Random recollections

S. G. & E. L. ELBERT

Ctltrnmi itf

SLLA SMITE.BLBmiE 'SS

JIu ilUmiiriam

KATmiKE B. COMAN

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS

BY

HENRY B. STANTON

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
18 8 7

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1885, by
Henry B. Stanton,
in the oflSce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1886, by
Henry B, Stanton,
in the oflBce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

Copyright, 1887, by Harper & Brothers.

All rij/hU rtttrved.

t'rlnud ly Wyukoop, HalUnUck A Cu.

PRKFACE TO THE Tllllil) EDITION.

Though no portions of tlie first an^ second editions of
this work were on sale, they were soon exhausted in supply-
ing calls on me for copies. The requests in numerous news-
papers and letters that I would place the book where it could
be purchased, amounted almost to a rebuke for my not hav-
ing done this. In compliance with this desire, I have spent
a few weeks in preparing a third edition, which will be issued
and sold by a book-publishing house. The new matter in
this third edition makes the volume about two thirds larger
than the second edition, and about three times as large as
the first.

This production is neither a history, a biography, nor an
autobiography, but is exactly what it professes to be, namely,
some "random recollections" of the writer. It will be well
to read it from that point of view. Such value as this draft
on my memory may possess is mainly due to the fact that in
describing events and men I have usually told only what I
personally knew of them ; and, perhaps better than all, I have
tried to stop when I was done.

H. B. S.

Tenafly, K J., September, 1886.

XOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS.
Henry B. Staxtox, the author, died suddenly on January 14th,
1887, in Xew York. He was busy correcting the proofs of this
book the day before he died. H. & B.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

The Author's Birthplace. — Pachaug, Connecticut, — Jewett City. —
The Author's Ancestry. — Thomas Stanton, the Indian Inter-
preter, and William Brewster, the Pilgrim Father. — Indian
Tribes in New London County. — Sachems Uncas, Sassacus, and
Miantonomoh. — Extermination of the Pequods in 1637.— Bene-
dict Arnold. — Massacre at Groton Heights in 1781. — The Stan-
tons who Fell there. — War of 1812-15. — Commodores Hardy,
Decatur, and Perry. — Bombardment of Stoniugton.— Perry De-
scribes his Victory on Lake Erie.— "Don't Give up the Ship." —
Bitter Politics and Blue-Laws Page 1

CHAPTER n.

Puritan " ]\Ieeting-house " at Pachaug.— Freezing as a Means of
Grace. — Musical Instruments and Timepieces. — The Clergy. —
Doctors Hart, Bellamy, Hopkins, and Lorenzo Dow. — The Bur-
roughses.— The Westminster Catechism. — Connecticut Calvin-
ism vs. Rhode Island Liberalism. — The Deacon's Horse-race on
Sundaj^ — Schools, Teachers, and Books. — Nathan Daboll, the
Arithmetician.— George D. Prentice, Poet, Wrestler, and Found-
er of the Louisville Journal— Celehrs^iion on July 4, 1824, at
Jewett City. — Toast to Henry Clay. — La Fayette at Jewett City
in 1825 11

CHAPTER III.

Journey to Rochester in April, 1826.— Xew York City had 150,0C0
Souls. — Tammany Hall — The Bucktails.— The City Hall.—
Albany's Population, 15,000. —The Old Capitol. — Legislative

vi

CONTENTS.

Leaders: Younof, Root, Frank Granger, Golden, Livingston,
Silas Wright. Tallmadge. — Governor De Witt Clinton, the
Magnificent.— The Erie Canal just Completed.— Utica.— Syra-
cuse.— Rochester in 1826.— Anti-Masonic Excitement. — Thurlow
"Weed's Dingy Newspaper, Shabby Dress, and Empty Pocket. —
Henry O'Reilly Issues at Rochester, in 1826, the First Daily
Journal West of the Hudson and Delaware Rivers.— Edmund
Keau, the Tragedian, Performs in the "Iron Chest" at Roches-
ter.—Sam Patch Twice Leaps the Genesee Falls and is Drowned.
— Gerrit Smith and Fanny Wright Speak at Rochester.— Samuel
Wilkeson Constructs the Harbor at Buffalo Page 21

CHAPTER IV.

Horatio Seymour when a Cadet ; his Father, Henry Seymour.
— The "Immortal Seventeen" Senators. — Marcy, Flagg,
Bouck in 1826-27. — Death of De Witt Clinton in 1828; Mar-
tin Van Buren and Benjamin F. Butler's Eulogiums on Him;
their Drift and Purpose. — Van Buren at Rochester in 1828;
His Variegated Dress.— Roscoc Conkling's Style. — Presidential
Struggle between Adams and Jackson in 1828. — Van Buren
Runs for Governor to Help Jackson, and is Chosen. — Smith
Thompson and Solomon South wick also Candidates. — Jackson
Elected President. — Van Buren Appointed Secretary of State. —
Young Men's State Convention at Utica in 1828; the First ever
Held in the Union ; William H. Seward Presides; his Unexpected
and Embarrassing Nomination for Congress in 1828; he Declines
to Run 20

CHAPTER V.

Courts and Counsellors at Rochester in 1827-30.— Daniel D. Bar-
nard.— Addison Gardiner.— Samuel L. Selden.— Occasional Vis-
itors.— Elisha Williams. — .Tohn C. Spencer. — Daniel Cady. —
Henry R. Storrs. — Millard Fillmore. — William H. Seward and
others. — Thurlow Weed Cho.sen to the Assembly in 1829. — "A
good enough ISIorgan till after the Election." — Weed Founds
the Albany Eccniiifj Journal in April, 1830. — The Stale ]\Iends
William L. ]\Iarcy's "Pantaloons." — The Patch a Campaign
Issue when be Ran for Governor.— John W. Taylor, of Sara-
to';a, and the Missouri Compromise. — Marcy and Silas Wright

CONTENTS.

vii

on its Repeal.— The Wilmot Proviso.— Marcy and Wright Com-
pared.— The Rochester Clergy in 1830. — Charles G. Finney, the
Famous Evangelist. — His Pulpit Oratory Page 35

CHAPTER YI.

The Author Goes to Lane Seminary in 1831.— President Lyman
Becchcr Tried for Heresy at Cincinnati. — Henry AYard Beechcr
Says his Father is " Plagued Good at Twisting." — Xew and Old
School Theological Magnates. — "In Adam's Fall we Sinned
all." — Dr. Beman's Parody. — Dr. Beecher's Eccentricities. —
First Anti-slavery Speech. — James G. Birney, and General Bir-
ney, his Son. — "Boys, Keep j'our Eye on that Flag." — First
Mob. — Anti-slavery Debate at Lane in 1834. — Its Consequences.
— Early Anti-slavery Career. — The Author Addresses the Mas-
sachusetts Legislature on Freedom, in 1837. — The Epoch of
Mobs. — East Greenwich. — Utica. — Boston. — Xewport. — Provi-
dence.— Bishop Clark of Rhode Island. — Methodist Church
Burned. — Pennsylvania Hall Burned. — Quaker Meeting-house
Sacked in Portland. — John Neal, the Poet, Puts the Mob down.
— Senator William Pitt Fessenden.— "I am that Person." — Mob
in Norwich, Connecticut. — Mobbed in many States. — Xever in
Yermont 43

CHAPTER YII.

John G. Whit tier and the Author Yisit Gettysburg for Anti-
slavery Lecturers. — Whittier's Services to Liberty. — Caleb Cush-
ing a Candidate for Congress in 1838. — AYhittier Gets a Letter
that Averts Cushing's Defeat. — Origin of the Republican Part}-.
— Peculiar Honors paid to John Quincy Adams in 1837. —
Author at Washington in 1838. — Adams and the Right of Peti-
tion.— Speaker Polk. — Latimer's Case. —The Reel on Mr.
Adams's Desk.— Yice-President Dick Johnson Compared with
Yan Buren as a Presiding Officer.— The Lions in the Senate in
1838. — Foreshadowing the Methods for Overthrowing Slavery.
— The Author's Early Newspaper Productions.— Sylvester Gra-
ham, the Dietetic Reformer; his System 56

CHAPTER YIII.

Abolitionists and the Constitution.— Anti-slavery Leaders: Garri-
son and others in Boston; Tappan and others in Xew York;

viii

CONTENTS.

Smilli and others in Central Xew York; Lovcjoy and others in
the Western States. — Celebrated Women: Prudence Crandall;
Mrs. Child; The Grimkes; Mrs. Mott; Lucy Stone; Harriet
Beccher Stowe; Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Susan B. Anthonj^ —
Leading Colored Men; Frederick Douglass; Robert Purvis. —
Eccentricities of Abolitionists. — A Motley Group in Boston. —
Father Lampson and his Scythe-snath. — Crazy George Wash-
ington Mellen. — Disturbing Religious Meetings. — Stephen S.
Foster Imitates George Fox. — Charles C. Burleigh's Vile Gar-
ments Torn off and Carried away. — Rev. Dr. Channing Eulogizes
Burleigh's Oratory.— Coutrovers}^ between Garrison and Wendell
Phillips.— Lord Timothy Dexter Page 64

CHAPTER IX.

Tour in Europe in 1840.— Current Description of Author's Travels.
— The Main Object of the Tour. — World's Anti-slavery Con-
vention in London. — Leading Members. — Distinguished Women.
— Haj'don's Large Painting of the Convention; his Anecdote
of the Iron Duke. — House of Peers. — Scotch Church Debate. —
Brougham Speaks. — Melbourne, the Premier. — Lord Lyndhurst,
a Boston-born Boy. — Wellington Speaks on an Irish Question. —
Earl Grey Enters.— The Reform Bill of 1832.— Grey's ^NVarning
to the Peers to Set their Plouses in Order. — Sydney Smith and
Dame Partington. — Gorgeous Pageant at the Funeral of Earl
Durham, Son-in-law of Grey, and the Persecuted Ex-Governor
of Canada 74

CHAPTER X.

The House of Commons. — Debate on Canada. — Macaulay's Speech.
— Lord John Russell. — The Lions of the House. — O'Conncll
Aims a Slinging Arrow at Disraeli, the Future Beaconsfield. —
Stanley, the Inchoate Earl Derby, Collides with Ilowick, Son and
Heir of Earl Grey.— Sir Robert Peel Compared with Clay. Cal-
houn, and Webster. — Gladstone, "The Rising Hope of the
Stern and Unbending Tories." — Talfourd. — Bulwer's Dandy
Dress, — Anecdote of Brougham and Buxton. — Clarkson's De-
scription of Wilberforcc's Oratory. — Manners in the English
Commons and the American Congress Compared. — The English-
man's II. — Oratory in America and Great Britain. — American
Suobbery — Joseph II. Choate and William E. Forster before

CO^'TEXTS.

ix

the Union League Club. — Dean Stanley, Canon Farrar, Sergeant
Ballantyne, and ^lattliew Arnold Facing American xYudiences. —
How they Appeared Page 82

CHAPTER XI.

Westminster Hall. — The Courts t Lords Cottenham, Denman, and
Abiuger, Sir Frederick Pollock, and other Members of the
Bench and Bar — In France. — Deputy Isambert and Advocate
Cremieux. — The Great Napoleon's Mausoleum in Preparation
on the Banks of the Seine. — NajJoleon, "the Pretender," Seized
while Raising a Rebellion at Boulogne. — Return to England. —
Loudon in a Fog. — William the Conqueror and Battle Abbey. —
Runnymede and Magna Charta. — Bosworth Field and Richard
III — Cromwell's Schoolhouse, Mansion, and Farm. — Judge
Jeffreys and the Bloody Assizes. — William HI. and the Battle
of the Boyne. — Old Sarum, the Model Rotten Borough. — The
Chartists and their Creed. — Main Cause of their Failure 92

CHAPTER XII.

Some British Poets. — Thomas Campbell.— In the London Con-
vention he Ridicules American Poets. — He is Answered. —
Ebenezer Elliott. — James Montgomery — Lord Byron's Widow.
— His Daughter, Ada Augusta — Thomas Carlyie. — He Calls
Victor Hugo a Humbug, and Criticises Emerson. — In Scotland.
— Rev. Doctors Chalmers and Wardlaw as Pulpit Orators. — The
Manager of the Edinburgh Eetiew Presides over an Anti-Slavery
Meeting. — Sydney Smith Preaches a Sermon. — Lord Francis
Jeffrey on Law Reform, the Xew York Revised Statutes, and
Jeremy Benthara, the Codifier — The Field of Culloden.—
Charles Edward Stuart. — Clarkson's Opinion of the Four Stuarts
and the Four Georges. — In Ireland. — O'Conncll on the Repeal
of the L'nion.— John Randolph Said he was the First Orator in
Europe. — Other Famous Men and Places. — Return to America.
—Admitted to the Boston Bar . . . 103

CHAPTER XIIL

The Law — Boston Bench and Bar. — Judges Stor}', Sprague, and
Shaw. — Jeremiah Mason. — Daniel Webster. — Rufus Choate. —
Their Triumphs in the Criminal Cases of Avery, the Knapps,
and Tirrell.— Samuel Hoar. — He is Sent to South Carolina to

A*

X

CONTEXTS.

Test the Couslitulionality of Laws Imprisoning Free Colored
Seamen.— Expelled from the State by Force.— ^Ir. Hoar's Fee
as a Referee.— Choate before Juries.— Shaw on the Bench. —
Choatc's Stimulants, Hot Coffee and Hot Water.— Tirrcll's Two
Celebrated Trials for IMurder and Arson. — Parker, the Prose-
cuting Attorney.— Somnambulism the Defence. — George Head's
Manufactured Testimony, and Rufus Choate's Marvellous Ora-
tor}', Twice Save Tirrell's Life Page 110

CHAPTER XIV.

The Law.— Several Novel Cases.— Libel Suit at Taunton.— The
Vivid "Dream." — Criminal Prosecution for Libel at New Lon-
don.—John T. Wait and Lafayette S. Foster for the State.— The
Daniels's Case at Boston.— Charles G. Loring and Benjamin R.
Curtis Counsel for the Defendant.— Choate for Plaintiffs. — A
Patent Suit.— Charles Sumner, Benjamin F. Hallett, and Horace
E. Smith Counsel. — Joel Prentiss Bishop, the Law-writer. — John
P. Hale as Lawj-er and Senator. — Theodore Parker under In-
dictment.— Hale his Counsel. — Parker on Fish and Phos-
phorus 122

CHAPTER XV.

The Law. — Bench and Bar of the Empire State.— Kent, Spencer,
and other Eminent Jurists —Four Great Lawyers of Columbia
County.— The Power of Elisha Williams over a Jury — Henry
R. Storrs. — Lawyers and Trials at Rochester — Scllcck Bough-
ton. — Jesse Hawley. the Land Surveyor, Foreshadowing the Erie
Canal. — Charles M. Lee —General "!Mad" Anthony Wayne's
Storming of Stony Point Saves a Counterfeiter from the State
Prison. — John Grifhn, the Rough Judge of Allegheny County,
Sits down on a Dandy Attorney — Alvan Stewart — Some
Albany Law3'ers. — The Famous Firm of Hill, Porter, & Cag-
gar. — Quirk, Gammon, & Snap — Escck Cowan's Rare Law
Library.- Marcus T. Reynolds.— Samuel Stevens.— Daniel Cady.
— Joshua A Spencer 1:29

CHAPTER XVI.

Tiie Law. —The Corning and Burden Spike Case — Seward.
Blutchford. and Stevens Counsel. — Reuben II Walworth, Ref

CONTENTS.

xi

free. — Jarndycc vn. Jarndyce. — Clients Erect Federal Buildings
at Buffalo and Oswego, and Sue the Government. — Speaker
Grow, K. E. Fenton, and William Steele Holman Intervene. —
Captain Cornelius Vauderbilt and the Fist Fight. — His Son,
Cornelius Jeremiah, is Sued, and Blo\vs his Brains out. — The
Controversy over the Commodore's Will. — The Spencers. —
John C. Spencer. — His Acute Legal Mind. — Interview with his
Son, who was Executed for Alleged Mutiny on Board The
Soniers. — Chief -justice Ambrose Spencer. — John C. Spencer
Concocts the Canal Bill of 1851. . : Page 141

CHAPTER XVII.

Dr. Samuel B. Woodward and Senator Albert H. Tracy. — Close
Resemblance to Washington and Jefferson. — Webster and the
Conscience Whigs in Faueuil Hall in 1846, — Crittenden on
Clay and Webster. — Clay before the Supreme Court. — Mrs.
James Madison. — John Sargeant. — Chief-justice Taney. — Clay
in the Senate. — A Galaxy of Talents. — "Biddle and the Bank."
— The Sub-Treasury Question, — Clay's Speech in New York. —
His Personal ]Magnetism, — His Funeral Pageant,— A Cluster of
Political Rivals, — George P, Barker, — Sanford E, Church. —
Church in the New York Assembly in 1842,— Hoffman, Dix,
Seymour, and other Members. — Cburch makes Barker Attorney-
General. — Anecdote of Church and James W, Nye at the Buf-
falo Convention in 1848. 148

CHAPTER XYIII,

Democratic National Convention of 1844. — Van Buren, Polk, and
Cass. — Polk Nominated for President.— Wright Nominated for
Vice-President. — He Declines,— First Use of the IMorse Tele-
graph.— Polk's Duplicity in Forming his Cabinet. — Marey, Sec-
retary of War.— The Barnburners Angry.— Death of John Quin-
cy Adams, — The Barnburner Revolt of 1847-48. — "The Assas-
sins of Silas Wright." — List of Barnburners and Hunkers. —
Utica Convention of 1848,— Young, Cambreling, and Tilden Pres-
ent,— Cass and Taylor Rival Candidates for President. — Con-
vention at Buffalo in 1848.— B. F. Butler's Speech.- "D— n his
Turnips!" — Van Buren Nominated for President, and Charles
Francis Adams for Vice-President. — The Barnburner Revolt

xii

CONTENTS.

Defeats Cass and Elects Taylor.— Reuuiou of the Xew York
Democracy in 18-49. — The Election and its Results Page 157

CHAPTER XIX.

The Author Elected to the New York Senate in 1849.— The Canal
Bill.— Twelve Senators Resign to Defeat it. — Re-elected in 1851.
— The Bill Passes. — The Court of Appeals Pronounce it Uncon-
stitutional.— The Author s Seat Contested.— Dinner at the Astor
House. — Speech of Seward and another. — Thurlow Weed. —
The Midnight Call— The Contest Squelched.— Weed's Hand in
it. — 3Iembers and Measures in the Senate. — Hamilton Fish
Elected United States Senator.— James W. Beekman Bolts Fish.
— Xotices of Hoffman, Loomis, Seymour, Dix, Van Buren,
Marcy, and Dickinson. — John Van Buren and the Apple-woman ;^
his Ill-health; the Water -cure Establishment; his Death at
Sea IGG

CHAPTER XX.

Whig National Convention of 1852. — Webster's Sad Appearance.
— General Scott Nominated for President. — Democratic Kational
Convention of 1852. — Cass, Buchanan, Marc}^ Douglas, and
Dickinson Aspirants. — An Unexpected Interview by the Vir-
ginians.— Xew^ York Delegation in Private Conference. — Threats
to Throw Seymour out of the Window. — Marcy and Dickinson
Slaughter each other. — Pierce Nominated. — Dean Richmond's
'* Finality."— Pierce's Cabinet— Dix Cheated, and Marcy Called.
— Pierce Approves the Missouri Compromise Repeal. — Rends
the Democratic Party Asunder.— Republican Party Formed in
1855-56. — Fremont Nominated for President. — James G. Blaine.
— Notices of Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith, John Jacob Astor,
John Brown, and jMartiu Van Buren. — Brown Handles a Rifle,
and Hits the Bull's-eye. — Van Buren Predicts the Overthrow of
Slavery amid Convulsions 179

CHAPTER XXI.

"William II. Seward as Senator.- Seward on Weed. — Seward Un-
bending.— Seward and Judge Sackctt. — Weed the "State
Fifcr." — Seward and Conkling. — Conkliug Elected to Congress
in 1858. — Seward on Greeley.- John Sherman. Candidate for
Speaker.— Tom Corwin as au Orator.— The Jewish Rabbi Prays.

coxtp:nts.

xiii

—Ilcnry Winter Davis.— Pennington Clioscn Speaker.— Slidell's
Bill to Purcliasc Cuba.— Wade and Toombs in Close Contact.-
"Land for the Landless versus Niggers for the Kiggerless."—
Scene in the Senate in 1859 between Benjamin and Seward.—
Seward Smokes Benjamin's Cigar.— Scene in the Senate in 1834
between Clay and Van Buren.— Van Buren Takes a Pinch of
Clay's Snulf Page 193

CHAPTER XXIL
Turbulent Scenes in the House in. 1859, 1860. —Grow Knocks
Keitt Down. — Crawford Threatens Thad. Stevens.- Tribute to
Stevens. — Stephen A. Douglas; his lie-election to the Senate
over Abraham Lincoln in 1859.— His Reception in the Senate.—
Pro-Slavery Democrats Assail him.— Seward Preparing for the
Chicago Convention of I860.— Deluded as to his Strength.— The
Senators Opposed to him.— Corwin and Lincoln Speak in Xev,-
England Early in 1800. — Xew- Yorkers who Oppose Seward at
Chicago. — Lincoln Xominated. — Scene at Auburn when the
News Came. — Seward Embittered.— Crushed Presidential Aspi-
rations of Seward, Greeley, Clay, and Vrebster. — Ira Harris
Chosen Senator in 1881. — Defeat of Greele}^ and Evarts. — Rufus
King's Chair in the Senate. — Its Distinguished Occupants. . 207

CHAPTER XXIII.

Lincoln's Cabinet. — Chase Pushed in. — David Davis, Confidential
Adviser of Lincoln. — Mrs; Lincoln "Sub-President." — Notices
of Seward, Chase, Cameron, Bates, Blair, and Welles. — Bick-
erings in the Cabinet. — Chase and Seward Grapple. — Bray
Dickinson and Marcus Curtius. — Down in Dixie in April, 1861.
— Narrow Escape from Secessionists.- General Butler and his
Troops. — Colonel Jones and his Regiment Going through Balti-
more.— First Blood of the War. — Notice of Edwin M. Stanton,
the War Secretary 220

CHAPTER XXIV.
Mr. Lincoln and Dr. McPheeters. — Lincoln's Story. — Roscoe
Conkling and Noah Davis Candidates for the Senate in 1867.—
Conkling Elected. — Defeat of Morgan by Fenton for the Senate
in 1869. — Escape of Marshall O. Roberts from the Lobby. —
Democratic National Convention of 1868. — Seymour Favors

CONTENTS.

Chase. — Vallandigbam's Course. — Seymour Xomiuatcd.— Grant
Elected.— Seymour Urged to Accept the Senatorsbip in 1875;
Refuses; "Why. — Seward's Trip around the World.— Death of
Seward in 1872. — R. B. Hayes Running for Governor of Ohio in
1875. — Senator Thurman's Singular Prediction. — Conkliug and
Piatt Resign from the Senate, and Lapham and Miller Succeed
them in 1881.— Conkling's Success at the Bar Page 234

CHAPTER XXY.

Samuel J. Tildeu; his Triumph over the Canal Ring and the
Tweed Ring; his Sudden Death; his Kote to the Author about
"Random Recollections." — State Convention of 1874, when he
was Nominated for Governor. — llie (N. Y.) Sun's Editorial
Article.— Tilden Elected.— The Presidential Contest of 1876.—
Tildcn Dies of Heart Disease. — Ex-Governors Clinton, Wright,
Marcy, and Feuton Fall by the same Malady under Peculiar
Circumstances. — Notice of Robert L. Stanton, D.D.; his Death
in Mid-Ocean in May, 1885.— The Presbyterian General Assem-
bly's Tribute to his Memory 244

CHAPTER XXVI.

American Journalism. — Its Rank as a Profession. — Earliest News-
papers.— First Daily Paper. — Philadelphia Advertiser. — Boston
Centinel. — National Gazette. — Controversy of Washington and
Jefferson over Freneau, — Early Dailies in New York City. —
Three Famous Editors. — Bitter Tone of the Press. — List of
Distinguished Contributors. — Duels. — Early Journalism in New
England. — Rude Methods of Collecting News and Circulating
Papers. — Post-riders and Reporters.— The Deacon and the Mo-
hawks.— Dailies in New York, Albany, and Rochester in 1820. —
The Rochester Advertiser the First Daily Issued West of the
Hudson and Delaware Rivers. — Henry O'Reilly. — Cincinnati
Gazette and Charles Hammond. — Louisville Journal and George
D. Prentice. — List of Celebrated Contributors in that Era. —
Later Editors.— Charles A. Dana.— Henry J. Raymond. — John
G. Whittier.— George William Curtis 252

CHAPTER XXVIL

American Journalism. — Vice-President Wilson and Charles Francis
Adams.— James and Erastus Brooks.— The New York Erprcss.—

CONTENTS.

Lewis Tappan and David Hale.— The Journal of Commerce. —
Early ]Modcs of Getting Kews. — William Cullen Brj-ant and
William II. Leggett. — New York Exening Post. — Courage of The
PQst^ — President Van Buren. — James Watson Webb.— The Cou-
rier and Enquirer. — Famous Duels of Cilley, Graves, Webb, and
Marshall.— Greeley's Comments.— Benjamin Day. — T/^e (X. Y.)
/Si//i.— James Gordon Bennett.— The Xeio York Herald.— "It
Does Move." — Brave Editors aiid Journals. — Joseph Tinker
Buckingham and the Boston Courier. — Charles King and the
New York American. — Charles Hammond and the Cincinnati
Gazette. — James G. Birney. — Gamaliel H. Bailey. — Elijah Par-
rish Lovejoy' — Cassius M. Clay Page 265

CHAPTER XXVIII.

American Journalism. — Religious Xewspapers. — Albany Journals
and Editors: The Argus, Atlas, and Evening Journal; Croswell,
Weed, Cassidy, Van Dyck, Shaw, Dawson, AVilkeson. — Xames
of Thirty Persons wliose Obituarv Xotices were Written by the
Author in Various Journals. — Death of Gerrit Smith in Decem-
ber, 1874. — Several State Conventions. — Tweed Exposes his
Persecutors at Rochester in 1871 — Conkling and Fenton Cross
Swords at Syracuse in 1871.— Tildcn Xominated for Governor
in 1874, Robinson in 1876, Cornell and John Kelly in 1879.—
Speech-Flaking and Reporting. — Meeting at Providence in 1856.
— The New York Times. — Isaac Hill and the Concord Patriot. —
John M. Xiles and the liartford Times. — Xewspaper Corre-
spondents Writing Speeches for Senators and Congressmen, and
Reports for Committees, and Messages for Governors.— Press
Club Receptions in 1885. — Extract from President Amos J.
Cumming's Speech; he is Elected to Congress in Xovember,
1886. — The Great Xewspaper District he Represents 278

CHAPTER XXIX.

Conclusion. — Retrospect. — Extract from Thomas Moore's '-'Oft ia
the Stilly Xight." 289

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The Author s Birthplace. — Pachaug, Connecticut. — Je^vett City. —
The Author's Ancestry. — Thomas Stanton, the Indian Inter-
preter, and William Brewster, the Pilgrim Father. — Indian
Tribes in New London County. — Sachems Uncas, Sassacus, and
Miantouomoh. — Extermination of the Pequods in 1637.— Bene-
dict Arnold. — Massacre at Groton Heights in 1781. — The Stan-
tons who Fell there. — War of 1812-1815. — Commodores Hardy,
Decatur, and Perry. — Bombardment of Stoniugton. — Perry De-
scribes his Victory on Lake Erie. — '" Don't Give up the Ship." —
Bitter Politics and Blue-Laws.

I WAS born on June 27, 1805, on the margin of the
Eiver Pachaug, in the part of Preston which, in 1815,
became Griswold, county of Xew London, Connecti-
cut. I dwelt in the Uttle hamlet of Pachaug till 1814,
when my father removed to J ewett City, in the same
township, a pretty Tillage, situated just where the
Pachaug empties its pellucid waters into the more
stately Quinnebaug, on whose banks I lived till the
spring of 1826. These two beautiful streams flow
along together some five miles southwesterly, till the
Shetucket, which had already captured the "Wilbman-
tic, comes pouring down from the north, and gives
them its own name, and leads them a rippling dance
1

2

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

to Norwich. Here the Yantic, having previously
taken in small rivulets in the northwest, tumbles
heedlessly over fantastic rocks, and joins the She-
tucket. These live rivers and their accessories, after
working their way towards the sea by turning the
wheels of hundreds of factories, form the Thames in
front of Xorwich, and it marches off with its Indian
tributaries in lordly style. After greeting Fort Gris-
wold and Xew London, the Thames falls into Long
Island Sound just below the Pequod House, and is
seen no more.

My father was Joseph Stanton. He was born in
Washington County, E. L, on tlie shores of the At-
lantic, whence he went in his early days to Preston,
to begin a mercantile career. He had a distinguished
ancestry. His father was an officer in the Eevolution-
ary War, under his eldest brother, who was a young
lieutenant in the army of General Wolfe that con-
quered Canada from France in 1750. He was subse-
quently a colonel in the Eevolution, and a senator
and representative in Congress from Ehode Island for
many years. Another of the ancestral line was an
officer in the forces that wrested Louisburg from the
French in 1745, their stronghold in North America.
From my father this line is traced directly upward to
Thomas Stanton, who was born in England in 1G15,
and came to New England in 1035. He Avas learned
for those days ; became famous as a negotiator with
the Indians, vrhose dialects he thoroughly mastered ;
was ai)pDinted by the Commissioners of the United
Colonies Indian Interpreter -general for New Eng-
land ; was a judge of the New London County Court,

THK author's ancestry.

and deputy for ten years to the General Court. He
died in 1677.

My mother was Susan Brewster, born in Preston.
Her father was Simon Brewster, who died in Gris-
wold, August IG, 18il, aged ninety years, three
months, and fifteen days. He- was a wealthy farmer
and a magistrate. He was one of the defenders of
Fort Griswold when it was stormed by Benedict Ar-
nold. The line of the Brewsters goes straight up-
ward from my mother to Wilham Brewster, who was
born at Scrooby, England, in 1560; was educated at
Cambridge, entered the diplomatic service of Queen
Elizabeth, was imprisoned at Boston a long time for
non-conformity, and came to America by the way of
HoUand, in the Mayflower^ and landed on Plymouth
Eock, December 22, 1620. Here he ministered as the
ecclesiastical head of the Pilgrim colony till his death,
on April 16, 1641, aged eighty-four years. He is a
prominent figure in the picture of the embarkation of
the Pilgrims, which hangs in the rotunda of the Cap-
itol at Washington.

Thus my paternal line goes back in this country
two hundred and fifty years, and my maternal line
two hundred and sixty-five years, which, I think, en-
titles me to call myself a native American.

My parents were married at Pachaug, on January
25, 1803.

My father was an enterprising country merchant, a
shipper of goods to and from the West Indies, and a
woollen manufacturer. He was a political leader of
the Jefferson school, thoroughly versed in military
matters, courtly in manners, and of indomitable com'-

4

RANDOM EfXOLLECTIONS.

age. He died at New York, in 1827. My mother
was of the Puritan stock, intelhgent, high-spirited,
and pious. She died at Eochester, IS". Y., in 1853.

In early times three great tribes clustered in ^New
London Count}^, viz., the Pequods, the Mohicans, and
a branch of the Narragansetts. In my youth quite a
body of Mohicans dwelt near my home, while a lib-
eral sprinkling of Karragan setts and a bare trace of
Pequods remained.

In 1G3T the Pequods had a palisade fortress at
Mystic, six miles from Pachaug. Warlike and cruel,
they had long been the scourge of Connecticut, and it
was resolved to exterminate them. Their sachem was
the bloody Sassacus. The hypocritical Uncas was
the chief of the Mohicans. " Uncas Pock " is still a
famous landmark, overlooking the Yantic Falls, near
Norwich. The chief of the Karragansetts was the
generous Miantonomoh, one of the noblest and most
unfortunate of his race. He was the nephew of the
great Canonicus, the sachem who saved the Plymouth
Pilgrims from destruction, and succored Eoger Will-
iams when he Avas banished from Massachusetts.

In May, 1G37, Captain John Mason, Avith ninety
white soldiers, seventy Mohicans, under the lead of
Uncas, and several hundred Narragansetts, command-
ed by ]\Iiantonomoh, attacked the Pequods at dead
of niglit in their stronghold at IMystic. The battle
was desperate. It became a massacre. The assail-
ants set lire to the birch-bark wigwams within the
palisades. The swamp Avas soon a lake of flame, de-
vouring men, squaws, and papooses, Avliile those aa^Iio
attempted to flee were shot or pierced Avith arrows.

MIANTONOMOH. BENEDICT ARXOLD.

5

A few escaped, and never rested foot till they reached
the Mohawk beyond Albany. A handful received
quarter from the gentle Miantonomoh. It was the
end of the once powerful Pequods.

And now for the sad fate of Miantonomoh. In
1G13 he was attacked by Uncas. Their tribes had a
fierce struggle on Sachem's Plain, just west of ^^or-
wich. Miantonomoh was defeated. Heartless white
commissioners delivered him into the hands of Uncas,
^vho took his victim to the field where the day had
gone against him, and, near the " Uncas Rock," he
cut from the shoulder of the unflinching Miantono-
moh a slice of flesh, broiled it before his eyes, de-
voured it, and said, '* It is the sweetest meat I ever
ate." He then despatched the fallen sachem with his
own tomahawk. In ISitt, two hundred years after
this barbarous deed, Connecticut rendered tardy hom-
age to the intrepid Miantonomoh by erecting a mon-
ument to his memory at the spot where he met his
cruel death.

In the last century a dirge was composed to the
memory of Miantonomoh, and set to a plaintive mel-
ody. In my childhood we had a negro slave whose
voice was attuned to the sweetest cadence. Many a
time did she lull me to slumber bv sino^ino: this touch-
ing lament. It sank deep into my breast, and mould-
ed my advancing years. Before I reached manhood
I resolved that I would become the champion of the
oppressed colored races of my country. I have kept
my vow.

Benedict Arnold was born in Xorwich, in IT-iO.
In my 3'outh I often passed the house where he first

6

. RAisDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

saw the light, and once ventured timidly within. It
cowered, among gloomy trees, away from the street,
as if ashamed to face the sunshine. Arnold having
failed to deliver West Point to the British, they fit-
ted out an expedition, under his command, to Eastern
Connecticut, in the fall of 1781. He burned IN'ew
London, and expressed malignant regrets that he could
not lay his native town in ashes. He attacked Fort
Griswold, on Grot on Heights, and massacred a large
portion of the garrison. Colonel William Ledyard,
the intrepid commander, the brother of the famous
traveller, was thrust through with his own sword
after he had surrendered. The wounded were thrown
into carts, which, by their own weight, plunged, with
their writhing freight, furiously down the rocky de-
clivity towards the Thames. A shapely monument
now crowns the Heights. On marble tablets at its
base are engraved the names of the one hundred and
more who were slain on that bloody day. Among
them are four Stantons, my kindred. My Grandfa-
ther Brewster participated in this deadly alfray, but
came out uninjured. I scarcely need add that the
people of my county were taught to detest the cow-
ardly caitiff Benedict Arnold.

As New London was rather a fighting county, I
will dispose of the war of 1812-1815 before touching
on a few topics that occurred earlier. In 1813 Commo-
dore Stephen Decatur, the lion of our navy, under-
took to go to sea with his fleet through the eastern
end of Long Island Sound. Commodore Hardy, who
had been the ca])tain of Nelson's flag-ship at Trafal-
gar, where the great admiral fell, chased Decatur into

COMMODORE HAKDY.

7

New London with a superior force. Well do I remem-
ber the prodigious sensation this caused in the rural
towns. Hardy blockaded Decatur's fleet more than
a year, ravaging the coast by incursions on shore at
safe points, frightening the women with the thunder
of his guns, and keeping the militia of the county con-
stantly on the alert. The division of my father was
at the front nearly half the time. As became a stanch
Madisonian, he was busy drilling the militia for home
service and in raising volunteers to go to Canada,
and in composing songs adapted to the exigency.
I recall scores of these doggerel verses. One gory
ballad rang out :

"Brave boys, don't be afraid or skittisL,
But go and learn to fight the British."

The aforesaid "boys" were told not to dread the
Eed Coats, for —

"If you'll boil a lobster in a stew,
He'll look as red and gay as they do."

On a sunny day in September, 1 814, 1 went to Mrs.
Ephraim Tucker's, a couple of miles from home, to
play. Her husband, a lieutenant in my father's di-
vision, was at the seaside. Soon we heard the boom
of Hardy's guns floating up from Stonington Point.
Mrs. Tucker and I were seated on the doorsteps. An
infant lay in her lap. Boom ! boom ! boom ! went the
cannon for hours. Tears stole down her ashen cheeks,
and she shook like an aspen-leaf. I was nine years
old. In my boyish way I tried to comfort her by
telling her that my father would see to it that Mr.
Tucker was not hurt. The attack at Stonington was
ti fiasco. Hardy's firing was wild.

8

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

In the Fremont campaign of 1856 I went to Nor-
wich to address a mass-meeting. It occurred to me
to run out to Pachaug, which I had not visited for a
long period. I seated myself on the doorsteps of the
Tucker house, now occupied by strangers. My eye
rested on the cemetery which crowned the neighbor-
ing hill, where lay in dread repose the generation I
had known in my youth. I mused deeply on events
that had transpired in the forty-two years that had
passed since I sat there before. Such thoughts and
scenes rarely come to us except in the visions of the
night.

At the close of the war I visited relatives of the
name of Hazard, at Westerly, R. I., near the old Stan-
ton homestead. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry,
my father's cousin, vras born in that county. One day
the hero of the battle of Lake Erie suddenly dropped
in at the Hazards'. His visit elicited a burst of enthu-
siasm. His dashing manners and brilliant uniform
filled me with visions of naval glory, and I wanted
him to take me to sea. He bore a striking resem-
blance to the portraits and statues of him which I
saw in riper years.

I longed to see the ocean, and hear the beating of
its great heart. My father, in company with the
commodore, took me to Watch Hill, near the mouth
of Pawkatuc River. We arrived late in the evening.
The sky was clear, the wind was brisk, the full moon
was playing on the waves. I did not sleep a wink.
All night I sat at the window and gazed at the white-
caps of the billows, or lay on the bed listening to the
roar of the breakers.

BITTER POLITICS.

9

"Time writes no wrinliles on thine azure brow;
Such as creation's dawn belicld thou rollest now."

Perry described to us the victory on Lake Erie;
how Lawrence's dying words, "Don't give up the
ship I'' streamed from the fore, and how he went in an
open boat from one of his disabled ships to another,
the cannon-balls of the enemy whizzing around him,
and there hoisted again the Lawrence motto, which
waved defiantly till the English surrendered.

The politics of this epoch was extremely bitter. I
have witnessed three such eras — the Madisonian, in
Connecticut ; the Anti - masonic, in Western Isew
York; and the persecution of the Abohtionists ev-
erywhere; and I hardly know which was the most
acrimonious. Leavino- the two latter to take their
turn, I will say a few words about the first.

In Madisonian days schoolboys pulled hair and
grown men drew swords. I took a hand in the first-
mentioned pastime, understanding just about as much
of the merits of the encounter as the mass of voters
do nowadays in Presidential contests. As to deadly
weapons, I saw my father, in 1812 or 1813, drive out
of his grounds at Pachaug, sword in hand, a whole
company of Federalist militia, who had come there to
insult him. The lawsuit Avhich followed cost him a
round sum. Smaller fights were often ludicrous. The
standing menace of one old Federalist, Avhen heavily
loaded with cider-brandy, was, " I will not say that
every Democrat is a horse-thief, but I do say that ev-
ery horse-thief is a Democrat." A sturdy Democrat,
who had smelt powder at the seaside, taught me to
stand on a chair and say, The Hartford Convention
1^

10

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

was hatched in the purlieus of hell !" What purlieus
meant, and what the Hartford Convention was, I did
not know, and I presume my admiring auditors were
in the same predicament. After much delay a new
Democratic journal came to town. Its motto was
from Shakespeare's Henry YIII., " Be just, and fear
not." Shakespeare's name was appended. A warm
Madisonian wiped his spectacles. His eyes fell on
the motto. He read it through without a pause, " Be
just and fear not Shakespeare.' Lifting his fist, he
exclaimed, " I'll let 'em know I don't fear Shake-
speare or any other Federalist." All through Con-
necticut, in those turbulent years, inflamed partisans
rent families, churches, and neighborhoods asunder.
Vituperation furnished the staple of political discus-
sion.

The Congregationalists, or " the Standing Order,"
as they Avere called, had long been the established
C!hurch of Connecticut. In 1818 portions of the Fed-
eralists of other denominations united with the Demo-
crats, and defeated the Federal party. The last trace
of the Blue Law dynasty soon disappeared. It Avas
one of the bitterest political conflicts I ever saw. An
amendment of the constitution Anally placed all sects
on a basis of political equality.

CHAPTEE II.

Puritan "Meeting-house" at Pa chaug.— Freezing as a Means of
Grace. — Musical Instruments and Timepieces. — The Clergy. —
Doctors Hart, Bellamy, Hopkins, and Lorenzo Dow. — The Bur-
roughses,— The Westminster Catechism. — Connecticut Calvin-
ism vs. Rhode Island Liberalism. — The Deacon's Horse-race on
Sunday. — Schools, Teachers, and Books. — Nathan Daboll, the
Arithmetician.— George D. Prentice, Poet, Wrestler, and Found-
er of the Louisville Journal. — Celebration ou July 4, 1824, at
Jewett City. — Toast to Henry Clay. — La Fayette at Jewett City
in 1825.

Our Congregational hoiTse of worship stood on a
lawn, surrounded by oaks, on the banks of the Pa-
chaug. It was constructed of wood, according to the
severest order of Puritan architecture — large, square,
with two stories of glaring windows on four sides,
the pulpit a perch, the galleries ample, the pews box-
es, except the negro-pew, which was a pen near the
ceiling. Opposite the front entrance was the whip-
ping-post, near by were the stocks, while on a distant
hill grinned the skeleton of a gallows. In my child-
hood I saw a wretch scourged at the post, a drunkard
writhing in the stocks, and a negro executed on the
g:allows. These exhibitions have sufRced me for a
lifetime.

For many years we had no fires in the church in
the winter, and we worshipped God and shivered
over the AYestminster Catechism till the congregation

12

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

came to the conclusion that freezing was not a means
of grace, and two huge stoves were brought in. AYe
had fine singing, but no musical instrument except
the chorister's pitchpipe. Ere I left Griswold I saw
the gallery desecrated by a bass-viol. We had no
clock wherewith to time the sermon, though the min-
ister had an hour-glass in the pulpit. One of the
early clergymen of Pachaug used to pray fifty or
sixty minutes by the glass, the audience all standing.
Xow I am on timepieces, I will add that I doubt if,
when I was born, there were five gold watches in the
county. How changed ! In this progressive age ev-
ery boy claims one as soon as he has learned to swear.
Silver Swiss watches were common ; the poor resorted
to sun-dials, and the affluent had eight -day brass
clocks in their parlors, counting the passing hours
with owl-like gravity. The pitchpipe reminds me
that I recollect seeing only two pianos in my county,
though harps and harpsichords were not infrequent,
and there was a surfeit of drums, fifes, fiddles, bugles,
and trumpets, as befitted a martial people.

There Avas rare stability in the ecclesiastical affairs
of Pachaug. Three Congregational ministers were
settled there in unbroken succession from 1T20 to
1830, viz., Ilczekiah Lord, Levi Hart, and Horatio
AValdo. Dr. Hart was the son-in-law of the famous
Dr. Joseph Bellamy, the rival of Jonathan Edwards,
and he was the friend of the celebrated Dr. Samuel
Hoi)kins, the founder of the Hopkinsian sect. Drs.
Pellamy and Hopkins often preached in Pacliaug.
Dr. Hart died in October, 1808, an event I remember
as distinctly as if it had liappened yesterday. His

WniTEFIELD. — DOW. — BURKOUGHS.

13

venerable form, aiTayed in the clerical dress of the
Eevolution, rises before me as I write this Hne. This
fact is perhaps worthy of notice as showing that octo-
genarians may recall things that occmTcd when they
were three 3^ears old.

A few words about otlier clerical celebrities. The
echo of Whitetield's fame lingered among my native
hills. My grandmother told me of the mellow ac-
cents of his voice, now soft as a flute, anon swell-
ing like a bugle ; of his dramatic gestures and thrill-
ing a^^peals, which swayed great audiences as if swept
by the vdngs of the tempest, and how he rode at full
gallop from town to town to meet engagements, the
skirts of his silk gown streaming behind on the wind.
I have bent reverently over the sepulchre of the peer-
less preacher in Xewburj^Dort. The Baptists were
occasionally represented in our town by their two
great lights, the Eev. Silas and Roswell Burroughs,
of Stonington, kinsmen of the families of that name
who were subsequently conspicuous in the politics of
Western Xew York. The strangest and widest known,
of all was Lorenzo Dow, a Methodist, who had trav-
elled the world over, and lived near Griswold, where
he often preached and drew crowds. He looked like
Joe Jefferson, in " Eip Yan "Winkle." His sermons
were sharply anti-Calvinistic, and his illustrations the
quaintest imaginable, while his manners overstepped
all ordinary bounds. When discoursing he bestrode
the pulpit, sat on the stairs, or walked through the
aisles. One characteristic anecdote must suffice. It
was in the height of the summer solstice. An aged
matron occupied a conspicuous seat. She wore a tall

14

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

cap with a wide border, which rose and fell under the
impulse of a broad fan in a style so odd that the boys
kept tittering. Mr. Dow endured it for a while, and
then, pausing in his sermon and pointing his linger at
the venerable lady, exclaimed, "Oh, God, send an ar-
row of conviction from heaven straight through that
old Avoman's cap into her heart I" The fan was fold-
ed, the boys subsided, and the discourse went on.

My native town was only one remove from Ehode
Island. We boasted of our supposed superiority in
knowledge and virtue over the neighboring common-
wealth. If we saw a tramp, or a rickety wagon
drawn by a spavined horse, passing through Gris-
wold, Ave spoke of them as from Avhat Ave sneer ingly
called "t'other state," Avhere the people Avere Bap-
tists and Methodists, and took Avalks on Sunday in-
stead of AA^hipping their cider-barrels for Avorking on
that day. Our fcAv inhabitants Avho dared to use a
stronger term than " darnation " Avould talk of " ban-
isliing a bad man off the face of the earth into the
State of Ehode Island." AYe Avere taught to look
Avith shivering dread at the boys Avhose parents came
from that state to work in our factories, because of
their ignorance of the Westminster Catechism. One
of them Avas lured into the Pachaug school. Tha
master AA^as examining the pupils in the Catechism.
Following the text, he asked the heathen from " t'oth-
er state " if there Avere more gods than one. The bar-
barian petrified us Avith the flippant answer, I don't
know hoAv many you've got up here in Connecticut ;
Ave ha'int got none down in Ehode Island."

The liberals of the land of Eoger Williams Avould

THE deacon's SUNDAY HORSE-RACE.

15

sometimes play pranks on the Puritans along the Pa-
chaug and Quinnebaug rivers. Our Sabbatarian laws
were extremely strict. The deacons, tithing-men,
and other officials in Church and State, could arrest
any person found riding on Sunday, unless he were
going to ''meeting" or for a 'physician. A dashing
Rhode-Islander, who owned a spirited gelding, had a
manufacturing job in Jewett City. The road to his
Rhode Island home ran past the Pachaug church.
One Sunday he started from Jewett City for his pa-
ternal abode on his gay horse. Ere he reached Pa-
chaug one of the deacons mounted his mare and pur-
sued him, crying, " Stop I stop I*' They came tearing
at full gallop in among the oak-trees which surround-
ed the church just as the congregation was gathering
on the broad green sward. The deacon chased the
Rhode-Islander round and round the venerable edi-
fice, each lashing his steed with a rawhide, the deacon
shouting, Stop your horse I you are breaking the
Sabbath I" the Rhode - Islander responding, ''I have
told you a dozen times that I will not trade horses
with you on a Sunday, and you ought to be ashamed
to keep on violating the Sabbath by proposing it."
The crowd on the green viewed the spectacle with
amazement. The deacon's mare was all of a foam,
and he abandoned the pursuit. He was fond of horses,
and something of a jockey, and many of the congre-
gation long believed that on that Sunday he Avas urg-
ing a horse-trade with the Rhode-Islander.

I have spoken of the oaks that surrounded the Pa-
chaug church. I was aware that the large things of
youth look small in riper years. I had seen many

16

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

large oaks in this country and Europe, when, in 1868,
being near Pachaug, I thought I would run over and
measure those oaks, which I had not seen in a long
while, but had never been able to get wholly out of
my head. Alas! the biggest had sunk under the
weight of age, and the next biggest had succumbed
to an autumn gale. I measured the two largest that
remained. The trunk of the smallest of these aver-
aged sixteen feet in circumference, and from tip to
tip of its longest limbs it measured through the body
one hundred and ten feet. The trunk of the largest
averaged eighteen and a half feet in circumference,
and from tip to tip of its longest limbs it measured
through the body one hundred and twenty feet.
These were not " the babes of the woods." Nobody
knew anything of the age of these patriarchs.

lYell do I remember the little red schoolhouse in
which I learned the A B C's. The sun glared upon it
in summer, and the snow blockaded it in winter. The
great fireplace blazed with hickory logs from Xovembei'
to April. Consequently, the youngstei^ who sat on the
low, hard benches near the hearth w^ere roasted, while
the big boys and girls, who occupied the back bench-
es, near the rattling w^indows, shivered with cold.
Our ordinary text-books were "Webster's Spelling-
book," " DaboU's Arithmetic," " Murray's Grammar,"
" Morse's Geography," " Flint's Surveying," " Tyt-
ler's History," " Belkna])'s Biographies," the " Amer-
can Preceptor," and the never-to-be-forgotten " AVest-
minstcr Catechism." We had no nuips, atlases, black-
boards, or any of the modern aids and appliances for
the acquisition of knowledge. We lost less by this

NATHAN DAI30LL. GEORGE I). Pr.ENTICE. 17

than many imagine. Learning is like gold. Those
who get it the hardest generally keep it, while from \
those to whom it comes without the asking it is lia-
ble to slip away. The most of what I obtained in the •
red schoolhouse at Pachauo^ and the rickety buildino^ 1
at Jewett City in ^^outhful days stays with me yet. j
Aside from school-books, Bibles, psalm-books, and the i
professional books of the clerg^% the physicians, a.nd \
our one lawyer, I presume all the volumes in this
rather wealthy town did not exceed one hundred and
fifty. I went throuo'h the whole of them more than '
once. \

Nathan Daboll, the arithmetician, was a native of |

our county. Of course, we thought he was the great- \

est mathematician in the world. One day we heard he j

was about to pass the red schoolhouse. We were mar- i

shalled out to greet him, the pupils all in a row, and j

the master at the head of the line. Mr. Daboll ap- ;
proached on a venerable gray horse, his white beard
touching the pommel of the saddle. We gave him a

low bow ; he lifted his aged hat, smiled benignly, and i

rode on. He had taught school in Griswold. j

One of my teachers was George D. Prentice, the j

poet, who was born within a stone's -throw of me. i

He is better known as the witty editor of the Louis- '

xille Journal^ now the Compter- Journal^ managed by ;

Henry Watterson. Many were the literary favors I !

received from Prentice. He was a graduate of Brown, j

an admirable instructor, a ripe scholar, had a wonder- |

ful memory, and was a skilful wrestler I have seen 1
him, on a wager, read two large pages in a strange

book twice through, and then repeat them without a :

i
1

s

18

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

miss. The champioii Avrestler of the county met
Prentice casually in the bar-room of the Jewett City
hotel. The champion was a stalwart fellow, tall, ath-
letic, and weighed fifty per cent, more than Prentice.
The floor was hard, and the ceiling was high. They
clinched. The struggle was desperate. The cham-
pion went under rather lightly. He insisted upon
another hold. Xo sooner were they ready than Pren-
tice threw the champion clear over his shoulders,
brinmno: him to the floor with a thud that made the
house jar, and beating all the breath out of his body.

Prentice studied law at Griswold. He wore a pis-
tol, but had no use for it there. When he went to
Louisville, and took up the editorial pen, the pistol
came into play.

When I dwelt at Cincinnati, in 1832-1835, the great
daily of the Southwest was the Journal, founded in
1830, by Prentice, and conducted by him till his death,
in 1870. It was the leading Whig organ in the West-
ern States during the existence of that party. As
an editor he was full of wit and fire, and his para-
graphs exploded like nitro-glycerine, he fighting out
his quarrels with pen or pistol, as the case required.
Long ago I wrote a little for Prentice's Journal.
The last time I saw Prentice was in 1859, at New
York, where he had come to publish a volume of his
witty sayings. I noticed his arrival at the Astor.
Though we had not met for a third of a century, he
instantly recognized me when I called Jiim by name.
Years only jidded to the zest with which we talked of
the events of youth.

In passing through Jowett City, the industrious

IIEXRY CLAY. LA FAYETTE.

19

Pachaug Kiver propelled the wheels of a dozen mills.
Among them was a Avoollen factory, erected, at the
opening of the century, by a Mr. Schofield, an Eng-
lishman, who brought his machinery from beyond the
Atlantic. It was said that threats were made to kill
him, in order to crush this then scarcely -born species
of industry. England has since learned to accomplish
the same end by prostrating the protective tariffs of
her rivals. My father was, ultimatel}^, the partner of
Schofield. At the same time he manufactured ma-
chinery and owned three country stores. The years
I spent in these stores and factories gave me a close
acquaintance with merchandise and machinery. The
latter served me an excellent purpose in later times,
when I becamxC a patent-lawyer, and tried patent-suits
in the courts.

We always celebrated the Fourth of July in Jewett
City. We had our dinner, read the Declaration of In-
pendence, drank our lemon-punch, gave the thirteen
regular toasts, and then called for volunteers ; that is
to say, the full-grown men did this. I was brought
up to admire Henry Clay. In 1824 Clay, Crawford,
Adams, and Jackson were running for the presidency.
The Fourth of July brought its celebration. Captain
Charles Fanning, my great -uncle, who had fought
through the Eevolution, v\'as to preside at the dinner.
Clad in the garb of the previous century, and crowned
with a flowing wig. Captain Fanning sat at the head
of the table, gave the regular toasts, and asked for
volunteers. I sprang to my feet, delivered a speech
about an inch long, and gave, " Henry Clay : the elo-
quent champion of domestic manufactures and internal

20

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

improvements." My prim old uncle stared at me
with amazement. The Clay men clinked their glass-
es, pounded the table, and I sat down covered with con-
fusion and a23plause. This was the first of the six-
teen Presidential campaigns in which I have delivered
speeches ; sometimes not a few.

In 1825 General La Fayette, in his last visit to this
country, passed through Jewett City on his way from
New York to Boston. We had short notice of his
coming. The whole village turned out to greet him.
Captain Fanning, who had fought under him at Mon-
mouth, and had taken a hasty breakfast with him
just as the battle was commencing, did the honors of
the present occasion. La Fayette and Fanning had
not met in nearly forty-five 3^ ears, and the latter was
wondering if the marquis would recognize him. The
coach drove up. It was late in the evening. The
marquis alighted, with his son and other companions,
and entered the hotel. Captain Fanning stood in the
parlor without moving. La Fayette gazed intenth^ at
him for a moment, then walked straight up to him,
and, throwing his arms around him, French fashion,
exclaimed, " Captain Fanning ! God bless you, my old
comrade I"

CHAPTER HI.

Journey to Rochester in April, 1826.— New York City had 150,0CO
Souls. —Tammany Hall. — The Buclitails.— The City Hall.—
Albany's Population, 15,000. — The Old Capitol. — Legislative
Leaders: Younir, Root, Frank Granger, Colden, Livingston,
Silas Yrright, Tallmadgc. — Governor De Witt Clinton, the
Magniticcnt.— The Erie Canal just Completed.— Utica.— Syra-
cuse.— Rochester in 1826. — Anti-Masonic Excitement. — Thurlow
Weed's Dingy Newspaper, Shabby Dress, and Empty Pocket. —
Henry O'Reilly Issues at Rochester, in 1826, the First Daily
Journal West of the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. — Edmund
Keau, the Tragedian, Performs in the "Iron Chest" at Roches-
ter.—Sam Patch Twice Leaps the Genesee Falls and is Drowned.
— Gerrit Smitli and Fann}^ Wright Speak at Rochester.— Samuel
Wilkeson Constructs the Harbor at Buffalo.

Early in April, 1826, 1 started -for the Far West,"
even to the Genesee country, which seemed then far-
ther off than Alaska does now. My route was by
Long Island Sound, the Hudson Eiver, and Erie Canal,
which had been completed the October previous. I
arrived at ISTew York in the morning. It then con-
tained a population of one hundred and fifty thou-
sand. I rushed into Broadway. All the world seemed
to be there. I stared at the taU houses, and everybody
I didn't run into ran into me. I was specially attract-
ed by the omnibuses, as I have seen to be the case
with other immigrants in later 3"ears. They vrere
bound for such far-off villages as Greenwich and Chel-
sea, which, I subsequently learned, were located, one

22

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

near the foot of Tenth Street, and the other at Eigh-
teenth Street, on the west side. My father had taken
Major Mordeeai M. ]S"oah's newspaper, and I knew
about Tammany Hall and the Bucktails. I sought
the famous building. I stood before it. I remem-
bered the couplet :

"There's a barrel of porter in Tammany Hall,
And the Bucktails arc swigging it all the day long."

I confronted the City Hall. To my youthful eye
it seemed an architectural marvel. Well, to this day
it is one of the most unique specimens of its order in
the country.

I reached Albany in the forenoon. Its population
was lifteen thousand. I repaired to the Capitol. It
filled me with wonder. I thought it equal to the ed-
ifice which crowned Capitolinc Hill in ancient Eome.
I was bewildered when I learned that it cost $110,000.
The Tweed style of doing this sort of a thing had not
then been discovered. There it stood — its massive
walls; its fluted columns; its towering dome, sur-
mounted by the statue of Justice bearing aloft the
scales. I entered the Assembly Chamber, and lis-
tened to an angry debate between Samuel Young,
Erastus Koot, and Fi-ancis Gi'anger, tlien among the
renowned politicians of Xew York. Granger was
the attraction of the ladies' gallery. Dressed in a
bottle-green coat with gilt buttons and brilhant ap-
purtenances, he was a model of grace and beauty. I
went into the Senate "Chamber, and heard a discussion
about the canals by Cadwallader D. Colden, Peter li.
Livingston, and Silas Wright. Lieutenant-governor

DE WITT CLINTON. THE ERIE CANAL. 23

James Tallmadge, vrho had won distinction in Con-
gress in the IMissouri controversy, filled the chair.
These things and these men looked large to me then.
Years afterwards, wdien a member of the same body,
and standing behind the scenes, they dwindled in
magnitude.

I saw the governor in the Executive Chamber. De
AVitt Clinton was one of the most magnificent men
that ever stood on the soil of Xew York. He w^as
then in the height of his grandeur and glory. The
Erie Canal, his greatest achievement, had been fin-
ished the previous fall, and he had come from Buffalo
to Albany, and thence to ISTew York, in the canal-
boat Seneca Chiefs through an unbroken succession
of cheers and the booming of cannon. Amid many
imposing ceremonies, a barrel of water brought from
Buffalo to Kew York was emptied into its harbor, and
then another barrel was carried from New York to
Buffalo, and poured into its harbor, and thus was
Lake Erie w^edded to the Atlantic Ocean. Mr. Clin-
ton then ranked among the foremost statesmen in the
nation.

The canal not being wholly free of ice, I went by
stage-coach to Utica. The tributaries of the Mohawk
River not having been then denuded of their protect-
ing forests, its banks were full. On arriving at Utica
I could say with Tom Moore,

"From rise of morn to set of sun,
I've seen the miglit}^ Mohawk run."

Utica was a gem of a city, w^ith four thousand five
hundred souls. There I took the packet-boat for

24

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Eochester. We passed through Syracuse in a driz-
ding rain. It contained about two thousand five
hundred people, and was just scrambling out of its
salt-pits, covered with mud and slime. By-the-by, I
supposed that the Erie Canal ^vas a pellucid stream
like my own Fachaug. I found it the muddiest ditch
I ever saw. We shot into Eochester through the
aqueduct across the Genesee as the sun was peeping
over the shoulders of the hills in Brighton. The aque-
duct seemed to me equal to those famous structures
which supplied old Eome with Avater.

In April, 1826, Eochester was a little town of three
thousand five hundred inhabitants, clinging to both
banks of the Genesee Eiver. In the centre of the vil-
lage roared the Falls, one hundred feet high. It al-
ready show^ed premonitory symptoms of its coming
beauty and greatness. It was growing with marvel-
lous rapidity. Stumps of trees were standing in its
principal streets, and the w^oodman's axe w^as hewing
down the forest to make room for other streets.

In September, 1826, William Morgan was abducted
from Canandaigua, carried through Eochester, and in-
carcerated in Fort Niagara, which had been abandoned
by the government. Then broke out the Anti-ma-
sonic excitement, which convulsed Western New
York for many years. These bitter controversies
tore society all in pieces. Their history has been
written again and again, and I shall not repeat a line
of it, although I was a witness of the whole of it.
Tlie statement of Thurlow AVeed, ])ublished since his
death, in regard to the fate of Morgan, is, no doubt,
substantially true. I knew all the principal charac-

THURLOW WEED IN 182G.

25

ters mentioned in that statement. I have seen many
sharp political and social contests in my day, but,
vieAved in some aspects, I think the Anti-masonic
feuds excelled them all.

When I came to Kochester, in April, 1826. Mr.
Weed was the editor of a dingy weekly Clintonian
newspaper, called the Monroe Telegraj)h. He had
been a member of the Assembly the year before. He
Avas one of the poorest and worst - dressed men in
Kochester. He dwelt in a cheap house, in an obscure
part of the village. In the western counties of the
state, however, he Avas then as great a poAver in poli-
tics, perhaps, as at any subsequent period of his life.
He was often sent by his associates on missions of
grave importance into A'arious states. He sometimes
had to borrow^ clothes to give him an appearance be-
fitting his talents. I AA^as standing one day in the
street with Mr. Weed and Frederick Whittlesey, who
Avas afterwards Yice chancellor and Judge of the Old
Supreme Court, when up came Weed's little son, and
said, Father, mother wants a shiUing to buy some
bread." Weed put on a queer look, felt in his pock-
ets, and remarked, " That is a home appeal, but 1*11
be hanged if I've got the shilling." Whittlesey drew
out a silver dollar, gave it to the boy, and said, Take
that home to your mother." He seized the glittering
prize, and ran off like a deer. I don't mention these
things to the discredit of Mr. Weed, but to his honor .
It was rare that a man Avho was so poor should be so
great. Spattered Avith ink, and with bare arms, ]ie
pulled at the old hand -press of the Telegra/ph^ and
at a rickety table that w^ould have been dear at fifty

9

26

RA^'DOM EECOLLECTIOXS.

cents he wrote those sparlding paragraphs which, in
later j^ears, made the Albany Evening Journal famous.

In the fall of 1S2G Luther Tucker & Co. estab-
lished in Rochester the earliest daily journal issued
between the Hudson and Delaware rivers and the
Pacific Ocean. It was entitled the Rochester Daily
Advertiser^ and was edited in a spirited manner by
Henry O'Reilly. It continues to the present day as
the Advertiser and Union. Soon after it was start-
ed the Advertiser became a Democratic exponent, and
for many months a good share of Weed's and O'Reil-
ly's time seemed to be devoted to firing red-hot shot
at each other. Having been inducted into the mys-
tery of newspaper scribbling about two years before
by my townsman, George D. Prentice, I took a hand
occasionally in those pen-and-ink contests.

AVe had a little theatre at Rochester, managed by
an Englishman named "Wilhams, who had played sub-
ordinate parts to Edmund Kean in London. Kean
stopped at Rochester, with one or two companions,
on his way to Niagara Falls for rest. Williams was
always in debt, and generally in the hands of the
sheriff. He saw Kean at the hotel, and implored
liim to play one night and help him out of difficulty.
Please remember this was the original 3vean, the real
Kean, the great Kean ; not the feeble imitation which
appeared in his son, Charles Kean. The peerless act-
or yielded to the importunities of Williams. Ample
time for preparation was given; the price of seats
was ]Hit far above the current rates in Xew York ;
the play was The Iron Chest," Kean, of course, tak-
ing the part pf Sir Edward Mortimer. The elite of

EDMUND KEAN. — SAM PATCH.

27

Monroe and one or two adjoining counties crowded
the house in every part. The affair was a grand suc-
cess. At the close of the performance we got a speech,
out of Kean, and Williams got out of the hands of
the sheriff.

Sam Patch, the famous jumper and diver, came to
Eochester in November, 1829, and proposed to leap
from the Falls in the heart of 'the village. On the
day fixed Sam appeared. The banks of the river, as
far as the eye could reach, were lined with spectators.
He was dressed in a suit of white, and I will state,
for the benefit of other fools of the same class, that,
before he leaped, he placed his hands firmly on his
loins, then sprang from the shelving rock, and went
down straight as an arroAV. He came up feet fore-
most, and swam ashore amid the shouts of thousands.
A few days later he proposed to leap again. He
erected a scaffold twenty-five feet high on the brink
of the Falls, making the descent one hundred and
twenty-five feet. On the day named another im-
mense throng assembled. Mr. Thurlow Weed and I
happened to meet at the foot of the scaffold. Patch
came, dressed as before, and apparentl}^ under the in-
fluence of liquor. As he ascended the scaffold Weed
left, but I remained. He made a ridiculous speech,
and then jumped. As he went down his arms were
all in a whirl, and he struck the water with a stun-
ning splash. The crowd waited for hours. He did
not rise. The next spring the mangled remains of
the poor wretch were found at the foot of the Falls
at Carthage, four miles below Eochester.

Gerrit Smith, at Eochester, in 1827 or 1828, deliv-

28

KANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

ered a Colonization address in the Court-house. Then
thirty years of age, in glowing health, and with a
voice that was pronounced superior in melody to
Henry Clay's, he was a noble specimen of manly dig-
nity and beauty. He was master of a theme that
attracted the attention of philanthropists and states-
men. It Avas in that year, I belieye, that, in the same
building, I heard a speech from a very different ora-
tor, on quite a dissimilar subject. This was the fa-
mous Fanny Wright, who advocated views concern-
ing woman which were then novel, but have since
become familiar. She spoke with grace and ability,
but was hardly as beautiful as the engraving in vol. i.
of " The History of Woman Suffrage."

When I passed through Albany in 1826 I saw in
the Senate Samuel Wilkeson, of Buffalo, one of the
most remarkable of the pioneers tliat built up west-
ern Xew York. Buffalo then contained only four
thousand five hundred people, but Avas rapidly in-
creasing in population, trade, and wealth. Judge
Wilkeson, eagle-eyed and lion-hearted, possessed keen
sagacity and indomitable enterprise, and, though not
versed in the lore of the schools, he had what no
amount of learning can supply — an original, creative
genius. He was the founder of the commercial pros-
perity of Buffalo. He constructed its harbor, and
thus made it the terminus of the Erie Canal and the
outlet of the trade of the upi)er lakes. The city rec-
ognizes its obligations to the man to whom it is so
largely indebted for its early growth and present
greatness.

CHAPTER ,IV.

Horatio Seymour when a Cadet ; his Father, Henry Seymour.
— The ' ' Immortal Seventeen " Senators. — Marcy, Flagg,
Bouck in 1826-1827.— Death of De Witt Clinton in 1828; Mar-
tin Van Buren and Benjamin F. Butler's Eulogiums on Him;
their Drift and Purpose. — Yan Buren at Rochester in 1828;
His Variegated Dress. — Eoscoe Conkling's Style. — Presidential
Struggle between Adams and Jackson in 1828. — Van Buren
Runs for Governor to Help Jackson, and is Chosen. — Smith
Thompson and Solomon South wick also Candidates. — Jackson
Elected President. — Van Buren Appointed Secretary of State.—
Young Men's State Convention at Utica in 1828; the First ever
Held in the Union; William H. Seward Presides; his Unexpected
and Embarrassing Nomination for Congress in 1828; he Declines
to Run.

m

I SAW Horatio Seymour Avhen he was quite young.
Captain Alden Partridge, who had been professor and
superintendent at West Point, established, in 1820, a
private mihtary school in Yermont, whence he re-
moved it to Middletown, Conn. One summer he
made a tour of the latter state with his cadets. They
visited Jewett City, where I was. Horatio Seymour
was one of them. They were a bright bevy of bloom-
ing boys, carrying little guns, and dressed in gray
jackets, white trousers, and jaunty caps, and they ma-
noeuvred with the pride and precision of veterans. A
Revolutionary officer, in whose house I felt at home,
gave them a reception, and I made bold to shake
hands with all of them. Many years later, when I

30

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

met Mr. Seymour in the Assembly at Albany, he
spoke of his tour to Jewett City as a cadet. We ex-
changed smiles ovei* our early acquaintance, though
probabl}^ neither of us had heard of the existence of
the other since the casual handshake on the banks
of the Quinnebaug Eiver.

I met Henry Seymour, the father of Horatio, sev-
eral times at Kochester in 1826 and 1827. He was a
canal commissioner from 1819 to 1832, and for six
• years bore an active share in the construction of
the Erie Canal. In 1826 and 1827 I was a clerk in
the canal office at Eochester, whose chief was John
Bowman, one of the so-called " Immortal Seventeen "
Senators (the Clintonians denounced them as the " In-
famous Seventeen") that defeated the bill for giving
to the people the right of choosing presidential elect-
ors. Bowman's office was the rendezvous of famous
Democratic politicians. I recall the visitsf^of Comp-
troller Marcy, Secretary of State Flagg, Senators Mal-
lory and Hcman J. Kedfield, two of the " Seventeen,"
and William C. Bouck and Henry Seymour, Canal
Commissioners. My young ears were wide open, and
I learned something about l^ew York and national
politics which I have not yet forgotten. Mr. Sey-
mour had been in the State Senate before he was
commissioner. He was the coadjutor — indeed, he
was a member of the Albany Kegency, that so long
bore sway in the Democratic party. It will be read-
ily believed that the unflinching politics of the son,
and liis devotion to the canal system of New York,
were hereditary gifts from the father. In figure and
face the late governor, when in his prime, bore a strik-

DEATH OF DE WITT CLINTON.

31

ing resemblance to his sire, but in manners and social
intercourse lie was far more spirited and entertaining.

In February, 1828, De Witt Clinton died, without
a moment's warning, at Albany. The profound im-
pression which his decease produced in Xew York has
never been equalled by any similar event. The con-
test for the Presidency between John Quincv Adams
and Andrew Jackson had just opened. Clinton had
declared in favor of Jackson, and Avas brino-ino: over
to his standard as rapidly as possible his great follow-
ing. The personal party which Clinton had built up
Avas never surpassed in the state. Martin Yan Buren,
Senator in Congress, head of the Albany Eegency,
and an opponent of Clinton, was the Jackson leader
in Xew York. It was understood that Jackson's par-
tialities for CUnton were so strong that, in case of his
election, he would have made him Secretary of State,
and Yan Buren would have had to wait. At a meet-
ing of the Xew York delegation in Congress, held at
Washington, in regard to the death of CHnton, Ste-
phen Yan Eensselaer, the Albany Patroon, presided,
and Yan Buren made the memorial speech. He closed
with these words : ''I, who never envied him anything
while living, am now tempted to envy him his grave
Vv4th its honors."

In the winter of 1828 Benjamin F. Butler, who had
been the law partner of Mr. Yan Buren, was in the
Assembly from Albany. He was one of the revisers
of the Statutes, and was sent to the Legislature mainly
to look after the passage of the new code, John C.
Spencer, another of the revisers, being in the Senate
chiefly for the same purpose. The morning after the

32

RANDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

death of the ilkistrious governor, Mr. Butler, an ar-
dent Democrat, announced the event to the Assem-
bly in a eulogium on Clinton of rare eloquence.
Mr. Van Buren followed this line of encomium in his
speech at Washington ; and then was commenced the
concerted effort to bring Clinton's Jacksonian friends
in Xew York to the support of the Kinderhook ma-
gician, as well as to the aid of the Hero of the Her-
mitage.

Yan Buren was in due time nominated for gov-
ernor for the ensuing election, to help Jackson carry
New York. His first mission was to conciliate the
friends of Clinton. In the summer of 1828 he made
a tour for that purpose. He came to Kochester. The
next -day was the Sablmth. He attended the First
Presbyterian Church, the wealthy and aristocratic
church of the town, and occupied the pew of General
Gould, one of the elders, who had been a life-long
Federalist and supporter of Clinton. All eyes were
fixed upon the man who held Jackson's fate in his
hands. Mr. Yan Buren was rather an exquisite in
personal appearance. His complexion was a bright
blonde, and he dressed accordingly. On this occa-
sion he wore an elegant snuff-colored broadcloth coat
Avith velvet collar ; his cravat was orange with mod-
est lace tips ; his vest was of a pearl hue ; his trousers
were white duck ; his silk hose corresponded to the
vest ; his shoes were morocco ; his nicely-fitting gloves
were yellow kid; his long-furred beaver hat, with
broad brim, was of Quaker color. Eoscoe Conkling,
his distinguished successor in the Senate, never ex-
celled that.

My idol, Mr. Cla}^, then Secretary of State, was in-

WILLIAM n. SEWARD IN 1828.

33

volved in the struggle between Adams and Jackson,
and I was, therefore, for Adams. Early in the spring
I made a speech in favor of Adams at Eochester. * In
the sum.mer I attended a Young Men's Adams State
Convention at Utica, w^hereof William H. Seward was
President. Here commenced an acquaintance between
us wdiich lasted till the death of that great statesman,
in 1872. I delivered several addresses in Monroe
County during this campaign, and w^rote some arti-
cles in Mr. Weed's Telegraphy and in N^ovember cast
my first presidential vote. The Adams nominee for
governor, an old Bucktail, and then on the Supreme
bench at Washington, w^as Smith Thompson, after
wdiom Yan Buren had named one of his sons. The
day went against us in New York, owing to votes
thrown away on Solomon Soutliwick, the Anti-ma-
sonic candidate for governor. Yan Buren w^as cho-
sen, and in March he resigned, and took the office of
Secretary of State under Jackson.

The Convention at Utica w^as the first assemblage of
the kind in any state of the Union. The fact, doubt-
less, seems exquisitely absurd to the few delegates
that yet live, when they remember that for several
years they were pointed out as " the Boys who at-
tended the Young Men's State Convention." Our
early celebrity was easily won.

I relate the following anecdote as I recall it when
falling from Mr. Seward's lips, soon after the event.
He had w^on distinction by his presidency over the
Young Men's State Convention, and there w^as a gen-
eral, desire in the Adams party for his advancement.
A member of Congress was to be chosen in the Cayu-
2^

34

RA^'DOM RECOLLECTIONS.

ga district, but Seward did not aspire to the position.
He was then twenty-seven years old. The party in
Ca\niga relied on his facile pen to draft the addresses
of their conventions, which then filled the place of
the long strings of resolutions of a later period. The
Adams leaders in Auburn had fixed on the nomina-
tion of an old and popular citizen, not dreaming that
the approaching convention Avould fail to accept him.
Taking it for granted that he would be the candidate,
young Seward wrote an address describing the nomi-
nee as an aged inhabitant of Cayuga, who had long
dwelt in the county, had filled important offices dur-
ing an honorable career, and was revered for his years,
solid attainments, and many virtues. Having pre-
pared the address, Mr. Seward left Auburn for a dis-
tant county to try a case in court.

The convention got into a snarl, and, after a long
contest, rejected the foreshadowed candidate, and, as
a last resort, compromised on Seward. In the dusk
of the evening they adopted Seward's address with-
out having read it, and sent the record of their pro-
ceedings to the printer of the weekly newspaper, with
verbal directions to insert Seward's name in the ad-
dress. It was put in tyi)e, and soon appeared. Judge
of Seward's surprise and chagrin when he arrived
home to find himself not only nominated for Con-
gress, but ])resented to the voters of Cayuga as an
aged inliabitant, who had long dwelt in the county,
and was revered for his years and virtues, and so on,
in the glowing phrases of his own address. He
emerged from the ridiculous position in which the
convention had placed him by peremptorily declin-
in^ the nomination.

CPIAPTER. V.

Courts and Counsellors at Rochester in 1827-1830.— Daniel D.
Barnard. — Addison Gardiner. — Samuel L. Selden. — Occasional
Visitors. — Eiisha Williams. — John C. Spencer. — Daniel Cady. —
Henry R Storrs. — Millard Fillmore. — William H. Seward and
others. — Thurlovv Weed Chosen to the Assembly in 1829. — "A
good enough Morgan till after the Election." — Weed Founds
the Albany Evening Journal in April, 1830. — The State Mends
William L. Marcy's "Pantaloons." — The Patch a Campaign
Issue Avhen he Ran for Governor. — John W. Taylor, of Sara-
toga, and the Missouri Compromise. — jMarcy and Silas Wright
on its Repeal. — The Wilmot Proviso. — Marcy and Wright Com-
pared.— The Rochester Clergy in 1830. — Charles G. Finney, the
Famous Evangelist. — His Pulpit Oratory.

In January, 1829, I became Deputy Clerk of Mon-
roe County. The clerk lived many miles out of town,
and the responsibilities of the office fell entirely upon
me. I officiated as clerk for neaiiy three years in all
the Courts of Kecord. In Avitnessing conflicts of law-
yers— and some of them were the heads of the profes-
sion— I learned a great deal of law, and especially in
the matter of evidence. Indeed, I was studying law
all these years. Among the leaders of the profession
in Monroe were Daniel D. Barnard, Addison Gardiner,
and Samuel L. Selden, names that will be instantly
recognized by the Bar throughout the state. We had
occasional visits from such men as Eiisha Williams,
John C. Spencer, Daniel Cady, Dudley Marvin, B.
Davis Xoxen, and Henry R. Storrs; while among

36

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

the young lawyers who tried causes in our county
were Millard Fillmore and William H. Seward. It
was under such auspices that I took my first lessons in
legal lore.

In 1S29 it was resolved to run Thurlow Weed for
the Assembly. The campaign was to the last degree
acrimonious. Weed's leadership in the Anti-masonic
excitement had raised up against him an arm}^ of en-
emies. The famous cry of A good enough Morgan
till after the election" ^v^is worked for all it was
worth. Weed was a tremendous power at the polls.
With one hand full of ballots and the other on the
shoulder of a hesitating voter, it was impossible for
his prisoner to escape the influence of his magnetic
eye. Weed's opponent was a prominent member of the
First Presbyterian congregation. It was deemed im-
portant that Weed should attend service there on tlie
Sabbath previous to the election. He borrowed some
garments, came in on time, wearing a wretched cra-
vat and a shockino: bad hat. He abstained from the
polls, but could not help taking a seat in a loft which
overlooked the principal voting-place of Eochester,
and for three days during which the contest lasted
he walked the room like a caged lion. I now and
then repaired to the room, and, as Weed would look
out upon the sidewalk, and see a doubtful voter ap-
])roaching the polls, he would wring his hands and
say, " Oh, what would I give if I could see that man
for one moment I" Weed was triumphant, and went
to the Assembly, and in April, 1830, he issued the
first number of the Albany livening Journal.

Anecdotes of the living paint truer likenesses than

weed's shears. — makcy's breeches. 37

funeral orations. The phrase " A good enough Mor-
gan till after the election" grew out of the charge
that Mr. Weed had clipped off with shears the vrhis-
kers of the dead Timothy Monro to make him pass
for William Morgan, then not known to be dead,
who had no wliiskers. At Rochester, in the Presi-
dential election of 1828, Mr. Weed, for three days,
was waving his magic wand over the ballot-boxes.
A rough fellow kept all the while close to his heels,
clipping at him with shears three feet long, bearing
the words "A good enough Morgan till after the
election *' engraved on each blade. Mr. Weed en-
dured the insult with becoming equanimity.

Who has not heard of William L. Marcy's charge
against the state " For mending my pantaloons, 50
cents " ? In 1830 he was sent into western In ew
York while Judge of the Supreme Court, under a
special law, to try the Anti-masonic cases, the act
providing for the payment of his travelling expenses.
When auditing accounts as comptroller he always de-
manded itemized bills, and as special judge he adhered
to this proper rule, and therefore put the fifty cents
in with the other items. While running for govern-
or, in 1832, this item literally cut a figure all over the
state. At Eochester the Anti-masons erected a pole
fifty feet high on the main street, and suspended at
its top a huge pair of black trousers, with a white
patch on the seat, bearing the figure 50 in red paint,
where it flapped through three gusty days. The
grand old governor always enjoyed this fifty-cent epi-
sode in his pohtical career. So he did the prank of
the stage-drivef in whose coach he was riding in west-

38

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

ern JSTew York in the summer after he was chosen
governor. The road Avas horribly muddy and rough.
As they were wallowing through a bad slough the
driver shouted, " Kow, ladies and gentlemen, hold on
tight, for this is the very hole where Governor Marcy
tore his breeches.-' The governor paid for the din-
ners at the next tavern.

Governor Marcy relished jokes on himself. Mr.
Weed did not.

In the summer of 1830 I was dining with a friend
at the Mansion House in Albany. On the opposite
side of the table sat tvro gentlemen, one of whom I
recognized as Silas AYright. The other was John W.
Taylor, who had then been eighteen years in Con-
gress, and twice speaker. My friend slightly knew
Mr. Taylor, and introduced me to him, and he intro-
duced us to Mr. Wright, the state comptroller. These
three gentlemen represented the leading parties of
Xew York, the politics whereof were then in a tran-
sition condition. Mr. Taylor followed Clay ; Wright
was a disciple of Yan Buren, and my friend, who had
been chosen to the State Senate the previous fall, Avas
an Anti-mason. Mr. Taylor, being the eldest of the
company, did most of the talking, and I, being the
youngest, did most of the listening. Taylor told in-
teresting anecdotes of public men he had met at
Washington, and the genial comptroller contributed
a few racy stories. One of Taylor's heroes Avas a
Southern Congressman, Avho had been conspicuous
in the contest over the admission of Missouri to the
Union. This emboldened me to say that I had read,
as soon as it appeared, Mr. Taylor's famous argument

MARCY AND WRIGHT COMPARED.

39

in that memorable controversy. The ex-speaker
seemed pleased that so young a man remembered
this crowning act in his long and distinguished Con-
gressional career.

One of the ablest men that 'New York has sent to
the Senate was Silas Wright* where he sat twelve
years, till chosen governor of the state. His mod-
esty would have kept him in the background among
associates many of w^hom were eminent in the na-
tional councils, if his talents for deliberation and de-
bate had not borne him to their front rank. A man's
status in the Senate is determined by the calibre and
skill of the opponents who are selected to cross weap-
ons with him in the forum. Wright Avas unostenta-
tious, studious, thoughtful, grave. He was, therefore,
liable to be underrated by pushing, flippant, shallow,
noisy members. Whenever he delivered an elaborate
speech the Whigs set Clay, Webster, Ewing, or some
other of their leaders to reply to him.

William L. Marcy was the immediate predecessor
of Mr. Wright in the New York comptrollership and
the United States Senate. Each possessed rare tal-
ents, but they were totally dissimilar in mental traits
and political methods. Both were statesmen of scru-
pulous honesty, who despised jobbery. Marcy wsls
wily, and loved intrigue. Wright was proverbially
open and frank. Marcy never trained himself to be
a public speaker, and did not shine in the hand-to-
hand conflicts of a body that was lustrous with foren-
sic talents. Few, however, have excelled him in the
administration of executive ofiices, as "was shown by
his twelve years' service as comptroller and governor

40

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

of New York, and his eight years' management of
the War and State departments at Washington.

On the great question that loomed threateningly
on the horizon while they were Democratic leaders
Wright and Marcy took opposite sides. Wright
moved calmly along with the advancing liberal sen-
timent of the period, and died a tirm advocate of the
policy of the Wilmot Proviso. On this test-measure
Marcy took no step forward. Ten years after the
grave had closed over his rival he descended to the
tomb a mild apologist for the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise.

The clergy of Rochester in 1830 were very able.
The minister of the First Presbyterian Church was
Dr. Penny ; the pastor of the second was Mr. James,
son of the Albany millionaire, familiarly called " Billy "
James ; the pulpit of the third Avas vacant ; the Epis-
copal clergyman was Mr. Whitehouse, subsequently
the distinguished Bishop of Illinois; Dr. Comstock,
of the Ba])tist Church, had served six years in Con-
gress ; the Methodist preacher was a brother of Mil-
lard Fillmore. In October, 1830, Charles G. Finney,
the famous evangelist* came to Rochester to supply
the pulpit of the Tliird Presbyterian Church. I had
been absent a few days, and on my return was asked
to hear him. It was in the afternoon. A tall, grave-
looking man, dressed in an unclerical suit of gray, as-
cended the j)uli)it. Light liair covered his foreliead ;
his eyes were of a sparkling blue, and his pose and
movement dignified. I listened. It did not sound
like ])reaching, but like a lawyer arguing a case be-
fore a court and jury. This was not singular, per-

CHARLES G. FINNEY IN 18C0.

41

haps, for the speaker had been a lawyer before he
became a clergyman. The discourse was a chain of
loffic, brio^htened hv felicity of illustration and en-
forced by urgent appeals from a voice of great com-
pass and melody. Mr. Finney was then in the ful-
ness of his powers. lie had' won distinction else-
where, but was little known in Kochester. He
preached there six months, usually speaking three
times on the Sabbath, and three or four times during
the week. His style was particularly attractive for
lawyers. He illustrated his points frequently and
happily by references to legal principles. The first
effect was produced among the higher classes. It
began with the judges, the lawyers, the physicians,
the bankers, and the merchants, and worked its way
down to the bottom of society, till nearly everybody
had joined one or the other of the churches controlled
by the different denominations. I have heard many
celebrated pulpit orators in various parts of the world.
Taken all in all, I never knew the superior of Charles
G. Finney. His sway over an audience was wonder-
ful. Do not infer that there was a trace of rant or
fustian in him. You might as well apply these terms
to heavy artillery on a field of battle. His sermons
were usually an hour long, but on some occasions I
have known an audience which packed every part of
the house and filled the aisles listen to him without
the movement of a foot for two hours and a half. In
his loftiest moods, and in the higher passages of a
discourse on a theme of transcendent importance, he
was the impersonation of majesty and poAver. AYhile
depicting the glories or the terroi's of the world to

42

ra:ndom recollections.

come, he trod the pulpit hke a giant. His action was
dramatic. He painted in vivid colors. He gave his
imagination full play. His voice, wide in scope and
mellow in pathos, now rung in tones of warning and
expostulation, and anon melted in sympathetic ac-
cents of entreaty and encouragement. He was a fine
singer, and, when a lawyer, used to lead the choir and
play the bass-viol in his town. In singing the Dox-
ology he alone could fill the largest edifices. His
gestures were appropriate, forcible, and graceful. As
he would stand Avith his face towards the side gallery,
and then involuntarily wheel around, the audience in
that part of the house towards which he threw his
arm would dodge as if he were hurling something at
them. In describing the sliding of a sinner to per-
dition, he would lift his long finger towards the ceil-
ing and slowly bring it down till it pointed to the
area in front of the pulpit, when half his hearers in
the rear of the house would rise unconsciously to their
feet to see him descend into the pit below. Bear in
mind that this was without the slightest approach to
rhodomontade or exuberant excitement on the part
of the orator. Mr. Finney regarded his success at
Rochester as among the greatest of his remarkable
career. In theology he was a New-School Presbyte-
rian. .

CHAPTER. YI.

The Author Goes to Lane Seraiuary in 1831. — President Lyman-
Becchcr Tried for Heresy at Cincinnati. — Henry Ward Beechcr
Says his Father is "Plagued Good at Twisting." — Xew and Old
School Theological Magnates. — "In Adam's Fall Vv^e Sinned
all." — Dr. Beman's Parody. — Dr. Beecher's Eccentricities. —
First Anti-slavery Speech. — James G. Birney, and General Bir-
ney, his Son. — "Boj's, Keep your Eye on that Flag." — First
Mob.— Anti-slavery Debate at Lane in 1834. — Its Consequences.
— Early Anti-slavery Career. — The Author Addresses the 3Ias-
sachusetts Legislature on Freedom, in 1837. — The Epoch of
Mobs. — East Greenwich. — Utica. — Boston. — Newport. — Provi-
dence.— Bishop Clark of Rhode Island. — Methodist Church
Burned. — Penns3dvania Hall Burned. — Quaker Meeting-house
Sacked in Portland. — John Xeal, the Poet, Puts the Mob down.
— Senator William Pitt Fessenden. — "I am that Person." — Mob
in Norwich, Connecticut. — Mobbed in many States. — Xever in
Vermont.

I DESiKED to supply clelicieiicies in an imperfect edu-
cation. After studying the classics a year or more
in and around Rochester, during- which time one of
my instructors was Rey. Ferdinand D. W. Ward, fa-
ther of the now notorious Ferdinand "Ward, of Grant
(k Ward (the "Wards were a distinguished Rochester
family), I went in the spring of 1832 to Lane Semi-
nary, near Cincinnati, oyer which Rev. Dr. Lyman
Beecher was to preside. Having to support younger
brothers in their educational aspirations, I would fain
save a httle by going to Cincinnati part vray on a raft
of lumber. I helped to load a raft at Clean, X. Y.,

EAlsDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

and then aided to guide it down the whirhng currents
of the Alleghany River to Pittsburgh. There I took
a deck passage on a steamboat to Cincinnati. I be-
lieve I did mv fall share of the work of managing an
oar on the raft, and preventing it from following the
bad example of several otlier rafts, which lost their
heads and scattered their bones along the banks of
the turbulent river.

Dr. Beecher was tried for heresy by the Presbytery
of Cincinnati for certain utterances of his in Xew
England. The case had reached the synod, which
met in Cincinnati in 1834. The testimony was all in.
One forenoon Dr. Beecher commenced summing up in
his defence. As usual, he was able and ingenious while
addressing his distinguished auditory. On the ad-
journment at noon he took a select party to his house
for dinner, among whom were some of his antago-
nists. As was the doctor's wont in enthusiastic hours,
he kept right on inaking his speech at the dinner-
table. He was vivid, elastic, and facetious. He seemed
particularly desirous of favorably impressing his mod-
erate opponents. Suddenly there piped up from the
lower end of the table a voice which uttered these
words : Father, I listened to your speech in the syn-
od this morning, and I know you are plagued good at
twisting, but if you can twist your creed on to the
AVestminster Confession of Faith, you can twist bet-
ter than I think you can." The doctor's countenance
fell, but only for a moment. He suddenly rallied, and
said, All my boys are smart, and some of them are
impudent." Then, of course, rose a laugh. The voice
that pipetl up from the lower end of the table belonged

LYMAN AND HENRY \VARD BEECHEK.

45

to Henry Ward Beecher. Whether he can twist his
creed on to the Confession of Faith it does not be-
come nie to decide. The doctor's case Vvxnt up to the
General Assembly, and was yet undecided when the
Presbyterian Church was rent in two in 1838.

Doctor Beecher was one of the magnates of the
Xew School, in whose ranks shone Dr. Xathaniel W.
Taylor, of Xew Haven ; Albert Barnes, of Philadel-
phia ; Dr. IS". S. S. Beman, of Troy ; and Charles G.
Finney. Mr. Beman was the debater of his faction.
The leader of the C 11- School side Avas Dr. Ashbel
Green, President of Princeton College. The combat-
ants fought just like the world's people, and kept the
Church in turmoil for years. Dr. Beman was often
sarcastic. It will be remembered that in the fl^'-leaf
of the old catechism were poetic couplets, arranged
under the letters of the alphabet, and set to horrible
rhymes. The one under A read :

" In Adam's fall,
We sinned all."

Dr. Beman used to repeat this, and then add to it :

"In Adam's fall,
We sinned all;
In Cain's murder
We sinned furder;
By Doctor Green,
Our sin is seen."

I could give many anecdotes illustrating the pecul-
iar characteristics of Dr. Beecher ; but I forbear ex-
cept to tell one, to show his chronic absent-minded-
ness. He preached in the Third Presb3rterian Church,
the aristocratic, rich church of Cincinnati. He was

4:6

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

always doing some odd thing. One Sunday he came
in late ; the house was packed ; he walked rapidly up
the aisle with a roll of blotted manuscript in his hand ;
ascended the pulpit; opened the Bible; spread his
manuscript, took his text, and was about to begin his
sermon witliout any preliminary exercises. One of
the elders rose from his pew, and stood. The elder
looked at the doctor ; the doctor looked at the elder.
The elder came out of his pew, the doctor came down
the stairs, and they met. The elder whispered a few
words in the doctor's ear, the doctor reascended,
closed his Bible, and said, " Let us pray." This was
a specimen of many such performances. I don't know
of any better way of accounting for it than to tell
what the doctor said to us at the seminary when giv-
ing a lecture on oratory. " Young gentlemen," said
he, " don't stand before a looking-glass and make ges-
tures. Pump yourselves brimful of your subject till
you can't hold another drop, and then knock out the
bung and let nature caper." In the instance of the
sermon the doctor liad pumped himself full in his
library, and when he reached the church was too
eager to knock out the bung.

In the summer of 1882, 1 was passing through the
liall of the seminary, and saw on the bulletin-board
of my club that the question for debate that evening
was this : If the slaves of the South were to rise in
insurrection, would it be the duty of the North to aid
in putting it down?" I glanced at the board, and
never dreamed there would be more than one side to
the question, and that in the negativ^e. When the hot
evening came, to my surprise everybody arranged

FIRST ANTI- SLAVERY SPEECH.

47

themselves in the affirmative part of the room except
myself. As it afterwards came to ])ass that this was
the beginning of mv life-work, and lent color to my
whole future existence, I shall be pardoned for a few^
personal details. This was in the midst of the South-
ampton insurrection in Virginia, when Nsit Turner, a
deluded negro, had raised an insurrection which made
the cheek of the ancient dominion turn pale and its
knees smite together in terror. As the only person
on my side of the pending debate, I had the privilege
of waiting till all my opponents were through before
I spoke. I first divested myself of my cravat, then
of ]ny coat, then of my vest. As the debate went on,
and the perspiration started from me in unwonted
streams, I repaired to my room, took off my boots,
put on my slippers, and returned to the club. When
I arose to speak, I might be regarded as standing in
the regular ball costume in Arkansas, viz., a shirt col-
lar and a pair of spurs ; but I never spoke with more
fervor and satisfaction for three quarters of an hour
than on that occasion. This was my first anti-slavery
speech. For nearly forty years I fought it out on
that line," till I saw the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and
Fifteenth Amendments incorporated into the Consti-
tution, and Horace Greeley the regular Democratic
candidate for president, when I was ready to say with
one of old, " Now lettest Thou thy servant depart in
peace, . . . for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

In 18)31 I went to Danville, Ivy., to obtain a letter
from Mr. Birney, giving his reasons for joining the
Anti-slavery Society. It Avas a remarkably able doc-
ument, and had a large circulation. He had been a

48

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

slaveholder, belonged to one of the first Kentucky
families, and was a profound lawyer. He was cor-
responding secretary, with Elizur Wright and me,
of the American Anti-slavery Society. I Avill disre-
gard the chronological order of events by adding that,
in the London Convention of 1840, he, by his solid and
varied attainments, rich fund of information, courtesy,
candor, and fine debating powers, inspired confidence in
his statements and reflected credit upon his country.
He was a wise and patriotic man. The Liberty party
honored itself by making him its first candidate for
the presidency. His son, David B. Birney, sacrificed
a lucrative law-practice in Philadelphia to become a
defender of liberty and the constitution on the battle-
field. While commanding a corps in front of Eich-
mond, in 1864, he was stricken with fever and took to
his couch at home, where he became delirious. One
night, his cheeks all ablaze, he suddenly sprang up in
the bed and shouted, in tones that made the house
ring, " Boys ! keep your eye on that flag and fell
back dead.

I attended the anniversary of tlie American Anti-
slavery Society in Xew York in 1834, and there en-
countered the first of my two hundred mobs. We
had a great Anti-slavery debate at Lane Seminary,
and formed a society during that fall. Pro-slavery
trustees required that we should dissolve it. We re-
fused to do so. They then passed arbitrary rules in
respect to discussion, and even conversation, on the
subject of slavery at the seminary. A goodly i)or-
tion of us, who were not to be thus throttled, left. It
was a heavy blow to the seminary, which hardly re-

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. PETER PARLEY.

49

gained its feet for the next six years. I was on tlie
committee that issued an address in vindication of our
course. It produced a deep impression. In the early
spring of 1835 Mr. Birney and myself went east on
an Anti-slavery mission. We spoke at Philadelphia
and New York. I then held meetings at Providence,
K. I., Boston, Mass., and Concord, E". II., intending to
return Avest and pursue my studies. On reaching 'New
York I received a commission as general agent of the
American Anti-slavery Society. I immediately en-
tered upon the work which occupied so large a share
of my life.

When I entered this field slavery had the State and
Church by the throat ; and though the Abolitionists
advocated peaceful measures for the emancipation of
the bondmen, they were everywhere at the mercy of
mobs. For the dozen years following the fall of 1834
I was engaged in this conflict. I was several years
on the executive committee and secretary of the Amer-
ican Anti-slavery Society, and as such I addressed
millions of men and Avomen in every northern state,
from Indiana to Maine, and in Kentucky, Maryland,
and Delaware, and in England, Scotland, Ireland, and
France. I appeared before ten legislative commit-
tees in seven states, and addressed the first committee
of that kind in the country — that of the Senate and
House of Massachusetts, in February, 1837, in sup-
port of John Quincy Adams's heroic struggle in Con-
gress. The Hon. S. G. Goodrich — better known as
Peter Parley — was a member of that committee. I
spoke for two days in the Hall of Representatives in
Boston ; and at the close joint resolutions were passed
3

50

KAJsDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

by the legislature in favor of the abolition of slavery
in the District of Columbia, and John Quincy Ad-
ams's course in Congress was approved. Three hun-
dred thousand copies of my speech on that occasion
Vv'ere distributed.

The early Anti-slavery men doubtless made hard
hits. But, in the language of Webster in his reply
to Hayne, we recognized the fact that there were
blows to take as Avell as blows to give. Indeed, it
was my habit to covet questioning while on the plat-
form, and to invite replies when I was through. And
what was the usual response — mobs. Vice-president
Wilson, in the " Rise and Fall of the Slave Power," is
my authorit}" for saying that I was mobbed at least two
hundred times. I always spoke strongly in favor of
the Constitution, the Union, and the Church; ;^nd
3'et, in ten free states, through a series of 3^ears, I ad-
vocated the claims of the slaves to their liberty at the
hazard of my life. I have a right to say this, because,
in this turbulent epoch, I was voluntarily pleading for
a liumble race Avhich, by no possibility, could reward
me, or ever hear of my existence.

In 1835 I went into the town of East Greenwich,
R. I., and was the guest of Judge Brown, a gentle-
man of high standing. My Anti-slavery meeting was
advertised. A constable arrived at Judge Brown's,
and I was served with a warrant warning me out of
town as a vagrant without visible means of su])port,
and therefore liable to become a town charge. Judge
Brown gave bail for me, and I held the meeting, and
invited the constable to hear me. In those days it
was the practice to get signatures to the Anti-slavery

THE MOB EPOCH OF 1835.

51

roll. The first name signed was that of the consta-
ble who had served the warrant. I viewed the capt-
ure of that constable as a great achievement.

We resorted to odd expedients to get in Anti-sla-
very speeches. The temperance cause was popular.
In 1835, in Ehode Island, I agreed "to address an audi-
ence an hour and a half on tempemnce if they would
then let me speak an hour and a half on slavery. On
the next Sabbath the compact was faithfully fulfilled
on both sides, in the presence of a large concourse.

The year 1835 was an epoch of mobs. In the fore-
noon of October 21, 1835, a large convention met at
Utica to form a State Anti-slavery Society. Judge
Henry Brewster, of Monroe County, my uncle, pre-
sided. Leaders like Lewis Tappan, Alvan Stewart,
Beriah Green, and Gerrit Smith were present. A
mob, headed by the L^tica member of Congress, and
afterAvards chief -justice of the state, entered the
church where the convention was sitting, and dis-
persed it by violence. To avoid mistakes, I will add
that this man's name was Samuel Beardsley. Xo
bodily harm was done to any one in particular, ex-
cept the tearing of a few garments and the shaking
of cowardly canes over the heads of some aged Abo-
litionists.

In the afternoon of the same day the Boston Fe-
male Anti-slavery Society, in which Mary S. Parker
and Maria "W. Chapman were conspicuous members,
held a meeting. William Lloyd Garrison was pres-
ent. A violent mob, which some of the Boston
newspapers called an assemblage of ''gentlemen of
property and standing," compelled the ladies to aban-

52

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

don the hall wherein their society was sitting. They
pursued Mr. Garrison into an adjoining building,
where he had retired to avoid these peculiar ^' gen-
tlemen." They seized him, put a rope around his
body, and led him through the streets. Pretty much
all that was really accomplished by these " respecta-
ble " rioters may be summed up by sa^dng that they
thoroughly frightened the women and covered them-
selves with infamy.

In the evening of the same day I w^as honored with
a little mob while addressing a small meeting at New-
port, E. I. The Anti-slavery advocates in that town
were " a feeble folk." The mob was of respectable
size in com])arison Avith the dimensions of the assem-
bly. It was led by an ex-lieutenant or midshipman
of the navy. They stoned the building, smashed tlie
windows, and drove us into the street.

Soon afterwards I met Lewis Tappan. He face-
tiously said that he had ascertained the distance from
Utica to Boston, and thence to Newport, and the pre-
cise time when the mobs broke out, so as to see hoAV
many miles an hour the devil had to travel to take
charge of all three of them.

In 183G I was outrageously treated while attem])t-
ing to speak to a meeting in a Methodist church at
Providence. The mills of the gods ground slowly,
but they did not stop. I addressed an immense Fre-
mont out-door meeting at Providence in 1S56. In
respect to slavery, I dealt with it far more severely
tlian in 1830. There were ])lenty of governors on the
platform, and Bishop Thomas M. Clark, of that dio-
cese, was at my right hand. A man on the platform,

I'KOVIDENCE. PHILADELPHIA. PORTLAND.

53

bedecked with orders, was chief marshal. Ilis enthu-
siasm, in repeatedly calling for cheers, bothered me
while speaking. After I had finished I asked who
that chief marshal was, and the bishop said, Don't
you remember that, in 1836, when you were deliver-
ing an Anti- slavery address in 'the Methodist church
here, a mob came rushing up the aisles, shaking their
fists at you and yelling, and 'finally broke up the
meeting ? Well, he was the leader of that mob, and
now he is making amends."

The respectable individuals who encouraged these
crimes against society had no regard for the kind of
edifices their vulgar tools assailed. I delivered one
evening an address in a beautiful little church in Liv-
ingston county, Y. I cannot now recall the name
of the town where I spoke. The next morning the
building was a heap of ashes. Pro-slavery incendia-
ries had set it on fire during the night.

This calls to mind the burning of Pennsylvania
Hall, in Philadelphia, a large, costly structure, erect-
ed by the friends of free speech. It was dedicated in
May, 1838, w^ith imposing ceremonies, wherein I bore
a humble part. The principal oration was by Alvan
Stewart. Whittier contributed a noble poem. On
May 21 the women were holding an Anti -slavery
meeting in the hall, when a brutal mob, w^iich some
newspapers called indignant citizens, burned it down.
For many years the charred ruins frowned on the city
founded by William Penn, and which witnessed the
birth of American independence.

In Portland, in 1838, an Anti-slavery convention sat
for four days in the old Quaker meeting-house. Gen-

54

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

eral Samuel Fessenden, the leading member of the bar
of Maine, presided, but not all his influence could de-
ter the mob. The meeting-house was utterly riddled.
At length the best men of Portland said, " This won't
do." The poet John Neal organized about a hun-
dred special constables, and, leading them himself, put
the mob down. Years afterAvards, meeting General
Fessenden s son. Senator AVilliam Pitt Fessenden, in
Washington city, I eulogized his father's steady cour-
age in 1838. He asked, " Do you recollect that on
one of those evenings a young man took your arm as
you Avalked out of the meeting to go through the out-
side mob, and said, * I will accompany you to your
lodgings, and share the peril with you' ?" I told liim
I well recollected it, and had often wished I knew
w^ho the young gentleman was. " I am that person,"
said the senator.

To close the subject of mobs, and make room for
other matters, I will refer, quite out of the order of
time, to one that occurred in my native county Avhen
I was practising law at Boston. In 1845, I went to
Norwich to deliver an Anti-slavery address in the
town-hall. The hall was stoned, and all the windoAvs
broken, and we adjourned until evening. In the in-
termission, tlirce-incli ])lanks were spiked on the in-
side of the window near which I had to stand, to
sliield me from the missiles of the mob. In that
same town-hall I addressed a crowded meeting in the
Fremont canvass — a meeting presided over by AVill-
iam A. Buckingham, subsequently governor and sen-
ator— and I wiis introduced to the audience by Gov-
ernor Cliaunccy F. ('levcland. I remembered the mob,

NORWICH. VERMONT.

55

and freed my mind for two hours. A throng came
over from Griswold and Preston, and I received en-
thusiastic plaudits instead of whizzing brickbats.

In remote days it was fashionable for everybody to
read the Waverley novels. An English gentleman,
who had long been in foreign countries, returned
home. Wherever he went, he was pointed out as the
man who had not read the Waverley novels. He
liked the distinction so Avell that he resolutely ab-
stained from those fascinating volumes. By a queer
sort of analogy, this reminds me of the course of Ver-
mont during the mob period, where I delivered from
time to time some Anti-slavery addresses. I was
mobbed in every state from Indiana to Maine, except
Vermont. I never heard of an Anti-slavery mob with-
in its borders. The land of Stark abstained from that
fascinating recreation.

I shall say no more about mobs, though I assist-
ed at a few after the one in Xorwich.

CHAPTER YII.

John G. Whittier and the Author Visit Gettysburg for Anti-
slavery Lecturers. — Whittier's Services to Liberty. — Caleb Gush-
ing a Candidate for Congress in 1838. — Whittier Gets a Letter
that Averts Cushing's Defeat. — Origin of the Republican Party.
— Peculiar Honors paid to John Quincy Adams in 1837. —
Author at AYashington in 1838. — Adams and the Right of Peti-
tion.— Speaker Polk. — Latimer's Case. —The Reel on Mr.
Adams's Desk.— Vice-President Dick Johnson Compared with
Van Buren as a Presiding Officer.— The Lions in the Senate in
1838. — Foreshadowing the Methods for Overthrowing Slavery.
— The Author's Early Newspaper Productions.— Sylvester Gra-
ham, the Dietetic Reformer; his System.

Wishing to enlarge its lecturing corps, the Anti-
slavery Society deputed me, in 1836, to go through the
country and employ seventy public speakers. I trav-
elled far on this errand, paying special attention to
colleges, theological schools, and young lawyers. I
visited Gettysburg on my tour. I was at the Luther-
an Theological Institution on Seminary Eidge, which
loomed high above the village on the west. The view
was beautiful. It swept over Cemetery Eidge, Gulps
Hill, and the Eound Top, lying easterly of the town.
The intervening fields smiled with fruit trees and
waving grain. Little dreamed I then that twenty-
seven 3^ears later these hmdmarks would win world-
wide celebrity by listening to the roar of one of the
bloodiest battles of modern times, waged to defend
and destroy the cause I was there to promote.

WHITTIER. CALEB GUSHING. 57

John G. Whittier accompanied me during a portion
of this tour in search of lecturers, cheering me with
his genial presence and wise counsel.

I am not so beside myself as to imagine that any
encomium from me could add to Whittier's literary
fame. But having toiled by his side for several years,
and spent many a delightful hour in his cottage at
Amesbury, it may become me to record that he ren-
dered valuable aid to the Anti-slavery cause by his
brave example, while his pen sent ringing Avords of
encouragement and shed unfading lustre over the field
where the battle raged.

After the expiration of a week or two the picked
men Avhom we had selected assembled in Xew York,
and were instructed in the usual Anti-slavery argu-
ments by a series of discourses in which Theodore D.
AVeld took a j)rominent part. Thus equipped, they
reaped where the harvest was abundant and the la-
borers few.

In 1838 the Abolitionists began to put test ques-
tions to candidates for Congress, and then cast their
votes for or against them as their answers were satis-
factory or otherwise. Caleb Cushing was one of those
who replied unsatisfactorily. We held a convention
at Salem, Mass., to take measures to defeat him. I
handled him severely in a speech in a church in the
evening. I Avas not then aware that he was a listen-
er in a dark corner of the gallery. Mr. Whittier, a
friend of Cushing, visited him early the next morn-
ing at his hotel, and told him that he must instantly
write another letter to appease the Abolition conven-
tion, which was about to adjourn, or he would be
3^

58

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

ruined at the polls. His night robe was very thin,
and the chair was very cold. But the epistle was
penned, and the writer was re-elected. Caleb Gush-
ing was a man of extraordinary talents, but an un-
scrupulous politician. The exposure of his duplicity
in regard to Secession Unally brought him to grief
when he was nominated for Chief -justice of the United
States Supreme Court.

The Eepublican party grew out of this practice of
putting questions to candidates. This plan proving
to be unsatisfactory, the Liberty party was organized
in the spring of 1840, with James G. Birney as its
presidential nominee. This ripened into the Free-
soil party of 1848, when Martin Van Buren led its at-
tack on the slavery propagandists. This ultimately
widened into the Eepublican party of 1855-56.

John Quincy Adams received extraordinary hon-
ors in the year 1837. lie encountered unusual abuse
in the early weeks of the session of Congress in that
year, because of his fearless defence of the right of
petition. He was threatened with expulsion from the
House, and assassination on its floor. But there came
a recoil of the wave. I have already stated that the
Massachusetts Legislature, in February, 1837, by the
unanimous vote of both Houses, approved his course
at Washington.

I participated in a scene at Quincy, in tlic follow-
ing summer, which showed the reverential regard felt
for him by his constituents. A great throng of gen-
tlemen of both political parties met in the town-hall
of the ancient home of the Adamses, to present him
with a cane made of the Avood of the dismantled frig-

EXTRAORDINARY HONORS TO ADAMS. 59

ate Constitution^ that had won fame in the war of
1812-15, by capturing the British frigates Guerriere
and Java. The sage delivered a characteristic speech
on receiving this historic memoriaL Xear the close
of his address his hand and voice quivered with emo-
tion as he illustrated his own position by relating a
story of a scarred Eussian soldier who was ushered
into the presence of the emperor, and received a medal
for an extraordinary feat of valor in a recent battle.
Suddenly mounting the top step of the rostrum in the
hall, Mr. Adams exclaimed, in shrill tones, " The old
soldier shook from head to foot as he took the medal,
and was only able to stammer out his thanks by say-
ing, ' Though I tremble in the presence of your maj-
esty, I never trembled in the presence of your majes-
ty's enemies.' " The hit was so happy that I thought
the cheers would bring the roof down.

I witnessed the crowning honor bestowed upon the
veteran in this memorable year. He was then under
the ban of the pro-slavery party of the country. Nev-
ertheless, the elite of the commercial metropolis in-
vited him to deliver the semi-centennial address com-
memorating the formation of the Federal Constitution.
In September he pronounced an appropriate and in-
structive oration before a learned and brilhant assem-
bly that tilled to repletion the Middle Dutcli Church,
then the largest audience-room in the Cit}^ of ISTew
York.

The services of Mr. Adams during his seventeen
years in Congress eclipsed his previous civil career,
long, varied, and lustrous though it had been. He
became the ablest and most dreaded debater in a leg-

60

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

islative hall that displayed rare oratorical talents. In
many close, protracted, and almost savage collisions
with trained, bold, and bitter antagonists, like AVise,
Ehett, Marshall, and their coadjutors, he showed his
superiority in learning, courage, sarcasm, and every
element of dialectic skill in one of the famous delib-
erative bodies of the world.

I went to Wiishington, in 1838, to look after the
imperilled right of petition. Mr. Adams, who Avas
fighting our battle in Congress, received me with
marked courtesy, partly, perhaps, because I had de-
fended him so Avarmly in my speech before the com-
mittee of the Massachusetts Legislature. I saw him
on a field-day in the House. He coolly presented his
pile of Anti-slavery petitions one by one, and scari-
fied the Southern members who interrupted him. Mr.
Polk, the speaker, was annoyed, but could not help
himself. Indeed, he was evidently afraid of Mr. Ad-
ams, the old man eloquent. In youth he had ex-
hibited the wisdom of age ; in age he was displaying
the vio-or of vouth.

At a later day I witnessed tlie spectacle when Mr.
Adams presented the j)etition in the famous Latimer
case, the fugitive slave that sought shelter in Boston,
and whose beleaguered master was finally persuaded,
by stress of circumstances and a few dollars, to aban-
don the atte]n])t to recover his human chattel. The
l)etition was of such an immense length that, for con-
venient handling, it was wound on a great reel, which,
on the morning of presentation, stood on Mr. Adams's
desk in the House. This unicpie object was the ob-
served of all observers in the hall, which was crowd-

EMINENT SENATORS IN ISSS.

61

eel to repletion, as the old patriot shook its rustling
folds in the face of the fro\\Tiing speaker.

A word about speakei*s of the House. I have seen
nine in the chair. As presiding officers I think Mr.
Banks was the best and Mr. Pennington the worst.

While at Washington, in 1S3S, I spent a few houi^s
in the Senate. The lions were there — Clay, Webster,
Calhoun. Wright, and Benton. 1 had previously heard
Mr. Clay on a platform in Xew York, Wel^ster
before a jury in Boston, and Mr. Wright in the Xew
York Senate. I noAv listened to a ten-minute speech
each from Mr. Benton and Mr. Calhoun, and had to
be therewith content. Vice-president Kichard M.
Johnson was in the chair. He was shabbily di-essed,
and to the last degree clumsy. What a contrast be-
tween him and Martin Van Buren, his urbane, ele-
gant predecessor. Colonel Johnson owed his promo-
tion largely to two acts, neither of which he ])er-
fonned. He was as guiltless of the killing of Tecum-
seh at the battle of the Thames, in the war of ISli^,
as was Wilham Tecumseh Sherman, and he did not
write a line of the famous Sunday-mail report.

In 1S3S I made a speech before the American Anti-
slavery Society, wherein I predicted that slavery
would tiltimately fall by means of an amendment of
the Constitution, and that this would result from the
preponderance of free states in the West. My pre-
diction came to pass nearly thirty years afterwards.
The speech is on record.

From 1832 onward I wrote much for the Anti-
slavery press, and for such religious and political
newspapers as would give us a hearing. My contri-

62

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

butions would fill volumes, for which, as a general
rule, I received no pay.

In 1839 I contributed a series of articles to the New
York American, conducted by Charles King, subse-
quently President of Columbia College. The title of
the series was " Glances at Men and Things." The
signature was " Eambler." The topics were miscella-
neous. Some of the numbers were widely copied.
The author Avas not then known.

Dr. Sylvester Graham was one of the early Anti-
slavery men, but will be longest remembered as the
most radical dietetic reformer in the country. He
began to be generally known in ^^ew England and
New York about the year 1830, and elicited attention
in rather a narrow circle as a Avriter and lecturer for
twenty years. He was well educated, and, though
ultra in his opinions on food and regimen, was a log-
ical and eloquent speaker. The salient feature of his
system was a rigid adherence to a vegetable diet ; or,
rather, entire abstinence from meat, fish, and oleag-
inous substances of whatever kind, butter included.
He waged exterminating war not only on intoxicating
drinks, but on coffee, tea, pepper, and stimulating con-
diments of every description. Like all reformers, he
overshot the true mark, but we are indebted to him
for many improvements in the field he assiduously
cultivated. Those that drink chocolate or milk, or
only water, at their meals, and eat oatmeal or cracked
wheat at breakfast, and prefer bread made of unbolt-
ed flour, and cut short their fat meats and crisp pastry,
and substitute therefor ripe vegetables and fruits,
and believe in fresh air, frequent baths, and long

DOCTOR SYLVESTER GRAHAM.

63

walks, should remember their patron saint, Sylv^ester
Graham.

There was a dash of amusing egotism in Graham.
One day he had partaken very freely of cucumbers,
green corn, and watermelon (as substitutes for the sa-
vory meats on the table) at the house of a friend.
The mixture was too much for an internal organism
enervated by close application to study in the previ-
ous three months. While expounding his dietetic
system to the dinner-party with his usual fervor, he
was seized with intense pains in the stomach and co-
lon. He threw himself on the carpet, and, while roll-
ing around and writhing in agony, would now and
then ejaculate, " Yes, gentlemen ! Posterity will do
me justice ! (Oh, my bowels !) Yes, gentlemen ! Pos-
terity will build monuments to my memory! (Oh,
these gripes !) Yes, gentlemen, m}^ S3^stem will flour-
ish and ultimately spread through the world."

Among Graham's early disciples w^ere William Cul-
len Bryant, Horace Greeley, and Charles G. Finney.

CHAPTER YIII.

Abolitionists and the Constitution. — Anti-slavery Leaders: Garri-
son and others in Boston; Tappan and others in New York;
Smith and others in Central New York; Lovejoy and others in
the Western States. — Celebrated AVomen: Prudence Crandall;
Mrs. Child; The Grimkes; Mrs. Mott; Lucy Stone; Harriet
Beecher Stowc; Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Susan B. Anthony. —
Leading Colored Men: Frederick Douglass; Robert Purvis. —
Eccentricities of Abolitionists. — A Motley Group in Boston. —
Father Lampson and his Scythe-snath.— Crazy George Wash-
ington Mellen. — Disturbing Religious Meetings. — Stephen S.
Foster Imitates George Fox. — Charles C. Burleigh's Vile Gar-
ments Torn off and Carried awa}^ — Rev. Dr. Channing Eulogizes
Burleigh's Oratory. — Controversy between Garrison and Wendell
Phillips.— Lord Timothy Dexter.

The Abolitionists were compelled not only to study
the science of mobs, but also to familiarize themselves
Avith the Federal Constitution. That instrument had
no more diligent students than those who conducted
the Anti- slavery argument, for, from the outset,
they were opposed on constitutional grounds by the
great leaders in State and Church. The ignorance of
its text and spirit by persons well informed on other
subjects was both amazing and amusing. I was rid-
ing in a stage-coach, in New Enghmd, when slavery
became the to])ic of discussion. My antagonist, opu-
lent in llesh and ]iompositv, Avas called Judge, and
had l)ocn in the Legislature. For ready reference,
the Anti-slavery Society had caused to be published

TROMINENT ANTI-SLAVERY LEADERS.

65

a copy of the Constitution so small that it coald be
put in one's vest-pocket. During the warm debate
the Judge purported to quote from the Constitution
something that Avas not in it. I pulled out the small
brochure, and, tendering it to him, said, quietly, " Sir,
will you turn to the clause you* have cited T' Draw-
ing himself up, he replied, with mingled dignity and
contempt, That little primer the Constitution ? Why,
the Constitution of the United States is as big as a
family Bible I"

In and around Boston clustered a constellation of
leaders in the Anti-slavery cause whose central fig-
ures were William Lloyd Garrison, Francis Jackson,
John G. Whittier, Samuel J. May, John Pierpont,
Wendell Phillips, and Amos A. Phelps. Its equal in
importance appeared in and near Xew York, whose
most conspicuous members were Arthur Tappan, Lew-
is Tappan, James G. Birney, Elizur Wright, AVilliam
Jay, Joshua Leavitt, and Theodore D. Weld. These
two cities were the fountains Avhence arose currents
that flowed to the remotest parts of the country — in
heavy volumes at the East and IS'orth, in triclding
and fitful streams at the West and South.

For many years an influence in behalf of the slave
radiated from the central counties of Xcav York which
was felt beyond the borders of the state. It Avas large-
ly due to four men quite unlike in salient characteris-
tics, though each was remarkable in his sphere. They
Avere acute reasoners, ready writers, and never quailed
before mobs. Those who witnessed the majestic elo-
quence of Gerrit Smith, the quaint humor and pa-
thetic appeals of Ah'an StcAA'art. the luminous logic

66

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

and merciless sarcasm of Beriah Green, and the in-
structive disquisitions and pointed periods of William
Goodell will regard this as a faint tribute to their
abilities and services.

The most rapid glance over this locality could not
fail to see Wesley Bailey, long the able editor of the
Liberty Press, and subsequently elected a State-Prison
Inspector. He was the father of E. Prentiss Bailey,
now the editor of the Utica Observer. In 1838 Kev.
Mr. Hawley, a Methodist clergyman, removed from
Is'orth Carolina to central IS'ew York. Having wit-
nessed the evils of slavery, he was of great value to
the Emancipation party. He was the father of Gen-
eral Joseph K. Hawley, who served with honor in
the war of the rebellion, and is now the editor of the
Hartford Courant and Senator in Congress from Con-
necticut.

Turning westwardly, no one beyond the Allegha-
nies would overlook Elijah Parrish Lovejoy, the Alton
martyr ; Cassius M. Clay, the brave Kentuckian ;
Joshua P. Giddings, Salmon P. Chase, and Gamaliel
Bailey, subsequently editor of the National Era.

Emancipation in this country and Great Britain
owes much to women. In 182^1: Elizabeth Hey rick
issued in England a ])amphlet advocating immediate,
as contrasted with the prevailing doctrine of gradual,
abolition. It struck the keynote of the contest which
resulted ten years later in the overthrow of slavery
in the British AYest Indies.

In 1833 Prudence Crandall changed her boarding-
school for white girls at (.'anterbury. Conn., into a
school for colored girls. Miss Crandall was a cemi-

DISTINGUISHED WOMEN.

67

Quaker, of benevolent disposition, mild manners, and
the highest respectability. I took unusual interest
in her enterprise (though far away at Lane Seminary),
because Canterbury adjoined the town where I was
born. Immediately there commenced a persecution
of Miss Crandall and her scholars that would have
disgraced barbarians in the dark ages. Its ferocity
was excelled only by its meanness. The citizens
dragged her school-house into a swamp, gross W in-
sulted the preceptress, and pelted the timid pupils
with stones and offensive filth. Of course the school
was broken up. The leader of Miss Crandall's de-
fenders was the eloquent divine, Samuel J. May, who
then preached in Brooklyn, near Canterbury. The
leader of her infamous assailants w^as Andrew T.
Judson, afterwards United States District Judge for
Connecticut.

Lydia Maria Child had won distinction in literature
when, in 1834, she issued her " Appeal in behalf of
that class of Americans called Africans." This ad-
mirable production, replete with apposite facts, graph-
ic sketches, and pathetic exhortations for justice and
mercy to a proscribed race, at once became the text-
book of the advocates of the slave.

Early in the struggle Angelina and Sarah Grimke,
cultivated women of Southern birth, delivered Anti-
slavery addresses in the Eastern States that elicited
high encomiums, while the beautiful life of Lucretia
Mott, even to its golden sunset, was adorned by her
good works for the negro race.

One of the early Anti-slavery orators was Lucy
Stone. She is now the principal editor of the Wo?)i-

68

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

arCs Journal^ in Boston. Miss Stone was born in
West Brookfield, in 1818, was educated at Oberlin
College, and ultimately became a lecturer in the Anti-
slavery cause. She was an eloquent speaker, and
charmed her ardiences. One evening, in western
Kew York, I took a democratic lawyer to hear her.
As we were leaving the hall at the close of the meet-
ing my friend turned towards the platform where
Miss Stone was still standing and said, in a dazed sort
of way : " Little lady, I do not believe in your doc-
trines, but God made you an orator."

I merely glance at Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's
Cabin." It gave the Anti-slavery cause an impulse
that never subsided until the Thirteenth Amendment
Avas engrafted upon the Constitution. One of my
cherished memories is the occasional glimpses I
caught at Walnut Hills of Harriet Beecher, ere she
was the wife of my learned, witty, and rather sarcas-
tic teacher, the Keverend Dr. Calvin E. Stowe.

The celebrity in this country and Europe of two
women in another department has thrown somewhat
into the shade the distinguished service they rendered
to the slave in the four stormy years preceding the
war and in the four years while the sanguinary con-
flict was waged in the lield. I refer to Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

The negro himself Avas an important element in
the struggle for emancipation. The representative
man of the race in this country, their most eloquent
orator and distinguished leader Avas, and is, Frederick
Douglass. ]>orn in slaver}^ he Avas indebted for i)er-
sonal freedom to his own stern pur])ose, clear eye,

ULTRA REFORMERS.

69

fleet foot, and brave heart ; and he reached his high
position among his fellow-citizens mainly by his own
exertions. Looking down the long vista of the past,
I recognize the fine presence of Robert Fur vis, of
Philadelphia, a colored gentleman of rare excellence,
^vho during the third of a century previous to eman-
cipation was the wise champion of his brethren in
bondage.

As reformers in all ages, when fighting their bat-
tles against desperate odds, have been wont to be in-
discriminate in their censures, so Avas it with the early
Abolitionists (especially those of the Boston type).
Ultimately the Anti-slavery men were divided into
two classes, known as the Boston school and the Xew
York school; the former very radical, the latter
rather conservative. In a few years the Bostonian
platform broadened till it covered many evils besides
slavery ; and in the opinion of the Xew York leaders
their brethren of the Trimountain City became some-
what loose in their doctrines and fanatical in their
operations. I pass no judgment upon the merits of
this feud.

I w^ould not disparage Abolitionists of any type.
The ultras of the Bostonian school were charged with
fanaticism in the stages of the contest previous to
the formation of the Eepublican party. One of the
last of their conventions that I saw^ was in Boston
before the war. There was a representative array
on the front seat, near the platform. First was Gar-
rison, his countenance calling to mind the pictures of
the prophet Isaiah in a rapt mood ; next was the fine
Eoman head of Wendell Fhillips ; at his right was

70

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Father Lampson, so called, a crazy loon — his hair and
flowing beard as white as the driven snow. Lampson
always dressed in pure Avhite, from head to foot, even
including the shoes. He was the inventor of a val-
uable scythe-snath, and invariably carried a snath in
his hand. His forte was selling his wares on secular
days and disturbing religious meetings on Sundays.
JS'ext to Lampson sat Edmund Quincy, high born and
vrealthy, the son of the famous President Quincy.
^"ext to Quincy was Abigail Folsom, another lunatic,
with a shock of unkempt hair reaching down to her
waist. At her right Avas George AY. Mellen, clad in
the military costume of the Eevolution, and fancying
himself to be General Washington, because he was
named after him. Poor Mellen died in an asylum
for the insane. Well, it is no wonder. The terrible
strain put upon the human intellect in those old Anti-
slavery days turned some light-headed persons' brains.
I must add that high over these motley assemblages
rose the inspiring strains of the celebrated Hutchin-
son family.

Parker Pillsbury, an Ant i- slavery leader, pungent
on the ])latforni and in the press, with a rich vein of
humor in his composition, told me that he made a
stum])iug tour in Xew Hampshire Avith Stephen S.
Foster, and tliat pretty much all his time was con-
sumed in getting Foster bailed out of jail for inter-
fering in religious meetings in his peculiar style.
Foster would sometimes advance up the aisle during
the sermon and call the minister a wolf in sheep's
clothing, Avhereupon the deacons would carry him
out, Foster emerging from the scutBc minus one or

FANATICS AND LUNATICS.

71

two of his coat-tails. He thought he was a second
George Fox.

Charles C. Burleigh, brother of William II., the
poet and journalist, was a vehement orator of rare
logical gifts. He traversed the country delivering
Anti-slavery lectures. He dressed like a tramp. In
the Anti-slavery office at Kew York we once tore a
shabby coat off his shoulders, vowing that he should
not represent the society in such a vile garb. John G.
Whittier took a hand in this performance. At a later
day we were to celebrate at Fall River, in the month
of August, the anniversary of West India Emancipar
tion. Burleigh was to be one of the speakers, the
member of Congress for that district was to preside,
and Rev. Dr. William Ellery Channing and a dis-
tinguished company from Newport were to attend.
]jurleigh came the day previous, wearing white duck
trousers, that looked as if they had not dropped in
at a laundry during the summer, and an out-at-the-
elbows coat, and other abominable garments to match.
We arranged with a tailor to carry off Burleigh's
clothes in the night while he slept, and to leave a new
suit in his bedroom. The following day Burleigh ap-
peared in fresh pepper-and-salt habiliments, and de-
livered a speech that elicited encomiums from Dr.
Channing.

During the war and the early stage of reconstruc-
tion Mr. Garrison took a more sensible and practical
view of the situation than Mr. Phillips did. While a
million and a half of armed men were fighting on a
hundred battle-fields about slavery, and especially
after the adoption of the Thirteenth Constitutional

72

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Amendment, Garrison did not see the utility of keep-
ing up tlie old American Anti-slavery society. So
sharp was tlie collision between these two leaders on
this and cognate points tliat they did not speak to
each other for man}^ months.

While describing eccentric men, mostly of Massa-
chusetts, this may be a suitable place to dispose of
Lord Timothy Dexter. About fifty years ago I was
riding with Whittier in the westerly suburbs of New-
buryport, when we came upon the old mansion once
occupied by that eccentric shipping merchant known
as Lord Timothy Dexter. Though he had then been
dead thirty years, his celebrity, as one of the oddest
of Yankees, still lingered in Xew England. The for-
mer lordly dwelling had, I think, degenerated into an
inn, but it yet bore the Dexter impress. A Avide pi-
azza ran along the front, whose roof bore up life-size
statues of Washington, Franklin, Adams, Hancock,
and other revolutionary heroes, arra^^ed in gaudy and
fantastic costumes. In his youth Dexter Avas very
poor; in later years he became quite rich. In my
boyhood I heard many queer stories about this strange
person, whom some called a dupe and some a devil,
lie was about to send a vessel to the West Indies, and
was searching for freight. A practical joker advised
him to load her with warming-pans. He did, and
when the cargo reached the tropics, it sold for an
enormous price. The sugar-planters took off the per-
forated lids of the warming-i)ans and used them to
skim the caldrons where the cane was boiling, and
tlioy em])loyed the pans themselves, with their long
handles, to ladle out the contents of the caldrons.

LORD TIMOTHY DEXTER.

73

This successful venture gave Dexter his first start
towards wealth. This peculiar mortal erected a tomb
in his garden. A coffin was within the mausoleum.
At fixed hours in the day he would lie in the coffin,
Avhen a servant Avould knock at the portal of the tomb
and say, " Lord I'imothy Dexter ! Lord Timothy Dex-
ter ! arise and come to judgment !" Dexter would
then get out of the coffin, repair to the house, and
gravely eat his dinner. He published a sarcastic book,
which he entitled, A Pickle for the Knowing Ones."
I have seen it, but do not remember precisely its con-
tents. The peculiar feature of the production was
that from end to end there Avas not a punctuation
point of any kind ; but in an appendix he printed sev-
eral pages made up exclusively of points of every sort,
telling his readers to sift them into the text of the
book to suit themselves. But enough of this eccen-
tric Lord Timothy.
4

CHAPTER IX.

Tour in Europe iu 1840.— Current Description of Author's Travels.
— The Main Object of the Tour. — "World's Anti-slavery Con-
vention in London. — Leading Members. — Distinguished Women.
— Ha3'don's Large Painting of the Convention; his Anecdote
of the Iron Duke. — House of Peers. — Scotch Church Debate. —
Brougham Speaks. — "Melbourne, the Premier. — Lord Lyndhurst,
a Boston-born Boy. — Wellington Speaks on an Irish Question. —
Earl Grey Enters.— The Reform Bill of 1832.— Grey's Warning
to the Peers to Set their Houses in Order. — Sydney Smitli and
Dame Partington. — Gorgeous Pageant at the Funeral of Earl
Durham, Son-in-law of Grey, and the Persecuted Ex-Govcruor
of Canada.

I TOOK ship for Europe on May 12, 1840. I was
united in marriage, on May 1, 1840, with Elizabeth
Cady, of Johnstown, I^. Y., daughter of Daniel Cady,
then a leader of the 'New York Bar. The main ob-
ject of my trip was to attend a convention in London
for the promotion of the Anti-slavery cause through-
out the world.

On June 3, 1840, we first approached London from
the west, striking the Thames at Eeading. To see
old Father Thames had been my day-dream in life's
morning march, when my bosom was young. And
here it dazzled my eyes ! As we neared the metrop-
olis, we discovered a lofty object that Hoated on a sea
of fog and smoke. It was the dome of St. Paul's,
lifting its gilded cross high above tlie dark canopy
that hovers over London so niuch of the year.

tup: LONDON CONVENTION.

75

I shall say little in this book of my travels. While
in Europe, I wrote letters to the Neio York Ameri-
can^ describing my tour, under the caption of " For-
eign Eambles," signed Eambler.'' Towards the close
a few bore the signature of *' Manhattan." They ex-
tended from July, 1840, to Feburary, 1841. Portions
of them were widely copied. In the Avinter of 1848-
49 I published a long series of numbers in the Na-
tional Era^ of Washington, a Free-soil paper, edited
by Dr. Gamaliel Bailey , an accomplished scholar, whose
press had been thrown years before into the river at
Cincinnati. They w^ere entitled, " Sketches of Ke-
forms and Reformers in Great Britain and Ireland."
After retrenchments and additions they were issued,
in 1849, in a volume of four hundred pages, bearing
the same title, in Xew York and London, by John
Wiley. Portions were translated and printed in Paris.
At a later date a second edition w^as issued by Charles
Scribner. Every reform that has since been carried
through Parliament for Great Britain and Ireland
was foreshadowed in those numbers of the Era and
in that volume.

The Anti-slavery Convention met in London in
June, 1840. Thomas Clarkson, the Abolition patri-
arch, was president. James G. Birnej^ was one of the
vice-presidents, and I was honored with a seat among
the secretaries. Many nations were represented. I
will name a few of the most distinguished who took
part in the proceedings, viz. : The Duke of Sussex,
uncle to the queen ; Lord Brougham ; Lord Morpeth,
then Chief -secretary for Ireland ; Daniel O'Connell ;
Guizot, the French Minister at the Court of St. James ;

76

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Dr. Lushington ; Dr. Bo^yring ; Thomas Campbell, the
poet ; Samuel Gurney, the great Quaker banker ;
Joseph Sturge ; Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton ; Sir Eard-
ley Wilmot ; Sir C. Buller ; the Kt. Hon. C. P. Yil-
liers, Edward Baines, and many other Parliamentary
leaders ; Kev. John Angell James, Kev. Dr. Cox, Rev.
Thomas Binney, Pev. Dr. Wardlaw, and a long list
of clergymen of various denominations ; and two
young men then little known — John Bright and Will-
iam E. Forster. The cause of Abolition wore gold
slippers in England. The Duchess of Sutherland,
Mistress of the Pobes ; the Duchess of Brunswick ;
Lady Byron, widow of the poet ; Elizabeth Fry, Mary
Howitt, Amelia Opie, Lady Lovelace, Elizabeth Pease,
and several other female celebrities smiled upon the
convention. The proceedings were reported in a vol-
ume of six hundred pages.

AVhile Thomas Clarkson was delivering the opening
address of the Anti-slavery Convention, I noticed at
my elbow a gentleman with pale cheeks and keen
eyes, wearing a silk capote cut short in the skirts,
and a brigand cap that toAvered high over the crani-
um, who seemed to be sketching the outlines of the
convention. This Avas Benjamin R. Ilaydon, the
famous painter. Why artists affect this fantastic
style of costume when at work, I never coukl under-
stand. I have seen newspaper reporters Avho wore
the brigand caj), but they Averc usually too ''short"
to sport a long silk ca])oto. Ilaydon executed a large
painting of the prominent members of the conven-
tion, Avhich now hangs in the National Portrait Gal-
lery. While employed on this picture he told mt'

HAYDOX, THE GREAT PAINTER.

77

many anecdotes of Wellington, Grey, Brougham, Eus-
sell, and other eminent statesmen who had adorned
his historic canvas. I recall this of the Iron Duke.
Wellington said he had sat about two hundred times
for his portrait since Waterloo, and probably as
many for miniatures and busts. He told Haydon he
had rather storm a fort than sit to an artist. Hay-
don had painted him just previous to this interview.
One day, during a sitting, the old soldier fell asleep
in his chair, and continued so a long time. The art-
ist employed the occasion to bestow some touches of
the pencil on the dress of his illustrious subject. Time
being precious, however, and wishing to resume the
coloring of his features, he cried out in a loud tone,
hope the light don't hurt your grace's eyes?"
Wellington roused up as suddenly as if he had been
caught napping on the field of battle, and replied,
" Oh, no ! I have faced too much lire for that and,
as the painter expressed it, " the old fellow stared at
the light with the eye of an eagle."

Poor Haydon! he had the infirmities of genius.
He died by his own hand in 1846.

A debate on the famous Scotch Presbyterian ques-
tion (then in a critical condition, and which ultimate-
ly rent that powerful Church asunder) was to occur
in the House of Peers. I went to the House in com-
pany with a Birmingham lawyer, and asked the door-
keeper for admission to the gallery. He said it was
full. The offer of a silver crovrn did not reverse his
decision. My Birmingham companion counselled a
retreat. I took my card and addressed it to Lord
Brougham, writing thereon that I was Secretary of

78

kaxdo:m rkcollectioxs.

the 'World's Anti-slavery Convention, from ^^ew York,
and Avould be happv if lie would admit me and a
friend to the gallery to hear the pending debate. The
lawyer and the doorkeeper were astounded at my au-
dacity. " I think I knoAV my man," was my response.
The card was taken in, and in a minute the flunky re-
turned, bowing nearl}^ to the floor. AVe were ushered
into the space allotted to the Commons Avhen sum-
moned to the bar of the Peers. We were the sole
occupants. Lordly eyes were turned upon us, and a
buzzing bevy of peeresses from behind a curtain craned
their necks, wondering probably who on earth we
were. Earl Dalhousie, an elder in the Scotch Church,
was closing a speech. Brougham arose. For twenty
minutes the lawyer, statesman, and orator whose name
and fame were the property of mankind rolled off so-
norous periods on the subject under debate. He then
crossed the chamber in front of where we were sit-
ting, and made a bow, as much as to say, ^' What do
you think of that ?" He was, perhaps, the vainest
man in England. The premier. Lord Melbourne, de-
livered the last speech. He was majestic in ])ei^onal
appearance, elegantly dressed, and had the fatherly
aspect Avhich fitted him to act as a sort of a guardian
to the youthful queen. But what an orator I His
speech was clumsy and slipshod in the extreme.

I will recall a few famous figures in the scarlet
chamber. The homely Yankee face of Lord Lynd-
hurst, with a "calculating" shrewdness in his eye,
and li])s firmly set under an aquiline nose, a heavy
l)i'o\v, and a slouched hat that a Bowery boy Avould
hardly have picked u}>, wiis pointed out side by side

WELLIXGTOX. LYXDHURST.

79

with the snow}^ locks, long, narrow head, and cres-
cent-like visage of the illustrious chief of Waterloo.
Crouching in his seat Wellington looked short, but
when he stood up he seemed tall. The Iron Duke
ran much to legs. Ex-chancellor Lyndliurst was a
Boston-born lad. "When his f atlier, John Copley, was
painting in London the famous picture of the death
of Chatham, now" hanging rn tHe National Gallery,
he could not have imagined that his IS'ew England
boy Avould rise to be one of the leading lawyers and
debaters in the House vrhere the great William Pitt
fell. I heard Wellington deliver a short speech one
night, if it could be called a speech. Several hours
had been spent in discussing an Irish question. The
duke rose up. He occupied ten minutes in stating
the conchisions he had reached on the thorny subject.
He made no gestures, he argued nothing, but stood
as straight and stiff as a musket, and talked in a low
voice. But everybody in the chamber, peers and spec-
tators, listened carefully to each word uttered by the
soldier Avho overthrew the first Xapoleon.

Suddenly all eyes are turned tovrards a tall, slender
man, his brow silvered by age, wiio is just entering
the chamber leaning on the arm of one much young-
er. As he approaches the ministerial bench several
lords rise and pay him marked deference. Even
Brougham, who is at cross-purposes vrith Melbourne,
the premier, comes trippingly forward from the cor-
ner where he is scowling, and greets him warmly ;
while Lyndhurst, Wellington, and tAvo or three other
Tory noblemen lift their hats and bow. This is Charles
Earl Grey, now in his seventy-seventh year, who. ai

80

RANDOM KECOLI.ECTION8.

premier, with the aid of Brougham, carried the Ee-
form Bill of 1832 through the House of Peers; or
rather, as mJght be more fittingly said, drove it over
the House of Peers. Seating himself, the venerable
patrician looked around with the lofty bearing of
one accustomed to take the lead among great minds.
More than half a century before this Charles Grey,
then in the Commons, was the youngest member of
the famous committee that managed the impeachment
of "VYarren Hastings. The sparkling eulogium of Grey
in Macaulay's brilliant description of that event in
the Edhiburgh Revieio of October, 1841, will occur to
the reader.

Earl Grey's solemn admonition to the House of
Lords in 1832, not to reject the Keform Bill that had
twice passed the Commons and been thrown out by
the Lords, was a model of eloquence worthy of the
best days of Greece or Eome. Coming from an old
nobleman like him, it was more influential than
Brougham's argument and closing appeal to the
Peers "on his bended knees" to pass the measure,
and more effective than the ridicule poured on the
hostile lords by Sydney Smith in his story of Dame
Partington's unsuccessful conflict with the Atlantic
Ocean in the terrible storm at Sidmouth. In his last
speech on that gloomy night when the fate of the
British empire hung on his lips. Grey said to the
Peers : " Though I am proud of the ancient rank to
which we in common belong, and would ])cril much
to save it from ruin, yet if your lordships are deter-
mined to reject tliis bill, and throw it scornfully back
in the face of an aroused and indignant ])eoi)le, then

GREY. — BROUGHAM. — DURHAM.

81

I warn you to set your houses in order, for your hour
has come!" The threat of Grey was more potent
than the logic of Brougham or the sarcasm of Smith.
The bill was passed. The serf rose up a man, and
the man stepped forth an elector.

In August, 1840, 1 met Earl Grey at the funeral of
his son-in-law, Earl Durham, who had recently re-
turned from Canada and died of mortification because
of his unsuccessful management of the afi'airs of that
then turbulent colony. The sad spectacle was at the
country-seat of the deceased nobleman, near the city
that bore his name. The scene was unusually grand.
Being the guest of the Mayor of Durham, and an
American, 1 had a good opportunity for contemplat-
ing the ceremonies. I was conducted by " His Wor-
ship," who glistened in a scarlet robe and gold chain,
through the stately edifice of the earl to the little
room, dimly lighted by Avax candles five feet long,
Avhere lay the body, guarded by four mutes, from
whose shoulders drooped black cloaks of the mediaeval
period. One hundred of the tenantry of the rich peer
were boisterously feasting in the kitchen on solids
and liquids of refreshing varieties. A numerous as-
semblage of Whig noblemen, members of Parliament,
and untitled people assisted in the solemn pageant,
for Durham was a leader of the Liberals and the
hope of the rising Radicals. From the Avindow of
tlie chamber where lay his stricken daughter Earl
Grey watched the long procession that bore the re-
mains of his persecuted son-in-law through the adja-
cent groves to the place of interment.
4^

CH-APTER X.

The House of Commons. — Debate on Canada. — Macaulay's Speech.
— Lord John Russell. — The Lions of the House. — O'Connell
Aims a Slinging Arrow at Disraeli, the Future Bcaconsfield. —
Stanley, the Inchoate Earl Derby, Collides with Howick, Son and
Heir of Earl Grey. — Sir Robert Peel Compared with Clay, Cal-
houn, and Webster. — Gladstone, "The Rising Hope of the
Stern and Unbending Tories." — Talfourd. — Bulwer's Dandy
Dress. — Anecdote of Brougham and Buxton. — Clarkson's De-
scription of AViiberforcc's Oratory. — Manners in the English
Commons and the American Congress Compared. — The English-
man's H.— Oratory in America and Great Britain.— American
Snobbery. — Joseph H. Choate and William E. Forster before
the Union League Club. — Dean Stanley, Canon Farrar, Sergeant
Ballantyne, and Matthew Arnold Facing American Audiences. —
How they Appeared.

In dealing* with the House of Commons I shall
glance only at a few of the celebrated members, who
are best known in America.

I entered the Commons to hear a discussion con-
cerning Canada, just then on the verge of a rebel-
lion. I was just seated Avhen from under the gallery
there poured a stream of words, pitched in a monoto-
nous key, sparkling with meta])hors. The House had
been rather tliin, when instantly the doors began to
slam, tidings having passed out that Macaulay was
up. His address reminded me of his essays in the
Edinhurgh Remeio. Lord John Ilussell, colonial sec-
retary, and Whig leader in the Commons, closed the
debate. He Avas a better orator than Mclbouriie, but

O'COXNELL. DISRAELI. PEEL.

83

our House of Eepresentatives would have listened to
him impatiently.

One of the lions of the House was Daniel O'Con^
nell. In heated controversy he Avas as much dreaded
by opponents as was John Quincy Adams in our Con-
gress. I speak more particularlv of the Irish orator
in another place. Directly across the floor from
Q-Connell we recognized the curly locks and flashing
eyes of Benjamin Disraeli, the undeveloped Beacons-
field. He was then inclined to be ashamed of his
Hebrew origin. Hence the keenness of the sting of
O'Connell's arrow, who, in a recent exchange of epi-
thets during a violent quarrel, declared that Disraeli
was the lineal descendant of the impenitent thief that
reviled Jesus on the Cross.

Lord Stanley, known in later times as Earl Derby,
the Premier, was the most rapid speaker I ever heard.
Dashing, bold, sarcastic, he was the Joachim Murat
of debate. As secretary of the colonies, in 1834, he
carried throuo^li the Commons the bill for the aboli-
tion of slavery in the West Indies. Previous to 1840
he had turned to be a Toiy, and followed Sir Eobert
Peel. I witnessed a sharp collision between Stanley
and Lord Howick, better known in America as the
second Earl Grey. The conflict was personal and
bitter. The fiery and ill-tempered attack of Stanley
was admirably foiled by the cool, caustic reply of
Howick.

Sir Eobert Peel was then at the summit of his rep-
utation as a Parliamentary leader. I heard him on
the Irish registration bill, a measure that evoked hot
blood and fervid orator}^ Though Sir Eobert had

84

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

not the glowing rhetoric of our Clay, nor the nervous
logic of Calhoun, nor the overshadowing majest}^ of
Webster, his speech was cogent, lucid, dignified, re-
markabl}" courteous towards opponents, and displayed
that rare tact which enabled him to hold together
what, at that juncture, was an incongruous and fac-
tious party. JS'ear him sat AYilliam Ewart Gladstone,
a cold, serene, haughty, and intensely ambitious scliol-
ar and orator, whom Macaulay had described, in the
Ediiiburgli Remew of the previous year, as ''a young
man of unblemished character and distinguished par-
liamentary talents, the rising hope of those stern and
unbending Tories who follow, reluctantly and muti-
nously, a leader (Peel) whose experience and eloquence
are indispensable to them, but whose cautious temper
and moderate opinions they abhor/' This was a faith-
ful portrait of the author of a bigoted book in favor
of the extremest doctrines of the advocates of a
union of Church and State, which Macaulay was
caustically criticising in the ^y^^^g Quarterly. Who
could then have dreamed that this ''rising hope of
the stern and unbending Tories" would turn with
the tide and aid in repealing the Corn Laws, and, as
premier, disestablish the Irish Church and carry the
right of suffrage almost up to the American standard,
and denounce in acrimonious terms old Liberals who
had often served in his cabinets, because they would
not accept without question a pei'sonal scheme, which
even lie could not clearly explain, for l)estowing an
independent parliament on the hind of Emmet and
O'Connoll?

There were then in the Commons four authors

LYTTON. BUXTON. BROUGHAM.

85

whose Avritings were popular in. America, viz., Ma-
caulay, Disraeli, Thomas Xoon Talfoiird, and Ed-
ward Lytton Bulwer. Having read their w^orks at
home, I took pains to hear them in the national fo-
rum. I have touched upon the three first named, and
will briefly refer to Bulwer, a Liberal member, then
famous as a novelist and dramatist, and in subsequent
years as a conservative peer, bearing the title of Lord
Lytton. When I saw him he appeared to be some-
thing of a dandy. Tall, w4th an Israelitish curve to
a long nose, he was dressed at the very height of the
fashion. There was a dash of dudism in his man-
ners, his cut-away brown coat, wdiite-duck trousers,
and green-silk cravat. I was rather surprised to hear
such extreme radicalism from such aristocratic lips.
But though nothing else could have been logically
expected from the author of " Paul Clifford," " Eugene
Aram," and the Lady of Lyons," the hue of Bul-
wer's politics, whether he shone as a liberal Common-
er or a Tory lord, was as easily changed as the color
of his cravats.

Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was made a baronet in
1840, in return for services in Parliament in the cause
of West India emancipation. This anecdote w^as told
to me b}^ one of his family : In the year 1824, when
Buxton and Brougham were in the Commons, some
petitions were confided to them for the abohtion of
slavery in the West India Colonies. On consultation
they agreed to submit a motion for the amelioration
of slavery. Buxton was to make the motion and
Brougham to support him. Due notice was given,
and the West India interest was on the qui vive for

86

RANDOM EECOLLECTIOXS.

opposition. A tempest was anticipated. Buxton was
apprehensive he should be unceremoniously coughed
and scraped down. The day came. Just as Buxton
was about to lift his majestic form — he was six feet
six inches high — Brougham whispered to him, '* I will
cheer you while you are speaking, and you must do
the same for me.'^'' " Agreed," responded the agitated
brewer, as he rose and commenced speaking amid
evident signs of impatience on the part of many
Commoners. A storm was brewing, but Brougham
cried, " Hear ! Hear 1 1 Hear 1 1 !" with all his might,
and clapped and stamped so lustily that tlie House
was struck with amazement, thought he was crazy,
and permitted Buxton to conclude his speech without
much interruption. In an instant Brougham was on
his feet, liis eye flashing fire, and his hair erect with
excitement. Members cried, Divide ! Divide I" in
stentorian tones. Harry the Commoner " stood un-
moved as a rock. When silence was restored he went
forward, kindling with his theme, rolling out splendid
thoughts and glowing illustrations, which held the
House in awe. The shouts of Hear ! Hear 1 1 Hear I ! !"
from Buxton became contagious, and at the close of
his speech Brougham sat down amid rounds of ap-
plause.

Thomas Clarkson's unique mansion, near Ipswich,
was erected in the same year that Columbus discov-
ered America. It had its moat and drawbridge, the
water in the former fragrant with pond-Hlics, and the
railing of the latter entwined with creeping-roses.
With pride glistening in his eye he showed me the
original records of the first society — formed by him

CLARKSON. — FOX. WILBERFORCE.

■87

and AVilliani AVilberforce and their associates, in 1786,
for tlie abolition of the African slave-trade. He
gave racy anecdotes and sketches of illustrious men
whom he had known and wrought with in that cause,
and spoke particularly of Wil.berforce, the younger
Pitt, Fox, Burke, Sharpe, Windham, Bishop Porteus,
and others of the great dead ajnong his coadjutors,
and of Brougham, Buxton, and O'Connell, with v\'hom
he had toiled in the later struggles to overthrow sla-
very in the West Indies. I asked him about the oratory
of Fox, and if Mr. AVilberforce was a good speaker in.
Parliament, telling him that in America it was gen-
erally believed that Wilberforce was not a command-
ing figure in the Commons. The cheek of the patri-
arch glowed with enthusiasm as he replied that Fox
was terrible in debate, attacking his enemies in a style
that sometimes bordered on ferocity. He feared noth-
ing ; but, though a lion on the floor, was as mild as a
lamb in private intercourse. In response to my in-
quiry concerning Wilberforce, he drew himself up to
full height, and exclaimed, Mr. Wilberforce not an
orator I He was one of the most eloquent men in
Parliament. His voice vras as musical as a flute, and
his choice vrords followed each other with a regular-
ity and beautv that fell on the ear like the swells of
an organ." I asked if he was not rather diminutive
in person. " Yes," said Mr. Clarkson, but his ear-
nestness and pathos, and the magnitude of his theme
when exposing the evils of the slave-trade made him
look large in debate."

When I was in England the manners of the House
of Commons Avere often rude and boisterous. Two or

88

EAXDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

three times I witnessed scenes that would have befit-
ted the spectators at a prize-ring better than the mem-
bers of a legislative assembly. Such cheers, yells,
hisses, groans ! Such vituperation and personal abuse,
for which representatives in Congress would have been
required to ])romptly apologize on pain of expulsion !
I have seen some of the most angry collisions that
ever occurred in our Senate and House. They were
perilous, and came near to bloodshed ; but they were
less coarse and noisy than those I beheld in Parlia-
ment. Ours were the quarrels of inflamed gentlemen.
Theirs were the conflicts of heated bullies. Perhaps
the House of Commons has improved in late years,
but those rude outbreaks during the recent debates
on Home Eule do not tend to prove it. American
congressmen do not scrape an opponent down by shuf-
fling their feet, nor silence him by concerted cough-
ing, nor drown his voice by cries of " Divide I Divide !"
" Oh ! Ah I'' nor drive him to his seat by ironical
cheers, nor jeer him by affected yells of " Hear I Hear !"
A congressman miglit kill a colleague in a duel for
words spoken in debate, or even shoot him, or plunge
a knife into his abdomen in an encounter in the lob-
by, but he would scorn to bellow him down like a
bull. He prefers to leave that style of argument to
the members of a body which has been called " An
Assembly of the First Gentlemen in Europe."

The American who would tlioroughly master the
utterance of the English nation, whether in Parlia-
ment, at the bar, in the pulpit, on the platform, or in
tlie streets, must ])ause and consider the letter h. It
modifies their language, and is to them the key of

BRITISH AND AMERICAN ORATORY.

89

the alphabet. He who supposes that the peculiarity
in this regard relates only to the common people is
quite mistaken ; it crops out not infrequently in per-
sons of the higher types, and especially the middle class.

The facility of the average .Englishman in drop-
ping out and picking np the h Avas brought vividly
before me on the second day I ,\vas in the kingdom.
I present it as a sparkling drop from " the well of
English nndefiled." I was on the coach between Ex-
eter and Bath, with a seat by the driver's side. I
caught sight of a great edifice in ruins on a distant
hill. It Avas my first ruin in the Old World, and I
Avished to make as much of it as possible. I eagerly
asked the coachman what it was. " Sir," said he,
"that is Glastonbury habbey. In the reign of King
'Enry the Heighth, the hold habbot rebelled, and the
king 'ung 'im hon a gallows, hand then cut hotf 'is
'ead, and confiscated 'is lands." Telling the coach-
man that I had just landed from America, he kindly
gave me an extra stop of fifteen minutes to glance at
the ruins of the famous abbey, which cover many
acres, and where moulder the bones of renowned
bishops and princes, whose history I had read in
Hume, or 'Ume, as J ohn Bull would call him.

While in England, Scotland, and Ireland, I heard
much public speaking in Parliament, at the bar, in the
pulpit, and on the platform from persons of all types.
It is only echoing the general opinion to say that this
foreign oratory was far inferior to ours. The Eng-
lish specimens could hardly have been worse. Such
hesitating, hemming, hawing, stammering, stuttering,
stumbling I They cultivate this style, and think it

90

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

aristocratic. "While they seem to reverence their
sleezv diction and slipshod utterance as if it were a
part of the British Constitution, to other nations it
appears not merely contemptible, but makes their or-
ators a laughing-stock. Of course^ I met a great many
exceptions to this sweeping rule.

On the other hand, not only in the matter of ora-
tory, but in everything else, the British turn up their
noses at us. It is no wonder. The snobbery and ser-
vility of our tourists in that country, and of some of
our ministers to the Court of St. James, have con-
firmed them in their fancied superiority over the
Americans. Indeed, our toadyism has reached a point
where it is deemed unfashionable to give American
names even to our hotels, and therefore we call them
after some of the most infamous characters in British
history.

Some of our citizens can recall a scene that enabled
them to compare American with English orators. I
refer to the reception given by the Union League Club,
of isew York, to the Bight Honorable "W. E. Forster,
for his steady advocacy of the Union cause in the
House of Commons during the Civil War. Arrayed
in a dress coat and white cravat which Beau Brummel
or George TV. would have envied, Joseph II. Choate,
the president of the club, rained down for half an
hour upon Mr. Forster a brilliant shower of encomi-
ums that made the plainly dressed semi-Quaker quail.
In matter and manner it was one of Choatc's happy
efforts, while Forster's response was thoroughly Eng-
lish in style and sentiment. The contrast between
the two performances was striking and instructive.

STANLEY. FAKRAK. BALLAXTYXE. ARXOLU, DI

Even fresher illustrations of the superiority herein
asserted Avill occur to those who listened in this coun-
try to Dean Stanley, Canon Farrar, Sergeant Ballan-
tyne, and Matthew Arnold. The two distinguished
divines utterly failed to sustain the reputation as
pulpit orators which they brought here ; the learned
lawyer hopelessly broke down when confronting his
first American audience; and the famous essayist,
Avho lectured for years with great eclat in his native
land, had to take lessons in elocution after reaching
our shores before, on his own admission, he felt com-
petent to face a trans- Atlantic assembly.

CHAPTER XL

Westminster Hall. — The Courts: Lords Cottenham, Denman, and
Abingcr, Sir Frederick Pollock, and other Members of the
Bench and Bar. — In France.— Deputy Isambert and Advocate
Cremieux. — The Great Napoleon's Mausoleum in Preparation
on the Banks of the Seine. — Napoleon, "the Pretender," Seized
while Raising a Eebellion at Boulogne. — Keturn to England. —
London in a Fog.— William the Conqueror and Battle Abbey. —
Runnymede and Magna Charta. — Bosworth Field and Richard
III. — Cromwell's SchooUiouse, Mansion, and Farm. — Judge
Jeffreys and the Bloody Assizes. — William III. and the Battle
of the Boyue. — Old Sarum, the Model Rotten Borough. — The
Chartists and their Creed. — Main Cause of their Failure.

I EXTERED the great Hall of AVilliam Rufus, in West-
minster, whose old oaken arches had witnessed the
crowning of many kings, the trial of Charles L, the
expulsion of the Rump Parliament by Cromwell, and
the bursts of eloquence of Burke and Sheridan on the
arraignment of Warren Hastings for high crimes and
misdemeanors, and I was spellbound as I paced its
stone floor, worn by the footsteps of centuries. I
visited the a])artments where the courts were in ses-
sion. There sat Lord Chancellor Cottenham, Chief-
Justice Denman, of the Queen's Bench, Lord Abinger,
of the Exchequer, better known to the bar in Amer-
ica as Sir James Scarlett. Of course I was deeply
interested in Avitnessing the proceedings of tribunals
that gave law to so large a part of Christendom, and
whose decisions are daily cited in the courts of the

ENGLISH JUDGES AND LAWYERS.

93

United States. I had heard a speech from Lord Cot-
tenham in the Peers. I now hstened to arguments
in the courts from Sir Frederick Pollock, Sergeant
Talfourd, and Sir William FoUett, leaders of the bar.
In matter they wxre able ; in manner bad.

I w^as abroad till January, 1841. I delivered thirty
or forty speeches in Great Brit[iin and Ireland, and
attended two conferences in France. I had come
from the land of mobs, Avhere the press, Avith few ex-
ceptions, delighted to misrepresent Abolitionists. It
seemed a pleasant change to find myself introduced
to audiences by members of Parliament, fellows of
the universities, lord mayors of cities, peers of the
realm, bishops of the Establishment, and the manager
of the Edinhurgh Eevieii\ and then to see my speech-
es fully and fairly reported in the newspapers. I
took courage, and dared to say in the words of a Kad-
ical rhymer :

" There's a good time comiDg,
A good time coming;
We may not live to see the day,
But Earth will glisten in the ray
Of the good time coming;
Wait a little longer."

I lived to see the day.

While in France, in the summer of 1840, 1 attend-
ed two important Anti-slavery conferences in Paris.
This was a part of my object in going to Europe.
These conferences w^ere participated in by M. Isam-
bert, a prominent member of the Chamber of Depu-
ties, and M. Cremieux, subsequently minister of jus-
tice in the government of Lamartine, and other lead-

94

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

ei^ of opinion. I cannot even allude to the many
famous places I visited on the Continent, but I will
except two or three. It was in a memorable Napo-
leonic year that I saw France. In Paris, under the
dome of the Hotel des Invalides, they were preparing
a magnificent mausoleum for the great emperor,
whose remains were to be received from St. Helena
in the autumn. The old soldiers on the banks of the
Seine, Avho had fought under the Little Corporal in
many battles, were aglow with enthusiasm at the ap-
proach of the pageant. I stopped in July in the pub-
lic square of Boulogne and noted its points of interest.
Two weeks later the young pretender, known after-
wards as JSTapoleon IIL, dashed into the square with
fifty armed followers, posted a proclamation on the
walls, and called upon the people to rise and drive
Louis Philippe from France. The wild adventurer
was sentenced to the citadel of Ham for life, but he
contrived to escape from his grim prison in May,
1840. Other historic mile-stones dwelt in my mem-
ory, and furnished the keys whereby I subsequently
interpreted the downfall of Louis Philippe, in 1848,
and the extinguishment of the Napoleonic dynasty,
in the Franco-German war of 1870.

On returning from the Continent we had a night
ride on a coach from Dover to London. AVe reached
Shooter's Hill just as the orb of day was breaking
through a bank of clouds. The basin wherein the
great mctroi)olis reposes seemed a vast lake, whose
bosom was rippled by the wind. The dome of the
Cathedral loomed above the surface and glistened in
the morning sunbeams, wliile Highgate stood sentry

^VILLIAM THE CONQUEROK.

95

over the scene on the north. The iUusion ATas per-
fect.

I shall run through the country at random, merely
pointing to a fe^v landmarks, Avhicli stand as blazed
trees along the track Avhere history has hewed its
path. I am not writing a sketch of my travels. The
letters to the Xew York American, above mentioned,
give glimpses of my wanderings, and show that I did
not attend solely to Anti-slavery matters, but for six
months went the beaten track of a tourist. In what
I jot down I shall generally have some reference to
human progress.

I went down to Hastings to see the harbor and the
pier where AVilliam anchored the seven hundred ves-
sels and landed the sixty thousand men for the great
concjuest. Six miles inland is the held where the
grim invader, in October, lOCO, fought the battle that
placed the kingdom of Alfred the Saxon under the
heel of William the Xorman. Poor Harold, the Eng-
lish monarch, pierced in the eye by an arrovr, lost
his crown and his hfe in the struggle. Here the Con-
queror, " of pious memory,"" erected Battle Abbey as
a memorial of the victory that gave England the feu-
dal system and the Domesday Book. The abbey is a
frowning edifice, partially in ruins, a crumbling land-
mark of British history.

On the south bank of the Thames, a fevv^ miles from
London, I saw a beautiful meadow. At the vrest I
caught sight of the towers of Windsor Castle, vrhile
my eyes scanned the dense smoke that canopied the
metropolis on the east. In 1215 there transpired on
this little meadovv' one of the most important events

96

RANDOM RECOLXECTIONS.

in the history of England. Gloomy King John came
over from "Windsor to Eunnymede to confer with his
rebellions barons. On the 19th of June, at their dic-
tation, he affixed the royal seal (perhaps he could not
write his name) to Magna Charta.

Thousands of Englishmen daily sail up and down
the Thames, past this sedgy spot, without being aware
that their Declaration of Independence was issued
here six hundred years ago. There is nothing strange
in this. Crowds of Americans daily beat their surges
against a little brick edifice in Philadelphia without
remembering that within its Avails, on July 4, 1776, a
few feeble colonies issued the immortal document
that hurled defiance (to quote Webster) at a power
whose morning drum-beat, starting with the sun and
keeping company with the hours, encircled the earth
with one continuous and unbroken strain of the mar-
tial airs of England.

The wars of the Roses changed the line of descent
of the English crown from the Plantagenets to the
Tudors. In 1485 the White Eose of York was blast-
ed by the Eed Eose of Lancaster, on Boswoi'th field.
I had seen the battle fought so often on the stage by
Booth, Forrest, and Macready, that, after viewing
the old schoolhouse at Leicester, wherein Dr. Sam
Johnson was once usher, I rode a little way out of
town to the plain where the genuine crook-backe<l
Eichard was slain, and the coronet placed on the
brow of Henry YII. by Lord Stanley. The guide
was loquacious, as became his calling. I swallowed
his stories without a grimace, till he told me my
feet at that moment rested on the very sod where

BOSWORTH FIELD. EOB ROY.

97

Richard cried aloud, A horse I A Jiorse I my king-
dom for a horse!'' Then I was tempted to bolt the
track, because no historian informs us that " White
Surrey " had been killed or had tied : and while that
renowned steed lived what need had Eichard of an-
other horse 'i

However, I early learned to accept such tales as
true, and get as much enjoyment out of the delusion
as possible. When, for example, they exhibited the
block in the Tower of London whereon Lady Jane
Grey is said to have been beheaded, I admitted that
some sharp instrument had made a cleft in it. They
pointed me to the schoolroom at Huntingdon where
Cromwell learned his A B C's, and to the identical
wooden desk at which he sat. I conceded that the
latter had been thoroughly whittled, and the only vron-
der was that it had stood the jack-knives so well for
two hundred and fifty years. When gazing at cer-
tain suspicious-looking scratches on the windovv^-siil
of Whitehall, and on being assured that these Vv'ere
the prints of the spikes that helped to hold up the
scaffold whereon Charles 1. was put to death in 1649,
I did not for a moment dispute that that unfortunate
monarch lost his head in that vicinity about that
time. So when in the Highlands of Scotland an an-
cient dame charged only a crown for letting me han-
dle Eob Eoy's alleged musket, I drew an approving
smile from the old crone by the remark that the bar-
rel was uncommonly long and the lock very rusty.
Is not this the best way to deal with this kind of
so-called information ? Tourists must not be too crit-
ical.

08

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Oliver Cromwell prepared the way for the expulsion
of the Stuarts. I walked through the brick house
and over the fair helds of Huntingdon where the Pu-
ritan spent his youth. The mansion resembled a large
Pennsylvania farmhouse of the higher class. Here,
in mature years, he trained his Ironsides, who marched
to the tune of Old Hundred, but in many an encoun-
ter met undismayed the legions of the court and hie-
rarchy, oft sweeping them like chaff before the wind.
His well-planned battle at ]^aseby ruined Charles. I
traversed the hillock over which the lion-hearted
general, sword in hand, led the decisive charge.
When he became Protector of the Commonwealth
he took up the despised name of Kingless England,
and bore it aloft on the eagle- wings of a far-sighted
policy, and made it respected and feared at every
court in Europe. He w^as a great soldier and a great-
er ruler, and stood among the foremost men of his
time.

I skirted the fatal field of Sedgemoor, where the un-
fortunate followers of Monmouth sought to dethrone
James II. before his hour had fully come. I sat in
the old C^ourt-house at Taunton, where the monster
Jeffreys held the Bloody Assizes, which condemned
to death three hundred and twenty-six men, women,
and boys for participating m this uprising, and sent
eight hundred and forty-one victims into perpetual
slavery. The vials of retribution Avere ])oured upon
the head of this infamous judge when his master fell.
He cowered in a tap-room at Cireenwich, disguised as
a servant, and, on discovery, bogged to be lodged in
the Tower as v. protection from tlie populace, who

vni.LIAM III. — OLD SARUM.

90

thi'catened to tear him limb from limb. There he
howled like a maniac, haunted by the ghosts of those
whom he had condemned to the gallows and the
galleys at Taunton. The blackest villain that ever
stained the bench was George Jeffreys.

Torbay is one of the most beautiful ocean inlets
my eyes ever beheld. It lies in the lap of luxuriant
Devonshire. I saw it in the high noon of summer
exuberance. In this bay, on the 5th of ISTovember,
1688, William, the Stadtholder of Holland, anchored
the great fleet, and landed the grand army he brouglit
over to drive James II. from the British throne. The
credulous king was slow to believe that his nephew
had been invited to invade England by eminent lead-
ers of public opinion. It was an easier conquest than
that of the other William, who landed at Hastings
six hundred and twent3^-two years before. James
fled to France. In July, 1 690, he made a last feeble
rally for his throne at the battle of the Boyne. In
early j^outh I read a pictorial history of England.
Among its illustrations was a vivid sketch of Will-
iam crossing the Boyne and shouting to his soldiers,
" To glory ! My lads, to glory !" It has been the
rule of my life to deepen the good impressions of my
youth. Of course I saw the Boyne, and sat down on
the northern bank, where William was wounded, and
fancied I saAv the cowardly James fleeing over the
hills on the opposite side, the first one to run away.
William III. was the greatest monarch who ever sat
on the British throne.

The rotten borough called Old Sarum Avas the laugh-
ing-stock of the Whigs in the day of the first Eeform

100

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Bill of 1832. I visited its site, getting glimpses of
Salisbury Plain, a locality Avliicli had nestled in my
inemory since I read the religious tract entitled
" The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain." I could scarce-
ly believe my eyes as I looked upon Old Sarum. For
centuries previous to the Eeforni Bill it had sent two
members to Parliament, though not a soul had lived
there since the Tudors mounted the throne. It was
a mere sand-hill, without showing even the ruins of a
dwelling, though once it had a small population. Yet
this utter w^aste, down to 1832, had as large a repre-
sentation in the Commons as Lancashire, with its
milhon and a half of people. The voting at elec-
tions used to be done by the owner of Old Sarum,
Avho sent himself and a favorite, or two of the latter
stripe, to Parliament.

Though the Keform Bill of 1832 abolished absurdi-
ties like Old Sarum, it left the representation in the
House of Commons in a very unsatisfactory state.
This led to Chartism, a well-meaning but rather tur-
bulent faction, whose five foundation-principles were
universal suffrage, voting by ballot, equal parliamen-
tary districts, no property qualification for represen-
tatives, and the payment of salaries to members.
This platform will seem familiar to the people of
the United States, but the announcement of the
Chartist creed threw England into convulsions. I
happened to s])eak at a large Chartist meeting.
Some Englii^h friends warned me not to attend, but
I said 1 liad rode out many mobs in America, and
ratlicr like I it. The organization was already drifting
upon the shoals of violence. I cautioned them against

THE ENGLISH CHARTISTS.

101

disorder. But in a fe'.v years they destroj^ed them-
selves and their party by outbreaks and bloodshed.
In later times, and under the guidance of Gladstone,
Bright, "William E. Forster, and their associates, the
cause of free suffrage and par-liamentar}^ reform has
recovered some of the ground which the Chartists
proved incompetent to occupy. •

CHAPTER XII.

Some British Poets. — Thomas Campbell. — In the London Con-
vention he Ridicules American Poets. — He is Answered. —
Ebenezcr Elliott. — James Montgomery, — Lord Byron's Widow.
— His Daughter, Ada Augusta. — Thomas Carlyle. — He Calls
Victor Hugo a Humbug, and Criticises Emerson. — In Scotland.
— Rev. Doctors Chalmers and Wardlaw as Pulpit Orators. — The
Manager of the Edinburgh Revieio Presides over an Anti-Slavery
Meeting. — Sydney Smith Preaches a Sermon. — Lord Francis
Jeffrey on Law Reform, the New York Revised Statutes, and
Jeremy Benthara, the Codifier. — The Field of Culloden. —
Charles Edward Stuart. — Clarkson's Opinion of the Four Stuarts
and the Four Georges. — In Ireland. — O'ConncU on the Repeal
of the Union.— John Randolph Said he was the First Orator in
Europe. — Other Famous Men and Places. — Return to America.
— Admitted to the Boston Bar.

An amusing scene occurred in the London Anti-
slavery Convention that may be worth mentioning.
I was on the platform reading a report when Tliomas
Campbell entered. He was greeted with applause.
I stopped reading. Mr. O'Connell, with a flourish,
reminded the American delegates that the author of
" Gertrude of Wyoming " stood before them, and there
were loud calls for a speech. The poet, in a muddled
style, began to compliment American institutions, and
then plunged, in a zigzag way, into a contemptuous
criticism of our poetry. His manner was peculiar,
his pose unsteady, his tongue thick. I replied, eulo-
gizing his productions, and warmly vindicating the
authors he had assailed. He kept jum])ing up and

SOME BRITISH P0I:TS.

103

interjecting responses, and our colloquy kept the au-
dience in a roar. All this was taken down by the
stenographer, but it was omitted from the published
report by the English managers on their excuse that
Campbell was intoxicated. But I was not disposed
to sit still and hear Bryant, AVhittier, and Longfellow
abused by any British bard, whether sober or drunk.

A glance at two or three other poets must sutrlce.
A letter of introduction brought me in front of " El-
liott & Co.'s Iron and Steel Warehouse," at Sheffield.
I Y\^ent to his house, wliere I w^as greeted with a hearty
"Walk in I" from the Corn-law Rhymer, who was
standing on the threshold in his stocking-feet. He
made no apology for his rough appearance, drew on
his shoes, and opened a racy dialogue about America.
He was enthusiastic in his admiration of General Jack-
son, and dilated on his heroism in the battle with
" Biddle and the Bank." Elliott, like Burns, was the
poet of the poor, and his songs were the lays of labor.
Unlike the Ayrshire ploughman, the Yorkshire iron-
monger did not draw his inspiration from open, breezy
fields, but from the stifling air of hot furnaces. Burns
was the bard of 3^eomen, Elliott was the bard of arti-
sans. Presenting me with a copy of his works, and
slightly changing his dress, we ascended the hill to
the embowered cottage of James Montgomery. The
contrast could hardly have been greater than that be-
t"ween the rugged rhjnnester and the sacred singer.
Polished in manner, neat in dress, calm in conversa-
tion, Montgomery inquired about the Pro -slavery
mobs in the United States, especially tlie destruction
of newspapers, his voice rising to indignation as he

104

RANDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

Spoke of his own imprisonment in York Castle in
early days for the publication, in the Sheffield Iris, of
liberal doctrines, offensive to the administration of
th3 younger Pitt.

In London I met Lady Byron, in company Avith
her daughter, Lady Lovelace, Lord Byron's Ada Au-
gusta, the " gentle Ada," sole heiress of her father's
fame. The mother took a deep interest in emancipa-
tion and common-school education in America, but
evaded all reference to her late husband. The eyes
of the daughter sparkled vrhen I told her that not
only in the mansions of the rich in the cities, but in
log-huts beyond the Alleghany Mountains, liis poems
were familiar as household words. Her countenance
seemed to me to reflect more closely the brilliant feat-
ures of the father than the plain face of the mother.

I met Thomas Carlyle. He was dressed in a shab-
by suit of gray. I was not delighted with this " writ-
er of books," as he called himself. We talked about
America, and he betrayed great ignorance of a people
at whom he sneered. He conversed rapidly, walked
the room nervously, and shot out ])orcupine quills in-
discriminately at good and evil. As a specimen of
his talk I will say that he called Victor Hugo " a glit-
tering humbug." His vicious style of writing caused
him to go by crooked ways up to an idea instead of
advancing towards it by a straight path. Much of
his assumed profundity sprang from this source. In
later times bis execrable style grew more and more
misleading. Take, for instance, some of his lauded
writings, and disentangle and analyze paragraphs that
appear to hide in their meshes ideas too deep and aw-

CARLYLE AXD EMERSOX.

105

ful to be expressed in plain Anglo-Saxon, and you will
discover that the matter is either quite meaningless
or very commonplace. But, notwithstanding his crab-
bed sentences, rooted prejudices, and sour temper, Car-
lyle's war on Shams " was beneficial to mankind,
while his pen, at lucid intervals, shed valuable light
along the track of history and biography. Ameri-
cans must not be too severe on the unique Scotchman,
though he is reported to have said of our Emerson
that his few ideas would be more clearly and beauti-
fully clothed if he used half as many words to cover
them. Transcendental writers do indeed need trans-
lators to put their productions into idiomatic English.
It is mere affectation to go into raptures over chap-
ters one third of Avhich nobody really understands.
Life is too short to be wasted in sifting a few kernels
of Avheat out of bushels of chaff.

I might describe many persons whom I met abroad,
men and women, celebrities, oddities, famous, infa-
mous, but I have no room for them. Several are no-
ticed in my volume of " Sketches of Eeforms and Ke-
formers.-'

We must give England a rest, and repair to Scot-
land. I went the grand rounds of the Lowlands and
the Highlands, and sketched outlines of my tour
in letters to the Neio Yorh American. Repetitions
will be avoided. I jot only here and there. I listened
to a sermon by Dr. Chalmers, then in the fulness of
his prime, and the leader in the movement that ulti-
mated in the disruption of the Church of John Knox.
His discourse was a chain of close reasoning, glitter-
ing imagery, and glowing with fervor. Its drawback

106

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

to me was the strong Scotch accent of the orator.
His deUvery lacked the mellow cadence of Dr. Ealph
Wardlaw of Glasgow, who, to Dr. Chalmers, was as
Apollos to Paul.

Our large Anti-slavery meeting in the Scotch capi-
tal was presided over by the manager of the Edin-
hurgh Ilemew. With what dash, audacity, and brill-
iancy did that celebrated periodical leap into the arena
of journalism in the dark, troubled, and despotic epoch
of 1802. The cause, of freedom in both hemispheres
is its debtor. Perhaps at the head of the long list of
Avriters who imparted lustre to its pages and gath-
ered fame by their contributions during the first
forty years of its existence stand Sydney Smith,
Francis Jeffrey, Henry Brougham, and Thomas Bab-
ington Macaulay. It made them all lords except
Smith, who would have been a lord-bishop if he had
not cracked so many jokes over the head of the Es-
tablished Church. I liad heard Brougham and Ma-
caulay in Parliament. In a country parish I rode ten
miles in the rain to listen to a sermon by Smith, the
Canon of St. Paul's, who was visiting a rural rector.
It was a plain discourse, though two or three para-
graphs reminded me that Peter Plymley was in ^
the desk. In Edinburgh I had an interview with
Lord Jeffrey, then at the head of the Scotch judiciary.
He took an interest in law reform, and asked me a
good many questions about the New York Revised
Statutes and their authors, which I reciprocated by
inquiring into the habits and studies of the strange
codilier Jeremy Bentham, then deceased, who always
seemed to me to be in law what Dr. Franklin was in

THE FIELD OF CULLODEX.

lOT

science, Dr. Johnson in literature, and Dr. Greeley in
journalism. I deemed it fortunate that I had seen
and heard the four greatest of the Edinburgh re-
viewers.

The last Stuart made a gallant stand at Preston-
Pans in 1845, just below Edinburgh, for the crown of
his grandfather. His Scotch claymores " hewed deep
their gory way " into the ranks of the English, and
they fled. But the tide turned against the young
prince the next year. On a bleak ridge near Inver-
ness he fought the fatal battle of CuUoden in April,
ITIG. In spite of his winning manners and indomit-
able courage his cause was ruined. Having again and
again declaimed at school Campbeirs " Lochiel ! Locli-
iel ! beware of the day," I saw CuUoden on a bluster-
ing October afternoon, and almost wished that the
chivalrous Charles Edward had fared better. At
Playf ord Hall, the residence of Thomas Clarkson, the
conversation turned upon the Stuarts. "The four
Stuarts," said the companion of Granville Sharp and
William Wilberforce, "were a bad lot." Then, as
if in parenthesis, he added, " And so were the four
Georges." Time will never reverse this verdict.

When in London Mr. O'Connell invited me to Dub-
lin, and laughingly said he would induct me into the
mysteries of his agitation for the repeal of the union
between England and Ireland. His son John, then
in the Commons, presided at our Anti-slavery assem-
bly in Dublin. He was a faint copy of his sire. The
father gave me a special ticket to a Repeal meeting.
He delivered an elaborate address of two hours' length,
intended, as he said, to inform me of the ends he had

108

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

in vie^;". Mr. O'Connell was foremost among the
eloquent public speakers of liis era. John Kandolph
said he was the greatest orator he heard in Europe.
He won the title of " Liberator of Ireland." In the
address I have referred to he said that no political re-
form was worth the shedding of one drop of blood.
His repeal agitation brought him to prison, and came
to naught. Though something of a demagogue, he
was the friend of man, irrespective of clime, color,
creed, or condition. Wherever humanity sank under
the blow of the tyrant there were found the genial
heart and clarion voice of Daniel O'Connell sympa-
thizing with the fallen and rebuking the oppressor.

Other scenes rise before me, but I must stop and
hie to America. It would be pleasant to sketch a
visit to Boston, where William Brewster, my Puritan
ancestor, was long imprisoned for nonconformity ; and
to the gloomy jail at Bedford, where John Bunyan
Avrote the " Pilgrim's Progress ;" but there is no space
for them. Xor is there for descriptions of other fa-
mous places I saw, as, for example, Flodden Field,
immortalized by Scott in Marmion ;" and the site of
the Rye House, whose ])lot sent Algernon Sydney and
AVilUam Russell to the scaffold; and Moor Park,
where William III. was wont to consult Temple, and
where Swift captivated and ruined " Stella ;" and
Blenheim Castle, Avhose stately halls saw streams of
dotage flow from Marlborough's eyes; and Dayles-
ford, rebuilt by AVarren Hastings, and to Avhicli he
retreated when ])ursucd l)y Burke, Fox, and Sheridan
in the great impeachment trial ; and Birnam Wood,
where I cut two memorial canes and took them to

RETURN TO AMERICA IX 1841.

109

Dunsinane, and could then have assured Macbeth (if
there ever were such a king, and he had been pres-
ent) that Birnam ^Vood had come to Dunsinane ; and
the sanguinary field of Banngckburn, where a min-
strel, accompanying his melodious voice on a harp,
sang the immortal ballad of Burns :

" Scots, Tvlia bae vrV Wallace bled,
Scots, %Ybam Bruce bas aften led."

I dismiss all these scenes, and gladly hie to Amer-
ica, where I arrived in 1841. On my return I com-
pleted my law studies, and, in 184:2, went into prac-
tice at Boston. But I still performed much work in
the Anti-slavery cause, both on the platform and in
the press. To make way for other matters, I shall say
little of my labors in this latter field.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Law. — Boston Bench and Bar.— Judges Story, Sprague, and
Shaw. — Jeremiah Mason. — Daniel Webster. — Rufus Choate. —
Their Triumphs in the Criminal Cases of Avery, the Knapps,
and Tirrell. — Samuel Hoar. — He is Sent to South Carolina to
Test the Constitutionality of Laws Imprisoning Free Colored
Seamen. — Expelled from the State by Force. — Mr. Hoar's Fee
as a Referee.— Choate before Juries. — Shaw on the Bench. —
Choate's Stimulants, Hot Coffee and Hot Water.— Tirrell's Two
Celebrated Trials for Murder and Arson. — Parker, the Prose-
cuting Attorney.- Somnambulism the Defence. — George Head's
IManufactured Testimony, and Rufus Choate's Marvellous Ora-
tory, Twice Save Tirrell's Life.

In disposing of judges, lawyers, and courts at one
sitting, I shall illustrate the rule that adherence to
the order of topics is more important than regard for
the order of dates. I shall begin at Boston, where I
was first admitted to practice. As a general rule
(though there vrill be many exceptions), when I take
up a lawyer or a case, I shall get through Avith them
before the man or the subject is laid down.

At the time of which I am speaking, the bench and
bar at Boston were exceptionally distinguished. Jo-
seph Story was in the zenith of his fame ; Judge
Sprague, of the United States District Court, who
v7on a high reputation as Senator in Congress, was
his worthy associate. Chief-justice Shaw, of the State
Supreme Court, was one of the ablest lawyers in New
England. The leader of the bar was, of course, Mr.

WEBSTER. — MASON. — CHOATE.

Ill

Webster, though Jeremiah Mason stood close to him.
But, viewed in some lights, the most brilliant figure
was Rufus Choate. He Avas appreciated by the five
great men just mentioned, and was the admiration of
his junior brethren of the profession, who were accus-
tomed to pack the courts to witness his wonderful
displays of logic, learning, and eloquence.

While I dwelt in Boston, Jeremiah Mason Avas one
of its greatest lawyers. For half a century he was a
commanding figure at the Xew England bar. Born
and educated in my native county, he spent his best
years in Xew Hampshire, whence he removed to Bos-
ton in 1832. I recall his tall form, six feet seven
inches high, as he passed along the streets, or tow-
ered above his brethren in the courts. I heard him
once before the full bench. Deliberate, methodical,
luminous, compact, with little rhetoric and few ges-
tures, his argument was a masterly performance of
steel-linked logic.

Daniel Webster in his autobiography, written in
1838, gives a graphic sketch of his great rival. I
quote a paragraph : " For the nine years I lived in
Portsmouth, Mr. Mason and myself, in the counties
where we practised, were on opposite sides of each
case pretty much as a matter of course. ... If there
be in this country a stronger intellect, if there be a
mind of more native resources, if there be a vision
that sees quicker or sees deeper into whatever is in-
tricate or whatsoever is profound, I confess I have not
known it. I have not written this paragraph with-
out considering what it implies. I look to that indi-
vidual who, if it belong to anybody, is entitled to bo

112

KAXDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

an exception. But I deliberately let the judgment
stand." The individual referred to was Chief -justice
Marshall. This opinion of Mason was recorded after
Webster had been thirty-four years at the bar and
twenty years in Congress.

One of Mr. Mason's greatest achievements while in
Boston was his successful defence, under the most ad-
verse circumstances, at IS^ewport, R. I., of the Rev.
Ephraim K. Avery, on an indictment for the killing
of his mistress, a Miss Cornell, while trying to pro-
duce an abortion b}^ his own unskilled hand. The
trial was replete with dramatic incidents, and famous
in its day. Mr. Mason cleared another sort of pris-
oner by quite a different method. After he had be-
come distinguished in Kew Hampshire, he went into
a rural county to try a civil suit. A pompous little
judge was on the bench. He assigned Mason to de-
fend a negro on an indictment for petty larceny.
With surprise, tinged with indignation, Mason de-
clined the task. " Sir, you must obey the order of
the court," said the little judge. " All you need do
is to take your client into the adjoining room and
give liim the best advice you can." This struck Ma-
son in a funny light, and he arose, beckoned to the
negro, and stalked into an empty room with his

client " at his heels. Are you guilty ?" asked Ma-
son. Yes, sir," responded the negro. " Can tliey
prove it ^" " Yes, sir ; all the witnesses are here."
Mason put his head out of the open window and said,

It is about fifteen feet to the ground. Do you see
those woods ?" The negro leaped, and Mason re-
turned into the court. By and by the case was called,

SAMUEL HOAR.

113

but the negro did not respond. Where is your cli-
ent asked the little judge. " I do not know," re-
plied Mason. " Your honor directed me to give him
the best advice I could, and the last I saw of him he
was running for those woods . over there." Every-
body laughed except the little judge, and the curtain
fell on the scene.

The acquittal of Avery by Mr. Mason, the convic-
tion of the Knapps by Mr. Webster for the murder of
Joseph White of Salem, and the acquittal of Albert
J. Tirrell by Rufus Choate for the murder of Maria
Bickford, were the greatest triumphs in criminal cases
ever won by Boston lawj^ers.

It was a rare privilege to listen, as I did, to Mr.
Webster's eulogium on Joseph Story and Jeremiah
Mason Avhen announcing their death before the bench
and bar of Boston.

Samuel Hoar was for a long time one of the lead-
ers of the Massachusetts bar, to Avhich he was admit-
ted in 1805. The first time I saw him was in 1836 or
1837, in the trial of a celebrated will case before a
jury at Boston. Mr. Webster was his chief opponent.
Rufus Choate was one of the junior counsel. I heard
both Webster and Hoar address the jury in this case
on two successive days, Mr. Webster speaking first.
It was apparent that "the Great Expounder" stood
a little in fear of the calm, cool, incisive logic of the
war}^ advocate that was to follow him, whose pose and
style reminded the spectator of Jeremiah Mason.

In the turbulent days South Carolina was accus-
tomed to seize free negro seamen who came into her
ports from the Korthern States, and lodge them in

114

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

jail until the vessels Avhereon they served sailed away.
If any of these negroes happened to be left behind,
the commonwealth of John C. Calhoun would sell
them into perpetual slavery to pay the jail fees. In
1844 the Legislature of Massachusetts (some of the
colored sailors of that state had been thus impris-
oned) sent Mr. Hoar to Charleston to test the consti-
tutionality of these statutes in the courts sitting in
that state. He arrived there in Xovember, when the
Legislature of South Carolina passed a law directing
the governor to expel him from the state by force.
On December 5 he was collared and put on shipboard,
and might have been killed by a " chivalrous " mob
that pursued him to the wharf, had it not been for
the presence of his daughter. It was a long line of
deeds of this kind that almost reconciled us to seeing
South Carolina ravaged by Union troops during the
war, and subsequently trodden down by a negro leg-
islature sitting in the capitol that passed the law for
the expulsion of Mr. Hoar, and subjected for a while
to the robber rule of that infamous rogue, Governor
Franklin J. Moses.

In Boston some Connecticut clients employed me
to sue the owners of the woollen mill at Lowell,
whereof Abbott Lawrence and his brothers were the
principal proprietors, for an alleged violation of a
contract for the purchase of a quantity of wool.
Otlier wool-growers in Connecticut had commenced
similar suits against the same defendants. The amount
involved vras large, and it was agreed that there should
be only one trial, and that the result in all the cases
should hinge on that trial. It was further agreed

KL'FUS CHOATe's OKATORY.

115

that the whole matter should be sent to Mr. Hoar to
hear and determine as referee. He resided in Con-
cord, and took the testimony in Boston, where there
were several sittings. The controversy was decidedly
sharp, and the swearing pretty hard. One of the
Lawrences sold his shares in the Lowell mill, and thus
qualified himself to be a witness, thereby gaining an
advantage over my clients, who, under the law of evi-
dence as it then stood, could not testify. On the
turning-point in the case Lawrence contradicted my
witnesses explicitly. Mr. Hoar was on intimate so-
cial and political relations with the Lawrences.

I have told this commonplace anecdote for the sin-
gle purpose of stating the fee of the referee. Mr.
Hoar decided the case in my favor. AYhen he hand-
ed me his report as referee I asked him how much his
charge was. " Twenty dollars," was the quiet reply.
Shades of Tweed, and the long procession of departed
referees of our epoch (not to speak of those vrho sur-
vive), how times and prices have changed since the
days of honest and inflexible Samuel Hoar !

Mr. Hoar married a daughter of Eoger Sherman,
who was on the committee that drafted the Decla-
ration of Independence. He Avas the father of E.
Eockwood and George Frisbie Hoar. The mother of
William M. Evarts was also a daughter of Eoger
Sherman.

AVhat spectator that beheld Eufus Choate in a great
cause could ever forget that tall figure, that sallow
complexion, that piercing dark eye, those black locks,
which hung in curls over an expansive forehead, those
dramatic gestures that gave point and emphasis to

116

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

pungent sentences, that majestic tread, which shook
the room till the Avindows shivered, that voice whose
notes now swelled like a trumpet, and anon sank into
a wail as if a gentle breeze were sighing in the tree-
tops, and all this without the slightest affectation,
and with a clearness of vision that saw the pinch of
his case, and a sincerity of manner Avhich proved that
victory, and not display, was the end he kept steadily
in view ? Mr. Choate argued a case in the Supreme
Court at Washington. A distinguished Southern
Senator heard him, and speaking to Mr. Webster the
next day said : " I listened to your Mr. Choate yester-
day. He is an extraordinary man." ^'An extraor-
dinary man I" replied Webster. " Sir, he is a marvel."

Like Edmund Burke, whom he studied and admired,
Mr. Choate drove "a substantive and six." Chief-
justice Lemuel Shaw was a man of few words. He
looked like a rough fragment of the feudal system.
Short, thick, with a head covered with coarse, frowzy
hair, which appeared never to have been combed, he
had a habit of resting his elbows while in court on
the shelf before him, and holding up his chin by his
hands, and glaring at counsel through spectacles
trimmed with tortoise-shell instead of silver or gold,
a rather striking resemblance to a grizzly bear sitting
on his haunches. But his head was clear as sunshine,
and his rhetoric a model in style, though his growling
voice made the short opinions he delivered on side
issues during the trial of a cause seem like nectar
gurgling from a tar-barrel. The Old Chief, as he was
familiarly called, had a gentle heart, and there was a
soft ])la('e in it for Choate, of whom he was really

CHIEF-JUSTICE LEMUEL SHAW.

117

proud, though apt to jerk him up Avith a short rein
when too wordy. One afternoon I stepped into court
Avhen Choate was flashing his lightnings around the
Chief-justice, who kept interrupting him. Walking
with Mr. Choate to our lodgings an hour later, I re-
marked that the Old Chief was unusually restive and
annoying during his argument. Yes," said Choate,
" he is an old barbarian I'' Then taking a few long
strides, he added in slow, solemn style, But life, lib-
erty, and property are safe in his hands." He was
arguing on another occasion a novel point of law be-
fore the full bench. He was on the crest of the wave.
He expressed his gratification at the opportunity of
discussing this new question at the bar of a tribunal
whose reputation for learning and integrity had long
since overflowed the boundaries of the commonwealth
of Massachusetts, and reached the uttermost limits of
the Union. The Old Chief broke in : " Mr. Choate, do
you present that as a serious argument to this court d"
Oh, no, 3^our honor," replied Mr. Choate, in his hu-
morous style, " it was only a rhetorical flourish."
Then, stooping down, he said to his associate in a
tone loud enough to be heard all around, " The Chief-
justice is an urbane gentleman. It is a pity he don't
know any law." But there is no end to stories of
this sort about Mr. Choate, and I forbear.

It has been my fortune to hear many of the fore-
most lawyers in this country and in Great Britain.
As an advocate before a jury, especially in a difficult
case, I never saw the superior of Rufus Choate.

The habits of such consummate orators are worthy
of study. Immediately before he was to address a

118

EAXDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

jury Mr. Clioate would step across the street to the
Boston Dehnonico's and drink two or three cups of
strong, piping -hot coffee. A jug of smoking -hot
Avater woukl stand by his side in the court-room.
The coffee stimulated the brain. Sips of the water
kept up the stimulus and lubricated the throat. And
now came the cyclone. The man knows little about
physiology who resorts to brandy before making a
speech, and imbibes cold water during its delivery.

The interval between Mason and Choate w^as very
wide. The happy mean was hit by Mr. Webster when
addressing either the court or the jur}'.

I hesitate about relating the following instance of
manufactured testimony. What I shall state is true,
but I remember the adage that " even the truth is not
to be spoken at all times." However, this occurred
so long ago that the principal parties passed from
earth m.any years since, and the recital may serve a
valuable purpose as an illustration of what I believe
occurs oftener than the outside public suppose, i. e.^
the manufacturing of testimony to meet an emergen-
cy in judicial proceedings.

One of the celebrated criminal cases in New Eng-
land was that of Albert J. Tirrell, who was tried at
Boston in 184(5, on two indictments, for the double
crime of murdering his mistress, Maria Bickford (I
think I give these names correctly), and then setting
fire to the assignation-house in wliich he concealed
her. Tirrell's family was respectable and wealthy.
He was a wild fellow, had a wife, was infatuated with
the Bickford girl, feared he was about to lose her, and
this was supposed to be his reason for cutting her

TIRRELL'S CELEBRATED CASE.

no

throat with a razor, and firing the house to cover the
deed. Each of these offences was punishable with
death. The leading counsel for Tirrell was Rufus
Choate, and who that ever saw Samuel Dunn Parker
could forget the long-headed, hard-working prosecut-
ing attorne}^ ? His form, voice, manner, victories and
defeats are among the interesting memories of the
Eoston bar.

The hinge-point in the defence in this case was
somnambulism. It was selected by the junior counsel
in preference to an alihi (which was tendered), be-
cause, as one of them remarked, the latter was liable
to break down. Mr. Choate, who doubtless knew
nothing of the circumstances of this selection, merely
said that he liked the line of defence, for an alihi was
stale, but there was a fresh flavor about somnam.bu-
lism. It is proper to state that I was wholly unaware
of these preliminary matters, and had no suspicion
that any of the testimony had been manufactured
until after Tirrell was acquitted on both indictments.

George Head (I draw on my memory for his first
name) kept a livery stable in the heart of Boston. He
slept over his stable, and in the night had a lantern
burning in the hall below. The small house where
Maria l^oarded was in an obscure street, and about
eight minutes' walk from the stable. The murder
and arson were committed just before daybreak, a
vraninfi: moon still shinino". Head and Tirrell for
some years had been " hale fellows well met."' They
travelled together and drank and played cards togeth-
er, and did many other things in partnership. Head
had a clear brain, steady nerve, rare self-poise, and

120

RANDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

was a faithful confederate in a desperate straight.
Before he was placed on the witness stand the ex-
traordinary line of defence Avas fully explained by one
of the junior counsel to the jur}^ which lifted the ex-
perienced prosecuting attorney quite off his feet Avitli
surprise. The way was prepared for Head by pre-
liminary testimony from two or three members of
the Tirrell family concerning the alleged sleep-walk-
ing habits of Albert in his youth, and how he would
glare wildly and utter guttural sounds on such occa-
sions. The path was still further cleared by show-
ing the precise hour when Tirrell left the assignation-
house on that morning, uttering guttural noises as
he went stumbling down the steps.

Head now entered the witness-box, and fixed the
precise time when he was awakened by guttural noises
at the door of his stable, which was exactly ten min-
utes later than the guttural noises on the steps of the
assignation-house. Amid much other matter Head
testified, in substance, that he looked at the clock,
thrust his head out of a Avindow, and asked, " Who is
there T A man turned his face up, and the moon-
beams showed that it was Tirrell. He opened the
door and let him in. Albert glared at him with eyes
that had no " speculatioii in them, and in broken par-
agraphs said, They are after me !" " They are try-
ing to kill me I" " They want my blood " They are
setting the house on fire Head said he knew of
Tirrell's somnambulistic fits and Avas not much sur-
])rised, but could not imagine what he was talking
about. He took him by the collar and walked him
around the stable, called him a d d fool, and want-

TIRRELL A.N-D HEAD.

121

ed to know what ailed him. After exercising him in
this style for some minutes Albert suddenly woke up
and stared at Head and the lantern. His first in-
quiry was, George, how came I here ? Have I been
in the stable all night still gazing with dazed eye-
balls at Head and the lantern, and so and so forth,
with much additional testimony from the calm and
plausible Head on the direct examination. The pro-
tracted and severe cross-examination by crisp, sharp
old Parker did not shake him a particle. His recital
of the stable scene produced a profound impression
on the jury, one of ^vhom subsequently told his coun-
sel that it was mainly on this testimony that they
acquitted the prisoner.

Xow for the real facts of the meeting of Head and
Tirrell at the stable. The former was fully aware of
the latter's relations with Maria. After perpetrating
the murder and the arson, he walked over to Head's
stable, arrived about the time stated by Head, knocked
at the door, made himself known, was admitted, told
Head the particulars of the murder and the arson
(without a speck of somnambulism I), consulted him as
to the best mode of escape, and was driven in the ear-
ly dawn to his home at "Weymouth in one of Head's
close carriages.

The public know the rest. Tirrell immediately
sailed clandestine!}^ to Xew Orleans, Avas indicted for
the double crime in Boston, was brought thither un-
der an executive requisition, and on two trials for his
hfe was acquitted by means of the manufactured tes-
timony of George Head and the marvellous oratory
of Eufus Choate.
6

CHAPTER XIV.

The Law. — Several Novel Cases.— Libel Suit at TauntoD. — The
Vivid "Dream." — Criminal Prosecution for Libel at New Lon-
don.—John T. Wait and Lafayette S. Foster for the State.— The
Daniels's Case at Boston.— Charles G. Loring and Benjamin R
Curtis Counsel for the Defendant.— Choate for PlaintiiTs. — A
Patent Suit.— Charles Sumner, Benjamin F. Hallett, and Horace
E. Smith Counsel. — Joel Prentiss Bishop, the Law-writer.— John
P. Hale as Lawj^er and Senator, — Theodore Parker under In-
dictment.— Hale his Counsel. — Parker on Fish and Phosphorus.

In 1844-45, William "Wilbar kept a large whole-
sale and retail liquor store in Taunton, Mass. Benja-
min Williams printed a lively temperance newspaper
in that town. Under the similitude of " A Dream "
he published a scathing article about AYilbar's store.
The dream painted the establishment in the most ap-
palling colors. The devil, fire and brimstone, liquid
death and distilled damnation figured conspicuously
in the lurid sketch. From the heads of the casks there
flamed out labels bearing such inscriptions as " mur-
der," "suicide," "arson," "soul-destroyer;" and the
devil and AVil]):ir were on high seats in the counting-
room, selling the casks to drunken customers. The
dream went so far as to say that Wilbar cari-ied on a
lucrative trade in the business of picking the pockets
of the poor, and jmtting them to a lingering death,
and consigning their wives and children to the alms-
house ; and it mentioned the names of two of his vie-

TWO NOVEL LIBEL SriT!=.

123

tims who had died sad deaths, and were remembered
in Tamiton. It need hardly be said that these serious
charges enmeshed the case in embarrassing difficul-
ties.

Wilbar sued Williams for libel, laying his damages
at several thousand dollars. AYilliams retained me as
his counsel. The plaintiff teas selling liqiioi' icitJiont
a license. I set up in defence that the publication
w^as an allegory, and not to be construed literally,
and that, so far as it confined its descriptions and pic-
torials to Wilbar's business of liquor selling, he could
not recover because, as he had no license, he was him-
self violating the law, and therefore had no standing
in court. The case was tried in the Supreme Court
before Judge Samuel Hubbard and a jury. After a
close contest of four days, the court ruled with me on
the law, and my client got a verdict. The case was
reported, and several thousand copies of the trial were
sold.

The next year I appeared for the defendant in a
criminal prosecution for a similar libel, at ^s'ew Lon-
don, Conn. It bristled with difficult points, but I got
a verdict for my client. The prosecution was ably
conducted by District-attorney John T. Wait, the pres-
ent representative in Congress, and La Fayette S. Fos-
ter, afterwards United States Senatoi\ both of Xor-
wich.

I could find no reported case in this country or
England that covered the precise ground in contro-
versy at Taunton and Xew London.

George Daniels, a slippery shoe manufacturer, had
for a year or more been in the habit of making notes

124

RANDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

payable to the order of Alfred Daniels, his wealthy
brother, and then forging Alfred's name on the back
of the notes, and passing them in Boston. George
absconded, leaving notes to the amount of some
§25,000 unpaid in the hands of his victims. I brought
suit against Alfred Daniels in a single action on all
these notes, simply declaring against him as endorser
in the usual form. Eufus Choate was counsel with
me. The defence ^vas conducted by Charles G. Lor-
ing and Benjamin E. Curtis. The latter was subse-
quently appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States. AVe tried our case before Justice
Wilde and a jury at Boston. We proved that from
time to time some of the notes in suit and others just
like them had been presented to Alfred Daniels, and
he was asked if they were " all riglit,'' and that his
replies were either evasive or that the notes would
probably be looked after when they became due. We
took the ground that if Alfred Daniels's name was
forged, and he knew it, and our clients did not, Alfred
should then and there have exposed the forgerv, and
that from his failure to do this the jury might infer
that Alfred had made George his agent for passing
such notes. We could find no case in the books like
the one at bar. But Judge Wilde ruled for us. It
had devolved on me to put in the testimony during
the contest of four days. Mr. Choate argued the case
to the jury with his usual power and splendor. The
jury gave the plaintiffs a verdict.

I have said that my early acquaintance with ma-
chinery aided me in the trial of ])atent suits. About
1847, one Hovey and one Stevens, of Massachusetts,

B. F. HALLETT. — CHARLES SUM^'EK.

125

were rival manufacturers of a machine for cutting
straw by spiral blades or knives. The blades revolved
on their axis, and the straw passed between them and
a cyhnder. The blades had to be ground so that
when in motion they would describe a perfect circle.
There was no patent on the straw-cutter, but Hovey
had obtained a patent for a machine for grinding the
knives or blades. Impelled by sharp competition,
Stevens "pirated" Hovey's grinding- machine. He
sued Stevens, Avho applied to me to defend him.
There was no escape from heavy damages except to
invalidate Hovey's patent by showing that he was
not the first inventor of the grinding-machine. I re-
membered that thirty-three years before, in my fa-
ther's Avoollen factory at Jewett City, they sheared
broadcloth with spiral knives or blades that operated
like those in the straw-cutter, and I inferred that there
must have been a machine for grinding them. I sent
Stevens to Jewett City, where he learned that such a
machine was formerly used there, but some twenty
years since it had been bought by two men and taken
to a factory at Hoosick Falls, Y. I sent Stevens
there, where he found the two men, who hunted
up in an outbuilding the dilapidated and abandoned
grinding-machine, with the dried grit of the stone
still adhering to it. It was exactly like Hovey's al-
leged invention. Stevens brought the antique to Bos-
ton, and at the trial the two men appeared as wit-
nesses. Under appropriate pleadings the old machine
cut a great figure in the contest. The counsel for
the plaintiff were Benjamiji F. HaUett and Charles
Sumner. The defence was conducted by Horace E.

126

RA^sDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Smith and myself. Of course we ■whipped them out
of their boots.

Mr. Smith was for some time my partner at Bos-
ton. For several years past he has been the accom-
phshed dean of the Albany Law-school. Joel Pren-
tiss Bishop, of Boston, the widely -known author of
valuable treatises on the law, was admitted to the bar
while a student in my office. He was at home in a
library of rare old law-books.

Mr. Sumner had read many volumes of law, and
written some learned annotations thereon. But he
seemed to liave little taste for the sharp conflicts of
the forum, where the enduring laurels of an exacting
profession are won. If he tendered " sage counsel in
cumber," he carried not the " red hand in the foray."
Though he studied patent law at the feet of Judge
Story, he was not expert in comprehending and ap-
plying those mechanical principles which are so fre-
quently involved in cases that arise in that depart-
ment. He acted wisely, therefore, Avhen he retired
from the bar, and devoted himself to the delivery of
orations on the platform and speeches in the Senate.

Mr. Hallet, who led for the plaintiff in the trial
above mentioned, was a wiry, pertinacious advocate.
He was not familiar with the intricacies of patent law,
and handled mechanical principles very clumsily ; but
he was a sturdy opponent to grapple with even when
he was on the weaker side. This was partly due to
the fact tliat bis cuticle was unusually thick. For a
while he conducted a newspaper in Boston, and cham-
pioned some valual)le reforms. He subsequently be-
came an active nomocrat, and President Pierce ap-

JOHN P. HALE.

127

pointed him United States xittorney for the District
of Massachusetts.

John P. Hale is not so well known as a law^yer as
a Free-soil Senator. In his younger days, however,
he was prominent at the Isew Hampshire bar, and in
later years occasionally led in the trial of important
causes at Boston.

One of the boldest of the early blows against the
slave power from a public man was struck by Hale in
'Ne^y Hampshire in 18J:4. He was in Congress, and
was the regular Democratic candidate for re-election.
The pending issue w^as the annexation of Texas. First
in a pungent letter, and then in a powerful speech, he
declared against annexation. The leaders of the De-
mocracy rose upon him, and the state was soon all
aflame. I went up from Boston to help the robust
rebel. After a long struggle Hale was defeated for
Congress, but Dover sent him to the Legislature, and
his services in the Free-soil cause were soon rewarded
by his election to the United States Senate.

Hale was a novice in Anti-slavery literature, and I
assisted in preparing two or three of his early speech-
es in the Senate. He w^as indolent, a brilliant de-
cl aimer, but an indifferent reasoner. Surrounded by
foes, it was his proverbial jollity that protected him
from assault. He bubbled over with wit and humor.
I entered his room at Washington one warm evening,
where an inextinguishable coal fire, fed by a stupid
servant, had run the thermometer up to about one
hundred degrees. He w^as stripped to his skin ; the
perspiration was dripping from his chin ; a great pile
of documents was before him, which he was industri-

12S

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

ously franking. Patting out his hand, he said, " This
is the penalty paid for greatness."

He told me this fact, which illustrates a peculiarity
of that extraordinary man, Theodore Parker. In a
trial in the Federal Court at Boston which grew out
of the famous attempt to rescue by force a fugitive
slave from the clutches of the law. Hale was counsel
for Mr. Parker, and for two wrecks his guest. Tv/ice
each day Parker had baked fish served (with no meat),
because this diet furnished, as he said, phosphorus
for the brain. It was his ordinary custom to have
baked fish only once daily, but, to meet the strain of
the trial, Hale, who hated fish in any form, was re-
quired to lay in a supply of phosphorus at every
breakfast and dinner while the legal conflict lasted.

CHAPTER XV.

The Law. — Bencli and Bar of the Empire State. — Kent, Spencer,
and other Eminent Jurists.— Four Great Lawj-ers of Columbia
County. — The Power of Elisha Williams over a Jury. — Henry
R. Storrs. — Lawyers and Trials at Rochester.— Sclleck Bough-
ton. — Jesse Hawley, the Land Surveyor, Foreshadowing the Erie
Canal. — Charles M. Lee.— General "Mad" Anthony Wayne's
Storming of Stony Point Saves a Counterfeiter from the State
Prison.— John Griffin, the Rough Judge of Allegheny County,
Sits down on a Dandy Attorne}'. — xilvan Stewart. — Some
Albany Lawyers. — The Famous Firm of Hill, Porter, & Cag-
gar. — Quirk, Gammon, & Snap. — Eseck Cowan's Rare Law
Library.— Marcus T. Reynolds.— Samuel Stevens. — Daniel Cady,
— Joshua A. Spencer.

I HATE always felt at home with the judges and
lawyers of the state of Xew York, for it was with
them that I first began to be acquainted sixty years
ago.

The old Supreme Court, the Court of Errors, and
the Court of Appeals, in the opinions pronounced by
Kent, Spencer, Thompson, Xelson, Cowen, Sutherland,
Bronson, Denio, and their associates, illuminated all
branches of the law in a style worthy of the best ef-
forts of Mansfield and Marshall. The decisions of
the courts of Xew York have, from the first volume
of Johnson downward, held superior rank in the judi-
cial tribunals of the Union, and have been quoted
with approbation at London, Paris, and Berlin. In
1814, James Kent, the new chancellor, took his seat
6*

130

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

in one of the small rooms of the capitol. Throwing
its doors wide open, he caused the proceedings of the
court to be regularly reported, and thus poured a
flood of light along the track of equity jurisprudence
in this country. It would be in vain to attempt to
give the names of the great lawyers of Xew York
who have aided the bench in erecting its judicial sys-
tem on solid foundations. The bench, of course, has
been selected from the bar. Besides this, the profes-
sion in Kew York has furnished one chief -justice and
five associate justices in the Supreme Court of the
United States, and five attorney-generals.

I have before me a rapidly prepared and imperfect-
ly presented article on this subject, which appeared
in the appendix to the eighteenth volume of Bar-
bour's New York Supreme Court Reports. Perhaps
it will repay perusal.

Columbia County was the birthplace of four distin-
guished lawyers — Elisha Williams, Daniel Cady, Will-
iam W. Yan Xess, and Martin Yan Buren. I listened
to them all except Judge Yan Ness, who had a great
reputation for a peculiar style of attractive eloquence,
though Williams was his superior before a jury. This
scene was described to me by Mr. Cady, bat so long
ago that it has somewhat faded in my memory. He
was junior counsel with Williams, who led for the
plaintiff in a trial which involved a large tract of
land bordering on the Hudson River. The plaintiff's
recovery depended on sustaining the correctness of a
line run by two surveyors, just after the Revolution-
ary War, in which they had Avon honor as oflicers.
At the time of the trial they had been dead about

ELISHA WILLIAMS BEFORE A JURY.

131

twenty years, but their memory was revered in the
counties along the Hudson.

In addressing the jury, the defendant's counsel ve-
hemently denounced the two officers, attacking at
great length their capacity as surveyors and their
characters as men. And now came Williams's turn
to reply. The court room Avas so densely packed, es-
pecially near the door, that the audience reached down
the stairs into the street. Williams vindicated the
two surveyors and scathed their traducer in glowing
terms, or, as Mr. Cady called it, in " thunder-clap elo-
quence." He referred to their unblemished reputa-
tion, their services in the struggle for independence,
and described their personal appearance and the mil-
itary uniform they had w^orn in the field. He wished
they could be there, and take the stand, and confound
their assailant. The audience had been wrought up
to the highest pitch, when Williams, assuming a slow,
solemn air, said, amid breathless silence : " The im-
posing figures of the revered patriots rise before me ;
I feel the approach of their awful presence." Lower-
ing his voice and bowing his head as if listening, he
continued, I hear their footsteps on the stairs. They
will take the witness-box and speak for themselves."
Then suddenly turning towards the stairs, and weav-
ing his hand, he exclaimed, in a thrilling tone, " Make
w^ay for them ! They come I They come I" The
crowd around the door opened to the right and left,
and the twelve jurors rose and stood on tiptoe to see
two men enter the court-room who had been in their
graves twenty years.

I heard this great advocate try an important cause

132

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

at Rochester as early as about 1828. The opposing
counsel was Henry R. Storrs of Oneida, who was rap-
idly advancing to the front rank of the profession.
It was a contest between giants. Each possessed rare
oratorical gifts. Storrs was the more wary and argu-
mentative ; Williams, the more extravagant and im-
passioned.

Anecdotes of minor lawyers illustrate the vicis-
situdes of the profession quite as well as elaborate
sketches of its eminent members. When I was clerk
of the courts in Rochester, Selleck Boughton was one
of the queerest practitioners at the Monroe bar. He
had been a constable, was turning gray, dressed like
a scullion, weighed about one hundred pounds, chewed
a whole paper of tobacco at once, had studied law in
a narrow sphere, wielded a sharp metaphysical mind,
and would stand and split hairs from morning till
night. A fellow was indicted for trespassing on lands,
and Boughton defended him. Of course the title to
the lands was in question. Jesse Hawle}", an old citi-
zen of Rochester, was a surveyor of high repute, and
had run the lines of most of the tracts in that region.
Even before De Witt Clinton had fully conceived the
idea, Mr. Hawley wrote a series of articles in a Can-
andaigua newspaper in sui)port of the feasibility of
constructing a canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson
River. He was a witness for the prosecution on the
trial I have mentioned, and his testimony pressed
hard on the defendant. Boughton objected to every
question put to Hawley by the district attorney,
and argued each objection at an interminable length,
Hawlej^ meanwhile resting. There was plenty of

BOUGHTOX. — HAWLEY. — LEE. 133

quaint humor in Hawley's mental composition. Dur-
ing one of Boughton's speeches the badgered witness
slid into a seat by me. At the Day of Judgment,"
said he, " I intend to get my case put on the calendar
right below Selleck Boughton's. I shall never be
placed in peril, for when he is on trial he will stand
and object to all eternity."

Charles M. Lee, who figured at the Eochester bar
at the same time with Boughton, exhibited a vocif-
erous st3^1e of oratory that made a deep impression
upon bucolic jurors from the rural towns. A revolu-
tionary soldier was indicted for passing counterfeit
money. He had followed General ^* Mad " Anthony
Wayne up the craggy steep of Stony Point, on the
Hudson, in the dark night of July IG, 1779. when that
fortress was carried by storm. Lee defended the
silver-haired veteran on his trial. The evidence against
him was clear, and there was not a shadow of doubt
of his guilt. Lee summed up the case with rare ve-
hemence, graphically described the bloody attack on
Stony Point, and with tears dripping down his cheeks
implored the jury to acquit the old soldier. So plain
was the case for the people that the district attorney
spoke barely ten minutes. It was not then known
that the father of the foreman of the jury, had stood
shoulder to shoulder with the defendant in the peril-
ous night when Wayne captured the British strong-
hold. The jury were out an hour. When they re-
turned the clerk said, Gentlemen of the jury, have
you agreed upon a verdict ?" " We have," replied the
foreman. Do you find the prisoner at the bar guil-
ty, or not guilty ?" jS'ot guilty, because he helped
to storm Stony Point I" shouted the foreman.

134

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

In those early days justice in that portion of the
country was sometimes administered with a rough
hand. John Gritlin was First Judge of the Court of
Common Pleas in Allegheny County, then a rude fron-
tier settlement. In size and manner he was a proto-
type of Abraham Lincoln. He dressed shabbily, was
a good lawyer, and carried a clear head on his shoul-
ders. I was summoned to Judge Griffin's court as a
witness, with some records from the Monroe Clerk's
Office, in a case where certified copies would not an-
swer the purpose. One of the counsel was a loqua-
cious young limb of the law, of small stature, from
another county, who dressed like a dude of the pres-
ent era. He raised objections at every step in the
trial, which the grim judge invariably overruled,
whereupon the pert attorney would keep on arguing,
and w^ind up by expressing his regret for feeling com-
pelled to differ with his honor. The judge endured
this for about the tenth time, Avhen, at the close of an
unusually ridiculous episode. Griffin asked the dandy
if he was through talking on that point. He said he
was. Sit down, then, and shut your mouth, you

little d d fool!" responded the judge, in a loud

voice, and with a blow on the bench that made the
lawyer's head swim.

I hardly dare lift m}^ pen in an attempt to outline
the commanding figure of Alvan Stewart as a law-
yer, for my personal knowledge of his marvellous
victories in a field where he shone conspicuously as
a leader for a quarter of a century, was quite lim-
ited. Moreover, his participation in the Anti-slaver}'
conflict, when I was fighting by his side, naturally

ALVAN STEWART — ALBANY LAWYERS. 135

tended to eclipse in my eye his earlier fame at the
bar. I knew enough of him, however, to say that he
was an unusually well-read lawyer, had studied the
profession as a science, and in some lines of the prac-
tice, especially before juries, he had no superior in
central Xew Yoi-k. His quaint humor was equal to
his profound learning. He was skilled in a peculiar
and indescribable kind of argumqntation, wit, and sar-
casm that made him remarkably successful in laugh-
ing a case out of court f and lu,cky would it be for
the opposing counsel if he did not have to go out with
his case. Even to the present day the dozen counties
around Otsego and Oneida are fertile in traditions of
the forensic triumphs of Mr. Stewart in every depart-
ment of the law. I never saw this extraordinary man
try an action in court, but before xVnti-slavery con-
ventions in several states I heard him argue grave
and intricate constitutional questions with consum-
mate ability.

Though Albany has always been the judicial centre
of the state, it Avas more exclusively such prior to the
Constitution of 1846 than it has since been. Even
for a considerable time after the adoption of that in-
strument it continued to be the chief seat of this de-
partment of the government. This kept in practice
at Albany, during the lirst sixty years of the present
century, a body of lawyers who had no superiors at
the Xew York bar. Whoever looks through the re-
ports of Johnson, Cowen, Wendell, Hill, Denio, and
some of the later authors, will find them liberally
sprinkled with the names of Albany lawyers that ap-
peared as counsel in the cases. For the latter half of

136

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

this period I knew many of these lawyers, and some
of them intimatel^^ I heard before courts and juries
the foremost in this long procession of learned and
eloquent advocates, from Abraham Van Yechten to
Nicholas Hill. There is space to refer to only a few
of them.

In the later stages of tliis cycle one of the ablest
law firms in Albany was composed of Nicholas Hill,
John K. Porter, and Peter Cagger. They did a busi-
ness so extensive that it brought them in contact
with the profession all over the state. Hill had been
trained in the office of Eseck Cowen, at Saratoga
Springs. Cowen certainly had the largest law library
in the state, and probably in the Union. I think it
was Hill who told me that Cowen possessed a copy
of every laAv book issued by an American author
(Statutes not included) except one, and that he had
ransacked the country to find the missing work. Af-
ter Judge Cowen left the Supreme Bench Hill brought
a liberal selection of his books to Albany.

Nicholas Hill was one of the most profound and
successful counsellors that ever appeared before the
court m lanco in New York. The members of its
highest tribunal had entire respect for his opinions.
He was the embodiment of lucid logic, though per-
haps rather too refined in his methods of reasoning
for the comprehension of minds of ordinary mould.
Mr. Porter was an ornate orator, as smooth as oil in
his diction, picturesque and dramatic at times, and
wielded great sway over juries, whether summoned
from the Capitoline precincts or the Helderberg hills.
Mr. Cagger, his veins pulsating v.-ith the warmest

HILL, PORTER, & CAGGER.

137

Celtic blood, went oli in the court-room like a hair-
trigger on the duelling-ground. An attorney who
hoped to circumvent Cagger's moving affidavits on a
motion at Chambei^ needed a keen eye, a sharp ])en,
and a facile client.

Everybody in Albany knew llill, Porter, and Cag-
ger, at least by sight. At the time of the occurrence
which I am now to describe their offices were on the
second lloor of a building in State Street. In the
room above was a photographer's establishment.
Specimens of the artist's work were displayed at the
foot of the wide stairs by the sidewalk — the stairs
that led up to the law-offices. As a captivating ad-
vertisement of his vocation (then quite new) the pho-
tographer hung up a large plate in the vestibule con-
taining admirable likenesses of Plill, Porter, and Cag-
ger, the two former sitting in chairs, and the latter
standing behind them with a hand on the shoulder of
each. The picture was so perfect, and the counte-
nances of the three so characteristic, that their friends
laughed to look at it. The famous novel of Warren,
the English barrister, entitled Ten Thousand a Year,*'
wherein are depicted the arts, the loquacities, and the
rascalities of the law-firm of Quirk, Gammon, &
Snap," was then in the hands of everybody that read
novels. Many American lawyers that rarely looked
into works of fiction were laughing and crying over
'* Ten Thousand a Year," alternatel}" sneering at the
metaphysical blockhead Quirk, detesting the oily hyp-
ocrite Gammon, and despising the sharp rogue Snap.
One night a wag procured a printed label containing
the words Quirk, Gammon, & Snap," and slipped

138

EANDOM RECOLLECTIOXS.

it into the picture that bore the familiar Hkenesses of
Hill, Porter, and Cagger. The next morning the three
law3'ers (taking an old friend along) reached the en-
trance to their offices in company. An amused crowd
cumbered the side^yalk. The lawyers pushed tlirough.
Cagger's eye fell on the label. He exploded with an-
ger. ^' It was an outrage ! A detective should ferret
out the perpetrator, and he should be criminally pros-
ecuted for libel ! The photographer must instantly
throw the thing into the street !" Porter seemed to
be meditating points in the eloquent speech he could
make to a jury in a civil action for damages. Mean-
while the philosophic Hill stood, Avith folded arms,
looking at the picture. Soon he burst into a laugh
that shook him from head to foot. " Ko !" said he,
" not a bit of it ! It shall remain as it is. It is the
most capital hit I ever heard of. It describes us ex-
actly. It is the best advertisement we shall have in
years. Let it stand."

I cannot do justice to that wittiest and most sarcas-
tic of advocates, Marcus T. Eeynolds, nor to Samuel
Stevens, who had few equals as a special pleader un-
der the old practice, and at a later period excelled as
a patent lawyer. I witnessed an amusing scene be-
tween Eeynolds and Stevens before Chief-justice Sam-
uel Kelson. They were arguing a motion. The pa-
pers had come to each from remote country attorneys.
Reynolds possessed an extraordinary measure of im-
perturbable self-possession. In the hurry of the mo-
ment he had scarcely glanced at his papers, and he
caught a wrong idea as to the side on which he was
retained. He opened, and in his terse and pointed style

KEVNOLDS. STEVENS. CADY. SPENCER. 139

was arguing effectively against his own client. Ste-
vens stared at him, looked at his papers to make sure
tliat he himself had not made a mistake, and then
listened, and again stared at Eeynolds. The strange
manner of his antagonist arrested the attention of
Eeynolds just as he was about to close his o])ening,
and he took a steady look at his papers, and saw that
he was speaking on the wrong 'side. Without the
slightest change of countenance, and with perfect
coolness of manner, he said, Your honor, I have
been tracing in the clearest language I can command
the line of argument that my learned opponent will
no doubt pursue, and I shall now proceed to show
how utterly futile and untenable it is.*' He then de-
livered an unusually powerful address in behalf of his
own client, and left Stevens to take care of his side of
the case as he pleased.

Daniel Cady appeared so often in the courts at the
state capital that he might fairly be called an Alban}^
lawyer. He went to the roots of every case he tried
or argued. He dealt little in rhetorical embellish-
ments, but wielded a ponderous logic that ground
adversaries to powder. Unless his case were utterly
hopeless he always came off victor in the hand-to-
hand conflicts at li'isi Prius. Joshua A. Spencer,
of Utica, an accomplished advocate, whose name is
sprinkled all through the reports, told me he had tried
two hundred jury cases against ]\Ir. Cad}^, and that
whenever he succeeded in winning a verdict from his
secretive, wary adversary, he never felt sure that a
mine was not to be sprung under him and engulf him,
until he had obtained from the clerk a certified copy of

110

RANDOM KECOLLECTION'S.

the verdict, and the court had adjourned for the day.
Mr. Stevens, of whom I have spoken, argued appeals in
h:inco with an amplitude of learning and logic second
only to Nicholas Hill. A suit for libel between two
surgeons, wherein Cady and Stevens were counsel for
the bitter belligerents, had at last reached the Court
of Errors, after passing through a long series of cir-
cumlocutions in the lower tribunals that covered sev-
eral 3' ears. Mr. Stevens argued for the appellants,
consuming a day. Mr. Cady replied, and, as my in-
formant said, he took Stevens up by the collar in the
first sentence, and never let his feet touch the carpet
for four hours.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Law. —The Corning and Burden Spike Case. — Seward.
Blatchford, and Stevens Counsel. — Reilbeu H. Walworth, Ref-
eree.— Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce. — Clients Ereet Federal Buildings
at Buffalo and Oswego, and Sue the (rovernment. — Speaker
Grow, R. E. Fenton, and William Steele Ilolmau Intervene. —
Captain Cornelius Yanderbilt and the Fist Fight. — His Son,
Cornelius Jeremiah, is Sued, and Blows his Brains out. — The
Controversy over the Commodore's Will. — The Spencers. —
John C. Spencer. — His Acute Legal Mind. — Interview with his
Son, who .was Executed for Alleged Mutiny on Board T/ie
Somers. — Chief -justice Ambrose Spencer. — John C. Spencer
Concocts the Canal Bill of 1851.

After I removed from Boston to Seneca Falls, in
1847, I became associated in the famous suit of the
Burden Company against the Corning Company of
Troy and Albany, brought for an alleged violation
of the patent of the former by the latter for the man-
ufacture of hook-headed spikes, used for fastening T
rails to ties on railroad tracks. The case had been
carried on appeal to the Supreme Court at Washing-
ton, which had given a decision in favor of the plain-
tiffs, and had issued the usual order to the Circuit
Court in Kew York to enter final judgment for the
plaintiffs, and then send it to a master, to take an
account of the damages and fix the amount thereof.
Lawyers will understand this line of proceedings.

The case had been a long time reaching this point.
Samuel Stevens, my associate, was leading counsel

142

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

for the plaintiffs, and Governor SeAvard for the de-
fendants, with whom was Samuel Blatchford. We
tried in vain for a good while to agree upon some one
to take the account. Judge Samuel Kelson, of the
Supreme Court, finally referred the matter to ex-
Chancellor Walworth. And now commenced a series
of interminable delays, which threw Jarndyce vs.
Jarndyce, of Bleak House fame, quite into the shade.
Burden, an ardent man, believed the proceedings
would be closed in three months, and that, as the de-
fendants had made an enormous amount of spikes,
the plaintiffs v»'ould be awarded at least §250,000
damages. Alas! Burden had not carefully studied
Jarndyce or "Walworth.

The case went on, it stood still, it went on, it stood
still, till all the original counsel were frozen out of
it or had died. But the tough ex-chancellor, who
was drawing heavy fees as he went along, was like
Jefferson's Federahst office-holders — he neither died
nor resigned. And so the years rolled away till the
constantly accumulating testimony reached tens of
thousands of folios, and being put in print from time
to time filled many great volumes. An incident or
two will illustrate the mode of taking evidence. The
ex-chancellor held the reference in his office in Sara-
toga, where all the witnesses appeared. One witness
came from Troy, and Avas sworn. At Saratoga he
became acquainted Avith a young lady, married her,
and was a father before he left the stand. Another
v/itness was sworn. Burden saAV him avcII under way,
and then sailed for Europe to take out certain pat-
ents in foreign countries. He travelled extensively

REUBEN TTYDF. \VAL->VORTH.

143

for this purpose in Great Britain and on the Conti-
nent, and after an absence of several months he re-
turned and found the same witness still testifying.
These facts will serve as specimens. After wasting
years on the case, Walworth decided that the plain-
tiffs were not entitled to recover any damages what-
ever. An appeal was taken from this decision, and
what then became of the matter I do not know.

Walworth for nineteen years occupied the seat
which James Kent had adorned. • He was a night-
mare on the jurisprudence of Xew York. One of the
moving causes for the adoption of the Constitution
of 1846 was to rid the state of the Court of Chancery
and of Eeiiben Hyde Walworth as Chancellor.

Clients of mine erected for the federal govern-
ment at Buffalo and Oswego buildings for post-offices,
custom-houses, and other purposes. In 1855-56 I
brought suit for damages in the Court of Claims for
violation of our contracts. The government fought
desperately, and the conflict was long and weary.
The court awarded my clients $36,000. I took the
case to Congress, which increased the award to about
880,000. This teas the only case in which Congress ever
increased an aicard of that court. The amount we ob-
tained was fair and just. The government, without
the slightest regard to the merits of the case, first
threw the weight of its influence against us in the
court, and then in both the Senate and the House.
My success in Congress was mainly owing to Eeuben
E. Fenton, William S. Holman, and Speaker Galusha
A. Grow, while I received valuable aid from Senator
Daniel Clark, of Xew Hampshire.

144

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

In the summer of 1838 or 1839 I took passage at
New York on a Yanderbilt steamboat plying through
Long Ishmd Sound. A Southern gentleman with a
colored chattel and a large trunk in his train violated
the rules by putting the trank in his stateroom. Soon
after passing Hell Gate the deckmaster pulled the
trunk out. A scuffle ensued, and the Southerner
seized the deckmaster by the collar, the negro lower-
ing darkly in a corner as a reserved corps. A crowd
of passengers were spectators of this sharp tussle, in
which the Yanderbilt forces were getting worsted.
Suddenly a well-knit man dashed into the ring with
a battle-cry that sounded exactly like swearing. In
an instant his coat was olf and his fists doubled. Just
at this point the colored contingent wheeled into
line. The new-comer dealt a blow that set the ne-
gro spinning, and then moved at double-quick on
the Southerner's works. Tlie affair was rapidly ap-
proaching the precincts of a rough-and-tumble fight
between the four combatants when the passengers in-
tervened and proposed an adjournment. The motion
was carried. The trunk remained outside the state-
room, and the other chattel retired to repair his nose.
This was the first time I ever saw Captain CorneUus
Yanderbilt.

About forty years after this I was retained to col-
lect for a client a just debt of $10,000 from Cornelius
Jeremiah Yanderbilt, a son of the commodore, which
liad somehow become mixed in tlie contest over the
commodore's estate. Patient negotiations having
failed to secure a settlement, I brought suit against C.
J. Yanderbilt to recover the debt. The summons was

THE VANDEKBILTS. THE SPENCEKS. 145

served in the morning, and in the evening of the
same day he blew his brains out. Poor Cornelius !
He had generous qualities, and in mien and manners
was a closer copy of his father than Avere any of the
other children. The effort to collect this debt brought
me unwillingly into the possession of a mass of so-
called facts concerning the famous controversy about
the commodore's will, some of which were true and
some of which Avere false. They abounded in the
dramatic, and contained materials -for more than one
tragedy, comedy, and novel. I shall not soil these
pages Avith any of this scandalous matter. The fam-
ily fight of these coarse-grained people over the old
commodore's dead body AA^as one of the most unsavory
in the annals of American litigation. Four of the
conspicuous characters in that conflict have since
gone to that undiscovered country from whose bourne
no traveller returns. It required all the learning,
skill, and forbearance of Mr. Surrogate Calvin to hold
the scales of justice Avith an even hand among the
fierce combatants.

In January, 1841, on my return from Europe, I Avas
on the Avay to Rochester. One of my chance travel-
ling companions Avas a son of John C. Spencer. We
stopped overnight at GeneA^a, and Spencer brought
down from Hobart College his younger brother for
an evening call. He Avas a student at Hobart. His
manner Avas easy, and his conversation unusually in-
teresting for one so young. This Avas the youth who
Avas put to death by Captain Alexander Slidell Mac-
kenzie, in December, 1842, for an alleged mutiny at
sea on board The Somers. I have ahvays thought

U6

EANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

that his fate was cruel and unjust. Mackenzie was the
brother of the notorious Senator, John Shdell. The
elder of the Spencer brothers told cock-and-bull sto-
ries of a recent trip to England as bearer of Federal
despatches, and his possession of the laAv library of
his grandfather, Ambrose Spencer, with notes on the
margins of the volumes by the famous chief -just ice,
all of which I subsequently learned was a draft on the
imagination.

John C. Spencer was for a long period one of the
heads of the bar in Avestern New York. I first heard
him at Eochester, in 1829-30, when he was special
counsel for the state in the prosecution of the Anti-
masonic cases. He was a wary and dangerous adver-
sary in the trial of actions that involved nice legal
distinctions, and where falsehood was curiously inter-
twined with truth. His clear head and plastic hand
had much to do in the revision of the New York Stat-
utes. Gerrit Smith told me that pretty much all he
learned when a wild young man, during the short
time he was in Spencer's office as a law student, was
a method of blotting out writing so skilfully that what
was obliterated could by no possibility be ascertained.

It was the acute mind of Mr. Spencer which de-
vised that cunning evasion of the Constitution of New
York known as the Canal Bill of 1851. The long
struggle over this measure in the legislature and the
courts will be referred to in another place. Mr. Spen-
cer's versatile talents Avere always in request by his
party. He held more offices than any citizen of New
York, except perhaps Martin Yan Buren and John A.
Di:^.

SONS IN THE PROFESSION.

147

I close the cha])ters on Law and Lawyers by re-
marking that I have shown my regard for the pro-
fession by inducting four of my sons into its intrica-
cies. Daniel Cady Stanton was for one year a super-
visor of registration, and for two years a member of
the legislature of Louisiana, in the turbulent era of
reconstruction. Henry Stanton, a graduate of the
law school of Columbia College, is now the official
attorney of the ISTorthern Pacific Eailway Company.
Gerrit Smith Stanton and Kobert* Livingston Stanton
are also graduates of the Columbia School. The for-
mer cultivates the soil, and dispenses the law in Iowa.
The latter practises his profession in the city of New
York. The reader who peruses the miscellaneous
matter that is to follow will discover that much of it
relates to lawyers.

CHAPTER XVIL

Dr. Samuel B. Woodward and Senator Albert H. Tracy.— CiOse
Resemblance to Washington and Jefferson. — Webster and the
Conscience Whigs in Faueuil Hall in 1846. — Crittenden on
Clay and Webster. — Clay before the Supreme Court. — Mrs.
James Madison. — John Sargeant. — Chief-justice Taney. — Clay
in the Senate.— A Galaxy of Talents.— " Biddle and the Bank."
—The Sub-Treasury Question.— Clay's Speech in New York. —
His Personal ]\[aguetism. — His Funeral Pageant.— A Cluster of
Political Rivals. — George P. Barker. — Sanford E. Church. —
Church in the New York Assembly in 1842.— Hoffman, Dix,
Seymour, and other Members. — Church makes Barker Attorney-
General. — Anecdote of Church and James W. Nye at the Buf-
falo Convention in 1848.

It is natural to desire to see distinguished persons ;
and next to seeing the very individuals is the privi-
lege of conversing with their doubles. Who does not
wish that he could behold two men who look and
talk as Washington and Jefferson did ? I boarded for
some months in Boston at the United States Hotel.
Whenever he visited the city, Dr. Samuel B. Wood-
ward, Principal of the Insane Asylum at Worcester,
dined at that hotel. As he waliced erect and majes-
tic through the long room to the head of the table,
every knife and fork rested, and all eyes centred on
him. He received similar notice when appearing as
an expert witness in the courts. The reason was this :
Young men Avho saw George AVasliington after he
passed middle life traced tlie very close resemblance

DR. WOODWARD. — SENATOR TRACE Y. 149

between him and Dr. Woodward. Aware of the
cause, the doctor was flattered by these attentions.
Forty-five years ago, I spent a long evening at Buf-
falo in the company of Albert H. Tracey, who had
previously been prominent in Congress and the State
Senate. In the latter body he often pronounced the
guiding decision of the old Court of Errors. In mien,
size, bearing, visage, and conversation, he was the
counterpart of Thomas Jefferson wdien about the
same age. Mr. Tracy was fully conscious of this like-
ness between him and the author of the Declaration
of Independence.

The AYhig State Convention of Massachusetts met
in the fall of 1846, at Faneuil Hall. It was during
the Mexican war. The Whig party in that state had
long been seconding the Presidential aspirations of
Mr. Webster. An element known as Conscience
Whigs " elected several delegates to the convention,
among Avhom were Stephen C. Phillips, Horace Mann,
Charles Allen, and Charles Francis Adams, all good
debaters and full of courage. They offered resolu-
tions about the war and slavery that did not run in
the Websterian grooves. In the afternoon the discus-
sion waxed warm, and the revolting faction (the coun-
terpart of the Xew York Barnburners) were getting
the best of it in their encounter with the Conserva-
tives. Charles Francis Adams (I think it was) was
on the platform, throwing out short, pungent sen-
tences that flew like arrows through the hall. I was
a close observer of the scene fi^om the gallery, which
looked down upon the rostrum, but had not noticed
that two prominent Whig leaders had left an hour

150

EANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

before. The convention sat with its back to the great
door of the hall, around which was a crowd of spec-
tators. While Adams was speaking, a clapping of
hands suddenly broke out near the door, and instant-
ly there emerged from the excited throng the grand
form of AVebster leaning on the arms of Abbott Law-
rence and Eobert C. Winthrop. A shout of " Web-
ster !" went up from the floor, and three cheers
bounded to the roof. The two messengers found the
Great Expounder (so it was reported) at dinner. His
cheek was a little flushed. Adams subsided, and Web-
ster ascended the platform. His first sentence was,
" I like to meet the Whigs of Massachusetts in State
Convention assembled, because their proceedings al-
ways breathe the spirit of Liberty." Lie hesitated a
second or two before pronouncing the word " liberty,"
but when it came out it seemed to weigh ten pounds.
It was a shot right between wind and water. He
spoke briefl}^ closing substantially as follows : " In
the dark and troubled night that surrounds us, I see
no light by which to guide our course except in the
united action of the united Whig party of the United
States."

The resolutions of the Conscience Whigs were laid
on the table ; but in due time the recoil came, and six
years later Daniel AVebster turned his face to the
wall at Marshfield, and died, because he could not ob-
tain a nomination to the Presidency, while these
Whigs marched onward with the procession that ul-
timately saved the Union and destroyed slavery.

A dozen years or more after this event in Faneuil
Hall, I happened to be one of a dinner-party in Wash-

CUITTENDEN ON CLAY AND \VEBST?:K. 151

ington where John J. Crittenden and Thomas Corwin
were the shining lights. The conversation turned on
Cla}^ and AVebster, both of whom were then in their
graves. Mr. Crittenden said : " We all (^. the Clay
AYhigs) desired to see Clay and Webster elected to
the Presidency, and we felt that to accomplish this
object it was necessary that Mr. Clay should come
first, but we were never able to- make Webster and
his personal friends see this, and therefore neither of
them Avon the prize." The following anecdote Avas
vouched for by competent authority. In the storni}^
days of John Tyler, while Webster was Secretary of
State, and Kufus Choate Avas in the Senate, and Con-
gress Avas in extra session in the fall of ISJrl, the ques-
tion of chartering a United States bank Avas shaking
the country. Mr. Clay, as chairman of the Finance
Committee in the Senate, was pressing the measure,
and Tyler Avas resisting it. A conference of leading
Whig Senators Avas held. Clay, with lofty mien, Avas
for Avaging relentless Avar on the accidental president,
AA^ho had stepped into the White House over the dead
body of General Harrison. Choate again and again
told Avhat Webster thought ought to be done. Clay
was restive, and exclaimed, " Who cares a d — n about
what Webster thinks ?" In ISIr-I, Clay Avas the Whig
candidate for President. The tariff and the annexa-
tion of Texas, wherein he had conspicuously figured,
Avere the leading issues of the canvass. On a mem-
orable occasion in the campaign, Webster made an
elaborate speech, but never once mentioned Clay's
name. It must have severely taxed his ingenuity to
avoid it.

152

RANDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

These are fair illustrations of the relations in which
these eminent statesmen stood towards each other dur-
ing the last ten years of their lives.

I went to Washington in February, 1848, to attend
to business in the Supreme Court. I heard Mr. Clay
argue a case. For two hours his sonorous voice pealed
through the corridors, and dehghted a great throng.
Mrs. James Madison sat by his side. The venerable
lady, who was dressed quite young for her years, was
gallantly complimented by Mr. Clay, and seemed as
proud of the orator as she was thirty -six years before,
w^hen he championed the administration of her emi-
nent husband in Congress during the war with Eng-
land. The counsel that argued the other side of the
case was John Sergeant of Philadelphia, who had
confronted Clay in Congress in the Missouri contro-
versy, but had been on the ticket with him as Whig
candidate for the Yice-Presidency in 1832. It was an
interesting group of celebrated historical characters,
especially when we include Chief-justice Taney, the
Secretary of the Treasur}^ that removed the deposits,
whom Clay had denounced in the Senate as one of
the great scoundrels of the century.

The first time I saw Mr. Clay was in the Senate in
the winter of 1838, when he spoke for a few minutes.
His manner Avas easy and graceful, but imperious and
commanding. The Senate then shone with excep-
tional lustre. In the front rank towered Clay, Web-
ster, Calhoun, Benton, Buchanan, and Wright. Next
to them stood such statesmen and orators as Critten-
den, Southard, Tallmadge, liives, Preston, and Clay-
ton. Even distinguished men like King of Alabama,

HENRY CLAY AS AX ORATOR.

15e3

Frank Pierce, Grundy, Eobert J. AValker, Allen of
Ohio, and Hugh L. White felt honored by being as-
signed to the third class. The conflict between re-
chartering the United States Bank and establishing
the Sub-treasury was then at its height, and Clay and
Webster predicted a revolution if the latter prevailed
over the former. But they lived years after the mar-
ble building in Philadelphia, where the bank so long
kept watch and ward, was quietly converted into a
sub-treasury. If the ghost of Nick Biddle ever re-
visits the glimpses of the moon, it must be shocked
as it glides up Chestnut Street, and sees the base
uses" to which the fine old Grecian edifice is
put.

In the summer of 1S39 I heard Mr. Clay deliver an
elaborate speech on the Bank and Sub-treasury ques-
tion from an open barouche, at the steps of the Xew
York City Hall. He had been conducted by a long
cavalcade of horsemen from the banks of the Hudson,
and he was now surrounded by an immense concourse.
I stood at the junction of Broadway and Park Kow.
His voice rang out so loud and clear that his words
were distinctly reverberated from the wall of the
Astor House. He was then putting in his bid for the
next Presidential nomination. But, though their great-
est leader, the Whigs declined to run him in the cam-
paigns of 1840 and then in 1848, when he could
certainly have been successful. Soon after the disas-
trous contest of 1844, in a short, humorous speech
he accounted for his failure. He said some of his
opponents were like those of Tom Brown's Doctor
Fell:

KANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

" I do not love you, Dr. Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this alone I know full well—
I do not love you, Doctor Fell."

He was looking forward to a nomination in 1848.
I Avatcbed him with interest as he lingered in the
Senate Chamber and Supreme Court, surrounded by
admirers over whom the sway of his personal mag-
netism Yvas as irresistible as that of Napoleon over
his Old Guard.

One summer evening, in 1852, 1 arrived at the Del-
evan House, in Albany, retired to rest, and Avas soon
fast asleep. By and by the strains of martial music
floating on the midnight air awoke me, and called me
to the open vrindow. It was a band playing the Dead
March in Saul at the head of a procession that had
just taken the remains of the great Kentuckian from
a steamer on the Hudson, and was escorting them to
the train that was to bear them to their final resting-
place at the AYest.

Rivalries of the type displayed by Clay and Web-
ster have been common among leaders of parties, and
have often torn them in pieces, as, for instance, those
of Jackson and Calhoun ; Yan Buren and Cass ; Ben-
ton and Atchison ; Marcy and Wright ; Buchanan
and Dickinson ; Ritchie and Blair ; Cass and Doug-
las; John Yan Buren and Seymour; Seward and
Chase ; Weed and Greeley ; Wade and Chase ; Gree-
ley and Raymond ; Dix and Tilden ; Conkling and
Fenton ; Hendricks and McDonald ; Cameron and
Grow; Thurman and Payne; Blaine and Conkling.

The glass shows many more. Let no one comi)lain

GEORGE P. BARKEK. — SA>'FORD E. CHURCH. 155

that his name is omitted. If all were included, the
line Avould stretch out till the crack of doom.

This class of politicians are wont to make chasms
in parties through which they themselves often drop,
and disappear forever.

In the fall of 18-il I was in Buffalo at a Democratic
meeting addressed by George P. Barker, who had won
a reputation for a style of oratory like that ascribed
to John Van Buren. Tall, graceful, with a kindling
eye and clarion voice. Barker s speech swept the au-
dience along like an overflowing river. The annexa-
tion of Texas vras beginning to loom threateningly
upon the horizon. The Democracy generally were
favoring the scheme. Barker was suspected of un-
soundness on this question. A few '\Vhigs had gone
in with the throng. One of them, in the hope of an-
noying Barker, who was dashing forward in his usual
brilliant manner, cried out. '* Are you in favor of an-
nexing Texas to strengthen the slave power of the
country T' Turning to his questioner, but not paus-
ing in his speech. Barker tlirew in the reply, as if it
were a parenthesis, " All the world for freedom ; Salt
Eiver for the "Whigs." This sally silenced the Whig,
and drew cheers from the Democrats.

In the following January I was introduced to San-
ford E. Church, then the youngest member of the As-
sembly of 1842, where appeared such leaders as John
A. Dix, Horatio Seymour, Michael Hoffman. Arpliaxad
Loomis, and Peter B. Porter. I referred to the scene
at Buffalo, and Church said he was going to make
Barker attorney-general ; and he did, and the worthy
predecessor of John Yan Buren he was.

156

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Mr. Church was a member of the Buffalo Conven-
tion of 1848. Dean Eichmond, James S. Wadsworth,
James W. ]^ye, and I were taking a lunch, when
Church came in, dripping Avith perspiration, and said
there was a great clamor in the convention, some
calling upon Charles Francis Adams for a speech, and
others shouting for Frederick Douglass. " ^S'ye," said
Church, " it is a contest between a Whig and a negro,
and they have agreed to compromise on you. Will
you go over?" This tickled K^ye's fancy, and he
went to the tent under which the conventioti sat and
made one of his witty speeches, that restored the
SAveltering assembly to good-humor. Mr. Church rose
steadily in favor when twice lieutenant-governor and
as comptroller and chief judge of the Court of Ap-
peals. He was not a genius, knew little of general
literature, but brimmed all over with sagacity and
common-sense.

CHAPTER XVni.

Democratic National Convention of 1844. — Van Buren, Polk, and
Cass. — Polk Nominated for President.— Wright Nominated for
Vice-President. — He Declines.— First Use of the Morse Tele-
graph.— Polk's Duplicity in Forming his Cabinet. — Marcy, Sec-
retary of War. — The Barnburners Angry.— Death of John Quin-
cy Adams. — The Barnburner Revolt of 1847-48. — "The Assas-
sins of Silas Wright." — List of Barnburners and Hunkers. —
Utica Convention of 1848. — Young, Cambreling, and Tilden Pres-
ent.— Cass and Taylor Rival Candidates for President. — Con-
vention at Buffalo in 1848.— B. F. Butler's Speech.— "D—n his
Turnips!" — Van Buren Nominated for President, and Charles
Francis Adams for Vice-President. — The Barnburner Revolt
Defeats Cass and Elects Taylor. — Reunion of the New York
Democracy in 1849. — The Election and its Results.

Me. Yan Bukex having been beaten in 184:0 on the
sub-treasury and cognate issues, the great body of the
Democrats beheved that he ought to be renominated
in 184:4. He had a majority of the delegates in the
INational Convention of the latter year; but an in-
trigue, in which General Cass was the central figure,
sprung on him the two-thirds rule, and defeated his
nomination. To prevent Cass or any of the other in-
triguers from getting it, the friends of Yan Buren
(who had previously conferred with James K. Polk
about putting him on the ticket for Yice-President)
now changed front in the convention, and nominated
Polk for President. It is interesting to remember
that Silas Wright was nominated for Yice-President.

153

RANDOM RECOLLECTIOXS.

but instantly declined, and that the messages which
passed between the convention at Baltimore and
Wright at Washington on this subject were the first
ever sent over the Morse telegraph. Polk owed his
candidacy to the Barnburners, and expressed grati-
tude to them for it. To enable him to carry Xew
York at the election, Wright, then a leader in the
Senate, consented to run for governor. The prize
having been won, and Henry Clay beaten by the loss
of Xew York, Polk now turned traitor to the men
who had made him President. Wright having been
chosen Governor, was out of the question for a seat in
the Cabinet, but Polk hypocritically offered him the
Treasury. Wright declined it, and, with the concur-
rence of Mr. Tan Buren and all the leading Barnburn-
ers, proposed that the representative of Xew York in
the Cabinet be either Benjamin F. Butler for the State
Department or Azariah C. Flagg for the Treasury.
Polk whiffled, equivocated, fell into the hands of the
Hunkers, and spurned the recommendation of those
who had lifted him from obscurity into the Presi-
dency. The Barnburners nursed their wrath to keep
it vrarm," and in 1848 emptied the vials on the head
of General Cass, the Hunker candidate for President,
and opened the breach in the party that was never
closed till slavery was overthrovrn.

In the chilly morning of February 21, 1848, I met
Mr. John Quincy Adams by the fireplace in the rear
of the Speaker's chair in the House of Pepresenta-
tives. He had walked, as was his wont, to the Capi-
tol. As he shook my hand, he trembled with cold.
He took his usual seat. Some fulsome resolutions

DEATH OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

159

eulogizing General Taylor, who was looming as a pos-
sible Presidential candidate, were the first business.
They created an uproar. Forty members were shout-
ing to the Speaker. Mr. Speaker E. C. TTinthrop
was vigorously plying his gavel. My eye fell upon
Mr. xVdams. His hand was nervously creeping up his
desk as if he were trying to rise. I thought he was
about to take part in the din that filled the hall. But
instantly I saw the pallor of death on his cheek. ITis
hand dropped by his side, and he slowly inclined over
the arm of his chair. I spoke to Washington Hunt,
a member, and subsequently Governor of Xew York :
" Look to Mr. Adams, he is falling in his chair." He
rushed towards him. A call for help arrested the at-
tention of the House. It became silent as the grave.
The aged patriot was borne to the Speaker's room,
never to leave it alive. Sage of Quincy ! He had
fought a good fight for the liberty of the Press, Free-
dom of Speech, and the Eight of Petition. He fell
in the plenitude of his fame, on the theatre of his
grandest achievements, with the roar of battle sound-
ing in his valiant ear.

In the fall of 1847 I was a spectator at the Demo-
cratic State Convention of that year, held in Syracuse.
The convention tore itself asunder in a desperate
struggle over the renomination of xlzariah C. Flagg
as comptroller, the defeat of Martin Tan Buren at
the Baltimore Convention of 184:4:, the political assas-
sination of Silas Wright when running for governor
the second time in 184:6, and the attempt to incor-
porate the Wilmot Proviso into the platform of the
party. The great chiefs of both facticns were on the

160

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

ground, and never was there a more fierce, bitter, and
relentless conflict between the Narragansetts and the
Pequods than this memorable contest between the
Barnburners and the Hunkers. Mr. AVright was the
idol of the Barnburners, He had died that summer.
James S. AVadsworth voiced the sentiments of his fol-
lowers. In the convention some one spoke of doing
justice to Silas Wright. A Hunker sneeringlj re-
sponded, It is too late ; he is dead." Springing
upon a table, Wadsworth made the hall ring as he
uttered the defiant reply : " Though it may be too
late to do justice to Silas Wright, it is not too late to
do justice to his assassins." The Hunkers laid the
Wilmot Proviso on the table, but the Barnburners
punished them at the election.

The Barnburners were the Girondists of the De-
mocracy. Listen to a sample of names : Martin Yan
Buren, Silas Wright, B. F. Butler, Churchill C. Cam-
breling, Michael Hoffman, Dean Richmond, John
Yan Buren, Samuel J. Tilden, David Dudley Field,
Addison Gardiner, A. C. Flagg, Samuel Young, G.
P. Barker, Nicholas Hill, San ford E. Church, John
A. Dix, Wilham Cullen Bryant, Preston King, James
S. Wadsworth, Arphaxad Loomis, J. W. Nye, Will-
iam Cassidy, Andrew H. Green, Abijah Mann, John
Bigelow, Thomas B. Carroll, Reuben E. Fenton, and
Charles J. Folger. A slight acquaintance with the
politics of New York sulfices to show that these were
men of mark.

In the stormy epoch of 1847-48 the Hunkers were
ably led by William L. Marcy, Daniel S. Dickinson,
Edwin Croswell, Horatio Seymour, Charles O'Conor,

THE WILMOT PKOVISO.

101

Keuben TI. Walworth, Samuel Beardsley, and Will-
iam C. Bouck.

The Syracuse Convention of 1847 had divided the
Xew York Democrats into two bitter factions. The
convention for nominating the national ticket was to
meet at Baltimore in May, 1848. Each faction ap-
pointed full delegations, each claiming to be regular.
In 1848 the Democratic legislative caucus, at Albany,
issued an address to the country, defending the regu-
larity of the Barnburner delegates, and presenting
with consummate ability the Free-soil side of the
slavery controversy. It is now known that this ad-
dress was the joint production of Martin Yan Buren,
Samuel J. Tilden, and John Yan Buren. After an
acrimonious contest at Baltimore the convention re-
fused to admit the Barnburners as the sole delegates,
but would allow half of them and an equal number of
Hunkers to represent the state ; or, as I happened to
put it in a speech at a meeting soon afterwards in
Albany, which tickled Js'icholas Hill, the chairman,
" The regular delegates might occupy half a seat
apiece, provided each of them would let a Hunker
sit on his lap." The Barnburners declined to enter
on these conditions. General Cass was then nomi-
nated for President,, and the Free-soil Democracy re-
solved to defeat him.

The proceedings at Baltimore set the Free-soil baU
a-rolling, and enthusiastic meetings were held all over
New York. A tumultuous assemblage in the City
Hall Park was addressed by John Yan Buren and
Churchill C. Cambreling, the latter declaring, in sono-
rous tones, that " slaver}^ had received its death sen-

162

EAXDOM KECOLLECTIOXS.

tence/' A Democratic state convention met at Utica in
June. A large representation of the most distinguished
Democrats of Xew York vras present, and the veteran
Samuel Young took the chair. He delivered a vehe-
ment speech, in which he said, " A clap of political
thunder vrill be heard in this country next November
that will make the propagandists of slavery shake
like Belshazzar." Utterances like these from Demo-
crats of such eminence as Cambreling and Young re-
verberated all over the Union, giving slavery a blow
from which it never recovered. Mr. Tilden made an
able report respecting the proceedings at Baltimore,
and Martin Van Buren addressed a noble letter to the
convention, vindicating the constitutionality and wis-
dom of the AYilmot Proviso. The convention nom-
inated him for President. The Free-soil stream soon
broke over the Barnburner dj^kes, and the result was
the famous gathering in August at the Queen City of
the Lakes.

The nomination of General Cass for the Presidency
by the Democrats and General Taylor by the "Whigs
led to the Buffalo Convention of 1848. The Barn-
burners had opposed Cass in vain at the Baltimore
Convention. They had made the Monumental City
lurid with their wrath, frightening the delegates from
the back states almost out of tlieir wits. At Buffalo
I was one of the committee that drafted its Free-soil
platform. It was a motley assembly. Pro-slavery
Democrats were there to avenge the wrongs of Mar-
tin Van Buren. Free-soil Democrats were there to
punish the assassins of Silas Wright. Pro-slavery
Whigs were there to strike down General Taylor be-

THE BUFFALO CONVKNTION.

163

cause he had dethroned their idol, Ilenrj^ Clay, in the
Philadelphia Convention. Anti-slavery AYhigs were
there, breathing the spirit of the departed John Quin-
cy Adams. xYbolitionists of all shades of opinion
were present, from the darkest type to those of a
milder hue, who shared the views of Salmon P. Chase.
An immense tent was raised on the court-house square
for the accommodation of the convention, where the
crowds were regaled with speeches and music. Its
real business was conducted by delegates locked in a
Baptist church close at hand. There was a rooted
prejudice against Mr. Van Buren among the Whigs
and Abolitionists. But the adroit eloquence of his
former law partner, Benjamin F. Butler, of Albany,
and an admirable Free-soil letter from the Sage of
Linden wald himself, carried him through, and he vras
nominated for President, vrith Charles Francis Ad-
ams for Vice-President.

A rather amusing illustration of this prejudice oc-
curred while Mr. Butler was speaking. It will be re-
membered that, in his inaugural address as President,
Mr. Tan Buren pledged himself to veto any bill passed
by Congress for the abolition of slavery in the Dis-
trict of Columbia miless the m.easure was sanctioned
by the states of Virginia and Mar^^land. This pledge
gave great umbrage to Anti-slavery men of all types,
and, though eleven eventful yeai^ had since elapsed
when the Buffalo Convention was held, the hostihty
to Van Buren on account of this old pledge remained
unshaken in many minds. In his speech Butler was
getting around thorny points in Van Buren's career
ver}' skilfully. While graphically describing a recent

164

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

visit to the ex-Presiclent's Kinderhook farm, and tell-
ing hoAV he Avas now absorbed in bucolic pursuits, like
Cincinnatus, the model yeoman of his epoch, Butler
spoke of the agility with which Yan Buren leaped a
fence to show his visitor a field of sprouting turnips.
A Whig in the convention, who remembered the veto
pledge, and was utterly opposed to nominating its
author, broke in upon Butler with the startling ex-
clamation, " D — n his turnips ! What are his opin-
ions about the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia?" ^'I was just coming to that subject,"
responded the oily Barnburner, with a suave bow
towards the ruffled Whig. "Well, you can't be a
moment too quick in coming to it," replied the cap-
tious interlocutor. But, as I have already stated, the
frank letter of Mr. Yan Buren carried him triumph-
antly over the breakers.

The revolt of the Xew York Barnburners gave the
thirty-six electoral votes of the state to General Tay-
lor, which Avas his precise majority in the Union.

Some Barnburners have said that the Democratic
revolt of 1847-48 was the beginning of the Free-
soil movement. This is an error. It is mistaking
the rocky cataracts over which the stream fell for the
remote fountains whence it rose. The revolt gave a
mighty imjmlse to the current, but did not originate
it. Even long before Garrison appeared it had
broken forth in the Missouri controversy of 1819-20.
Whoever reads the speeches of James Tallmadge,
John W. Taylor, and Eufus King in Congress in that
troubled period will find that they were as sound in
doctrine, as strong in argument, as splendid in diction,

BAKNEUKNEKS AND HUNKERS. — JOHN VAN BUREN. 1G5

as any of the utterances of the folloAving forty-five
years, when the Thirteenth Amendment to the Con-
stitution closed the controversy for all time.

In 1840 the Barnburners and Hunkers held sepa-
rate state conventions at Kome to try to reunite the
party. The leaders of each faction Avere present, and
committees of conference exchanged opinions. A res-
olution offered by me to adhere to the AVilmot Pro-
viso was adopted. AVe split on that rock, and the
conventions adjourned. A pressure from the rank
and file brought them together again, when a frail
coalition was effected. John Van Buren described it,
in his graphic style : '* AVe are asked to compromise
our principles," said he. The day of compromise is
past; but, in regard to candidates for state offices,
we are still a commercial people. We will unite with
our late antagonists," he added. Then, paraphrasing
the Declaration of Independence, he said: "And we
will hold them as we hold the rest of mankind — ene-
mies in war, in peace friends." This effort to com-
bine inconfjruous elements failed. A mixed ticket for
the five state candidates was nominated. AVitli one
exception they were all defeated at the ballot-boxes.
This device, so frequently employed by leaders of par-
ties for closing chasms in their ranks when fundamen-
tal principles are involved, is rarely successful. The
history of political coalitions proves this.

CHAPTER XTX.

The Author Elected to the Xew York Senate in 1849.— The Canal
Bill. — Twelve Senators Resign to Defeat it. — Re-elected in 1851.
— The Bill Passes. — The Court of Appeals Pronounce it Uncon-
stitutional.— The Author's Seat Contested.— Dinner at the Astor
House. — Speech of Seward and another. — Thurlow "Weed. —
The Midnight Call.— The Contest Squelched.— Weed's Hand in
it. — ^Members and Measures in the Senate. — Hamilton Fish
Elected United States Senator. — James "W. Beekman Bolts Fish.
—Notices of Hoffman, Loomis, Sej'mour, Dix, Van Buren,
Marcy, and Dickinson. — John Van Buren and the Apple-woman;
his Ill-health; the AYater-cure Establishment; his Death at Sea.

I WAS elected to the State Senate in 1849, and took
my seat in 1850. I was there during the agitation
over the compromise measures growing out of the
Mexican vrar. A great variety of resolutions Avere
introduced in the legislature on those questions.
"While this subject was before the Senate I drew a
ver}" radical resolution, by way of amendment to a
series then pending. It elicited warm debate, and
was put to test on a call of the yeas and nays. It
was adopted. Every Whig and every Democrat who
voted for this amendment subsequently became a
member of the Repubhcan ]mrty.

I will here insert two of the resolutions which I
assisted to frame, and supported in speeches by my
votes. One declared that ''the Federal government
ought to relieve itself from all responsibility for the
existence or continuance of slavery or the slave-trade,

SLAVERY AND CANAL LEGISLATION.

167

wherever it has the constitutional power over these
subjects/' Another said that we feel bound to op-
pose, by all constitutional means, and our Senators in
Congress are hereby instructed, and our Eepresenta-
tives requested, to use their best efforts to prevent, hy
2)Gsitive enactment^ v^iienever necessary, the extension
of slavery over any part of our territory, however
small, and by whatever pretence of compromise.
These sentnnents seem commonplace to-day, but it
cost a high price to utter them in- a legislative body
in January, 1850, and to stand up to them before the
people. All the Barnburners in the Senate voted for
these resolutions, while seven of the seventeen AYhigs
recorded their names against them.

The Whigs in the legislature, at the session of 1851,
introduced an unprecedented bill, which appropriated
many millions of money for the purpose of enlarging
the canals. The Barnburners deemed it unconstitu-
tional, as did Democrats generally. The bill had
passed the Assembly, where the AVhigs had a large
majority. To prevent the presence of the three-fifths
quorum necessary to carry it in the Senate, it was
thought best that twelve senators should resort to the
desperate expedient of resigning their offices. The
consequence was that the bill fell in the Senate.

Elections were ordered on short notice to fill the
twelve vacancies, and an. extra session of the legisla-
ture was called for June. The tide ran as^ainst the
resigning senators, all of whom stood for re-election.
Six, whose districts were far away from the canals,
were successful. The other six, who lived in ca-
nal districts, were overwhelmed, vrith one exception.

168

RANDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

There were three canals, stretching forty -two miles,
in the three counties of my district. There were
twelve stump-speakers in the field against me, mar-
shalled by Gerrit Smith. At the close of the savage
fight I was re-elected by five majority. The bill was
passed at the extra session. I opposed it step by step.
The judiciary soon afterwards vindicated the sound-
ness of the doctrines of the resigning senators. The
Court of Appeals adjudged the law to be unconstitu-
tional, null, and void. In this contest I was the spe-
cial target of the " Canal Eing." On both occasions
when I ran for the Senate, my district, on a fair test
of the strength of parties, was politically opposed to
me. I was at each election carried through by a
large number of votes from the opposite party in my
own town and several adjoining towns, and particu-
larly from the poorer citizens in these towns. To be
thus sustained at home in these sharp struggles, and
when I had to bear up against great moneyed inter-
ests and profligate legislation, I regarded as a higher
compliment than to have received the degree of LL.D.
from the proudest university in the country.

My opponent in the second election was Hon. Josiah
B. Williams, a rich, popular, and highly respectable
Whig, of Ithaca. He prepared himself with a pile of
petitions and affidavits, for the purpose of contesting
my seat before a body wherein his political party had
a great majority. I had not armed myself with a
single petition or affidavit. Tlic following facts illus-
trate the tact of one or two Whig leaders who flour-
ished in that era. In the winter previous to the re-
signation of the twelve senators a public dinner was

TUE EKIE CANAL.

1G9

given ill Xew York city to the legislature. Mr. SeAV-
ard, then in the Senate at Washington, Avas confront-
ing, almost single-handed, the assaults of the slave
power, in a crisis that was extremely perilous. lie
attended the dinner. I Avas required to make a speech.
I complimented Mr. Seward for his lidelity to the
Free-soil cause in the Senate, and at the close gave a
toast like this : " William H. Seward, our eminent
Senator in Congress, may prosperity ever attend him."
All the Whigs cheered because it t\^as Seward, and all
the Barnburners because I said it. In the dead vast
and middle of the night, v\'hile asleep at the Astor,
Thurlow Weed came to my room, awoke me, and said
that the manuscript in his hand was an imperfect re-
port of my speech. lie wished me to correct it for
the newspa^^ers, and be sure and supply some of the
eulogies on Seward, which the reporter had omitted.
I arose and spent a half hour in revising the speech,
and thought no more of the small matter.

In the following June, on the first day when the
new Senate assembled, Mr. Weed met me in the lobby
before I entered the chamber, and, laying his hand on
my shoulder, said, in substance r " Mr. Williams has
collected a pile of affidavits, and. will contest your seat
furiously. You recollect you made a speech in favor
of Mr. Seward, at the Astor dinner last winter, and
got out of bed at my request and revised it. The
Whigs, at this session of the Senate, will change the
committee on Privileges and Elections,' and (giving
my shoulder a squeeze that made me wince), '/ thinh
you like the change!'''^ The committee was

changed. The new member, whereon everything
8

170

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

hinged, had served with me in the previous Senate.
He Tvas a leading Whig, of the Weed-Seward school.
My contestant filed his huge heap of petitions and
affidavits. The committee met. I presented two
legal points, on a piece of paper about as large as
my hand. The new member gave a side glance at
them, craved time to examine them, and moved that
the committee adjourn one week. AYilliams flour-
ished his pile of documents, and protested. The mo-
tion to adjourn was carried by one majority. The
week came around, and the committee again met.
The nevv" member assured them that he had been so
busy in the Senate that he had not found leisure to
look at the papers in my case, and therefore moved
an adjournment for two weeks, so that he could ex-
amine my two points. Mr. Williams had employed
counsel, and there was a tussle over the question of
adjournment. The new member again carried his
motion. Meanwhile I opposed the canal bill as vig-
orously as in the session previous to the resignation.
When the two weeks came along there Avas no quo-
rum of the committee present, nor was there at a
subsequent meeting, and that was the last I heard of
the attempt to unseat me.

It is proper to add that I bad not a doubt of the
legality of my election, and that I never said a word
on the subject to any member of the committee nor
to Mr. AVeed. But I presume there vras not a fool
in tlic legislature so big as to believe that Thurlow
Weed's hand was not in the matter.

I was not a candidate for another nomination to
Uie Senate, T pould not afford to be a member, and I

TUE STATE SENATE IN 1849.

171

had no desire to support myself on " the drippings
of unclean legislation."

During my membership the presidents of the Sen-
ate were Lieutenant-governors Patterson and Church.
In the front rank of my colleagues stood Edwin D.
Morgan, afterwards Governor and United States Sen-
ator ; James M. Cook, subsequently Comptroller and
Bank Superintendent ; Thomas 'B. Carroll, who be-
came a Canal Appraiser, and Mayor of Troy ; George
Geddes, the accomphshed civil-engineer ; William A.
Dart, United States District-attorney and Consul-gen-
eral to Canada ; George E. Babcock, Charles A. Mann,
Clarkson Crolius, James W. Beekman, and Dr. Bran-
dreth, of medical fame. We were the second senate
chosen under the Constitution of ISiG. It devolved
on us to pass several general statutes for giving effect
to provisions of that radical instrument, especially in
regard to corporations. Among an unusual number
of important measures adopted were the general man-
ufacturing law, the general railroad law, the general
school law, and a complete revision of the then very
defective code of procedure. I vras on the committee
that performed this last-mentioned weary task, where-
in Ave were guided by David Dudley Field, Arphaxad
Loomis, John C. Spencer, and Xicholas Hill.

I have taken part in the election of five senators in
Congress. One of the stormiest conflicts vre had in
the legislature of 1851 was over the choice of a Sena-
tor to succeed Daniel S. Dickinson. The Whigs held
the State Senate by a majority of two. In the As-
sembly they had a good working majority. Their
caucus nominated Hamilton Fish for Senator. James

172

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

^Y. Beekman, a Whig Senator, of Xew York city,
threw out the hint that he would not support Fish,
because he had fallen too much under the control of
Thurlow Weed. The day for electing the Senator
arrived. Sixteen Whigs voted for Hamilton Fish, the
fifteen Democrats voted for as many diJfferent candi-
dates, so that the Fish Whigs could not double over
upon them. Beekman voted for Francis Granger.
There being no choice, another ballot was taken, with
the same result. Thereupon I moved that the Sen-
ate adjourn. The roll Avas called. The sixteen Fish
Whigs voted nay, and the fifteen Democrats and
Beekman voted yea — a tie. The movement was such
a surprise to Lieutenant-governor Church that he for-
got to give the casting vote. He w^as hurrying down
the steps, with the gavel in his hand, when somebody
pushed him back to the chair, and he announced his
vote in the affirmative, and declared the Senate ad-
journed, amid great excitement. All this while the
Assembly was slowly going through the roll, and it
was nearly an hour after we had adjourned before
they had nominated Governor Fish.

However, our Whig friends lay in wait, and stole
a march upon us a few weeks later. One morning,
when two Democratic senators were in New Yorlc
city, they sprung a resolution upon us, to go into the
election of a Senator in Congress. After an unbroken
struggle of fourteen hours Mr. Fish was elected, the
exultant cannon of the victors startling the city from
its slumbers, and convincing the Silver Grays that
the Woolly Heads still held the capitol.

The Democratic policy in respect to the canals was

HOFFMAN AND LOOMIS.

173

mainly due to Michael Hoffman and Arphaxad Loomis,
of Herkimer, who represented that count}'- in the Con-
stitutional Convention of 184G, and often appeared as
colleagues in the Assembly. In 1843 I spent a week
or two in Albany, and frequently dropped into the
Assembly, where a bill in regard to the enlargement
of the canals was pending. For four days the debate
shed darkness rather than light over the subject, and
the chamber grew murky. One morning a tallish
man, past middle age, Avith iron-gray locks drooping
on his shoulders, and wearing a mixed suit of plain
clothes, took the floor on the canal bill. I noticed
that pens, newspapers, and all else were laid down,
and every eye fixed on the speaker. I supposed he
was some quaint old joker from the backwoods, w^ho
w^as going to afford the House a little fun. The first
sentences arrested my attention. A beam of light
shot through the darkness, and I began to get glimpses
of the question at issue. Soon a broad belt of sun-
shine spread over the chamber. I asked a member,
" Who is that f " Michael Hoffman," was the reply.
He spoke for an hour, and though his manner was
quiet and his diction simple, he was so methodical
and lucid in his argument that, wdiere all had ap-
peared confused before, ever^^thing now^ seemed clear.
Mr. Hoffman w^as at home on this subject, and his
speech foreshadowed the articles in the Constitution
of 18-46 on the canals and the finances.

Judge Loomis was a leader in the Convention of
1846, on the questions pertaining to the judiciary and
the legislature. The articles on these subjects were
moulded by him. He subsequently bore a conspicu-

EAXDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

ous part in defeating tlie Xew York Code of Proced-
ure, ^vhose chief elements were adopted in several
other states. The canal law of 1851 having been ad-
judged unconstitutional, it devolved upon him in the
legislature of 1853 to frame and carry through the
new constitutional amendment by which the state
tided over the dilBculty. He and Mr. Hoffman ap-
proved the course of the senators w^ho resigned to
defeat the measure of 1851.

It has been a disputed point which contained the
most men of mark, the Whig Assembly of 1838,
chosen in the faU that witnessed the prostration of
Yan Buren's administration on the Sub-treasury ques-
tion, or the Democratic Assembly of 1842, elected in
the autumn that saw the overthrow of Tyler's admin-
istration on the Bank question. In the two there were
fifty members that subsequently became distinguished
in state and national politics. Horatio Seymour was
in the Assembly of 1842. He and Sanford E. Church
were the youngest members. Conspicuous among
their seniors stood Michael Hoffman and John A.
Dix. With a fine address and excellent debating
poAvers, Seymour soon became a leader of one wing of
the Democracy. He was in tlie legislatures of 1844
and 1845, which were agitated by the state issue of
the enlargement of the canals and the national issue
of the annexation of Texas. Tliese rent the Demo-
crats in Xew York asunder, the two factions being
then generally called Badicals and Conservatives, and
not Barnburners and Hunkers, as at a little later date.
Seymour was already a chieftain in the ranks of the
Conservatives. He measured weapons often with op-

HORATIO SEYMOUR. JOHN VAN BUREN. 175

ponents in the legislature like Hoffman, Dix, and
Loomis, and attained the liigli position in the Demo-
cratic party as an orator and a manager which he
held through his long public career. He was courte-
ous towards opponents in the Assembly, and he grace-
fully recognized their exhibition of the like treatment
of himself. He went into a glow of enthusiasm many
years subsequent to the occurrence, as he told me of
grim Michael Hoffman's generous course after he had
sharply arraigned the veteran Barnburner, during a
bitter debate about the canals, and Silas Wright, and
kindred themes, which had lasted several days. One
morning Hoffman rose to reply to Seymour, but on
learning that he was ill he refused to dehver his
speech for two or three days, till Seymour was able
to be in his seat.

I shall not tr}" to paint a portrait of John Yan Bu-
ren, the brilliant Barnburner. There could hardly be
a wider contrast betv»^een two men than the space that
divided the Sage of Lindenwald from Prince John.
In one particular, however, they were alike. Each
had that personal magnetism that binds followers to
leaders with hooks of steel. The father was grave,
urbane, wary, a safe counsellor, and accustomed to
an argumentative and deliberate method of address
that befitted the bar and the Senate. Few knew how
able a lawyer the elder Yan Buren was. The son was
enthusiastic, frank, bold, and given to wit, repartee,
and a style of oratory admirably adapted to swaying
popular assemblies. The younger Yan Buren, too,
was a sound lawyer. Some of his admirers were wont
to tell him that he made a mistake in not aiding to

176

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

lay the foundations of the Kepublican party ; " for,"
said they in 1856, " if yon had, you would now have
been where Fremont is." Wait and let us see," was
the sarcastic response, '* how Fremont turns out."

I heard John Yan Buren relate this little anecdote
with characteristic humor : When he was Attorney-
general he had obtained for an elderly female the
valuable monopol}^ of the right to sell apples, cakes,
and candy in the rotunda of the State Capitol. She
was an ardent admirer of Prince John, and a vocife-
rous Barnburner. It w^as admitted that in the cam-
paign of 18-18 he had led in the Democratic revolt
that gave the thirty-six electoral votes of IS'ew York
to General Taylor, which defeated General Cass.
When the Whigs came into power they threatened
to turn the Barnburner Avoman out of the Capitol.
With ruin staring her in the face she repaired to her
patron, and begged him to save her. He went to
Thurlow Weed, who was supposed to own the Whig
party, explained the case, pleaded his services in the
Presidential campaign, and said he asked only the
single favor of the salvation of the aj)ple-stand. Mr.
Weed squeezed the hand of the Prince, shed a sym-
pathizing tear, and hoped he might be able to pull
the old woman through. But when the tide of ad-
ministration reform reached Albany she was swept
out of the Capitol, and the apple-stand was bestowed
on a female of the Whig persuasion.

The last time I saw John Yan Buren was before he
left for Europe, to make a final effort to regain his
liealth. I was on the Hudson Eiver Eailroad. The
conductor said a gentleman in a seat farther forward

DEATH OF JOHN VAN BUREN.

177

(pointing to it) wished to see me. As I took the
proffered place by his side, and gave him a puzzled
look, he said, " You don't know me !" The tones of
his voice instantly told me that it was John Yan
Bm'en. Though faded, wan, and feeble, the wit re-
mained, lie had been at a water-cure estabhshment.
" Think of trying to bring me up by cold water," re-
marked the Prince, with a quiet smile. " Why," he
added, "as they put me in a pack the other night,
and stowed me away in an u])per loft, where the
moonbeams came trickling down upon me through
the skylight, I felt as if I were dead and laid out."

When, afterwards, I heard of the sad death of my
friend in mid-ocean, I recalled the lines of Scott :

" Fleet fool on the corrie,
Sage counsel in cumber,
Red hand in the foray,

How sound is thy slumber!"

Mr. Seymour resisted the Barnburner revolt of
184:7, and supported General Cass for President in
1848. But he warmly espoused the movement to re-
unite the party the next year. He was in advance of
Governor Marcy in that direction. Seymour pushed
forward, Avhile Marcy hung back. Sej^mour rather
liked the Barnburners, except John Yan Buren, of
whom he was quite jealous and somewhat afraid.
But Marcy, after the experiences of 1841 and 1818,
denounced them in hard terms, until Seymour's plas-
tic hand kneaded him into a Soft, and the Free-soil
Democrats began to talk of him for President in 1852,
when the vrily old Eegency tactician mellowed tow-
ards them. Xothing was vranted to carry Marcy clear

ITS

KAXDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

over except the hostility of Daniel S. Dickinson, who
stood in his way to the White House. This he soon
encountered, and this reconciled him to the Barnburn-
ers. Some of them, hoAvever, still distrusted, him.

The resignation of senators to defeat the canal bill
led to a great meeting in the Capitol grounds at Al-
bany, where Horatio Seymour, who had been beaten
for governor the previous fall, made a bold speech in
their defence. Mr. Seymour was then among the
most effective and eloquent platform orators in New
York. Less electrical than John Yan Buren, he was
more persuasive ; less witty, he was more logical ;
less sarcastic, he was more candid ; less denunciatory
of antagonists, he was more convincing to opponents.
They were rivals — one carrying the standard of the
Barnburners, the other bearing the banner of the
Hunkers. But on the canal issue they were in accord,
each, denouncing the unconstitutional measure, and
applauding the retiring senators. Both naturally
took to statesmanship of a high order.

I frequently spoke on the same platform with Sey-
mour and Yan Buren, and attended state and na-
tional conventions with each of them. But I never
met both of them at the same time on the same plat-
form, nor in the same convention. These two re-
markable men had little in common except lofty am-
liition and rare mental and social gifts. Their salient
characteristics were widely dissimilar. Seymour was
conciliatory, and cultivated ])eace. Yan Buren was
aggressive, and coveted war.

CHAPTER XX.

Whig Natidual Convention of 1852, — Webster's Sad Appearance.
— General Scott Xominated for President. — Democratic National
Convention of 1852. — Cass, Buchanan, Marcy, Douglas, and
Dickinson Aspirants. — An Unexpected Interview by the Vir-
ginians.— Xew York Delegation in Private Conference. — Threats
to Throw Seymour out of the Window. — Marcy and Dickinson
Slaughter each other. — Pierce Xominated. — Dean Richmond's
" Finality."— Pierce's Cabinet. — Dix Cheated, and Marcy Called.
— Pierce Approves the Missouri Compromise Repeal. — Rends
tiic Democratic Party Asunder.— Republican Party Formed in
1855-56. — Fremont Xominated for President. — James G. Blaine.
— Xotices of Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith, John Jacob Astor,
John Brown, and Martin Van Buren. — Brown Handles a Rifle,
and Hits the Bull's-eye. — Van Buren Predicts the Overthrow of
Slavery amid Convulsions.

The Whig National Convention met at Baltimore
in May, 1852. I was on the train for Washington.
At that day we had to cross the mouth of the Sus-
quehanna at Havre de Grace by ferryboat. As the
passengers were descending the long, steep stairs into
the gorge I saw Mr. Webster, leaning heavily on the
arms of two gentlemen, and surrounded by a caval-
cade of friends. He was a candidate for the Presi-
dency, in the convention then about to assemble. It
was a sad spectacle. The great statesman was then
so shattered in health that four months afterwards
he sank into his tomb. But though a wreck, he bore
up sturdily while clutching at the glittering prize
he had so long pin^sued. He received a mortifyingly

180

RANDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

small vote in the convention. General Scott carried
off the nomination. " Oh, Charles," exclaimed Web-
ster to Mr. Stetson, of the Astor House, a few da^'s
afterwards, "what pains me is that the South, for
^vhich I had done and sacrificed so much, did not give
me a single vote !"

General Scott made a tour of the country, exhibit-
ing his stalwart figure, and discoursing of "the rich
Irish brogue and the sweet German accent." He
carried only the four states of Massachusetts, Ver-
mont, Kentucky, and Tennessee. It was the end of
the Whig party. The slavery controversy destroyed
Webster in the convention, Scott at the polls, and
precipitated that grand old organization into a fath-
omless pit. Close behind stood the Democrats, giv-
ing three cheers for their victory, on the crumbling
edge of the chasm that had engulfed the Whigs. " It
is an irrepressible conflict," said Mr. Seward.

The Democratic ]^ational Convention at Baltimore,
in 1852, Avas a struggle for the nomination to the
Presidency between Cass, Buchanan, Marcy, and
Douglas. The K ew York delegation was divided, in
the proportion of twenty-three for Marcy, whose
leader w^as Horatio Seymour, and thirteen for Cass,
Avliose leader was Daniel S. Dickinson. It soon be-
came apparent that Mr. Dickinson himself was a can-
didate, and was looking for success to a combination
between a large share of the supporters of Cass and
a smaller contingent of the friends of Buchanan. In-
deed, Mr. Dickinson told me so. The ballotings were
many and wearisome, each of the aspirants doing his
best to pull down his rivals.

DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION OF 1852.

151

At the close of the first or second day I was pass-
ing throiigli the hall of Barnum's Hotel, when, to my
surprise, I was invited by Dickinson to enter a room
where the Virginia delegation (which thus far had
voted for Buchanan) was in consultation. After an
introduction, and a statement that I was a Barn-
burner, the chairman asked me whether, if Mr. Dick-
inson were to receive the nomination, he could carry
Xew York i Xever can I forget the anxious look of
Dickinson as they waited for th& answer. I promptly
replied that Mr. Dickinson, and Governor Marcy, and
Mr. Douglas, and any other man whom the conven-
tion nominated, would receive the electoral vote of
JS'ew York. I then retired from this very unexpected
interview. Dickinson followed me, thanked me, but
reo:retted that I had mentioned anv other name than
his.

The next morning Virginia voted for Dickinson.
I then saw what the interview of the previous day
meant. Dickinson rose, made a short speech, thanked
Virginia, and begged its delegation to support Gen-
eral Cass. This was the keynote for the combination
on Dickinson. He asked me if I tliought Virginia
would adhere to him, and I frankly told him " iS'o,"
for I had reasons for regarding its vote merely as a
compliment. Mr. Dickinson's friends used to assert
that he threw away the Presidency on this occasion.
I happened to know better. He never stood for a
moment Avhere he could control the Virginia vote —
the hinge whereon all was to turn. The convention
generally believed that the result in November would
depend on Xew York, and it was ready to accept any

182

RANDOM RECOLLECTIOXS.

candidate upon whom the delegates from that state
would unite. In the protracted and weary ballotings
Marcy rose steadily, till his vote reached ninety-eight.
The Xew York delegation then retired for consulta-
tion. The convention hall and its adjoining rooms
were over a market, Avhich was besieged by noisy
carts and trucks. One of the rules of the convention
authorized the delegates of any state to cast its vote
for such candidates as the majority of its delegates
might direct. In the retiring-room Seymour moved
a resolution that on the next ballot the vote of Xew
York be cast solidly for William L. Marcy. If a
bomb had exploded among them it could hardly have
caused more excitement. Oliver Charlick, a super-
heated Hunker from Long Island, threatened to
throw Seymour out of the window unless he with-
drew the resolution. Seymour saw that it would be
unwise to force a united vote for Marcy in tlie face
of so much hostility, and he finally recalled the reso-
lution. Perhaps, too, he did not relish the idea of
being thrown into the street among the struggling
carts and trucks. Thus ended the chances of Marcy.
In this style it Avas that Dickinson and Marcy, the
envenomed rival sachems, scalped each other in the
great wigwam at Baltimore.

On the next ballot (I think it was the next) Vir-
ginia voted for Franklin Pierce. The convention was
weary, and soon the stampede came, and the Xew
Hampshire brigadier was nominated.

The Barnburners did not weep over the defeat of
Marcy, rejoiced at the discomfiture of Cass, and were
in doubt about Pierce. The convention had adojit-

PIERCE FOR PRESIDENT.

183

ed resolutions declaring the Pro-slavery Compromise
Acts of 1850 a ''finality" on that subject. On the
way home from Baltimore a Hunker was teasing
Dean Kichmond, of Buffalo, by telling him that the
proceedings were a finality on the Wilmot Proviso.

A finality on Cass," was the swift response of the
bluff Dean. Though so destitute of all literary fur-
nishment as to be scarcely able to write grammatl-
cxlly, Mr. Kichmond carried on his broad shoulders
one of the clearest heads in the ranks of the Barn-
burners.

Pierce was elected by a majority so large that it
turned his weak head. He was a calamity to the
Democracy and the nation. He yielded to unwise
counsellors, and favored the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, which rent the party asunder during his
official term, and arrayed against him a large body of
Jacksonian Democrats of the type of Thomas H. Ben-
ton, Sam Houston, and Francis P. Blair, senior. This
insane measure bore bitter fruits in the perturbed ad-
ministration of Buchanan, and ultimately plunged the
country into one of the most portentous and bloody
civil wars in all history. In the construction of his
cabinet Pierce was a dissembler. Daniel S. Dickin-
son was urged upon him for a place by an enthusi-
astic following, but he spurned the distinguished ex-
Senator, and drove him into the ranks of the enemies
that prevented his renomination and expelled him
from power. Pierce first promised the New York
seat in his Cabinet to General Dix. He afterAvards
gave it to Governor Marcy. Dix was consoled with
the pledge that he should soon be sent as Minister to

184

EANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Paris, but was meanwhile set to watching the vaults
of the New York sub-treasury. He sat there wearily
through the spring, summer, and fall, waiting for the
French mission to turn up. I accidentally met him
on Broadway on the morning when Pierce's first an-
nual message appeared, and asked him how he liked
it. It is a good message," said he. He then added,
with a spice of bitterness in his tone, If I can say
this I think anybody can afford to." If General Dix
had not believed that the holding of some office was
essential to his existence he would have thrown his
sub-treasury commission in the face of the President
who liad deceived him. It Avould be difficult to name
any other man in this country who filled so many
important offices, and so acceptably, as John A. Dix.

The precise date of the organization of the Kepub-
lican party in tlie nation is in dispute. In New York
it was reduced to form, at Syracuse, in the fall of 1855.
Its component elements were Anti- slavery Whigs,
Barnburner Democrats, Abolitionists proper, and Free-
soil KnoAv-Nothings. Committees of conference, in
which Thurlow Weed and Preston King were promi-
nent figures, settled the preliminaries, and the new par-
ty assembled in Weiting Hall, with Eeuben E. Fenton,
of the Barnburner wing, filling the chair. I helped
to launch the new party, and then, on the afternoon
train of that day, by request of Henry C. Martindale,
who was subsequently Attorney-General of the state
and Major-General in the army, I went to Pochester
and delivered a Ilepublican speech. Of course, 1 was
(juite at home on the slavery topic. My address was
reported, and generally copied in New York. I sub-

FREMONT BEATS SEWARD.

185

sequcntly spoke in Buffalo with Governor Seward,
and addressed other large meetings in that campaign.
Our first venture on this stormy sea Avas not success-
ful. Our state ticket w^as submerged in the Know-
IS'othing breakers.

The Pierce administration repealed the Missouri
Compromise. This precipitated the doom of slavery.
The Eepublican party was the - legitimate outcome.
I helped to organize it in the state of New York, and
was a member of tlie National Convention at Phila-
delphia, in 1856, which nominated Fremont and Day-
ton. I delivered numerous addresses in their support
from Maine to Ohio. The Philadelphia Convention
w^as opened with prayer by Pev. Albert Barnes. Colo-
nel Harvey S. Lane, of Indiana, presided, and occa-
sionally rapped on the table with his boot-heels to
preserve order. James G. Blaine w^as one of the sec-
retaries. Lane, afterwards senator in Congress, was
nearly as tall as Mr. Lincoln. He led the cheers
for Lincoln at Chicago in 1860. "When that fel-
low Lane," exclaimed a disgusted Seward delegate,
"jumped on the table wath his hat on his uplifted
cane and screamed for Lincoln he looked as if he were
thirty feet high."

The feeble cause I had espoused at Cincinnati in
1832 rested, in 1856, on the broad shoulders of a strong
party wdiich was marching on to victory.

Whenever I think of Horace Greeley the scene rises
before me of a flaxen-haired boy in a log-cabin in a
cleft of the Green Mountains, lying on the hearth,
after a hard day's work in a scrubby field, reading a
book by the blaze of pine-knots. But these pine-

186

RANDOM RECOLLECTIOXS.

knots lighted the barefooted youth to the path that
led to great achievements and enduring fame.

I first met Greeley on the front stairs of a Graham
boarding-house in IS'ew York city, where he was liv-
ing on bran-bread and cold water. lie was then ed-
itor of the Ne\o-Yorlcei\ a journal of which he was
justly proud. The encounter on the stairway was ac-
cidental. His wife, fresh from North Carolina, had
sunk down at that rather inconvenient spot in a sort
of hysterical swoon, and seemed so reluctant to yield
her vantage-ground that ingress and egress by the
boarders were only possible by carefully stepping over
her. Mr. Greeley, with a deprecatory air, Avas bend-
ing down, and in soothing tones was trying to per-
suade her to seek a more comfortable resting-place.
Early friends of the wedded pair will recall the fact
that they became acquainted at this William Street
hostelry, and that their espousals were chronicled in
some pleasant verses that bore the refrain, " Maid of
the Graham-house, sunny and sweet !"

As an illustration of the vicissitudes of journalism,
while at the same time pointing to a great political
error, I will relate the following anecdote : The first
report that came from the Liberal National Conven-
tion of 1872 stated that Charles Francis Adams was
nominated for President. Happening to be in the
Sun office, Mr. Dana asked me to write an article on
the subject. I went to my law-office, and spent tlirec
hours in preparing three cohimns of wliat I thought
was excellent matter, inchiding a rather imposing
sketch of the Adams family, from the first John
down to the alleged Liberal nominee. On i-eturning

HORACE GREELEY.

187

to the Sun rooms with my editorial, imagine my sur-
prise to learn that Horace Greeley, and not an Ad-
ams of any sort, was the candidate. I cast my labored
production into the waste-basket, and w^ent home.

The campaign of 1872 was a blunder on the part of
those who opposed the re-election of Grant. If the
bolting Republicans had nominated Greeley, and the
regular Democrats had presented a candidate like
Horatio Seymour, for instance. General Grant would
have been defeated. But it proved to be impossible
to persuade a large class of Democrats to vote for
*'the founder of the JVew York Tribuney

My last glimpse of Horace Greeley w^is soon after
the election of 1872. He darted out of the Tribune
office, ran against me, and started down Park Row at
a rapid pace. I contrived to keep up with him, and
followed him into a street-car at the Astor House.
On accosting him he gave me a wild stare that alarmed
me. I inquired after his health, and he replied, "I
have ruined all my friends in the election, and now
they are destroying me." A few more words satisfied
me that his mind was clouded. How sad was his end !

Gerrit Smith helped to quarry the corner-stone of
the Republican party. He was the very friend of the
slave. His purse was always open for the promotion
of their cause. When I was a secretary of the Amer-
ican Anti-slavery Society he placed in my hands at
one time his check for §10,000 for its treasury — a sum
equal to $25,000 now. He was the protector and
patron of runaway negroes who followed the fort-
unes of the North Star. Forty years ago, at his pa-
latial mansion in Peterboro', and which looked like

188

RANDOM KECOLLECTIOXS.

the country-seat of an English nobleman, it would be
singular if you did not find among the fashionable
guests from ^ew York, Albanj^, and Philadelphia
surrounding his hospitable board at least one or two
fugitive slaves. Indeed — and especially in the sum-
mer season — his visitors were of the most miscellane-
ous and amusing description. There you might meet
a dozen wealthy and refined visitors from the metro-
politan cities ; a sprinkling of negroes from the sunny
South on their way to Canada ; a crazy Millerite or
two, who, disgusted with the world, thought it des-
tined to be burned up at an early day ; an adventurer
who Avanted Mr. Smith to invest largely in some ut-
terly impracticable patent right, while the throng
would be checkered with three or four Indians of the
neighborhood, the remnants of the once powerful
Oneidas, who remembered the father, and felt pretty
sure that they could get something out of his munifi-
cent son. The high-born guests had come to enjoy
themselves during the summer solstice at this fine
rural retreat, and they always had a good time. As
to the rest, they Avere never sent empty away, espe-
cially the negroes and the Indians, the former accept-
ing cash in hand and good advice about the best route
to Canada, while the latter departed in good time
Avith shoulders stooping under burdens of flour, beef,
and other edibles. But Mr. Smith never Avas knoAAm
to invest in any of the patent rights, and he took not
a single share of stock in the scheme for burning up
the Avorld.

I Avas, many years ago, riding Avith Gerrit Smith in
one of the counties of northern Kew York, lie sud-

SMITH AND ASTOR.

180

denly stopped the carnage, and, looking around for a
few minutes, said, " We are now on some of my poor
land, familiarly known as the John Brown tract ;"
and he then added, " I own eight hundred thousand
acres, of which this is a part, and all in one piece."
Everybody knows that Judge Peter Smith, his father,
purchased the most of this land at sales by the comp-
troller of the state for unpaid taxes, and left it by Avill
to his son Gerrit. He said that he owned land in fifty-
six of the sixty counties in IS^ew York. Some of
this brought him a handsome income, though he gave
a good deal of it away years before he died. lie was
also a landhokler in other states of the Union.

Early in 1837 Mr. Smith's father died, leaving a
large estate to Gerrit, charged with heavy legacies
and debts. Two or three m.onths after the decease
of his father the well-remembered panic of 1S3T oc-
curred. The banks had suspended specie payments,
and could afford Mr. Smith no loans to meet pressing
obligations. So embarrassed was he that his counsel
advised him to make an assignment of his property
for the benefit of his creditors. Mr. Smith declined
to make the assignment until he had first conferred
with the elder John Jacob Astor, the old friend of his
father. Smith wrote to Astor, and informed him of
his situation, and said that, if possible, he would be
glad if he could make him a loan, and take such secu-
rity therefor as he liad to offer. Mr. Astor invited
him to come to ISTew York and talk the matter over.
He came, and dined with the great millionaire. As-
tor, of course, knew his errand, but, during the pro-
tracted dinner, seemed more inclined to tell anecdotes

190

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

about his excursions thirty and forty years before
with Peter Smith up the valley of the Mohawk than
to listen to details about Gerrit Smith's present obli-
gations and the value of the property which he could
put under mortgage. As they sat at the hospitable
board Mr. Astor Avould frequently break in with the
enthusiastic exclamation, "Why, Gerrit, how much
you do look as your father used to when he and I
went up the Mohawk among the Indians after furs !"
At length they came down to business, and Mr. Astor
asked Smith how much of a loan he wanted. He
told him 8250,000. " Do 3'ou want it immediately,
and all at once?" said Astor. "I do," said Gerrit.
''Then you shall have it." It Avas arranged that
Smith should give Astor a mortgage on his Oswego
water-power, for which Smith had paid §14,000 about
fifteen years before, for this loan of $250,000. Mr.
Smith returned to Peterboro', and in three or four
days received Mr. Astor's check by mail for 8250,000.
He made out the mortgage and sent it to Oswego to
be recorded, with directions to mail it to Mr. Astor
as soon as it Avas inscribed on the records. Smith
went on using the money, and supposed that all had
gone right about the forwarding of the mortgage.
After a delay of several weeks, judge of his surprise
at receiving a letter from Mr. Astor, saying that he
was afraid that his friend Smith had forgotten to
make out that mortgage which they talked about
Avhen he was last in the city. Smith hastened to Os-
wego, and found that, through some stupidity, the
county clerk bad forgotten to mail the mortgage to
Astor, although it had been duly and seasonably re-

JOHN EEOWN.

191

corded. Of course it was now sent forward, accom-
])anie(i oy an appropriate explanation. Thus, for sev-
eral weeks, John Jacob Astor had nothing but Gerrit
Smith's word for a loan of $250,000. This incident
lets in a flood of light u|)on the characters of these
two renuirkable men.

I have not space to give even a list of the martyrs
who endured pains and penalties unto death in the
Anti-slavery cause. The tears of an enfranchised
race will bedew their graves, and an appreciative
posterity will erect monuments to their memory.
One well - remembered figure looms on my vision
from his lonely resting-place in the Adirondacks. I
met John Brown but once, and then unexpectedly, at
Gerrit Smith's. Mr. Smith's son. Green, was a sports-
man, lie had an assortment of rifles, and was a fair
shot. After dinner Green went out with a couple of
companions to fire at a target. I was looking on
when Captain Brown appeared on the scene. The
firing was rather vrild. Brown watched awhile, and
then closely examined the rifles, selected one, loaded
it, and faced the target. He pointed the weapon at
the ground, with his eye on the barrel, raised it rap-
idly, and the instant it came to a level he fired, and
]iit the bulFs eye right in the centre. Handing the
rifle to Green Smith, he said, with a grim smile,
'•Boys, that is the way to shoot," and slowly re-
turned to the house. Soon after Brown's execution
an editorial from my ]3en appeared in the Xew York
Tribune^ whicli I am Avilling should stand as my opin-
ion of his character and deeds. He will fill a unique
niche in American history. The echo of his fame will

192

KAXDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

reverberate along the colonnades of the centuries, and
preserve from obhvion the names of those who put
him to death.

In 1S58 I had the pleasure of spending a day at
the hospitable mansion of ex-President Yan Buren,
near Kinderhook. The Sage of Lindenwald was in-
structive and entertaining. The most interesting por-
tion of his conversation related to slavery. Eefer-
ring to the campaign of 1848, he said that his utter-
ances on that great evil Avere his matured convictions.
" I have nothing to mochfy or change," he remarked.
AYith serious earnestness he added, The end of sla-
very will come— amid terrible convulsions, I fear, but
it Avill come.'- A word about Mr. Yan Buren's per-
sonal following. lias it ever been equalled by any
other Xew York statesman ? In the contest of 1848
he carried over, on a bolt from the regular Presiden-
tial nominee, more than half the Democratic voters
in the state. How few Governor Seward was able
to lead over to Andrew Johnson's "policy" in the
election of 18G6 1 I feel constrained to pay peculiar
honors to Mr. Yan Buren for the course he and his
followers pursued in 1817-48 in regard to the ex-
tension of slavery. Their protest at the ballot-boxes
in that crucial emergency was the turning-point in
the great controversy that ultimated, fifteen years
later, in the overthrow of the " institution " and the
preservation of the Union. But for the aid of Dem-
ocrats who had been trained in the school of IMartin
Yan Buren, Silas Wright, and Samuel J. Tilden, the
Union and the Constitution might perhaps have gone
to pieces in the terrible epoch of 1SG1-G5.

CHAPTER XXI.

William II. Se^'ard as Senator. — Seward on Weed. — Seward Un-
bending.— Seward and Judge Sackett. — Weed the "State
Fifer." — Seward and Conkling.— Conkling Elected to Congress
in 1858. — Seward on Greeley.— John Sherman, Candidate for
Speaker. — Tom Corwin as an Orator. — The Jewish Rabbi Prays.
— Henry AVinter Davis. — Pennington Chosen Speaker. — Slidell's
Bill to Purchase Cuba. — Wade and Toombs in Close Contact. —
"Land for the Landless Tcrsiis Niggers for the Xiggerless." —
Scene in the Senate in 1859 between Benjamin and Seward. —
Seward Smokes Benjamin's Cigar. — Scene in the Senate in 1834
between Clay and Van Buren. — Van Burcn Takes a Pinch of
Clay's Snuff.

Mk. Seward represented X ew York in the Senate
in a grand and memorable era. He rose to the level
of his responsibilities, and was courageous, sagacious,
sincere, and earnest. He led a forlorn hope against
formidable foes, over which the cause he championed
finally triumphed. He was grave in argument and
dignified in demeanor, and, though rhetorical and
even ornate in style, he never indulged in those flashy
flippances that sometimes succeed in palming them-
selves off as wit, but which legitimate wit repudiates
as a bastard progeny.

Since Mr. Dickinson and General Dix left the Sen-
ate, Xew York has sent several respectable members
to that bod}^, but no really able men, when measured
b\" a lofty standard, except Mr. Seward and Mr. Conk-
ling. Mr. Evarts is yet to be thoroughly tried on
9

194

RANDOM EECOLLECTIOXS,

this new field. He doubtless remembers that Erskinc,
one of the greatest advocates that ever addressed an
English jury, and Jeffrey, who shone so brilliantly in
the Scotch courts, failed in Parliament. The many-
sided men like Brougham and Webster are few in
number.

ISTobody knew better than Mr. Seward that, if he
had been the candidate for the Presidency in 1856, ho
w^ould have received the same vote that Fremont did,
and that his nomination in 1860 would have inevita-
bly followed, and he would have entered the White
House instead of Lincoln. Mr. Seward more than
hinted to confidential friends that Mr. Weed betrayed
him for Fremont.

Mr. Weed himself told the following story : He and
Mr. Seward were riding up Broadway, and when pass-
ing the bronze statue of Lincoln, in Union Square,
Seward said : " Weed, if you had been faithful to me,
I should have been there instead of Lincoln." " Sew-
ard," replied Weed, is it not better to be alive in a
carriage with me than to be dead and set up in
bronze ?"

At the close of the Fremont campaign some mon-
ey remained in the treasury of the National Commit-
tee. William M. Chace, of Providence, the secretary,
favored its expenditure on the famous " Helper Book."
Edwin D. Morgan, the chairman, would consent to
this, if Mr. Weed advised it. Being at Washington
in the winter of 1857-58, I met Mr. Chace, who had
come there for the rather queer purpose of requesting
Mr. Seward to request Mr. Weed to request Mv. Mor-
gan to adopt Chace's plan for the disposal of this

SEWARD ON WEKD.

195

money. Chace not knowing Mr. Seward personally,
I went one evening to his house to introduce him.
The Senator was alone with his after-dinner cigar.
Chace explained his case to his attentive listener, I
sitting near, reading a newspaper. The Senator puffed
out a cloud of smoke and began to talk in that delib-
erate style so familiar to his friends. " Mr. Chace, I
understand you want me to speak to Mr. Weed, and
request him to advise Mr. Morgan to make a certain
disposition of the funds in qu*estion V Mr. Chace
bowed. " Mr. Chace," resumed the Senator, " Mr.
Weed is a very peculiar man. He is a very secretive
man. He is an unfathomable man. He thinks I am
always driving everything to the devil. But through-
out my public life he has told me to do this or that
particular thing, and I have done it. He has told me
not to do this or that, and I have refrained from do-
ing it. Whether in all this he was cheating me or
cheating somebody else (for I take it for granted he
is always cheating somebody), I don't know." He
then suggested to Mr. Chace to go to Senator Simon
Cameron, and tell him he had sent him, ,and take his
advice in the matter of the funds. Some congress-
men dropped in, and Chace and I left. We did not
speak for a block or two. My Ehode Island coadju-
tor then jerked my arm, burst into a laugh, and said,
" Did you ever hear anything equal to that ?"

We never knovr a public man till we see him in un-
dress. Webster in a boat at Marslifield, Avith a fish-
ing-rod in his hand, was a different person from Web-
ster in the Senate holding spellbound the elite of the
nation. Mr. Seward was an intense toiler in the thorny

190

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

field of politics. He delighted to throw off his bur-
den, and unbend in a small circle of friends. At Sen-
eca Falls there resided Garry Y. Sackett, whom Sew-
ard, when Governor, had appointed a judge of the
Common Pleas. He was a gentleman farmer, largo
and stately in person, and dressed in the style of
Webster. He was on familiar terms with Seward,
took great liberties with him, and the Senator often
came to Seneca, and had a free-and-easy round of
fun. Sackett did not know as much as he thought
he did, and Seward sometimes made a butt of him
and roared with laughter, though the Judge would
occasionally^ make reprisals on the spot. When the
Senator visited the Judge, I was generally called in,
and sometimes the young people of the village were
invited for the evening. The latter looked with awe
upon the distinguished statesman from Auburn.

During one afternoon, Seward had been firing his
teasing arrows at Sackett. In the evening, the Judge,
arrayed in full Websterian costume, posed before a
houseful of young people, and went for the Senator.
He brought out and pinned on the wall the famous
caricature in which, when Seward was Governor,
Thurlow Weed is depicted as the state fifer, with the
principal state officers marching in Indian file behind
him, and straining themselves to the utmost to keep
up with the musician, who is blowing at the top of his
bent. Indeed, the little Governor, in trying to tread
in the tracks of the tall fifer, had torn his trousers at
rather a delicate spot. The likenesses were perfect.
The picture was widely circulated, and it so closely
accorded with the jeers in the Democratic newspapers

SEWARD OX SACKETT.

197

that it was very annoying to Mr. Seward even after
he became Senator, for Mr. Weed, in popular estima-
tion, was still '* The Dictator."

On the occasion referred to, Sackett elaborately
explained the picture to the youngsters in the pres-
ence of Seward, telling what a great leader Weed
was, how obediently the Governor followed him, how
closely even to that day he kq)t step with him (at
this point seemingly trying to conceal the rent in his
trousers), assm^ng the deeply interested listeners that
Seward owed his success in politics wholly to Weed ;
and then, looldng over his shoulder to where Seward
sat smoldng, exclaimed, Is not that so. Governor ?"
The response came back, Sackett, you are a fool.
Go and get me another cigar."

At another time, before ]\Ir. Sewai'd and a like au-
dience, and to " get even " with the teasing Senator,
the Judge told the story of his visit to the Anti-rent-
ers, in the Helderberg, in company with Seward, soon
after he was chosen Governor. The Anti-renters were
making an uproar. The legislature had authorized a
commission to consider their grievances, and Mr. Sew-
ard had appointed Sackett one of the commissioners.
The latter proposed that they visit the troubled dis-
trict, the young Governor assented, notice was sent out
three or four days ahead, and they rode to the Hel-
derberg in a stately barouche drawn by four horses.
Long afterwards, on due provocation, at Seneca Falls,
Sackett took reprisals of the bantering Senator after
dinner, by describing the scene at Helderberg. He
said that when the barouche arrived, several hundred
Anti-renters were on the ground. Sackett, standing

198

RAXDOM KECOLLECTIOXS.

six feet two inches high, and dressed in imposing cos-
tume, got out first. The crowd rushed upon him, sa-
luted him as Governor, and gave three cheers. The
commissioner lifted his gold-headed cane high in air,
and exclaimed, Stop, gentlemen ! You have made
the same mistake that the people of Isew York made
last fall. They doubtless ought to have chosen me
Governor, but, instead, they elected this man, whom
I present to you as William H. Seward." Sackett,
then addressing the dinner-party, would add, with
great reUsh, " You ought to have seen how the crowd
fell back when I introduced Seward as the Governor.
He was clambering out of the carriage while they
were giving me the three cheers, and many of them
said they didn't believe that little man was the Gov-
ernor." Then turning to the Senator, he said, " Wasn't
it a funny scene, Seward I" The Senator replied that
when the commissioners Avent into the Helderberg to
take testimony, Sackett wasted all their time in tell-
ing preposterous stories that nobod}^ believed.

In 1858 Roscoe Conkling was the Republican can-
didate for Congress in Oneida. Mr. O. B. Matteson,
who had previously represented this district, was
zealously opposing him. Matteson had long been a
personal friend of Mr. Seward. Hard pressed, Mr.
Conkling sent for Mr. Seward and myself to address
a county meeting at Eome. I was called to keep the
Republican Barnburners in line for Conkling. Mr.
Seward was summoned to counteract the effect of
Matteson's hostility. Wrapped in a blue broadcloth
cloak, with elegant trimmings, Conkling surveyed the
large audience with anxious eye. I spoke first, eulo-

t3KWAKD ON CONKLINCr.

199

gizing Seward and Conkling. The Senator commenced
his address with a hearty encomium upon Matteson,
by way of preface to the matter in hand. lie then
spoke generally in support of the Eepubhcan cause,
and eloquently commended his young friend Conk-
ling to the voters of Oneida. I have been told that
this eulogium of Mr. Matteson was retained in the
published report of Mr. Seward's speech under the
special direction of Mr. Seward, and against the car-
nest protest of Mr. Conkling's friends. The next morn-
ing I went to Utica, and was amused to see that near-
ly the only notice taken of the Eome meeting, by the
general press, was a full report of Mr. Seward's eulo-
gium on Mr. Matteson. This, of course, would go the
grand rounds of the newspapers in the state. I met
Mr. Conkling. My acquaintance with the English
language is not sufficiently intimate to enable me to
describe how angry he was. Mr. Conkling was elect-
ed. Then commenced those twenty years of service,
in the House and Senate, which have left their lus-
trous mark on the records of Congress.

I was at Mr. Seward's, in Auburn. The conversa-
tion ran on public afPairs and public men. He re-
marked that it was a long time before he fathomed
one prominent character in Xew York. This was
Horace Greeley. He said he had supposed Greeley
was doing his work from philanthropic motives, and
had no desire for offi.ce ; but subsequently he found
he was mistaken, and that he was very eager to hold
office. I replied, in rather a careless tone, " Senator,
do you not think it would have been better for you
if you had let him have office Mr. Seward looked

200

RANDOM KECOLLPXTIOXS.

at me intently, rolled out a cloud of tobacco smoke,
and then slowly responded, " I don't know but it
would." I was not aware how point-blank a shot I
had fired, for I did not then know of the existence of
the letter of Xovemb^r 11, 1854, addressed by Greeley
to Seward, dissolving the old political firm of " Sew-
ard, Weed, and Greeley," by the withdrawal of the
junior partner. Greeley's opposition to Seward's
nomination to the Presidency, in 1860, brought this
unique epistle out of the secret archives of Mr. Sew-
ard. It is printed in Greeley's " Eecollections of a
Busy Life," and will repay perusal by students of
fallen human nature.

Thomas Corwin was the prince of orators. He was
elected to Congress in 1858. He had long before won
fame throughout the Union. Ko party had an abso-
lute majority in the House that witnessed the terri-
ble era that ushered in the rebellion. The balance of
power between the Eepublicans and Democrats, in
the House, was held by a small body of Xorthern
Know-Nothings, Southern Know-Xothings, and Old-
line Whigs. John Sherman, on the nomination of
Corwin, became the Eepublican candidate for Speak-
er. The contest, commencing in December, 1850, con-
tinued for eight Aveeks. The ballotings were inter-
spersed with a variety of speeches. One morning
Corwin arose. The House and galleries overflowed
with spectators. His address lasted three days. His
aim was to prove that in their efforts to prohibit by
law the extension of slavery the Republicans Avere a
constitutional party. It was one of the most wonder-
ful speeches I ever heard. All that had gone before

TOM COR WIN AS AN ORATOK.

201

it, and all that came after it, in this weary contest of
two months, seemed mere chattering in comparison
Avith an effort that w\as replete w^ith logic, wit, humor,
repartee, sarcasm, and pertinent references to history,
and sketches of statesmen in early days who held the
doctrines of the "Wilmot Proviso ; and all the while,
amid the glitter of the hghter and gayer passages of
the speech, the orator was carrying forward the heavy
chain of ratiocination.

One day there w^as an unusual commotion on the
floor. The pages w^ere running to and fro, and a hun-
dred quivering pencils w^ere keeping tally to the call
of the clerk. It was seen that all the Democrats, and
a dangerously large share of the Ivnow-Xothings and
Old-line Whigs, were voting for Mr. Smith, of Xorth
Carohna, a new candidate. Ere the result was an-
nounced, John Sherman rose. " Mr. Clerk, please call
my name. '* John Sherman," said the clerk. " Thom-
as Corwin," responded Sherman. On counting the
tally list, it was found that the votes cast for Sher-
man and the one vote for Corwin were precisely
equal to the total votes given for Smith. A narrow
escape.

That evening Sherman withdrew, and ex-Governor
William Pennington, of Xew Jersey, w^as named as
the Republican candidate. There being no regular
chaplain, it had been the custom to invite the Wash-
ington clergy in turn to officiate in that capacity.
The next m^orning the Jewish rabbi appeared for the
first time. Arrayed in his sacerdotal robes, he lifted
his open eyes to the ceiling and prayed that the God

of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would break the dead-
9-

202

RA>'DOM RECOLLECTIO:>S.

lock in the House, and set the wheels of Congress
in motion. Winter Davis, who had steadily voted
against Sherman, was pacing the hall in the rear of
the seats. "When the clerk called his name, he an-
swered, in a tone that thrilled the crowd, Penning-
ton !" The elegant member from Baltimore liad a
following. After one or two ballots Pennington was
chosen, and the Eepublicans had a speaker. The
House took a long breath, and determined to have
some sport. A motion to adjourn was voted down,
and so was another and another. The new speaker
gave the floor to everybody that asked for it, till a
dozen members were talking at once, amid screams of
laughter. Mr. John Cochrane, a Democrat, crept up
the marble steps, and told Mr. Pennington that if he
would recognize him he would move an adjournment,
and he believed enough Democrats would vote with
him to carry the motion. " Oh, no, Mr. Cochrane,"
said the speaker ; let her run." After it had had fun
enough the House adjourned, with the clumsiest pre-
siding officer that ever filled the chair.

John Slidell introduced into the Senate a bill to ap-
propriate twenty or thirty millions of dollars (I for-
get which) for the purchase of Cuba. Of coui^e, the
object was to strengthen the slave power. When he
moved to take up the bill, it was antagonized by a
motion to take up the bill for granting public lands
free of cost to settlers, known as the Homestead bill.
A debate immediately arose on the merits of tlie two
measures, which ran into the night, and became in-
tensely bitter towards the close. Robert Toombs,
of Georgia, whose seat was right beside Benjamin F.

WADE AND TOOMBS.

203

Wade's, was eloquently abusive. He shook his fist at
Seward, who at that moment was standing in the door
of a cloak-room calmly puffing a cigar, and called him
a little demagogue. He accused the Eepublicans of
being afraid of the lacklanders " (as he styled those
who might wish to accept the privileges of the home-
stead policy), frequently thumping his desk by way
of emphasis, and occasionally * striking a blow on
Wade's. As he took his seat, half a dozen senators
sprang to their feet. Vice-President Breckinridge
could not but give the floor to Wade, for he leaped
clear from the carpet. Turning short on Toombs, he
exclaimed, Afraid, are we ? Afraid, are we ? I nev-
er saw anything or any man under God's heavens
that I was afraid of," at the same time smiting
Toombs's desk with his fist, which came inconvenient-
ly close to the Georgian's nose. Two or three more
sentences in this vein were hurled at him, accompa-
nied by heavy thuds on the desk. Toombs rolled back
his chair, and said, " I except my friend from Ohio
from my too sweeping remark." Yery well," re-
sumed Wade, if you wish to back out, you can go."
He then briefly dissected Slidell's measure, contrast-
ing it with the homestead policy, and exclaimed, '* We
accept the issue tendered to us, and will go to the
people on it, viz., land for the landless versus niggers
for the niggerless." The excited auditory burst into
loud applause, which was not easily suppressed. Sli-
dell's motion was rejected, Mr. Douglas rubbing his
hands in great glee at the discomfiture of his sly, sour
enemy.

It is rare that we meet a character that embodied

204

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

SO much rough grandeur as Benjamin Franldin "Wade's.
He did not know what fear was. Toombs was mere-
ly an eloquent bully. He had little of that courage
that stands fire.

During the four turbulent years of Buchanan's ad-
ministration, Mr. Seward was recognized both by co-
adjutors and opponents as the leader of his party in
the Senate. Though always respectful towards an-
tagonists, and never for a moment losing his equa-
nimity in debate, he was so radical in his opinions on
negro slavery, and so bold in their utterance, that he
drew upon himself the hostility of the Southern sen-
ators, and especially such slavery propagandists as
Toombs, Slidell, Mason, and Benjamin. The latter
had formerly been a Whig, and liis seat was on the
hereditary Whig side of the chamber, where now sat
in adjoining chairs four leaders who had supported
General Taylor's administration, namely, Seward and
Benjamin, Wade and Toombs, the latter then being in
the House. Among the ready, pungent, and eloquent
orators in the Senate stood Judah P. Benjamin. One
day, at the close of a set speech on the Kansas em-
broglio, he made an impassioned and bitter attack on
Seward. As Benjamin resumed his seat, Seward rose,
and, turning to his assailant, said, in a calm and in-
different tone, " Benjamin, give me a cigar, and when
your speech is printed send me a copy." Seward then
retired to the cloak-room and smoked Benjamin's
cigar.

Though this was done witliout affectation on the
part of Seward, it was nevertheless a close copy of
the dramatic scene in tlie Senate a quarter of a cen-

CLAY AND VAN BUKEN.

205

tury before, wherein Clay and Yan Buren were the
leading actors. It was in the height of the conflict
over the removal, by order of President Jackson, of
the Federal funds from the United States Bank and
its branches, which had set the country all aflame,
particularly in commercial and financial centres. Mr.
Yan Buren, the Yice-President, was a model of cour-
tesy as a presiding officer. The*Whigs in the Senate,
led by their great chieftains. Clay and Webster, de-
manded a return of the moneys to the bank. They
daily hurled anathemas against Jackson, declaring
that he was a despot of the deepest dye, and that an
indignant people would soon rise and hurl him from
power. They compared him to Nero, Charles I., and
other tyrants of olden times. One morning Mr. Clay,
in the course of a vehement harangue, implored the
Yice-President to instantly leave the Senate chamber
and repair to the White House, and on his bended
knees before the despot exert his well-known influ-
ence over him, and insist upon the restoration of the
deposits to the bank without an hour's delay, as the
only means of averting a revolution in the country.
As Clay closed his eloquent philippic, Yan Buren
called a senator to the chair and went straight across
the chamber to Clay's seat. The tall Kentuckian rose
and stared at the little magician, while the perturbed
spectators awaited the result w^ith undisguised anxie-
ty. Yan Buren bowed gracefully to Clay, and said,
" Mr. Senator, allow me to be indebted to you for
another pinch of your aromatic Maccaboy." Clay
waved his hand towards the gold snuff-box on his
desk, and took his seat, while Yan Buren took a del-

206

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

icate pinch and leisurely returned to the Vice-Presi-
dent's chair.

Perhaps some of those who witnessed the Bank-
Biddle - Clay - Webster - Jackson -Yan Buren revolu-
tion" of 1832-1836, and lived to see the convulsions
of 1861-1865, may be tempted to look back upon the
financial turmoils of the earlier epoch with feelings
akin to contempt. But history would be incomplete
unless it took note of many little things that derive
all their importance from the magnitude of the men
who bore a part in them.

CHAPTER XXII.

Turbulent Scenes in the House in 1859, 18G0. — Grow Knocks
Keitt Down. — Crawford Threatens Thad. Stevens.— Tribute to
Stevens. — Stephen A. Douglas; his Ke-election to the Senate
over Abraham Lincoln in 1859. — His JReccption in the Senate. —
Pro-Slavery Democrats Assail him. — Seward Preparing for the
Chicago Convention of 1860. — Deluded as to his Strength. — The
Senators Opposed to him. — Corwin and Lincoln Speak in New
England Early in 1860. — New-Yorkers w^ho Oppose Seward at
Chicago. — Lincoln Nominated. — Scene at Auburn when the
News Came. — Seward Embittered. — Crushed Presidential Aspi-
rations of Seward, Greeley, Clay, and TTebster. — Ira Harris
Chosen Senator in 1861. — Defeat of Greeley and Evarts. — Rufus
King's Chair in the Senate. — Its Distinguished Occupants.

During Buchanan's administration scenes often oc-
curred in the House more dramatic and perilous than
any in the Senate. I was present when Galusha A.
Grow, of Pennsylvania, knocked down Lawrence M.
Keitt, of South Carolina, under circumstances that
came near to involving the members, and perhaps the
galleries, in bloodshed. It was due to the caution
and firmness of Speaker Orr that the catastrophe was
averted. At a later day Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois, a
brother of the Alton martyr, while delivering a speech,
unconsciously advanced step by step across the area
in front of the clerk's desk. A Southern member laid
his hand on Lovejoy's shoulder, saying, '* Go back to
3^our own side.'' Instantly the area was full of mem-
bers, the most of whom were armed. The ominous

208

RANDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

" click " of weapons was heard. Elihu B. Washburne,
of Illinois, clutched at the supposed hair of AYilham
Barksdale, of Mississippi, and pulled off his wig. High
above the din rose the voice of AYilliani Kellogg, of
Illinois, shouting, "My colleague shall be heard!"
The crowd swayed to and fro, the mace of the little
sergeant-at-arms dancing about on the surface till it
was thrown clear out of the vortex, recalling the
scene in Westminster Hall, when Cromwell, who had
entered to expel the Eump Parliament, was confront-
ed with the mace, and cried, " Take away that bau-
ble !" The frightened Speaker rapped, rapped, rapped,
shouted " Order, order, order!" and the storm finally
subsided.

Thaddeus Stevens, clearly within parliamentary
rules, was addressing the House on another occasion
in his usual pungent style, when Martin J. Crawford,
of Georgia, followed by a dozen other Secessionists,
rushed towards him, some of them threatening to as-
sassinate him on the spot unless he retracted his words.
The brave old commoner maintained his ground, and
stood by his words. He was then in his sixty-ninth
year, and a cripple. Crawford Avas forty, and tall,
wiry, and athletic. The assault plunged the House
into a vortex of excitement. The deliberation and
dignity of Stevens cowed Crawford and his caitiffs,
who, one after another, slunk into their seats, while
the great debater resumed his speech. The steadiness
of nerve exhibited by Mr. Stevens probably saved the
House from a bloody affray. The subsequent career
of CraAvford illustrates his colossal impudence. Dur-
ing the civil war he was a member of the rebel con-

TIIADDECS STEVENS. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 209

gress, and was sent by that assembly to "Washington
as one of a so-called commission or embassy to nego-
tiate a treaty of peace between the Confederacy and
the United States, on the basis that the Union was
already dissolved. Could effrontery further go ! These
tumults were the skirmishes that preceded Bull Kun,
Antietam, Gettysburg, and Appomattox Court House.
Keitt was killed in battle in front of Washington, and
Barksdale fell in the last terrible charge of Lee against
Cemetery Eidge, at Gettysburg, but Crawford pre-
ferred to practise law.

An emancipated race, through the long 3^ears to
come, will cast wreaths on the grave of Thaddeus Ste-
vens. Born to a low condition, he struggled with adver-
sity till he reached eminence in law, politics, and states-
manship. During the administrations of Lincoln and
Johnson he was the leader of the Kepubhcan party
in the House of Kepresentatives, its most acute and
fearless debater, occupying extreme radical ground on
the subjects of the emancipation of the slaves, their
enlistment in the army in the war period, and their
admission to the ballot-boxes in the reconstruction
era ; while on the other hand he advocated the politi-
cal disfranchisement and the confiscation of the prop-
erty of all those who had actively participated in the
rebellion.

Eising from obscurity and poverty, Stephen A.
Douglas, without adventitious aids, advanced by sheer
force of will and perseverance to eminent leadership
in the Democratic party. He had Httle learning, but
was endowed with rare oratorical gifts, while his
buoyant spirits made him popular with the multitude.

210

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

He was a native-born tribune of the people. A little
story will illustrate his jovial manner. Beverly Tuck-
er was sitting on his knee, with Douglas's arm around
him. Bev.," said he, when I get to be President
what shall I do for you ?" Doug.," replied Tucker,
" when you get to be President all I shall ask of you
is to take me on j^our knee, put your arm around me,
and call me ' Be v.' "

In his contest for Senator with Mr. Lincoln, in 1858,
he was successful, but did not come to Washington in
the following winter until after his re-election to the
Senate by the legislature. In his conflict with the
" Tall Sucker," of Springfield, the " Little Giant," of
Chicago, had been driven to the utterance of opinions
on the Free-soil question which were repugnant to
the creed of such slavery propagandists in the Senate
as Davis, Mason, Toombs, and Slidell. Ilis reception
in the Senate, on his first appearance, was a spectacle
to be enjoyed. As he entered a select crowd in the
galleries applauded. Mason, Slidell, and their bitter
clique scowled and did not recognize him. When a
distinguished senator approached he rose from his seat
and received the greeting with marked cordiality. The
lesser lights were content with a hearty shake of the
hand, he maintaining a sitting posture. Jefferson Da-
vis came to his chair. Douglas rose, and they bowed
and bowed, but seemed to say very little. After some
of the minor Kepublicans had paid their respects to the
lion of the hour, Mr. Seward crossed the aisle ; Doug-
las rose, they bowed, and lie then gave the leader of
the opposition a seat by his side. Since the last ses-
sion the Senate had removed into its ncAv chamber,

SENATOR STUART DEFENDS DOUGLAS. 211

where Douglas had never sat. Lest he and Seward
should bo suspected of conversing about the Illinois
contest (which was delicate ground for Mr. Seward
to tread), the latter, with spectacles in hand and arm
extended, was pointing out the architectural beauties
of the new hall, Mr. Douglas following the spectacles
with his eye, and twisting around in his chair to keep
pace with their meanderings.

For many days Douglas was quiet, content with his
victory at home. The Slavery -propagandists deter-
mined to drive him out of the party. A string of
resolutions condemnatory of his Illinois opinions was
introduced into the Senate. The debate lasted far
into the night. The Kepublicans generally stood
aloof. The attacks upon Douglas were rare speci-
mens of scathing oratory, Mason and Slidell being
particularly offensive. Douglas and his few Demo-
cratic coadjutors bore up gallantly against their as-
sailants. Charles E. Stuart, of Michigan, a Demo-
cratic Senator, was a strong, rough debater. In the
evening he converted the Senate Chamber into a
threshing-floor and his tongue into a flail. He told
the propagandists that instead of receiving the distin-
guished Senator from Illinois as a victor, they had
treated him as if he were a pickpocket. He pointed
to the many seats, one by one, now occupied by Ee-
publicans, which he had formerly seen filled by Dem-
ocrats. " And this," he exclaimed, in stentorian tones,
and shaldng his fist at the antagonists of Douglas,
" is due to your detestable doctrines." They quailed
under the flagellation of Stuart. It gave them a fore-
taste of the civil war. The success of the l^orth in the

212

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

"War of the Eebellion was, strange to say, in part due
to the author of the bill that repealed the Missouri
Compromise. I refer to the patriotic letter Douglas
addressed to his Democratic friends, which was ap-
pended to Mr. Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand
volunteers, in April, 1861. It produced an impression
through the country almost as profound as the Presi-
dent's proclamation. It extinguished the hope of the
South that they were to receive open aid from the
Xorthem Democracy in the attempt to destroy the
Union. Indeed, the accession to the patriotic side of
the struggle at a critical juncture of six such distin-
guished Democrats as General Cass, Mr. Dickinson,
Kobert J. Walker, Jeremiah Black, General Dix, and
Mr. Douglas, went far to inspire confidence in the
ultimate triumph of the constitutional party.

It so happened that Mr. Douglas and I left Wash-
ington in the same railway train in the perilous days
of April, 1861. We occupied adjoining seats till we
reached the Eelay House, where he turned his face
towards his Western home. He told me he should
spend the spring and summer in rallying the people
of Illinois to the support of Lincoln and the Union.
Alas ! on the third of the following June his sun set
to rise no more on earth.

In 1860 Mr. Seward made a speech in the Senate
which lie thought would remove all obstacles to his
nomination to the Presidency at Chicago. He read
it to me before it was delivered, and requested me to
write a description for the JVeio Yorh Irlhine of the
scene in the chamber during the delivery, which I
did. The description was elaborate, the Senator him-

SEWARD AND CORWKV.

213

self suggesting some of the nicer touches, and every
line of it was written and on its Avay to ISTew York
before Mr. Seward had uttered a word in the Senate
Chamber. Soon a large edition of the speech and the
description came to Washington. As he handed me
some copies he said, in his liveliest manner, " Here
we go down to posterity together." lie was in buoy-
ant spirits, seeming not to doubt "that his nomination
was assured. He would have felt otherwise if he
had known that at that critical 'moment scarcely a
half dozen Eepublican Senators were heartily in favor
of his candidacy. It is my own personal knowledge
that enables me to state that Fessenden, Hamlin,
Hale, Simmons, Foster, Dixon, Cameron, Wade, Trum-
bull, and Doolittle were among his opponents.

In the early spring of 1860 state contests were
pending in Connecticut and Ehode Island w^hose re-
sults might exert a wide influence in the next Presi-
dential campaign. I spoke in Connecticut and seve-
ral times in Ehode Island. In the latter state a fierce
struggle was raging for the governorship between tw^o
rich candidates — William Sprague, Democrat, and
Seth Paddleford, Eepublican. Each w^as flooding that
little rotten borough with money. The Eepublicans
urged me to get Mr. Corwin to come from Washington
and help them. I told them he was poor, and could
not afford to waste money in stump speaking. I de-
manded a carte llanche as to the terms I was to sub-
mit to the peerless orator. They gave it. I saw him.
In his half-serious, half -comic style he pronounced me
a philosopher, and started eastward ; and on his re-
turn he remarked in the same vein that the Yankees

214

KANDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

were the most magnificent and munificent people on
the face of the globe. A recital of the details of my
financial negotiations in behalf of the high contract-
ing parties might be amusing.

"When in the House of Eepresentatives, in 1848, I
saw a tall, lank, sallow-hued member bending over
the chair of another member, scarcely larger than
one of the pages, whose dried skin looked like parch-
ment. On inquiry I learned that they were Abraham
Lincoln and Alexander H. Stephens, both Whigs.

In the spring of 1860 Mr. Lincoln came eastward.
He delivered a wonderful speech in Cooper Institute,
and went to Connecticut and Ehode Island, where
he addressed tumultuous assemblies in the principal
cities. His debate with Douglas, his speech in New
York, and his trip to New England, gave him the
nomination to the Presidency.

Mr. Seward seemed to be certain of receiving the
Presidential nomination at Chicago. He felt that it
belonged to him. His flatterers had encouraged him
in the error that he was the sole creator of the Ke-
publican part\^, both he and they forgetting that it
was the grandchild of the Liberty party, which Avas
the legitimate offspring of the Missouri controversy.

At Chicago, Seward encountered the opposition
from his own state of sucli powerful leaders as Gree-
ley, Dudley Field, Bryant, and AVadsworth. The
first two were on tbe ground and very busy. The
two latter sent pungent letters that were circulated
among the delegates from various states. The main
point of the attack was that Seward could not carry
New York. Soon after the adjournment of the con-

SEWAKD AND THE CHICAGO CONVENTION.

215

vention, William Curtis IS'oyes, who vras a delegate,
told me (and there could not have been higher au-
thority for the statement than this learned lawyer)
that a careful canvass of the Xew York delegation
showed that nearly one fourth of its members be-
lieved it was extremely doubtful if Seward could ob-
tain a majority at the polls in that state. This doubt
was an element of great weakness in Seward's can-
vass at Chicago. The Barnburners in the Eepublican
party were general!}^ against him.' Perhaps the main
stumblino:-block over which he fell in the convention
was Thurlow AVeed. As events finally culminated,
it was clear that Seward could have carried Xew
York, for the Southern conspirators against the Union
were determined that the Eepublican candidate, who-
ever he was, should be elected.

Mr. Seward Avas popular among his neighbors On
the day when the convention was to ballot for a can-
didate, Ca^^ga county poured itself into Auburn.
The streets were full, and Mr. Seward's house and
grounds overflowed with his admirers. The trees
waved their branches on the lawn as if betokeninc'
coming victory. Flags were ready to be raised, and
a loaded cannon was placed at the gate, whose pillars
bore up two guardian lions. Arrangements had been
perfected for the receipt of intelligence with unwont-
ed speed from the scene where the battle was pro-
ceeding. At Mr. Seward's right hand, just within the
porch, stood his trusty henchman, Christopher Mor-
gan. The rider of a galloping steed dashed through
the crowd with a telegram, and handed it to Seward,
He read it and passed it to Morgan. For Seward,

21G

RANDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

173 J ; for Lincoln, 103 ; and for other aspirants, 189J.
Morgan repeated it to the multitude, who cheered ve-
hemently. Then came the tidings of the second bal-
lot : For Seward, 18i^ ; for Lincoln, 181 ; and for
others, 99J-. ''I shall be nominated on the next bal-
lot," said Seward, and the throng in the house ap-
plauded, and those on the lawn and in the street ech-
oed the cheers. The next messenger fi'om the tele-
graph office lashed his horse into a run. The telegram
read, " Lincoln nominated. T. TV." Seward turned
as pale as ashes. The sad tidings crept through
the vast concourse. The flags were furled, the can-
non was rolled away, and Cayuga county went homo
Avith a clouded brow. Mr. Seward retired to rest at
a late hour, and the night breeze in the tall trees
sighed a requiem over the blighted hopes of New
York's eminent son.

Mr. Seward felt his defeat at Chicago beyond all
power of expression, and he never forgave those who
had actively contributed to produce it. In incensed
moments he accused some men wrongfully, as he sub-
sequently admitted. lie was a good hater, and lay
in wait to punish his foes. He doubtless defeated
General TVadsworth for Governor of Xew York in
1862. "Wadsworth was then military commander at
Washington, and Seward was Secretary of State.
Wadsworth told me that Seward was " dead against
him " all through the campaign. He rather surprised
me by saying that Weed wanted him elected. Per-
haps this was due to the fact that thirty-five years
before Weed and the father of General Wadsworth
had stood shoulder to shoulder in the Anti-Masonic

SEWAKD AND GREELEY.

217

party in western New York. I could relate many
marked instances within my own knoAvledge where
Seward's lightning strokes fell on Xew York Kepub-
licans who had opposed his nomination in 1860. If
bitter exclamations, welling up from the heart, can
prove anything, they demonstrated the depth and in-
tensity of his mortification and anger. More than to
any other one man he attributed his failure to reach
the goal of his ambition to Horace Greeley. For
twenty years they were coadjutors in politics, but in
1854 they became estranged, and never after were
in close accord. They descended to their graves in
the same autumn, Seward in October and Greeley in
IS"ovember, 1872. Crushed Presidential aspirations
paved the path of each to the tomb. It was just
twenty years since Clay and ^Vebster had gone to the
spirit land by the same dark and dreary road.

Mr. Seward's successor was to be elected to the
Senate in 1861, he being about to enter Lincoln's
Cabinet. Mr. Seward's and Mr. "Weed's candidate
was William M. Evarts. His principal antagonist
was Horace Greeley, but Ira Harris, whom Weed
hated a little less than he did Greeley, held about
twenty votes as a balance of power. There were a
dozen or more votes floating around loose. The Ee-
publican nomination was equivalent to an election.
The prize was exceptionably valuable, for the Senator
would exert great influence in the distribution of pat-
ronage and otherwise under the new administration.
Evarts and Harris were on the ground weeks previ-
ous to the day of trial, and Albany was full of sup-
porters of the rival aspirants. Greeley w^as at the
1 0

218

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

"West lecturing. Governor Morgan favored Evarts,
and on the evening of the caucus gave AYeed tlie pos-
session of the Executive Chamber for the Evarts head-
quarters. De Witt C. Littlejohn, tall and lithe, was
"Weed's lieutenant. Greeley and Evarts ran about
neck and neck. Harris held the balance. There were
a dozen or fifteen floaters. For three ballots the re-
sult hardly changed. Suddenly Greeley shot ahead
of Evarts, and it looked as if he would win on the
next ballot. Pale as ashes. Weed sat smoking a cigar
within earshot of the bustle in the crowded Assembly
room, where the caucus sat. Littlejohn stalked over
the heads of the spectators, and reported to Weed.
Unmindful of the fact that he had a cigar in his
mouth, Weed lighted another and put it in, then rose
in great excitement, and said to Littlejohn, " Tell the
Evarts men to go right over to Harris — to Harris —
to Harris!" The order was given in the caucus.
They wheeled into line like ^Napoleon's Old Guard,
and Harris vvas nominated. Cannon reverberated on
Capitol hill. They were not fired by the AYeed-Ev-
arts faction.

Mr. Seward occupied the seat in the Senate which,
under the constitutional mode of arrangement, is in
class number three. From the foundation of the gov-
ernment it had been filled by many statesmen of
shining talents, among whom were Eufus King, De
Witt Clinton, John Armstrong, Nathan Sanford,AVill-
iam L. Marcy, Silas Wright, and John A. Dix. Its
prestige had not been tarnished by Mr. Seward.
Though defeated in his attempt to reach this elevated
position in 1861, Mr. Evarts achieved it twenty-four

SEWARD AND EVARTS.

219

years later, but through auspices quite different from
those that seconded his effort in the earlier struggle.
In the intervening period the country had borne up
under colossal events that might suffice to make a
century bend. Mr. Seward, Mr. Weed, and Mr. Mor-
gan had gone to the tomb^ and Mr. Evarts, in his old
age, was lifted into the chair that Eoscoe Conkling
had voluntarily vacated, by politicians who had prob-
ably never heard of Eufus King, and knew little of
"William H. Seward.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Lincoln's Cabinet. — Chase Pushed in. — David Davis, Confidential
Adviser of Lincoln. — Mrs. Lincoln "Sub-President." — Notices
of Seward, Chase, Cameron, Bates, Blair, and Welles. — Bick-
erings in the Cabinet. — Chase and Seward Grapple. — Bray-
Dickinson and Marcus Curtius.— Down in Dixie in April, 1861.
— Narrow Escape from Secessionists. — General Butler and his
Troops.— Colonel Jones and his Regiment Going through Balti-
more.— First Blood of the War. — Notice of Edwin M. Stanton,
the War Secretary.

After it Avas known that Mr. Seward was to be
Secretary of State great efforts were made by Yice-
President Hamlin, Mr. Greeley, Mr. Dana, Mr. Wads-
worth, the elder Blair, ex-Senator Carroll, and others
of that type, to get Mr. Chase into the Treasury De-
partment, as an offset to Mr. Seward. The President
and Chase were on the same floor at Willard's Hotel.
Mr. Chase had just been choocn a Senator in Congress.
In ignorance of the President's intentions, he repaired
to the Capitol, and was sworn as Senator, when the
message appointing him Secretary of the Treasury
was opened in his presence. The case of Gideon
Welles was not quite so singular. When Mr. Lin-
coln was stumping Connecticut, in the spring of 1860,
Welles accompanied him through the state. At Wash-
ington he told me he was to go into the Cabinet ; and
when asked what ])ortfolio he was to take, said he
was not sure, but supposed he would be Postmaster-
general.

Lincoln's cabinet.

221

I could put on paper many more things Avhich I
personally know about Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet than I
shall. I am constrained to omit some of the raciest.
David Davis, then in his prime, came to Washington
in the trail of the new President. In his vigorous
style he took an active part in the construction of
the Cabinet. He stood closer to Mr. Lincoln than
was then generally supposed. * In the controversies
that already appeared, and which subsequently ri-
pened into bitterness, Judge Davis was understood to
lean to^vards Mr. Seward. Who that witnessed the
scene can forget how, in the gusty two weeks that
foreboded the storm, Davis stamped back and forth
among the male and female politicians that crowded
the corridors at Willard's, doing great and small er-
rands for large and little people, with hat cocked
awry on his head, in the free-and-easy fashion of the
boundless West. Mrs. Lincoln, who arrived at Wash-
ington with the idea that she was a sort of sub-Pres-
ident, vvas suspected of communicating her wishes
in respect to the composition of the Cabinet to the
much-bored and badgered friend of her husband. She,
too, was understood to be on the Seward- Weed side
of the pending contest, and opposed to the Chase-
Greeley clique. Current gossip reported that, when
a protest went up to the President against this inter-
meddling of the mistress of the robes, he replied, in
characteristic phrase, " Tell the gentlemen not to be
alarmed, for I myself manage all important matters.
In little things I have got along through life by let-
ting my wife run her end of the machine pretty much
in her own way."

222

RANDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

Perhaps Mr. Lincoln was wise in selecting his Cab-
inet mainly from rivals whom he had overthrown or
absorbed at the Chicago Convention. The former
lists included Seward, Chase, Cameron, and Bates,
while Blair, Smith, and Welles represented factions
that had been at the best his cool friends in that try-
ing emergency. I had often spoken from the plat-
form with such members of the new Cabinet as were
accustomed to address public meetings, and knew the
others well except Mr. Bates, a quiet, retired gentle-
man, who would not have been dreamed of for Attor-
ney-General had not Mr. Greeley been supporting
him as a make-shift candidate for the Presidential
nomination. Nothing but the pressure of the civil
war and the patience of Mr. Lincoln kept these in-
congruous materials together for six months. Nor
was the harmony of the Cabinet improved when Ed-
win M. Stanton, nine months after its creation, took
the place of Simon Cameron as Secretary of TVar. I
do not rely on rumoi^ or inferences or infomiation
from the newspapers or other outside sources when I
say that Chase was stubborn, jealous, and always in-
triguing against some of his associates, especially
Seward. Blair, too, was given to plotting and con-
tention, and what he lacked in capacity to cope with
his colleagues was supplied by the cool sagacity of his
long-headed father and the hot temper of his cour-
ageous brother, Frank, junior. Amid these warring
elements Seward usually appeared self -poised, con-
scious of his power, and satisfied with his superior
influence at the White House. He parted with his
temper now and then, when friends pressed him to

SEWAKD AND CHASE.

223

perform impossibilities, as, for example, on the occa-
sion of a visit from leading Xew York Republicans of
bis type, who complained that their followers were
not receiving a due share of Federal patronage. It
was reported and believed that he broke into a rage,
exclaiming, in substance, " Why come to me about
this ? Go to the White House ! I, who by every
right ought to have been chosen President ! what am

I now ? nothing but Abe Lincoln's little clerk."

Mr. Welles, the Secretary of the Xavy, usually steered
clear of these feuds, and minded his own business.
Mr. Stanton was sometimes drawn into them. I shall
speak more particularly of the great War Secretary in
another place.

Notorious was the superiority of Seward over
Chase in the handling of Federal patronage, and the
consequent mortification of Chase. I will give one
illustration of this, out of many that fell under my
notice. I must first tell of whom I am speaking. In
the winter of 184:1, I was an onlooker at a debate, in
the Senate at Albany, on the causes of Mr. Yan Bu-
ren's defeat in ISIO. John Hunter, a Democrat, of
Westchester, a refined gentleman and a classical schol-
ar, declared that Yan Buren's courage in placing him-
self in tlie chasm between a corrupt bank and a pa-
triotic people had its fitting historic parallel in the
Eoman Forum when Marcus Curtius leaped into the
abyss to save the republic. Andrew B. Dickinson,
familiarly called Bray Dickinson, a Whig, of Steuben,
illiterate and rough-hewn, but a strong debater, who
doubtless never till then had heard of Marcus Curtius,
replied to Hunter. When he came to the classical

224 ■ RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

portion of the speech, he said that the difference be-
tween that Eoman " feller," Curtis, and Yan Euren
was, that Curtis jumped into the gap of his own ac-
cord, but the people throw'' d Yan Buren in.

When Mr. Lincoln became President, Mr. Dickinson
and Edward I. Chase, the brother of Secretary Chase,
w^ere rival aspirants for the office of Marshal of
Northern JS'ew York. Secretary Chase took deep in-
terest in his brother's success. He procured for him
the recommendation of Attorney-general Bates, and
as this office lay wdthin his department, it w^as sup-
posed that this ended the controversy. Dickinson
had long been a devoted follower of Mr. Seward, and
the Secretary of State now put forth every exertion
for his old friend. It was a stand up fight between
the two secretaries. Seward prevailed, and the bad-
gered President appointed Dickinson. When the ncAvs
came to Chase, it was a scene for a painter. His eye-
brows twitched more nervously than usual, and his
breath was short and hot as he spitefuU}^ said, " What
a place you Xew York men have got me into !" Hav-
ing w^on the day, Dickinson said that Seward advised
him to take his commission (if it may be so called) to
Secretary Chase, and tell him he felt sorry for him
• and his brother, and that, as Mr. Seward had offered
him (Dickinson) his pick of the foreign missions, he
would decline the marshalship in his brother's favor.
Dickinson did this ; and this in substance, and much
more of the same kind, Dickinson detailed before a
large circle in the public hall of a Washington liotel,
seeming to take special pleasure in telling how badly
Secretary Chase felt, and how he pitied him, and how

THE MOB AT BALTIMORE.

225

glad Chase was to get the appointment for his broth-
er on these terms, and that Mr. Seward had gener-
ously opened his book to him, and he had selected
the mission to Nicaragua.

Several contests occurred between the two secreta-
ries over places more important than this marshal-
ship, and their oppugnation rose far above offices, and
reached measures and policies, till they gave Mr. Lin-
coln as much trouble in his Cabinet as General Wash-
ington had w^th Jefferson and Hamilton. The sharp
criticisms I heard from Mr. Chase on some of his col-
leagues, and even on the President, would be inter-
esting reading. Probably Mr. Lincoln w^as glad to
place him at the head of the Supreme Bench, where,
doubtless, Mr. Chase was glad to go.

As already stated, I left Washington for Xew^ York
in April, 1861. I had witnessed the arrival at the
Capitol of the first volunteer troops that came to its
rescue on the 19th of the month. It was that brave
Massachusetts regiment commanded by Colonel Ed-
ward F. Jones (noAV Lieutenant-Governor of Isew
York), some of whose members had been, slain while
passing through Baltimore, and all of whom, doubt-
less, remembered that it was the anniversary of the
battle of Lexington, fought eighty-six years before.
I found Baltimore under the control of a mob. A
portion of them were armed with muskets, stolen
from an arsenal. While circulating among them (this
Avas on Sunday) their murderous purposes were read-
ily perceived. The telegraph wires and railroad tracks
between Baltimore and Havre de Grace (where trains
cross the Susquehanna) had been destroyed. Never-

10-^-

226

RAXDO:.I RECOLLECTIOXS.

theless, somebody had obtained a copy or two of that
number of the Nevo York Herald which declared in
favor of maintaining the Union by force. The man-
ifesto was read to a great throng, and it was easy to
pick out the Secessionists by the fall of their coun-
tenances.

On Monday, a small party of us hired at an exor-
bitant rate a man to carry us to Havre de Grace. He
proved to be a deputy sheriff of Harford County, re-
siding at Bel Air, who had just come to Baltimore
with passengers from the Xorth. Baltimore was
then a nest of rebels, and Maryland was on the verge
of secession. The towns we went through were in-
flamed with excitement. I was on the box with our
sheriff, who seemed to know everybody, and would
shout to the crowds, " Hurrah for Jeff. !" at the same
time punching me and saying, ^' I'll take care of my
load." We stopped at Bel Air to dine. Our wagon
stood in the street with half a dozen trunks marked

Js'ew York," and so on, which loungers kept curious-
ly inspecting. We waited a couple of hours after din-
ner ; the horses had been stabled ; the sheriff could
not be found ; the landlord, whom we had liberally
rewarded for our dinner, was away, and there were
no signs of preparation for our departure. The court-
house was near at hand, and I liad noticed that a tu-
multuous meeting was going on within, while a rough
crowd hung around the door. After a long delay the
landlord appeared, a team was attached to the vehi-
cle, and the landlord shook hands with us, saying, in
a significant tone, " Gentlemen, you'll find us all right
the next time you venture down into Dixie."

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER.

227

]^ow for the cause of our detention. The meet-
ing at the court-house had been summoned to decide
whether the county should go with the Secessionists.
Our arrival had raised a side issue in a small circle of
violent men, some of whom wanted to hang us, while
others proposed to detain us for examination. The
sheriff or landlord interposed, and we were allowed
to depart. On arriving at IlaA^re, we found that Gen-
eral B. F. Butler had been there and captured all the
ferry-boats for the transportation of Massachusetts
troops to Washington via Annapolis. We hired a
rowboat to take us across the Susquehanna to the
railway depot, which a Pennsylvania regiment was
at that moment entering, the flags flying and drums
beating. Half a dozen fellows tried to prevent our
crossing the river. A small scuffle ensued, and we
were afloat. They fired muskets at us, but the shades
of the evening were gathering, and they missed the
mark. I conferred with the commander of the Penn-
sylvania regiment, giving him the latest information
from Baltimore and "Washington, whither he was
bound, provided he could reach there.

Irrepressible Ben Butler I His prompt seizure of
the ferry-boats gave the country a foreshadowing of
his stern quality. Clearer than most others he saw
the end from the beo^inning'. Baltimore never be-
haved so well as when cowering under the muzzles of
his cannon. But Maryland was slow to take in the
situation, and did not come to its senses till General
George B. McClellan shut the doors of its legislature
to prevent the state being carried out of the Union.
And so it was in Xev7 Orleans. That turbulent city

228

RANDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

was kept in good order vrhen ruled by General But-
ler's pen and sword.

I had iireviouslj known of Edwin M. Stanton as
the reporter of the Supreme Court of Ohio when I
saw him in 1856 at Washington, where he had come
to practise law. We held a chatty interview, in vrhich
he said we were kindred, his great-grandfather (per-
chance it was the grandfather), like mine, having
been a Ehode-Islander. We acted on this assumption
for a good Avhile ; but afterwards an expert in gene-
alogy, Avho volunteered to trace our lineage, informed
us that though we sprang from the same stock, our
common ancestor lived long before King Philip
pitched his tent on Mount Hope, or Roger Williams
put his spade into Providence plantations. He ran
our line back to Amw Domini 1010, which being half
a century before William the Conqueror set foot on
Saxon soil, I begged him to pause lest he land our
progenitors in the Silurian epoch when the first Dr.
Darwin electrified the mollusks by foreshadowing the
evolution theory of the origin of man.

I met Mr. Stanton many times while he was at the
head of the War Department. If he was as brutal
an administrator of that office as his enemies were
w^ont to assert, I never discovered it. lie discharged
its duties according to his own views of right and
expediency during a civil war whose magnitude has
no parallel in modern times, and when the armies of
the belligerents were twice as large as the forces ever
commanded by the great Xa])oleon. A dozen Wa-
terloos were fought by troops which he had sum-
moned to the field, and, like Pitt and Carnot, he was

EDWIN M. STANTON.

229

the minister who organized victory. He died, worn
out by patriotic labors. While the great secretary
Avas living, Xorthern demagogues and Southern trai-
tors denounced him. Their calumnies have not ceased
since he was laid to rest. I have seen him in very
trying and sometimes extremely irritating circum-
stances, but only once was he rude or even discourte-
ous. I will brief! V refer to this rather amusino^ inci-
dent. His office was hung with maps that bore on
their surface mysterious marks 'in inks of various col-
ors. He had left his room unoccupied for a few min-
utes. On returning to it he found a plainly-dressed
countryman lifting up and looking at one or two of
the maps. The secretary violently exclaimed, What
rebel emissary do we find here overhauling the secret
archives of the War Department i Who are you !"
he thundered ? " This explains how it is that impor-
tant intelligence leaks out of this office, and falls into
the hands of the enemy. Who are you T' He then
pounded the bell for a messenger, and in the uproar
the countryman, pale as a ghost, contrived to make
his way out of the building. He soon returned from
Willard's Hotel, accompanied by his member of Con-
gress, Avho proceeded to explain that his constituent
had two sons' in the army, and one had been wounded
and was pining in a hospital, and the father wanted
permission to go through the lines and take him
home ; ?cnd that he had a letter of introduction in his
pocket from the Congressman to the secretary when
he stallved accidentally into his empty room half an
hour ago ; and so on and so forth. Stanton instantly
comprehended the situation. He bowed and bowed,

230

EAXDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

shook hands with the Congressman and the country-
man, and bowed again to each, but made no aUusion
to the previous explosion. He listened to a short
story about the wounded soldier, and immediateh^
drafted tlie orders for his father to visit the hospital
and take him home. On the way back to AYillard's
the Congressman offered to bet fifty dollars Avith his
delighted constituent that he would have failed to
carry his point if the Secretary had not burst into a
passion when he caught him overhauling the maps
and called him a rebel emissary.

I witnessed another scene that illustrated the Sec-
retary's proverbial promptness of decision and rapid-
ity of execution. One morning when he came to his
office he found a miscellaneous company of thirty or
forty men and Avomen (mostly of the middle class)
aAvaiting his arrival. By his direction a messenger
conducted them into an adjoining room, in the centre
of Avhicli Avas a little desk resting on a pillar. Soon
the secretary entered, boAving suaA'eh^, and took his
stand by the desk, Avhile I settled into a chair and
looked on. He called to his side the oldest and plain-
est-dressed Avoman in the croAvd, and mildly asked,
" Madam, what can I do for you ?" He listened to a
short narrative, drew up and gave her a brief note,
and told a messenger to take '* this lady " to the Adju-
tant-general's office. Instantly another aged Avoman
stood at the desk and handed him a letter. He read
it, endorsed scAxral lines on the back, and she dis-
ap})eared under the guidance of a messenger. To the
next he said, " Madam, your business belongs to the
Xavy Department. Messenger, show this lady the

EDWIN M. STANTON.

231

way to the Kavy Department." To one he gravely
remarked, after glancing over her papers, " This is a
serious matter. I must examine it carefully. Please
step into my office, and wait till I come." And in
this manner he went through the entire list, patient-
ly, urbanely, quietly, disposing of every case right on
the spot, except three or four that were cjuite intri-
cate. He cleared the room in forty-five minutes.

A Eepublican client of mine, a large grocer, had
trusted sutlers in the army of the Potomac to the
amount of several thousand dollars. He came to me
in terror, armed with a letter of .Governor Morgan,
endorsing his patriotism and integrity, and said I
must go to Washington with him in the next train,
and procure permission for him to pass through the
lines to collect what the sutlers owed him or he should
lose it,/(9?' he knew our army was about to attack the
enemy ^ and the sutlers would be scattered, and per-
haps knocked to pieces. We arrived in Washington
the next morning. When the Secretary reached the
office I humorously remarked that I wished to make
a draft on the well-known urbanity of all the Stan-
tons for many generations, " which I am doing so
much to dissipate," broke in the Secretary, in the
same vein. I explained my business, vouched for the
loyalty and prudence of my client, showed the letter
of Mr. Morgan, and expressed the hope that, in such
an exigency, he would let the grocer pass the lines
and collect his dues, or he would be ruined. Stanton
struck the table and rose from his chair. " How does
this man know that the army is about to move and
fight a battle ?" How does he know anything about

232

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

it?" I told him I had not the slightest idea. He
then went stamping around the room, wondering why
outsiders got up these preposterous reports, but at the
same time expressing his indignation at the leaks that
were constantly occurring in the War and Xavy de-
partments— all of which satisfied me that the army
was about to attack the enemy. Mr. Stanton resumed
his seat, cooled off, sent for Mr. AYolcott, one of his
assistants (and his brother-in-law, I believe), and told
him to hear me, and do what I wished. My client
went through the lines, obtained his money, and was
just leaving Avhen our artillery opened fire.

The following anecdote gives a glimpse of the fa-
miliar relations subsisting between the President and
the Secretary. Owen Lovejoy, a member of Con-
gress from Illinois, obtained from Mr. Lincoln a prom-
ise to issue a certain war order, but added, " You must
go and tell Stanton about it." He went. " Did the
President say he Avould issue such an order ?" inquired
the Secretary. He did," responded Lovejoy. " Then
he is a fool — a great fool," replied Stanton. Lovejoy
returned to the President, and repeated the conversa-
tion between him and the Secretary. Did Stanton
say I was a fool ^" inquired Lincoln. " He did," said
Lovejoy. " Then I think I am a fool, for Stanton is
generally right," was the characteristic reply of the
President.

My authority for the following incident was pres-
ent at the Cabinet meeting Avhere it occurred : Mr.
Stanton, the Secretary of AVar, came in Avith the de-
tails of a foreshadowed plan for a simultaneous attack
on the rebels at three points, in wliich he would want

EDWIN M. STANTON. GIDEON WELLES. 233

a little assistance from the ISTavy. Stanton described
his lirst place of attack, and said the troops would
need the co-operation of one or two gunboats. The
President, addressing Secretary Gideon Welles, asked
if they could be furnished. He wriggled around in
his chair, and said he couldn't tell, but would inquire,
and let them kno^v at the next meeting of the Cabinet.
And this, in substance, was his response on all the
three points of Stanton's programme. Putting one
of his feet on the table, the vexed President said, Mr.
Secretary, will you please tell us all you know about
the Navy, and then we shall know all you don't know
about it." I have thought that the other members
of the Cabinet did not fully appreciate Mr. Welles.
I was much with him in the Fremont campaign, and
know that he was a gentleman of sound judgment
and tireless industry. The Cabinet was torn by fac-
tions, which the Secretary of the JS'avy tried to steer
clear of, and mind his own affairs.

Mr. Stanton would sometimes express his weariness
of the toils and trials of the War Department, and his
strong desire to return to the practice of the law.
When consulting with a general of the army, who
was a lawyer, about the Military Governorship of
Washington, he gave vent to his ardent feelings in
that direction, but, suddenly checking the current, he
exclaimed, "However, I shall remain here and try
our Great Cause through to the end."

CHAPTER XXIV.

Mr. Lincoln and Dr. McPbeeters. — Lincoln's Story, — Roscoe
Conkling and Xoali Davis Candidates for the Senate in 1867. —
Conkling Elected. — Defeat of Morgan by Fenton for the Senate
in 18G9. — Escape of Marshall O. Roberts from the Lobby. —
Democratic National Convention of 1868, — Seymour Favors
Chase. — Vallandigham's Course.— Seymour Nominated. — Grant
Elected. — Seymour Urged to x^ccept the Senatorship in 1875;
Refuses; Why. — Seward's Trip around the World. — Death of
Seward in 1872.— R. B. Hayes Running for Governor of Ohio in
1875. — Senator Thurman's Singular Prediction. — Conkling and
Piatt Resign from the Senate, and Lapham and Miller Succeed
them in 1881. — Conkling's Success at the Bar.

My brother. Rev. R. L. Stanton, D.D., was a leader
in the Presbyterian Church, and a Avarm friend of Mr.
Lincoln during the war. In the great struggle he
was aggressively on the side of the Union, and in fa-
vor of the emancipation policy of Mr. Lincoln. In
1862-63 the Rev. Dr. McPheeters, a prominent Pres-
byterian, was preaching at St. Louis. Major-general
Curtis commanded in that military department. One
Sunday Dr. McPheeters uttered some sentiments that
were deemed disloyal. The next Sunday Dr. Mc-
Pheeters found the doors of his church closed by or-
der of General Curtis. There was immediate trouble,
not alone in St. Louis, but in AVashington. A com-
mittee, composed of both factions, went to see the
President. Finding Dr. Stanton in Wasliington, they
requested liim to go with them to the White House

TRESIDENT LINCOLN.

235

and present them to Mr. Lincoln. The President lis-
tened patiently, and then spoke as follows :

" I can best illustrate my position in regard to your
St. Louis quarrel telling a story. A man in Illi-
nois had a large watermelon patch, on which he looped
to make money enough to carry him over the year.
A big hog broke through the log-fence nearly every
night, and the melons were gradually disappearing.
At leno;tli the farmer told his son John to iret out the
guns, and they would promptly dispose of the disturb-
er of their melon-patch. They followed the tracks to
the neighboring creek, where they disappeared. They
discovered them on the opposite bank, and waded
through. They kept on the trail a couple of hundred
yards, when the tracks again went into the creek, but
promptly turned up on the other side. Once more
the hunters buffeted the mud and water, and again
struck the lead and pushed on a few furlongs, when
the tracks made another dive into the creek. Out of
breath and patience, the farmer said, ' John, you cross
over and go up on that side of the creek, and I'll keep
upon this side, for I believe the old fellow is on both
sides.' Gentlemen,'' concluded Mr. Lincoln, " that is
just where I stand in regard to your controversies
in St. Louis. I am on both sides. I can't allow my
generals to run the churches, and I can't allow your
ministers to preach rebellion. Go home, preach the
Gospel, stand by the Union, and don't disturb the
government with any more of your petty quar-
rels."

Dr. Stanton said that, when the belligerents reached
Willard's Hotel, they had a hearty laugh, and made up

236

RANDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

their minds that they would go home and follow the
President's advice.

In January, 1867, Mr. Conkling, having won a high
reputation in the House of Representatives, was a can-
didate for United States Senator. He was supported
with fidelity and enthusiasm by a large body of the
most skilful politicians in the state. His leading op-
ponent was Xoah Davis, then on the Bench of the
Supreme Court in the Eighth District. In the con-
test at Albany Mr. Conkling prevailed over Judge
Davis by a narrow majority. The learning, acumen,
and versatility displayed by Mr. Davis on the Bench
in western IS'ew York, and as Presiding Justice of
the Supreme Court in the metropolitan city, and while
a member of the Forty-first Congress and United
States Attorney in the Southern District of Kew
York, are recognized by his fellow-citizens. But it
is not so widely known that, in the Free-soil conflict
of 1848, he was an active Barnburner. I was on the
platform with him before a large out-door meeting in
Albion in that campaign. He was then the law part-
ner of Sanford E. Church. He would have ably rep-
resented the state as a Senator in Congress.

In 1863 Edwin D. Morgan wielded the influence
he had acquired in two gubernatorial terms to secure
an election to the Senate. His six years at "Washing-
ton would expire in March, 1869. He had no doubt
that he would be his o\f n successor. He heard that
Peuben E. Fenton souglit his place. It did not occur
to him that the wily Chautauqua sachem had just com-
pleted four years' service in the Executive Chamber
at Albany, and still tarried in that city to manage

EDWIN I). MORGAN. — REUBEN E. FENTON. 2o7

his Senatorial canvass. Morgan was cautioned to
take heecl to the selection of a Speaker of the Assem-
bly, for he would wield great power, especially in the
appointment of the committees, most of which in
those days were lucrative. Morgan declared himself
satisfied Avith Truman G. Younglove for Speaker,
lie was under a strange delusion, for Younglove was
the fast friend of Fenton.

The new Speaker took the chair at the opening of
the session ; the Assembly met daily, but no commit-
tees were announced. Weeks rolled away, the Speak-
er's rooms were all the time full of applicants for fat
berths, and by and by he proclaimed that no commit-
tees would be appointed till after the Senator was
chosen. The capital city was crowded with Eepubli-
cans from every portion of the state. Fenton was
as unruffled as Chautauqua lake in summer. Morgan
began to be disturbed, broke up his quarters at Wash-
ington, came to Albany, and put himself at the head
of his forces. Kumor was at fault if plenty of money
was not in circulation. It was asserted, and believed,
that $12,000 were paid for the sole item of bare rooms
at one hotel wherein to bivouac Morgan's troops. So
hard pressed were Fenton's lines that he invited his
rich and liberal friend, Marshall O. Eoberts, of ISTew
York, to take his place as a candidate. He came up,
but after looking over the ground, and seeing a de-
mand for 8250,000 by the lobby staring him in the
face, he returned to the cit}", because it was feared
that in an attempt to carry all the Fenton men over
to Eoberts a few might fall out of hne. It was
ranusing to hear Eoberts, in his characteristic style,

238

KA^^DOM RECOLLECTIONS.

describe his escape out of the hands of the liuiigTy
Albany lobby on this occasion.

The evening for holding the caucus arrived. Xo-
body who was at the capital during the previous
twentj'-four hours will ever forget the exciting scene.
The caucus assembled. It elected its president, sec-
retaries, and tellers, and now the Eepublican Spealvcr,
who had all the committees in his brain, rose, and in
a fitly framed speech nominated for Senator in Con-
gress Reuben E. Fenton. It hardly need be added
that those who had been badgering him for several
weeks for first-class places on leading and lucrative
committees read betAveen the lines, and were pretty
sure that they saw, in clearest words, dropping from
the lips of Mr. Younglove :

Kow all you that want me to listen to you two
days hence, had better listen to me now."

The result was that Mr. Fenton was nominated on
the first ballot. Mr. Morgan paid his bills and went
back to Washington, a wiser and a sadder man.

The Democratic Convention of 1868, for nominat-
ing a candidate for President, met in Tammany Hall.
Mr. Se}Tnour presided, and Mr. Tilden was chairman
of the New York delegation. It was the first time
the Democracy of the nation had assembled together
for eight years. The war was over, slavery had chs-
appeared, and old party lines were faint and feeble.
The candidates for the Presidential nomination were
numerous, but Mr. Seymour was not among them.
He favored Salmon P, Chase. He had prepared a
speech whicli he intended to deliver, when an opi)or-
tune moment arrived, for presenting Chase's name.

SEYMOUR AND CHASE.

239

But he failed to bring certain elements in the Xew
York delegation to adopt his plan, and it was quietly
dropped. It was asserted and believed that Clement
L. Yallandigham, a delegate from Ohio, who was hos-
tile to Chase, feared that Se\Tnour's wishes might
finally prevail, and therefore took the lead in the
irresistible stampede that forced the nomination on
Seymour himself, in spite of his earnest protestations.
I have seen some of the private correspondence that
passed between the ex-Governor and the Chief- Justice
at this period, wherein the latter warmly thanked
the former for the efforts he had made to give him
the nomination. The light shed on coalitions of this
sort by the result of Mr. Greeley's candidacy, four
years later, leads to the belief that if Chase had been
nominated, in 1S6S, he would have fared as badly as
Seymour did.

Mr. Fenton s term as Senator in Congress expired
in 1875. The Democrats controlled the legislature.
It was the first time in thirty years that they had
been able to elect a Senator. Governor Seymour was
pressed to take the office. The Democrats in the
Senate and Assembly were eager to confer it upon
him. He was urged to accept from all quarters. I
pUed him through the newspapers and by correspond-
ence. He resolutely refused. He silenced me by a
long letter, breathing the noblest sentiments, which
I would print here if I could lay my hand upon it.
In it he enforced with rare felicity of diction the
proposition that to exert great influence in pubUc af-
fairs it is not necessary to hold office. I have ample
grounds for supposing that one of the reasons for his

24:0

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

peremptory refusal to go to the Senate was that he
felt that deafness Avas creeping upon him, and he did
not like to enter an arena Avith waning powers, Avhere
his name for a quarter of a century had ranked so
high.

I was strongly in favor of the return of Mr. Conk-
ling and Thomas C. Piatt to the Senate in 1881,
after their resignation. I had been a resigning Sena-
tor, in a very small way, just thirty years before, and
knew how it Avas myself. So I stood by the resign-
ing Senators on this broader and grander field. I had
better luck than they, for I Avas re-elected, AA'hile they
were defeated. But I Avould not again resign, to pre-
vent in that way the passage of a fifteen million un-
constitutional canal bill. I do not knoAv Avhether they
w^ould again resign, to prevent by that method the
appointment of a collector of customs for Xcav York.
Their uuAvise rejection by the legislature, and the
election of Elbridge G. Lapham and Warner Miller
in their stead, Avas far-reaching in its consequences.
It gave Alonzo B. Cornell leave to retire to private
life at the close of his first gubernatorial term, and
gave James G. Blaine long-coA^eted leisure for employ-
ing a graphic pen on an interesting period of modern
history.

1 have no personal knoAvledge that enables me to
penetrate the motives that impelled Mr. Conkling to
resign from the Senate. Perhaps he had groAvn Aveary
of his protracted labors in Congress. Possibly he saAV
foreshadoAved on the horizon factional feuds in the
Garfield-Blaine administration, and, as a liepublican,
had no wish to participate in them. If, hoAvever, the

■\V1LL1AM II. SEWARD.

241

chief end he had in view was to resume the undis-
turbed practice of the law, then the opportune mo-
ment he selected for carrying this purpose into effect
has already been crowned by a success that has few
parallels in the history of the Xew York bar. By
and by Mr. Conkling may return to politics. He
has the example of Mr. Seward before him, in the
six busy years that intervened between the close of
Seward's service as Governor of Xew York and the
commencement of his term as Senator at Wash-
ington.

On Mr. Seward's return, in the fall of 1871, from
his trip around the globe, Mr. Hugh J. Hastings ar-
ranged a plan for my going with the Governor to
Auburn, accompanied by a stenographer, to get a
condensed report of his journey for publication in the
ISTew York Sun. Mr. Dana and I conferred, and I
went up. The report filled a broadside of the Sim,
and, as ]^[r. Seward subsequently told me, it saved
him much trouble, for, when any of his friends asked
him about his trip, he immediately gave them a copy
of the newspaper. Of the m^any incidents that oc-
curred during this trip to Auburn I will relate but
one. The morning after our arrival Mr. Seward w^as
walking in his grounds. The servant was pointing
him to this, that, and the other thing, but he kept
saying, " Show me the bird." I did not understand
what he meant. Soon we stood before the largest
eagle I ever saw, enclosed in a great cage. The Gov-
ernor looked at the eagle ; the eagle looked at th^^
Governor. They exchanged winks, as much as xo
sav, "We understand each other." Mr. Seward then

* 11

242

EAIsDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

exclaimed, with some emotion, ''When 1 was in
Alaska they gave me that eagle, and that is all I
ever got for my trouble in negotiating the Alaska
treaty, except a great deal of undeserved personal
abuse."

In the autumn of 1872 Mr. Seward died. In 1828
I had been a member of the Young Men's State Con-
vention, over which Mr. Seward presided. I now
stood by his open grave. In the intervening forty-
four years he had played a great part in the history
of his country.

The contest for the Governorship of Ohio, in 18V5,
between William Allen and Eutherford B. Hayes,
exhibited features of national importance. I spent a
few weeks in the state while this extraordinary cam-
paign was in progress. Both candidates were ad-
dressing large audiences. Allen was impressive, saga-
cious, bold. Hayes was respectable, commonplace,
feeble. Among other distinguished speakers whom
I heard were ex-Governor Is'oyes, afterwards Minister
to France, Senator McDonald, of Indiana ; Judge
Taft, subsequently Minister to Austria, and Senator
Allen G. Thurman. In a conversation with the lat-
ter at Columbus he made a prediction which then
seemed to me singular. He said that if Hayes de-
feated Allen in the pending struggle he would be tlie
next Kepublican candidate for the Presidency. Hayes
did defeat Allen, and he was the candidate. The
ablest man whom I met in my Western tour was Mr.
Thunnan. It must have annoyed eminent statesmen
like him, aspiring to be President, to see small politi-
cians preferred before them, The Presidency is dwin-

ALLEN G. TIIURMAX.

243

dling in importance with every passing term. Con-
gress controls the administration of the Federal gov-
ernment. The leader of the House and the leader of
the Senate exert more influence than presidents in
moulding vital measures of public policy.

CHAPTER XXV.

Samuel J. Tilden; bis Triumph over tlie Canal Ring and the
Tweed Ring; his Sudden Death; his Note to the Author about
"Random Recollections." — State Convention of 1874, Avhen he
was Nominated for Governor. — The (N Y.) Siui's Editorial
Article.— Tilden Elected.— The Presidential Contest of 1876.—
Tilden Dies of Heart Disease, — Ex-Governors Clinton, Wright,
Marcy, and Fenton Fall by the same Malady under Peculiar
Circumstances. — Notice of Robert L. Stanton, D.D.; his Death
in Mid-Ocean in May, 1885.— The Presbyterian General Assem-
bl3''s Tribute to his Memor3^

AYhex those animosities, rivalries, and prejudices
that spring from party strife have passed away Sam-
uel J. Tilden will be classed among the eminent men
of his era. I became associated with him in the mem-
orable contest of 1848, when he stood in the front
rank of the Barnburners. In the two rather incom-
patible qualities of calm, studious, and philosophic
statesmanship, and the capacity to gather, classify,
and apply the statistics of a political campaign, I do
not remember to have met his equal. As the Chair-
man of the Democratic State Committee, he would
deliver an address that might have honored Thomas
Jefferson. In the subsequent campaign he would
handle the figures of the canvass Avith a skill that
astonislied Thurlow Weed. But far above all else
rose his genius for administrative reform. AVhile
Chief Magistrate of the foremost commonwealth in
the Union he broke in pieces tlie canal ring in the

SAMUEL J. TILDEN.

245

state, and the Tweed ring in the metropolis, which
had long been entrenched behind corrupt combina-
tions that had few parallels in our history for the
power they had wielded and the audacity they had
displayed through a series of years. Mr. Tilden there-
by won the confidence of honest and sagacious men
in both political parties. The ability and integrity
wherewith he performed the duties of the gubernato-
rial office brought to him the Democratic nomination
to the Presidency in ISTG. I never met a cancUd, in-
telligent Eepublican, who was thoroughly informed
in regard to the facts, that seemed to doubt that he
was fairly entitled to a majority of the votes of the
electoral college in that famous contest.

I had written the above, and the unfinished manu-
script was lying before me, when I received the tidings
of Mr. Tilden's sudden death. I need not say that the
unexpected event impressed me profoundly. lie was
my junior by nine years. How many old acquaint-
ances have fallen since I issued the first edition of this
small volume. In February last I sent Mr. Tilden a
copy of the second edition. He acknowledged it in a
brief note, which I should not print if he were living.
I insert it simply because it avouches his capacity at
so recent a date for devouring books.

" Greystone, Yoxkehs, N. Y., Feb. 13, 1886.
"Dear Mr. STA^'TO^',— I lhank you for the copy of your " Ran-
dom Recollections," which I found so interesting that I read it
through at one sitting.

" With my best wishes for your health and happiness, I remain,
" Very truly yours, S. J. Tilden."

I was at the State Convention of 1874, in Syracuse,
which nominated Mr. Tilden for Governor. He was

246

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

present as Chairman of the State Committee. Gov-
ernor Seymour and DeTTitt C. Littlejohn (Greeley Lib-
eral in IS 72) were delegates. The convention was far
from united on the question of the gubernatorial can-
didate. Many prominent members doubted the expe-
diency of nominating Mr. Tilden. The New York
Sim had given voice to these doubts. On the 17th of
September the convention came to a ballot, when Mr.
Tilden received 252 votes, ex- Judge Amasa J. Parker
126, and a few were thrown for others. William
Dorsheimer (Greeley Liberal in 1872) Avas unanimous-
ly nominated for Lieutenant-governor, on motion of
Mr. Littlejohn. The Democratic campaign opened
languidly, and for a while it was believed that Gen-
eral Dix, the Eepublican candidate for Governor,
would be re-elected. The Sim looked on, kept its
powder dry, and reserved its fire. By and by Mr.
Dana suggested that it was time for the Szm to hoist
its colors. On the Tth of October, three weeks after
the nomination, the following article appeared at the
head of the editorial columns. If it be in bad taste
to quote from one's self, then I am a transgressor. It
is only the death of Mr. Tilden that justifies its pub-
lication here :

" One of the most essential requisites for making a good Gov-
ernor of Xew York is that tlie man should possess sufficient inde-
pendence and courage to resist the dictation of the leaders of the
party which placed him in office. If ]\Ir. Tilden is elected in No-
vember he will be, in the particular we have mentioned, one of the
best Democratic governors the state has ever had. Indeed, in the
whole list, Silas Wright alone, the most distinguished member of
the political school in which Mr. Tilden was raised, can be com-
pared with him.

" I\Iarcy and Seymour were able and upright iu the adminis-

SILAS 'WKIGHT AND SAMUEL J. TILDEN.

247

tration of affairs, but they were strong partisans, and never rose
to the height of resisting the prevailing current of Democratic
opinion. But Governor AN^right was a thorough Jeffersonian Dem-
ocrat. His integrity was above reproach, and his leading charac-
teristic was sclf-poised independence. On two or three memorable
occasions he displn3Td this quality by pursuing a line of policy in
relation to important measures directly hostile to the sentiments
and purposes of the great majority of the Democratic party, both
in this state and throughout the country. Early in 1844, when the
Democracy were running mad in favor of the annexation of Texas,
Mr. AYright, then in the Senate, persuaded Mr. Van Buren to write
his famous letter against annexation. This letter caused the de-
feat of Mr. Van Buren 's nomination to the Presidency in the Na-
tional Convention of that year. In the summer of 1846, when Mr.
"Wright was Governor, and the Democracy were running wild iu
favor of the conquest of jNIexican territory, in order to plant slavery
therein, he avowed himself, in the most explicit terms, a supporter
of the doctrine of the celebrated Wilmot Proviso. This avowal
drove from Wright just enough rabid Hunkers — Bourbons they are
now called — to defeat his re-election as Governor in that year.

"For Silas Wright, a prospective candidate for President, to thus
set himself in opposition to the great body of his party, exhibited
extraordinary fidelity to convictions and a noble moral courage.
We have no doubt that under analogous circumstances Mr. Tilden
would pursue the same course; for on many occasions he has shown
that his mind is made of like metal with that which composed Mr,
Wright's. We believe that Mr. Tilden followed the lead of Mr,
Wright in 1844 and 1846. W^e know that he carried the creed of
that eminent disciple of Jefferson and Tompkins to its logical con-
clusions at the Buffalo Convention of 1848, which brought out Vau
Buren and Adams, in that notable campaign, under the banner of
'Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Press, Free Men.*

"But Mr. Tilden has displayed his courage and his independ-
ence of party under far more trying circumstances than those we
have detailed; and he has shown these qualities in a very marked
manner, and right under the eyes of those who are to pass upon
his fitness for the oflSce of Governor. We refer, of course, to his
agency in breaking up the Tammany ring in 1871, the subsequent
flight of Con oily, and conviction of Tweed and their associates,
and many other events which attended or followed that explosion.

248

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Nobody doubts that Mr. Tilden was the leader iu this struggle. lie
elbowed Richard B. Conolly out of the comptroller's office and
pushed Andrew H. Green in. Ho caused the Tammany delegation
— stained, but regular — to be rejected by the Democratic State Con-
vention, and he advocated the admission, though without success,
of the irregular anti-Tammany delegation. Elected to the Assem-
bly in Xovember of that year, he declined to attend the Democratic
caucus for nominating a candidate for Speaker, although he was
then chairman of the Democratic Stale Committee; and be pursued
a course quite independent of his party to the end of the session.
By this policy he aroused some hostility among a section of the
Democratic managers, who were able to send Governor John T.
Hotfman, instead of him, as one of the delegates at large to the
Baltimore Convention, which nominated Horace Greeley. To Mr.
Tilden is largely due the reorganization of Tammany Hall, by turn-
ing out the old sachems and installing the new regime that now
controls a society whose powerful influence has been felt for half a
century in the politics of New York, and whose every representa-
tive at the recent State Convention cast his vote for Samuel J. Til-
den, as the nominee for Governor.

"The fact that Mr. Tilden has done much of what we have re-
cited, in the face of vigorous Democratic influences, raises a
strong presumption that if he were Governor of the state he
would have the courage to pursue the right path, although iu
60 doing he might sometimes run counter to the wishes of Demo-
cratic leaders."

Mr. Tilden knew nothing of this article till his eye
fell on it in the 8u7i. I was told that he ordered five
thousand copies of the paper for circulation. When
the October elections of IS 74 Avere over the Demo-
cratic tidal wave set in all through the country. Mr.
Tilden carried New York against General Dix by
more than fifty thousand majority.

Mr. Tilden died of one of the many forms of what
is called " heart disease." It is a rather remarkable
coincidence that five of the distinguished statesmen

CLINTON. WRIGHT. — MARCT.

249

who filled the office of Governor of Kew York fell
by this malady.

^ On February 11, 1S2S, De Witt Clinton, then Gov-
ernor, a man of majestic presence, had been at the
Executive Chamber in the Capitol attending to offi-
cial business, the legislature being in session. In the
evening he was sitting in his private library with his
son, looking over his afternoon mail. He had a letter
in his hand, when his head dropped on his breast, and
he immediately expired. He died of heart disease,
then httle known under that name.

Silas Wright, a totally different man from Clinton,
was a part of the time during his public career his
contemporary, and always his political opponent. On
August 27, 181:7, Mr. "Wright went to the post-office
in his little town of Canton, in the county of St. Law-
rence. He was reading a letter when his head sank
upon the table and he died of heart disease without a
moment's warning. He had retired from the office
of Governor the previous January.

WiUiam L. Marcy was Governor for three terms,
Secretary of War, and Secretary of State. He went
out of the latter office on March 4, 1857. On July 4
of that year he was resting at Ballston Spa. He had
taken lunch and repaired to his room, where he was
found an hour afterwards quite dead, with a volume
of Cowper's poems in his hand. He had expired of
heart disease.

Ex-Senator Eeuben E. Fenton occupied the guber-
natorial chair of Xew York for four years. In Au-
gust, 1885, while in good health, he was at his desk
in the First National Bank of Jamestown, of which

250

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

he was President, reading his correspondence. With-
out the slightest premonition he fell backward in his
chair, convulsively clutching at a letter he was at
that moment answering, gave a long, gasping breath,
and soon expired. He died of heart disease.

I have been at a loss in the selection of the most
appropriate place in this " random'' work for a notice
of my last brother. He was a many-sided man, and
wrote more than he talked, and studied and thought
more than he talked or wrote. He was a scholar, a
divine, an author, and an editor ; and he was so thor-
oughly informed in political affairs that this brief
tribute to his memory might find a proper place
among either of those five classes of citizens.

There were six children in my father's family. All
were born in rachaug. I am the only survivor. My
eldest brother, Eev. Kobert L. Stanton, D.D., was born
in March, 1810. He was living when the first edition
of this work was issued. He was graduated at Lane
Seminary ; was pastor in Mississippi, Kew Orleans,
and Ohio ; President of Oakland College, Mississippi,
and subsequently President of Miami University,
Ohio ; Professor of Theology in Danville Seminary,
Kentucky; Moderator of the General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church in 1866 ; and United States
Government Visitor at West Point. He wrote much
for magazines and newspapers, and was the author
of several books and pamphlets. Princeton College
conferred upon him the degree of D.D. while he was
yet a young man. In May, 1885, he sailed for Eu-
rope, as had been his wont before, to recuperate en-
ergies exhausted by mental toil. But unmindful of

REV. ROBERT L. STANTOX.

251

the fact that his health Avas unusually feeble, and that
he was in the seventy-sixth year of his age, he car-
ried the pitcher once too often to the fountain, and it
was broken. He died at sea on May 28, and was
buried in mid-ocean. When the intelligenc® of his
decease reached America, the Presbyterian General
Assembly was in session at Cincinnati. That vener-
able body placed on its journal this memorial : " The
General Assembly records its tribute of respect for
the memory of Eev. Robert .L. Stanton, D.D., Moder-
ator of the Assembly of 1866. It recognizes the faith-
fulness and efficiency with which he discharged the
duties of the office, and the value to the Church of
his services as pastor, editor, and teacher. Sincerely
sorrowing for the loss it has sustained, the Assembly
hereby expresses its sympathy with the bereaved fam-
ily, and directs that a copy of the foregoing minute,
attested by the Moderator, and Stated and Permanent
Clerks, be forvrarded to the family of Dr. Stanton.

CHAPTER XXVI.

American Journalism. — Its Rank as a Profession. — Earliest News-
papers.— First Daily Paper. — Philadelphia Adxertiscr. — Boston
Centinel. — National Gazette. — Controversy of Washington and
Jefferson over Freneau. — Early Dailies in Isevv York City. —
Three Famous Editors. — Bitter Tone of the Press. — List of
Distinguished Contributors. — Duels. — Early Journalism in New-
England. — Rude Methods of Collecting News and Circulating
Papers. — Post-riders and Reporters. — The Deacon and the Mo-
hawks.— Dailies in New York, Albany, and Rochester in 1826. —
The Rochester Adccrtiscr the First Daily Issued AVest of the
Hudson and Delaware Rivers. — Henry O'Reilly. — Cincinnati
Gazette and Charles Hammond. — Louisville Journal and George
D. Prentice. — List of Celebrated Contributors in that Era. —
Later Editors.— Charles A. Dana.— Henry J. Raymond. — John
G. Whit tier. — George William Curtis.

It would be wholly aside from the purposes of this
publication to give even an outline of the wide field
of American journalism. I shall glance at it from
my individual standpoint, and jot down little except
selections from what I personally know on the sub-
ject.

Journalism not only ranks among the learned pro-
fessions both in respect to the influence it exerts, and
the intellectual qualifications necessary to succeed in
it, but in peculiar fields it leads all the others. If
some of our ablest lawyers were, without disclosing
their names, to send editorial articles to the foremost
city journals on topics outside of their profession, an

EOSTON CENTTNEL" AND " NATIONAL GAZETTE.'' 253

impartial hand would frequently consign them to the
waste basket. Xewspaper reporters of the thorough-
ly trained school are superior to lawyers of the mid-
dle class. It is a fact alike notorious and disgraceful
that in some of the chief cities of the Union there are
presiding justices in civil and criminal courts of large
jurisdiction who can neither speak or write their na-
tive language grammatically or clearly. It need hard-
ly be added that such jurists (I) would not be toler-
ated for a moment as reporters on respectable news-
papers.

The press in America rose to its present colossal
dimensions from small beginnings. The first news-
paper was issued at Boston in 1701. Down to 1725
four others were established in Boston, Xew York,
and Philadelphia. They were little dingy sheets,
measuring eight or nine inches by ten, issued weekly
or fortnightly, with a very meagre supply of brains,
news, advertisements, and subscribers.

The first daily journal in the United States was the
Daily Advertise)^ published in Philadelphia in 1785.
The great paper of the period was the Boston Centi-
nel, edited by the famous Major Ben Russell. It was
intensely Federal, and the leading advocate in after-
yeai-s of the policy of Washington and Adams in op-
position to that of Jefferson and Madison. Its rival
was the National Gazette issued at Philadelphia, then
the seat of government, in 1791. Its editor was the
celebrated Philip Preneau, a clerk in the office of Jef-
ferson, Secretary of State in General Washington's
Cabinet. Freneau was a caustic writer, voiced the
bitter politics of that era, and was highly offensive to

25i

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

Washington. But, in spite of very direct hints to do
so, Jefferson refused to deprive him of his clerkship.
In 1793 the Ilinerva was started in I^ew York city,
whose first editor was IS'oah Webster, familiar to us
as the distinguished lexicographer. It ultimately
bloomed into the Commercial Advertise7\ The JS^ew
Yorh Post was established in 1801. Both have flour-
ished to this day. In 1801 there were three promi-
nent editors in Xew York and Philadelphia, namely :
Coleman of the Post, Cheetham of the Citizen, and
Duane of the Aurora. The first was a Federalist;
the two latter were Democrats. Mr. Duane was the
father of that Secretary of the Treasury whom Gen-
eral Jackson, a third of a century afterwards, ejected
from office because he would not remove the Federal
deposits from the United States Bank, and appointed
Eoger B. Taney to do the work. One morning in
1801 the Post assailed its two opponents thus:

" Lie on, Duane— lie on for pay,
And Cheetham, lie thou too-
More against truth you cannot sa}',
Than truth can say 'gainst you."

Think of the Evening Post of to-day lunging into
two of its "esteemed contemporaries" in this style!
It seems to take all the originality out of Dr. Gree-
ley's celebrated outburst : " You lie, you villain ; you
know you lie !"

From the opening of Washington's second Presi-
dential term till the end of Madison's administration,
the tone of the press was to the last degree acrimoni-
ous. Of the closing five or six years of this period I
can speak of my own knowledge. My father was

EARLY JOURNALISM.

255

Madlsonian leader in the eastern portion of Connec-
ticut, and subscribed for several newspapers of that
faith. The Federal leaders did the same by their
journals. The consequence was, the men, women, and
children of the vicinage became peppery partisans.
So it was all through the country. Every neighbor-
hood was kept in a broil by the "organs" of the two
parties. Others besides their regular managers often
contributed to their columns. Among these were
John Adams, Timothy Pickenng, Joseph Story, Aaron
Burr, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Edward Liv-
ingston, De AVitt Clinton, jVTatthew S. Davis, Wash-
ington Irving, and Albert Gallatin. The pens of these
prominent men were dipped in gall. Quarrels in those
early days meant serious business. The Avooded slopes
of Hoboken were the bloody assizes to which many
editors and politicians carried their Xevr York con-
troversies for final arbitrament.

To form a correct notion of the journalism of Xew
England, and, indeed, of any portion of the country,
eighty-one years ago, when I was born, we must dis-
miss all existing ideas on the subject from our minds.
Xot only the telephone, the telegraph, the railway,
and the steamboat must fade into mist, but even the
mail, as a means of collecting news and distributing
newspapers within circles of fifty or a hundred miles
in circumference, must disappear. Editors, of course,
existed, but the imagination did not dream of the re-
porter, now one of the main driving-wheels of Amer-
ican journalism, the essential, useful, and ornamental
appendage to every newspaper, whether metropolitan
or rural; a class not easily deceived or eluded, capa-

256

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

ble of painting the tamest scenes in the liveliest col-
ors, and, when in search of truth, may sometimes be
tempted to supph^ deficiencies by inventions, but whose
fictions are usually more entertaining than their facts.

In the early days the nearest approach to the mod-
ern reporter was the post-rider. When the weekly
newspapers were printed at the county seat he took
a pile in his '^saddle-bags," mounted his horse, and
rode into the surrounding towns to dispense his treas-
ures and pick up a little local information for the next
number. He usually delivered the sheet in person,
but here and there, at cross-roads, was a little box,
adapted to slied rain, nailed to a tree, Avhere he depos-
ited a few papers to supply some adjacent hamlet.
When he delivered the papers he was often bored to
drop an item or two of later intelligence than that in
their columns. The following incident occurred in
my native county seventy-five years ago : An aged
deacon bad a confused idea of the upper lakes and a
mortal dread of the Mohawk Indians. He hung heav-
ily on the skirts of the post-rider, who resolved to
shake him off. One day he handed him the paper,
and the deacon bored him for fresh news. With hor-
ror depicted on his countenance, he told the deacon
that the Mohawks were digging through the banks
of the Great Lakes, and that the water would soon
pour down from the west, and that all New England
would be drowned by a flood as disastrous as that of
Noah's time. The post-rider then put spurs to his
horse and fled. The terrified deacon ran to the min-
ister and told him the terrible news. The clergyman
opened the Bible and read to him, from Genesis, the

THE FIRST DAILY NEWSPAPERS.

257

promise of God that he would never again drown the
earth by a flood, and that he had set the bow in the
cloud as a seal of this covenant with manldnd. " Ah,
my beloved pastor," responded the shivering deacon,
"that don't apply. It is not God that's going to do
it. God's nothing to do with it. It's them infernal
Mohawk Injuns that's cutting down the banks !"

A word in passing about the slow pace wherewith
intelligence travelled in those days. One of the most
important events of modern times was the battle of
Waterloo, fought on June 18, 1815. It changed the
map of Europe and the face of the civilized world.
Xapoleon, avIio there fell to rise no more, liad a great
party in this country, and the deepest interest was
felt in his fortunes after he escaped from Elba, which
I remember as vividly as if it had happened in the
last month. The battle of Ligny was fought on June
16, when Xapoleon defeated tough old Field-marshal
Blucher. A slow-sailing packet left Liverpool for
Xew York just in time to bring this news. Xo other
packet was to sail in twenty days. This country,
where party spirit ran high for and against the French
emperor, was left in terrible suspense. The next pack-
et was f ort}' -five days in crossing, so that we received
the news of AVaterloo sixty-five days, or more than
two months, after the event, when Louis XYIII. was
on the throne and Bonaparte was on the way to St.
Helena. And how much do you think we got in our
papers of the great transactions that followed after
Ligny ? A leading American journal devoted a third
of a column to the subject, sparing five lines for a de-
scription of the battle of Waterloo.

258

RANDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

I have already said in these pages that I left my
birthplace in Connecticut in April, 1826, for Eoches-
ter, passing through New York and Albany. At
that date Xew York City contained a population of
155,000, Albany 15,000, Eochester 3500, Buffalo 4500,
Cleveland 500, but Chicago was not even a dot on the
map. I shall now refer only to daily newspapers. In
April, 1826, the dailies in the metropolitan city num-
bered six or seven. I recall the Gazette and General Ad-
vertiser^ the Mercantile Advertiser, the Commercial Ad-
vertiser,ihQ Post, the Advocate, the Enquirer, and the
American. Albany then had two dailies — the Adver-
tiser, Clintonian in politics, and the Argus, Demo-
cratic. These nine were then the only dailies in the
state. There was not a daily newspaper in the Union
west of l^ew York, Albany, and Philadelphia. I have
previously stated that, in the fall of 1826, the Daily
Advertiser was issued at Eochester. It Avas the ear-
liest daily put forth between the Hudson and Dela-
ware rivers on the East and the Pacific Ocean on the
West. Its first editor was Henry O'Eeill}^ Avhom I
have known and respected for the past sixty years.
(The news of his death at Eochester comes to me
while I am revising this sheet of manuscript.) Tlie
next daily newspaper west of Eochester and Phila-
delphia was the Commercial Register, issued at Cin-
cinnati in 1826, a little later than O'Eeilly's Adver-
tiser. It lived only six months. The Cincinnati Ga-
zette had been pubhshed for several 3'ears as a weekly
and semi-weekly, when, on June 27, 1827, it appeared
as a daily. Either then or immediately afterwards
it came under the management of Charles Hammond,

GEORGE D. PRENTICE. CHARLES A. DANA. 259

whom I occasionally met when I dwelt at Cincinnati, in
1832, '33, '34, and '35. Mr. Hammond had been trained
in the law. He wielded a keen pen, and stood at
the head of the editorial profession in Ohio. All the
Whig newspapers of the West and Southwest, how-
ever, were destined to be overshadowed by the Louis-
ville Journal^ founded in 1830, by George D. Pren-
tice, of Pachaug. It is an interesting fact that these
tliree dailies — the Rochester Advertiser, the Cinchi'
natl Gazette, and the Louisville Journal — shine in
undimmed lustre to-day. In this later epoch, as in
the former, able men besides the regular editors wrote
for the newspapers ; as, for example, John Quincy
Adams, Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Moses Stu-
art, Caleb Cushing, William L. Marc}^, Silas Wright,
Benjamin F. Butler, William H. Seward, John A. Dix,
William Wirt, Robert Barnewell Rhett, John C. Cal-
houn, James Buchanan, Thomas H. Benton, Amos
Kendall, Robert J. AYalker, James G. Birney, and
Salmon P. Chase. Some of these gentlemen w^ere
frequent contributors to the press, and took an active
share in the political controversies of their times
through that powerful agency.

I shall now refer more particularly to some of the
editors of newspapers whom I have known, omitting
Thurlow AYeed, Horace Greeley, and a few familiar
names already described in these pages. The number
of such editors is so large that a bare catalogue of
them would fill a couple of pages. I must make se-
lections from a list to every one of whom I would,
did space permit, pay a tribute of respect.

For the past sixty years I have seen much of news-

260

RANDOM EECOLLECTIOXS.

paper editors. During half of this long period I have
occasionally contributed to journals mainly or wholly
directed by Mr. Charles A. Dana. More thoroughly
than any editor I have met he has what I call the
true newspaper instinct. Prompt in judgment and
rapid in execution ; quick to discern v/liat will take
with his clientage and what will not ; capable of per-
forming a large amount of work in a short space of
time ; ever welcoming valuable ideas and invoking
picturesque diction wherewith to clothe them ; fond
of variety, pungency, wit, and good-humor, but, on
sufficient provocation, hitting when he strikes and
leaving a mark where he hits; if this country has
produced an abler and more versatile occupant of an
editorial chair I have not known or heard of him. It
gives me pleasure to add that Mr. Dana was ever on
the kindliest relations with his editorial associates,
and always courteous to his employees.

On the first of January, 1855, Daniel Cady resigned
from the bench of the Supreme Court. Lieutenant-
Governor Henry J. Eaymond, editor of the Neio Yorh
Times, asked me to write him an article on the sub-
ject. I complied Avith his wishes. This rapidly pre-
pared production duly appeared in the Times, and,
much to my surprise, it subsequently occupied twelve
pages in the appendix to the eighteenth volume of
" Barbour's Eeports of the l^ew York Supreme
Court," where it was given the rather high-sounding
title of " A Part of the History of the Bar and Bench
of New York." Mr. Paymond was a born journalist.
He knew how to build up a successful metropolitan
newspaper. He wielded a pointed and graceful pen

HENRY J. RAYMOND. — JOHN G. WHITTIER. 261

in the editorial chair, wrote with rare intelligence and
skill on a great variety of subjects, was thoroughly
versed in political questions, enjoyed a wide acquaint-
ance with the public men of the country, was incisive
and vigorous in controversy, spoke well on the plat-
form and in deliberative bodies, and was an admira-
ble presiding officer. As an editor, he delighted in
perpetual war with Mr. Greeley and the New York
Tribune. Mr. Eayraond was a lively companion, and
told a story well. In a familiar conversation at a
dinner-table in Washington he was asked why it was
that Mr. Greeley called him " The little villain of the
Times.'''' Oh," replied Eaymond, " That is to distin-
guish me from the big villain of the TriljuneP

The person who should propose to introduce John
Greenleaf Whittier as a poet, in any place whatever,
would find that the name and fame of the Quaker
bard had arrived there before him. But he is not so
well known to the present generation as an editor of
newspapers in his early days. Born in 1807, at Hav-
erhill, on the banks of the beautiful Merrimac, he
was eighteen years old when, on a dark evening, he
timidly slipped his first communication for the press
into the box of the Gazette^ in his native village, and
could hardly believe his dazzled eyes as he afterwards
furtively peeped into the columns of the paper and
beheld his production staring in his face from the
types. From his youth Whit tier was an admirer of
Henr}^ Clay, and, in 1829, he became the editor of the
Boston American Manvfacturer^ a journal that advo-
cated Mr. Clay's doctrines on protection. He succeed-
ed his friend and brother bard, George D. Prentice, in

262

KANDOM EECOLLECTIOXS.

the management of the JS^ew England Weekly Eeview,
at Hartford, when Prentice went to Kentucky, in
1830, to establish the Louisville Journal. In 1832
Whittier returned to his first love, and for about six
years was the editor-in-chief of the Haverhill Gazette.
He removed thence to the city of AVilliam Penn, on
the shore of the Delaware river, and founded the
Pennsylvania Freeman, an anti-slavery weekh^ paper.
He promulgated his principles in mild hues and win-
ning Avays for a year or two, when one of those
unique and summary censors of the press and conserv-
ators of the peace, commonly called a mob, sacked the
office of the Freeman and burned it down, with its
contents. In 1840 Mr. AYhittier settled in what con-
tinued to be for a long time his rural home, at Ames-
bury, on the lower Merrimac. In 1846 or 1847 he
became the corresponding editor of that successful
and tasteful journal the National Era, established
and built up by that able writer, Doctor Gamaliel H.
Bailey. It will be remembered that Mrs. Stowe's
Uncle Tom's Cabin"' first appeared in numbers in
the National Era.

I became personally acquainted with Mr. AVhittier
in 1834 or 1835. I speak of him now only as a news-
paper man. In the dozen ^^ears following 1835 I spent
many months in his company, and travelled with
him hundreds of miles in eight or ten states. Only
those who know my shy friend well are aware how
talkative, genial, witty, humorous, sarcastic, and en-
tertaining he is in bright hours with two or three
companions. Of course we have exchanged many
letters in the past half - century . Peculiar circum-

JOHN G. WHITTIER,

263

stances induce me to break through m}^ rule in respect
to such correspondence, and print a recent note, mere-
ly as a testimonial of my regard for the author, who,
like me, is passing away. It may be well to say that
my daughter, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, of Eng-
land, did not find Mr. Wliittier at home :

"Oak Knoll, Danvers, 8th monih, 23. 188G.

"My Dear Stantox,— I liave just got back from Holderness,
N. II., and find thy letter, introducing thy daughter. I regret that
she was not able to see me. I should Jiave been glad to have met
her, for my sake as well as thine.

"My dear old friend, how glad I am to see thy writing once
more. I wish I could shake the hand that wrote. What times we
had together when we fought the wild beasts at Ephesus! I think
over the old days a great deal. Life now is all behind me. Most
of our early friends have passed away. Sewall and a few others
still remain. But we are really getting to be the " Last of the Mo-
hicans I"

"I hope thy health is good. I am only staying. I cannot write
without suffering.

"God bless thee, old comrade! Ever and faithfully thy friend,

"John G. Whittier."

This note from Mr. Whittier enclosed a cop}", print-
ed on a fly-sheet, of his poem to the memory of Sam-
uel J. Tilden.

I turn to an editor who joined the guild of jour-
nahsm just as the veteran we have been contemplat-
ing was leaving it. It is difficult to find a niche in
which to place so versatile a man as George AVilliam
Curtis. Is he an author? Yes. Is he an orator?
Yes. Is he an editor? Yes. Assign him to an}" of
these positions and the designation would be appro-
priate. Though an eloquent speaker and debater,
fitted to shine in popular and deliberative bodies, he
has done the most of his life-work Avith the pen. and

264

EA2sD0M IIECOLLECTIOXS.

much of it on daily, weekly, and monthly periodical
publications. In 1850 he became a regular writer on
the New Yorh Tribune. He was one of the original
editors of Piitnavi's Monthly^ and for many years
past has been chief editor of the weekly journal of
the great publishing house of Harper & Brothers, and
a regular contributor to tlieir Monthly Magazine. Mr.
Curtis was nominated in 1864 for representative in
Congress in the First District of Xew York, in w^hich
he resides, and which was strongly opposed to his
political views. He was defeated, as he doubtless an-
ticipated, and failed to enter an arena where he would
have taken high rank among the able and brilliant
members. But, after all, he will perhaps be the long-
est remembered for his distinguished services with pen
and voice in the cause of " Liberty and Union " when
it was in extreme peril.

CHAPTER XXVII.

American Journalism. — Vice-President Wilson and Charles Francis
Adams. — James and Erastus Brooks. — Tlie A^zc York Express. —
Lewis Tappan and David Hale. — The Journal of Commerce. —
Early iModes of Getting News. — William Cullen Bryant and
William H. Leggett. — KeiD York Eterdng Post. — Courage of The
Post. — President Van Buren. — James Watson Webb. — The Cou-
rier and Enquirer. — Famous Duels of Cilley, Graves, Webb, and
Marshall. — Greeley's Comments. — Benjamin T>^\. — The (N. Y.)
Sun. — James Gordon Bennett. — The JS'ew York Herald. — "It
Does Move." — Brave Editors and Journals. — Joseph Tinker
Buckingham and the Boston Courier. — Charles King and the
KeiD York American. — Charles Hammond and the Cincinnati
Gazette. — James G. Birney, — Gamaliel II. Bailey. — Elijah Par-
rish Lovejoy. — Cassius M. Clay.

Vice-Presidext "Wilsox ^vas in early days an editor
of a Free-soil newspaper in Boston, in conjunction
with Charles Francis Adams. Indeed, the latter was
the founder and the leading contributor of the paper.
At a later date Wilson w^rote an elaborate book, in
two Yolumes, entitled, "The Else and Fall of the
Slave Power.'' Though the style is heavy, it is a
valuable storehouse of facts. Of course, he gathered
his materials as others do. He levied contributions
among his friends. He assessed me to the amount
of one hundred and fifty foolscap pages, which he
wrought into the book. In coming years, when some
Alacaulay shall compose a history of this great epoch,
he will find Wilson's work a rich mine from which to
draw materials.
V2

266

KA^'DOM RECOLLECTIONS.

In looking back to discover the few, the very few,
surviving editors of New York newspapers of early
days, the eye naturally falls on the veteran Erastus
Brooks. He held a high place in journalism for half
a century, and is now an occasional writer for the
press. The admirable letters that Mr. James Brooks
wrote, in 1835, to the Portland Advertiser, describing
his tour on foot in Europe, which were extensively
copied in this country, deepened the desire in many
minds to travel in those enchanting lands. The model
letters of Mr. Erastus Brooks, in the same year and
the next to the Neio York Daily Advertiser, from
Washington, sketching scenes in Congress, in that
exciting period, led many young men to visit the Na-
tional Capital. The two brothers established the New
York Daily Express in 1836. Under their manage-
ment it rapidly reached the front rank among the
city journals. One of its attractive features were
the Washington letters of Erastus Brooks. In a re-
cent communication to the present Mail and Express,
he says of the founding of the Express of 1836, that

the labor of starting a newspaper in New York fifty
years ago was intense, and required patience, courage,
self-sacrifice, and persistent effort." In this commu-
nication the venerable journalist gives the following
interesting facts : " In the time of the writer," says
Mr. Brooks, "as editor and proprietor, he has seen
more than one hundred and twenty journals live and
die in the city of New York alone, and lie believes
that more than twenty millions of dollars was spent
in the city papers from 1836 to 1877. Only five of
the one hundred and twenty journals in existence in

ERASTUS BROOKS. LEWIS TAPPAN.

267

1836, and since then, survived in 1879, and one hun-
dred and four had disappeared in the space of twenty
years. In inexperienced hands the hirgest collection
of sponges Avill not imbibe water as rapidly as new
newspapers will absorb money.*'

Mr. Brooks achieved distinction as a politician and
a legislator. He was a leader in many sessions of the
Senate and Assembly of Xew^ York, and in the Con-
stitutional Convention of 18G7, and the Constitutional
Commission of 1872. I have- seldom heard his supe-
rior in debate in deliberative or partisan bodies. Xo
doubt he was somewhat indebted for his success in
this held to his early training and long experience as
an editor. He is an expert, too, in one occult branch
of law. John C. Spencer, Samuel B. Euggles, Eras-
tus Brooks, and Horatio Seymour were able to shed
valuable light over the ecclesiastical tribunals of the
Episcopal Church when they happened to be lay mem-
bers of its conventions.

Those who have known or heard of Lewis Tappan
only as an enterprising merchant, or an Anti-slavery
agitator, may be surprised to see him classed among
newspaper editors. But this versatile and vigorous
man finds an appropriate place there. He and his
brother, Arthur, founded the Xew York Journal of
Commerce in 1827, Lewis Tappan being editor-in-chief,
and David Hale assistant editor. It was established
to promote the interests of the mercantile class, and
to defend the doctrines of the Christian religion. Mr.
Tappan soon became the sole proprietor, and he and
Mr. Hale conducted it with so much abihty and spirit
that it early ranked among the most important news-

268

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

papers in the commercial metropolis. Mr. Tappan ul-
timately withdrew from its management, in order to
devote his time more exclusively to their mercantile
firm, then one of the largest silk houses in the city.
The Journal of Commerce went into the control of
those distinguished editors, 'Hale and Hallock. In 1828
this paper stationed a swift vessel off Sandy Hook to
obtain the European news from inward-bound ships
earlier than its contemporaries ; and at a subsequent
date it ran a horse express from Philadelphia to Xew
York, which enabled it to lay the proceedings of Con-
gress before its readers a day sooner than the other
journals. These projects (conceived and executed by
Lewis Tappan and David Hale) may seem small to us,
but the generation that had not dreamed of the land
telegraph, the submarine wire, the telephone, or the
railroad, looked upon them as extraordinary achieve-
ments.

In those days I knevv^ Mr. Hale slightly. He was
born in a lowly, one story, little clapboard house, in
Lisbon, just across the Quinnebaug river from Jewett
City. I need not say that I was associated Avitli Lewis
Tappan all through the struggle for the overthrow of
negro slavery. He ^vas one of the bravest men I ever
met. I have seen him stand for an hour while a mob
was raining a tempest of missiles upon our assembly,
and he seemed as cool as if sitting under the shadow
of one of the spreading elms of his native North-
ampton.

The men of to-day have faint conceptions of tho
bitterness of the controversy over a protective tariff
and the rechartering of the United States Bank and

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

260

cognate questions which raged in Jackson's adminis-
tration. Party lines sometimes crossed, as in the
memorable straggle over the nullification theories,
engendered in the fertile brain of John C. Calhoun.
On this subject Jackson and Benton were in accord
with Webster and Clay. During the whole of this
historic crisis the j^sew York Evening Post was per-
haps the ablest journalistic * supporter of the princi-
ples and measures espoused by the Jackson party. It
was with the hero of the " Hermitage " on the tariff,
the bank, and nullification, and was against Clay,
Webster, and the "Whigs in all these measures except
the last. During this troubled period Mr. Bryant con-
trolled the columns of the Post^ but through a por-
tion of it he was assisted by the more fiery pen of
William Leggett. Indeed, it is only stating the exact
truth to say that Mr. Leggett was a more vigorous and
versatile journalist than Mr. Bryant. Mr. Yan Buren
was inaugurated as President in March, 1837. The
slavery contest was then at its height. Yan Buren
bent to the storm, and in his inaugural declared that
he would veto any act which Congress might pass for
the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.
In an editorial in his oAvn separate paper, just then
started, Leggett keenly criticised Yan Buren's ad-
dress, saying that, as to any explicit recommendation
of measures, the President might as well have sung
"Hail Columbia" or whistled "Yankee Doodle."

And now an event occurred in the history of the
Evening Post that is worthy of special commendation.
Yan Buren and Wright had foreshadowed the Sub-
treasury scheme. The outbreak against the proposed

270

RAXDOM KECOLLECTIOXS.

financial policy was without a precedent in violence.
It Tras to the last degree unpopular with the mone-
tary and trading classes. But the Post^ though pub-
lished in the banking and commercial metropolis of
the Union, firmly stood by the President and his Sub-
treasury scheme, Avhile in the same columns it held
up to indignation and contempt his pledge to inter-
pose his veto against any bill that should emancipate
the slaves in the district. To fully estimate tlie cour-
age and fidelity of the Post in this conjuncture it
must be borne in mind that, probably, no two propo-
sitions were ever so unpopular in the city of IS'ew
York as were the Sub-treasury measure and the proj-
ect of setting the negroes free at the national cap-
ital.

It is wise to contemplate instances of journalistic
independence and courage. The Democratic party
had imbibed the infatuated idea of strengthening
themselv^es by extending the area of negro slavery.
In spite of the longer vision of Yan Buren, Benton,
Wright, and Blair, the slavery propagandists deter-
mined to annex Texas to the Union for the purpose
of planting the baleful institution therein. A small
band of Democrats resisted this wild scheme from the
moment of its inception. Yan Buren and his fol-
lowers in New York looked askance at the project,
but hardly dared to speak up like men, and wither it
in the bud. But the Evening Post did not hesitate
to follow where duty led. It denounced the plot, ex-
posed the ulterior objects of the conspirators, and fore-
told (which subsequently came to pass) that its con-
summation would prostrate the Democratic party and

JAMES WATSON WEBB.

271

bring calamity on the country. Week after week the
Post glowed with indignation against the policy of
annexation, so pregnant of present evils, so full of
future disasters. Mr. Bryant, in this contest, had
many coadjutors at his side, but among Democratic
journals the Post stood almost alone.

James Watson Webb founded the Xew York Cour-
ier and Enquirer in 1829. His career as a journalist
and politician are too well known to justify special
recital here. For the first twenty years of its long
life the Courier and Enquirer ranked among influen-
tial journals. At the outset it supported the admin-
istration of General Jackson in the bold and vehement
style so characteristic of its editor-in-chief, and cham-
pioned the President in the earlier stages of his con-
flict with Xicholas Biddle and the United States Bank.
By and by a change came over the newspaper, and,
from being an ardent opponent of the Whig policy of
renewing the Charter of the Banks, it became a zeal-
ous advocate of that measure. Of the alleged discov-
eries of a Congressional Committee, and the subse-
quent charges of corruption by Jonathan Cilley, a
Democratic member of the House from Maine, and
Colonel Webb's challenge of Cilley to a duel, and Cil-
ley's refusal to meet him for the asserted reason that
Webb was not a gentleman, and the taking-up of the
quarrel by William J. Graves, a Kentucky Congress-
man, the second of Webb, and the killing of Cilley in
a duel with Graves, when Graves called him to the
field because Cilley had said that Graves was the
bearer of a hostile message from an individual who
was not a gentleman — of this famous, foolish, and fa-

272

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

tal fray I shall record nothing, though I was familiar
with the transactions at the time they occurred.

The Coxiriei" and Enquirer now became a prominent
Whig journal, under the management of Webb. He
was an aggressive editor, indulged in pungent person-
alities, and courted contradiction and conflict. He
charged some of the Kentucky delegation in Congress
vrith corruption respecting the Bankrupt Act. Thomas
F. Marshall, a Kentucky member, scarified Webb on
the floor of the House. Soon afterwards Marshall
came to IS'ew York to defend Monroe Edwards, a man
of considerable repute, who was arraigned on an in-
dictment for forgery. Webb commented sharply in
his newspaper on the conduct of Marshall in leaving
his seat in the House to appear at the bar of a crim-
inal court in a distant city. Day by day the Courier
and Enquirer blazed away at Marshall. The night
before he was to sum up for Edwards he addressed a
note to Webb, telling him that he should reply to his
attacks at the opening of his speech. Colonel Webb
appeared in court, and Marshall, T3y way of exordium,
denounced him in a bitter philippic. The result was
a challenge to a duel. The parties went to Delaware
for the purpose. They fought, and Webb was wound-
ed in the leg. I often saw him on his crutclies. The
affair created much excitement, and upon his return
to Xew York AVebb was indicted for leaving the state
to light a duel. He was found guilty, and sentenced
to two 3^ears in the state prison. So great Avas the
sympathy expressed for him that his friends, irre-
spective of party, circulated petitions praying for his
pardon. Among the most conspicuous of the seven-

GREELEY AND WEBB.

273

teen thousand names appended to the petitions was
that of Horace Greeley, editor of the ^ew York Trih-
ime, then a rival of the Co^irier and Enquirer. Mr.
Seward was Governor of the state, and a personal
friend of Webb. After Webb had been in the Tombs
a few^ Aveeks the Governor gave him an unconditionrl
pardon, and saved him from the state prison.

I have related this little piece of history about
Marshall, Webb, Greeley, and Seward, as an introduc-
tion to a bit of biography concerning Webb and Gree-
ley. I must here draw" on my memory for details,
and shall give only the substance of the editorial ar-
ticles in question. Though each was a Whig organ,"
the Trihune and the Courier and Enquirer ^vere con-
stantly in a broil. One morning Webb handled Gree-
ley with severity in a long editorial. He referred to
the peculiar dress which Greeley w^ore, asserting that
he appeared on Broadvray in an imcouth garb merely
to arrest the attention of passers-by. The next morn-
ing the Trihune contained an elaborate reply, going
over Webb's article point by point. The last subject
taken up by the philosopher of Spruce Street was
Webb's reference to his dress. I give only the sub-
stance of Greeley's paragraph relating to this matter.
" As to our personal appearance," he said, " it does
seem time that we should stay the flood of nonsense
with which the town, by this time, must be nause-
ated." He then w^ent on to tell how he came to 'New
York with scarcely a dollar in his pocket, and worked
as a journeyman printer ten or a dozen years, and
how he had toiled till he had become the conductor
of a leading journal of the country. Greeley closed
12^ '

274

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

his cutting rejoinder by a reference to his efforts to
procure Webb's pardon from the state prison, about
in these words: ''That he" (Greeley) "ever affected
eccentricity is most untrue ; and certainly no costume
he ever appeared in on Broadway or elsewhere would
create such a sensation as that Avhicli James Watson
Webb would have worn but for the clemency of Gov-
ernor Seward. Heaven grant that our assailant may
never hang with such weight on another Whig exec-
utive. We drop him."

I heard at the time that when Webb read this out-
burst of Greeley he broke into a laugh, and said he
forgave the irate philosopher.

The Courier and Enquirer covered so long a period
that its vicissitudes would furnish an epitome of the
history of IS'ew York journalism. At various times
Colonel Webb had for his chief of staff George H.
Andrews and Henry J. Eaymond. The latter rose
till he practically became the principal editor. The
old paper waned after Eaymond left it to build up
the Times^ and in 1860 it lapsed into the Wo7'ld.

I recall the day, in 1835, when the first number of
the Wew Yorh Herald was sold in the streets by a
dishevelled set of brawling news boys, "price one
cent." These greasy and noisy youths were the
grandfathers of the lively and audacious gamins of
our times. The ^S';^;^, though, was the first permanent
daily penny paper in the Union. It was issued in
September, 1833, by Benjamin Da}^ three years in
advance of the Herald.

On coming to New York from Lane Seminary, in
May, 1834, or 1835, to address the American Anti-

BENNETT AND THE " HERALD." 275

slavery Society (I was present in both years), I ascer-
tained that Lewis Tappan had purchased a column in
the little Sfui, with the privilege of using that column
as a medium of publishing, at advertising rates, such
matter as he pleased. lie and Elizur Wright kept
it well supplied with anti-slavery facts and figures.
When the Herald arose it eclipsed the Sun. James
Gordon Bennett was a canny Scotchman, and pos-
sessed the genuine newspaper genius. His unique
journal opened a fresh epoch in that department of
literature. Some time after its establishment I de-
livered half a dozen lectures in the city on the Slavery
question, especially with reference to the then en-
dangered right of petition and freedom of discussion.
They were re})orted in the Herald, after a fashion,
accompanied by harmless ridicule of the subject and
the speaker. A friend recently sent me those copies
of the Herald. I was interested in measuring the
space the country had passed over in the intervening
half-century. " It does move !" said Galileo.

Early remembrances in regard to newspapers are
so strong upon me that I must refer to two or three
exceptional cases, if it is only to record their names.
While I was living in Jewett City, George D. Prentice
induced me to subscribe to the JVew England Galaxy.,
published in Boston by the intrepid Joseph Tinker
Buckingham, and to which Prentice was a contrib-
utor. I kept the editor in mind through a dozen
changing years after I had ceased to read the produc-
tions of his pen. Meanwhile he had founded and
raised to eminence the Boston Daily Courier. When
I was mobbed in Massachusetts in the 3^ears 1835, '36,

276

ea:s"dom eecollectioxs.

'37, '38, Mr. Buckingham occasionally defended liber-
ty of speech in able articles in the columns of the
Courier. His caustic pen blistered the enemies of
free discussion with stinging epithets. The like meed
of praise can be bestowed on the New York American^
then holding an unusually high literary rank among
the daily newspapers of the city. It Avas conducted
by Charles King, the son of Eufus Iving. In that
proscriptive era, w^hen journals issued in commercial
centres that traded with the South hardly dared to
vindicate even the right of petition, the Cincinnati
Gazette^ under the management of Charles Hammond
(previously mentioned), ventured to speak more brave-
ly in support of liberty and law than perhaps any
other daily newspaper printed on the banks of the
lower affluents of the Mississippi Eiver. Those were
indeed troublous days in that portion of the Union.
James Cx. Birney's and Gamaliel H. Bailey's printing
presses and types were more than once submerged in
the Ohio at Cincinnati, and Elijah Parrish Lovejoy
was shot to death by citizens while protecting his
press and types from a like fate at Alton. It is pain-
ful to hold up to view the dark side of this picture.
It is far more agreeable to point to the silver lining
that soon afterwards began to tinge the edges of the
sombre cloud.

The five brave journalists just mentioned have
passed away. One of a later period, who suffered in
the same cause, survives to publish the history of liis
own perils, which, viewed in some aspects, were greater
than theirs. I refer to Cassius M. Q\vi\. The freedom
of the press never had a more heroic champion than

CASSIUS M. CLAY.

277

this distinguished son of Kentucky. The first time I
saw him Avas in 1S44, at Boston, in a great meeting
that he was addressing in support of the election to
the Presidency of his relative, Henry Clay. The last
time I saw him was at Johnston, N. Y., in 1884, when
I Avas called to the chair of a meeting which he ad-
dressed in support of the election of James G. Blaine.
In the intervening fort\' years Mr. Clay had rendered
important services in behalf of the slave, especially
in his native state, both on the platform and through
his newspaper, the True American. His life was fre-
quently put to hazard ; his blood was shed in encoun-
ters with foes whom he contrived to overmaster in
more than one hand-to-hand deadly affray. The
libert}^ of speech and of the press owes more to him
than to any other citizen of Kentucky. Portions of
his recently published autobiography read like a tragic
novel.

CHAPTER XXYIII.

American Journalism. — Ecligious Newspapers. — Albanj^ Journals
and Editors: The Argus, Atlas, and Evening Journal; Croswell,
Weed, Cassid3^ Van Dyck, Sliaw, Dawson, AVilkeson. — Xames
of Thirty Persons whose Obituary Notices were AVritten by the
Author in Various Journals. — Death of Gerrit Smitli in Decem-
ber, 1874. — Several State Conventions. — Tweed Exposes his
Persecutors at Rochester in 1871.— Conkling and Fenton Cross
Swords at Syracuse in 1871. — Tilden Nominated for Governor
in 1874, Robinson in 1876, Cornell and John Kelly in 1879.—
Speech-]\[aking and Reporting. — Meeting at Providence in 1850.
— The XeiD York Times. — Isaac Hill and the Concord Patriot. —
John Niles and the Hartford Times. — Newspaper Corre-
spondents Writing Speeches for Senators and Congressmen, and
Reports for Committees, and Messages for Governors. — Press
Club Receptions in 1885. — Extract from President Amos J.
Cumming's Speech; he is Elected to Congress in November,
1886. — The Great Newspaper District he Represents.

Though a little late, I will say, that in the heat of
the assault upon the Southern oligarchy, when epi-
thets were not always carefully chosen by the assail-
ants on either side, the charge Avas made that the
rehgious newspapers in the North were opposed to
the anti-slavery enterprise. This was at one period
the attitude of journals of that class in large cities,
but was never true of those published in the country
districts and smaller towns. I occasionally contrib-
uted to the religious press, and I affirm that in the
later stages of our conflict with the baleful institution,
and especially in the civil war, it was a jiowci'ful

THE CLERGY IN THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONTEST. 279

agent in the work of securing the freedom of the
slave and the preservation of the Union.

These journals were controlled by clerg3^men, and
what I have said of their newsi^apers will hold good
of the body of the ministers in the Xorth from the
opening of the Anti-slavery contest to its close. They
were unjustly accused of hostility to emancipation.
This was true for a time in a partial sense of those
who preached to the wealthy, aristocratic churches
of the chief cities, but it was otherwise with those of
the rural districts, and with the ministers of two or
three of the most populous sects, as, for example, the
Methodists and Baptists. I speak from personal ob-
servation when I assert that in the trying crisis of our
struggle there were no firmer champions of the slave
than the mass of the Xorthern clergy. Indeed, and
to state the case exactly, some abolitionists hated
ministers more than they hated slave-holders. As
Alvan Stewart once quaintly put it- in a convention,

Some of our people seem unable to get under way
till they have given the ministers a black eye."

In the conflicts between the Barnburners and the
Hunkers, the young Alhany Atlas was the organ of
the former, and the venerable Albany Argus of the
latter. William Cassidy, the editor of the Atlas, was
a versatile writer. He was assisted by the solid abili-
ties of Henry H. Yan Dyck and the sparkling wit of
John Yan Buren. Edwin Croswell, who had long
managed the Argus, was trained in the Albany Ke-
gency, a political organization that controlled the
Democratic party in Xew York for twenty years.
He was an editor of rare gifts. He encountered an

280

RANDOM KECOLLECTIONS.

opponent worthy of his blade in Mr. Weed, of the
Albany Ecening Journal. The Argus, at a later day,
came under the able direction of Mr. S. M. Shaw, now
of the Cooperstown Freeman's Journal, and absorbed
the Atlas. In those days Governor Marcy wrote
occasionally for the Argus. The veteran George
Dawson took the helm of the Evening Journal after
the brilliant pen of Mr. Samuel Wilkeson disappeared
from its columns. In the vicissitudes of parties from
184:8 to 1858, I occasionally wrote as a volunteer for
all of these influential newspapers. It would please
me to speak of the later days of the Journal and the
Argus, and of those comparativeh" modern news-
papers at the state capital, the Times, the Press, and
the Express ; but I must move on.

I have never been, in the strict sense of the phrase,
on the editorial staff of either the New Yorlc Tribune
or the Neio York Sun. But for the past thirty-two
years I have written largely for each in turn, and
mostly in the editorial columns. The questions I
treated were of every variety. There is one topic,
however, to which I will particularly refer. It often
devolved upon me to prepare obituary notices of dis-
tinguished persons. They exhibit the defects of rapid
writing, for they were produced under the pressure
of emergencies that would permit of no delay. I re-
call the following names of subjects, selected at ran-
dom : Daniel Cady, John Brown, Salmon P. Chase,
Charles Sumner, Eobert Eantoul, Horace Greeley,
Thaddeus Stevens, John A. Dix, William Cullen Bry-
ant, William Lloyd Garrison, Benjamin F. Wade,
WiUiam Pitt Fessenden, Henry Wilson, Gerrit Smith,

DEATH OF GERRIT SMITH.

281

Daniel S. Dickinson, William II. Seward, Sanford
E. Church, ThurloAv AVeed, James Watson AVebb,
Arphaxad Loomis, Reuben E. Fenton, Robert L. Stan-
ton, Horatio Seymour, Samuel J. Tilden, Henry
O'Reilly, Stephen Pearl Andrews, Rev. Thomas S.
Shipman, Mrs. Daniel Cady, Mrs. Gerrit Smith, and
Mrs. Lucretia Mott. It gave me a melancholy pleasure
to strew stray flowers on the graves of some of my
coadjutors in a great cause.

On Sunday afternoon, December 28' IS 74, I called
at the house of General John Cochrane, in Xew York,
and there learned that Gerrit Smith had that morn-
ing been stricken VN'ith apoplexy, and was lying un-
conscious in the chamber above. That manly form
was waging a desperate battle for life. His attending
physician. Dr. Edward Bayard, my brother-in-law, in-
formed me that it was quite possible he might live
till the next day. Late in the evening it occurred to
me that I ^vould go to the Sioi office, and prepare an
obituary notice of the friend whom I had known for
forty years. I dictated it to a shorthand writer. It
would fill five columns. The hour of midnight ar-
rived, when it must be decided whether or not it was
to go into print. There was no one to confer with
but the night editor. I finally sent the article to the
composing-room, wliere they prefixed to it the start-
ling heading, '* Gerrit Smith's Deathbed." On Mon-
day morning the Sun took the town by surprise.
General Cochrane's house was filled with reporters.
Mr. Smith died about noon. Towards evening I
dropped into the Sim office. The night editor rushed
up to me, his eyes all aglow, and, seizing my hand.

282

RANDOM EECOLLECTIONS.

exclaimed : " Mr. Stanton, that was one of the grand-
est newspaper beats that ever happened in New York !
And how fortunate it is for us that Mr. Smith died
to-day ! The glorious old man did not go back on us.
It would have been very embarrassing if he had re-
covered." The enthusiastic outburst of the night
editor may be regarded as the very effervescence of
the esjyrit de corps of journalism.

For several years I attended state conventions of
both parties in Kew York, and superintended the
reports of their doings for the Sun, by a stenographer,
who minded his business and let mine alone. It was
easy to describe Avhat had transpired to-day, but it
Avas diiRcult to foreshadow what was to occur to-
morrow. I was oft times able to do the latter, be-
cause I had long been personally acquainted with the
leaders of factions, and they would accept my assur-
ance that the information they imparted would not
be disclosed to others, though both sides understood
that the facts were to appear in the Sun.

I was at the Democratic State Convention at
Eochester in 1871. The exposures in the New York
Times of the frauds of the Tweed Iling had startled
the country Democrats. Nevertheless, the delegates
from the city were, as usual, under the absolute control
of Tweed. I am now to speak of the evening before
the convention organized. Ultimate results would
depend upon whether the Tweed delegation on the
morrow demanded seats therein. I knew it was the
purpose of such Democrats as Governor Seymour,
Mr. Tilden, Chief-Judge Church, and Senator Francis
Kernan to exclude them ; and Mr. Tilden had counted

WILLIAM M. TWEED.

283

his followers, and feared no failure. Tweed did not
know this. At midnight I met IMr. Tweed alone, by
appointment, in his private apartment, where he was
to explain to me his programme for the morrow.
The scene will long remain in my memory. The
chandelier in the large room was turned low, and the
elaborate furniture cast ghastly shadows on the walls.
The fallen boss, whom I w^as w^ont to see in the ful-
ness of his strength, was nervous and sad. In a voice
slightly tremulous with emotion, he said the creden-
tials of the Tammany delegates would not be pre-
sented, lie surprised me with the frankness of his
utterances. I will not name those of his persecutors
to whom he said he had previously paid money, for a
vein of bitterness tins^ed his conversation. At a later
date, Tweed w^as sacrificed to save others who wxre
as guilty as himself. While in. prison, in the fall of
1877, he Avas drawn into detailed disclosures of the
robberies of the Eing by promises which were not
kept. Though a public plunderer, he w^as as honest
as some of his prosecutors.

I was at many state conventions on the like errand
with that just described. As, for example, at the
Eepublican Convention of 1871, at Syracuse, when
Conkling and Fenton crossed swords, and the latter
was grievously Avounded ; and at the Democratic
Convention of 1874, where Samuel J. Tilden received
authority to break up the Canal Ring, Avhich he after-
wards executed; and at the Democratic Convention
of 1876, Avliich placed Lucius Robinson in a station
that enabled that sour politician to disrupt and almost
destroy his party ; and at the Republican Convention

284

IvANDOM KECOLLECTIOXS.

of 1879, where Alonzo B. Cornell surprised his oppo-
nents bv winning the Gubernatorial nomination, and
afterwards beat his antagonist at the polls by aid of
a flank movement of John Kelly.

In the Xew England campaign of the spring of
1860, which foreshadowed the election of a Kepubli-
can President (perchance his defeat !), I met in Provi-
dence, where I was to speak, Mr. Joseph Howard, Jr.,
representative of the JS^eic York Times. Supposing I
had prepared a written address, he asked me for a
copy for tlie Times. Xot a word of my speech was
on paper, but, according to my usual habit, the outline
was before my eye. AVe repaired to my room. Mr.
Howard posed as the Slave Power. For nearly an
hour I upbraided him for his long-continued aggres-
sions upon the liberties of the people and the Con-
stitution of his country. Though evidently a little
disturbed in his mind at this vivid portrayal of his
manifold iniquities, he nevertheless rallied sufficiently
to take down the speech and emphasize its sharp
points with " loud applause." This was written out,
sent to the Times^ and put in type before the meeting
was held, for, be it remembered, the telegraph was far
less used for such purposes then than it is now. The
large and tumultuous meeting lasted till near mid-
night, and the next morning the speech I had hurled
at the Slave Power in the person of Joseph Howard
three days previously appeared in the Times, and sev-
eral thousand copies of the paper were purchased for
circulation in Phodc Island.

An old-time friend in Congress happened to meet
me in Washington, and asked me to write a speech

ISAAC HILL. — JOHN M. NILKS.

285

for him on the tariff, a subject he said he understood
about as well as the average Xew-Zealander. I did
as he requested. He read the speech in the House,
and circulated a large edition. It was translated into
German, his astonislied constituents presented to him
a set of silver plate, and he was re-elected.

As pure acts of personal friendship (for I never
took a penny for such services), I did this for Repre-
sentatives and Senators whose names " shone afar "
in the Federal councils. I was a little disgusted once
when a prominent Senator, by an awkward fumbling
of his manuscript, missed a brilliant passage over
which I had burned a large amount of midnight gas.
I felt as bad, perhaps, as Mrs. Isaac Hill, of Xew
Hampshire, did in Van Buren's day. She was lean-
ing over the rail of the Senate gallery while her hus-
band was reading a speech. She startled the strange
ladies around her by exclaiming : '* There I Mr. Hill
has turned over two leaves at once I"' Mr. Hill was
an accomplished editor, and therefore able to write
his own speeches. So was John M. Xiles, of Con-
necticut. Senator Hill built up the Concord Patriot ;
Senator Isiles the Hartford Times. Senators and
Eepresentatives that can neither write nor speak
ought to resign in favor of editors who can do one
or both.

What I have stated above is only a sample of a
common occurrence at Washington and elsewhere.
I am often astounded at the eloquence of some of our
public men I Bursting on the country so unexpected-
ly, too I

Newspaper correspondents do a lucrative business

286

RANDOM KECOLLECTIOXS.

at Washington in writing speeches for Senators and
Kepresentatives. Indeed, so common is this that
whenever I see an exceptionally able set speech by
an inferior member of either House, I am constrained
to exclaim, That is a good speech ; I wonder Avhat
newspaper man Avrote it ?" The enterprising corre-
spondent who sold the same speech to two Congress-
men, each of whom delivered it as his own, rather
imposed on his victims, especially as he himself hired
a third person to write it. So did the reporter who
copied the best passages in the speech he furnished
to his dupe from an old book in the Congressional
library. There should be honor among such people.

This line of remark will now and then apply to
reports from Congressional committees and the ex-
ecutive departments, and to Governors' messages and
emanations from State Legislatures. Oh, well, if 3^ou
don't know how to do a thing yourself, is it not best
to invoke the aid of somebody who does ?

Persons not well informed on this subject are not
aware how frequent is the practice of palming on the
public writings, and especially speeches and orations,
which are the productions of others than their reputed
authors. Over and over again men have sent articles
to newspapers and magazines, and even books to pub-
lishers, claiming them as emanations of tlieir own
pens, who, when it came to revising the proofs, were
not capable of recasting or rewriting a paragraph.

On June 27, 1885, the day wlien I completed the
eightieth year of my age and the sixtieth since I be-
gan to write for newspapers, the New York Press Club
gave me a reception at their rooms in the city. Tlie

AMOS J. CUMMINGS.

287

proceedings were elaborately reported. I omit every-
thing except the closing portion of the speech of Mr.
Amos J. Cummings, then president of the Club. I
print this because it presents some curious informa-
tion concerning several distinguished editors and au-
thors.

Glance over Mr. Stanton's past," continued Mr.
Cummings. He was born fo.ur years before Abraham
Lincoln. When he began to write for newspapei's,
Lincoln was employed at six clollars a month to man-
age a ferry across the Ohio, at tlie mouth of Andei^on's
Creek. Stephen A. Douglas Avas a boy twelve years
old, living with his widowed mother on a sterile Ver-
mont farm. Fred Douglass was a pickaninny on a
Maryland plantation. Horace Greeley had not yet
entered a country printing-office. Thurlow AVeed was
editing a dingy weekly newspaper. Charles Dickens
Avas a boy thirteen years old, employed in an attorney's
office. Thackeray was a boy of fourteen, attending
school in London. William Cullen Bryant had just
come to this city. James Gordon Bennett was trying
to establish a commercial school here. Henry J. Eay-
mond and Charles A. Dana were wearing check aprons
at district schools. Erastus Brooks was attending a
grocery in Boston. James Watson Webb was an ad-
jutant in the regular army. Manton Marble, George
W. Childs, and William Henry Hurlbert were en-
wrapped in the cocoon of futurity. A. K. McClure
was just learning to walk. Joseph E. Hawley had
just been born in a country town in Xorth Carolina.
John W. Forney was a boy nine years old, running
around unshod ; and scores of other newspaper men

288

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

who have won fame and fortune were not even liter-
ary larvaa.-'

Mr. Ciimmings, in Xovember, 1886, was elected by
an almost unanimous vote to the Fiftieth Congress
from the sixth district of Xew York. His varied ex-
perience as a journalist will enable him to carry to
the House of Eepresentatives an amount of rare in-
formation, that will be valuable in a body that is
always composed very largely of lawyers. For exam-
ple, the House of the Forty-ninth Congress contains
325 members, of whom 245 belong to the legal pro-
fession. The Sixth 'New York District doubtless issues
more newspapers and periodicals than any other Con-
gress district in the United States. The total num-
ber is 418, consisting of daily, semi-weekly, w^eekly,
bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, bi-monthly, and
quarterly publications, printed in fourteen different
languages. This is fifty-five more than are issued in
Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi combined, which
three states send twenty-one members to Congress.
The Sixth District, too, is the seat of many of the
great book-publishing houses of the countr}^. It is
also alive with job printers, who do press-work of all
imaginable descriptions. It is entirely appropriate
that such a district should be represented in Congress
by so competent a journalist as Mr. Cummings.

CHAPTER XXTX.

Conclusion.— Retrospect. — Extract from Thomas Moore's ' Oft iu
the Stilly Niglit."

As I turn my eye back over the fourscore years
covered by this narrative, I am deeply impressed with
the sad thought that nearly all the persons of whom
I have written are in the spirit-land, and that some of
the more distinguished have entered its portals since
the first edition of this work was issued. As I ap-
proach the goal I may be pardoned for quoting, ere
laying down the pen, the familiar lines of Moore :

' ' When I remember all

The friends, so linked together,
I've seen around me fall
Like leaves iu \\'intry weather,

I feel like one

Who treads alone
Some banquet hall deserted,

Whose lights are fled,

Whose garlands dead.
And all but he departed."

INDEX OF NAMES.

Abinger, Lord, 92. 1
Adams, Charles Francis, 149,150,

156. 163. 265.
Adams, Jolin, 72, 255.
Adams, John Quincy. 19. 31, 33,

49, 50, 58-00, 83, 158, 159, 163,

259.

Allen, Charles. 149.
AllcMi, William, 153. 242.
Andrews, George H.. 274.
Andrews. Stephen Pearl, 281.
Anthony. Susan B., 68.
Armstro^L^ John, 218.
Arnold, Benedict, 5, 6.
Arnold. Matthew, 91.
Astor, John Jacob, 189-191.
Alchinson, David R, 154.
Avery, Ephraim K., 112, 113.

Babcock, George R., 171.
Bailev, E. Prentiss. 66.
Bailev, Gamaliel, 66, 75, 263, 276.
Bailey, AVesley, 66.
Baines, EdwaVd, 76.
Ballantvne, Sergeant, 91.
Banks, Xathaniel P., 61.
Barker, George P., 155, 160.
Barkesdale, William, 208, 209.
Barnard, Daniel D., 35.
Barnes. Albert, 45, 185.
Bates, Edward, 222, 224.
Bayard, Edward, 281.
Beaconsfield, Lord, 83.
Beardsley, Samuel, 51, 161.
Beecher, Harriet, 68.
Beecher, Henry Ward, 44, 45.
Beecher, Lyman, 43-46.
Beekman, James AV^., 171, 172.
Belknap, Jeremy, 16.
Bellamy, .Joseph, 12. i

I Beman, Nathan S. S., 45.
! ]?enjamin. Judah P., 204.
B'ennett, James Gordon, 275, 287.
Beutham. Jeremv, 106.
Benton, Thomas H., 61, 152, 154,
259.

Bickford. Marin, 113,118,119,121.
Biddle, Nicholas, 103, 153, 206.
Bigelow, John, 160.
Binnev, Thomas, 76.
Birney, David B., 48.
Birney. James G., 47-49, 58, 6o,

75, 259. 276.
Bishop, Joel Prentiss, 126.
Black, Jeremiah, 212.
Blaine, James G., 154, 185.
Blair, Francis P. (Senior), 154,

183, 220.
Blair, Francis P. (Junior), 222.
Blair, Mont2:omer3\ 222.
Blatchford. Samuel, 142.
Blucher, Field Marshal, 257.
Booth, Junius Brutus, 93.
Bouck, William C, 30, 161.
Boughtou, Selleck, 132, 133.
Bowman, .John, 30.
Bowring. John, 76.
Brandreth, Benjamin, 171.
Breckenridge, John C. , 203.
Brewster, Henry, 51.
Brewster, Simon, 3, 6.
Brewster, Susan, 3.
Brewster, William, 3, 108.
Bright, John, 76, 101.
Bronson, Greene C, 129.
Brooks, Erastus, 266, 267, 287.
Brooks, James, 266.
Brougham, Henry, 75, 77-81, 85-
87, 106.

Brown, John (Capt.), 191, 280.

292

INDEX OF NAMES.

Brown, Judge, 50.
Brown, Tom, 153.
Brummel, Beau, 90.
Brunswick, Diicbcss of, 76.
Bryant. William Cullen, 63, 103,

160, 214, 209, 277, 287.
Buchanan, James, 152, 154, 204,

207, 259.
Buckingham, Joseph Tinker, 275.
Buckimjham, William A., 54.
Buller, Charles, 76.
Bulwer, Edward Lylton, 85.
Bunyan, John, 108.
Burden, Henry, 141, 142.
Burke, Edmund, 87, 92, 108, 116.
Burleigh, Charles C, 71.
Burleigh, William H., 71.
Burns, Robert, 103, 109.
Burr, Aaron, 255.
Burroughs, Roswell, 13.
Burroughs, Silas, 13.
Butler, "Benjamin F. (Albany), 31,

32, 158, 160, 103, 164, 259.
Butler, Benjamin F. (Lowell), 227.
Buxton, Thomas Fowell, 76, 85,

86, 87.

Byron, Ada Augusta, 104.
Byron, Lady, 76, 104.
Byron, Lord, 76, 104.

Cady, Daniel, 35, 74, 130, 131, 139,

140, 200.
Cady, Elizabeth. 74.
Cagger, Peter, 136-138.
Calhoun, John C, 61,84, 114, 152,

154, 259.
Calvin, Delano C, 145.
Cambreling, Churchill C, 160,

161.

Cameron, Simon, 164, 213, 222.
Campbell, Thomas, 76, 102, 103,
107.

Carlyle, Thomas, 104, 105.
Carnot, L. K M., 228.
Carroll, Thomas B., 100, 171, 220.
Cass. Lewis, 154, 157, 158, 161,

179-18:J. 212.
Cassidv, William. 100. 279.
Chace,' William M., 194, 195.
Chalmers, Thomas, 105, 106.

Channing, William Ellery, 71.
Chapman, Maria W., 51.
Charlick, Oliver. 182.
Chase, Edward I., 224.
Chase, Salmon P., 66. 154. 163,

220, 222-225, 238, 239, 259.
Cheetham, James, 254.
Child, Lvdia Maria, 67.
Childs, George W., 287.
Choate, Joseph H., 90.
Choate, Rufus, 111, 113, 115-119,

121, 124. 151.
Church. Sanford E., 155, 160,

171, 174.
Cille}^ Jonathan, 271.
Clark, Daniel, 143.
Clark, Thomas M., 52.
Clarkson, Thomas, 75, 76, 86, 87,

107.

Clay, Cassius M.. 66. 276. 277.
Clay, Henry, 19, 20, 28, 32. 38, 39,

61, 84, lo2-154, 158, 205, 206,

217.

Clayton, John M., 152.
Cleveland, Chauncey F., 54.
Clinton. De Witt, 23, 31, 32, 132,

218, 249, 255.
Cochrane, John, 202.
Colden, Cadwallader D., 22.
Coleman, William, 254.
Comstock, Oliver C. 40.
Conkling, Roscoe, 32, 154, 193,

198, 199, 236, 240, 241.
ConoUy, Richard B., 247.
Cook, James M., 171.
Copley, John, 79.
Cornell, Alonzo B., 240.
Cornell, Maria, 112.
Corning. Erastus, 141.
Corwiu,Thomas,151,200,201,213.
Cottenham, Lord, 92, 93.
Cowen, Eseok, 129, 135, 136.
Cox, F. A. (D.D.), 76.
Crandell, Prudence. 66. 67.
Crawford, Martin J.. 208. 209.
Crawford, William II., 19.
Crcmieux, Isaac Adolpho, 93.
Crittenden, John J.. 151, 152.
Crolius, Clarkson, 171.
Cromwell, Oliver, 92, 97, 98, 208.

INDEX OF NAMES.

293

Croswcll, Edwin, 160, 279.
Cummings, Amos J., 287, 288.
Curtis, Benjamin R., 124.
Curti.s, George William, 2G3, 2G4.
Curtis, Samuel R., 234.
Gushing, Caleb, 57, 58, 259.

DaboU, Xatban. 16, 17.

Dana, Charles A., 186, 220, 241,

246, 260. 287.
Daniels, Alfred, 124.
Daniels. George, 123. 124.
Dart, William A., 171.
Darwin. Doctor (Senior), 228.
Davis, David, 221.
Davis, Henry Winter, 202.
Davis, Jefferson, 210.
Davis, Matthew S., 255.
Davis. Xoah, 236.
Dawson, George, 280.
Day, Benjamin, 274.
Decatur. Stephen, 6, 7.
Deuio, Hiram, 129, 135.
Denmau, Lord, 92.
Derby, Earl, 83.
Dexter, Lord Timolh}", 72, 73.
Dickens, Charles, 287.
Dickinson, Andrew B., 223, 224.
Dickinson, Daniel S., 154, 160,

178, ISO, 212.
Disraeli, Benjamin, 83, 85.
Dix. John A., 146. 154, 160, 174,

184, 212, 218, 246, 259.
Dixon, James, 213.
Doolittle, James R., 213.
Dorsbeimer, William, 246.
Douglas, Stephen A., 154, 203,

209, 212-214, 287.
Douglass, Frederick, 68, 156.
Dow, Lorenzo, 13, 14.
Duane, William, 254.
Durham, Earl, 81.

Edwards, Jonathan, 12.
Edwards. Monroe, 272.
Elliott, Ebenczer. 103.
Emerson. Ralph Waldo, 105.
Emmet, Robert, 84.
Evarts, William M., 115, 193, 217,
218.

Everett. Edward, 259.
Ewing, Tnomas, 39.

Fanning. Charles, 19, 20.

Farrar, Canon, 91.

Fentou. Reuben E., 143, 154,160,

236-239, 249.
Fessenden, Samuel, 54.
Fessenden, William Pitt, 54, 213.
Field, David Dudley, 160, 171,

214.

Fillmore, Millard, 36, 40.
Finnev, Charles G., 40-42, 45, 63.
Fish, Hamilton, 171, 172.
Flairg, Azariah C, 30, 158, 160.
FFiut, Abel, 16.
Folger, Charles J., 160.
Follett, William, 93.
Folsom, Abigail, 70, 93.
Fornev, John W., 287.
Forrest, Edwin, 96.
Forster. William E., 76, 90, 101.
Foster, La Fayette S., 123.
Foster. Stephen S., 70, 213.
Fox, Charles James, 87, 108.
Fox, George, 70.
Franklin, Benjamin, 72, 106.
Fremont, John C, 8, 54.
Freneau, Philip. 253.
Fry, Elizabeth, 76.

Gallatin, Albert, 255.
Gardiner, Addison, 35, 160.
Garfield, James A., 241.
Garrison, William Lloyd, 51, 52,

65, 69, 71, 72, 164.
Geddes, George, 171.
Giddings, Joshua R., 66.
Gladstone, W^illiam Ewart, 84,

101.

Goodell, William, 66.
Goodrich, Samuel G., 49.
Gould, Jacob, 32.
Graham, Sylvester, 62, 63.
Granger. Francis, 22.
Grant, Ulysses S., 43.
Graves, William J., 271.
Greeley, Horace, 47, 63, 107, 154,

186, 214, 217, 218, 220, 222, 259,

273, 287.

294

INDEX OF NAMES.

Green, Andrew H., 160.
Green, Aslibel, Dr., 45.
Green, lieriah, 51, C6.
Grey (Earl, 1st), 77, 79, 80, 81.
Grey (Earl, 2d), 83.
Grey, Ladv Jane, 97.
Griffin, John, 134.
Grimke, Angelina, 67.
Grimke, Sarah, 67.
Grow, Galusha A., 143, 207.
Grundv, Felix. 153.
Guizot; F. P. G., 75.
Guruey, Samuel, 76.

Hale, David, 267, 268.
Hale, John P., 127, 128, 213.
Hallett, Benjamin F., 125, 126.
Hamilton, Alexander, 255.
Hamlin, Hannibal, 213, 219.
Hammond. Charles, 258.
Hancock, John, 72.
Hardy, Commodore, 6, 7.
Harris, Ira, 217. 218.
Harrison, William H., 151.
Hart, Levi, 12.
Hastings, Hus^li J., 241.
Hastings, Warren, 80, 92, 108.
Hawley, Jesse, 132, 133.
llawley, Joseph R., 66, 287.
Hawley, Reverend ]\Ir., 66.
Haydon, Benjamin R., 76, 77.
Hayes, Rutherford B. . 242.
Hayne, Robert Y., 50.
Head, George, 119. 120, 121.
Hendricks, Thomas A., 154.
Heyrick, Elizabeth, 60.
Hill, Isaac, 285.

Hill, Nicholas, 135, 136, 137, 138,

140, 160, 161.
Hoar, E. Rockwood. 115.
Hoar, George F.. 115.
Hoar, Samuel, 113, 114, 115.
HofTman, John T., 248.
HofTman, Michael, 155, 160, 173,

175.

Holman, William S., 143.
Ifopkins, Samuel, 12.
Houston. Sam, 183.
Howaril. Joseph. Jr., 284.
Howick, Lord, 83.

Howitt, Mary, 76.
Hubbard, Samuel. 123.
Hugo, Victor, 104.
Hume, David, 89.
Hunt, Washin2:ton, 159.
Hunter, John, 223.
Hurlbert, William Henry, 287.
Hutchinson (The family), 70.

Irving, Washington, 255.
Isambert, Frangois Andre, 93.

Jackson, Andrew, 19, 31-33, 103,

154, 205.
Jackson. Francis, 05.
James, John Augell, 76.
James, William (Senior), 40.
James, William (Junior), 40.
Jay, John, 255.
Jay, William, 65.
Jefferson, Joseph, 13.
Jefferson, Thomas, 3, 142, 148,

149.

Jeffrey, Francis, 106.
Jeffreys, George, 98, 99.
Johnson, Andrew, 209.
Johnson, Richard 31., 61.
Johnson, Samuel, 96, 107.
Johnson, William(LaAV Reporter),

129, 135.
Jones, Edward F.. 225.
Judson, Andrew T., 6,7.

Kcan, Charles, 26.
Kcan, Edmund, 26, 27.
Keitt, Lawrence M.. 207, 209.
Kcllo^or, William, 208.
KellvrJohn, 284.
Kendall, Amos, 259.
Kent, James, 129, 143.
Kernan. Francis, 282.
King, Charles, 62. 276.
King, Pre.ston, 160.
King, Rufus, 164, 218.
King. AVilliam R., 152.
Knapp, Frank, 113.
Knapp, Joseph, 113.
Knox, John, 105.

La Fayette, The 3Iarquis, 20.

INDEX OF NAMES.

295

Lamartinc. Alplionse, 9^^.
Lanipson, Father, 70.
Lapham, Elbridge G.. 240.
Lawrence, Abbott, 114, 115, 150.
Lawrence, James. 9.
Leavitt, Joshua, 65.
Ledvard, William, 6.
Lee," Charles M., 133.
Leffgett, William, 2fi9.
Lincoln. Abraham, 134, 209, 212,

214. 21G, 221, 222, 232-235,

287.

Lincoln, Mrs. Abraham, 221.
Littlejohn, De Witt C. 218, 246.
Livingston, Edward, 255.
Livingston, Peter R., 22.
Longfellow, Henry W., 103.
Loomis, Arphaxad, 155, 160.
Lord, Hezekiah, 12.
Loring, Charles G., 124.
Lovejoy, Elijah Parrish, 06.
LovejoV, Owen, 207, 232.
Lovelace, Lady, 76. 104.
Lushingtou, Stephen, 76.
Lyndhurst, Lord, 78, 79.

McClellan, George B.. 227.
McClure, Alexander K.. 287.
McDonald, Joseph E., 154, 242.
McPheeters, Dr., 234.
Macaulay, Thomas Babington,

80, 82,' 84, 85. 106.
Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell,

145, 146.
!Macready, 96.
Madison,' James, 7, 9, 10.
Madison, ]Mrs. James, 152.
Mallory, James, 30.
Mann, Abijah, 160.
Mann, Charles A., 171.
Mann, Horace, 149.
Mansfield, Lord, 129.
Marble, Manton, 287.
Marcy, William L., 30, 37-40,

154, 160, 218, 249, 259.
Marlborough, Duke of. 108.
Marshall, John, 112. 129.
Marshall Thomas F., 60, 272.
Martiudale, Henry C, 184.
Marvin, Dudle}', 35.

Mason, James M., 210.

Mason, Jeremiah, 111-113, 118,

204, 210, 211.
Mason, John, 4.

Matteson, Orsamus B., 198. 199.
May, Samuel J., 65, 67.
Melbourne, Lord. 78, 79, 82.
Mellen, George W., 70.
Miantonomoh, 45.
Miller, Warner, 240.
Monro, Timothy, 37.
Montgomery, James, 103.
Moore, Thomas, 23.
Morgan, Christopher, 215.
3;organ, Edwin D., 218, 219, 236-

^lorgan, William. 24, 36, 37.
Morpeth, Lord, 75.
Morse, Jedediah, 16.
Moses, Franklin J., 114.
Mott, Lucretia, 67, 281.
Murat, Joachim, 83.
Murray, Lindle}", 16.

Napoleon I.. 79, 228, 257.
Napoleon III., 94.
Xeal, John, 54.
Xelson, Horatio, 6.
Xelsou. Samuel, 129, 138, 142.
Xiles, John M, 285.
Xoah, Mordecai M., 22.
iSToxen, B. Davis, 35.
Noyes, Edward F., 242.
ISToyes. William Curtis. 215.
Nye, James W^, 156, 160.

O'Connell, Daniel, 75, 83, 84, 87,

102, 107, 108.
O'Connell. John, 107.
O'Conor, Charles, 161.
Opie, Amelia, 76.
O'Reilly, Henry, 26, 258.
Orr, James L., 207.

Paddleford, Seth, 213.
Parker, Amasa J. (Senior), 246.
Parker, Mary S.,51.
Parker, Samuel Dunn, 119, 121.
Parker, Theodore. 128.
Parley, Peter, 49.

296

INDEX OF NAMES.

Partridge, Alclen, 29.
Patch, Sam, 27.
Patterson, George W., 171.
Payne, Henry B., 154.
Pease, Elizabeth, 76.
Peel, Robert, 83, 84.
Penn, William, 53.
Pennington, William, 61, 201, 202.
Penny, "Joseph, 40.
Perry, Oliver Hazard, 8, 9.
Phelps, Amos A., 65.
Phillips, Stephen C. 149.
Phillips, Wendell, 66, 69, 71.
Pickerinir, Timothy, 255.
Pierce, Franklin, 120, 153.
Pierpont, John, 65.
Pillsbnrv, Parker, 70.
Pitt, Wi'lliam (Senior), 79, 228.
Pitt, William (Junior), 87, 104.
Piatt, Thomas C, 240.
Polk, James K., 60, 157, 158.
Pollock, Frederick, 93.
Porter, John K., 136, 137, 138.
Porter, Peter B., 155.
Porteus, Bishop. 87.
Prentice. George D., 17, 18, 26,

259, 275.
Preston, AVilliam C, 152.
Purvis, Robert, 69.

Quincy, Edmund, 70.
Quincy, Josiah, 70.

Randolph, John, 108.
Rautoul, Robert, 280.
Ravmond, Henry J., 154, 200,

261, 287.
Redfield, Heman J., 30.
Revnolds, Marcus T., 138, 139.
lihctt, Robert Barnwell. 60, 259.
Richmond, Dean, 156, 160.
Ritchie, Thomas, 154.
Rives, William C. 152.
Roberts, ]\Iarshall 0..237.
Robinson, Lucius, 283.
Root. Erastus, 22.
liug^les. Samuel B., 267.
Russell, iAIajor Ben, 253.
Russell, Loid John, 77, 82.
Russell, Lord William, 108.

Sackett. Garry V., 196-198.

Sanford, Nathan, 218.

Sargeant, John, 152.

Sassacus, 4.

Scarlett, James, 92.

Schofield, John, 19.

Scott, Walter, 108,177.

Scott, Winfield,180.

Scribner, Charles, 75.

Seklen. Samuel L.. 35.

Seward, William H.. 33. 34, 36,
142, 154, 109, 170, 203, 204,210,
212-219, 221-223,225, 241, 242,
259.

Seymour, Henry, 29, 30.
Seymour, Horatio, 29, 30, 154,

155, 160, 238, 239, 267.
Sharp, Granville, 87, 107.
Shaw, Lemuel, 110, 116.
Shaw, Samuel M., 280.
Sheridan, Richard B., 92, 108.
Sherman, John, 200, 201.
Sherman, Roijer, 115.
Sherman, William T., 61.
Shipman, Thomas L., 281.
Simmons, James F., 213.
Slidell, John, 146, 203, 204, 210,

211.

Smith, Caleb B.,222.

Smith, Gerrit, 27, 51, 65, 146, 168,

281, 282.
Smith, Green, 191.
Smith, Horace E., 126.
Smith of K C.,201.
Smith, Peter, 189, 190.
Smith, Sydney, 80, 81,106.
Southard, Samuel L., 152.
Southwick, Solomon, 33.
Spencer, Ambrose, 129, 146.
Spencer, John C, 31, 35, 145,

146, 267.
Spencer, Joshua A., 139.
Sprague, Peleg, 110.
Sprague, William, 213.
Stanley, Dean, 91.
Stanley, Lord. 83.
Stanton, Edwin M.. 222. 228.233.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 68.
Stanton, Joseph (Senior), 2.
Stanton. Joseph (Junior), 2.

INDEX OF NAMES.

297

Stanton. Lodewick. 2.
Stanton, Robert Lodewick, 234,
251.

Stanton, Susan. 3, 4.
Stanton, Tliomas, 2.
Steplieus. Alexander II., 214.
Stetson, Charles, 180.
Stevens. Samuel, 138-141.
Stephens. Thaddeus, 208, 209.
Stewart, Alvan, 51, 53, 65,134,135.
Stone, Lucy. G7. 68.
Storrs. Henrv R.. 35, 132.
Story, Joseph. 110, 113, 126. 255.
Stowe, Calvin E., 68.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 68, 202.
Stuart. Charles E.,211.
Stuart. Closes, 259.
Sturge. Joseph, 76.
Sumner, Charles, 125, 126.
Sutherland, Jacob, 129.
Swift, Jonathan. 108.
Sydney, Algernon, 108.

Taft, Alplionso, 242.
Talfourd. Thomas Noon, 85, 93.
Tallraadge, James, 23, 164.
Tallmadge, Nathaniel P., 152.
Taney, Roger B., 152,254.
Tappan, Arthur, 65, 267.
Tappan, Lewis, 51, 52, 65, 267,

268, 275.
Taylor. John W., 38, 164.
Taylor, Nathaniel W., 45.
Taylor, Zachary, 159, 162, 164,204.
Tecuniseh, 61.
Temple, William. 108.
Thackeray, William Makepeace,

287.

Thompson, Smith, 33. 129.
Thurman, Allen G., 154, 242.
Tilden, Samuel J., 154, 160-162,

238, 244-248.
Tirrell, Albert J., 113, 118, 119,

120, 121.
Tompkins, Daniel D., 247.
Toombs, Robert, 203, 204, 210.
Tracey, Albert H., 149.
Trumbull, Lyman, 213.
Tucker, Beverly, 210.
Tucker, Ephraim, 7, 8.

13^

Tucker, Luther, 26.
Turner, Nat, 47.

Tweed, AVilliam M., 23, 247, 283.

Tyler, .John, 151.

Tytler, Alexander Eraser, 16.

Uncas, 4, 5.

Vallandigham, Clement L., 239.
Van Buren. John, 154, 155, 160,

162, 165, 279.
Vfm Buren, .Alartin, 31-33, 38, 58,

61. 130, 146. 154, 157-160, 102-

164. 205, 223.
Yanderbilt, Cornelius J., 144, 145.
Van Dyck, Henry H., 279.
Van Ness, William W., 130.
A-'an Rensselaer. Stephen, 31.
Van Vechten, Abraham, 136.
Villiers, C. P., 76.

Wade, Benjamin F., 154, 203, 204,
213.

Wads worth, James S., 156, 160,
214, 216, 220.

Wait. John T., 123.

Waldo, Horatio, 12.

Walker, Robert J., 153, 212, 259.
I Walworth, Reuben H., 142, 143,
I 161.

I Ward, Ferdinand, 43.

i Ward, Ferdinand D. W., 43.

Ward law, Ralph, 76, 106.

Warren, Samuel, 137.
: Washburne, Elihu B., 208.

Washington, George, 70, 72, 148.

Watterson, Henry, 17.

Wayne, Mad Anthony, 133.

Wei)b, James Watson, 271-274,
287.

Webster, Daniel, 39, 50, 61. 84,

96, 110. 112, 113, 116, 118, 149-

152, 154, 205, 206, 217.
Webster, Noah, 16.
Weed, Thurlow, 24-27, 33, 36, 38.

154, 169, 170, 215, 216, 259,

287.

Weld, Theodore D., 57. 65.
Welles, Gideon. 220, 233.
Wellington, Duke of, 77, 79

298

INDEX OF NAMES.

"Wendell, John L. (Law Reporter),
135.

White, Hugh L., 153.
White, Joseph, 113.
Whitefield, Georffp. 13.
Whitehou.se, Heurv J., 40.
Whittier, John G.,'53, 57, 65, 71,

72, 103, 261-263.
Whittlesey, Frederick, 25.
Wilbar, William. 122, 123.
Wilberforce, William, 87, 107.
Wilde, Judge, 124.
Wiley, John, 75.
Wilkeson, Samuel (Senior), 28.
Wilkeson, Samuel (Junior), 280.
William III., 99. 108.
Williams, Beujamin, 122, 123.
Williams, Elisha. 35, 130-132.
Williams, Josiah B., 168-170.

Williams, Roger, 4, 14, 228.
Williams (Theatre Manager), 26,
27.

Wilmot, Eardley, 76.
Wilmot, David, 40.
Wilson, Henry. 50, 265.
Windham, William, 87.
Winthrop. Robert C, 150, 159.
Wirt, William, 259.
Wise, Henry A., 60.
Wolfe, James, 2.
Woodward, Samuel B., 148, 149.
Wright, Elizur, 48. 65, 275.
Wright, Frances, 28.
Wright. Silas, 22, 38-40, 61, 152,
154, 157-160, 162, 218, 249, 259.

Young, Samuel. 22, 160, 161.
Younglove, Truman G., 237, 238.

THE END.