 
Powers  of  Europe.  This  right  or  principle  is  conceded  to  the  States  of  the  Union 
within  their  respective  limits,  subject  to  the  Constitution;  but  the  South  has  never 
been  permitted  to  exercise  it  in  peace.  The  book  itself  is  but  one  of  a  series  written 
avowedly  to  disturb  us  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  right,  to  unsettle  our  social  institu- 
tions, to  dissatisfy  the  most  contented  and  happy  laboring  population  under  the  sun, 
and  to  put  a  dagger  and  a  torch  in  the  hands  of  the  slaves.  I  will  give  a  few  extracts 
from  the  work: 

"And  now  to  the  point;  In  our  opinion,  an  opinion  which  has  been  formed  from 
data  obtained  by  assiduous  researches  and  comparisons,  from  laborious  investigation, 
logical  reasoning  and  earnest  reflection,  the  causes  which  have  impeded  the  progress 
and  prosperity  of  the  South,  which  have  dwindled  our  commerce  and  other  similar 
pursuits,  into  the  most  contemptible  insignificance;  sunk  a  large  majority  of  our 
people  in  galling  poverty  and  ignorance;  rendered  a  small  minority  conceited  and 
tyrannical,  and  driven  the  rest  away  from  their  homes;  entailed  upon  us  a  humiliat- 
ing dependence  on  the  free  States;  disgraced  us  in  the  recesses  of  our  own  souls, 
and  brought  us  under  reproach  in  the  eyes  of  all  civilized  and  enlightened  nations, 
may  all  be  traced  to  one  common  source,  and  there  find  solution  in  the  most  hateful 
and  horrible  word  that  was  ever  incorporated  into  the  vocabulary  of  human  economy 
— slavery." 

"To  undeceive  the  people  of  the  South,  to  bring  them  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
inferior  and  disreputable  position  which  they  occupy  as  a  component  part  of  the 
Union,  and  to  give  prominence  and  popularity  to  those  plans  which,  if  adopted,  will 
elevate  us  to  an  equality,  socially,  morally,  intellectually,  industrially,  politically  and 
financially,  with  the  most  flourishing  and  refined  nation  in  the  world,  and,  if  possible, 
to  place  us  in  the  van  of  even  that,  is  an  object  of  this  work.  Slaveholders,  either 
from  ignorance  or  from  a  willful  disposition  to  propagate  error,  contend  that  the 
South  has  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of,  that  slavery  has  proved  a  blessing  to  her,  and 
that  her  superiority  over  the  North  in  an  agricultural  point  of  view,  makes  amends 
for  all  her  short-comings  in  other  respects." 

"  Nature  has  been  kind  to  us  in  all  things.  The  strata  and  substrata  of  the  South 
are  profusely  enriched  with  gold  and  silver  and  precious  stones,  and  from  the  natural 
orifices  and  aqueducts  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  flow  the  purest  healing  waters 
in  the  world.  But  of  what  avail  is  all  this  latent  wealth  ?  Of  what  avail  will  it  ever 
be,  so  long  as  slavery  is  permitted  to  play  the  dog  in  the  manger  ?  To  these  queries 
there  can  be  put  one  reply.  Slavery  must  be  throttled;  the  South,  so  great  and  so 
glorious  by  nature,  must  be  reclaimed  from  her  infamy  and  degradation;  our  cities, 
fields,  and  forests,  must  be  kept  intact  from  the  unsparing  monster;  the  various  and 
ample  resources  of  our  vast  domain,  subterraneous  as  well  as  superficial,  must  be  de- 
veloped, and  made  to  contribute  to  our  pleasures  and  to  the  necessities  of  the  world.' 

"  The  great  revolutionary  movement  which  was  set  on  foot  in  Charlotte,  Mecklen- 
burg county,  North  Carolina,  on  the  20th  day  of  May,  1775,  has  not  yet  been  term- 
inated, nor  will  it  be  until  every  slave  in  the  United  States  is  freed  from  the  tyranny 
of  his  master.  Every  victim  of  the  vile  institution,  whether  white  or  black,  must  be 
reinvested  with  the  sacred  rights  and  privileges  of  which  he  has  been  deprived  by  an 
inhuman  oligarchy.  What  our  noble  sires  of  the  Revolution  left  unfinished,  it  is  our 
duty  to  complete." 


414 

"  Hitherto,  as  mere  free-soilers,  you  have  approached  but  half  way  to  the  line  of 
your  duty;  now,  for  your  own  sakes  and  for  ours,  and  for  the  purpose  of  perpetuating 
this  great  Republic,  which  your  fathers  and  our  fathers  founded  in  septennial  streams 
of  blood,  we  ask  you,  in  all  seriousness,  to  organize  yourselves  as  one  man  under  the 
banners  of  liberty,  and  to  aid  us  in  exterminating  slavery,  which  is  the  only  thing  that 
militates  against  our  complete  aggrandizement  as  a  nation.  In  this  extraordinary  crises 
of  affairs,  no  man  can  be  a  true  patriot  without  first  becoming  an  Abolitionist." 

"  Non  slaveholders  of  the  South,  farmers,  mechanics,  and  working  men,  we  take 
this  occasion  to  assure  you  that  the  slaveholding  politicians  whom  you  have  elected  to 
offices  of  honor  and  profit  have  hoodwinked  you,  trifled  with  you,  and  used  you  as 
mere  tools  for  the  consummation  of  their  wicked  designs." 

"Now,  as  one  of  your  own  number,  we  appeal  to  you  to  join  us  in  our  earnest 
and  timely  efforts  to  rescue  the  generous  soil  of  the  South  from  the  usurped  and  de- 
solating control  of  these  political  vampires.  Once  and  forever,  at  least  so  far  as  this 
country  is  concerned,  the  infernal  question  of  slavery  must  be  disposed  of;  a  speedy 
and  absolute  abolishment  of  the  whole  system  is  the  true  policy  of  the  South,  and  this 
is  the  policy  which  we  propose  to  pursue.  Will  you  aid  us?  will  you  assist  us  ?  will 
you  be  freemen,  or  will  you  be  slaves  ?" 

"You  can  goad  us  no  further;  you  shall  oppress  us  no  longer.  Heretofore, 
earnestly  but  submissively,  we  have  asked  you  to  redress  the  more  atrocious  outrages 
which  you  have  perpetrated  against  us;  but  what  has  been  the  invariable  fate  of  our 
petitions  ?  With  scarcely  a  perusal,  with  a  degree  of  contempt  that  added  insult  to 
injury,  you  have  laid  them  on  the  table,  and  from  thence  they  have  been  swept  into 
the  furnace  of  oblivion.  Henceforth,  sirs,  we  are  demandants,  not  suppliants.  We 
demand  our  rights,  nothing  more,  nothing  less.  It  is  for  you  to  decide  whether  we  are 
to  have  justice,  peaceably  or  by  violence,  for  whatever  consequences  may  follow,  we 
are  determined  to  have  it  one  way  or  the  other." 

"  Slaveholders  are  a  nuisance." 

"  It  is  our  imperative  business  to  abate  nuisances." 

"We  propose  to  exterminate  this  catalogue  from  beginning  to  end." 

"We  believe  that  thieves  are,  as  a  general  rule,  less  amenable  to  the  moral  laws 
than  slaveholders." 

"Slaveholders  are  more  criminal  that  common  murderers." 

"Slaveholders  and  slavetraders  are,  as  a  general  thing,  unfit  to  occupy  any  hon- 
orable station  in  life." 

"It  is  our  honest  conviction  that  all  the  pro-slavery  slaveholders,  who  are  alone 
responsible  for  the  continuance  of  the  baneful  institution  among  us,  deserve  to  be  at 
once  reduced  to  a  parallel  with  the  basest  criminals  that  lie  fettered  within  the  cells  of 
our  public  prisons." 

"Were  it  possible  that  the  whole  number  (that  is,  of  the  slaveholders)  could  be 
gathered  together,  and  transferred  into  four  equal  bands  of  licensed  robbers,  ruf- 
fians, thieves,  and  murderers,  society,  we  feel  assured,  would  suffer  less  from  their 
atrocities  then  than  it  does  now." 

"Inscribed  on  the  banner  which  we  herewith  unfurl  to  the  world,  with  the  full 
and  fixed  determination  to  stand  by  it  or  die  by  it,  unless  one  of  more  virtuous 
efficacy  shall  be  presented,  are  the  mottoes  which,  in  substance,  embody  the  prin- 
ciples, as  we  conceive,  that  should  govern  us  in  our  patriotic  warfare  against  the  most 
subtle  and  insidious  foe  that  ever  menaced  the  inalienable  rights  and  liberties  and 
dearest  interests  of  America: 

"I.  Thorough  organization  and  independent  political  action  on  the  part  of  the  non- 
slaveholding  whites  of  the  South. 

"  2.  Ineligibility  of  pro-slavery  slaveholders;  never  another  vote  to  any  one  who 
advocates  the  retention  and  perpetuation  of  human  slavery. 

"3.  No  cooperation  with  pro-slavery  politicians;  no  fellowship  with  them  in  re- 
ligion; no  affiliation  with  them  in  society. 

"  4.  No  patronage  to  pro-slavery  merchants;  no  guestship  in  slave- waiting  hotels; 
no  fees  to  pro  slavery  lawyers;  no  employment  of  pro-slavery  physicians;  no  audi- 
ence to  pro-slavery  parsons. 

"5.   No  more  hiring  of  slaves  by  non-slaveholders. 

"6.  Abrupt  discontinuance  of  subscription  to  pro-slavery  newspapers, 

"7.  Immediate  death  to  slavery,  or  if  not  immediate,  unqualiiied  proscription  of 
its  advocates  during  the  period  of  its  existence. 

"A  tax  of  sixty  dollars  on  every  slaveholder,  for  each  and  every  negro  in  his  pos- 
session at  the  present  time,  or  at  any  intermediate  time  between  now  and  the  4th  of 
July,  1863. 

"  An  additional  tax  of  forty  dollars  per  annum,  to  be  levied  annually  on  every 
slaveholder,  for  each  and  everv  negro  found  in  his  possession  after  the  4th  of  July, 
1863." 

"This,  then,   is  the  outline  of  our  scheme   for  the  abolition    of  slavery  in  the 


415 

i 

"Southern  States.  Let  it  be  acted  upon  with  due  promptitude,  and,  as  certain  as  truth 
is  mightier  than  error,  fifteen  years  will  not  elapse  before  every  foot  of  territory  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Delaware  to  the  emboguing  of  the  Rio  Grande,  will  glitter  with  the 
jewels  of  freedom." 

"So  it  seems  that  the  total  number  of  actual  slave  owners,  including  their  entire 
crew  of  cringing  lick-spittles  against  whom  we  have  to  contend,  is  but  three  hundred 
and  forty-seven  thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty-five.  Against  this  army  for  the 
defense  and  propagation  of  slavery,  we  think  it  will  be  an  easy  matter— independent 
of  tlie  negroes,  who,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  would  be  delighted  with  an  opportunity 
to  cut  their  masters'  throats,  and  without  accepting  a  single  recruit  from  either  of  the 
free  States,  England,  France,  or  Germany — to  muster  one  at  least  three  times  as  large, 
and  far  more  respectable,  for  its  utter  extinction.  We  are  determined  to  abolish  slavery 
at  all  hazards,  in  defiance  of  all  opposition,  of  whatever  nature,  which  it  is  possible 
for  the  slaveocrats  to  bring  against  us.  Of  this  they  may  take  due  notice  and  govern 
themselves  accordingly." 

"And  now,  sirs,  we  have  thus  laid  down  our  ultimatum,  What  are  you  going  to  do 
about  it?  Something  dreadful,  of  course.  Perhaps  you  will  dissolve  the  Union  again. 
Do  it,  if  you  dare.  Our  motto,  and  we  would  have  you  understand  it,  is  the  abolition 
of  slavery  and  the  perpetuation  of  the  American  Union.  If  by  any  means  you  do 
succeed  in  your  treasonable  attempts  to  take  the  South  out  of  the  Union  to-day,  we 
will  bring  her  back  to-morrow — if  she  goes  away  with  you,  she  will  return  with  you. 

"Do  not  mistake  the  meaning  of  the  last  clause  of  the  last  sentence." 

On  page  234  he  says  : 

"  It  is,  as  it  ought  to  be,  the  desire,  the  determination,  and  destiny  of  the  Repub- 
lican party  to  give  the  death  blow  to  slavery." 

This  book  appeared  some  year  or  so  ago,  It  produced  neither  excitement  nor 
alarm  in  the  South.  But  it  coining  to  light,  almost  cotemporaneously  with  the  John 
Brown  foray,  that  its  atrocious  doctrines  were  indorsed  by  sixty -eight  members  of  Con- 
gress, upwards  of  forty  of  whom  are  members  of  this  House,  the  South  did  feel  a  wide- 
spread feeling  of  burning  indignation  in  consequence  of  the  thorough  conviction  that 
a  great  party  had  assumed  the  place  and  the  duty  of  that  fanatical  party  which  for 
three-quarters  of  a  century  had  morally  and,  whenever  possible,  practically  violated 
our  compact  and  disturbed  the  slaveholding  States  in  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  their 
acknowledged  rights.  And  when,  as  if  to  pile  up  the  agony,  the  Black  Republican 
party  nominated  one  of  those  men,  without  necessity  and  without  a  disclaimer  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Helper  book,  this  side  of  the  House,  profoundly  stirred,  had  no  alter- 
native but  to  appeal  to  their  patriotic  fellow-citizens  against  the  insult,  and  outrage 
implied  in  such  a  nomination. 

I  know  it  is  said,  Mr.  Clerk,  that  it  may  be  inferred  from  what  the  gentleman  [Mr. 
Sherman]  said  on  the  6th  instant,  that  he  disclaimed  the  doctrines  of  the  Helper  book. 
And  are  these  atrocious  doctrines  to  be  disclaimed  by  inference;  and  by  one  aspiring 
to  preside  over  the  deliberations  of  this  body?  With  half  the  words  uttered  by  him 
on  the  occasion  referred  to  he  could  have  denounced  the  Helper  book  and  the  John 
Brown  foray,  and  then  have  relieved  many  in  this  House  of  that  profound  feeling 
of  exasperation  which  his  election  cannot  fail  to  strengthen. 

A  disclaimer  by  inference  leaves  a  clear  inference  against  such  disclaimer.  But 
the  Sentinel,  of  December  8,  published  at  Mount  Gilead,  Ohio,  in  its  leading  editorial 
of  that  day,  says  : 

"  Captain  John  Brown  has  been  '  permitted  to  die  for  a  cause,'  and  his  •  last  on 
earth '  will  hereafter  be  the  sign  and  symbol  of  supreme  self-devotedness  to  the  sub- 
lime doctrines  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  His  example  of  heroism,  sanctified  by 
such  tenderness  and  faith,  'meeting  the  eye  and  filling  the  heart  of  the  civilized 
world,  spreading  its  noble  inspiration  far  and  wide  through  a  continent,  quickening 
the  pulses  of  heroism  in  millions  of  souls,  is  God's  prime  benefactor  to  our  time — the 
immortal  fire  that  keeps  humanity's  highest  hope  aflame." 

Mr.  Seward,  to  whom  I  have  so  often  referred,  also  fully  indorses,  not  the  com- 
pendium, but  Helper's  original  book.     He  says,  and  it  appears  on  the  title  page  : 

"I  have  read  the  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South  with  deep  attention.  It  seems  to 
me  a  work  of  great  merit;  rich,  yet  accurate,  in  statistical  information,  and  logical  in 
analysis." 

That  note  is  signed  "William  H.  Seward." 

Do  not  these  evidences  justly  inspire  distrust  and  preclude  us  from  being  satisfied 
with  any  disclaimer  of  the  Helper  book  by  inference  ? 

Well,  sir,  being  thus  treated,  the  object  of  unremitting  annoyance,  our  slaves 
run  off.  and  our  soil  invaded,  the  South  does  complain,  and  proclaim  that  if  not  al- 
lowed to  enjoy  her  rights  in  peace,  she  will  seek  her  happiness  and  repose  outside 
of  that  Union,  which  has  become  a  source  of  annovance  and  oppression.     And  how 


416 

is  she  treated?  With  sympathy  and  kindness?  No,  sir;  with  all  the  insolence  of  un- 
bridled power,  she  is  treated  in  the  most  insulting  and  contemptuous  manner.  Hear 
the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer,  an  organ  of  the  Black  Republican  party,  and 
especially  of  Mr.  Seward  :t 

"We  have  all  become  somewhat  familiar  with  the  bullying  and  threatening  of 
the  South.  For  nearly  half  a  century,  a  mere  handful  of  ignorant,  reckless,  and  un- 
principled men  at  the  South,  have,  by  bullying  and  threatening,  governed  the  millions 
of  educated  and  intelligent  men  at  the  North;  simply  because  they  are  men  of  peace, 
and  busily  engaged  in  moral  and  industrial  pursuits,  which  do  not  encourage  or  foster 
restlessness  and  excitement.  They  have  submitted  to  be  thus  governed,  so  long  as  no 
great  principle  was  involved,  and  no  sacrifice  of  honor  and  national  character  was 
demanded  of  them  by  their  acquiescence.  In  1820,  however,  this  bullying  and 
threatening  became  offensive,  because  it  demanded  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the 
great  and  free  Northwest;  and  then  the  men  of  the  North  roused  themselves  for  a 
moment,  and  indignantly  hurling  defiance  at  the  bullies  who  presumed  upon  their  for- 
bearance, demanded  a  guarantee  of  better  behavior  for  the  future.  This  was  con- 
ceded; and  the  great  Missouri  compromise  followed.  Then,  again,  the  great  North, 
knowing  alike  its  moral  and  physical  strength,  returned  like  a  refreshed  giant  to  its 
repose,  and  to  the  practicing  of  those  industrial  pursuits  wherein  consists  its  happi- 
ness and  prosperity. 

"  But  after  thirty  years  of  peace  and  quiet,  and  when  the  generation  of  men  who 
had  quailed  before  the  Northern  indignation  in  1820  had  passed  away,  a  race  of  Lilli- 
putians arose  in  the  South,  who  foolishly  imagined  that  because  they  had  never  heard 
the  roar  of  the  lion  or  seen  him  shake  his  mane,  and  brush  away  the  insect  tribes 
which  occasionally  annoy  him,  he  was  no  longer  to  be  feared.  They  saw  the  whole 
North,  year  after  year,  submitting  to  be  bullied  and  governed  by  a  mere  handful  of 
Southern  adventurers;  and  emboldened  by  the  repose  of  the  people,  conscious  of 
their  strength,  but  loth  to  employ  it,  they  finally  ventured  to  lay  hands  upon  and  violate 
the  great  compromise  of  1820,  accompanied  with  threats  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
Then  the  men  of  the  North  awaked  from  their  slumbers,  and  hurling  back  defiance, 
and  treating  with  scorn  and  contempt  their  cowardly  threats  of  disunion,  told  these 
reckless  and  dishonored  tricksters,  that,  not  only  should  the  principles  of  the  Missouri 
compromise  be  restored  and  enforced,  that,  if  need  be,  the  State  or  States  which  ven- 
tured to  trifle  with  their  allegiance  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  should  he  whipped 
into  obedience,  just  as  a  sulky,  or  insolent,  or  unruly  school  boy  is  made  to  feel  that, 
when  necessary,  the  birch  will  compel  a  prompt,  if  not  a  willing,  discharge  of  all  his 
duties.  That  lesson  has  been  very  fairly  inculcated;  and  the  South  now  understand 
that  if  any  portion  of  this  great  Confederacy,  whether  it  be  the  East  or  the  West,  the 
North  or  the  South,  attempts  to  withdraw  from  the  Union,  it  will  be  promptly  whipped 
— ay,  whipped  into  subjection.  It  is  all  idle  to  mince  the  matter.  The  fiat  has  gone 
forth  and  will  be  enforced,  let  Washington,  Oregon,  and  California,  at  the  Northwest. 
or  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Massachusetts,  at  the  Northeast,  or  the  agricultural 
States  of  the  North  and  center,  or  the  slaves  States  of  the  South  and  Southwest — let  any 
of  them,  or  any  combination  of  them,  raise  the  banner  of  rebellion  against  the  Amer- 
ican Union — we  care  not  what  their  pretense  for  treason — so  certainly  as  there  is  a 
God  above,  so  certain  is  it  that  the  offending  States  will  hewhippedinio  obedience,  and 
the  traitors  who  encouraged  rebellion  terminate  their  career  on  the  gallows. 

"  The  North,  the  center,  and  the  West — the  great  heart  and  most  efficient  limbs  of 
the  Confederacy— are  all  true  to  the  Union  and  the  Constitution;  and  should  disunion 
raise  its  head  at  the  South,  John  Brown  has  taught  the  world  how  much  opposition 
from  that  quarter  is  really  worth.  If  seventeen  fanatics,  led  on  by  a  madman,  could 
hold  in  subjection  a  town  containing  two  thousand  Viginians,  and  keep  at  bay  whole 
regiments  of  Virginia  militia,  who,  even  under  the  eye  of  their  Governor,  dared  not 
attack  their  invaders,  but  stood  by  and  saw  twelve  United  States  marines  make  the 
attack  and  capture  in  ten  minutes,  what  would  these  same  boastful  soldiers  do  when 
confronted  by  Northern  valor,  banded  together  under  the  Constitution,  and  bearing 
aloft  the  banner  of  the  Union  ?  Why,  our  Seventh  regiment  alone,  in  such  a  cause — 
the  cause  of  the  Union  and  the  Constitution — aided,  as  it  would  be,  by  the  good  men 
of  the  slave  States,  would  promptly  overrun  every  rebellious  State  of  the  South,  and 
compel  them  to  return  to  their  allegiance. 

"  Such  are  the  convictions,  and  such  the  feelings,  of  the  North." 

If  that  be  the  sentiment  of  the  North,  then,  of  course,  there  will  be  no  difficulty 
in  determining  our  future  condition.  We  are  to  be  whipped,  as  a  schoolboy,  into 
duty.  We  are  to  be  trampled  under  foot.  We  are  to  be  forced  by  the  Seventh  regi- 
ment into  an  observance  of  our  constitutional  duties.  Sir,  when  the  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Hickman]  talked  the  other  day  about  eighteen  millions  against 
eight,  it  was  very  significant;  it  was  an  echo  of  that  article.  Another  gentleman 
from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Stevens]  also  spoke  of  our  repeated  threats  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  and  of  his  having  heard  it  over  fifty  times.     I   did  not  expect  this   from  him; 


417 

his  history  should  surely  have  kept  him  silent.  He  sneered  at  the  intimation  embodied 
in  the  remarks  of  some  of  our  friends  on  this  occasion.  It  is  true,  sir,  that,  under  the 
pressure  of  the  wrongs  and  injustice  that  we  have  suffered,  as  illustrated  in  the  his- 
tory, brief  and  condensed,  to  which  I  have  referred,  we  have  been  provoked  into 
many  a  declaration  of  hostility  to  the  Union.  But,  sir,  it  was  Faneuil  Hall  meetings, 
and  other  such  gatherings  at  the  North,  that  soothed  our  irritated  feelings  and  pre- 
served our  love  for  the  Union  still  in  strength  and  vigor.  It  was  her  appeal  in  1835; 
it  was  her  appeal  in  1850;  it  was  the  various  appeals  that  have  been  made  on  these 
irritating  occasions,  that  we  yielded  to,  in  the  absence  of  any  actual  and  immediate 
grievance,  and  in  the  generosity  and  kindness  of  our  own  nature.  But  we  are  re- 
proached for  it  now.  A  gentleman,  who  ought  to  have  been  hushed  on  this  subject, 
dared  to  sneer  at  the  repetition  of  similar  declarations.  But  yet  there  had  not  been 
an  actual  invasion  of  a  sovereign  State.  There  had  not  been  this  development  of  the 
irrepressible  conflict.  There  had  not  been  such  an  accumulation  of  these  insulting 
declarations.  There  had  not  been  such  embarrassments  in  the  legislation  of  the 
States.  There  had  not  been  judicial  expositions  of  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  fugitive- 
slave  law.  There  had  not  been  propagations  of  detestation  and  hate,  to  the  same  ex- 
tent, at  least,  against  the  Southern  people.  No,  sir.  These  accumulated  evidences- 
demand  of  us,  at  least,  some  consideration — more  solemn,  more  deliberate,  and  more 
comprehensive,  than  they  have  heretofore  received.  I  know  that  it  is  the  custom  — 
almost  come  to  be  regarded  as  law — to  consider  persons  in  the  South  as  alone  de- 
sirous of  a  dismemberment  of  the  Union.  But,  sir,  that  is  not  the  truth.  Far  from  it. 
In  1800,  Mr.  Adams,  the  second  President  of  the  United  States,  absolutely  refused  to 
subscribe  to  the  establishment  of  a  college  in  Tennessee,  because  he  did  not  think 
the  Union  could  possibly  last,  and  he  did  not  deem  it  proper  that  the  North  should  be 
called  upon  to  give  support  to  such  an  institution. 

I  propose  to  read  an  extract  from  the  fourth  volume  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  works,'an 
entry  under  the  head  of  December  13,  1803  : 

"  The  Rev.  Mr.  Coffin,  of  New  England,  who  is  now  here  soliciting  donations  for 
a  college  in  Greene  county,  Tennessee,  tells  me  that  when  he  first  determined  to  en- 
gage in  this  enterprise,  he  wrote  a  letter  recommendatory  of  the  enterprise,  which  he 
meant  to  get  signed  by  clergymen,  and  a  similar  one  for  persons  in  a  civil  character,  at 
the  head  of  which  he  wished  Mr.  Adams  to  put  his  name,  he  being  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  application  going  only  for  his  name,  and  not  for  a  dona- 
tion. Mr.  Adams,  after  reading  the  paper  and  considering,  said  he  saw  no  possibility 
of  continuing  the  Union  of  the  States;  that  their  dissolution  must  necessarily  take 
place;  that  he,  therefore,  saw  no  propriety  in  recommending  to  New  England  men  to- 
promote  a  literary  institution  in  the  South;  that  it  was,  in  fact,  giving  strength  to  those 
who  were  to  be  their  enemies;  and,  therefore,  he  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.'* 

That  is  not  all.  In  1804,  General  Eaton,  a  Massachusetts  man,  returned  to  his 
State  from  the  Tripolitan  war,  and  had  a  dinner  given  to  him  by  his  friends.  In  giving 
a  toast  he  rebuked  the  disunion  sentiments  of  that  day,  and  said  :  "Palsied  be  the 
arm  and  frenzied  the  head  that  seeks  to  sever  the  Union." 

Nor  was  that  all.  Josiah  Quincy,  a  prominent  and  distinguished  Massachusetts, 
man,  uttered,  on  the  14th  of  January,  1S11,  disunion  sentiments  as  strong  as  ever  were 
uttered  by  a  Southern  man. 

There  was,  then,  a  proposition  pending  to  admit  the  State  of  Louisiana  into  the 
Union;  and  if  she  were  admitted,  that  was  to  be  cause  for  disunion. 

It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  call  attention  to  the  history  of  the  war  of  1812.  We 
know  that  it  was  the  habitual  custom  of  that  day,  in  pulpit  and  in  forum,  to  utter  dis- 
union sentiments  in  the  North.  You  recollect  the  celebrated  Hartford  convention,  the- 
object  of  which  was  to  bring  about  a  disruption  of  the  Union,  and  to  march  the 
Eastern  States  into  the  British  Provinces.  You  recollect  the  fact  that  the  British  them- 
selves remained  in  the  occupation  of  Castine  for  months.  That  is  not  all.  Mr.  Adams, 
in  an  extract  which  I  have  already  read,  declared  that  if  the  21st  rule  was  continued 
as  one  of  the  rules  of  the  House,  that  it  would  be  a  good  cause  for  the  North  with- 
drawing from  the  Union.  Sir,  at  that  session  he  presented  a  memorial  praying  for  a 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  an  atrocity  of  which  he  alone  enjoys  the  proud  preeminence. 
But  that  is  not  all.  He  said  furthermore  that  the  North  would  have  the  right  to  rev- 
olutionize— for  that  would  be  the  effect  of  it — the  South,  if  the  General  Government 
were  called  upon  to  suppress  a  servile  insurrection.  Nor  is  that  all;  but  the  Liberator 
of  New  England,  with  an  active  and  organized  party,  is  this  day  laboring  with  might 
and  main  to  accomplish  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  And  Mr.  Henry  Wilson,  now  a 
Senator  of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  stands  the  indorser  of 
that  treasonable  paper. 

Yet  these  are  the  men  and  this  the  section  that  are  talking  about  our  disunion  pro- 
pensities in  the  South  ! 

Mr.  Clerk,  may   I  be  permitted  to  repeat  once  more  that  the  slaveholding  States 


418 

have  done  no  wrong  to  their  free  State  sisters  ?  Virginia,  in  her  generosity  and  noble- 
ness of  soul,  gave  five  great  States  to  freedom,  as  it  is  called,  and  to  the  Union.  Her 
great  captain  gave  us  liberty;  and  her  captains  at  the  head  of  the  armies  of  the  Union 
ever  led  them  to  victory.  Her  sages  have  piloted  the  ship  of  State  through  every 
trial.  We  have  kept  your  looms  in  motion.  To  us  you  can  trace  your  great  wealth, 
the  luxurious  embellishment  of  your  barren  country.  Rear  up  your  palatial  resi- 
dences; make  your  country  to  "  smile  and  blossom  as  the  rose;"  let  your  halls  of 
science  be  filled  with  your  aspiring  youth;  let  your  proud  navies  stretch  their  wings 
to  every  breeze  and  over  every  sea;  we  are  content;  nay  we  share  in  the  pride  and  the 
glory  of  your  prosperity.  We  ask  no  return  but  to  be  left  in  peace;  to  the  enjoyment 
of  our  rights — to  be  let  alone.  This  is  all  we  have  ever  asked;  it  is  all  we  ask  now.  For 
seventy-five  years  we  have  made  this  appeal;  and  in  the  trying  revelations  of  a  few 
recent  hours,  we  make  it  again  here  in  this  presence;  and  in  the  august  presence  of 
the  American  people,  we  pray  to  be  left  to  the  enjoyment  of  our  rights — to  be  let  alone. 

I  beg  to  call  attention  to  the  celebrated  examination  of  Doctor  Franklin  before  a 
committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  in  1766  : 

"  Question.  What  was  the  temper  of  America  towards  Great  Britain  before  the 
year  1763  ? 

"  Anstver.  The  best  in  the  world." 
*********** 

"  Question.  And  what  is  their  temper  now? 

"Answer.  Oh,  very  much  altered." 

*********** 

"  Question.  To  what  cause  is  this  owing? 

"Answer.  To  a  concurrence  of  causes;  the  restraints  lately  laid  on  their  trade,  by 
which  the  bringing  of  gold  and  silver  into  the  colonies  was  prevented;  the  prohibition 
of  making  paper  money  among  themselves,  and  then  demanding  a  heavy  tax  by 
stamps,  and  taking  away  at  the  same  time  trials  by  juries,  and  refusing  to  receive  and 
hear  their  humble  petitions. 

"  Question.  Do  you  think,  if  the  stamp  act  is  repealed  the  people  would  be  satisfied? 

Answer.  I  believe  they  will. 

"  Question.  If  the  act  is  not  repealed,  what  do  you  think  will  be  the  consequence  ? 

Answer.  A  total  loss  of  the  respect  and  affection  the  people  of  America  bear  to 
this  country,  and  of  all  the  commerce  that  depends  on  that  respect  and  affection. 

"  Question.   How  can  the  commerce  be  affected  ? 

"Answer.  You  will  find  that,  if  the  act  is  not  repealed,  they  will  take  very  little 
of  your  manufactures  in  a  short  time. 

"  Question.  What  used  to  be  the  pride  of  the  Americans? 

"Answer.  To  indulge  in  the  fashions  and  manufactures  of  Great  Britain. 

"  Question.  What  is  now  their  pride  ? 

"Answer.  To  wear  their  old  clothes  over  again,  till  they  can  make  new  ones." 

In  1770,  Franklin  was  very  hopeful  that  the  remedy  adopted  would  prove  effectual. 
He  wrote  from  London,  October  2,  as  follows  ; 

"  The  dispute  between  the  two  countries  has  already  cost  England  many  millions 
sterling,  which  it  has  lost  in  its  commerce,  and  America  has  in  this  respect  been  a 
proportionable  gainer.  This  commerce  consisted  principally  of  superfluities,  objects 
of  luxury  and  fashion,  which  we  can  do  very  well  without;  and  the  resolution  we 
have  formed  of  importing  no  more  till  our  grievances  are  redressed,  has  enabled 
many  of  our  infant  manufactures  to  take  root,  even  should  a  connection  more  cordial 
than  ever  succeed  the  present  troubles.  I  have,  indeed,  no  doubt  that  the  Parliament 
of  England  will  finally  abandon  its  present  pretensions,|and  leave  us  in  the  peaceable 
enjoyment  of  our  rights  and  privileges." 

But,  sir,  we  are  admonished  that  the  "  irrepressible  conflict  "  will  not  end.  We 
are  to  have  no  peace.  Our  rights  will  not  be  respected.  What  then;  disunion  at  once, 
or  measures  which  may  prevent,  but  will  at  the  same  time  prepare  for  it.  Disunion 
is  the  last  resort.  What  other  remedies  then,  it  may  be  asked,  am  I  prepared  to  sug- 
gest ?  The  first  and  most  obvious  measure  is  legislation  by  the  free  States.  Let  them 
provide  such  laws  in  aid  of  the  laws  of  Congress  as  will  facilitate  the  enjoyment  of  all 
the  rights  and  guarantees  of  the  Constitution;  suppress  all  incendiary  combinations, 
punish  all  treasonable  sentiments,  all  subscriptions,  &c,  in  aid  of  invasions  of  our 
sister  States.  We  have  what  is  called  the  neutrality  act  of  1818,  the  object  of  which 
is  to  prevent  our  people  from  breaking  the  peace  of  friendly  Powers.  Surely  the 
States  will  practice  toward  each  other  that  friendly  non-intervention  which,  as  one  of 
the  family  of  nations,  we  have  proclaimed  in  reference  to  all  others.  But  I  have  no  hope 
of  such  legislation  now.  What  then  ?  we  must  legislate  ourselves.  Our  soil  has  been 
invaded,  we  must  arm;  our  negroes  have  been  tampered  with  and  run  off;  the  whole 
system  of  itinerants,  peddlers,  showmen,  schoolmasters,  and  all  others,  must  be  prohib- 
ited by  law.  The  manufactures  of  unfriendly  States  must  be  refused  a  market  among 
us;  we  must  encourage  our  own  manufactures — open  a  direct  trade  with  Europe,  &c. 


419 

One  would  think  that  the  North  must  know  our  value.  To  our  industry,  more 
than  to  any  other  cause,  they  chiefly  owe  their  great  prosperity. 

"The  exports  of  the  last  fiscal  year,  embracing  specie  and  American  produce, 
amounted  to  $335,894,385;  in  addition  to  which  we  also  exported  something  over 
twenty  millions  of  foreign  produce,  making  all  of  our  exports  above  three  hundred 
and  fifty-six  million  dollars,  and  exceeding  our  imports  for  the  same  period  a  fraction 
over  eighteen  million  dollars. 

The  specie  and  American  produce  exported  were $335^94,385 

Specie , 57,502,305 

The  amount  of  produce  consequently  exported  was $278,392,080 


"We  propose  to  classify  the  amount  furnished  by  each  section,  as  far  as  possible 
by  giving  the  amount  furnished  exclusively  by  the  free  States,  the  amount  furnished 
by  both  the  free  and  slave  States  (which  it  is  impossible  to  separate  and  designate  the 
respective  amount  furnished  by  each,)  and  the  amount  furnished  exclusively  by  the 
slave  States. 

FREE   STATES    EXCLUSIVELY  : 

Fisheries,  embracing  spermaceti  and  whale  oils,  dried  and  salt  fish $4,462,974 

Coal 653,536 

Ice 164,581 

Total  free  States $5,281,091 

FREE   AND   SLAVE   STATES  : 

Products  of  the  forest — embracing  staves  and  headings,  shingles,  boards, 
plank,  and  scantling,  hewn  timber,  other  timber,  oak  bark  and  other 
dye,  all  manufactures  of  wood,  ashes,  ginseng,  skins  and  furs $12,099,967 

PRODUCT   OF   AGRICULTURE  ! 

Of  animals — beef,  tallow,  hides,  horned  cattle,  butter,  cheese,  pork,  hams 

and  bacon,  lard,  wool,  hogs,  horses,  mules,  and  sheep 15,549,817 

VEGETABLE   FOOD  : 

Wheat,  flour,  Indian  corn,  Indian    meal,  rye  meal,  oats,  and  other  small 

grain,  and  pulse,  biscuit,  or  ship  bread,  potatoes,  apples,  and  onions..       22,437,578 

MANUFACTURES : 

Refined  sugar,  wax,  chocolate,  spirits  from  grain,  do.  molasses,  do.  other 
materials,  vinegar,  beer,  ale,  porter,  and  cider,  in  casks  and  bottles, 
linseed  oil,  household  furniture,  carriages  and  parts,  railroad  cars  and 
parts,  hats  of  fur  and  silk,  do.  palm  leaf,  saddlery,  trunks  and  valises, 
adamantine  and  other  candles,  soap,  snuff,  tobacco  manufactured,  gun- 
powder, leather,  boots  and  shoes,  cables  and  cordage,  salt,  lead,  iron, 
pig,  bar,  nails,  castings,  and  all  manufactures  of  copper,  brass,  and 
manufactures  of,  drugs  and  medicines,  cotton  piece  goods,  printed  or 
colored,  white  other  than  duck,  duck  and  all  manufactures  of,  hemp, 
thread,  bags,  cloth,  and  other  manufactures  of,  wearing  apparel, earthen 
and  stone  ware,  combs  and  buttons,  brooms  and  brushes,  of  all  kinds, 
billiard  tables  and  apparatus,  umbrellas,  parasols  and  sunshades, 
morocco  and  other  leather  not  sold  by  the  pound,  fire-engines,  printing 
presses  and  type,  musical  instruments,  books  and  maps,  paper  and 
stationery,  paints  and  varnish,  jewelry,  other  manufactures  of  gold 
and  silver,  glass,  tin,  pewter  and  lead,  marble  and  stone,  bricks,  lime 
and  cement,  India-rubber  shoes  and  manufactures,  lard  oils,  oil  cake, 

and  artificial  flowers 30,197,274 

Articles  not  enumerated,  manufactured 2,274,652 

Raw  produce 1,858,205 

Total,  free  and  slave  States $84,417,493 


SLAVE  STATES,  EXCLUSIVELY  :  

Cotton $161,434,923 

Tobacco 21,074,038 

Rosin  and  turpentine 3,554,416 

Rice 2,207,  "48 

Tar  and  pitch 141,058 

Brown  sugar 196,935 

Molasses 75,699 

Hemp 9, 279 

Total,  slave  States $188,693,496 


420 

RECAPITULATION. 

Free  States,  exclusively $5,281,091 

Free  and  slave  States 84,417,493 

Slave  States,  exclusively 188,693,496 

Total $278,392,080 


"If  any  one  will  take  the  trouble  to  analyze  the  articles  embraced  in  the  amount 
of  $84,417,493,  belonging  alike  to  the  labor  of  the  free  and  slave  States,  he  will  find 
that  at  least  one-third  is  as  justly  the  products  of  slave  labor.  We  have,  therefore,  the 
fact,  that  out  of  $278,392,080  of  exports  of  domestic  industry,  over  $200,000,000  of  this 
sum  is  furnished  by  those  States  know  as  slave  States." 

And  yet  our  labor  is  thriftless,  and  our  industry  is  unproductive  !  Where,  in  the 
whole  history  of  labor,  is  there  such  an  amount  of  production  for  the  capital  involved? 
And  where  such  an  amount  of  content,  comfort,  and,  I  may  add,  happiness  ?  Here  is 
the  chief  basis  of  Northern  prosperity.  Do  they  wish  its  destruction,  to  make  another 
Jamaica  or  San  Domingo  of  the  Southern  States?  Indeed,  it  maybe  said  that  the 
negro  in  the  South  is  not  only  a  productive,  but  eminently  a  social  and  religious, 
being.  I  beg  to  read  to  you  the  testimony  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gurley,  known,  by  char- 
acter at  least,  to  the  members  of  this  House  : 

"Colored  Church  Members  at  the  South. — Rev.  R.  R.  Gurley,  who,  as  agent 
of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  lately  made  a  tour  through  the  State  of  Georgia, 
has  recently  addressed  a  long  and  interesting  letter  to  Rev.  W.  McLain,  secretary  of 
said  society,  which  is  published  in  the  African  Repository .  It  is  beautifully  written,  and 
presents  many  encouraging  facts  bearing  upon  the  objects  of  his  mission.  We  make 
the  following  extract,  and  we  regret  that  we  are  unable  to  publish  the  letter  entire. — 
National"  Intelligencer. 

"It  has  been  shown,  from  authentic  documents,  that  in  the  Southern  States,  in 
1847,  there  were  139,378  colored  members  of  the  Methodist  church;  that  100,000  were 
members  of  the  Baptist  church,  in  1847;  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  7,000;  of  other 
denominations,  16,000;  and  at  this  hour  it  is  probable  that  the  number  of  colored 
members  of  Christian  churches  in  the  Southern  States  is  not  less  than  300,000.  The 
great  fund  of  humanity,  treasured  up  for  the  benefit  of  our  colored  population,  is  in 
the  hearts  of  the  South.  That  divine  law  of  love,  which  worketh  no  ill  to  its  neigh- 
bor, pervading  the  hearts  of  Christian  masters  and  Christian  slaves,  will  dispose  both 
to  seek  each  others'  highest  good,  and  to  impart  to  all  men  a  knowledge  of  its  Author 
and  the  happiness  of  His  kingdom." 

And  what  is  the  state  of  the  free  negro  wherever  tried? 

"  If  there  is  any  one  fact  established  by  steadily  accumulating  evidence,  it  is  that 
the  free  negro  cannot  find  a  congenial  home  in  the  United  States.  He  is  an  exotic 
among  us,  and  all  the  efforts  of  philanthropists  to  naturalize  him  on  American  soil 
and  under  American  skies  have  failed.  We  know  that  it  is  common  to  attribute  this 
failure  to  the  prejudice  of  the  whites,  which  defeats  all  the  attempts  made  to  improve 
radically  and  permanently  the  condition  of  the  blacks;  but  after  allowing  to  this  cause 
all  the  influence  which  it  deserves,  it  must  be  admitted  that  it  does  not  explain  the 
almost  universal  degradation  of  the  colored  population  in  the  free  States,  and  we 
must  look  beyond  prejudice  and  social  ostracism,  and  the  unequal  legislation  which 
may  be  supposed  to  flow  from  these  for  some  deeper  explanation — one  which  we  be- 
lieve is  to  be  found  in  the  constitution  of  the  negro  himself."         *         *         *         * 

"  Now,  so  far  as  the  colored  population  of  most  of  the  free  States  are  concerned, 
there  are  no  laws  that  trammel  their  faculties  or  limit  the  sphere  of  their  industry. 
They  are  at  liberty  to  pursue  most  callings,  and  to  accumulate  property.  The  laws 
extend  protection  to  the  person  and  property  of  the  colored  man  as  they  do  to  the 
white.  '****"  But  we  see  the  blacks  daily  driven  from  avocations 
once  deemed  almost  exclusively  their  own.  It  is  long  since  they  have  flourished  in 
any  of  the  trades,  if  they  ever  pursued  them  with  success.  Within  a  few  years  they 
have  ceased  to  be  hackney  coachmen  and  draymen,  and  they  are  now  almost  dis- 
placed as  stevedores.  They  are  rapidly  losing  their  places  as  barbers  and  servants. 
Ten  families  employ  white  servants  now,  where  one  did  twenty  years  ago.  Whatever 
explanation  may  be  given  of  these  facts,  the  facts  themselves  cannot  be  denied;  and 
what  is  to  be  done  with  our  colored  population,  unless  they  can  be  induced  to  return 
as  colonists  to  the  native  land  of  their  race,  or  seek  some  other  tropical  region,  baffles 
the  wisest  of  us  to  say." — Philadelphia  North  American  {Black  Republican.) 

"  The  Free  Negroes  of  the  North. — The  New  York  Express  has  the  following 
sensible  remarks  on  this  subject.  If  the  people  of  the  North  would  interest  them- 
selves more  about  the  condition  of  the  free  negro  population  they  have  among  them, 
and  leave  the   Southern  people  to  take  care  of  the  slaves,  it  would  be  much  more  to 


421 

their  own  interest,  and  to  the  welfare  of  the  country.  We  hope  they  will  profit  by  the 
comments  of  the  Express. 

"  'From  the  Washington  Sentinel,  which  has  been  examining  the  census  returns, 
we  learn  that,  prior  to  1830,  owing  to  the  more  general  emancipation  which  prevailed 
then  than  now,  (and  which  has  been  retarded  by  the  zeal  and  interference  of  the 
Abolitionists,)  there  was  a  greater  increase  among  the  free  negroes  than  among  the 
slaves.  From  1830  to  1840,  the  free  negroes  fell  off  fourteen  per  cent.,  the  increase 
being  but  twenty  per  cent.  —  two  per  cent,  per  year — in  ten  years.  From  1840  to  1850, 
there  was  a  falling  of  eight  per  cent.,  and  an  increase  of  only  twelve  per  cent.,  which 
does  not  exceed  the  number  of  manumitted  and  escaped  slaves. 

"'In  a  marked  and  important  contrast  to  this,  the  slaves,  we  are  told,  are  in- 
creasing in  the  ratio  of  twenty  per  cent,  every  ten  years;  and  the  Sentinel  declares, 
that,  among  three  million  two  hundred  and  four  thousand  three  hundred  and  thirteen 
slaves,  (the  number  enumerated  in  the  census  of  1850,)  there  was  but  three  hundred 
and  thirty-seven  idiotic  and  insane  and  three  hundred  and  eleven  idiotic  and  insane 
free  negroes  in  a  population  of  four  hundred  and  thirty-four  thousand  four  hundred 
and  nine-five.  Thus  it  appears  that  there  is  only  one  insane  slave  in  nine  thousand 
six  hundred  and  fifteen,  while  there  is  one  idiotic  or  insane  free  negro  to  every 
thirteen  hundred  and  ninety-seven.'  " 

"Condition  of  the  Free  Blacks  at  the  North. — Of  all  the  papers  in  the 
world,  we  should  have  expected  the  New  York  Tribune  to  be  the  last  to  represent  the 
true  condition  of  the  free  blacks  at  the  North.  And  even  that  violent  Abolition  sheet 
portrays  the  character  of  this  class  of  the  Northern  community  : 

"  Nine-tenths  of  the  free  blacks  have  no  idea  of  setting  themselves  to  work,  ex- 
cept as  the  hirelings  and  servitors  of  white  men;  no  idea  of  building  a  church,  or  ac- 
complishing any  other  serious  enterprise,  except  through  beggary  of  the  whites.  As 
a  class,  the  blacks  are  indolent,  improvident,  servile,  and  licentious;  and  their  inve- 
terate habit  of  appealing  to  white  benevolence  or  compassion,  whenever  they  realize 
a  want  or  encounter  a  difficulty,  is  eminently  baneful  and  enervating.  If  they  could 
never  more  obtain  a  dollar  until  they  shall  have  earned  it,  many  of  them  would  suffer, 
and  some,  perhaps,  starve;  but  on  the  whole,  they  would  do  better  and  improve 
faster  than  may  now  be  reasonably  expected.'  " 

"  Free  Negroes  North. — The  New  York  correspondent  of  the  Savannah  Repub- 
lican writes  as  follows  as  to  the  condition  of  free  negroes  in  the  North  : 

"  '  Two  rather  important  decisions  on  the  eternal  negro  question  have  been  made. 
The  city  court  of  Brooklyn  held  that  a  marriage  between  slaves  in  the  State  of  North 
Carolina  was  not  valid,  and  refused  to  allow  a  freed  man  of  color  to  be  prosecuted  for 
bigamy  here,  the  first  alleged  marriage  having  been  solemnized  in  this  State.  In  one 
of  the  second  ward  public  schools  of  this  city,  a  number  of  negroes  made  application 
for  the  admission  of  their  children.  A  stormy  debate  took  place  among  the  school 
commissioners  of  the  district,  but  finally  the  application  was  rejected  by  a  vote  of  8  to 
2.  The  amalgamation  doctrine,  in  all  its  forms,  is  very  unpopular  in  this  city.  Ne- 
groes are  not  allowed  in  omnibuses  or  cars,  (except  on  one  line,  where  they  have 
special  cars)  hotels,  or  places  of  public  amusement.  Indeed,  I  think  the  two  races 
meet  with  less  jealousy  and  more  good  nature  and  apparent  familarity  in  parts  of  the 
South  I  have  visited  than  in  New  York.'  " 


North  Adams,  Massachusetts,  September  26,  1859. 

Dear  Sir  :  Yours  of  the  12th,  inclosing  a  copy  of  the  resolutions  recently  adopted 
by  a  convention  of  colored  citizens  of  New  England,  assembled  at  Boston,  was  re- 
ceived here  in  my  absence  from  home,  or  it  would  have  been  sooner  acknowledged. 
I  am  greatly  obliged  to  the  convention  for  the  complimentary  notice  it  was  pleased  to 
take  of  myself  in  one  of  its  resolutions. 

The  disabilities  imposed  upon  free  colored  persons  by  the  constitution  of  many 
of  the  so-called  free  States,  have  very  properly  found  place  in  the  deliberation  of  the 
convention.  Indeed,  the  position  which  the  free  colored  citizen  shall  hereafter  occupy 
at  the  North  has  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  question  deserving  more  attention  from  all 
than  it  has  hitherto  received.  It  lies,  in  my  opinion,  directly  across  the  path  of  the 
emancipationist,  and  must  be  encountered  and  correctly  settled  before  any  per- 
manent or  healthy  progress  can  be  made.  The  growing  disposition  in  the  new  States 
that  are  forming  in  the  great  West  with  such  rapidity  and  on  such  a  magnificent  scale, 
to  disfranchise,  disable,  and  drive  out  the  free  negroes  from  their  border,  should  be 
firmly  met  and  encountered  by  those  who  make  it  the  corner-stone  of  their  political 
creed  that  "all  men  are  created  equal." 

That  a  State  whose  constitution  imposes  upon  any  class  of  men  who  have  com- 
mitted no  crime  the  disability  that  they  "shall  never  have  the  right  of  suffrage," 
"shall  never  hold  anv  real  estate,"  "shall  never  make  any  contract,"  "shall  never 
work  any  mine,"  "shall  never  maintain  any  suit,"  or  "come,  reside,  or  be  within  the 
State  "—that  such  a  State  is  called  a  free  State  passes  my  comprehension.     It  is  all  a 


422 

false  pretense  and  a  fraud.  There  is  no  real  difference  between  the  spirit  which 
would  incorporate  such  provisions  into  the  organic  laws  of  a  State  and  that  which  in- 
famously declares  that  the  "  negro  has  no  rights  which  the  white  man  is  bound  to  re- 
spect." It  is  high  time,  therefore,  for  those  who  believe  that  men  have  inalienable 
rights  to  meet  and  grapple  this  monstrous  heresy.  It  well  engaged  the  attention  of 
so  intelligent  a  convention  of  colored  citizens  assembled  in  New  England,  the  only 
portion  of  the  Union  where  the  rights  of  man,  without  distinction  of  color  or  race  or 
class  or  condition,  are  secured  to  him  by  the  constitutional  guarantees.  It  must  sooner 
or  later,  and  better  soon  than  late,  arrest  the  serious  attention  of  the  statesman  who 
hopes  for  the  perpetuity  of  the  principles  upon  which  the  frame-work  of  our  Govern- 
ment was  founded.  Respectfully  yours,  H.  L.  DAWES. 
William  C.  Neil,  Esq. 

In  the  above  letter  from  Hon.  Mr.  Dawes,  now  a  member  of  this  House,  you  will 
see  the  general  condition  of  the  free  negro  in  the  non-slaveholding  States. 

I  read  this  letter  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that,  according  to  the  statement  of 
that  gentleman,  the  free  States  themselves,  with  the  single  exception  of  Massachusetts 
repudiate  the  doctrine  of  equality.  They  are  free  and  equal,  then,  in  but  one  State 
in  the  Union.  I  am  told  that  in  Massachusetts,  a  white  man  can  marry  a  black  woman, 
and  a  white  woman  can  marry  a  black  man.  I  am  told  that  in  Massachusetts,  black 
men  can  be  lawyers,  judges,  and  counselors;  that  they  can  be  governors,  and,  I  sup- 
pose, may  be  elected  to  Congress.  What  kind  of  equality,  and  what  sort  of  freedom, 
is  it,  when  no  other  State  than  Massachusetts  recognizes  their  perfect  equality? 

Mr.  Olin.  The  gentleman  is  mistaken.  In  the  State  of  Vermont  there  is  no  dis- 
qualification of  colored  men.     They  are  eligible  to  any  office  in  the  State. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  The  ATortk  American,  quoted,  also  says: 

"We  are  led  to  these  remarks  by  reflecting  on  the  great  reluctance  displayed  by 
the  people  of  the  new  States  to  have  free  negroes  settle  among  them.  There  is  some- 
thing more  in  this  than  mere  prejudice  or  jealousy.  It  is  exhibited  in  places  where 
the  political  sentiments  of  the  people  are  as  diverse  as  in  Kansas,  Oregon,  and  Iowa. 
It  seems  as  if  it  were  to  become  a  rule,  in  framing  a  constitution  for  a  new  State,  to 
prohibit  the  residence  of  free  negroes." 

Then  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  is  mistaken.  I  supposed  he  was  correct 
because  he  had  looked  into  the  matter,  as  he  was  weeping  over  the  unhappy  condition 
of  the  slave,  for  whom  he  has  such  tender  commiseration.  Did  the  gentleman  ever 
know  a  negro  to  be  elected  to  any  office  in  Vermont? 

Why,  then,  will  gentlemen  agitate  this  question  ?  Why  will  they  forget  their  ob- 
ligations to  the  Constitution  and  the  country?  If  gentlemen  choose  to  try  the  experi- 
ment of  mingling  bloods  and  races,  they  are  welcome  to  it.  We  of  the  South  believe 
that  the  negro  is  of  an  inferior  race.  That  is  our  experience,  but  we  are  perfectly 
willing  to  give  to  others  an  opportunity  of  showing  that  we  are  mistaken. 

Mr.  Dawes.  I  would  like  to  ask  the  gentleman  if  there  is  any  law  in  Virginia 
against  the  intermingling  of  the  whites  and  blacks  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Certainly. 

Mr.  Dawes.  Then  what  is  the  reason  that  there  are  so  many  more  mulattoes  than 
full-blooded  Africans  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  know  it  is  not  the  fact. 

Mr.  Houston,  (in  his  seat.)  Perhaps  it  is  owing  to  the  Yankees  going  there. 
[Laughter.] 

Mr.  Dawes.  We  had  a  Democratic  Legislature  one  year  in  Massachusetts,  and  it 
was  in  that  year  that  the  law  was  repealed  prohibiting  the  intermarriage  of  blacks 
and  whites.  However,  we  never  have  found  it  necessary  to  make  the  intermarriage 
of  blacks  and  whites  a  penal  offense  in  our  State;  and  if  they  have  found  it  necessary 
so  to  do,  that  is  the  gentleman's  business,  and  not  mine. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Exactly. 

Mr.  Dawes.  We  have  never  found  it  necessary  to  prevent,  by  legal  or  constitu- 
tional enactment,  any  black  man  from  holding  office  in  Massachusetts.  If  they  have 
found  it  necessary  in  Virginia  to  make  a  black  man  constitutionally  ineligible  to  office, 
that  is  their  business,  not  ours.  We  have  found  it  necessary  to  impose  restrictions  on 
no  man.  We  let  all  men  who  are  born  free  and  equal  judge  for  themselves,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, whom  of  all  their  number,  they  will  select  to  hold  the  office  of  Governor; 
and  we  do  not  hesitate  to  compare  the  Governors  of  Massachusetts  with  the  Governors 
past  and  present,  of  Virginia. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  The  gentleman  is  growing  enlightened.  In  1847, I  think, 
a  law  was  passed  by  Massachusetts  repealing  that  which  prohibited  the  intermarriage 
of  blacks  and  whites.     I  presume  that  when  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 


423 

adopted,  such  prohibition  existed  in  every  State  and  Territory  of  the  Union.  It  ex- 
isted in  Massachusetts,  and,  so  existing,  the  gentleman  will  readily  understand  there 
was  a  necessity  for  it.  We  have  been  governed  by  the  same  policy.  We  desired  to 
preserve,  as  far  as  we  could,  the  white  race  from  contamination,  We  did  not  wish  it 
defiled  and  depreciated.  It  may  suit  other  States  to  remove  such  prohibitions,  because 
they  wish  to  try  experiments  as  to  the  equality  of  races. 

And  how  stands  the  grand  experiment  in  Hayti  ?  A  perfect  failure.  How  stands 
it  in  Jamaica,  that  stupendous  monument  of  British  folly  ?  Hear  the  great  organ  of 
England,  the  London  Times  : 

"  There  is  no  blinking  the  truth.  Years  of  bitter  experience — years  of  hope  de- 
ferred, of  self-devotion  unrequited,  of  poverty,  of  humiliation,  of  prayers  unan- 
swered, of  sufferings  derided,  of  insults  unresented,  of  contumely  patiently  endured 
— have  convinced  us  of  the  truth,  It  must  be  spoken  out,  loudly  and  energetically, 
despite  the  wild  mockings  of  'howling cant.'  The  freed  West  India  negro  slave  will 
not  till  the  soil  for  wages;  the  free  son  of  the  ex-slave  is  as  obstinate  as  his  sire.  He 
will  cultivate  lands  which  he  has  not  bought,  for  his  own  yams,  mangoes,  and  plan- 
tains. These  satisfy  his  wants;  he  does  not  care  for  yours.  Cotton  and  sugar  and 
coffee  and  tobacco — he  cares  little  for  them.  And  what  matters  it  to  him  that  the 
Englishman  has  sunk  his  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  on  mills,  machinery,  &c, 
which  now  totter  on  the  languishing  estate  that,  for  years,  has  only  returned  beggary 
and  debt.     He  eats  his  yams,  and  sniggers  at  '  Buckra.' 

"  We  know  not  why  this  should  be;  but  it  is  so.  The  negro  has  been  bought  with 
a  price,  the  price  of  English  taxation  and  English  toil.  He  has  been  'redeemed  from 
bondage'  by  the  sweat  and  travail  of  some  millions  of  hard-working  Englishmen. 
Twenty  million  pounds  sterling — $100,000,000 — have  been  distilled  from  the  brains 
and  muscles  of  the  free  English  laborer,  of  every  degree,  to  fashion  the  West  India 
negro  into  a  'free  and  independent  laborer.'  'Free  and  independent'  enough  he  has 
become,  God  knows;  but  laborer  he  is  not,  and,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  he  never  will 
be.  He  will  sing  hymns  and  quote  texts,  but  honest,  steady  industry  he  not  only  de- 
tests but  despises.  We  wish  to  heaven  that  some  people  in  England — neither  Gov- 
ernment people,  nor  parsons,  nor  clergymen — but  some  just-minded,  honest-hearted, 
and  clear-sighted  men,  would  go  out  to  some  of  the  islands — say  Jamaica,  Dominica, 
or  Antigua,  not  for  a  month  or  three  months,  but  for  a  year — would  watch  the 
precious  prote'ge'  of  English  philanthropy,  the  freed  negro,  in  his  daily  habits;  would 
watch  him  as  he  lazily  plants  his  little  squatting;  would  see  him  as  he  proudly  rejects 
agricultural  or  domestic  service,  or  accepts  it  only  at  wages  ludicrously  dispropor- 
tionate to  the  value  of  his  work.  We  wish,  too,  they  would  watch  him  while,  with  a 
hide  thicker  than  that  of  a  hippopotamus,  and  a  body  to  which  fervid  heat  is  a  com- 
fort rather  than  an  annoyance,  he  droningly  lounges  over  the  prescribed  task,  on  which 
the  intrepid  Englishman,  uninured  to  the  burning  sun,  consumes  his  impatient  energy, 
and  too  often  sacrifices  his  life.  We  wish  they  would  go  out  and  view  the  negro  in 
all  the  blazonry  of  his  idleness,  his  pride,  his  ingratitude,  contemptuously  sneering  at 
the  industry  of  that  race  which  made  him  free,  and  then  come  home  and  teach  the 
memorable  lesson  of  their  experience  to  the  fanatics  who  have  perverted  him  into 
what  he  is." 

Again,  the  same  paper  says  : 

"The  worthy  men  who  extinguished  slavery  and  ruined  our  West  India  posses- 
sions are  very  touchy,  very  obstinate,  very  incontrovertible  on  that  tender  point.  It 
is  not  our  business  to  deny  them  much  justice  and  truth  on  their  side,  or  to  stand  up 
for  the  planters  who  took  a  line  which  repelled  all  reasonable  advocacy.  But,  con- 
fessedly, taking  that  grand  summary  view  of  the  question  which  we  cannot  help  taking 
after  a  quarter  of  a  century,  the  process  was  a  failure;  it  destroyed  an  immense  prop- 
erty, ruined  thousands  of  good  families,  degraded  the  negroes  still  lower  than  they 
were,  and,  after  all,  increased  the  mass  of  slavery  in  less  scrupulous  hands." 

And  the  States  which  are  enriched  by  our  industry  refuse  the  admonitions  of  his- 
tory, and  labor  to  bring  upon  fifteen  States  of  this  Union  the  utter  destruction  but 
feebly  expressed  in  the  above  truthful  articles.  Nor  is  this  all.  Even  in  Canada,  the 
"city  of  refuge  "  for  the  passengers  of  the  underground  railroad,  murmurs  are  being 
heard,  and  even  her  courts  are  beginning  to  tire  of  the  annoyance.     Hear  : 

"A  Movement  against  Negroes  in  Canada. — By  the  proceedings  of  the  court  of 
assizes  of  Essex  county,  Canada,  it  appears  that  the  grand  jury  have  made  a  present- 
ment to  the  court,  based  upon  a  representation  emanating  from  the  authorities  of  the 
township  of  Anderdon,  in  regard  to  the  negro  population  of  the  county.  The  grand 
jury  submit  the  document  that  was  presented  to  them  to  the  court,  and  urge  that 
some  action  be  taken  in  the  matter.  The  Anderdon  authorities  say  :  '  We  are  aware 
that  nine-tenths  of  the  crimes  committed  in  the  county  of  Essex,  according  to  the 
population,  are  so  committed  by  the  colored  people.'     And  they  further  urge    'that 


424 

some  measures  may  be  taken  by  the  Government  to  protect  us  and  our  property,  or 
persons  of  capital  will  be  driven  from  the  country.'  The  court,  in  alluding  to  this 
presentment,  remarked  that  'he  was  not  surprised  at  finding  a  prejudice  existing 
against  them  (the  negroes)  among  the  respectable  portion  of  the  people,  for  they  were 
indolent,  shiftless,  and  dishonest,  and  unworthy  of  the  sympathy  that  some  mistaken 
parties  extended  to  them;  they  would  not  work  when  opportunity  was  presented,  but 
preferred  subsisting  by  thieving  from  respectable  farmers,  and  begging  from  those 
benevolently  inclined.'  " 

In  the  face  of  such  demonstrations,  why  are  we  thus  unceasingly  annoyed  ?  Many 
slaves,  freed  by  their  owners,  prefer  to  return  to  slavery.  Not  a  few  enticed  away 
return  to  their  masters.  John  Brown  acknowledged  he  was  deceived  as  to  the  feelings 
of  the  slaves.  Not  one  voluntarily  joined  him,  and  not  one  would  raise  his  hand 
•against  his  master. 

John  E.  Cook,  in  a  letter  to  his  mother-in-law,  referring  to  the  Harper's  Ferry  in- 
vasion, says  : 

"  It  had  been  represented  to  me  and  my  comrades  that  when  once  the  banner  of 
•freedom  should  be  raised,  they  would  flock  to  it  by  thousands;  and  that  their  echoing 
shout  of  freedom  would  be  borne  by  the  breeze  to  our  most  Southern  shore,  to  tell  of 
freedom  there. 

"  I  gave  heart  and  hand  to  a  work  which  I  deemed  a  noble  and  holy  cause.  The 
result  has  proved  that  we  were  deceived;  that  the  masses  of  the  slaves  did  not  wish 
for  freedom.  There  was  no  rallying  beneath  our  banner,  We  were  left  to  meet  the 
conflict  all  alone,  to  dare,  and  do,  and  die.  Twelve  of  my  companions  are  sleeping 
now  with  the  damp  mold  over  them,  and  five  are  inmates  of  these  prison  walls." 

Every  step  taken  against  slavery  has  retarded  the  amelioration  of  the  slave.  The 
late  foray  will,  sooner  or  later,  end  the  free  negroes  as  a  class.  There  will  be  the  free 
inhabitants  of  the  free  States,  or  voluntary  slaves  in  the  South.  But  one  or  the  other 
is  inevitable. 

The  following  is  taken  from  t\ie'4Joitr>iaI  of  Commerce  : 

"The  Crueltv  of  Abolitionism. — The  slavery  excitement,  so  much  intensified 
by  late  events  in  Virginia,  is  reacting  with  crushing  effect  upon  the  free  blacks  of  the 
South.  Louisiana  and  Arkansas  have  already  passed  laws  for  the  exclusion  of  this 
class  of  population  from  their  respective  limits;  and,  more  recently,  the  subject  has 
come  prominently  before  the  Legislatures  of  six  other  States;  namely,  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia,  Mississippi,  Tennessee,  Virginia,  and  Missouri.  In  the  State  last  named, 
and  also  in  Georgia,  a  bill  to  compel  the  free  colored  population  to  leave  the  State  or 
be  enslaved  has  passed  the  upper  branch.  These  are  the  alternatives  presented  in 
every  instance,  so  far  as  we  are  informed,  and  a  determination  is  evinced  to  rid  the 
States  named  of  a  class  who  are  now  considered  as  dangerous,  from  their  liability  to 
be  employed  by  designing  men,  as  agents  for  propagating  insurrections.  Thus,  by 
the  insane  folly  of  Abolitionism,  the  progress  of  emancipation  is  arrested  through  the 
entire  South,  and  a  large  class,  embracing  many  worthy  people  who  have  been 
liberated,  often  at  a  heavy  pecuniary  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  masters,  are  returned  to 
a  condition  of  servitude,  or  driven  from  their  homes.  All  the  negroes  ever  spirited 
off  by  the  underground  railroad  and  sent  to  Canada,  or  dispersed  over  the  Northern 
States,  are  few  in  comparison  with  those  who  are  now  threatened  with  oppressive  legal 
enactments.  The  subterranean  operators  who  have  been  so  industrious  in  seeking  to 
evade  the  obligations  of  the  Constitution,  and  break  down  laws  essential  to  the  pre- 
servation of  social  order,  find  that  they  have  been  'saving  at  the  spigot  and  losing  at 
the  bung-hole.'  To  show  more  precisely  the  legislation  contemplated,  we  will  here 
state  some  of  the  provisions  of  the  bills  under  discussion  : 

"The  Georgia  bill,  introduced  in  the  Senate,  is  designed  to  compel  all  free  col- 
ored persons  to  leave  the  State  by  January,  1862.  Any  person  of  this  class  desiring 
to  remain  can  do  so  by  selling  himself  into  slavery  to  any  citizen  whom  he  may 
select;  the  purchase  money  to  go  into  the  treasury  of  the  county,  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  those  who  prefer  to  leave.  The  measure  is  regarded  by  many  in  the  State  as  un- 
necessarily severe.     The  Augusta  Constitutionalist  says  : 

"  '  We  believe  that  they  ought  eventually  to  disappear  as  an  element  in  our  popu- 
lation, and  that  measures  should  be  taken  at  once,  under  the  operation  of  which  the 
State  eventually  would  be  rid  of  them;  but  we  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  neces- 
sity for  their  summary  and  forced  expatriation.' 

"  The  number  of  free  negroes  in  Georgia  is  only  three  thousand  three  hundred. 

"The  bill  which  has  passed  the  lower  branch  of  the  Mississippi  Legislature,  with 
only  five  dissenting  votes,  and  is  likely  to  become  a  law,  is  still  more  rigorous.  By 
this,  no  free  negro  can  remain  in  the  State  after  the  1st  of  July  next,  without  a  special 
license  from  the  Legislature.  In  the  mean  time  he  has  an  opportunity  to  select  a  master, 
who  shall  hold  him  for  life. 


425 

"  The  bill  which  has  passed  the  Senate  of  Missouri — ayes  22,  nays  10 — is  of  the 
same  general  character.  It  compels  all  free  negroes  to  leave  the  State,  irrespective  of 
age  or  length  of  residence. 

"The  bill  pending  before  the  Legislature  of  Tennessee  provides  that  all  free 
adult  negroes  shall  be  seized  and  sold  if  found  in  the  State  on  the  1st  of  May  next, 
and  that  the  children  shall  be  bound  out.  The  former  are  allowed  to  emigrate  to 
Africa,  in  which  case  some  slight  aid  is  to  be  furnished  by  the  State,  or  they  may  seek 
a  master  and  go  into  slavery. 

"  "  To  such  extremities  as  these  are  a  naturally  inoffensive  people  reduced,  or 
likely  to  be  reduced,  solely  through  the  impertinent  interference  of  their  professed 
friends  of  the  North,  whose  assaults  upon  the  social  system  of  the  South  have  made 
this  species  of  legislation  necessary,  in  the  opinion  of  those  most  deeply  interested, 
as  a  measure  of  self-protectton. " 

"  Why,  then,  have  we  been  so  constantly  annoyed  ?  Gentlemen  speak  familiarly 
of  "the  aggressions  of  the  slave  power."  I  should  like  to  know  how  the  weakercan 
oppress  the  stronger  power. 

It  may  be  that  gentlemen  will  say  that  we  purchased  Louisiana.  I  would  like  to 
hear  a  gentleman  denounce  that  measure.  It  may  be  that  they  will  say  we  were  in- 
strumental in  purchasing  the  Floridas.  I  would  like  to  hear  any  one  denounce  its 
acquisition.  It  may  be  that  the  acquisition  of  Texas  was  wrong.  I  would  like  to  see 
any  one  rise  up  here  and  announce  that  the  measure  was  an  aggression  of  the  slave 
power.  It  may  be  that  the  Mexican  war,  with  its  attendant  consequences — the  ac- 
quisition of  California,  and  all  the  other  territory  acquired— was  wrong;  but  I  would 
like  to  hear  any  gentleman  rise  in  his  place  and  tell  the  American  people  that  that  was 
an  aggression  of  the  slave  power,  a  measure  fraught  with  immeasurable  value,  not  to 
this  Union  alone,  but  to  the  world. 

Mr.  Clerk,  I  have  thus  adverted  to  these  things;  and  now  one  word  more.  Gen- 
tlemen are  trying,  as  did  Mr.  Seward  in  his  celebrated  Rochester  speech,  to  fasten 
upon  the  South  the  effort  to  revive  the  system  of  slave  importations.  Sir,  I  tell  the 
country  here,  and  I  say  it  without  hesitation,  that  there  is  no  party,  as  such,  in  favor 
of  such  a  policy  in  the  South.  There  are  gentlemen  here  and  there  who  would  favor 
it;  but  let  me  tell  gentlemen  that,  if  there  has  been  such  an  idea  as  that  awakened  in 
the  South,  it  has  been  in  consequence  of  the  studied,  deliberate,  and  constant  as- 
saults upon  the  South  by  gentlemen  of  the  free  States. 

Sir,  I  confess  I  remember  the  solemn  warnings  of  Jefferson  and  of  Madison,  to 
be  found  in  their  several  letters  heretofore  read  to  the  House,  under  the  trying  cir- 
cumstances which  surround  us,  with  apprehension  and  alarm.  I  confess  I  am  almost 
without  hope  when  I  see  great  parties,  with  their  ablest  men,  diligently  engage  in  in- 
flaming section  against  section,  and  poisoning  and  embittering  the  relations  of 
brethren  who  should  be  bound  to  each  other  "  with  hooks  of  steel."  Early  instructed 
by  the  Father  of  our  Country  to  "  frown  indignantly  on  the  first  dawning  of  every 
attempt  to  alienate  any  portion  of  our  country  from  the  rest,  or  enfeeble  the  ties 
which  now  link  together  the  various  parts,"  I  confess  I  view  with  but  little  patience  the 
traitorous  efforts  of  the  great  chief  of  Black  Republicanism  to  break  the  Union  of 
these  States. 

But,  Mr.  Clerk,  I  will  "hope  on,  hope  ever."  From  the  glorious  meetings 
which  are  being  held  all  over  the  country  pour  the  spring-tide  of  patriotic  feelings. 
The  voters  of  the  free  States  will  stay  the  rush  of  mad  fanaticism,  stamp  under  their 
heels  the  plottings  of  treason,  and  vindicate  the  memories  of  their  sires  by  the  pre- 
servation of  their  great  and  glorious  work.  The  Union  men  of  Philadelphia  recently 
presented  to  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  the  noble  flag  which  floated  over  them  at  their 
recent  jubilee,  which  was  accepted  in  the  following  beautiful  terms  : 

"That  we  gratefully  accept  this  beautiful  gift  as  a  renewed  evidence  of  the  de- 
voted patriotism  of  that  heroic  band  of  Northern  conservatives  who  have  so  long 
maintained  an  unequal  contest  with  the  assailants  of  our  rights  and  the  enemies  of 
our  peace,  and  that,  wherever  fortune  may  invite  or  fate  impel  us  in  the  future,  \  ir- 
ginia  will  cherish  with  affectionate  gratitude  the  memory  of  those  who  so  bravely  en- 
counter the  frowns  of  faction,  and  so  nobly  defy  the  fury  of  fanaticism." 

Yes,  gentlemen,  the  South  is  willing  to  take  the  compact  of  these  States  as  it  was 
agreed  upon,  We  are  willing  to  stand  by  the  Union  as  it  was  formed,  we  are  willing 
to  perform  all  our  duties  under  it;  but  I  say,  gentlemen,  if  you  drive  us  to  it  by  your 
continued  aggressions,  we  are  a  people  sufficiently  strong  to  be  able  to  protect  our- 
selves against  any  power,  come  whence  it  may,  whether  it  be  from  foes  without  or 
foes  within;  and  we  will  do  it,  so  help  us  God. 


SPEECH  OF 

HON.    WILLIAM    SMITH, 

OF    VIRGINIA, 

ON   THE 

ADMISSION  OF  KANSAS, 

DELIVERED    IN    THE    HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES. 


The  Chairman  stated  that  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  [Mr.  Smith]  was  entitled 
to  the  floor. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Mr.  Chairman,  owing  to  the  disadvantages  under  which 
I  appear  to  address  the  committee  on  the  subject  of  Kansas  at  this  time — exhausted 
as  it  seems  to  be — I  can  but  little  hope  to  impart  new  interest  and  new  light  to  the 
subject.  Still,  however,  I  propose  to  ask  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  -those 
views  which  I  shall  present,  trusting  that,  if  they  shall  not  be  convincing,  they  will 
not  be  entirely  without  profit. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  it  will  be  necessary,  according 
to  the  view  which  I  take,  and  in  view  of  the  short  time  now  allotted  to  me,  to  avail 
myself  of  future  occasions  to  complete  that  which  I  will  not  now,  perhaps,  be  able  to 
accomplish. 

I  beg  leave  to  ask  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  a  few  anterior  facts — historical 
now,  but  important  by  way  of  answer  to  some  of  the  objections  that  have  been  taken 
in  connection  with  this  matter.  It  is  known  to  the  committee  as  a  historical  fact  that 
we  acquired  Louisiana  on  the  30th  of  April,  1803,  by  purchase  from  the  French 
Republic,  at  a  price  of  $11,250,000.  I  shall  not  pause  to  comment  on  the  then  con- 
dition of  that  territory,  nor  shall  I  pause  with  any  other  view  than  simply  to  refer  to 
a  clause  of  the  treaty  stipulating  that  the  people  of  that  territory  should  have  all  the 
rights  of  American  citizenship.     That  clause  is  as  follows: 

"The  inhabitants  of  the  ceded  territory  shall  be  incorporated  into  the  Union  of 
the  United  States,  and  admitted  as  soon  as  possible,  according  to  the  principles  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  to  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights,  advantages,  and  immunities 
of  citizens  of  the  United  States;  and  in  the  mean  time  they  shall  be  maintained  and 
protected  in  the  free  enjoyment  of  their  liberty,  property  and  the  religion  they 
profess." 

Suffice  it  to  say  now  that  the  condition  of  that  territory  is  to  be  found,  by  com- 
mon consent,  in  the  necessity  which  was  afterwards  deemed  to  exist,  of  providing 
by  actual  legislation  to  change  the  character.  It  was  in  the  year  1820  that  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  deemed  it  necessary  to  change  the  character  of  that  territory  by 
what  is  called  the  Missouri  compromise,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  restriction.  I 
say  "  more  properly  speaking  "  because  there  is  nothing  of  compromise  in  the  eighth 
section,  to  which  such  frequent  reference  is  had,  but  simply  a  restriction. 

I  suppose  that  the  committee  will  readily  perceive  that  there  was  a  necessity  for 
that  restriction.  They  will  also  readily  perceive  that,  without  that  restriction,  there 
would  have  been  none  of  the  present  difficulties  that  have  torn  and  rended  the 
country  asunder,  and  endangered  its  peace  and  repose.  Passing  on  from  that  sub- 
ject, however,  and  having  thus  briefly  adverted  to  it  in  order  to  present  a  connected 
view,  we  come  to  the  year  1853. 

On  the  5th  of  December,  1853,  Senator  Dodge,  of  Iowa,  gave  notice  of  his  purpose 
to  introduce  a  bill  for  the  formation  of  a  territorial  government  for  the  Territory  of 
Nebraska. 

On  the  14th  of  December,  on  leave,  Mr.  Dodge  introduced  his  bill;  and  it  was 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Territories.  On  the  4th  of  January,  1854,  Mr.  Douglas, 
the  chairman  of  that  committee,  reported  said  bill,  with  amendments,  and  five  thou- 
sand copies  of  the  bill,  amendments,  and  report,  were  ordered  to  be  printed.  On  the 
16th  of  January,  Mr.  Dixon,  a  Senator  from  Kentucky,  at  that  time  a  Whig,  and  for 
aught  I  know,  still  a  Whig,  stated  that  he  should  offer  the  following  amendment  when 
the  bill  came  up: 


427 

"  Sec.  22.  Be  it  further  enacted,  That  so  much  of  the  eighth  section  of  the  act  ap- 
proved March  6,  1820,  entitled  '  An  act  to  authorize  the  people  of  the  Missouri  Terri- 
tory to  form  a  constitution  and  State  government,  and  for  the  admission  of  such  State 
into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original  States,  and  to  prohibit  slavery  in 
certain  Territories,'  as  declares  'that  in  all  the  territory  ceded  by  France-  to  the  United 
States,  under  the  name  of  Louisiana,  which  lies  north  of  36  30'  north  latitude,  slavery 
and  involuntary  servitude,  otherwise  than  in  punishment  of  crimes  whereof  the  par- 
ties shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  be  forever  prohibited,'  shall  not  be  so  con- 
strued as  to  apply  to  the  Territory  contemplated  by  this  act,  or  to  any  other  Territory 
of  the  United  States;  but  that  the  citizens  of  the  several  States  or  Territories  shall  be 
at  liberty  to  take  and  hold  their  slaves  within  any  of  the  Territories  of  the  United 
States,  or  of  the  States  to  be  formed  therefrom,  as  if  the  said  act  entitled  as  aforesaid, 
approved  as  aforesaid,  had  never  been  passed." 

On  the  day  following,  Mr.  Sumner  gave  notice  of  his  purpose  to  offer  a  counter 
proposition.  On  the  20th  of  January,  Mr.  Douglas  proposed  to  divide  Nebraska,  so 
as  to  make  an  additional  Territory,  to  be  called  Kansas;  and  the  result  was  that  the 
act  creating  territorial  governments  for  Nebraska  and  Kansas  passed  on  the  30th  of 
May,    1854. 

I  mention  these  facts,  Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  for  the 
purpose  of  letting  the  committee  see  and  understand  the  true  origin  of  this  matter, 
its  real  patrons,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  comes  before  the  country.  In  this  con- 
nection, also,  it  is  well  known,  a  very  exciting  debate  sprang  up;  and  the  Democratic 
party,  at  that  time  in  strong  ascendency  in  the  Halls  of  Congress,  was  overthrown  in 
the  country.  The  elections  that  ensued  for  members  of  the  Thirty-Fourth  Congress 
resulted  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Democratic  party,  and,  as  it  was  thought,  never  to 
rise  again.  But,  thank  God,  there  is  vitality  enough  in  that  great  party — founded  on 
sound  principles  and  in  popular  sympathies— to  enable  it  to  defy  its  enemies  and  to 
recover  any  ground  it  may,  on  particular  occasions,  lose.  After  the  election  of  mem- 
bers to  the  Thirty-Fourth  Congress  the  sober  second  thought  of  the  people  seemed  to 
have  returned;  and  they  sent  to  this  Hall  for  this,  the  Thirty-Fifth  Congress,  a  large 
majority,  as  it  was  believed,  of  those  who  would  represent  their  sentiments  and  carry 
out  the  policy  that  was  inaugurated  in  1854. 

President  Buchanan,  in  his  last  annual  message,  adverting  to  the  condition  of 
things  in  Kansas,  which  is  the  great  and  absorbing  question  now  agitating  the  coun- 
try, indicated  his  purposes  and  opinions;  without,  however,  recommending  any  par- 
ticular policy,  as  he  could  not  do,  of  course,  in  consequence  of  not  having  any  basis 
on  which  to  justify  it.  That  recommendation,  or  that  intimation  of  a  purpose  and 
policy,  was,  as  we  all  know,  fiercely  seized  upon  and  denounced  by  gentlemen  who 
had  been  heretofore  acting  with  us  on  this  subject.  It  was  a  matter  of  astonishment 
in  the  country,  that  in  this  and  in  the  other  House  of  Congress  there  should  have  been 
hostility  indicated  to  the  views  of  the  President  in  connection  with  this  subject,  which 
was  wholly  inconsistent,  according  to  the  general  sentiment  of  the  country,  with  the 
past  history  of  the  party.  But  so  it  is.  On  the  2d  of  February,  1858,  the  Lecompton 
constitution — and  I  come  to  the  term  at  once — having  been  received  by  the  President, 
was  sent  to  Congress  with  a  recommendation  that  Kansas  should  be  admitted  under 
it.  Previously  to  that,  however— on  the  21st  of  December,  1857 — we  had  a  memorial 
presented  to  us  by  the  Delegate  from  that  Territory,  asking  for  the  admission  of 
Kansas  under  the  Topeka  constitution.  That  memorial  was  referred  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  Territories.  As  I  understand  it,  the  census-takers,  under  the  Topeka  con- 
stitution, submitted  the  petition  to  the  people  of  each  county,  and  collected  their 
views.  I  advert  to  it  thus  particularly,  because  the  Delegate  has  indorsed  it  as 
follows  : 

"Memorial  of  4, 170 citizens  of  Kansas,  asking  that  Kansas  may  be  admitted  into 
the  Union  under  the  Topeka  constitution." 

I  say,  without  dwelling  on  this  subject,  that  here  is  an  important  fact,  at  least  in 
reference  to  strength  of  one  party  of  that  Territory;  which  fact  I  shall  hereafter  use. 

What,  then,  is  the  condition  of  things?  We  have  two  applications  before  us; 
one  to  admit  Kansas  into  the  Union  under  the  Topeka  constitution,  and  the  other  to 
admit  her  under  the  Lecompton  constitution.  That  is  the  issue  before  us.  The 
President,  having  recommended  her  admission  under  the  Lecompton  constitution, 
and  the  subject  having  come  to  the  attention  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  the  Legislature 
of  that  State  spoke  on  it.  I  refer  to  the  action  of  that  Legislature  with  some  degree  of 
regret,  but  still  with  pleasure.  As  one  of  her  citizens  and  Representatives,  1  announce 
my  readiness  to  sustain  the  policy  which  she  promulges. 

The  resolutions  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  to  which  I  refer  are  as  follows  : 

"  1.  Resolved  That  in  the  opinion  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia,  the  con- 
clusion to  which  the  President  of  the  United  States   has  arrived,  as  expressed  in   his 


428 

recent  message,  in  favor  of  the  admission  of  Kansas,  as  a  State  of  this  Union,  under 
the  Lecompton  constitution,  is  just  and  right. 

"  2.  Resolved,  That  Congress  has  no  right  to  look  further  into  the  constitution 
submitted  by  the  State  of  Kansas,  in  its  application  to  be  admitted  into  this  Union, 
than  to  see  that  the  said  constitution  is  Republican  in  its  form. 

"3.  Resolved,  That  it  is  due  to  the  peace  and  harmony  of  this  Union  that  Con- 
gress should  speedily  admit  Kansas  as  a  State,  under  the  Lecompton  constitution, 
without  further  conditions." 

Thus  speaks  Virginia;  and  why  did  she  find  it  necessary  to  speak  upon  this  sub- 
ject ?  Because  of  the  words  which  a  gentleman  in  high  official  position  in  our  State 
had  undertaken  to  speak  as  an  individual,  and  not  as  the  Governor  of  the  State  of 
Virginia,  as  the  gentleman  from  Indiana  [Mr.  English]  supposes.  This  gentleman, 
in  response  to  an  invitation  that  was  given  to  him  to  join  in,  on  the  8th  of  January 
last,  the  celebration  which  was  then  to  be  held  at  Tammany  Hall,  uttered  sentiments 
which  it  was  deemed  right  and  proper  for  the  Virginia  Legislature  to  disclaim;  and 
hence  the  resolutions.  I  must  be  allowed  to  say  that  it  was  astonishing,  it  was 
amazing,  that  a  gentleman  holding  his  high  official  position,  in  a  community  where 
there  was  scarcely  a  diversity  of  opinion,  should  have  allowed  himself  to  utter  such 
sentiments,  and  particularly  on  that  day — on  the  8th  of  January — the  anniversary  of 
one  of  the  most  important  and  patriotic  events  in  our  history.  It  was  astonishing  that 
he  should  have  pronounced  such  sentiments  as  are  contained  in  that  Tammany  letter. 
I  will  merely  quote  a  line  from  Dr.  Beattie's  Minstrel,  and  pass  on  : 
"  Some  deemed  him  wondrous  wise,  and  some  believed  him  mad." 

Mr.  English.  Will  the  gentleman  allow  me  to  interrupt  him  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  shall  be  very  happy  to  yield  to  any  gentleman  if  I  am 
not  to  be  restricted  in  my  time. 

Mr.  English.  I  merely  wish  to  inquire  of  the  gentleman  whether  he  holds  Gov- 
ernor Wise  to  be  in  or  out  of  the  Democratic  organization  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Well,  sir,  I  hold  him  to  be  outside  the  Democratic  organi- 
zation, and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  it.  All  gentlemen  who  refuse  to  cooperate  with 
the  Democratic  party  in  the  great  measures  of  the  party,  are  necessarily  outside  of 
that  party  organization. 

Mr.  Burroughs.  I  hope  the  gentleman  will  not  assail  the  Governor  of  Virginia. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  am  surprised  that  the  gentleman  should  have  supposed 
that  I  had  assailed  the  Governor  of  Virginia.  I  am  protecting  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
from  being  assailed.  I  speak  of  Henry  A.  Wise,  and  not  the  Governor  of  Virginia, 
as  being  outside  of  the  Democratic  party.  Or  rather,  I  say  he  is  outside  the  Demo- 
cratic organization,  it  may  be  not  outside  the  Democratic  party.  Gentlemen  may  fight 
on  their  own  hook,  if  they  please. 

Mr.  English.  Will  the  gentleman'"allow  mejto  ask  him  another  question  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Is  it  to  be  understood  that  I  am  not  to  be  restricted  in  my 
time  ?  ['-Yes,"  "yes."]  I  understand  that  I  am  not  to  be  restricted  in  my  time;  then 
come  one,  come  all,  come  every  one. 

Mr.  English.  The  gentleman  says  that  Governor  Wise  is  outside  the  Democratic 
party.  Now  Hvant  to  know  if  the  gentleman  supported  Wise  for  Governor;  and  if 
not,  whether  the  gentleman,  in  that  act,  was  not  himself  outside  the  Democratic 
party  ? 

Mr  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  did  not  support  Mr.  Wise  for  Governor.  But,  sir,  I  never 
made  war  upon  the  Democratic  party.  What  is  party?  It  is  a  combination  of  indi- 
viduals entertaining  a  community  of  sentiment.  I  respectfully  submit  to  the  gentleman 
from  Indiana,  that  this  is  the  only  true  and  proper  test.  It  is  an  association  of  indi- 
viduals for  carrying  out  the  great  interests  of  the  country  in  a  particular  line  of 
policy  from  a  community  of  opinion  and  sentiment  upon  the  part  of  a  gentleman  with 
a  particular  party,  how  can  he  be  considered  as  within  that  party  organization?  Look 
at  the  condition  of  things  at  this  particular  time.  In  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  it 
was  supposed  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  gentlemen  entertained  such  sentiments. 
Twenty-five  of  them  perhaps,  unexpectedly,  broke  off  from  that  party  and  assailed  it 
as  entertaining  unsound  sentiments.  And  these  gentlemen  turn  round,  as  the  gen- 
tleman from  Indiana  [Mr.  Davis]  last  night  did,  and  undertake  to  lecture  the  great 
body  of  their  former  friends.  Absolutely,  the  gentleman  from  Indiana  lectures  the 
Democratic  party  in  this  House. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Indiana.  I  ask  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  to  state  in  what  I  un- 
dertook to  lecture  the  Democratic  party,  and  in  what  I  differ  from  the  Democratic 
party  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.;,  Well,  sir,  any  one  who  listened  to  the  speech'of  the  gen- 


429 

tleman  from  Indiana  last  night,  could  not  fail  to  see  in  what  the   gentleman   differed 
with  the  Democratic  party.     I  have  not  time  to  enumerate  all  the  points  of  difference. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Indiana.     I  hope  the  gentleman  will  specify. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  The  gentleman  certainly  did  this  much:  he  said  he  could 
not  vote  for  the  Lecompton  constitution.  That  is  a  measure  of  the  Democratic  party, 
vital  in  character. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Indiana.  I  hope  the  gentleman  will  allow  me  to  make  one  remark 
right  here.  The  gentleman  from  Virginia  has  no  right  to  read  me  out  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  nor  has  he  any  right  to  read  any  other  gentleman  in  this  House  out  of 
the  party.  And  I  desire  to  say,  further,  that  as  far  as  the  Democratic  party  of  the 
North  are  concerned,  I  believe  that  nine-tenths  of  that  party  hold  the  same  sentiments 
as  I  do  upon  this  question;  and  if  anybody  has  the  right  to  read  out,  we  have  the 
right  to  read  the  gentleman  out  of  the  party. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Exactly.  There  it  is.  The  gentleman  reminds  me  very 
much  of  a  man  on  a  jury  case  in  which  I  was  once  engaged  professionally.  There 
were  twelve  jurors;  the  case  was  a  very  important  one;  it  was  elaborately  discussed, 
and  was,  of  course,  referred  to  the  jury  for  consideration  after  the  argument  had 
closed.  It  was  reported  to  the  judge  that  the  jury  could  not  agree,  and  they  were  at 
length  called  in,  to  see  if  their  objections  could  not  be  harmonized.  They  came  in 
accordingly,  and  one  of  the  jurors  stated  to  the  court  that  he  could  not  agree  with  the 
other  jurors  in  their  verdict;  that  they  were  eleven  of  the  most  stubborn  men  he  had 
ever  had  anything  to  do  with  in  his  life.    [Laughter.] 

Now,  that  is  precisely  the  case  with  the  gentleman  from  Indiana.  He  and  a  few 
other  gentlemen  have  undertaken  to  dissent  from  the  great  body  of  the  Democratic 
party,  and  then  they  come  here  and  lecture  the  Democratic  party  for  holding  unsound 
sentiments. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Indiana.  I  will  ask  the  gentleman  whether  he  has  not,  time  and 
again,  in  Virginia,  run  as  an  independent  candidate  against  the  Democratic  party 
and  the  Democratic  organization? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Never,  sir. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Indiana.     That  has  been  my  understanding. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  It  is  like  a  great  deal  of  the  gentleman's  understanding 
— unsound.  I  will  say  that  I  have  never  run  against  the  Democratic  organization, 
although  I  have  been  tempted  to  do  it. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Indiana.     Tempted  ! 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Tempted,  but  failed  not.  The  gentleman  from  Indiana 
will  understand  the  virtue  of  the  trial,  because  he  himself  has  not  at  all  times  resisted 
temptation. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Indiana.  The  gentleman  says  that  I  have  not  always  resisted 
temptation.  I  would  like  him  to  point  to  a  single  vote  of  mine  during  my  five  years* 
service  in  this  Hall,  that  has  not  been  with  the  Democratic  party  on  all  questions,  in- 
cluding the  fugitive  slave  law  and  everything  else. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  ask  the  gentleman,  since  he  brought  himself  into  this 
colloquy,  how  he  is  going  to  vote  now  ?  Has  he  not  told  us -that  he  was  going  to  vote 
against  the  Lecompton  constitution?  And  has  not  the  Chief  Magistrate,  one  branch 
of  the  Government,  and  the  presumed  head  of  the  Democratic  party,  elected  as  he 
was  by  the  Democratic  party,  recommended  and  urged  that  instrument  with  all  his 
power  and  influence  ?  Does  he  not  know  that  if  the  bill  is  to  be  got  through  this 
House,  it  is  to  be  got  through  by  the  Democratic  party,  with  some  few  patriotic  Know- 
Nothing  votes,  to  whom  he  has  referred  in  no  complimentary  terms  ? 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Indiana.  Because  the  President  has  recommended  this  measure, 
is  it  necessary,  therefore,  that  every  Democrat  in  this  Hall  is  bound  to  vote  for  it? 
That  the  President  has  a  right  to  advise  me,  I  admit;  but  he  has  no  right  to  command 
me,  against  the  will  of  my  constituents;  and,  if  that  be  the  test  the  gentleman  wishes 
to  apply,  it  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  political  despotism. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  The  President  is  the  representative  of  the  American 
Democracy,  and  was  put  into  the  executive  chair  for  that  reason.  He  was  put  into 
the  presidential  chair  as  the  representative  of  the  Democratic  party  and  of  the  Kansas 
question  in  all  its  shapes  and  forms.  He  represents  both  now.  The  gentleman  asks 
me  whether  I  require  every  gentleman  to  conform  to  the  President's  opinions  ?  I  do 
not  ask  him  to  conform  to  the  President's  opinions  at  all.  The  gentlemen  can  do  it  or 
not.  He  is  an  American  freeman,  and  has  the  right  to  independent  thought  and 
action.  But  the  gentleman  speaks  one  thing  and  thinks  another.  He  professes  to  be 
a  Democrat  when  he  associates  with  those  who  are  not.  Do  not  affect  to  be  a 
Democrat,  I  will  tell  the  gentleman,  when  you  refuse  to  cooperate  with  those  who  are 
struggling  to  carry  out  the  policy  on  which  you  and  others  were  elected. 


430 

Mr.  Chairman,  what  are  the  facts  in  the  gentleman's  case  ?  He  was  here  on  the 
passage  of  the  Nebraska  bill.  He  was  here  in  the  Thirty-Third  Congress,  and  upon 
the  anxious  bench.  Last  night  he  told  us  he  was  zealous  in  favor  of  the  passage  of 
that  bill.  At  the  next  election  he  was  beaten.  He  was  one  of  those  who  went  down 
before  the  combined  hosts  of  fanaticism,  but  the  returning  wave  bore  him  into  this 
Hall.  He  came  here  upon  the  full  tide  of  Democratic  will.  He  came  here  to  do  what  ? 
To  pursue  the  policy  of  1854,  or  did  he  come  here  to  pursue  the  policy  of  those  who 
beat  him  in  1855,  and  those  who  are  his  associates  now — they  encircling  him  now, 
and  prompting  his  answers  ? 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Indiana.  I  came  here  to  carry  out  the  principles  of  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  bill,  for  which  I  voted.  I  came  here  to  carry  out  the  recommendations  of 
the  President  on  that  subject.  I  intend  to  carry  them  out — those  I  mean,  which  he 
made  up  to  the  middle  of  November,  when  he  saw  proper  to  change  front  on  this 
question. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Exactly;  that  is  the  language  of  rebellion.  [Laughter.] 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Indiana.  It  is  the  language  of  a  freeman,  and  not  the  language  of 
a  slave.      [Cries  of  "  Good  !"] 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  have  accorded  that  the  gentleman  had  the  right  to  go 
against  this  bill  if  he  chose  to. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  will  resume  my  remarks  where  I  left  them  off  when  I  was 
interrupted. 

Mr.  Foster.  Does  the  gentleman  acknowledge  the  President  as  a  good  Democrat? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  If  I  wanted  proof  that  he  was,  I  would  only  have  to 
remember  that  the  gentleman  opposed  him.  I  know,  too,  that  often  we  can  tell  who 
men  are  when  we  are  away  from  them  and  are  not  acquainted  with  them,  by  learning 
the  company  they  keep. 

The  Chairman.  Before  there  is  further  interruption  to  the  gentleman's  remarks, 
the  Chair  would  like  to  understand  what  is  the  nature  of  the  understanding  of  the 
committee.  At  an  early  stage  of  his  speech  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  said  that  he 
would  not  object  to  interruption  if  it  was  not  to  come  out  of  his  time.  Is  this  the 
understanding? 

Mr.  English.     It  is  my  understanding. 

Mr.  Jones,  of  Tennessee.     I  hope  we  shall  have  no  such  understanding  as   that. 

The  Chairman.  The  Chair  wishes  to  know  how  he  is  to  be  regulated  in  deter- 
mining when  the  time  of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  is  to  expire? 

Mr.  Houston.     At  the  end  of  his  hour. 

The  Chairman.  The  Chair  thinks  that  a  contrary  concession  has  been  already 
made.  The  gentleman  from  Virginia  in  an  early  part  of  his  speech  asked  whether 
these  interruptions  were  to  come  out  of  his  time,  and  stated  that  he  would  not  yield 
provided  that  they  were  to  be  deducted  from  his  time.  No  objection  was  made  to 
their  being  so  deducted. 

Mr.  Houston.  I  am  willing,  as  he  has  acted  under  a  misapprehension,  that  he 
should  be  allowed  for  the  time  he  has  been  interrupted  thus  far,  but  no  further. 

The  Chairman.  The  Chair  thinks  the  gentleman  has  been  interrupted  ten 
minutes,  and  will  allow  that  length  of  time. 

Mr.  Clemens.     Say  fifteen  minutes. 

The  Chairman.     Fifteen  minutes  will  be  allowed  by  consent  of  the  committee. 

No  objection  was  made. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  do  not  understand  that  there  is  any  power  to  reclaim 
a  grant  already  made.  It  was  conceded  that  I  should  go  on  without  having  the  inter- 
ruptions deducted,  and  I  desire  to  be  interrogated.  I  stand  here  with  as  great  purity 
of  purpose  as  any  man,  and  I  desire  to  be  interrupted  if  it  be  the  pleasure  of  gentle- 
men to  do  so.  I  understand  that  I  was  to  be  allowed  for  such  interruptions,  and  that 
concession  having  been  made,  it  cannot  be  recalled  except  by  unanimous  consent. 

The  Chairman.  The  Chair  would  state  to  the  gentleman  from  Virginia,  that  it  is 
suggested  that  his  proposition  was  not  distinctly  heard.  The  Chair  did  not  make  any 
proposition  to  the  committee,  and  no  proposition  of  the  Chair  was  conceded  to,  and 
therefore,  it  was  not  considered  as  a  binding  proposition.  Gentlemen  of  the  com- 
mittee now  seem  to  agree  that  the  gentleman  has  been  interrupted  fifteen  minutes, 
and  the  Chair  will  allow  that  additional  time. 

Mr.  Quitman.  I  beg  leave  to  say,  lest  my  silence  be  misconstrued,  that  I  do  not 
think  that  these  interrogatories  are  of  any  benefit  to  the  country  or  to  the  House,  and 
I  shall  object  to  them  hereafter;  though  I  do  not  wish  to  be  considered  as  an  objector 
to  extending  his  time  fifteen  minutes  for  interruptions  already  made. 


431 

Mr.  Hill.     I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  if  the   Kansas-Nebraska 
bill  was  not  considered  the  true  test  of  orthodox  Democracy  ? 
Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Yes. 

Mr.  Hill.  Then  I  want  to  ask  him  which  is  the  better  Democrat— the  man  who 
voted  for  the  Kansas  bill,  and  now  votes  against  the  admission  of  Kansas  under  the 
Lecompton  constitution,  or  the  man  who  voted  against  the  Kansas  bill,  or  who,  if  he 
had  been  here,  and  had  had  an  opportunity,  would  have  voted  against  that  bill,  and 
now  votes  for  the  admission  of  Kansas  under  the  Lecompton  constitution  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  suppose  the  gentleman,  as  a  practical  politician,  will 
have  no  difficulty  in  answering  his  own  question.  "  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the 
evil  thereof."  Here  is  a  question  in  which  great  parties  are  involved,  and  in  which 
it  is  well  known  that  if  one  party  prevails  the  other  party  is  destroyed.  That  is  the 
nature  of  the  question;  and  the  man  that  is  a  Democrat,  a  real  Democrat,  and  who 
means  to  act  with  the  Democratic  party  upon  its  principles  in  this  hour  of  struggle, 
will  not  see  it  swallowed  up  by  its  enemies,  and  much  less  help  devour  it. 

Mr  Hughes.  Suppose  that  upon  some  great  question  of  principle,  such  as  is  in- 
volved in  this  question  of  the  admission  of  Kansas,  a  number  of  gentlemen  belonging 
to  the  Democratic  party  should  voluntarily  assemble  themselves  together,  and  hold 
meeting  after  meeting  among  themselves,  for  the  express  purpose  of  devising  some 
concert* of  action  in  order  to  defeat  the  measure,  and  in  caucus— not  a  regular  caucus 

of  their  party— complete  an  organization  of  their  own  for  the  purpose  of 

Mr.  Adrain.     Is  the  gentleman  in  order? 
The  Chairman.     Not  if  objection  is  made. 

Mr  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  have  not  time  to  answer  the  question,  in  consequence 
of  being  restricted  in  time.  Certain  it  is,  that  upon  the  great  measure  involving  the 
important  consequences  to  which  I  have  referred,  those  who  are  not  of  us  or  with  us, 
are  against  us. 

Mr.  Foley.     I  wish  to  ask  the  gentleman  a  question, 
Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  cannot  be  interrupted.     I  have  not  time. 
Mr.  Foley.     I  wish   to   ask  the  gentleman  if  Mr.  Buchanan  is  the  Democratic 
party  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  think  he  is  the  chief  head  and  front  of  the  great  Demo- 
cratic party;  and  if  the  gentleman  is  a  Democrat,  he  must  have  voted  for  him. 
Mr.  Foley.     I  only  ask  for  information,  whether  he  is  the  Democratic  party  ? 
Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  say  he  is  the  great  head  of  the  Democratic  party. 
Mr.  Bqwie.     The  embodiment. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  Yes,  the  embodiment;  and  as  the  head  is  the  great  con- 
trolling power  of  the  general  physical  system,  so  the  President  is  the  head  of  the 
great  Democratic  body,  and  is  united  to  that  great  party  to  carry  out  a  measure  which 
they  deem  essential  to  their  success.  _ 

But  I  was  going  on  with  the  view  of  calling  the  attention  of  the  committee  o  the 
acts  of  Congrefs  io?  the  last  two  or  three  years;  but  I  have  been  so  in  temxpted  that  I 
must  do  it  briefly.  I  first  invite  attention  to  the  condition  of  things  after ^e  Kansas^ 
Nebraska  bill  was  passed.  Immediately  after  that  act  was (passed,  aoombmahonww 
formed  in  this  city,  chiefly  of  members  of  Congress,  of  which  Mr.  Goodrich,  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  was  president,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  *^f^*^JBF5 
Kansas.  And  here  I  refer  to  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Mace  upon  that  point,  which  is 
clear  and  explicit.     He  says  : 

-Immediately  after  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act,  I,  together ^witha 
number  of  others  who  were  members  of  Congress  and  Senators  believing  tha^  the 
tendency  of  that  act  would  be  to  make  Kansas  a  slave  State  n  order  to  .g^gj^ 
formed  an  association  here  in  Washington,  called,  if  I  recol ^"g*'.  th*  £ ^£ 
Aid  Society.'  I  do  not  remember  all  who  became  members  of  that  iOC>cty 'b,g^e 
a  number  of  members  who  were  opposed  to  slavery  in  Kansas  o  E  th«  l°jver  "ouse, 
and  also  of  the  Senate,  became  members  of  it  and  subscxAed  ™^£™£ 
money.  I  think  I  subscribed  either  fifty  or  one  hundred  dollars-I  am  not  now  pre 
pared  to  sav  which.  . 

-We  issued  a  circular  to  the  people  of  the  country,  of  the  ^^S^iSSSS^ 
larly,  in  which  we  set  forth  what  we  believed  were  the  dangers  f™}?"%^S^h* 
slave  State,  and  urged  that  steps  be  taken  to  induce  Pers.onsrf™^  *^Se '  We 
were  opposed  to  slavery,  to  go  there,  and  Prevent  its  introduction  if  possnble 
sent  a  great  many  circulars  to  various  parts  of  the  United  States  with  hat  objec t,  and 
also  communications  of  various  kinds.  I  do  not  now  remember  what  they  were .ine 
object  was,  to  have  persons  induced  to  go  to  Kansas,  who  would  make  that  tneir  nome 


432 

and  who  would  at  all  elections  vote  against  the  institution  of  slavery."         *         * 

*  *  "The  leading  primary  object  of  the  association  was  to  prevent  the  in- 
troduction of  slavery  into  Kansas,  as  I  stated  during  the  short  session  of  Congress,  in 
answer  to  a  question  propounded  to  me  by  yourself,  I  believe.  We  believed  that, 
unless  vigorous  steps  of  that  kind  were  taken,  Kansas  would  become  a  slave  State.  I 
do  not  remember  the  caption  of  the  subscription  paper.  I  think  no  other  object  was 
mentioned  or  specified,  except  the  prevention  of  slavery  in  Kansas.  I  think  that  was 
the  sole  object  of  the  movement." 

The  purpose  is  clear  and  manifest;  and  it  fully  appears  from  the  evidence 
adopted  in  the  Kansas  report  that  such  was  the  universal  impression  in  Missouri. 

In  this  state  of  things,  it  was  naturally  to  have  been  expected  that  a  counter  move- 
ment would  have  been  made.  Accordingly  a  society  was  formed  in  Missouri,  the 
avowed  object  of  which  was  to  resist  the  aggressive  movements  of  the  free  States, 
and  make  Kansas  a  slaveholding  State.  When  was  this  society  formed  ?  The  Kansas 
investigating  committee  says,  about  October,  1854.  (Page  3  of  Report.)  It  says  : 

"About  the  same  time,  and  before  any  election  was  or  could  be  held  in  the  Ter- 
ritory, a  secret  political  society  was  formed  in  the  State  of  Missouri." 

What  was  the  object?  Mr.  John  Scott,  especially  referred  to  and  relied  upon  by 
the  committee,  deposes  as  follows  : 

"  I  was  present  at  the  election  of  March  30,  1855,  in  Burr  Oak  precinct,  in  the  Ter- 
ritory. I  saw  many  Missourians  there.  There  had  been  a  good  deal  of  talk  about  the 
settlement  of  Kansas,  and  the  interference  of  Eastern  people  in  the  settlement  of  that 
Territory,  since  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill.  It  was  but  a  short  time  after 
the  passage  of  that  act  that  we  learned  through  the  papers  about  the  forming  of  a 
society  in  the  East  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  settlement  of  Kansas  Territory, 
with  the  view  of  making  it  a  free  State.  Missouri  being  a  slave  State,  and  believing 
that  an  effort  of  that  kind,  if  successful,  would  injure  her  citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of 
their  slave  property,  they  were  indignant,  and  determined  to  use  all  the  means  in  their 
power  to  counteract  the  efforts  of  Eastern  people  upon  that  subject." 

And  again  : 

"I  do  not  think  I  would  have  suggested  to  any  one  in  Missouri  the  forming  of 
societies  in  Missouri,  but  for  these  Eastern  societies;  and  they  were  formed  as  but  a 
means  of  self-defense,  and  to  counteract  the  effect  of  these  Eastern  societies;  and  I 
think  it  is  the  general  expression,  and  1  know  it  is  the  ardent  hope,  of  every  man  in 
Missouri,  that  I  have  heard  express  himself,  that  if  the  North  would  cease  operating 
by  these  societies,  Missouri  would  cease  to  use  those  she  has  established." 

Here,  then,  are  the  movements  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other,  and  they'speak 
for  themselves.     Is  it  not  clear  that  the  Missourians  acted  in  self-defense  ? 

But  that  is  not  all.  Even  before  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  the 
Legislature  of  the  great  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  incorporated  a  company  for 
a  like  object. 

Mr.  Dawes.  This  statement  has  been  made  upon  this  floor  so  many  times,  and  I 
have  sought  an  opportunity  to  contradict  it  so  many  times,  that  the  courtesy  of  the 
gentleman,  I  know,  will  permit  me  to  say,  that  when  the  gentleman  from  Mississippi, 
[Mr.  Quitman,]  the  other  day,  in  justification  of  the  course  pursued  by  the  Mis- 
sourians, stated  that  before  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nabraska  bill 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  hope  the  gentleman  will  excuse  me.  My  time  is  quite 
limited. 

Mr.  Dawes.     I  will  be  very  brief. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  But  then  I  cannot  spare  time.  I  will  yield  if  I  get  the 
liberty  of  extending  my  remarks.     Will  the  Chair  take  the  sense  of  the  committee  ? 

The  Chairman.  Does  the  committee  agree  that  the  gentleman  from  Virginia 
shall  have  his  time  extended  to  the  extent  of  these  interruptions  ? 

Mr.  Houston.     I  object. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  have  here  the  testimony  on  the  subject.  It  is  to  be 
found  on  page  873,  of  the  Kansas  report. 

Mr.  Dawes.     Wiil  the  gentleman  let  me  say 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  certainly  would  be  glad,  if  I  had  the  chance,  to  accord 
to  the  gentleman  what  he  wishes.  Let  the  committee  give  me  fifteen  minutes  for 
this  colloquy. 

Mr.  Houston.     I  object  to  any  addition  ot  time. 

Mr.  Clemens.  I  appeal  to  my  colleague  to  allow  the  gentleman  from  Massa- 
chusetts to  finish  his  sentence. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Very  well. 


433 

Mr.  Dawes.  .  Mr.  Chairman,  it  has  been  so  often  declared  here,  in  justification  ot 
the  proceedings  in  Missouri,  that  before  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act,  the 
Legislature  of  Massachusetts  incorporated  a  company  with  a  capital  of  $5,000,000  "for 
the  purpose  of  sending  emigrants  into  Kansas,  with  a  view,  not  of  becoming  citizens, 
but  of  shaping  and  controlling  its  institutions,  and  defeating  the  law,"  as  was  said  the 
other  day  by  the  gentleman  from  Mississippi,  [Mr.  Barksdale,]  of  which  company  it 
was  said  by  his  colleague,  [Mr.  Singleton,]  that  Mr.  Mace  acknowledged  himself  to  be 
president,  and  it  is  now  repeated  by  the  gentleman  from  Virginia,  that  I  know  he  will 
permit  me  to  set  him  right.  It  is  true  the  gentleman  has  an  act  of  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  before  him,  but  I  want  to  tell  him  that  nothing  was  ever  done  under  that 
act.  There  was  never  an  organization  under  it.  There  was  never  a  president  of  the 
company,  nor  any  other  officer,  nor  a  dollar  raised  under  it.  And  nothing  was  done 
by  Massachusetts  before  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act,  which,  by  any  one 
can  be  construed  as  has  been  charged. 

One  word  more.  To  show  the  gentleman  from  Mississippi  [Mr.  Barksdale]  that 
the  object  of  the  act,  which  I  have  said  existed  only  on  paper,  could  not  have  been 
that  of  "defeating  the  law,"  let  me  tell  him  that  several  of  the  persons  named  in  that 
act  as  corporators,  were  at  the  time,  and  have  ever  been, Kansas-Nebraska  Democrats, 
and  have  basked  in  the  sunshine  of  royal  favor  from  that  hour  to  this;  and  some  of 
them  represented  the  Massachusetts  Democracy  in  the  Cincinnati  convention.  It  is 
but  just  to  those  men  to  say,  however,  that  they  are,  notwithstanding  all  this,  men  of 
high  and  honorable  character. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  That  is  enough.  That  is  an  argument.  Now,  Mr.  Chair- 
man and  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  the  gentleman  [Mr.  Dawes]  is  a  Massachusetts 
man;  but  he  is  not  acquainted  with  the  legislation  of  his  own  State.  He  is  alluding 
to  the  act  of  April,  1854.  I  know  that,  according  to  the  evidence  of  Mr.  Lawrence, 
there  was  no  action  had  under  the  act  of  April,  1854.  But  I  speak  of  the  act  of  Feb- 
ruary 21,  1855.  There  was  a  company  formed  on  the  24th  July,  1854;  and  it  was  or- 
ganized and  went  into  operation  under  the  act  of  February  21,  1855.  ^r-  Webb,  who  was 
secretary  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  in  forwarding  information  to  that  company 
on  August  14,  1854,  says  on  that  subject  : 

"No  pledges  are  required  from  those  who  go;  but,  as  our  principles  are  known,  we 
trust  those  who  differ  from  us  will  be  honest  enough  to  take  some  other  course." 

Nor  is  that  all.  Mr.  Amos  A.  Lawrence,  in  his  testimony,  (page  879  of  the  Report) 
says  that,  while  entirely  disclaiming  on  the  part  of  the  company  any  improper  inter- 
ference in  the  internal  affairs  of  the  Territory  of  Kansas,  or  any  design  to  control  its 
political  or  social  condition,  they  had  always  hoped  and  expected  that  the  emigrants 
who  went  out  under  its  auspices  would  favor  the  establishment  of  free  institutions. 

That  is  not  all.     He  goes  on  and  says  : 

"  It  determines  in  the  right  way  the  institutions  of  the  unsettled  Territories,  in 
less  time  than  the  discussion  of  them  has  required  in  Congress." 

Nor  is  that  all.  This  company,  which  did  not  interfere  with  the  question  of 
slavery,  which  was  simply  an  emigrant  aid  society,  lays  it  down  in  these  broad 
terms  : 

"  And  further,  whenever  the  Territory  shall  be  organized  as  a  free  State,  the 
trustees  shall  dispose  of  all  its  interests  there,  replace  by  the  sales  the  money  laid 
out,  declare  a  dividend  to  the  stockholders,  and  that  they  then  select  a  new  field,  and 
make  similar  arrangements  for  the  settlement  and  organization  of  another  free  State 
of  this  Union." 

In  the  face  of  these  revelations,  in  the  face  of  these  plans  and  purposes,  the  gen- 
tleman [Mr.  Dawes]  dares  to  get  up,  and,  in  the  face  of  God  and  the  country,  say 
that  this  emigrant  aid  society  was  organized  without  any  reference  to  ulterior  objects. 
I  say  to  him  and  every  man,  I  do  not  care  what  may  be  his  political  relations,  that 
here  was  the  inauguration  of  a  movement  fraught  with  the  most  fell  purposes,  and 
the  necessary  results  of  which  were  to  work  destruction  on  the  most  gloriously  or- 
ganized political  power  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  I  say,  then,  on  this  point,  away 
with  the  frivolous  objection  that  these  were  but  emigrant  aid  associations. 

Here,  then,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  the  point — and  I  desire  to  impress  it  on  the  mind  of 
every  person — that  this  hostile  and  aggressive  movement  on  the  great  laws  of  settle- 
ment and  emigration;  this  agitation,  this  excitement,  this  war  upon  the  peace  and  re- 
pose of  the  country,  originated  in  this  Hall,  in  Massachusetts,  and  elsewhere;  in  the 
free  States,  not  in  the  slave  States. 

Mr.  Dawes.     The  gentleman  does  not  understand 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  cannot  yield.  I  refer  again  to  this  celebrated  Report, 
page  3.  I  do  not  treat  this  report  as  my  Bible;  for  I  tell  you  that  a  clear  analysis  of 
it  shows  that  it  is  not  entitled  to  any  of  the  sacred  character  of  that  book.  But  here 
is  what  the  report  says  : 


434 

"About  the  same  time,  to  wit,  October,  1854,  and  before  an  election  was  or  could 
be  held  in  the  Territory,  a  secret  political  society  was  formed  in  the  State  of 
Missouri." 

Not  till  October,  1854,  did  the  Missourians — the  much-abused  and  vilified  border  ruf- 
fians as  the  are  scornfully  called — take  any  action.  That  was  subsequently  to  the  move- 
ment here — after  the  movement  in  Massachusetts,  and  when  the  emigrants  were 
pouring  into  that  Territory  and  indulging  in  vituperations  upon  the  institutions  of  the 
State  of  Missouri.  Then  it  was — according  to  the  report  of  the  majority — that  the 
Missourians  awakened  to  their  condition,  and  began  an  organization  for  their  own  pro- 
tection and  safety. 

Then  how  stands  the  question  at  this  period  in  regard  to  this  subject?  Who  is  the 
father  of  this  mischief  and  agitation  ?  The  Missourians  ?  No.  It  is  those  who  originated 
the  movement  here  to  defeat  the  free  settlement  of  the  questions  involved  in  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  act. 

But  what  says  Mr.  Douglas  on  this  subject?  I  quote  Mr.  Douglas  because  we 
have  indorsed  him  once,  and  he  is  now  indorsed  on  the  other  side.  [Cries  of  "  No, 
no  !"]   He  says  : 

"When  the  emigrants  sent  out  by  the  Massachusetts  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  and 
their  affiliated  societies,  passed  through  the  State  of  Missouri  in  large  numbers  on 
their  way  to  Kansas,  the  violence  of  their  language,  and  the  unmistakable  indications 
<of  their  determined  hostility  to  the  domestic  institutions  of  that  State,  created  appre- 
hensions that  the  object  of  the  company  was  to  abolitionize  Kansas  as  a  means  of 
prosecuting  a  relentless  warfare  upon  the  institutions  of  slavery  within  the  limits  of 
Missouri.  These  apprehensions  increased,  and  spread  with  the  progress  of  events, 
until  they  became  the  settled  conviction  of  the  people  of  that  portion  of  the  State 
most  exposed  to  the  danger  by  their  proximity  to  the  Kansas  border.  The  natural  con- 
sequence was,  that  immediate  steps  were  taken  by  the  people  of  the  western  counties 
of  Missouri  to  stimulate,  organize,  and  carry  into  effect  a  system  of  emigration  similar 
to  that  of  the  Massachusetts  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of 
counteracting  the  effects,  and  protecting  themselves  and  their  domestic  institutions 
from  the  consequences  of  that  company's  operations." 

As  far  as  he  has  spoken,  he  is  the  accredited  witness  of  both  parties. 

Mr.  Stanton.     I  beg  your  pardon. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Is  it  not  so? 

Mr.  Stanton.     No,  sir.  He  is  not  authorized  to  speak  for  us. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  understand  very  well  how  the  matter  stands.  Is  he 
not  promised  by  the  New  York  Tribune,  and  by  Mr.  Seward,  the  great  leader  of  the 
Republican  party,  that  he  shall  have  a  fair  participation  in  the  honors  of  the  party  ? 

Under  the  Kansas  act,  A.  H.  Reeder,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  appointed  Governor, 
and  was  confirmed  by  the  Senate  on  the  29th  day  of  June,  1854. 

He  did  not  reach  the  Territory  until  October,  1854.  On  the  10th  day  of  November 
he  issued  his  proclamation  announcing  that  an  election  would  be  held  on  the  29th  of 
November,  1854.  for  Delegate  to  Congress.  At  that  election  J.  W.  Whitfield  received 
2,258  votes,  and  all  others  575  votes.  In  the  executive  journal  of  the  Territory  will 
be  found  the  following  entry  : 

"  December  5,  1854. — On  examining  and  collating  the  returns,  J.  W.  Whitfield  is  de- 
clared by  the  Governor  to  be  didy  elected  Delegate  to  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  same  day  the  certificate  of  the  Governor,  under  the  seal 
of  the  Territory,  issued  to  said  J.  W.  Whitfield  of  his  election." 

It  nowhere  appears  that  General  Whitfield's  right  to  a  seat  by  virtue  of  that  election 
was  ever  contested. 

Yet,  says  Mr.  Douglas,  in  his  report  : 

"No  sooner  was  the  result  of  the  election  known,  than  the  defeated  party  pro- 
claimed throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Republic  that  it  had  been  produced 
by  the  invasion  of  the  Territory  by  a  Missouri  mob,  which  had  overawed,  and  out- 
numbered and  outvoted,  the  bona  fide  settlers  of  the  Territory." 

On  the  8th  March,  1855,  the  Governor  issued  his  proclamation  for  the  election  of 
a  Territorial  Legislature  on  the  30th  of  March  thereafter.  The  pro-slavery  party  pre- 
vailed, and  instantly  the  cry  of  invasion  was  again  raised.  The  Kansas  committee, 
in  their  Report,  page  10,  say  : 

"The  details  of  this  invasion  form  the  mass  of  the  testimony  taken  by  your  com- 
mittee, and  is  so  voluminous  that  we  can  here  state  but  the  leading  facts  elicited." 

The  testimony  referred  to  established  on  the  part  of  the  free-State-men  two 
resolves : 

I.  Not  to  be  governed  by  the  laws  to  be  enacted  by  the  Legislature  just  elected. 


435 

Dr.  Wood  testifies  as  to  the  determination  of  the  Lawrence  association,  of  which 
he  was  a  member,  as  follows  : 

"  They  said  there  was  no  law  in  the  Territory;  that  the  organic  act  was  uncon- 
stitutional, made  so  by  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise;  and  that  they  in- 
tended to  form  an  association,  and  make  and  enforce  their  own  laws,  irrespective  of 
the  laws  of  Congress,  until  there  could  be  a  change  in  Congress,  by  which  the  Mis- 
souri compromise  could  be  restored,  and  the  organic  act  set  aside."  *  «  * 
"  When  the  Legislature  was  about  to  be  elected,  they  held  a  meeting,  and  brought  out 
their  candidates.  After  the  Legislature  was  elected,  and  before  they  met,  there  were 
several  meetings  held  in  Lawrence,  and  at  these  meetings  they  passed  resolutions  de- 
claring they  would  submit  to  no  laws  passed  by  the  Legislature."  *  *  *  * 
"  They  resolved  not  to  obey  the  laws  that  would  be  passed  by  the  Legislature,  and  only 
obey  their  own  provisional  laws,  until  they  could  form  a  provisional  government  for 
the  Territory. 

"  The  first  general  meeting  while  the  Legislature  was  in  session,  was  held  in 
Lawrence,  in  July  or  August,  1855.  Before  that  time  their  meetings  had  been  of  the 
association;  but  this  was  the  first  general  meeting;  this  was  the  first  meeting  at  which 
I  recollect  hearing  Colonal  Lane  take  ground  in  opposition  to  the  laws  that  the  Legis- 
lature, then  in  session,  should  pass.  All  the  public  speakers  that  I  heard  there  said 
they  did  not  intend  to  obey  the  laws  that  should  be  passed,  but  intended  to  form  a 
provisional  government  for  themselves." 

2.  To  resist  the  laws  that  were  passed.  Upon  this  point  Mr.  Wood  testifies  as 
follows  : 

"After  the  Legislature  adjourned,  the  first  meeting  at  which  I  heard  any  declara- 
tions with  regard  to  the  resistance  of  the  laws  was  held  at  Blanton's  Bridge.  Colonel 
Lane,  Mr.  Emery,  and  Mr.  John  Hutchinson  addressed  the  meeting,  urging  the  people 
to  resist  the  laws,  let  the  consequences  be  what  they  might. 

"  In  private  conversation  with  those  men,  they  always  expressed  their  determina- 
tion to  resist  the  laws,  and  said  the  officers  and  posse  should  not  enforce  the  laws. 
They  said  they  had  a  new  code  of  laws  called  Sharpe's  Revised  Statutes,  and  they 
were  going  to  use  them  in  preference  to  any  others.  It  was  a  common  remark,  that 
they  would  use  Sharpe's  Revised  Statutes  in  preference  to  any  others."  *  *  *  * 
"  I  often  expostulated  with  Lane,  Robinson,  and  others,  both  publicly  and  privately, 
as  to  their  course,  and  addressed  the  meeting  at  Blanton's  Bridge  in  opposition  to 
their  course.     They  said  they  would  resist  the  laws,  regardless  of  consequences." 

The  free-State  men  held  their  first  general  meeting  with  a  view  to  a  State  govern- 
ment on  the  15th  of  August,  1855.  The  following  preamble  and  resolution  were  then 
passed  : 

"  Whereas,  the  people  of  Kansas  have  been  since  its  settlement,  and  now  are, 
without  any  law-making  power:  Therefore  be  it 

"Resolved.  That  we,  the  people  of  Kansas  Territory,  in  mass  meeting  assembled 
irrespective  of  party  distinction,  influenced  by  common  necessity,  and  greatly  de- 
sirous of  promoting  the  common  good,  do  hereby  call  upon  and  request  all  bona  fide 
citizens  of  Kansas  Territory,  of  whatever  political  views  or  predilections,  to  consult 
together  in  their  respective  election  districts,  and,  in  mass  convention  or  otherwise, 
elect  three  delegates  for  each  representative  to  which  said  election  district  is  entitled 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Legislative  Assembly,  by  proclamation  of 
Governor  Reeder  of  date  10th  of  March,  1855;  said  delegates  to  assemble  in  conven- 
tion, at  the  town  of  Topeka,  on  the  19th  day  of  September,  1855,  then  and  there  to 
consider  and  determine  upon  all  subjects  of  public  interest,  and  particularly  upon  that 
having  reference  to  the  speedy  formation  of  a  State  constitution,  with  an  intention  of 
an  immediate  application  to  be  admitted  as  a  State  into  the  Union  of  the  United  States 
of  America." 

At  the  Topeka  convention,  an  executive  committee  was  appointed,  of  which  Gen- 
eral James  Lane  was  appointed  chairman,  who  issued  the  following  proclamation  : 

"  To  the  legal  voters  of  Kansas  : 

"Whereas,  the  territorial  government,  as  now  constituted  for  Kansas,  has  proved 
a  failure;  squatter  sovereignty,  under  its  workings,  a  miserable  delusion;  in  proof  of 
which  it  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  our  past  history  and  our  present  deplorable  con- 
dition. Our  ballot  boxes  have  been  taken  possession  of  by  bands  or  armed  men  from 
foreign  States;  our  people  forcibly  driven  therefrom:  persons  attempted  to  be  foisted 
upon  us  as  members  of  a  so-called  Legislature,  unacquainted  with  our  wants,  and 
hostile  to  our  best  interests,  some  of  "them  never  residents  of  our  Territory,  mis- 
named laws  passed,  and  now  attempted  to  be  enforced  by  the  aid  of  citizens  of  foreign 
States,  of  the  most  oppressive,  tyrannical,  and  insulting  character;  the  right  of  suf- 
frage taken  from  us;  debarred  from  the  privilege  of  a  voice  in  the  election  of  even 
the  most  insignificant  officers;  the   right  of  free  speech  stifled,  the  muzzling  of  the 


436 

press  attempted:  and  whereas,  longer  forbearance  with  such  oppression  and  tyranny 
has  ceased  to  be  a  virtue:  and  whereas,  the  people  of  this  country  have  heretofore 
exercised  the  right  of  changing  their  form  of  government,  when  it  became  oppressive, 
and  have  at  all  times  conceded  this  right  to  the  people  in  this  and  all  other  Govern- 
ments: and  whereas,  a  territorial  form  of  government  is  unknown  to  the  Constitution, 
and  is  the  mere  creature  of  necessity,  awaiting  the  action  of  the  people:  and  whereas, 
the  debasing  character  of  the  slavery  which  now  involves  us  impels  to  action,  and 
leaves  us,  as  the  only  legal  and  peaceful  alternative,  the  immediate  establishment  of 
a  State  government  :  and  whereas,  the  organic  act  fails  in  pointing  out  the  course  to 
be  adopted  in  an  emergency  like  ours;  therefore,  you  are  requested  to  meet  at  your 
several  precincts  in  said  Territory  hereinafter  mentioned,  on  the  second  Tuesday  of 
October  next,  it  being  the  ninth  day  of  said  month,  and  then  and  there  cast  your  ballots 
for  members  of  a  convention  to  meet  at  Topeka  on  the  fourth  Tuesday  in  October 
next  to  form  a  constitution,  adopt  a  bill  of  rights  for  the  people  of  Kansas,  and  take 
all  needful  measures  for  organizing  a  State  government,  preparatory  to  the  admission 
of  Kansas  into  the  Union  as  a  State." 

While  the  Legislature  was  in  session  in  July,  1855,  a  memorial  to  the  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives  was  got  up  by  the  free-State  party,  from  which  I  will  sub- 
mit sundry  extracts  : 

"  One  of  the  States  of  our  Union,  strong  in  wealth,  population,  and  resources, 
relying  upon  her  accumulated  strength  of  almost  half  a  century,  and  taking  advantage 
of  our  feeble  infancy  as  a  people,  has  invaded  our  soil,  seized  upon  our  rights,  sub- 
jugated our  Territory,  and  selected  for  us  our  rulers;  intending  also  to  dictate  our 
laws  and  make  us  the  slaves  of  their  will.  This  may  well  seem  an  almost  incredible 
thing  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  in  this  republican  Union,  the  peculiar  and  boasted 
land  of  liberty  and  self  government;  but  the  evidence  of  it  is  as  palpable  and  unde- 
niable as  the  fact  is  bitter  and  mortifying  to  us  and  disgraceful  to  the  public. 

"This  invasion  of  our  soil  and  usurpation  of  our  rights  commenced  in  the  first 
moment  of  calling  these  rights  into  action.  The  first  ballot-box  that  was  opened  upon 
our  virgin  soil  was  closed  to  us  by  overpowering  numbers  and  impending  force.  It 
became  not  what  Americans  have  been  proud  to  designate  it,  the  exponent  of  the 
people's  will,  but  was  converted  into  the  sword  of  the  oppressor  to  strike  at  civil 
liberty.  So  bold  and  reckless  were  our  invaders  that  they  cared  not  to  conceal  their 
attack.  They  came  upon  us,  not  in  the  guise  of  voters  to  steal  away  our  franchise, 
but  boldly  and  openly  to  snatch  it  with  the  strong  hand.  They  came  directly  from 
their  own  homes  and  in  compact  and  organized  bands,  with  arms  in  hand  and  pro- 
visions for  the  expedition,  marched  to  our  polls,  and  when  their  work  was  done,  re- 
turned whence  they  came.  It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  the  details;  it  is  enough  to 
say  that  in  three  districts,  in  which,  by  the  most  irrefragable  evidence,  there  were  one 
hundred  and  fifty  voters,  most  of  whom  refused  to  participate  in  this  mockery  of  the 
elective  franchise,  these  invaders  polled  over  a  thousand  votes."     *         *         *         * 

"On  the  30th  day  of  March  last  we  were  again  invited  to  the  ballot-box  under  the 
law,  which  we,  in  common  with  our  fellow-citizens  in  the  States,  had,  through  your 
body,  enacted."  *  *  *  *  "The  occasion  came,  and  with  it  came  our  in- 
vading and  self-constituted  masters  in  thousands,  and  with  all  the  paraphernalia  of 
war.  They  came  organized  in  bands,  with  officers  and  arms  and  tents  and  pro- 
visions and  munitions  of  war,  as  though  they  were  marching  upon  a  foreign  foe 
instead    of  their  own    unoffending  fellow-citizens."         *  *         *         *  "In  the 

morning  they  surrounded  the  polls,  armed  with  guns,  bowie  knives,  and  revolvers, 
and  declared  their  determination  to  vote  at  all  hazards  and  in  spite  of  all  conse- 
quences." *  *  *  *  "It  would  be  mere  affectation  in  us  to  attempt  to 
disguise  the  fact  that  the  question  of  making  Kansas  a  free  or  slave  State  is  at  the 
bottom  of  this  movement,  and  that  men  who  thus  invade  our  soil  and  rob  us  of  our 
liberties,  are  from  the  pro-slavery  men  of  Missouri,  who  are  unwilling  to  submit  the 
question  to  the  people  of  the  Territory,  and  abide  the  compact  between  the  North 
and  the  South  which  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  contains."  *         *         *         * 

"  With  a  feeble  and  scattered  community  first  struggling  into  existence,  without  or- 
ganization, and  almost  without  shelter,  we  are  powerless  to  resist  an  old,  strong, 
and  populous  State,  full  of  men  and  arms  and  resources;  and  we  therefore  appeal 
to  you,  and    through  you   to  the  people  of  the   States.     Remedy  we   have    none." 

****  *  *  *  *  *** 

"We  make  now  this  last  appeal,  not  to  the  North,  not  to  the  South,  not  to  any 
political  party,  but  to  the  representatives  of  the  whole  Union.  We  beg  that  no  men  will 
sport  with  our  fearful  condition  by  endeavoring  to  make  political  capital  or  build  up 
party  at  the  expense  of  our  civil  and  physical  existence.  We  want  the  men  of 
the  North  and  the  men  of  the  South  to  protect  us.  Through  yourselves,  their  repre- 
sentatives, we  appeal  to  their  honor,  to  their  justice,  to  their  patriotism,  to  their 
sympathies;  not  for  favors,  but  for  rights;  not  for   trivial  rights,  but  for  the  dearest 


437 

rights  guaranteed  to  us  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  by  the  Constitution  of 
the  Union,  by  the  law  of  our  organization,  by  the  solemn  compact  of  the  States, 
and  which  you  pledged  to  us  as  the  condition  of  our  coming  here." 

An  election  for  Delegate  took  place  on  the  1st  October,  1855;  "but,"  says  the 
Kansas  report,  "the  free-State  men  took  no  part  in  this  election,  having  made  ar- 
rangements for  holding  an  election  on  the  9th  of  the  same  month."  (Page  44.)  It  is, 
however,  alleged  that  the  citizens  of  Missouri  voted  at  this  election  also.  But  the 
committee  adds : 

"Your  committee  did  not  deem  it  necessary,  in  regard  to  this  election,  to  enter 
into  details,  as  it  was  manifest  that,  from  there  being  but  one  candidate,  (General 
Whitfield,)  he  must  have  received  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast.  This  election, 
therefore,  depends,  not  upon  the  number  or  character  of  the  votes  received,  but 
upon  the  validity  of  the  laws  under  which  it  was  held.  Sufficient  testimony  was 
taken  to  show  that  the  voting  of  citizens  of  Missouri  was  practiced  at  this  election, 
as  at  all  former  elections  in  the  Territory." 

It  was  on  the  14th  February,  1856,  that  A.  H.  Reeder  presented  his  memorial  con- 
testing the  right  of  J.  W.  Whitfield  to  a  seat  as  Delegate  from  the  Territory  of 
Kansas. 

Here  then  had  commenced  the  work  of  rebellion  and  revolution.  Here  was  a  de- 
termination to  defeat,  by  every  means  in  their  power,  the  will  of  the  dominant  ma- 
jority. We  all  know  the  excitement  which  sprung  out  of  this  question,  and  the  violent 
struggle  which  ensued  here.  A  Democrat,  or  one  professing  to  be  a  Democrat,  on 
that  day,  did  the  ungrateful  work  of  offering  a  resolution  which  was  then  the  subject 
of  a  long  and  angry  debate.  It  was  on  the  19th  of  February,  1856,  that  Mr.  Hickman, 
of  Pennsylvania,  offered  a  resolution  to  send  for  persons  and  papers.  It  does  seem 
as  if  there  were  always  Democrats  at  hand  to  perform  the  ungrateful  task.  He  offered 
that  resolution,  and  it  was  openly  charged  on  the  floor  of  the  House  that  that  election 
had  been  carried  by  violence  and  fraud.  Bear  in  mind  that  this  occurred  in  February, 
1856.  The  election  of  March,  1855,  had  taken  place,  and  other  elections  had  taken 
place,  and  grave  charges  of  fraud  at  all  of  them  were  made.  It  was  in  view  of  these 
charges  that  Mr.  Hickman  made  his  motion  and  submitted,  in  support  of  his  applica- 
tion, an  elaborate  report,  (on  the  5th  March,  1856,)  from  which  I  submit  the  following 
extract : 

"  The  relative  position  of  the  contesting  parties,  and  the  disputed  questions  of 
fact,  appear  in  the  memorial  of  the  contestant,  who  denies  the  entire  validity  of  the 
election  law  under  which  the  sitting  Delegate  obtained  the  certificate  of  the  Governor 
of  the  Territory.  This  denial  is  based  on  the  alleged  fact  that  the  Legislature  which 
passed  it  was  imposed  upon  the  people  by  a  foreign  invading  force,  who  marched 
into  the  Territory  at  the  election,  and  seized  upon  the  powers  of  government  which 
Congress  had  provided  for  the  actual  inhabitants;  which  powers,  it  is  said,  have  been 
held  and  exercised  ever  since  by  these  strangers  to  the  soil,  under  no  other  title  than 
that  of  a  strong  hand  and  superior  numbers,  and  to  the  entire  subjugation  of  the 
people  of  the  Territory." 

After  making  a  long  extract  from  Governor  Reeder's^statement,  the'Jreport 
proceeds : 

"  These  are  startling  allegations;  and  when  the  contestant  offers  to  prove  their 
truth,  your  committee  shrink  from  the  deep  and  solemn  responsibility  of  declining  to 
allow  him  the  opportunity  to  do  so,  or  of  casting  the  least  obstacle  in  his  way.  When 
facts  are  proclaimed  to  exist,  striking  at  the  very  root  of  our  institutions,  and  tending 
to  the  total  subversion  of  republicanism,  it  is  no  time  to  be  dredging  among  techni- 
calities or  abstractions,  for  the  material  out  of  which  to  construct  equivocal  ob- 
jections." 

Dunn's  resolutions  finally  superseded  that  recommended  by  the  election  com- 
mittee, and  on  the  19th  of  March,  1856,  passed  the  House. 

Why  were  certain  gentlemen  then  so  hostile  to  looking  into  frauds  ?  tUpon  every 
vote,  steady  as  veteran  soldiers,  they  struggled  on. 

How  were  these  charges  met  ? 

Without  dwelling  at  length  upon  all  the  evidence  that  might  be  brought  to  the 
work  of  demonstration,  I  will  call  attention  to  Judge  Douglas's  celebrated  report  of 
March  12,  1856.  Nearly  a  year  had  elapsed;  every  development  that  could  be  made 
touching  the  prior  elections  had  taken  place.  In  that  report,  the  Senator  reviews  the 
whole  subject  with  a  giant's  pen.  I  will  give  a  few  extracts  as  apposite  to  my  present 
views.     First,  as  to  the  immediate  parties  to  the  struggle  in  Kansas  : 

"  The  material  difference  in  the  character  of  the  two  rival  and  conflicting  move- 
ments consists  in  the  fact  that  the  one  had  its  origin  in  an  aggressive,  and  the  other  in 
a   defensive  policy.     The   one   was  organized   in  pursuance   of  the  provisions  and 


438 

claiming  to  act  under  the  authority  of  a  legislative  enactment  of  a  distant  State, 
whose  internal  prosperity  and  domestic  security  did  not  depend  upon  the  success  of 
the  movement;  while  the  other  was  the  spontaneous  action  of  the  people  living  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  theater  of  operations,  excited,  by  a  sense  of  common 
danger,  to  the  necessity  of  protecting  their  own  firesides  from  the  apprehended 
horrors  of  servile  insurrection  and  intestine  war.  Both  parties,  conceiving  it  to  be 
essential  to  the  success  of  their  respective  plans  that  they  should  be  upon  the  field  of 
operations  prior  to  the  first  election  in  the  Territory,  selected  principally  young  men — 
persons  unincumbered  by  families,  and  whose  conditions  in  life  enabled  them  to 
leave  at  a  moment's  warning,  and  move  with  great  celerity,  to  go  at  once,  and 
select  and  occupy  the  most  eligible  sites  and  favored  locations  in  the  Territory,  to  be 
held  by  themselves  and  their  associates  who  should  follow  them.  For  the  successful 
prosecution  of  such  a  scheme,  the  Missourians,  who  lived  in  the  immediate  vicinity, 
possessed  peculiar  advantages  over  their  rivals  from  the  more  remote  portions  of  the 
Union.  Each  family  could  send  one  of  its  members  across  the  line  to  mark  out  his 
claim,  erect  a  cabin,  and  put  in  a  small  crop,  sufficient  to  give  him  as  valid  a  right  to 
be  deemed  an  actual  settler  and  qualified  voter  as  those  who  were  being  imported  by 
an  emigrant  aid  society." 

"  In  tracing, "  says  the  Senator,  "step  by  step,  the  origin  and  history  of  these 
Kansas  difficulties,"  he  adds  : 

"Combinations  in  one  section  of  the  Union  to  stimulate  an  unnatural  and  false 
system  of  emigration,  with  the  view  of  controlling  the  elections,  and  forcing  the 
domestic  institutions  of  the  Territory  to  assimilate  to  those  of  the  non-slaveholding 
States,  were  followed,  as  might  have  been  foreseen,  by  the  use  of  similar  means  in 
the  slaveholding  States,  to  produce  directly  the  opposite  result.  To  these  causes,  and 
to  these  alone,  in  the  opinion  of  your  committee,  may  be  traced  the  origin  and  pro- 
gress of  all  the  controversies  and  disturbances  with  which  Kansas   is  now  convulsed. 

"  If  these  unfortunate  troubles  have  resulted  as  natural  consequences  from  un- 
authorized and  improper  schemes  of  foreign  interference  with  the  internal  affairs  and 
domestic  concerns  of  the  Territory,  it  is  apparent  that  the  remedy  must  be  sought  in 
a  strict  adherence  to  the  principles,  and  rigid  enforcement  of  the  provisions,  of  the 
organic  law.  In  this  connection  your  committee  feel  sincere  satisfaction  in  com- 
mending the  messages  and  proclamation  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in 
which  we  have  the  gratifying  assurance  that  the  supremacy  of  the  laws  will  be  main- 
tained; that  rebellion  will  be  crushed;  that  insurrection  will  be  suppressed;  that  ag- 
gressive intrusion  for  the  purpose  of  deciding  elections,  or  any  other  purpose,  will  be 
repelled;  that  unauthorized  intermeddling  in  the  local  concerns  of  the  Territory,  both 
from  adjoining  and  distant  States,  will  be  prevented;  that  the  Federal  and  local  laws 
will  be  vindicated  against  all  attempts  of  organized  resistance;  and  that  the  people  of 
the  Territory  will  be  protected  in  the  establishment  of  their  own  institutions,  undis- 
turbed by  encroachments  from  without,  and  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  rights  of  self 
government  assured  to  them  by  the  Constitution  and  the  organic  law. 

"  In  view  of  these  assurances,  given  under  the  conviction  that  the  existing  laws 
confer  all  the  authority  necessary  to  the  performance  of  these  important  duties,  and 
that  the  whole  available  force  of  the  United  States  will  be  exerted  to  the  extent  re- 
quired for  their  performance,  your  committee  repose  in  entire  confidence  that  peace 
and  security  and  law  will  prevail  in  Kansas.  If  any  further  evidence  were  necessary 
to  prove  that  all  the  collisions  and  difficulties  in  Kansas  have  been  produced  by  the 
schemes  of  foreign  interference  which  have  been  developed  in  this  report,  in  viola- 
tion of  the  principles  and  in  evasion  of  the  provisions  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act, 
it  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that,  in  Nebraska,  to  which  the  emigrant  aid  societies  did 
not  extend  their  operations,  and  into  which  the  stream  of  emigration  was  permitted 
to  flow  in  its  usual  and  natural  channels,  nothing  has  occurred  to  disturb  the  peace 
and  harmony  of  the  Territory,  while  the  principle  of  self-government,  in  obedience 
to  the  Constitution,  has  had  fair  play,  and  is  quietly  working  out  its  legitimate 
results." 

Nor  is  this  all.  The  Senator  largely  participated  in  the  debates  upon  his  report, 
from  which  I  desire  to  submit  several  extracts. 

In  the  32d  volume,  part  1st,  page  639,  of  the  Congressional  Globe,  he  says,  on  the 
day  his  report  was  submitted,  in  reply  to  Senator  Sumner  : 

"  The  Senator  says  he  wishes  emphatically  to  repel  the  assaults  which  he  thinks 
the  report  makes  on  the  emigrant  aid  society.  What  am  I  to  understand  by  his  de- 
nunciation of  the  report  ?  He  certainly  does  not  intend  to  deny  the  truth  of  any  one 
fact  which  the  report  contains  !  What,  then,  is  he  going  to  deny  ?  Why  this  emphatic 
denunciation,  when  there  is  not  a  fact  stated  in  the  report  which  he  does  not  know  to 
be  true,  and  which  I  will  not  prove  to  be  true  by  official  documents  signed  by  the 
officers  of  the   aid  society  itself?  By  his  emphatic  denial  is  the  country  to  understand 


439 

that  he  intends  to  disprove  the  facts  ?  He  knows  the  time  will  never  come  when  he 
will  controvert  the  truth  of  any  one  fact  which  is  stated  in  our  report  with  regard  to 
the  emigrant  aid  society  ?  Whether  their  action  is  laudable  or  treasonable  is  another 
question,  but  that  the  charter  is  truthfully  set  forth  that  its  objects  and  aims  are  copied 
from  its  own  official  proceedings,  and  that  every  statement  of  a  fact  is  truly  made, 
cannot  be  controverted.  This  he  knows  as  well  as  I  do.  I  do  not  intend  to  allow  de- 
nials of  the  truth  of  facts  to  be  interposed  to  screen  men  from  the  consequences  of 
their  action,  when  that  action  is  avowed  and  susceptible  of  proof;  hence  the  Senator's 
denial  cannot  be  interposed.  It  is  a  denial  of  facts  which  he  knows  to  be  true;  it  is 
a  denial  of  facts  which  shall  not  be  controverted.  If,  instead  of  denying,  he  proposed 
to  justify  them,  I  would  willingly  hear  him;  but  he  cannot  be  permitted  to  deny 
them.  Our  statements  are  based  on  the  records  of  the  legislative  proceedings  of  the 
Senator's  own  State,  and  on  documents  attested  by  the  signatures  of  the  officers  of 
the  emigrant  aid  society.  The  facts  shall  not  be  denied.  When  he  comes  to  offer  his 
apologies,  or  his  excuses,  or  his  justification  for  them,  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  anything 
which  he  may  bring  forward  in  vindication  of  the  enormity  of  their  conduct;  but  let 
him  not  make  broad  denials  unsustained  by  proof. 

"  The  Senator  says  that  we  begin  our  game  with  'loaded  dice.'  I  understand  that 
to  be  a  gambler's  phrase.  He  may  be  able  to  explain  it;  certainly  it  will  require  ex- 
planation before  the  majority  of  the  Senate  will  be  able  to  understand  it.  If  he  means 
that  he  is  prepared  to  go  to  the  country  to  justify  treason  and  rebellion,  let  him  go; 
and  I  trust  he  will  meet  the  fate  which  the  law  assigns  to  such  conduct.  If  he  means 
that  the  hopes  of  his  party  are  to  produce  a  collision  in  Kansas,  in  which  blood  may 
be  shed,  that  he  may  traffic  in  the  blood  of  his  own  fellow-citizens  for  political  pur- 
poses, he  will  soon  discover  how  much  he  will  make  by  that  course.  We  understand 
that  this  is  a  movement  for  the  purpose  of  producing  a  collision,  with  the  hope  that 
civil  war  may  be  the  result  if  blood  shall  be  shed  in  Kansas.  Sir,  we  are  ready  to 
meet  that  issue.  We  stand  upon  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  land.  Our  position 
is,  the  maintenance  of  the  supremacy  of  the  laws,  and  the  putting  down  of  violence, 
fraud,  treason,  and  rebellion  against  the  Government. 

"The  Senator  stakes  himself  on  the  minority  report.  I  say  that  report  justifies 
foreign  interference  in  Kansas;  while  the  majority  report  denies  the  right  of  foreign 
interference.  Taking  that  minority  report,  I  can  justify,  under  its  principles,  every 
act  that  has  been  done  in  regard  to  Kansas,  either  by  persons  from  Massachusetts  or 
from  Missouri.  The  majority  report  denies  the  right  of  any  man  to  violate  the  law, and  to 
prevert  the  principles  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act,  whether  he  comes  from  the  North 
or  the  South.  The  minority  report  advocates  foreign  interference;  we  advocate  self- 
government  and  non-interference.  We  are  ready  to  meet  the  issue;  and  there  will  be 
no  dodging.  We  intend  to  meet  it  boldly;  to  require  submission  to  the  laws  and  to 
the  constituted  authorities;  to  reduce  to  subjection  those  who  resist  them,  and  to 
punish  rebellion  and  treason.  I  am  glad  that  a  defiant  spirit  is  exhibited  here;  we 
accept  the  issue. 

"  I  will  say  no  more  now.  At  an  early  day  I  shall  take  occasion  to  express  my 
opinions  on  the  whole  question,  if  my  health  and  strength  and  voice  will  permit;  and 
I  shall  hold  myself  responsible  to  vindicate  every  position  assumed  in  the  majority 
report." 

Mr.  Harris,  then  and  now  a  member  of  this  House,  on  the  13th  of  March,  1856, 
made  a  speech  on  Kansas  affairs,  from  which  I  propose  to  submit  a  few  extracts  : 

"  We  have  here  presented,  at  the  very  threshold  of  our  inquiries,  a  question  of 
the  gravest  character.  Can  this  House,  in  the  exercise  of  its  constitutional  right  of 
determining  the  election  and  qualification  of  its  members,  go  behind  the  law  of  their 
election,  and  question  the  right  by  which  the  members  of  the  Territorial  Legislature 
held  their  seats?  I  deny  the  power  of  this  House  to  do  it;  and  were  I,  for  the  sake 
of  argument,  to  admit  the  power,  I  hold  that  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  be  in- 
trusted to  this  Committee  of  Elections." 

"  But,  sir,  I  am  opposed  to  the  resolution  of  the  committee  for  another  reason.  I 
have  no  sort  of  confidence  in  the  committee  that  desires  to  make  the  investigation.  I 
should  have  no  more  confidence  in  the  report  which  they  would  make  than  I  have  in 
the  one  they  have  already  presented.  Upon  the  ordinary  subjects  of  legislation  I 
would  regard  the  investigation  of  a  committee  of  this  House  with  much  respect;  but 
upon  an  exciting  political  question,  where  a  committee  has  been  formed  by  you  with 
two-thirds  of  its  members  of  the  Black  Republican  stripe,  who  have  been  thrown  in 
here  themselves  by  the  crazy  current  of  anti-Kansasism,  with  the  black  flog  of  Abol- 
itionism in  their  hands,  I  should  have  no  more  regard  than  for  the  babble  of  a  maniac. 
The  country  would  have  no  confidence  in  such  a  report.  It  is  a  onesided  committee, 
prejudiced  upon  one  side — without,  perhaps,  being  aware  of  it — and  from  them 
nothing  could  be  expected  but  a  one-sided  report." 


"I  then  say  that  this  whole  movement  was  instigated,  and  has  been  prosecuted, 
with  the  objects  of  shaping  the  institutions  of  Kansas,  and  ultimately  those  of  Mis- 
souri, and  in  keeping  up  apolitical  excitment  in  the  country,  by  which  certain  political 
leaders  hoped  to  be  advanced,  and  also  to  use  that  excitement  in  turning  to  good  ad- 
vantage the  'almighty  dollar.'  " 

In  what  has  been  extracted,  it  has  been  my  purpose  to  show  the  positions  taken 
by  both  parties,  and  have  left  it  to  be  shown  on  the  Democratic  side  by  gentlemen 
then  conspicuous  in  the  Democratic  party. 

Has  the  Black  Republican  party  reformed  ?  Let  us  see.  I  have  not  Governor 
Geary's  correspondence  at  hand;  but  I  find  one  extract,  which  I  cut  from  Mr. 
Sherman's  speech,  delivered  on  the  28th  January  last.     He  says  : 

"  Governor  Geary,  in  his  letter  to  the  President,  of  November  22,    1856,  says  : 

"  '  When  I  arrived  here  the  entire  Territory  was  declared  by  the  acting  Gov- 
ernor to  be  in  a  state  of  insurrection;  the  civil  authority  was  powerless,  and  so 
complicated  by  partisan  affiliations,  as  to  be  without  capacity  to  vindicate  the  majesty 
of  the  law,  and  restore  the  broken  peace.'  " 

On  the  30th  March,  1857,  Robert  J.  Walker  was  appointed  Governor  of  Kansas; 
and  on  the  31st  of  the  same  month  Frederick  P.  Stanton  was  appointed  Secretary 
of  the  Territory.  Governor  Walker  did  not  immediately  repair  to  his  post.  The  Sec- 
retary of  the  Territory,  announcing  his  arrival  and  the  assumption  of  his  duties  as 
acting  Governor,  under  date  of  the  17th  April,  1857,  says: 

"It  affords  me  great  satisfaction  to  advise  you  that,  so  far  as  I  have  yet  learned, 
the  people  of  the  Territory  are  entirely  peaceable  and  quiet,  and  exhibit  every 
disposition  to  remain  so."  ^ 

Governor  Walker,  having  reached  Kansas  in  May,  1857,  assumed  the  duties  of 
his  office.  In  his  letter  of  July  15th,  giving  an  account  of  the  state  of  the  Territory, 
he  says  : 

"  Although  still  suffering  from  debility,  as  the  result  of  my  illness,  I  considered 
the  crisis  so  alarming  as  to  require  my  immediate  presence  at  Lawrence,  where  I 
proceeded  in  company  with  Mr.  Secretary  Stanton,  and  after  spending  several  hours 
there,  ascertained  to  my  entire  satisfaction  that  all  the  facts  communicated  to  me 
were  true,  and  that  this  movement  at  Lawrence  was  the  beginning  of  a  plan,  or- 
iginating in  that  city,  to  organize  insurrection  throughout  the  Territory;  and  especially 
in  all  towns,  cities,  or  counties,  where  the  Republican  party  have  a  majority.  Law- 
rence is  the  hot-bed  of  all  the  abolition  movements  in  this  Territory.  It  is  the  town 
established  by  the  abolition  societies  of  the  East,  and  whilst  there  are  respectable 
people  there,  it  is  filled  by  a  considerable  number  of  mercenaries,  who  are  paid  by 
abolition  societies  to  perpetuate  and  diffuse  agitation  throughout  Kansas,  and  prevent 
a  peaceful  settlement  of  this  question.  Having  failed  in  inducing  their  own  so-called 
Topeka  State  Legislature  to  organize  this  insurrection,  Lawrence  has  commenced  it 
herself,  and,  if  not  arrested,  the  rebellion  will  extend  throughout  the  Territory." 

He  then  calls  for  troops,  and  a  regiment  being  placed  at  his  command,  he  pro- 
ceeds : 

"  The  regiment  will  be  commanded  by  Colonel  Cooke,  who  will  act  in  obedience 
to  my  orders.  I  shall  encamp  in  the  immediate  vicinage  of  Lawrence,  and  in  a  man- 
ner conformably  to  the  law  will  put  down,  by  military  force,  if  necessary,  this  most 
wicked  rebellion. 

"  In  order  to  send  this  communication  immediately  by  mail,  I  must  close  by  as- 
suring you  that  the  spirit  of  rebellion  pervades  the  great  mass  of  the  Republican 
party  of  this  Territory,  instigated,  as  I  entertain  no  doubt  they  are,  by  Eastern  so- 
cieties, having  in  view  results  most  disastrous  to  the  Government  and  to  the  Union; 
and  that  the  continued  presence  of  General  Harney  here  is  indispensible,  as  or- 
iginally stipulated  by  me,  with  a  large  body  of  dragoons  and  several  batteries." 

In  his  proclamation  of  the  same  date,  after  making  most  earnest  appeals,  he 
says : 

"  A  rebellion  so  iniquitous,  and  necessarily  involving  such  awful  consequences, 
has  never  before  disgraced  any  age  or  country. 

"Permit  me  to  call  your  attention,  as  still  claiming  to  be  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  to  the  results  of  your  revolutionary  proceedings.  You  are  inaugurating  re- 
bellion and  revolution;  you  are  disregarding  the  laws  of  Congress  and  of  the  ter- 
ritorial government,  and  defying  their  authority;  you  are  conspiring  to  overthrow 
the  government  of  the  United  States  in  this  Territory.  Your  purpose,  if  carried  into 
effect  in  the  mode  designated  by  you,  by  putting  your  laws  forcibly  into  execution, 
would  involve  you  in  the  guilt  and  crime  of  treason." 

Governor  Walker,  in  his  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  of  July  20,  1857,  says  : 

"There  is  imminent  danger,  unless  the  territorial  government  is  sustained  by  a 


441 

large  body  of  the  troops  of  the  United  States,  that  for  all  practical  purposes,  it  will 
be  overthrown  or  reduced  to  a  condition  of  absolute  imbecility.  I  am  constrained, 
therefore,  to  inform  you  that,  with  a  view  to  sustain  the  authority  of  the  United  States 
in  this  Territory,  it  is  indispensably  necessary  that  we  should  have  immediately 
stationed  at  Fort  Leavenworth  at  least  two  thousand  regular  troops,  and  that  Gen- 
eral Harney  should  be  retained  in  command." 

Again,  in  his  letter  of  August  3d,  1857,  he  urges  a  reinforcement  to  the  already 
large  body  of  troops  in  the  Territory  : 

"The  spirit  of  insurrection,  of  resistance  to. the  laws,  and  to  the  territorial  gov- 
ernment, still  pervades  Kansas,  and  manifests  itself  in  their  newspapers,  in  violent 
harangues,  in  the  enrollment  and  drilling  of  their  troops,  and  in  open  threats  for  the 
use  of  the  insurgent  forces  at  the  October  election.  Menaces,  indeed,  have  been  made 
in  the  most  public  manner,  to  drive  the  constitutional  convention  by  force  in  Sep- 
tember next  from  Lecompton.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  becomes  my  duty  to 
renew  my  request,  so  often  made,  that  two  thousand  regular  troops,  chiefly  mounted 
men,  should  be  sent  immediately  into  Kansas,  together  with  two  batteries." 

I  have  thus  elaborately  shown  who  was  to  be  blamed  for  all  the  troubles  in  Kansas. 
Now,  sir,  what  was  the  remedy,  as  openly  avowed  by  all  parties?  A  convention,  a 
constitution,  and  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  sovereign  State.  Accordingly,  on  the 
15th  August,  1855,  a  general  meeting  was  held  by  the  free-State  men,  which  initiated 
the  movement  which  became  general  throughout  the  Territory.  The  delegates  thus 
elected  met  at  Topeka  on  the  19th  day  of  September,  1855,  and  resolved  upon  a  con- 
vention; and  fixed  upon  the  second  Tuesday  of  October  to  hold  an  election  for  dele- 
gates to  a  convention  to  be  held  at  Topeka  on  the  fourth  Tuesday  (23d)  of  October. 
The  convention  met,  drafted  a  constitution,  which  was  submitted  to  the  people  on  the 
15th  day  of  December,  1855,  and  adopted  by  a  vote  of  only  seventeen  hundred  and 
thirty  one,  and  ordered  an  election  for  State  officers,  to  be  held  on  the  15th  January, 
1856.  The  Legislature  then  elected,  besides  various  other  matters,  elected  United 
States  Senators,  to  one  of  whom,  General  J.  H.  Lane,  was  assigned  the  duty  of  pre- 
senting the  new  constitution  and  the  memorial  asking  for  admission  into  the  Union. 
It  was  presented  to  the  Senate,  I  think,  on  the  7th  of  April,  18^6.  It  was  declared  in 
debate  there  to  be  vitiated  by  fraud  and  forgery;  and,  sir,  the  honorable  Senator  who 
presented  it  requested  that  it  should  be  returned  to  him;  and  when  it  was  returned, 
he  gave  it,  in  disgust,  back  to  the  man  from  whom  he  had  received  it.  This  consti- 
tution was  urged  as  the  sovereign  remedy  for  all  the  ills  of  Kansas.  The  minority 
report  of  Mr.  Collamer  declares  that  "  they  saw  no  earthly  source  of  relief  but  in 
the  formation  of  a  State  government  by  the  people,  and  the  acceptance  and  ratifica- 
tion thereof  by  Congress." 

Mr.  Seward  avowed  his  readiness  to  receive  it,  even  though  the  population  of  the 
Territory  might  not  exceed  twenty-five  thousand  souls.  And  this  House,  on  the  30th 
of  June,"  1856,  by  a  vote  of  107  yeas  to  106  nays,  passed  the  bill  admitting  Kansas  into 
the  Union  under  the  Topeka  constitution.  The  Senate  also  passed  a  bill,  generally 
called  the  Toombs  bill,  authorizing  the  people  of  Kansas  to  form  a  constitution.  That 
bill,  when  introduced,  had  a  provision  that  the  constitution  should  be  submitted  to  the 
people;  but,  when  it  was  reported  back  from  the  committee,  it  was  reported  back 
with  that  provision  stricken  out.  President  Pierce  had  previously,  in  a  special  mes- 
sage, recommended  it  in  the  following  words  : 

"This,  it  seems  to  me,  can  be  best  accomplished  by  providing  that,  when  the 
inhabitants  of  Kansas  may  desire  it,  and  shall  be  of  sufficient  numbers  to  constitute 
a  State,  a  convention  of  delegates,  duly  elected  by  the  qualified  voters,  shall  assemble 
to  frame  a  constitution,  and  thus  prepare,  through  regular  and  lawful  means,  for  its 
admission  into  the  Union  as  a  State.  I  respectfully  recommend  the  enactment  of  a 
law  to  that  effect." 

About  the  same  time,  the  Territorial  Legislature,  at  its  July  session,  1856,  passed 
a  law  submitting  the  question  of  a  convention  to  the  people;  the  first  section  of 
which  is  in  the  following  words  : 

"  Sec.  1.  That  there  shall  be,  at  the  first  general  election  to  come  off  in  October, 
1856,  a  poll  opened  at  the  several  places  of  voting  throughout  this  Territory,  for 
taking  the  sense  of  the  people  of  this  Territory  upon  the  expediency  of  calling  a  con- 
vention to  form  a  State  constitution." 

The  election  was  held;  and  the  people  voted  in  favor  of  holding  a  convention. 
In  accordance  with  this  vote,  the  Territorial  Legislature  passed  "  An  act  to  Provlde 
for  the  taking  a  census,  and  the  election  of  delegates  to  a  convention,  on  the  19th 
February,  1857.  The  eighth  section  of  said  act  provides  that  the  delegates  to  the 
convention  shall  be  elected  "  on  the  third  Monday  in  June  next."  And  the  sixteenth 
section  provides  that  they  shall  assemble  in  convention  "on  the  first  Monday  of  bep- 
tember  next,"  (1857.)     The  election  was  held,  and  the  delegates  duly  assembled.    Un 


442 

the  7th  of  November,  1857,  the  convention  completed  its  labors,  submitting  only  the 
clause  in  reference  to  slavery  to  the  vote  of  the  people,  which,  it  was  provided, 
should  be  taken  on  the  21st  of  December  following. 

Thus  every  branch  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  every  party  in  the  Terri- 
tory, although  disjointed  in  action,  agreed  in  the  remedy  for  the  pacification  of 
Kansas,  to  wit,  admission  into  the  Federal  Union. 

Allow  me  to  remark  that  both  constitutions  had  been  formed  in  peace.  Both 
parties  had  held  their  preliminary  elections  without  interference.  There  was  no  con- 
test; no  struggle;  no  collision;  and  it  may  be  fairly  inferred,  in  the  absence  of  all 
motive,  there  was  no  fraud. 

Both  constitutions  are  now  before  this  House;  the  Topeka  constitution,  framed 
by  the  convention  called  for  that  purpose,  and  the  Lecompton  constitution,  framed 
by  the  convention  also  assembled  for  that  purpose;  and  both  very  similar  in  their 
organization. 

Was  the  Topeka  constitution  the  emanation  of  legal  authority  ?  and  does  it  re- 
present the  voting  population,  as  recognized  by  the  laws  of  the  Territory?  I  quote 
from  Judge  Douglas's  report.     He  says,  speaking  of  the  Topeka  movement: 

"With  regard  to  the  regularity  of  these  proceedings,  your  committee  see  no  ne- 
cessity for  further  criticism  than  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  it  was  the  move- 
ment of  a  political  party,  instead  of  the  whole  body  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  con- 
ducted without  the  sanction  of  law,  and  in  defiance  of  the  constituted  authorities,  for 
the  avowed  purpose  of  overthrowing  the  territorial  government  established  by 
Congress." 

He  further  says,  page  33  : 

"  Your  committee  have  made  these  voluminous  extracts  from  the  best  authenti- 
cated reports  which  they  have  been  able  to  obtain  of  the  proceedings  of  the  con- 
vention, for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  it  was  distinctly  understood  on  all  sides  that 
the  adoption  of  the  proposition  for  organizing  the  State  government  before  the  assent 
of  Congress  for  the  admission  of  the  State  should  be  obtained,  was  a  decision  in 
favor  of  repudiating  the  laws,  and  overthrowing  the  territorial  government  in  de- 
fiance of  the  authority  of  Congress.  By  this  decision,  as  incorporated  into  the 
schedule  to  the  constitution,  the  vote  on  the  ratification  of  the  constitution  was  to 
be  held  on  the  15th  of  December,  1855,  and  the  election  for  all  State  officers  on  the 
third  Tuesday  of  January,  1856." 

Upon  this  subject  I  need  say  no  more.  Was  the  Lecompton  constitution  the 
emanation  of  legal  authority  ?  and  does  it  represent,  truly  and  fairly,  the  voting 
population,  under  congressional  and  territorial  laws?  It  is  known  to  us  all  that  the 
Territorial  Legislature  of  Kansas,  at  its  session  in  1856,  passed  an  act  submitting  to 
the  people,  at  the  general  election  in  October,  1856,  "the  expediency  of  calling  a 
convention  to  form  a  State  constitution."  That,  in  obedience  to  the  will  ot  the 
people,  the  Legislature,  on  the  19th  February,  1857,  passed  a  law  providing  for  the 
election  of  delegates,  to  take  place  on  the  15th  June,  and  the  convention  to  assemble 
on  the  4th  day  of  September  thereafter.  Great  efforts  were  made  to  bring  all  parties 
to  the  support  of  those  laws.  On  the  17th  of  April,  1857,  Secretary  Stanton  issued 
his  inaugural  as  the  acting  Governor  of  the  Territory,  in  which  he  says  : 

"The  Government  of  the  United  States  recognizes  the  authority  of  the  territorial 
government  in  all  matters  which  are  within  the  scope  of  the  organic  act  of  Congress 
and  consistent  with  the  Federal  Constitution.  I  hold  that  there  can  be  no  other 
rightful  authority  exercised  within  the  limits  of  Kansas,  and  I  shall  proceed  to  the 
faithful  and  impartial  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  Territory,  by  the  use  of  all  the 
means  placed  in  my  power  and  which  may  be  necessary  to  that  end. 

"The  Government  especially  recognizes  the  territorial  act  which  provides  for  as- 
sembling a  convention  to  form  a  constitution,  with  a  view  to  making  application  to 
Congress  for  admission  as  a  State  into  the  Union.  That  act  is  regarded  as  presenting 
the  only  test  of  the  qualification  of  voters  for  delegates  to  the  convention,  and 
all  preceding  repugnant  restrictions  are  thereby  repealed.  In  this  light,  the  act 
must  be  allowed  to  have  provided  for  a  full  and  fair  expression  of  the  will  of  the 
people,  through  the  delegates  who  may  be  chosen  to  represent  them  in  the  constitu- 
tional convention." 

Governor  Walker,  in  his  inaugural  of  the  27th  of  May,  1857,  says  : 
"  But  it  is  said  that  the  convention  is  not  legally  called,  and  that  the  election 
will  not  be  freely  and  fairly  conducted.  The  Territorial  Legislature  is  the  power 
ordained  for  this  purpose  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States;  and  in  opposing  it, 
you  resist  the  authority  of  the  Federal  Government.  That  Legislature  was  called 
into  being  by  the  Congress  of  1854,  and  is  recognized  in  the  very  latest  congressional 
legislation."  ********** 

"  I  see  in  this  act  calling  the  convention  no  improper  or  unconstitutional  restric- 


443 

tions  upon  the  right  of  suffrage.  I  see  in  it  no  test  oath  or  other  similar  provisions 
objected  to  in  relation  to  previous  laws,  but  clearly  repealed  as  repugnant  to  the 
provisions  of  this  act,  so  far  as  regards  the  election  of  delegates  to  this  convention. 
It  is  said  that  a  fair  and  full  vote  will  not  be  taken.  Who  can  safely  predict  such  a 
result?  Nor  is  it  just  for  a  majority,  as  they  allege,  to  throw  the  power  into  the 
hands  of  a  minority,  from  a  mere  apprehension  (I  trust  entirely  unfounded)  that  they 
will  not  be  permitted  to  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage." 

And  adds  : 

"The  people  of  Kansas,  then,  are  invited,  by  the  highest  authority  known  to  the 
Constitution,  to  participate  freely  and  fairly  in  the  election  of  delegates  to  frame  a 
constitution  and  State  government." 

Senator  Douglas,  in  his  celebrated  Springfield  speech,  made  within  three  days  of 
the  election  of  delegates  to  the  Kansas  convention,  says  : 

"  Kansas  is  about  to  speak  for  herself,  through  her  delegates  assembled  in  con- 
vention to  form  a  constitution,  preparatory  to  her  admission  into  the  Union  on  an 
equal  footing  with  the  original  States.  Peace  and  prosperity  now  prevail  throughout 
her  borders.  The  law  under  which  her  delegates  are  about  to  be  elected  is  be- 
lieved to  be  just  and  fair  in  all  its  objects  and  provisions.  There  is  every  reason  to 
hope  and  believe  that  the  law  will  be  fairly  interpreted  and  impartially  executed,  so  as 
to  insure  to  every  bona  fide  inhabitant  the  free  and  quiet  exercise  of  the  elective 
franchise." 

Well,  sir,  the  Lecompton  convention  met;  and  on  the  7th  of  November  last  com- 
pleted their  labors.  A  constitution  was  formed  and  adopted,  except  as  to  the  slavery 
clause,  and  that  was  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  to  be  taken  on  the  21st  of 
December,  1857.     Slavery  was  voted  in  by  a  large  majority. 

A  violent  outcry  was  raised  against  this  constitution  by  those  who  had  throughout 
refused  to  share  in  the  necessary  steps  to  its  formation,  and  by  Mr.  Douglas  and  his 
friends,  who  had  previously  and  habitually  denounced  those  thus  refusing,  as  insur- 
gents; a  strange  and  ominous  combination,  of  which  we  are  now  collecting  the 
bitter  fruits. 

Mr.  Chairman,  every  consideration  that  could  influence  a  good  citizen  called  for 
a  speedy  settlement  of  this  territorial  strife  and  agitation.  It  was  an  instrument  of 
political  mischief  in  the  hands  of  designing  demagogues,  and  was  largely  used  to 
the  disturbance  of  the  public  peace  and  the  danger  of  the  Union.  Yet,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, strange  as  it  may  be,  it  is  a  melancholy  and  deplorable  truth,  the  Hon.  S.  A. 
Douglas,  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  to  the  amazement  of  the  whole  country,  with  the 
exception  of  that  portion  of  it  in  his  confidence,  on  the  first  reading  of  the  President's 
message  dissented  from  its  Kansas  policy;  and  charged  the  President  with  having 
committed  "  a  fundamental  error,"  in  two  days  thereafter,  in  an  elaborate  speech  ad- 
dressed to  the  Senate.  Various  grounds  of  objection  are  taken  by  him;  and  among 
them,  that  the  whole  proceeding  for  a  convention  in  Kansas  is  illegal,  and  refers  to 
the  case  of  Arkansas  as  in  point,  and  in  which  the  Attorney  General  gave  his  opinion. 
He  says  : 

"But  while  the  Attorney  General  decided,  with  the  approbation  of  the  Adminis- 
tration of  General  Jackson,  that  the  Territorial  Legislature  had  no  power  to  call  a 
convention,  and  that  its  action  was  void  if  it  did,  he  went  further  : 

"  '  No  law  has  yet  been  passed  by  Congress  which  either  expressly  or  impliedly 
gives  to  the  people  of  Arkansas  the  authority  to  form  a  State   government.' 

"Nor  has  there  been  any  in  regard  to  Kansas.  The  two  cases  are  alike  thus  far. 
They  are  alike  in  all  particulars  so  far  as  this  question  involving  the  legality  and  the 
validity  of  the  Lecompton  convention  is  concerned.     The  opinion  goes  on  to  say  : 

"  For  the  reasons  above  stated,  I  am,  therefore,  of  opinion  that  the  inhabitants 
of  that  Territory  have  not  at  present,  and  that  they  cannot  acquire  otherwise  than  by 
an  act  of  Congress,  the  right  to  form  such  a  government." 

Again  : 

"If  you  apply  these  principles  to  the  Kansas  convention,  you  find  that  it  had  no 
power  to  do  any  act  as  a  convention  forming  a  government;  you  find  that  the  act 
calling  it  was  null  and  void  from  the  beginning;  you  find  that  the  Legislature  could 
confer  no  power  whatever  on  the  convention." 

In  his  celebrated  Springfield  speech  he  takes  a  different  ground,  and  makes  the 
following  remarks  : 

"  The  organic  act  secures  to  the  people  of  Kansas  the  sole  and  exclusive  right 
of  forming  and  regulating  their  domestic  institutions  to  suit  themselves,  subject  to  no 
other  limitation  than  that  which  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  imposes.  The 
Democratic  party  is  determined  to  see  the  great  fundamental  principles  of  the  or- 
ganic act  carried  out  in  good  faith.     The  present  election  law  in  Kansas  is  acknowl- 


444 

edged  to  be  fair  and  just — the  rights  of  the  voters  are  clearly  denned — and  the  ex- 
ercise of  those  rights  will  be  efficiently  and  scrupulously  protected.  Hence,  if  a 
majority  of  the  people  of  Kansas  desire  to  have  it  a  free  State  (and  we  are  told  by  the 
Republican  party  that  nine-tenths  of  the  people  of  that  Territory  are  free-State  men) 
there  is  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  bringing  Kansas  into  the  Union  as  a  free  State,  by 
the  votes  and  voice  of  her  own  people,  and  in  conformity  with  the  great  principles  of 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  act;  provided  all  the  free-State  men  will  go  to  the  polls  and  vote 
their  principles  in  accordance  with  their  professions." 

Governor  Walker  also  took  similar  ground  in  his  inaugural  and  in  public  speeches. 
In  his  letter  of  the  15th  July  last  to  Mr.  Cass,  he  informs  him  of  his  discussion  with 
one  Mr.  Foster,  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  Michigan  case  having  been  quoted  by 
him  as  a  precedent  in  support  of  the  free-State  party.     He  then  adds  : 

"  I  showed  them  that,  in  the  case  of  Michigan,  the  Territorial  Legislature  were 
clothed  by  Congress  with  no  authority  to  assemble  a  constitutional  convention  and 
adopt  a  State  constitution;  but  that,  under  the  comprehensive  language  of  the  Kansas 
and  Nebraska  bill,  the  Territorial  Legislature  was  clothed  with  such  authority  by  the 
laws  of  Congress,  and  that  the  authority  of  such  a  convention  to  submit  the  consti- 
tution to  the  vote  of  the  people  was  as  clear  and  certain  as  that  of  Congress  itself, 
and  that  opposition  to  such  a  proceeding  was  equivalent  to  opposing  the  laws  of 
Congress." 

To  this  may  be  added  the  opinion  of  Governor  Wise,  who  says  : 

"If  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act  did  not  enable  the  people  to  hold  a  convention,  or 
to  make  laws  for  their  own  self-government,  it  has  no  virtue  in  it  at  all.  The  Kansas- 
Nebraska  act  organized  a  Territory,  and  the  people  thereof  were  enabled  thereby  to 
govern  themselves.  By  their  own  laws  they  organized  a  convention  to  frame  a  con- 
stitution of  State  government.  That  convention  was,  therefore,  de  jure,  legitimate. 
It  formed  a  constitution,  and  had  a  right  to  form  it." 

And  last,  though  not  least,  the  views,  strong  and  conclusive,  of  President 
Buchanan,  in  his  special  message,  in  which,  speaking  of  the  organic  act,  he  says  : 

"  That  this  law  recognized  the  right  of  the  people  of  the  Territory,  without  any 
enabling  act  from  Congress,  to  form  a  State  constitution,  is  too  clear  for  argument. 
For  Congress  'to  leave  the  people  of  the  Territory  perfectly  free,'  in  framing  their 
constitution,  'to  form  and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  sub- 
ject only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,'  and  then  to  say  that  they  shall  not 
be  permitted  to  proceed  and  frame  a  constitution  in  their  own  way,  without  an  express 
authority  from  Congress,  appears  to  be  almost  a  contradiction  in  terms.  It  would 
be  much  more  plausible  to  contend  that  Congress  had  no  power  to  pass  such  an  en- 
abling act,  than  to  argue  that  the  people  of  a  Territory  might  be  kept  out  of  the 
Union  for  an  indefinite  period,  and  until  it  might  please  Congress  to  permit  them  to 
exercise  the  right  of  self-government.  This  would  be  to  adopt,  not  'their  own  way,' 
but  the  way  which  Congress  might  prescribe." 

But  were  there  doubts  about  the  necessity  of  an  enabling  act,  it  will  be  seen  it 
was  unnecessary,  as  there  was  no  purpose  to  oust  Federal  authority  in  Kansas  with- 
out the  consent  of  Congress;  and  thus  Mr.  Douglas  might  have  been  saved  a  large 
portion  of  his  remarks.  I  refer  to  the  sixth  section,  and  so  much  of  the  seventh  as 
is  pertinent,  of  the  schedule  of  the  Lecompton  constitution,  as  follows: 

"  Sec.  6.  All  officers,  civil  and  military,  holding  their  offices  under  authority  of 
the  Territory  of  Kansas,  shall  continue  to  hold  and  exercise  their  respective  offices 
until  they  shall  be  superseded  by  the  authority  of  the  State. 

"  Sec.  7.  This  constitution  shall  be  submitted  to  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  at  its  next  ensuing  session,  and  as  soon  as  official  information  has  been  re- 
ceived that  it  is  approved  by  the  same,  by  the  admission  of  the  State  of  Kansas, 
as  one  of  the  sovereign  States  of  the  United  States,  the  president  of  this  con%rention 
shall  issue  his  proclamation  to  convene  the  State  Legislature  at  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, within  thirty-one  days  after  publication." 

Here  it  is  expressly  and  solemnly  provided  that  the  State  shall  not  supersede  ter- 
ritorial authority  without  the  assent  of  Congress. 

The  next  ground  taken  was  that  the  constitution  was  to  be  submitted  to  the 
people,  by  the  universal  understanding  of  all  parties.  The  position  is  put  in  the  fol- 
lowing words: 

"  I  understand,  from  the  history  of  the  transaction,  that  the  people  who  voted 
for  delegates  to  the  Lecompton  convention,  and  those  who  refused  to  vote — both 
parties — understood  the  territorial  act  to  mean  that  they  were  to  be  elected  only  to 
frame  a  constitution,  and  submit  it  to  the  people  for  their  ratification  or  rejection.  I 
say  that  both  parties  in  that  Territory,  at  the  time  of  the  election  of  delegates,  so  un- 
derstood the  object  of  the  convention.     Those  who  voted   for  delegates  did   so  with 


445 

the  understanding  that  they  had  no  power  to  make  a  government,  but  only  to  frame 
one  for  submission;  and  those  who  staid  away  did  so  with  the  same  understanding." 

He  proceeds,  and  says  : 

"It  is  sufficient  for  my  purpose  that  the  Administration  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment unanimously,  that  the  administration  of  the  territorial  government,  in  all  its  parts, 
unanimously  understood  the  territorial  law  under  which  the  convention  was  as- 
sembled, to  mean  that  the  constitution  to  be  formed  by  that  convention  should  be 
submitted  to  the  people  for  ratification  or  rejection,  and,  if  not  confirmed  by  a  ma- 
jority of  the  people,  should  be  null  and  void,  without  coming  to  Congress  for 
approval." 

Now  the  statement,  in  toto  ccelo,  is  denied. 

I  have  before  referred  to  that  act  passed  in  1856,  submitting  to  that  vote  of  the 
people  the  question  of  convention  or  no  convention.  In  that  act  of  eight  brief  sec- 
tions, not  a  word  was  said  about  the  powers  of  the  convention.  That  was  left  to  the 
general  policy  which  had  ruled  on  such  occasions;  and  yet,  in  that  act  was  the 
place  for  trammeling  the  convention.  The  people  having  voted  in  favor  of  a  con- 
vention, an  act  was  passed  on  the  19th  day  of  February,  1857,  providing  for  the 
election  of  delegates  to  such  convention;  but  it  did  not  provide  for  submitting  the 
constitution,  when  framed,  to  the  people.  For  that  reason  Governor  Geary  vetoed 
the  bill;  and  yet  the  two  Houses  passed  it  by  a  constitutional  majority,  the  veto  not- 
withstanding.    Governor  Geary  argues  no  other  question,  but  says  : 

"Passing  over  other  objections,  I  desire  to  call  your  serious  attention  to  a 
material  omission  in  the  bill. 

"I  refer  to  the  fact  that  the  Legislature  has  failed  to  make  any  provision  to 
submit  the  constitution,  when  framed,  to  the  consideration  of  the  people  for  their 
ratification  or  rejection." 

On  the  17th  April,  1857,  Governor  Stanton,  speaking  of  the  above  law,  and 
urging  the  people  to  peace  and  union,  says  : 

"  I  do  not  doubt,  however,  that,  in'  order  to  avoid  all  pretext  for  resistance  to  the 
peaceful  operation  of  this  law,  the  convention  itself  will,  in  some  form,  provide  for 
submitting  the  great  distracting  question  regarding  their  social  institution,  which 
has  so  long  agitated  the  people  of  Kansas,  to  a  fair  vote  of  all  the  actual  bona  fide  resi- 
dents of  the  Territory  with  every  possible  security  against  fraud  and  violence.  If 
the  constitution  be  thus  framed,  and  the  question  of  difference  thus  submitted  to  the 
decision  of  the  people,  1  believe  that  Kansas  will  be  admitted  by  Congress  without 
delay  as  one  of  the  sovereign  States  of  the  American  Union,  and  the  territorial 
authorities  will  be  immediately  withdrawn." 

Governor  Stanton  did  not  think  the  convention  was  expected  to  submit  the  con- 
stitution. All  he  expected  was  that  the  slavery  clause  alone  should  be  submitted  to 
the  people.  And  such  iucis  the  policy  of  Governor  Walker,  as  it  appears  from  sun- 
dry articles,  which  I  will  now  submit  : 

"The  St.  Louis  Leader  contains  in  its  issue  of  the  6th,  an  article  on  the  subject, 
which  we  recognize  as  proceeding  from  one  of  the  ablest  minds  in  the  State;  a 
man   who  has  long  stood   at   the    head    of    the    national    Democracy  of  Missouri." 

*  *  *  *  *  *  J*C 

"  Nearly  a  year  ago,  when  Governor  Walker  passed  through  this  city  on  his  way 
to  Kansas,  he  was  free  to  unfold  his  plans  to  his  political  friends.  In  a  conversation 
with  him  in  the  Planter's  House  we  remember  that  he  distinctly  announced  as  his 
programme,  that  a  constitution  should  be  formed  perfectly  unexceptionable,  ignoring 
the  subject  of  slavery,  and  that  a  schedule  should  accompany  it  submitting  the  question  of 
slavery  to  the  people.  We  printed  it  in  the  Leader  at  the  time,  and  it  went  forth  to  the 
world;  it  was  published  all  over  the  country,  both  before  and  after  that  time." 

Nor  is  this  all.  Governor  Walker,  appealing  to  the  people,  and  presenting  various 
and  earnest  views  why  they  should  go  into  the  convention,  and  referring  directly  to 
the  question  of  submitting  the  constitution,  says  in  his  inaugural  of  May  27  : 

"  You  should  not  console  yourselves,  my  fellow-citizens,  with  the  reflection  that 
you  may,  by  a  subsequent  vote,  defeat  the  ratification  of  the  constitution.  Although 
most  anxious  to  secure  to  you  the  exercise  of  that  great  constitutional  right,  and  be- 
lieving that  the  convention  is  the  servant,  and  not  the  master  of  the  people,  yet  1 
have  no  power  to  dictate  the  proceedings  of  that  body.  I  cannot  doubt,  however, 
the  course  they  will  adopt  on  this  subject.  But  why  incur  the  hazard  of  the  prelim- 
inary formation  of  a  constitution  by  a  minority,  as  alleged  by  you,  when  a  majority, 
by  their  own  votes,  could  control  the  forming  of  that  instrument?" 

And  so  late  as  the  10th  September,  in  his  proclamation,  he  said  : 

"The  only  remedy  rests  with  the  convention  itself,  by  submitting,  if  they  deem 


446 

best,  the  constitution  for  ratification  or  rejection  to  the  vote  of  the  people,  under  such 
just  and  reasonable  qualifications  as  they  may  prescribe." 

But  it  is  argued  and  insisted  that  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  act  requires  the  con- 
stitution to  be  submitted  to  the  people.  It  is  difficult  to  perceive  in  what  part  of  this 
act  that  doctrine  is  to  be  found.  Mr.  Walker  sums  up  his  doctrine  in  his  letter  of  resig- 
nation, as  follows  : 

"  It  will  be  perceived  that  this  doctrine,  that  'sovereignty  makes  constitutions,' 
that  'sovereignty  rests  exclusively  with  the  people  of  each  State,'  that  'sovereignty 
cannot  be  delegated,'  that  '  it  is  inalienable,  indivisable,'  'a  unit  incapable  of  par- 
tition,' are  doctrines  ever  regarded  by  me  as  fundamental  principles  of  public  liberty 
and  of  the  Federal  Constitution." 

I  very  much  incline  to  the  opinion  that  the  Governor  expresses  the  true  doctrine. 
I  can  cheerfully  agree  with' him  that  sovereignty  is  "a  unit  incapable  of  partition." 
But,  with  concurrence  in  this  sentiment  or  principle,  how  different  our  conclusions. 
He  denies  to  this  "  unit  "  the  right  to  deputize  power;  and  in  so  doing,  shows  that 
"sovereignty"  does  not  exist.  I  contend  that  this  "unit"  has  all  power — can  do  by 
another  what  it  can  do  by  itself — and  so  is  "sovereignty."  What  is  sovereignty?  It 
is  uncontrollable  power.  And  yet  Governor  Walker  denies  the  right  to  "sovereignty" 
to  delegate  its  power.  In  Athens,  the  people,  thirty  thousand  voters,  met  and  exer- 
cised sovereignty.  It  was  a  pure  democracy;  that  is  impossible  with  us.  Neither  in 
the  States  nor  in  the  federation  formed  by  them,  is  that  possible.  Representation  is 
therefore  a  necessity,  without  which  our  institutions  could  not  last  a  minute.  Hence, 
the  system  of  delegated  power  is  as  familiar  to  the  public  mind  as  household  words. 
It  prevails  in  every  form  of  government  known  to  the  people.  Nor  is  it  true  that  a 
sovereign  delegating  power  thereby  parts  with  sovereignty.  It  is  not  the  less  his  be- 
cause he  allows  to  another  the  privilege  or  the  duty  of  using  it;  for  the  sovereign  can 
discharge  his  agent  and  resume  the  power  with  which  he  had  intrusted  him. 

The  delegates  who  framed  the  Federal  Constitution  were  elected  by  the  Legisla- 
tures of  the  several  States,  not  by  the  people;  the  Constitution  was  adopted  by  conven- 
tions of  the  several  States,  not  by  the  people.  The  fifth  article  of  the  Constitution  pro- 
vides for  its  amendment  by  a  convention,  the  acts  of  which  are  to  be  ratified  by  the 
Legislatures  or  the  conventions  of  three-fourths  of  the  States,  as  Congress  may  pre- 
scribe, but  not  by  the  people;  and  yet  the  preamble  to  the  Constitution  proclaims  it  the 
work  of  the  people.     It  says  : 

"  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States  "***** 
"  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  America." 

Yet  this  language  is  used  in  the  face  of  the  facts  stated,  upon  the  well-known 
principle  that  what  a  man  does  by  another,  he  does  by  himself — qui  facit  per  alium, 
facit  per  se. 

Let  us  look  to  the  States,  as  divided  by  the  Revolution.  And  first  of  the  old 
States.  There  have  been  four  constitutions  in  New  York:  the  first  two,  that  of  1776 
and  that  of  1801,  were  adopted  by  the  conventions;  the  other  two,  that  of  1827  and 
that  of  1848,  were  formed  by  conventions,  submitted  to  and  ratified  by  the  people, 
because  so  required  by  law.  In  Pennsylvania,  her  only  two  constitutions  were 
framed  and  adopted  by  conventions,  and  the  latter  is  to  this  day  in  force,  except  in 
certain  amendments  that  have  been  adopted  by  the  vote  of  her  people.  The  consti- 
tution of  Rhode  Island  was  the  charter  of  a  King,  and  it  took  rebellion  and  insur- 
rection to  induce  that  State  to  change  her  organic  law.  The  Virginia  Legislature  re- 
solved itself  into  a  convention,  on  the  25th  of  June,  1776,  and  on  the  29th  of  the 
same  had  framed  and  proclaimed,  without  popular  intervention  of  any  sort,  her  first 
constitution,  under  which,  without  any  change  whatever,  her  people  enjoyed  all  the 
blessings  of  liberty  for  upwards  of  half  a  century. 

Now  to  the  new  States;  and  I  regard  those  as  such  which  were  admitted  into 
the  Union  subsequent  to  the  Revolution.  The  constitution  of  Vermont  was  "  or- 
dained "  without  submission  to  the  people.  This  State  is  the  birthplace  of  Senator 
Douglas.  Illinois  did  not  submit  her  constitution  to  the  people.  This  is  the  State 
of  the  Senator's  adoption.  The  constitution  of  Missouri  was  not  adopted  by  the 
people.  Without  further  enumeration,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  state  that  a  majority  of 
all  the  States  of  our  Union  have,  at  some  time,  lived  under  constitutions  framed  and 
adopted  by  conventions,  and  without  any  test  by  the  suffrage  of  the  people.  And 
yet  they  are  not  less  the  government  of  the  people. 

There  is,  then,  nothing  in  the  law,  nothing  in  the  precedents,  which  requires 
that  the  Lecompton  constitution  should  be  submitted  to  the  people:  and  abundance 
of  both  law  and  precedent  which  left  the  whole  question  of  submission  to  the  people, 
in  the  discretion  of  the  convention.  The  pledges  of  Calhoun  and  associates,  when 
candidates  for  the  convention,  were  obviously  designed,  like  the  appeals  of  Gov- 
ernor Walker,  to  influence  the  free-State   men   to  join  in  the  convention  movement; 


447 


but  it  utterly  failed.  They  are  content.  And  it  is  no  little  assurance  on  the  part  of 
the  free-State  men  to  complain  of  the  violated  promises  of  those  whose  persona  they 
reviled  in  whose  elections  they  did  not  share,  and  whose  work  they  intended,  if  pos- 
sible, to  destroy.  Then  why  sumbit  the  constitution?  They  did  their  best  to  enforce 
their' own  constitution;  they  refused  to  participate  in  the  vote  upon  a  convention; 
they  refused  to  participate  in  the  election  of  delegates;  they  proclaimed  bitter  hos- 
tility to  the  Lecompton  constitution;  and  it  became  an  interesting  question  with  the 
law-and  order  party  how  their  work  could  be  saved  from  the  effects  of  factious  op- 
position, &c.  . 

Governor  Walker,  among  many  other  similar  things,  says  : 

"The  spirit  of  insurrection,  of  resistance  to  the  laws,  and  to  the  territorial  gov- 
ernment, still  pervades  Kansas,  and  manifests  itself  in  their  newspapers,  in  violent 
harangues,  in  the  enrollment  and  drilling  of  their  troops,  and  in  open  threats  tor  the 
use  of  the  insurgent  forces  at  the  October  election.  Menaces,  indeed,  have  been 
made  in  the  most  public  manner,  to  drive  the  constitutional  convention  by  force  in 
September  next,  from  Lecompton." 

Governor  Stanton  says,  in  his  message  of  the  8th  December  : 
-  I  ascertained  that  designs  of  a  most  desperate  character  were  freely  discussed 
in  their  private  meetings,  and  that  violent  measures  had  probably  been  agreed  upon 
to  be  executed  at  a  favorable  time.  It  was  to  me  certain  that  the  mass  of  the 
people  were  determined  not  to  submit  to  the  constitution,  nor  to  participate  in  the 
election,  but  probably  to  prevent  its  taking  place.  A  large  military  force  would  have 
been  necessary  everywhere  to  enforce  order."     ^  #  .  #  , 

«*it  thus*  appears  that  in  the  election  of  the  l5th  June  last  for  delegates  to  the 
convention,  the  great  mass  of  the  people  purposely  refrained  from  voting,  and  eft 
the  wnole  proceeding,  with  all  its  important  consequences,  to  the  active  minority 
under  whose  auspices  the  law  had  been  enacted,  and  also  executed  so  far  as  that 
could  be  done  byfhe  executive  officers,  without  the  concurrence  of  the  majority  of 

the  people."  .        -, 

Are  these  the  people  to  whom  to  make  concessions  r 

PrMf.f„l0cast:.'hae„^;^chy^rroSfic,e,0onf  SSc*.  duties  imposed  on  such 
Sheriffo/Sis  alt  shall  devolve  upon,  and  be  P^^^^^C^n 
court  of  the  county  in  which  such  vacancy  may  exist  who  .a '  aPP^" ^sheriff  and 

requirements  of  this  act,  as  applied  to  sheriffs.  Drobate   iudge,  upon 

-  Sec.  4.  It  shall  be,  and  is  hereby,  made  the  duty  of  each  Wooa^  J"  >y  ^  t 
such  return!  being  made,  without  delay,  to  cause  to  be  posted  at  three  of  fljemost 
public  places  in  each  election  precinct  in  his  county  or   d  strict  one  c  py 

ha*fe^ 

^sSt  Said  probate  judge  shall  ^S^feS^ff 
from  the  time  of  receiving  said  returns  unt.   the  fir.t  day  01      /  district   and 

as  shall  be  most  convenient  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  or  determine  ac. 

proceed  to  inspection  of  said  returns,  and  hear  correc *:  ™a  n  £ j  the  omis. 
cording  to  the  facts,  without  unreasonable  de?a^p?U^seXn^  any  name  on  said 
sion  of  any  person  from  said  returns,  or  the  ^fe^g  o{  said  returns,  and 
returns,  and  any  other  questions  affec ^^^ffSSSlS^i  witnesses,  and 
for  this  purpose  shall  have  power  to  ^'^^X^i  deem  necessary." 
compel  their  attendance  in  such  manner  as  said  3«dSe  sha''  ^onable. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  anything  more  fair  an*  ""^^venth  section  of  said 
The  census  being  take  and  corrected,  it  is  provided  by  the  sever 

law  as  follows  ,  c____*arv  Qf  the  Territory,  so  soon  as 

"It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Governor  and  Secre  ar>  o t  1  make'an  apportion- 

the   census  shall   be  completed  and  returns  made,  to  proceed  to 

ment  of  the  members  for  the  convention,     «.  {ul]v  framed.     But  it  was  said 

I  have  thus  shown  that  the  law  was  ample  f™^^  *  ^  stanton 

that  the  registry  was  imperfectly  taken.     Let  us  see  whose 

says,  in  reply  to  complaint  upon  this  subject  . 


448 

"  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  reply  to  your  statement  of  facts;  I  cannot  do  so  from 
any  personal  knowledge  enabling  me  either  to  admit  or  deny  them.  I  may  say,  how- 
ever, I  have  heard  statements  quite  as  authentic  as  your  own,  and  in  some  instances 
from  members  of  your  own  party,  [Republican,]  to  the  effect  that  your  political 
friends  have  very  generally — indeed,  almost  universally — refused  to  participate  in  the 
pending  proceedings  for  registering  the  names  of  the  legal  voters.  In  some  instances 
they  have  given  fictitious  names,  and  in  numerous  others  they  refused  to  give  any 
names  at  all.  You  cannot  deny  that  your  party  have  heretofore  resolved  not  to  take 
part  in  the  registration,  and  it  appears  to  me  that,  without  indulging  ungenerous  sus- 
picious of  the  integrity  of  officers,  you  might  well  attribute  any  errors  and  omissions 
of  the  sheriffs  to  the  existence  of  this  well-known  and  controlling  fact." 

In  his  message  of  the  8th  December,  1857,  he  says  : 

"In  consequence  of  this  embittered  feeling,  and  the  mutual  distrust  naturally 
thereby  engendered,  one  of  the  parties,  constituting  a  large  majority  of  the  people, 
refrained  almost  entirely  from  any  participation  in  the  proceedings  instituted  under 
the  law  aforesaid.  The  census  therein  provided  for  was  imperfectly  obtained  from 
an  unwilling  people  in  nineteen  counties  of  the  Territory;  while  in  the  remaining 
counties,  being  also  nineteen  in  number,  from  various  causes  no  attempt  was  made 
to  comply  with  the  law.  In  some  instances,  people  and  officers  were  alike  averse  to 
the  proceeding  ;  in  others,  the  officers  neglected  or  refused  to  act;  and  in  some  there 
was  but  a  small  population,  and  no  efficient  organization,  enabling  the  people  to  secure 
a  representation  in  the  convention.  Under  the  operation  of  all  these  causes  combined, 
a  census  list  was  obtained  of  only  nine  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty-one  legal 
voters,  confined  to  precisely  one-half  the  counties  of  the  Territory,  though  these,  un- 
doubtedly, contained  much  the  larger  part  of  the  population." 

In  his  New  York  speech,  he  said  in  reply  to  complaints  about  the  registry  : 

"  I  said  to  them,  gentlemen,  you  might  have  gone  to  the  probate  judges  and  had 
those  names  put  on  the  lists.  But  they  said  it  was  not  their  duty  to  go;  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  officers  to  register  their  names.  Now,  it  is  useless  for  any  of  us  to  disguise  the 
truth.  The  great  mass  of  the  free-State  people  did  not  care  a  fig  whether  their  names 
were  registered  or  not;  they  were  opposed  to  the  convention;  they  were  opposed 
to  all  the  laws  and  all  the  proceedings  under  it." 

But  it  is  charged  that  about  one-half  of  the  counties  were  without  a  census  or  a 
registry,  and  that  it  would  be  a  great  wrong  to  put  a  constitution  on  a  people  who 
had  no  share,  and  could  have  had  no  share,  in  its  formation.  This  is  strongly  put, 
and  is,  in  effect,  answered  by  what  I  have  just  said.  But  I  will  examine  into  the  sub- 
ject still  further. 

The  territorial  law  laying  out  the  Territory  into  counties,  names  three — Wash- 
ington, Clay,  and  Dickinson — which  lie  in  the  extreme  western  portion  of  the  Terri- 
tory, and,  being  without  inhabitants,  were  unorganized.  The  law,  therefore,  pro- 
viding for  the  election  of  delegates  did  not  name  them.  Of  the  thirty-four  counties 
remaining,  the  registry  and  return  was  made,  as  appears  by  the  proclamation  of 
Governor  Stanton  as  follows  : 

No.  of  District.  Names  of  Counties.  No.  of  legal  voters 

1  Doniphan 1,086 

2  Brown 206 

Nemeha 140 

3  Atchison 804 

4  Leavenworth 15837 

5  Jefferson 555 


6  Calhoun. 


291 

7  Marshall 205 

8  Riley 353 

Pottawatomie 205 

9  Johnson 496 

10  Douglas ' 1,318 

11  Shawnee,  Richardson,  and  Davis 283 

12  Lykings 413 

13  Franklin no  return 

14  Four  counties no  return 

15  Two  counties no  return 

16  Lynn 413 

17  One  county  (Anderson)    no  return 

18  Bourbon,  McGee,  Allen,  and  Dorn 645 

19  Five  counties no  return 

Total   9,251 


449 

By  the  seventh  section  of  the  election  law,  it  is  made  the  duty  of  the  Governor 
to  form  these  counties  into  election  districts,  and  to  assign  to  each  district  its  share  of 
representation.  This  duty  was  performed  by  Governor  Stanton,  as  appears  by  Ins 
proclamation  dated  20th  May,  1S57.  From  this  it  will  be  seen,  that  of  the  thirty-four 
organized  counties  in  the  Territory,  twenty-one  were  represented  in  th<-  convention. 
Of  the  thirteen  counties  left,  seven  counties  had  scarcely  any  population,  so 
that  they  did  not  cast  a  vote  at  the  election  on  the  4th  of  January,  when  the  free-State 
men  had  everything  their  own  way.  Of  the  remaining  six,  at  the  election  of  the  41  h 
January,  when  the  free-State  men  reported  a  much  larger  vote  than  ever  reported 

ire,  the  following  is  the  vote  ; 

Madison 50  votes 

Woodson    40     " 

Franklin         304     " 

Breckinridge 191      '< 


Coffee. 
Anderson . 


•453 
•»77 


1,215     " 
1  have  sufficiently  shown  why  those  counties  were  not  registered.     But  I  will  re- 
sort to  more  direct  and  positive  testimony  as  to  part  of  them. 

It  must  not  be  overlooked  that  during  the  whole  period  of  time  up  to  the  7th  of 
November,  1857,  when  the  constitution  was  completed,  neither  Governor  Walker  nor 
Stanton  ever  found  fault  with  the  registry,  but  acted  upon  it,  and  urged,  with  extra- 
ordinary zeal,  the  formation  of  a  constitution  predicated  upon  that  basis,  ay,  scornfully 
repelled  objections  made  thereto  by  the  free-State  men.  When,  however,  that  ob- 
jection was  made  by  them,  and  pressed  by  others,  with  effect,  the  exposition  already 
made  became  a  duty,  to  which  1  will  add  the  positive  testimony  of  one  George  Wilson. 
On  the  5th  day  of  February,  1858,  he,  among  other  things,  deposed  as  follows  : 

"At  the  time  when  the  census  was  taken  under  the  law  providing  for  the  Le- 
compton  convention  I  was  the  acting  judge  of  probate  for  Anderson  county,  Kansas, 
and  am  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  two  wings  of  the  free-State  party  in  that  county, 
composed  of  more  moderate  Free-Soilers  and  the  adherents  of  Lane,  threatened  the 
life  of  any  who  should  attempt  to  take  the  legal  census;  and  I  can  say,  under  oath, 
that  the  life  of  any  one  making  the  attempt  to  execute  the  law  in  that  particular  was 
in  danger,  and  the  foregoing  threats  were  the  cause  which  prevented  the  taking  of  the 
census  in  Anderson  county  within  the  prescribed  time."         *  *  *         * 

"In  regard  to  Passmore  Williams,  judge  of  probate  for  Allen  county,  members  of 
the  so-called  free-State  party  stated  to  me  in  person  that  if  he  attempted  to  execute 
the  law,  and  did  not  leave,  they  would  kill  him;  and  I  know  the  fact  that  he  did  not 
so  execute  the  law,  and  left  the  county,  because  he  believed  his  life  in  danger.  Mr. 
Williams  is  from  Illinois,  and  is  a  free-State  man,  but  belongs  to  the  Democratic 
party." 

"  In  regard  to  Esquire  Yocum,  judge  of  probate  for  Franklin  county,  he  left  the 
county  and  the  Territory  on  account  of  losing  his  negro  property  and  having  his  life 
menaced.  The  office  being  vacant,  the  Legislature  which  passed  the  census  law  ap- 
pointed a  new  judge  of  probate  and  other  officers,  who  refused  to  serve,  alleging  as  a 
reason  that  they  were  afraid  so  doing  would  cost  them  their  lives.  Consequently,  no 
census  was  taken,  and  no  legal  election  held." 

Governor  Stanton  says  : 

"In  the  other  eighteen  counties  there  was  no  census  and  no  registration.  I  think 
it  very  probable,  although  I  do  not  know  the  fact,  that  in  some  of  these  counties  the 
officers  were  deterred  and  discouraged  bv  the  people  from  the  duty  of  taking  the 
census."  ##*#**## 

"  I  have  no  doubt  it  is  true,  that  the  great  majority  of  the  free-State  people  did 
not  wish  to  be  represented,  and  did  not  intend  to  be  represented  at  all.  They  deter- 
mined to  hold  off  from  it." 

Nor  was  there  any  occasion  "  to  hold  off  from  it  "  from  any  apprehension  of 
Missouri  hordes.  Governor  Walker,  in  his  letter  of  the  27th  May  to  General  Cass, 
says  : 

"  There  is  no  longer  any  pretext  for  the  suggestion  that  any  portion  of  the  people 
of  Missouri  intend  to  invade  the  ballot-box  at  any  election  in  Kansas." 

Let  me  say  here,  also,  that  Mr.  Calhoun  wrote  to  Judge  Douglas,  not  as  a  Senator, 
but  as  a  friend,  stating  the  plan  that  was  to  be  pursued,  and  asking  his  advice  in 
reference  to  it.  No  answer  to  that  letter  was  ever  received,  but  the  Chicago  Times  came 
out  and  indorsed  the  proposed  plan.  I  state,  as  a  fact  which  will  not  be  disputed  in 
any  quarter,  that  Senator  Douglas,  not  as  a  Senator,  but  as  a  conspicious  friend  of 


450 

this  gentleman,  was  written  to  in  the  month  of  September,  asking  his  advice  as  to  the 
course  to  be  pursued  in  the  submission  of  the  constitution,  and  that  he  never  re- 
sponded to  that  letter  by  dissent  or  affirmation.  I  repeat,  the  Chicago  Tunes,  under- 
stood to  be  under  his  influence,  was  published,  containing  an  article  indorsing  the 
suggestions  of  that  letter.  I  have  not  time  to  go  into  this  question  as  I  would  like; 
but  such  are  the  facts  in  relation  to  this  matter. 

What  then,  do  we  see?  An  overwhelming  majority  of  the  voters  embraced  in 
the  registry,  and  the  omissions  in  every  material  particular  occasioned  by  the  violence 
of  those  who  now  complain.  In  the  Senate  debate  of  the  4th  March,  Mr.  Hammond 
said  : 

"Mr.  President,  in  the  debate  which  occurred  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  month, 
I  understood  the  Senator  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Douglas]  to  say  that  the   question  oi   tl 
reception  of  the  Lecompton  constitution  was  narrowed  down  to  a  single  point.     That 
point  was,  whether  that  constitution  embodied  the  will  of  the  people  of  Kansas.     Am 
I  not  correct  ? 

"Mr.  Douglas.  The  Senator  is  correct,  with  this  qualification  :  I  could  waive  the 
irregularity  and  agree  to  the  reception  of  Kansas  into  the  Union  under  the  Lecompton 
constitution,  provided  I  was  satisfied  that  it  was  the  act  and  deed  of  that  people,  and 
embodied  their  will.  There  are  other  objections;  but  the  others  I  could  overcome,  if 
this  point  were  disposed  of. 

"Mr.  Hammond.  I  so  understood  the  Senator.  I  understood  that  if  he  could  be 
satisfied  that  this  constitution  embodied  the  will  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  all  other  de- 
fects and  irregularities  could  be  cured  by  the  act  of  Congress,  and  that  he  himself 
would  be  willing  to  permit  such  an  act  to  be  passed." 

Away,  then,  goes  the  enabling  act.  Away  the  necessity  of  submitting  the  con- 
stitution. Away  go  all  questions  of  fraud.  The  only  question  is,  is  the  Lecompton 
constitution  "the  act  and  deed  of  that  people,  and  embodies  their  will  ?"  This  is  a  grave 
question,  and  presents  the  real  and  substantial  point  in  this  discussion.  What  fact  is 
it  necessary  to  know  ?  What  principle  is  it  requisite  to  adopt  to  enable  us  to  know 
that  the  constitution  of  a  State  "  is  the  act  and  deed"  of  her  people,  and  embodies 
"their  will?"  The  lawful  authority  of  the  Territory,  at  the  July  session  of  1856, 
passed  a  law  submitting  the  question  of  a  convention  to  the  people  to  be  voted  upon 
at  the  ensuing  general  election  in  October.  The  vote  was  taken,  and  the  people  de- 
cided to  have  a  convention.  This  step  was  taken  in  the  midst  of  the  presidential  elec- 
tion. The  great  Democratic  party  knew  the  vote  that  was  cast — knew  that  one  party 
held  off  claiming  for  itself  to  be  largely  in  the  majority;  and  yet  they  said  that  all 
was  right  and  fair  and  proper.  These  are  facts — undoubted  facts.  In  pursuance  of 
the  will  of  the  people  thus  expressed,  the  Legislature  passed  a  law  providing  for  the 
election  of  delegates  to  the  convention.  It  was  vetoed  by  Governor  Geary  because 
it  contained  no  clause  submitting  the  constitution  to  the  people.  It  became  a  law  not- 
withstanding; was  approved  by  the  Federal  Executive;  by  Senator  Douglas;  by  Gov- 
ernor Walker  and  Secretary  Stanton.  These  are  facts.  The  election  was  held  on  the 
15th  June.  The  convention  assembled — completed  their  labors  on  the  7th  November 
last  by  adopting  and  ratifying  the  constitution  in  question,  except  the  slavery  clause, 
which  was  voted  on  by  the  people  on  the  21st  December  last.  These  are  facts — every 
one  of  them;  clear,  undoubted,  unmistakable  facts.  There  is  no  controlling  pre- 
cedent or  established  principle  which  requires  or  forbids  the  submission  of  the  con- 
stitution to  the  people  for  ratification  or  rejection;  but,  whether  ratified  by  the  con- 
vention or  by  the  vote  of  the  people,  it  is  equally  the  act  of  the  people,  and  equally 
authoritative  and  valid. 

In  our  community  of  States,  the  people  are  known  only  when  they  speak  at  the 
polls.  Any  other  mode  of  expression  is  unknown  to  our  institutions;  and  any  other 
mode  of  expression  is  sternly  disregarded  or  rebuked.  It  is  in  this  way  that  consti- 
tutional government  is  maintained,  popular  sovereignty  preserved,  and  personal  hap- 
piness promoted.  On  the  10th  April,  1856,  Mr.  Douglas,  in  his  place  in  the  Senate, 
said  : 

"  I  know  of  but  two  ways  of  governing  men — but  two  ways  by  which  men  have 
ever  been  governed — by  laws,  or  by  force.  If  we  give  countenance  to  these  people  who 
disregard  the  laws,  they  will,  of  necessity,  place  themselves  in  a  condition  to  be  sub- 
jected to  force  only.  What  sanction  has  popular  government  but  obedience  to  law? 
What  security  have  we  for  government,  if  we  disregard  obedience  to  law?  What  is 
the  great  merit  which  we  claim  for  our  Government  over  the  other  Governments  of 
the  earth  ?     That  we  are  a  Government  of  laws,  and  of  laws  only." 

Was  this  doctrine  sound  in  1856?  Is  it  otherwise  now?  Subsequent  to  this,  and 
on  the  12th  June,  1857,  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  Mr.  Douglas  addressed  a  large  assembly 
of  his  countrymen.  Having  Kansas  in  view,  and  in  express  reference  to  the  steps 
being  taken  for  a  convention  and  the  extraordinary  condition  of  things  in  the  Terri- 
tory, he  carefully  and  deliberately  said  : 


451 

"If  any  portion  of  the  inhabitants,  acting  under  the  advice  of  political  leaden  in 
distant  States,  shall  chouse  to  absent  themselves  from  the  polls,  and  withhold  their 
votes,  with  a  view  of  leaving  the  free-State  Democrats  in  a  minority,  and  thus  securing 
a  pro-slavery  constitution,  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  a  majority  of  the  people 
living  under  it,  let  the  responsibility  rest  on  those  who,  for  partisan  purposes,  will 
sacrifice  the  principles  they  profess  to  cherish  and  promote.  Upon  them  and  upon  the 
political  party  for  whose  benefit  and  under  the  direction  of  whose  leaders  they  act,  let 
the  blame  be  visited  of  fastening  upon  the  people  of  a  new  State  institutions  repug- 
nant to  their  feelings,  and  in  violation  of  their  wishes." 

Here  the  Senator,  so  recently  as  the  past  summer,  recognizes  the  doctrine  for 
which  I  am  contending,  and  distinctly  repudiates  his  present  majority  idea.  Recol- 
lect that  he  himself  states  the  points  of  this  speech.     He  says  : 

"  The  points  which  I  am  requested  to  discuss  are  : 

"  ist.     The  present  condition  and  prospects  of  Kansas. 

"  2d.  The  principles  affirmed  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the 
Dred  Scott  case. 

"  3d.  The  condition  of  things  in  Utah,  and  the  appropriate  remedies  for  existing 
evils." 

Governor  Walker  also  says  in  his  inaugural  address  to  the  people  of  Kansas, 
under  date  of  the  27th  May,  1857  : 

"  The  law  has  performed  its  entire  appropriate  function  when  it  extends  to  the 
people  the  right  of  suffrage,  but  it  cannot  compel  the  performance  of  that  duty. 
Throughout  our  whole  Union,  however,  and  wherever  free  government  prevails, 
those  who  abstain  from  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  suffrage  authorize  those  who  do 
vote  to  act  for  them  in  that  contingency,  and  the  absentees  are  as  much  bound  under 
the  law  and  constitution,  where  there  is  no  fraud  or  violence,  by  the  act  of  the  ma- 
jority of  those  who  do  vote,  as  if  all  had  participated  in  the  election.  Otherwise,  as 
voting  must  be  voluntary,  self-government  would  be  impracticable,  and  monarchy  or 
despotism  would  remain  as  the  only  alternative." 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  anything  more  explicit.  This  doctrine  was  officially 
avowed  to  the  people  of  Kansas  as  a  warning  and  a  guide,  and  with  a  hope  of  in- 
ducing them  to  unite,  but  without  avail,  in  the  formation  of  a  constitution. 

But  the  Cincinnati  platform  embraces  the  same  principle;  and  the  great  assembly 
which  formed  it  declared  as  follows: 

11  Resolved,  That  we  recognize  the  right  of  the  people  of  all  the  Territories,  including 
Kansas  and  Nebraska,  acting  through  the  legally  and  fairly  expressed  will  of  a  ma- 
jority of  actual  residents,  and  whenever  the  number  of  their  inhabitants  justifies  it, 
to  form  a  constitution,  with  or  without  domestic  slavery,  and  be  admitted  into  the 
Union  upon  terms  of  perfect  equality  with  the  other  States," 

To  show  how  this  was  understood  by  Mr.  Douglas  at  the  meeting  held  in  this  city, 
to  rejoice  over  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  he  said  : 

"  The  platform  was  equally  explicit  in  reference  to  the  disturbances  in  relation  to 
the  Territory  of  Kansas.  It  declared  that  treason  was  to  be  punished,  and  resistance 
to  the  laws  was  to  be  put  down.  That  was  the  whole  question  involved — whether  the 
supremacy  of  the  laws  should  be  maintained,  or  whether  mob  violence  should  over- 
come the  officer  of  the  law.  On  this  question,  between  law  and  violence,  the  Dem- 
ocracy had  expressed  their  sentiments;  they  say  that  the  laws  shall  be  executed  so 
long  as  they  stand  upon  the  statute-book.  But  the  Black  Republicans  say  that  they 
will  trample  upon  the  law,  and  shoot  down  the  officers  who  execute  it,  because  they 
do  not  like  the  law.  The  whole  question  was,  whether  law  and  order  and  the  consti- 
tution shall  prevail,  or  whether  lawless  violence  and  mob  law  shall  rule  in  their  stead." 
********  * 

"And  the  principle  of  the  Black  Republicans  is  to  obey  such  laws  as  they  like, 
and  repudiate  those  they  do  not  like.  They  claim  protection  under  the  constitution, 
and  refuse  to  yield  obedience  to  it.  The  difference  between  them  and  the  Democracy 
is,  that  the  Democracy  support  the  Constitution  in  all  its  parts,  with  equal  fidelity, 
without  reference  to  whether  they  like  or  dislike  it.  It  is  no  excuse  for  a  man  to  say 
that  he  does  not  like  a  law,  and  therefore  will  not  obey  it.  Did  they  ever  know  a 
criminal  who  liked  the  law.  [Applause.]  Law-breakers  never  like  the  punishment 
that  follows  the  act.     Law-abiding  men  have  no  fear  of  the  supremacy  of  the    law." 

Nor  were  such  sentiments  uttered  by  Mr.  Douglas  for  the  first  time.  He  has  often 
uttered  them  : 

"  The  Democratic  party  is  ever  a  law-abiding,  Constitution  loving,  conservative 
party— a  party  which  holds  that  all  true  liberty  is  to  be  found  under  the  protection  of 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  and  that  the  laws  made  in  pursuance  of  the  Constitu- 
tion must  be  obeyed.     If  we  dislike  them,  they  can  only  be   repealed  in  conformity 


452 

with  the  Constitution;  and  we  must  submit  to  them  as  long  as  they  are  on  the  statute- 
book,  unless  they  are  unconstitutional,  and  their  constitutionality  is  a  question  which 
must  be  decided  by  the  courts.  It  is  not  to  be  settled  by  mobs  resisting  law,  by 
shooting  down  the  officers  of  the  law,  by  pledging  candidates  for  the  judicial  bench 
to  decide  contrary  to  the  Constitution  and  their  oaths  as  the  condition  of  their  election. 
The  courts  must  decide  the  question  according  to  the  Constitution  and  the  law,  and  all 
must  abide  by  that  decision.  Thus  we  are  brought  back  to  the  simple  point,  whether 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  as  expounded  by  the  highest  tribunals  in  the  land,  sir  " 
prevail;  or  whether  a  town  meeting  or  a  political  organization,  when  it  finds  itself 
the  minority,  is  at  liberty  to  become  a  mob,  to  defy  the  law,  and  shoot  down  i 
officers." 

It  is  difficult  for  doctrine  to  be  more  clearly  stated.     Those  who   "choose  to  a 
sent  themselves  from  the  polls,"  says  Mr.  Douglas,  and  "  those  who  abstain  from  the 
exercise  of  the  right  of  suffrage,"  says  Governor  Walker,  allow  to  those  who  do  goto 
the  polls  the  right  to  govern  them;   "otherwise,"  says  Governor  Walker,  "  monarchy 
or  despotism  would  remain  as  the  only  alternative." 

I  think  it  not  out  of  place,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  invite  attention  to  the  case  Luther  vs. 
Borden,  &c.  7  Howard.  It  grew  out  of  the  Dorr  rebellion,  and  presents  a  case  in 
many  respects  analagous  to  the  one  now  under  consideration. 

When  the  Revolution  commenced,  the  then  colony  of  Rhode  Island  had  a  gov- 
ernment formed  under  a  charter  granted  by  Charles  II.,  King  of  England.  The  State 
of  Rhode  Island  made  no  change  in  the  form  of  government.  This  charter  restricted 
the  right  of  suffrage  to  freeholders.  For  years  strenuous  efforts  were  made,  without 
success,  to  obtain  an  extension  of  the  right  of  suffrage. 

In  1841  the  people  held  meetings  and  elected  delegates  to  a  convention  to  form  a 
constitution,  which  was  formed  and  submitted  to  the  people,  who,  as  it  was  alleged, 
ratified  it  by  a  large  majority  of  all  the  qualified  voters,  according  to  the  new  consti- 
tution, and  also  according  to  the  charter  of  Charles. 

Under  this  constitution  elections  were  held  for  Governor,  members  of  the  Legis- 
lature, &c,  who  assembled  together  in  May,  1842,  and  proceeded  to  organize  the  new 
government. 

But  the  charter  government  did  not  acquiesce  in  these  proceedings.  On  the  con- 
trary it  passed  stringent  laws,  and  finally  an  act  declaring  the  State  under  martial 
law. 

Martin  Luther  brought  an  action  of  trespass,  quare  clasitm  /regit,  against  the  de- 
fendants for  breaking  and  entering  the  plaintiffs  house,  on  the  29th  June,  1842.  De- 
fendants replied  that  they  necessarily  broke  the  plaintiff's  house  in  seeking  to  arrest 
him  for  aiding  and  abetting  an  insurrection  of  men  in  arms,  to  overthrow  the  lawful 
Government  of  the  State,  by  military  force — to  which  the  plaintiff  replied  generally. 
And  on  the  trial  offered  to  prove  that  the  new  constitution  had  been  adopted  by  a  ma- 
jority of  those  under  the  new  constitution,  and  also  under  the  old  charter;  and  that 
the  citizens  of  this  State,  in  their  original  sovereign  capacity,  have  ratified  and  adopted 
said  constitution  by  a  large  majority;  and  the  plaintiff  moved  the  court,  Judge  Story 
presiding,  to  instruct  the  jury  that,  if  they  so  found,  then  the  pleas  of  the  defendants 
show  no  justification.  But  the  court  refused  such  instruction,  and  thus  the  case  went 
into  the  Supreme  Court. 

The  plaintiffs  counsel,  Mr.  Hallett,  among  many  points,  laid  down  the  fol- 
lowing : 

"The  institution  of  American  liberty  is  based  upon  the  principles  that  the  people 
are  capable  of  self  government,  and  have  an  inalienable  right  at  all  times,  and  in  any 
manner  they  please,  to  establish  and  alter  or  change  the  constitution  or  particular 
form  under  which  that  government  shall  be  effected.  This  is  especially  true  of  the 
several  States  composing  the  Union,  subject  only  to  a  limitation  provided  by  the 
United  States  Constitution,   that  the  State  governments    shall  be  republican. 

"That  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  is  supreme,  and  may  act  in  forming  gov- 
ernment without  the  assent  of  the  existing  government." 

"If  these  questions  are  answered  in  the  negative,  then  the  theory  of  American 
free  governments  for  the  States  is  unavailable  in  practice." 

"The  anti-republican  doctrine  that  legislative  action  or  sanction  is  necessary,  as  the 
mode  of  effecting  a  change  of  State  government,  was  broached  for  the  first  time, 
under  the  United  States  Government,  by  one  Senator,  in  the  debate  in  Congress  upon 
the  admission  of  Michigan,  December,  1846." 

The  defendant's  counsel,  Mr.  Whipple,  states  the  issue  : 

"Mr.  Whipple,  for  the  defendant  in  error,  said  that  the  question  to  be  decided 
was,  whether  a  portion  of  the  voters  of  a  State,  either  the  majority  or  minority,  when- 
ever they  choose,  assembling  in  mass  meeting  without  any  law,  or  by  voting  where 
there  is  no  opportunity  of  challenging  votes,  may  overthrow  the  constitution  and  set 
up  a  new  one  ?  But  he  would  leave  the  discussion  of  general  principles  to  his  asso- 
ciate, and  confine  himself  to  the  more  minute  facts  of  the  case." 


453 

Mr.  Webster,  on  the  same  side,  agreed  with  Mr.  Hallett. 

"  Let  me  state  what  I  understand  these  principle  to  be.  The  first  is,  that  the  people 
are  the  source  of  all  political  power.  Every  one  believes  this.  Where  else  is  there 
any  power  ?  " 

Mr.  Webster  said  : 

"But,  in  1776,  the  American  people  adopted  principles  more  especially  adapted 
to  their  condition.  They  can  be  traced  through  the  Confederation  and  the  present 
Constitution,  and  our  principles  of  liberty  have  now  become  exclusively  American. 
They  are  distinctly  marked.  We  changed  the  government  where  it  required  change; 
where  we  found  a  good  one  we  left  it.     Conservatism  is  visible  throughout." 

"Another  is,  that  the  qualification  which  entitles  man  to  vote  must  be  prescribed 
by  previous  laws  directing  how  it  is  to  be  exercised,  and  also  that  the  results  shall  be 
certified  to  some  central  power,  so  that  the  vote  may  tell.  We  know  no  other 
principle." 

"Our  American  mode  of  government  does  not  draw  any  power  from  tumultuous 
assemblages.     If  anything  is  established  in  that  way,  it  is  deceptive." 

"  Always  these  conventions  were  called  together  by  the  Legislature,  and  no  single 
constitution  has  ever  been  altered  by  means  of  a  convention  gotten  up  by  mass 
meetings.  There  must  be  an  authentic  mode  of  ascertaining  the  public  will  somehow 
and  somewhere.  If  not,  it  is  a  government  of  the  strongest  and  most  numerous.  It 
is  said  that,  if  the  Legislature  refuses  to  call  a  convention,  the  case  then  resembles  the 
Holy  Alliance  of  Europe,  whose  doctrine  it  was  that  all  changes  must  originate  with 
the  sovereign.  But  there  is  no  resemblance  whatever.  I  say  that  the  will  of  the 
people  must  prevail,  but  that  there  must  be  some  mode  of  finding  out  that  will.  The 
people  here  are  as  sovereign  as  the  crowned  heads  at  Laybach,  but  their  will  is  not  so 
easily  discovered." 

"The  Constitution  proceeds  upon  the  idea  that  each  State  will  take  care  and  es- 
tablish its  own  government  upon  proper  principles,  and  does  not  contemplate  these 
extraneous  and  irregular  alterations  of  existing  governments." 

The  question  which  the  court  was  called  upon  to  decide  was  one  of  sovereignty. 
Two  Legislatures  were  in  existence  at  the  same  time;  both  could  not  be  legitimate.  If 
legal  power  had  not  passed  away  from  the  charter  government,  it  could  not  have  got 
into  Dorr's.  The  position  taken  on  the  other  side  is,  that  it  had  so  passed  away;  and 
it  is  attempted  to  be  proved  by  votes  and  proceedings  of  meetings,  &c,  out  of  doors. 
This  court  must  look  elsewhere:  to  the  Constitution  and  laws  and  acts  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States." 

The  Supreme  Court,  in  its  elaborate  judgment,  countenanced  the  views  of  Mr. 
Webster,  and  says  : 

"  But  the  courts  uniformly  held  that  the  inquiry  proposed  to  be  made  belonged 
to  the  political  power,  and  not  to  the  judicial;  that  it  rested  with  the  political  power  to 
decide  whether  the  charter  government  had  been  displaced  or  not;  and  when  that  de- 
cision was  made,  the  judicial  department  would  be  bound  to  take  notice  of  it  as  the 
paramount  law  of  the  State,  without  the  aid  of  oral  evidence  or  the  examination  of 
witnesses;  that,  according  to  the  laws  and  institutions  of  Rhode  Island,  no  such  change 
had  been  recognized  by  the  political  power;  and  that  the  charter  government  was  the 
lawful  and  established  government  of  the  State  during  the  period  in  contest,  and  that 
those  who  were  in  arms  against  it  were  insurgents,  and  liable  to  punishment.  This 
doctrine  is  clearly  and  forcibly  stated  in  the  opinion  of  the  supreme  court  of  the 
State,  in  the  trial  of  Thomas  W.  Dorr,  who  was  the  Governor-elected  under  the  op- 
posing constitution,  and  headed  the  armed  force  which  endeavored  to  maintain  its 
authority." 

It  also  says  : 

"By  this  act,  the  power  of  deciding  whether  the  exigency  had  arisen  upon  which 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  bound  to  interfere,  is  given  to  the  President. 
He  is  to  act  upon  the  application  of  the  Legislature,  or  of  the  Executive;  and  conse- 
quently, he  must  determine  what  body  of  men  constitute  the  Legislature,  and  who  is 
the  Governor,  before  he  can  act.  The  fact  that  both  parties  claim  the  right  to  the 
government  cannot  alter  the  case,  for  both  cannot  be  entitled  to  it.  If  there  is  an 
armed  conflict,  like  the  one  of  which  we  are  speaking,  it  is  a  case  of  domestic  violence, 
and  one  of  the  parties  must  be  in  insurrection  against  the  lawful  government.  And 
the  President  must,  of  necessity,  decide  which  is  the  government,  and  which  party  is 
unlawfully  arrayed  against  it,  before  he  can  perform  the  duty  imposed  upon  him  by 
the  act  of  Congress." 

And  in  conclusion  adds  : 

"  No  one,  we  believe,  has  ever  doubted  the  proposition  that,  according  to  the  in- 
stitutions of  this  country,  the  sovereignty  in  every  State  resides  in  the  people   of  the 


454 

State, and  that  they  may  alter  and  change  their  form  of  government  at  their  own  pleasure 
But  whether  they  have  changed  it  or  not  by  abolishing  an  old  government  and  estab- 
lishing a  new  one  in  its  place,  is  a  question  to  be  settled  by  the  political  power.  And 
when  that  power  has  decided,  the  courts  are  bound  to  take  notice  of  its  decision,  and 
to  follow  it." 

The  constitution  of  a  State  cannot  be  changed  by  domestic  violence,  nor  can  the 
organic  act  of  a  Territory.  The  Constitution  forbids  it.  (Fourth  article,  fourth  sec- 
tion, and  second  article,  third  section.) 

Then  there  is  no  alternative.  The  will  of  the  people  can  alone  be  known  by  the 
exercise  of  the  right  of  suffrage.  Those  who  vote  must  govern  those  who  do  not. 
There  is  no  help  for  it;  and  the  only  majority  our  institution  can  recognize,  or  we  can 
know,  is  of  those  who  appear  at  the  polls,  and  cast  their  suffrage  in  the  manner  pre- 
scribed by  law.  How,  then,  can  Senator  Douglas  do  otherwise  that  support  the  Le- 
compton  constitution  ? 

But  it  is  said  that  the  election  ordered  by  the  free-State  Legislature  for  the  4th  of 
January,  discloses  the  fact  that  there  was  a  large  majority  against  the  Lecompton  con- 
stitution. Upwards  of  ten  thousand  majority  against  it !  And  shall  such  a  startling 
fact  be  disregarded  ? 

In  the  first  place,  this  vote  was  taken  with  a  knowledge  that  one  party  alone 
would  vote — it  was  ex  parte.  The  act,  too,  was  without  precedent.  It  may  be  safely 
affirmed  that  the  whole  history  of  constitutional  government  and  reform  cannot  show 
its  like  in  the  United  States.  Repeal  a  constitution  already  adopted  under  an  act 
calling  upon  the  people  to  vote  for  or  against  it !  But  the  vote  reported  as  cast  on 
that  occasion  is  manifestly  fraudulent.  Why  is  it  so  much  larger  than  was  ever  cast 
before  by  the  free-State  men  ?  Why  is  it  so  much  larger  than  that  cast  by  them  for 
State  officers  on  the  same  day  ?  Why  is  it  so  much  larger  than  the  memorial  gotten 
up  by  them  through  their  own  census,  taken  only  a  few  months  ago?  The  free-State 
vote  on  the  constitution  is  put  at  about  10,178;  on  State  officers  at  about  7,000;  on 
their  memorial  it  is  4,170. 

I  have  heretofore  shown  that  the  presidential  election  was  fought  upon  the  speedy 
admission  of  Kansas,  &c,  as  the  only  means  of  giving  peace  to  the  country.  Shall 
we  keep  it  open,  and  thus  play  into  the  hands  of  those  who  are  insurgents,  and  re- 
gard its  agitation  as  necessary  to  success  ?  Let  us  see  what  Judge  Douglas  has  here- 
tofore said  upon  this  point. 

In  April,  1856,  Mr.  Douglas,  in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  said  : 

"The  policy  is  avowed,  by  the  pretended  executive  officer  of  that  so-called  State, 
to  continue  the  condition  of  violence  by  inducing  Congress  to  withhold  appropriations 
to  pay  its  officers,  and  thus  enable  the  revolutionary  movement  to  be  successful. 
When  I  see  that  the  same  line  of  policy  is  marked  out  here,  showing  that  the  object 
is  to  prevent  any  settlement  of  the  question,  to  keep  up  revolution,  to  defeat  the  su- 
premacy of  the  law,  to  perpetuate  the  struggle,  I  feel  bound  to  give  it  no  countenance 
by  any  vote  of  mine. 

"  Gentlemen  have  been  kind  enough  to  say  that  the  object  of  this  bill  is  to  make 
a  slave  State  in  Kansas.  I  show  them  that,  by  the  provisions  of  the  bill,  its  object  is 
to  allow  the  people  to  make  just  such  a  State  as  they  wish.  The  Senator  from  Maine 
[Mr.  Fessenden]  says  he  has  a  right  to  go  a  little  behind  the  face  of  the  bill,  and  give 
his  opinion  that  the  object  is  to  make  Kansas  a  slave  State.  Conceding  that  right,  and 
acting  upon  it,  I  have  a  right  to  come  to  the  conclusion  that  all  these  gentlemen  want 
is  to  get  up  murder  and  bloodshed  in  Kansas  for  political  effect.  They  do  not  mean 
that  there  shall  be  peace  until  after  the  presidential  election.  They  sent  their  partisan 
agents  to  get  up  rebellion,  to  commit  crime,  to  burn  houses,  and  then  their  news- 
paper agents  are  to  report  these  acts  here,  and  charge  them  on  the  border-ruffians. 
This  whole  game  of  violence  there,  and  the  publication  of  it  here, is  done  by  the  one  and 
same  set  of  men — done  for  political  effect.  It  is  a  part  of  their  game.  They  do  not 
mean  that  there  shall  be  peace.  Their  capital  for  the  presidential  election  is  blood.  We 
may  as  well  talk  plainly.  An  angel  from  Heaven  could  not  write  a  bill  to  restore  peace 
in  Kansas  that  would  be  acceptable  to  the  Abolition  Republican  party  previous  to  the 
presidential  election.    [Laughter  and  applause  in  the  galleries.] 

"  Then,  sir,  if  it  be  an  evil  to  have  laws  in  force  infringing  the  freedom  of  speech 
in  the  Territory,  why  not  join  with  us  to  pass  this  bill,  which  obliterates  those  laws  ? 
If  it  be  an  evil  of  such  magnitude  as  to  justify  rebellion  and  bloodshed  to  have  test 
oaths  in  the  Territory,  why  not  join  us  in  blotting  them  out?  If  there  be  such  evils 
as  are  portrayed  in  Kansas,  why  not  join  us  in  applying  the  remedy?  No;  you  vainly 
hope  that  you  can  make  the  people  believe  that  the  Democracy  are  responsible  for 
the  consequences  of  your  own  acts,  and  thus  gather  political  capital  from  the  blood 
of  your  fellow-citizens,  if  violence  can  reign  and  excitement  last  until  the  presiden- 
tial election.     Hence,  law  must  not  prevail— life  must  not  be  safe— property  must  not 


455 

be  secure— peace  must  not  be  restored  in  Kansas,  if  the  Abolition-Republican  leaders 
can  prevent  it,  until  after  the  election.  You  mistake,  if  you  suppose  the  people  will 
not  be  able  to  understand  this  scheme." 

Such  was  the  opinion  of  Judge  Douglas  as  late  as  the  12th  June  last,  when,  in  his 
Springfield  speech,  he  said  : 

"If  such  is  not  the  result  let  the  consequences  be  visited  upon  the  heads  of  those 
whose  policy  it  is  to  produce  strife,  anarchy,  and  bloodshed  in  Kansas;  that  their 
party  may  profit  by  slavery  agitation  in  the  Northern  States  of  this  Union." 

Governor  Walker,  in  his  letter  of  27th  May,  1857,  to  Mr.  Cass,  says  : 

"  I  am  well  satisfied  that  a  large  portion  of  the  insurrectionary  party  in  this  Ter- 
ritory do  not  desire  the  peaceful  settlement  of  this  question,  but  wish  it  to  remain 
open  in  order  to  agitate  the  country  for  years  to  come.  Such  a  result  I  would  regard 
as  most  disastrous,  not  only  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  Kansas,  but  as  putting 
in  imminent  jeopardy  the  Government  itself." 

Governor  Walker  says,  in  his  official  letter  : 

"  The  professed  object  is  to  protect  the  polls  at  the  election  in  August  of  the  new 
insurgent  Topeka  State  Legislature.  The  object  of  taking  the  names  of  all  who  refuse 
enrollment  is  to  terrify  the  free-State  conservatives  into  submission.  This  is  proved 
by  recent  atrocities  committed  on  such  men  by  Topekaites.  The  speedy  location  of 
large  bodies  of  regular  troops  here,  with  two  batteries,  is  necessary;  the  Lawrence 
insurgents  await  the  development  of  this  new  revolutionary  military  organization." 

"You  are  aware  that  General  Lee  commanded  the  military  expedition  which  made  an 
incursion  into  this  Territory  last  year,  and  that  the  officers  of  the  staff  are  all  leading 
agitators  for  the  overthrow  of  the  territorial  government.  The  object  of  this  last 
requisition  is  believed  to  be  to  mark  for  persecution  and  oppression  all  those  persons, 
and  especially  free-State  Democrats,  who  refuse  to  unite  in  this  military  organization. 
The  purpose  is  universally  regarded  to  be  to  establish  a  reign  of  terror."      * 

"A  few  weeks  since,  one  of  these  conservative  Democrats,  who  had  committed 
no  other  offense  than  permitting  the  use  of  his  name  as  a  candidate  for  the  constitu- 
tional convention,  was  abused  and  injured  in  the  most  shocking  manner,  and  the  most 
revolting  atrocities  were  committed  upon  his   wife  by   some   of   the    insurrectionary 

r)£jrtv   '  *  ^  *  *  *  *  * 

*  *  *  "It  will  be  perceived  that  this  military  organization  embraces  the 

whole  Territory — being  arranged  into  four  divisions  and  eight  brigades."     * 

"August  18. — The  insurgent  military  organization  under  General  Lane  is  still 
progressing.  Arms  are  being  supplied,  and  his  troops  drilled  for  action.  We  are 
threatened  with  the  seizure  of  the  polls,  at  various  points  by  these  insurgent  forces. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  the  Topeka  party  claim  to  outnumber  their  opponents  at 
least  ten  to  one,  the  pretext  for  assembling  these  forces  to  protect  the  polls  is  evidently 
most  fallacious." 

To  all  this  much  more  might  be  added  of  the  same  character.  Can  any  man  who 
loves  order,  peace,  and  harmony,  desire  such  scenes  to  continue?  Will  Democrats 
who  desire  hereafter  to  be  so  regarded,  help  to  continue  such  scenes  ? 

So  late  as  the  12th  June,  1857,  Senator  Douglas  had  said  : 

"  Of  the  Kansas  question,  but  little  need  be  said  at  the  present  time.  You  are 
familiar  with  the  history  of  the  question,  and  my  connection  with  it.  Subsequent 
reflection  has  strengthened  and  confirmed  my  convictions  in  the  soundness  of  the 
principles  and  the  correctness  of  the  course  I  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  pursue  upon  that 
subject." 

What  has  occurred  since  to  induce  a  change  of  this  course  ?  I  fear  ambition  has 
done  its  work.  I  fear  imaginary  private  griefs  have  been  actively  at  work.  I  have 
heard  of  a  meeting  of  the  Illinois  delegation  to  consider  of  the  policy  to  be  pursued. 
I  give  at  least  one  gentleman  from  Illinois  notice  that  I  shall  bring  up  a  matter  in  con- 
nection with  the  movement  of  that  delegation  in  reference  to  this  defection  on  the 
Kansas  question,  when  I  have  an  opportunity  to  do  so.  I  intended  to  pay  my  respects 
to  the  gentleman  from  Ohio,  [Mr.  Cox,]  but  I  have  not  the  time. 

Mr.  Marshall,  of  Illinois.     Will  the  gentleman  yield  to  me  a  moment? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  How  much  time  have  I  ? 

A  Member.     Only  three  minutes. 

Mr.  Marshall,  of  Illinois.     I  want  to  say  this 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  cannot  yield.     How  much  time  have  I,  Mr.  Chairman  ? 

The  Chairman.     About  two  minutes. 

Mr.  Marshall,  of  Illinois.     I  merely  want  to  say  that  if  the  gentleman   has   any 


456 

thing  to  say  about  the  Illinois  delegation,  I  wish  he  would  charge  it,  and  not  insinuate 
it. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     I  do  charge  it  as  distinctly  as  I  can. 

Mr.  Marshall,  of  Illinois.     What  does  the  gentleman  charge  ? 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.     Will  gentlemen  give  me  time  to  go  on? 

The  Chairman.     The  gentleman  asks  that  his  time  may  be  extended  ? 

Mr.  Burnett.  I  object,  and  I  prefer  to  make  the  objection  upon  a  gentleman  on 
my  own  side. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Virginia.  I  will  say  this  in  conclusion,  that  the  delegation  from 
Illinois,  or  a  portion  of  them  at  any  rate,  met  together  here,  when  Congress  assembled 
to  consider  the  course  which  a  certain  gentleman  in  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol 
should  pursue,  and  the  means  he  should  use  to  secure  his  reelection  to  the  United 
States  Senate.  I  say  that  much;  I  will  make  out  the  case  when  I  have  the  time.  I  say 
that  that  certainly  extraordinary  action  has  resulted  in  a  concerted  movement,  having 
an  eye  alone  to  his  re-election. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 


457 


The  following  Epitaph  is  inscribed  on  the  Tomb  of  Gov- 
ernor Smith,  located  immediately  on  Midvale  Avenue,  in 
Hollywood  Cemetery,  Richmond,  about  fifty  (50)  steps  from 
the  Stone  Bridge  : 


WM.    SMITH, 
SON   OF 

CALEB  AND  MARYWAUGH  SMITH, 

OF  THE  COUNTY  OF  KING  GEORGE, 

COMMONWEALTH    OF   VIRGINIA. 

BORN,    SEPT.    6,    I797, 

DIED,    MAY    l8,    1887. 

REPRESENTATIVE    IN  THE   COUNCILS  OF  THE   STATE,  AND   TWICE   HER    GOVERNOR, 

TRIBUNE   FOR    HER    IN   THE   CONGRESSES   OF   THE   UNION    AND   OF   THE   CONFEDERACY, 

MAJ.-GEN.    IN   THE    ARMY   OF   THE   SOUTH. 

UNCONQUERABLE    IN    HIS    CONVICTIONS   AND   IN    HIS   FIDELITY   TO   PRINCIPLES, 

HE  WAS  IN  FORUM  AND  FIELD  THE  INFLEXIBLE  CHAMPION  OF  THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  STATES. 

HIS   LIFE   ILLUSTRATED  THE  SPLENDOR   OF   DUTY 

WISELY   AND   FEARLESSLY    PERFORMED. 

"In  Thee,  oh!  Lord,  I  Trust!" 


459 

ERRA-ADDENDA  ET  CORRIGENDA. 


Page  4—  29th  line  should  read  :  "Colonel  Caleb  Smith  was  brother  of  the  late  <<>lonel 
William  R.  Smith." 

PAGE  10 — 19th  line  should  read:    "he  would  fall  to  cursing  like  a  very  Drab." 

Page  10 — 26th  line  should  read  :   "  they  are  trusty  and  well  beloved  cousins  all." 

Page  16 — 29th  line  should  read  :   "  many  had  no  confidence  in  his  strength." 

Page  16 — 38th  line,   "semi-colon  after  canvass." 

Page  19 — 19th  line,  change  initial  to  Shelton  F.  Leake. 

Page  19 — 22d  line,  change  name  to  Hon.  James  A.  Seddon. 

Page  19 — 4th  line  quotation  should  read:   "heard  so  of  t  in  worst  extremes." 

Page  23 — 2d  line  should  read  :   "  old  Richmond  and  Louisa  Railroad." 

Page  26 — 27th  line  should  read  :  "two  of  which  were  brought  out  under  a  lady'-. 
dress." 

Page  29 — 5th  line  should  read  :   "if  they  were  all  trumps." 

Page  35 — nth  line,  "John"  should  be  "James"  McDowell. 

Page  37 — Last  line,  Chapter  IX,   )  parenthesis  at  end. 

Page  45 — 2d  paragraph  should  read  :  "  This  was  a  rare  instance,  if  not  the  only  one 
in  the  whole  army,  where  a  man  holding  a  high  civic  position,  relinquished 
it  for  a  military  command  in  the  field  when  exempt  from  military  duty, 
and  received  only  his  salary  as  Colonel  of  his  regiment." 

Page  48 — 30th  line  from  top,  change  asiduous  to  assiduous. 

Page  49— Casualties  49th  Va.  Infantry  change  total  to  "88." 

Page  54— 7th  line  of  Stiles  letter,  change  "sixty-six  "  to  "  sixty-seven." 

In  same  letter,  second  paragraph  of  4th  line  change  to  "so  that  oftentimes." 

Page  *6— 3d  paragraph,  1st  line  insert  word  "even  "  so  as  to  read  "  Surrounded  by 

emergencies  which,  at  this  distant  day,  even  can  be  well  understood  and 

appreciated." 
Page  65— 14th  line  from  bottom,  insert  initial  P,  so  as  to  read  :  Col.  P.  Bell  Smith. 
Page  66— Same  change  as  on  page  65.     Col.  P.  Bell  Smith. 
Page  68— nth  line  from  bottom  change  to  read  :   "each  labored  with  tongue  and  pen 

to  pronounce,"  &c. 
Page  69— 2d  line  from  top  add  ]  bracket  at  end  of  sentence. 
Page  69— 4th  paragraph,  8th  line,  comma  after  confidence. 
Page  70— Last  paragraph  should  read  :   "  Age  could  not  weaken  nor  sorrow  dim  the 

glow  of  his  early  vow  ;  in  his  eyes  she  was  always  young  and  beautiful." 
Page  82— In  10th  line  from  top,  following  the  name  of  Judge  Bell  insert    "  Lieut. 

Thomas  S.  Bell  of  Washington  City." 
Page  815— In  letter  "  To  the   Legislature,"  10th  line,  change  to   read:   "he  has   ever 

discharged    the   duties  of    his    position  with    great    fidelity,  conspicuous 

courage,  and  rare  ability." 
Page  09—"  The  writer  of  this  article  is  mistaken.     General  Smith  never,  during  the 

whole  war,  put  foot  under  his  own  roof  after  the  abandonment  of  Manassas 

by  the  Confederates  in  1861.     He  would  not  have  compromised  himself  as 

soldier  by  placing  himself  within  easy  capture  by  the  Federals,  even  for 

the  tenderness  and  attention  of  wife  and  family,  though  dangerously  and 

it  was  believed  mortally  wounded." 
Page  99— The  last  paragraph  should  be    read  before  the  extract  from  N.  Y.  Sun   to 

page  98. 
Page  240— nth  line  from  bottom  should  read  :   "Now  is  it  conceivable." 
Page  288— 12th  line  from  bottom  should  read  :   "  perusal  "  instead  of  "  persual." 


460 

Richmond,  Va.,  April  21st,  1891. 
Hon.  John  W.  Bell,  Culpeper,  C.  H.,  Va. 

Dear  Judge  : — Owing  to  almost  constant  absences  from  home,  I  have  not  been 
before  able  to  answer  your  favor  of  the  fourth  instant.  However,  no  time  has  been 
lost,  for,  in  view  of  the  contradictory  statements  already  in  print,  I  would  not  have 
been  willing  again  to  state  my  recollection  merely.  Owing  to  the  sickness  of  M.  F. 
Pleasants,  Esq.,  Clerk  of  the  U.  S.  Circuit  Court  here,  the  original  papers  in  the  suit 
of  "United  States  vs.  William  Smith"  could  not  be  found  until  yesterday,  and 
the  order  books  of  the  Court  of  that  date  are  meagre  and  badly  indexed. 

I  returned  home  last  evening  ;  the  papers  in  the  suit  are  now  before  me,  and  from 
them,  I  reply  : 

isr.   The  declaration  fin  assumpsit  J  was  filed  March  5th,  1877. 

2D.  At  the  2d  March,  Rules  77,  Atty.  Gen'l  R.  T.  Daniel,  then  alone  for  the  de- 
fense, pleaded  the  general  demurrer  and  general  issue. 

30.  The  demurrer  was  argued,  I  distinctly  remember,  by  Mr.  Daniel  and  myself, 
at  what  precise  date  does  not  appear  :    but 

4TH.  On  August  3d,  '77,  an  order  more  particularly  fixing  the  pleadings  for  trial 
upon  the  merits,  was  agreed  upon  and  signed  by  "  L.  L.  Lewis,  U.  S.  Att'y,"  (now 
Judge  Lewis,  President  of  our  Court  of  Appeals),  and  by  "R.  T.  Daniel  and  Robert 
Stiles,  p.  d  ;"  and  this  order  was  approved  and  entered  by  the  Court  the  same  day. 

5TH.  The  papers  do  not  distinctly  indicate  it,  but  my  recollection  is,  there  were 
two  trials  by  Jury,  in  the  first  of  which  none  of  the  witnesses  below  mentioned  ap- 
peared, and  there  was  a  hung  Jury. 

6th.  On  April  12th,  1879,  the  deposition  of  Ex-Auditor,  J.  M.  Bennett  was  taken  ; 
the  District  Attorney  appearing  for  the  Government  and  General  Bradley  T.  Johnson 
and  myself  for  the  defense.  With  this  deposition  there  is  filed,  among  other  interest- 
ing documents,  a  clipping  from  the  Richmond  Dispatch,  of  December  12th,  1865,  con- 
taining an  extract  from  a  report  made  by  Mr.  Bennett  to  Governor  Pierpont,  concern- 
ing the  disposition  made  of  the  gold  coin  drawn  from  the  Richmond  Banks  in  April, 
'65,  and  for  which  the  Government  brought  these  suits,  known  as  "  The  Gold  Cases," 
vs.  Gov.  Smith  and  others. 

7TH.  On  the  second  Jury  trial,  which  occurred,  as  the  papers  show,  May  24th,  '79, 
Att'y  Gen'l  Field,  who  had  succeeded  Mr.  Daniel,  and  I  appeared  for  the  defence, 
Governor  Smith,  and  Lt.  Governor  Thomas,  who  had  been  Second  Auditor  in  April, 
'65,  testified  before  the  Jury,  and  there  was  a  verdict  for  the  defendant. 

Governor  Smith's  having  been  made  the  test  case,  the  other  suits  shared  its  fate 
and  were  dismissed. 

The  instructions  given  by  the  Court  are  full  of  interest.  Judge  Hughes,  who  pre- 
sided, endorsing  as  valid  the  substance  of  the  defence  laid  down  by  Gov.  Smith  in 
his  testimony,  viz.:  that,  as.  de  facto  Governor  of  Virginia  in  that  awful  crisis,  he  was 
chargeable  with  the  duty  of  preserving  Civil  order  in  the  debatable  ground  which  the 
Confederate  forces  and  Government  had  abandoned,  and  over  which  the  United  States 
had  not  as  yet  established  their  authority; — and  that,  not  only  his  own  salary  as  such 
Governor,  but  other  disbursements  by  him  in  the  discharge  of  this  function  and  duty, 
were  valid  credits  against  the  claim  asserted  by  the  United  States  in  the  suit. 

There  are  other  interesting  and  valuable  papers  on  file  in  this  suit,  among  others 
General  Patrick's  original  authority,  dated  June  1st,  1865,  to  "Gov.  William  Smith" 
to  report  to  him  as  "  Provost  Marshal  General,"  without  being  subject  to  arrest. 

But  this  communication  is  already  too  long  and  I  forbear. 

Yours  truly, 

ROBT.  STILES. 


461 

[From   Richmond  I>is/-«tclt.\ 

THE    POSITIVE    PROOF. 

THE  ORDER  OFFERING  A   REWARD   TOR  GOVERNOR  WILLIAM  SMITH   htm.. 
The  difference  between  Generals  Hal  leek  ana   Patrick     Other  fate*   ■■•■»,    /" 

Gold  Cases. 


On  various  oc  asions  it  has  been  strenuously  denied  that  the  United 
States  Government  offered  after  the  evacuation  of  Richmond  a  reward  for  the 
arrest  of  the  late  Hon.  William  Smith,  who  was  Governor  of  Virginia  when 
the  war  closed.  Recently  Major  Robert  Stiles  has  been  looking  up  evidence 
in  this  and  another  matter  associated  with  the  immediate  ante  bellum  history 
of  that  "old  game-cock,  Extra-Billy  Smith,"  as  Mr  Lincoln  called  the 
Governor,  and  has  secured  a  copy  of  the  advertisement,  ol  Halleck  offering 
the  reward.  That  advertisement  is  not  in  the  nature  of  a  presidential  pro< 
mation,  but  bears  the  impress  of  the  deviltry  of  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  and  re 

as  follows:  Headquarters  Military  Division  of  ink  Jam; 

Richmond,  May  8,  1865.      j 
$25,000  Reward. — By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War  a  rewai  1  i 
offered  for  the  arrest  and   delivery  for  trial  of  William    Smith,  rebel  Governor  of 
Virginia.  II.  W.  HALLECK,  Major-General  Commanding. 

This  settles  the  question  beyond  dispute,  but  is  not  the  only  interesting 
paper  in  the  case  found  by  Major  Stiles. 

THE    GOLD    CASES. 

In  March,  1877,  trie  United  States  Government  entered  suit  against 
Governor  Smith  and  other  officials  to  recover  certain  gold  taken  by  them  out 
of  the  city  when  it  was  evacuated.  The  suits  were  brought  on  the  ground  that 
what  belonged  to  the  State  at  that  time  was  the  United  Stat. -^  Government's 
bv  right  of  conquest.  Governor  Smith  pleaded  that  though  he  was  a  fugitive 
when  he  left  Richmond  he  was  still  de  facto  Governor  of  Virginia  in  that  de- 
batable ground  over  which  the  United  States  Government  had  not  re-established 
authority,  and  as  such  was  charged  with  preserving  order.  The  money  he  was 
being  sued  for  was  expended  for  salaries  of  State  officers  and  in  the  exercise  of 
his  prerogative  as  Governor.  Judge  Hughes  decided  that  this  plea  was  a  valid 
one,  and  as  a  consequence  all  the  cases  fell  through. 

A    LETTER    TO    GENERAL    PATRICK. 

Among  the  papers  in  the  case  was  this  letter  to  General  Patrick  : 

Richmond,  Va.,  June  1,  1S65. 
General: — Not  having  yet  received  any  reply  to  Governor  Smith's  communication 
to  General  Halleck  I  have  concluded  to  ask  for  a  safe  conduct  to  enable  the  Governor 
to  report   to  you  without   arrest  if  he  should   so  decide,  the   same  to  be  promptly 
returned  if  not  used  or  if  the  Governor  should  not  be  found. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be  most  respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 

S.  BELL  SMITH,  Lieutenant-Colonel  and  Aide  de  Camp. 
General  M.  R.  Patrick,  Provost  Marshal-  General. 

Upon  this  letter  General  Patrick  made  the  following  endorsement,  which 

prettv  well  illustrates  the  differences  between  the  material  of  which   Halleck 

and  Patrick  were  made.     It  will  be  noticed  that  Halleck  speaks  of  the  Governor 

as  William  Smith,  rebel  Governor,  while  Patrick  refers  to  him  as  Governor 

William  Smith: 

Office  Provost-Marshai  General,  i 

Richmond,  June  i,  1865.     \ 
The  within  application  is  granted  and  the  person  of  the  within  named  Governor, 
William  Smith,  will  be  free  from  arrest  en  route  to  this  city,  and  neither  military  nor 
civil  authorities  will  interfere  with  him;  this  protection  i-  to  !>.■  valid  t"  and  including 
the  10th  instant,  on  or  before  which  day  he  is  to  report  in  person  at  this  office. 

'  M.  R.  PATRICK.  Provost-Marshal-General.