GIFT OF
JANE KoSATHER
A REVIEW
OF
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION TO THE
CLOSE OF SOUTHERN RECONSTRUCTION ;
X
COMPRISING ALSO A
Resume of the Career of Thaddeus Stevens :
BEING A SURVEY OF THE STRUGGLE OF PARTIES, WHICH DESTROYED
THE REPUBLIC AND VIRTUALLY MONARCHIZED ITS GOVERNMENT.
Quando imperiam tenent pravi, plorat populus.
BY ALEXANDER HARRIS.
NEW YORK :
T. H. POLLOCK, PUBLISHER, 37 PARK Row.
1376.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1876, by
ALEXANDER HARRIS,
In the Office of Librarian of Congress at Washington.
STEREOTYPED BY
3. & T. A. RAISBECK,
Stereotypers & Electrotypers.
No. 74 BEEKMAN STREET.
PEEFACE.
THE undersigned proposes to pre.-ent to the public a history, to be
entitled " A REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA." He dees
so, in obedience to monitions that were ever reminding him, since the
close of our civil war, that duty demanded of this generation, that it writ 3
the truth concerning the origin and progress of the conflict, through
which the nation has passed. The work will also comprise a "Eesumo
of the Career of Thaddeus Stevens," who conspicuously figured, as the
leading revolutionist of the American Congress ; and who towered as the
unconcealed contemner of law and the Federal Constitution. Until the
work was completed, it had been the design of the undersigned, toentitla
it "The Life and Times of Thaddeus Stevens ;" because it was believed,
that the prominence and admitted intellectual capacity of the man being
treated, would secure attention from all classes of readers. But his ca
reer had been mainly selected, in order to embody therewith, the history
of the times in which he lived ; and because also he of all American
Statesmen, appeared as the typical representative of the destructive revo
lutionary movement, which the work is designed to illustrate and unfold.
Upon its completion, however, the originally conceived title, appeareJ
not to harmonize with what, it might have seemed to have imported; and
therefore, after some reflection, it was changed to what has been adopted.
The plan thus followed, in the treatment of the work, notwithstanding
the change or title, will allow of a clearer light being reflected (as is be
lieved) upon the development and progress of the revolution, as it passes
scenically before the vision.
The work will trace the conflict to its inception, deducing it from inhe
rent principles. It will thence follow the progress of the anti-slavery
agitation, from its commencement to its full development in one of the
political parties of the country, and its complete seizure of power, in the
election of Abraham Lincoln, in 1860. The movement intended to check
the progress of sectionalism will also be sketched, until the final effort to
do so, resulted in the secession of the Southern States ; and the bloody
collision of arms followed. During the progress of the civil war, the ideal
conflict in Congress and throughout the nation, which animated and sus
tained the armed combatants upon the fields of battle, is alone viewed
and depicted. The Presidential and Congressional acts which had refer
ence to the prosecution of the war, and the motives influencing these, are
presented in historical delineation of the political struggle, as it progressed.
The breach of President Johnson with his party, is detailed in appropriate
compass, and ths conflict of parties which followed, until the reconstruc
tion legislation of Congress, insured the Africanization of the South.
iv PREFACE.
"No asperity or bitterness, should be aroused in the breasts of those, who
may honestly differ with the author, as to the causes which led to our late
conflict. He claims, as a free citizen, the right to present the reasons,
which ever induced him to condemn the war against the South and its
prosecution. He has presented these openly and fearlessly ; records for
all time his conviction, that the war was wholly unwarranted by the Fed
eral Constitution ; and he believes the time will come, when the majori y
of the American people, will be fully convinced that coercion was an
unwise policy, adopted to preserve republican government. Not only un
wise, will they come to see it to have been, but w T holly suicidal to the
institutions, it was meant to preserve. The ship of state, which, under
republican steersmen, had sailed on a calm ocean, no sooner came under
the management of those of contrary principles, than it was driven upon
the shoals and quicksands of political disorder, from which it is even
problematical if it can ever be rescued.
Though the work, to the unreflecting, may appear as if written to sub
serve partisan politics, the author disclaims all such motives, as in anywise,
having influenced his undertaking. And, before being so accused, those
thus charging him, should inquire, what selfish interest he could promote,
by advocating views unpopular in both parties, in his state and section.
Nay, the truth is the pole star by which he is guided, and, albeit he may
be (as he has been heretofore) subjected to reproach and bitter vilification,
for the maintenance of his opinions, he hesitates not to defend them, be
lieving, that though covered with the darkness of midnight, the dawn of
morning is approaching. Our Union has sustained a long and arduous
struggle, with the foes of her own household, but patriotism, like a deity
seated upon some Olympian summit, has been from the first viewing the
combat, and expecting every true Ainer can to do his duty. Should none
have the boldness to break the silence, the slumber of truth, might at
times, be the sleep of death ; but she lias ever by her couch, her faithful
sentinels to arouse her, and messengers to go forth amidst terror and
gloom, to proclaim her immutable laws, to sound her clarion and arouse
her hosts to victory.
Fully trusting, that the deductions of the w*crk now to be submitted to
the public, are the inspiration of truth, the author invokes for them no
leniency of criticism ; and, if able to be controverted by truth, logic and
sound ratiocination, let them fall and forever perish ! For the author only
desires to know the truth, and, if fully convinced that the opinions which
he has steadily defended, since the commencement of the civil war*, were
erroneous, he should himself be one of the first to disavow them. But
until proven false, in the forum of reason, he claims the right to defend
and publish them to the reflective world. Careful, however, as the au
thor has endeavored to be, historical -inaccuracies, no doubt, will have
eluded his scrutiny, and he is not so presumptuous as to conceive, but that
his work, will disclose many literary errors to the critical eye. He enter
tains, nevertheless the hope, that it may in a slight degree help to pacify
turbulent passion, and correct mistaken views ; and, so believing, he com
mits it to the judgment and criticism of ages.
ALEXANDER HARRIS*
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Pjge,
BIRTH, EDUCATION, ADMISSION TO THE BAR AND EARLY LEGAL SUCCESS
OF THADDEUS STEVENS, - - 9.
CHAPTER II.
RISE OP THE ANTI-MASONIC PARTY. ELECTION OF MR. STEVENS TO THE
LEGISLATURE OF PENNSYLVANIA, - - 21.
CHAPTER III.
MASONIC INVESTIGATION. STAR CHAMBER COMMITTEE. CHARTER OF THE
UNITED STATES BANK OF PENNSYLVANIA. MEMBER OF STATE REFORM
CONVENTION, - - 29.
CHAPTER IV.
THE BUCKSHOT WAR, . - - - - . . - 44.
CHAPTER V.
THE ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION, ------ 07.
CHAPTER VI.
REMOVAL OF MR. STEVENS TO LANCASTER, PA. HIS SUCCESS AS A LAW
YER, AND HIS MOVEMENTS AS A POLITICIAN, - - 84.
CHAPTER VII.
AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND THEIR PRINCIPLES, - - 101.
v
CHAPTER VIII.
COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1850, ----.. 122,
CHAPTER IX.
P.ESISTANCE TO THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. CHRISTIANA RIOT, &C., 143,
CHAPTER X.
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL, WITH THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COM
PROMISE. ORIGIN, RAMIFICATION AND ASPECTS OF THE REPUBLICAN
PARTY, - --- - - - - 135.
vi CONTENTS CONTINUED.
CHAPTER XI.
Page.
THE STRUGGLE FOR ASCENDENCY IN KANSAS, THE DEVELOPMENT OF
CONFLICTING VIEWS INTO SECTIONAL ANTAGONISM, AND THE ULTIMATE
TRIUMPH OF REPUBLICANISM, - - 163.
CHAPTER XII.
SECESSION OF THE SOUTHERN STATES, AND THE EFFORTS AT COM
PROMISE, - - - 189.
CHAPTER XIII.
STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND CENTRALIZATION, OR THE OPPOSITE PRINCI
PLES OF GOVERNMENT STRUGGLING FOR ASCENDENCY, - - 213.
CHAPTER XIV.
WAR FOR THE UNION, - - ... 239.
CHAPTER XV.
EMANCIPATION DECREED, - ... 257.
CHAPTER XVI.
EXECUTIVE UNCONSTITUTIONALISM, - * 271.
CHAPTER XVII.
LEGISLATIVE UNCONSTITUTIONALISM, - 28G.
CHAPTER XVIII.
GOVERNMENTAL CONSOLIDATION REACHED, 306.
CHAPTER XIX,
DEMOCRATIC ANTI-WAR ATTITUDE, - - - - 319.
CHAPTER XX.
THE NEW ERA, ... 333.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE MILITARY SATRAPS, - 352.
CHAPTER XXH.
THE GREAT CONSPIRACY REVEALED, - - 359.
CHAPTER XXHI.
THE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 18G4, - 375.
CHAPTER XXIV.
FANATICISM TRIUMPHS, - w - 389.
CONTENTS CONTINUED. vii
CHAPTER XXV.
Pag?.
THEORIES IN CONFLICT, - - 403.
CHAPTER XXVI.
ANTI-REPUBLICAN RECONSTRUCTION, - 415.
CHAPTER XXVII,
BREACH WITH PRESIDENT JOHNSON, - 425.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1866, - 439.
CHAPTER XXIX.
FINAL RECONSTRUCTION, OR THE CLIMAX OF THE REVOLUTION REACHED, 458.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE AFRICANIZATION OF THE SOUTH, - - 471.
CHAPTER XXXI.
IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON, - - 486.
CHAPTER XXXII.
DEATH OF MR. STEVENS, WITH CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS, - - 502.
CHAPTER L
BIRTH, EDUCATION, ADMISSION TO THE BAR AND EARLY LEGAL SUCCESS OF
THADDEUS STEVENS.
THADDEUS STEVENS was born at Danville, Caledonia County,
Vermont, April 4th, 1792. His parents were persons in limited
circumstances, being possessed of nothing save a poor farm, upon
which they were enabled to rear their children with the most
pinching and parsimonious economy. His father, named Joshua
Stevens, was a shoemaker by occupation, but as he was a man of
rather dissipated habits, he contributed little to the support of his
family. He was well built, strong and muscular, and quite an
athlete, bearing the reputation of being the best wrestler in his
county. He enlisted as a soldier in the war of 1812, and in the
attack upon Oswego, received a bayonet wound in the groin, of
which he shortly afterwards died. His mother, whose maiden
name was Sarah Merrill, was a woman of strong native sense, and
of an unconquerable will and resolution. On account of the loose
and irregular life of his father, the management of the farm and
the rearing of the family devolved uponliis mother; and being a
woman of shrewdness and penetration, she determined to afford
her children (as all she could give them) the advantages of an ed
ucation. The school system of Vermont, at that tune being very
similar to that of the other Eastern States, Thaddeus was placed,
as soon as old enough, under tutelage in one of these Xew Eng
land seminaries of the people, where he soon acquired the rudi
ments of an English education. Being the youngest of the family,
and besides, lame and sickly in youth, he obtained advantages in
the way of schooling over and above his brothers. He was the
favorite and pet of his mother, as is often the case with the
mothers of deformed children ; and she spared no pains to provide
that he should be in constant attendence at school, in order to
prepare him as she fondly hoped, to make his way in life by
some means not demanding manual exertion. She was not slow
in perceiving his rare powers, in the acquisition of the ordinary
10 A REVIEW OF THE
brandies of an education ; and the thought occurred to her that
one who could so thoroughly, and in so short a time, master read
ing, writing and arithmetic, should have an opportunity to try his
strength in the higher departments of knowledge. In a word, it
was quietly resolved that Thaddeus should be sent to college ; and
perhaps he might be able to carve his way to one of the profess
ions, at that time the goal of the ambition of every intelligent
New England mother. But the path of life from the cradle to
the grave, is beset with thorns ; and the smart of these young
Thaddeus must also feel. On account of his lameness, being
unable to sport around as briskly as other boys of his age, he came
somewhat to be regarded as a youth of great sedateness and sobri
ety ; nor was he able to escape the taunts and jeers of his youthful
school companions, who would at times mimic his limping w^alk,
and otherwise annoy and vex him. These petty anoyances to hia
proud and sensitive nature, were very galling ; and in their oft
repetition. his stern and sedate character may originally have re
ceived its earliest impression. But although his young classmates
were ready to gibe him because of his deformity, he had the sweet
satisfaction of knowing that he could far outstrip any of them, so
far as class standing w r as concerned.
The following anecdote is related by Mr. Stevens of his school
days, and whether narrated to create amusement, or to delineate
character and the condition of the country at that early period, it
at least deserves rehearsal in this connection : " At one time," said
Mr. Stevens, " the schoolmaster was a broad shouldered Irishman.
During a severe winter, the bears encroached on the settlement,
and it became the duty of all good citizens to enlist in a w r ar of
extermination. The teacher marshalled his pupils, and at their
head ventured to obstruct a noted bear-path, he being armed with
a long rifle, w^ell loaded and primed, and the boys with clubs and
a miscellaneous assortment of weapons. The baying of the dogs
soon indicated that the game was up, and the cracking of the
bushes, that the bear was approaching. lie came on \vithin a few
feet of where the army was posted, and leaping up, his fore feet
resting on a large log, he hesitated, while he snuifed the danger
ahead. The teacher sounded the charge, saying to the boys : Now
I ll show you a rale specimen of bear hunting. But his impet
uosity," added Mr. Stevens, " overcame his discretion, and rushing
on the astonished animal he demolished him with the butt end of
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 11
his rifle. When laughed at by the boys, and rallied on his for-
getf ulness by myself, the spokesman of them, he replied, an what s
the use *of powder and ball when the thing itself made" sich an
illegant skdalah? "
The first time that young Thaddens was introduced to a knowl
edge of the world, as he himself related, was in the year 1804,
when he accompanied his parents on a visit to Boston, to see some
of their relations. It is inferred from what he remarked of this
visit, that he then made up his mind to endeavor to procure riches,
that he might be able to live as did the wealthy people, whom he
there for the first time met. This resolution of one so young
shows his remarkable perceptive capacity, and his strong intellect;
and as this was his first knowledge of the power of money, it was
natural that he should feel prompted to strive for that which he
learned supplied so many of the wants of life.
The desire for the accumulation of wealth, was that which first
fired his youthful genius, and the sight of any other admitted ex
cellence, might have produced a similar resolve in his mind. Does
not history record the names of several of the eminent ancients,
whose ambition was excited by hearing a distinguished poet recite
his verses at the Olympic games, or an orator thunder forth his
eloquent harangues at the forum, or in the Senate chamber?
Although in the present case, our visitor to Boston would seem
very young to have formed such high resolves ; yet it is quite cer
tain that at that time he first determined that no efforts should be
wanting on his part, to ascend the ladder of life set before all who
make the proper efforts.
The following year, after his parents had returned from Boston,
the spotted fever prevailed to an alarming extent in his native
County of Caledonia. For miles around his home, there was
scarcely a family that escaped the attacks of this very dangerous
disease. In some families all were sick at one time, and it was
next to an impossibility to procure any assistance. In this condi
tion of affairs Mrs. Stevens became a ministering angel, as it were,
to the sick of her acquaintance, visiting from family to family
and relieving their needs in every capacity in which she was able
to help them. In these visits amongst her sick neighbors, she
took young Thaddeus with her, and on these circuits of mercy, he
obtained another glimpse of life which left an impress upon his
memory that never forsook him. Ilis heart was then tender, and
12 A REVIEW OF THE
the sights of suffering which he witnessed, so operated upon his
sensibilities as to make him ever afterwards kindly disposed to the
sick and poor of every class. To such, to the end of his" life, he
was ever ready to extend a helping hand.
Mr. Stevens estimate of his mother we give in his own words,
detailed shortly before his death. Speaking of his efforts in the
Legislature in behalf of the Free School system of Pennsylvania,
and in reference thereto, he said : " That is the work that I take
most pleasure in recalling, except one perhaps. I really think the
greatest gratification of my life resulted from my ability to give
my mother a farm of 250 acres, and a dairy of M cows, and an
occasional bright gold piece, which she loved to deposit in the
contribution box of the Baptist Church which she attended. This
always gave her great pleasure, and me much satisfaction. My
mother was a very extraordinary woman. I have met very few wo
men like her. My father was not a well-to-do man, and the support
and education of the family depended on my mother. She worked
night and day to educate me. I was feeble and lame in youth,
and as I could not work on the farm, she concluded to give me an
education. I tried to repay her afterwards, but the debt of a child
to his mother, you know, is one of the debts we can never pay.
Poor woman ! the very thing I did to gratify her most, hastened
her death. She was very proud of her dairy, and fond of her
cows, and one night going to look after them, she fell and injured
herself so that she died soon after."
As his father was a shoemaker, Thaddeus had an opportunity
to pick up so much knowledge of this trade, as to enable him to
make the shoes of the family, and perhaps a few for the neighbors.
This he did at least after the death of his father. In his younger
years, when first a candidate for the legislature, he used to boast
that he was a shoemaker ; and this gave birth to the numerous
stories that circulated all over Pennsylvania, after his fame as a
great lawyer was fixed, that he first came to York as a shoemaker
and worked at the business for some time before he studied law.
These stories were purely mythical, as are many that are usually
retailed concerning distinguished personages ; and have their
origin in the deception and credulity of mankind :
" Magnas it Fama per urbes
Fama malum, quo non aliud velocius ullum
Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo."
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 13
AYlien a boy, Thaddeus Stevens was a diligent reader and,
like Benjamin Franklin, not having a great supply of books, lie
perused everything that came within his reach. Books at that
early day, were not so plenty as at the present time, and particu
larly not within the reach of one so situated as he then found
himself. His fondness for books, it is said, induced him at the
early age of fifteen to essay the experiment of starting a library ;
but whether this be one of the stories that accompany fame, we
are not prepared to say. The example of Franklin, whose life by
this time no doubt had been perused by him, might have very
readily suggested such an idea in the mind of an intellectual youth
of Xew England. At least, it was not long after this time, that
he began to teach school as a means of supply to aid him in his
course through college ; for his parents were not able to provide
*.n every particular for his subsistence and expense whilst passing
his collegiate career. The clothing, board, text-books and tuition
of a college pupil, to a poor Vermont family, was no light burden ;
but by his teaching and other industry, he greatly alleviated his
parents, and enabled him to provide himself with some additional
books by which he might store his mind with useful information.
The first part of his classical course was made in Burlington Col
lege, Vermont, where he continued for a considerable period.
" On September llth, 1814:, he was a student at Burlington Col
lege, for on that day he saw with a spy-glass the tight between
McDonough and the British fleet, on Lake Champlain. For some
reasons he did not graduate at this college, but at Dartmouth, in
the following year."*
The following anecdote of his college life whilst at Burlington
is from Alexander Hood s sketch of Mr. Stevens : " The cam
pus at Burlington College was not enclosed, and the cows of the
citizens used to enjoy it as a pleasant pasture ground. Before com
mencement it was usual to give the people notice to keep their
cows away until after commencement was over. The grounds were
then cleared up, and everything kept in complete order, until the
exercises were ended and the students gone to their homes. It
happened that among the citizens of Burlington was a man, " a
stubborn fellow, whom," as Stevens said " we shall call Jones."
He would take no steps to keep his cows off the campus. One
- Hood s Sketch in Harris Biographical History of Lancaster County,
pp. 5<l-2.
14 A REVIEW OF THE
night, about a week before the commencement, Stevens and a
friend were walking under the trees in front of the college,
when they saw one of Jones cows witlM the prohibited lines.
They knew the cow belonged to Jones ; they knew Jones let her
go there in a spirit of defiance to the students. After some dis
cussion it was agreed to kill the cow.
" Among the students was a young man who kept himself aloof
from most of the others. In a word, he had the reputation of
being decidedly pious. This young man had a room in an out
house belonging to the college, where in spare moments he man
ufactured many things out of wood, which he sold to the people
of the town, and to others. Among other tools he was known
to have an axe, and Stevens and his companion determined to use
it in the execution of the cow. The axe was procured, the cow
was slain, the axe returned, and the two avengers of the college
dignity retired to rest. The next morning Jones was with the
President making complaint about the death of his cow. An
investigation was at once begun ; blood was found upon the axe
of the pious, well-behaved student ; he denied the charge, but as
there was no evidence against any other person, he was threatened
with a public reprimand on the day on which he had expected to
graduate with high honor. No doubt the young man suffered
much, but Stevens and his associate suffered much more. They
dare not inform against themselves, yet they could not see an
innocent person punished for their misconduct. What was to be
done. After many conferences, without any result, Stevens sug
gested that Jones was not a bad man, but rather a high-spirited
fellow, who would help them out of the scrape, if they would
throw themselves upon his mercy. This they resolved to do. It
was the night before commencement day, when they had the
interview with Jones. They made a clean breast of it, and
offered to pay twice the value of the cow whenever they should
be able to do so. Jones listened kindly ; told them not to dis
tress themselves about the price of the cow, and said he would
fix it all next morning. True to his word, about nine o clock
Jones appeared, just before the proceedings were to begin ; told
the professors that he was all wrong about the death of his cow,
and that she had been killed by soldiers who w^ere going down
the river on a boat, and had no time to dress and remove the
meat. This made all things right ; the pious young man was not
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 15
expelled, but honorably acquitted of the charge. Stevens and
his friend were never suspected. Some years afterwards, when
Stevens was rising in 1 .e world, Mr. Jones received a draft for
the price of the best sort of cow in the market, accompanied by a
fine gold watch and chain by way of interest. A year or two
afterwards there came to Gettysburg, directed to Mr. Stevens, a
hogshead of the best Vermont cider, and this was the end of the
killing of Jones cow." *
Which of the professions Mr. Stevens may have made up his
mind to study, in his passage through college, is not known. On
one occasion, in an argument with an Arminian, concerning pre
destination, he evinced such an intimate acquaintance with the
writers and arguments of the Calvinistic school, that a friend vas
induced to put to him the inquiry : " Mr. Stevens, did you
ever study with a vieAV to the pulpit." The answer w.-;s :
" Umph ! I have read the books." But no further information
on that point was he able to elicit from him.
After taking his degree at Dartmouth College, he prepared and
set out in quest of employment, and at length found himself
about the close of the year 1815 in York, Pennsylvania. Here
he obtained a situation as assistant teacher in an academy taught
by Dr. Perkins. Amos Gilbert, a very noted teacher, then re
siding at York, afterwards remarked of Mr. Stevens, that he was
at that time " one of the most backward, retiring and modest
young men he had ever seen," and besides spoke of him as being
a very close student. Soon after his arrival in York, he began
reading law, both morning and evening, when not engaged in teach
ing, under the instruction of David Casset, a prominent York
County lawyer, and prosecuted its study with great zeal, utilizing
thus the scraps of his time to a valuable purpose. During the
period he was in this manner preparing himself for future life,
an effort was made by the members of the bar to thwart the
fulfilment of his designs, by the passage of resolutions, providing
that no person should be recognized as a lawye? who followed
any other vocation whilst preparing himself for admission.f
The voung student, however, never took any concern as regards
the protest, but pursued the even tenor of ]>s way, until he felt
that he had mastered his studies. He therefore repaired quietly
-
*Harris -Biographical History of Lancaster County, pp. 512-18.
fForney s Press, August 12, iS68.
18 A REVIEW OF THE
to Bel Air, the county seat of Harford County, Maryland, while
the court was in session, and made application to be examined.
At that time Maryland admitted all applicants to the bar who,
upon examination, were found to be qualified. The Court, Judge
Chase of impeachment notoriety, appointed a committee, the chair-
mini of which, was Gen. "Winder. The following is Mr. Stevens
iption of the examination as given in Mr. Hood s sketch
of him :
" Supper was over, the table was cleared off, and the clock said
it was half -past seven. Stevens was of course punctual to time,
and shortly after, the Judge and the committee took their seats.
* Are you the young man who is to be examined ? asked the Judge.
Stevens said he was. Mr. Stevens, said the Judge, i there is one
indispensible pre-requisite before the examination can proceed.
There must be two bottles of Madeira on the table, and the appli
cant must order it in. The order was given, the wine brought
ird, and its quality thoroughly tested. Gen. Winder began
with : i Mr. Stevens, what books have you read V Stevens replied,
4 Blackstone, Coke upon Littleton, a work on pleading, and Gilbert
on e vidence. This was followed by two or three other questions
by < >1 her members of the committee, the last of which required
the distinction between a contingent remainder, and an executory
devise, which was satisfactorily answered. By this time the Judge
was feeling a little dry again, and broke in saying : c Gentlemen,
you see the young man is all right, I ll give him a certificate.
T was soon made out and signed, but before it was handed
over, two more bottles had to be produced. These \vere partaken of
by a \irge number of squires and others, who were there attending
court, \vlio, as soon as the examination was concluded, came in and
were introduced to the newly made member of the bar. Tip-Loo
was played then for a good part of the night. Stevens was then
a green haiJ at the business. To use his own words, when he
paid his bill Uie next morning, he had but $3.50 left out of the
$45 he began Vith the night before."*
He left Bel Air early next morning, directing his course for
Lancaster, and narrowly escaped a watery grave in crossing the
McCall s Ferry Bridge, not yet completed. His horse became
frightened and wouH have fallen with its rider into the river, but
for the presence of mud of one of the workmen who was engaged
Harris Biographical History of Lancaster County, pp. 574=-5.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 17
upon the bridge. The same day he reached Lancaster by noon
and dined at Slough s Hotel, then one of the headquarters of the
old inland city ; and while his horse was resting he reconnoitered
the place, and walked from one end of King street to the other.
He had concluded, should Lancaster please him, to select it as a
location for the practice of his profession. Xot believing that the
place suited one whose pocket was so near empty, he next deter
mined upon Gettysburg and started the same day for York, which
he reached in the evening. The following day he arrived at the
county seat of Adams County where he began his legal career, with
but few friends and little money.
Mr. Stevens had now embarked in that career, in which to
one devoid of amability and captivating address, time, patience
and ability are all required to obtain marked success. Being
unendowed in a high degree, with either of the former traits of
character that pave the way in most instances to ordinary suc
cess, he had to depend upon patience and ability with whatever
slight auxiliary fortune might interpose to aid him in his early
struggles. But with all the force of intellect he could command,
his patience was well nigh exhausted before anything turned up
to assure him that his profession would afford him the ladder of
life-ascent, which he had hoped to meet in it. It is very certain,
at least, that the quality for which Job was distinguished had in
his case nearly all become exhausted before he met with any
success commensurate with his anticipations ; as he stated to a
confidential friend at a dance at Littlestown, that he could hold
out no longer, and must select a new location. Destiny, how
ever, had resolved, that in his case, though reduced to the lowest
depths of despair, the profession of the law, with its political
accompaniments, should make up his career ; as the darkest hour
of night is that before day-break, so it was with him. A day or
two after the despondency of his condition had led him to ruminate
in his mind a new location, a horrible murder was committed ;
and none of the prominent lawyers felt inclined to undertake
the defense of the accused. Mr. Stevens was retained and exerted
his powers to the utmost in behalf of his client, although without
being able to acquit him ; yet he brought to the trial of the cause
such an array of legal learning, so marshalled and arranged ; and
he handled the evidence with such masterly adroitness, that the
court, the bar, the jury, and the citizens were taken by surprise.
13 A REVIEW OF THE
His speech before the jury evinced a mind of such logical acute-
ness, that the trial ended with his reputation fixed as possessing
the elements of an able lawyer. This trial, and the masterly de
fense, became at once the subject of conversation throughout the
whole country. His client was found guilty of murder and exe
cuted, but the case brought Mr. Stevens a fee of $1,500, which
was the beginning of his fortune. lie had already ascended the
first step of the ladder of life. From this period there was no occa
sion that he must content himself with cases that the other law
yers saw proper to decline. He now began to receive a different
class of clients than those to whom the other attornies semi-
sneeringly had remarked, u there is a young man in town by the
name of Stevens who may, perhaps, be willing to attend to
your case."
Persons were no more fearful to employ the club-footed lawyer,
as he thenceforth came to be known by those who were not yet
much acquainted with him. But his success must depend upon
his own efforts, for the seemingly instinctive jealousy of lawyers
precluded his receiving any favor from which they could debar
him. Regarded as an interloper by most of them, he was thrust
aside from all the favors which bars have in their power to ex
hibit, and their reflection was that if he succeed it must be by
dint of superior ability and application to business. But
Mr. Stevens was one of those who could, in a remarkable
measure, divest himself of all appreciation of the petty and con
temptible jealousies of human nature. He could afford to despise
all such, and yet give no exhibition of his feelings. As, however,
he felt that his success must depend upon the impression he would
continue to make upon the people, he studiously applied himself and,
to the best of his ability, to the preparation for trial of every case
with which he was entrusted. It was soon perceived by the
people of the county that he was able to try a case with as much
success as any lawyer at the Gettysburg bar. His reputation all
the time was spreading, and his business increasing. His great
candor in everything he said, or undertook, made at once a favor
able impression upon those with whom he came in contact. Be
sides, his freedom from all affectation and pride procured for him
the confidence of the German citizens of Adams County, although
unable to converse with them in their vernacular language, a con
fidence which he ever afterwards was able to retain. The ready
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 19
humor lie could make use of in his intercourse with the people
or his brethren of the bar, and his sallies of wit, with which he
could often disconcert an opposing attorney in the trial of a
cause, were additional weapons which in his setting out in legal
life were of incalculable service to him.
His legal business rapidly increased on his hands, and by the
year 1821 he made his first appearance in the Supreme Court,
holding its session at Chambersburg, then one of the five places
at which the highest Court of Pennsylvania sat. It is somewhat
remarkable, in view of his latter political course, that his first
case in that court should have been a suit de homine replcgiando,
in which the liberty of a colored woman and her children were
concerned. But as lawyers have not the choice of sides in a case,
in this instance, Mr. Stevens found himself compelled to -dispute
the claim for freedom. Henry Butler and Charity his wife, and
their children had brought suit for their liberty, and Stevens was
employed for the defense. Their claim grew out of a contract
between the owner of Charity and a man named del and, both
Mary landers, Cleland again entered into another contract with a
Mr. Gilleland, living in tho same State, concerning the services
of Charity. Gilleland having deserted his wife, the latter was
obliged to turn seamstress, and went occasionally into Pennsyl
vania, taking Charity with her. After returning to her mother s
domicil in Maryland, she sent Charity back to her original master,
being then eleven years of age. It became a question of fact for
the jury to determine upon the trial, whether Charity had ever, at
one time, been kept six months in Pennsylvania. If she had been
so detained, she was then entitled to her freedom, as also her
children. The jury returned a verdict against her freedom.
The case was taken to the Supreme Court, but Mr. Stevens suc
ceeded in sustaining the verdict of the court below.* At this
period he was established in a profitable practice. From the year
1823, he was engaged on one side or the other, of all the im
portant suits of his County, of which fact the report books of
the period afford abundant evidence.
By 1827, he was become a man of influence and standing in his
county, and owned therein considerable real estate. His fame had
now far passed the bounds of Adams County, and he was hence
forth employed in the trial of important causes, in the neighboring
*7 Sergeant & Rawle, pp. 379.
20 A REVIEW OF THE
counties of Cumberland, Franklin and York. His business now
almost engrossed his whole attention, but he was not unmindful
of the necessity of exercise. lie was in the habit of riding much
upon horseback, and became known as one of the most skilled
equestrians in his section of country. He was fond of attending
the races in Maryland, then one of the customary amusements of
the day. His contiguity to Maryland and the numerous suits in
which he was concerned, involving the liberty of colored persons
claimed as slaves in the State of Maryland, had no doubt much to
do in giving him his strong bias in opposition to the institution of
African Slavery. As far as can be gathered, he always seemed to
sympathize with the colored race, and was ready to assist them iii
gaining their freedom when in his power to do so.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 21
CHAPTER H.
RISE OF THE ANTI-MASONIC PARTY. ELECTION OF ME. STEVENS TO THE
LEGISLATURE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
We have seen that Mr. Stevens, first selected in his mind the
Comity of Lancaster for the practice of his profession, but after
visiting it, canie to the conclusion to go to Gettysburg. Both
these choices would seem to imply that he was not altogether
unmindful of political considerations in choosing a location.
But belonging to a party, whose principles had become gen
erally unpopular throughout the nation, we do not find him
participating in political affairs for many years after his settle
ment in Adams County. He was not the man to change his
principles for the sake of success ; and it wa only when new
questions began to be discussed that he stepped forward upon the
political arena.
The excitement aroused, throughout the Xorthem States,
against the Masonic order, occasioned by the abduction and exe
cution of William Morgan, in the Autumn of 1826, had the
effect of reorganizing parties upon a new basis in many States of
the Union. Morgan, a citizen of Batavia, Xew York, had pre
pared for publication, a work detailing the secrets of the three
first degrees of masonry, and had the same in press, when the
fact became known amongst the members of the Masonic order.
As subsequent developments seemed to indicate, steps were con
certed in the Xew York lodges to thwart the exposure of the secrets
of an order, to which many of the most influential and respectable
men of the nation had united themselves. Morgan was accord
ingly seized by members of the Masonic order in broad daylight,
and borne by conveyance to the northern part of the State of ISTew
York, where all trace of him was lost. It was believed that he
was sunk in Lake Ontario. The news of this transaction was
soon spread throughout the country, but it was in "Western New
York where the highest degree of excitement prevailed. Com-
23 A REVIEW OF THE
mittces of investigation and safety were appointed to ferret out
the mysteries of a transaction that impressed the people with the
conviction that a vital stab was inflicted upon American civil
liberty. Prosecutions were also instituted against the conspira
tors in the Morgan tragedy, but these resulted in the acquittal of
all except Bruce and Whitney, who were imprisoned for theii
participation in the affair.
The trials that took place, perhaps more, even than the abduc
tion of Morgan itself, intensified the excitement. The courts were
crowded when the trials were in progress, and although many of
the witnesses were masons of admitted respectability and stand
ing, it was believed by the people, that they testified falsely in
order to shield their brother masons from punishment. This was
the allegation that tftey would do so, and the boasts of certain
masons were retailed, who had declared that their friends would
not be allowed to suffer. In America, then, as it was charged,
was an institution that dared in the light of day to arrest a citizen
and execute him, and the civil law was powerless to prevent the
wicked and diabolical deed. What more could the Invisible
Tribunal of Germany, or the Spanish Inquisition do, than was
now witnessed in Republican America ? Was an order to be per
mitted to exist in the United States, that would dare the perpe
tration of such high handed iniquity as was enacted in this
instance? The excitement diffused itself from the locality of
the occurrence of these scenes throughout the whole North. A
party arose, styling themselves Anti-Masons, in the following
year, which cast 33,000 votes in New York State for the r candidate
for Governor, and in 1828 this number was increased to 70,000.
In this last named year, the party had obtained some foothold in
Pennsylvania; newspapers being established in this State in
favor of Anti-Masonic principles. Men from both the old politi
cal parties attached themselves to the new organization, though it
is not to be denied, that the greater number by far were Feder
alists, whose party was become quite defunct.
Amongst the foremost in Pennsylvania, to espouse the principles
of the Anti-Masons, was Thaddeus Stevens, who saw in the new
party, the means of rising in political life. He no doubt hated
an institution that had rejected, as is said, his admittance as a
member ; and besides he saw that it might be combatted with
advantage to his party. He began to denounce the Masonic
POLITICAITCONFLICT IN AMERICA. 3
order^as an iinperlum in imperio, a power that set the laws of
the land at defiance, and nullified the system of the civil tribunals.
If Masonry be permitted to endure, argued he, how can a mem
ber of the order be brought to trial, when one Mason in accord
ance with his obligations, is required to support another, in all
difficulties, "whether right or wrong," and hold his secrets inviolable,
" murder and treason not excepted." He declared that it was
impossible to remain in doubt as to how he should act when
American liberty was subjected to such peril from an institution,
the power of which he perceived to be governed and supported
by the credulity of ages. The courts of justice, trial by jury,
the sanctity of the witness stand were all able to be set at naught,
as he averred, by men who felt that the obligations of Masonry
were more binding upon their consciences than the judicial oaths
of the land. In co-operation, therefore, with others, he used all
his efforts to consolidate the Anti-Masonic opposition in Pennsyl
vania into a political organization, that might prove effective in
overthrowing a society of oath-bound enemies of the body politic.
In the year 1829, the opposition to the Democrats, was united as
the Anti-Masonic party, and supported Joseph Ritner for the
gubernatorial chair of Pennsylvania, He was defeated, but in some
counties of the State, the party was strongly in the ascendant.
The war of opposition, that was henceforth waged against the
Masonic institution, was a severe and trying one. Books expos
ing the secrets of the order were in great demand. Bernard s
Light of Masonry, Morgan s Illustrations, and other works of like
character, obtained a wonderful circulation. Masonry soon sunk
below par. By the year 1830, it was ascertained that over one
thousand Free Masons had withdrawn from the order, and ex
posed the secrets of initiation. The seceding masons fully cor
roborated what was contained in the books divulging the secrets
of Masonry, and averred that the oaths .therein set forth,
were the same identically as those which the initiated were
required to accept. This was fully made out in the Le Roy con
vention of seceding masons, held in July, 182S, in the State of
ISTew York. Men of the highest respectability and social stand
ing deserted the order like a sinking ship, and proclaimed, that
youthful curiosity had induced them to unite with it, (as is the
case with most intelligent young men entering it) but that they
had not visited a lodge for many years. John Q. Adams, TV r il-
2-i A REVIEW OF THE
liani Wirt, Moses Stuart, of Andover, Caldwallader Golden, and
a host of the first men of America, expressed publicly, their dis
approbation of the order. The lodges all over the country were
closed, and so continued for years. Masonry was required to pass
through a searching ordeal. Its history was examined to the
foundation by able scholars, and its claims of antiquity shown to
rest upon the assertions of credulous members, but for which
truth furnished no basis. The origin of speculative Masonry, was
traced to the year 1717 in England, and the averments of a more
ancient deduction, were proved to be entirely fabulous.
Mr. Stevens, having the sagacity to perceive that Free Masonry
and all other secret societies were of anti-republican tendency, de
nounced the same as such. In his denunciation of these he was
not far astray. These societies had derived their birth under
monarchial governments, and seemed to exhibit the natural incli
nation of mankind to recur back in principle to the ancient form
of policy, which republics should seek to overthrow. Deducing
their principles from the aristocratic feelings of superiority which
one class of people entertain towards another, it was apparent that
Masonry was but laying the foundation for kingly rule, and the
ruin of republican liberty. Even the names of the officers in the
lodges, indicated this fawning after the titled appellations of
monarchial rulers. As our republic prohibited its countrymen
from the assumption of titles, that are conferred by the crowned
magnates of Europe., secret societies afforded to the aristocratic
fawner that which his heart craved, but which the laws of his
country prevented his assuming in the light of day. All this
Mr. Stevens saw with clearness, and hence believed that the out
side prejudice could <be united with admirable effect as to himself
against the initiated.
Entertaining these notions, and conscious of the antagonism
which the new movement would be compelled to encounter in
the battle against Masonry, Mr. Stevens, from the organization of
the Anti-Masonic party in Pennsylvania, actively labored to con
solidate, and give it national strength and diffusion. In September,
1831, he was a member of the Baltimore National Convention of
the Anti-Masonic party, which placed "Win. Wirt and Amos
Ellmaker, in nomination for the Presidency of the United States.
But the election of 1832, resulted disastrously to the hopes of the
Anti-Masons, but one State casting its electoral votes for their
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 25
candidates, Mr. Stevens mountain home of Vermont. It was
now believed by many, that the party could never succeed as a
national organization. The Southern States had kept aloof from
it, and the North was unable to unite upon Anti-Masonic princi
ples. Five years had elapsed since the excitement occasioned by
the Morgan abduction was first aroused ; and yet the party had
so far been unable to achieve any substantial victory. Large
numbers of individuals, who had united with the new organization,
merely from political motives, now became apathetic, as regards
its future permanency, and were ready to attach themselves to
any other that would show indications of greater success. Like
vultures, the politicians are endowed with remarkable nasal organs
for scenting the official carcass. But, four years must now elapse
before another presidential struggle could take place ; and in the
meantime each State must manage its political affairs in accord
ance with the judgment of their respective leaders. In Pennsyl
vania, the Anti-Masonic organization was kept up perhaps better
than in most others ; and yet here many visible signs existed that
the seeds of party dissolution were not confined alone to the other
States of the L T nion. It is believed that Anti-Masonry, as a party
organization, was prolonged in Pennsylvania through the influence
of Thaddeus Stevens more than that of any other man that could
be named.
In the fall of 1833, Mr. Stevens was elected to the lower
House of the Pennsylvania Legislature, taking his seat in De-
cember of that year. The legislative session of 1833-4, was a
most important one, insomuch as the system of free schools was
first introduced into Pennsylvania in its enactments. The free
school bill passed at this session, and which was approved by
Gov. Wolf, April 1st, 1834, received the warm support of Mr.
Stevens. The measure itself was the outgrowth of the intelli
gent thought of the age, striving for the discovery of the best
method by which to enlighten the masses, and fit them for
citizenship in a free republic. It was but the expression of the
united intelligence of the patriotic public citizens of Pennsyl
vania, who desired the welfare and improvement of the people
of their State.
The American system of free schools is of Xew England
birth, and dates its origin to an early period in the history of the
Eastern States. Massachusetts and Connecticut are rivals for the
23 A REVIEW OF THE
honor of its discovery. Pennsylvania was slow in accepting the
system, although her people were far from being averse to edu
cation. In their efforts for the advancement of general intelli
gence, her statesmen, with that deliberation and caution, which
are characteristics of the people of Pennsylvania, sought for the
best S} 7 stem of schools that could be obtained, and which had as
yet been tried. When the Constitution of 1790 was adopted, it
was made an article of that charter, that " ike Legislature as soon
as may be, shall provide ~by law for the establishment of schools
throughout the /State, in such manner that the poor may he
taught gratis" In accordance with this constitutional provision,
it was early enacted, that the tuition of all poor children attend
ing school should be paid out of the public treasury. But this
plan did not seem to meet the necessities of the demand for
general instruction, as most persons needing assistance had a re
luctance to being enrolled as paupers upon the school lists ; and
the question how to remedy the defect, became more and more a
matter of discussion amongst educated men. The attention of
O
philanthropists in all parts of the country was directed to this
subject shortly after the close of the war with Great Britain ; and
the best methods of education were discussed. Improved schools
were in the year 1817, established in many of the principal
American cities, and their influence did much to educate the
public up to a knowledge of the advantages of a general system
*of free education.
The Governors of Pennsylvania, being men of cultivated
minds, and surrounded by such, seeing the current of advancing
intelligence in other States and countries, were in their messages,
in the habit of calling the attention of the Legislature of the
State to the necessity of providing means for a more general
system of public instruction. Gov. Wolf was particularly dis
tinguished as the advocate of a free school system, and in his
message of 1833, he urged the measure in the strongest terms.
The subject was taken up in both houses of the Pennsylvania
Legislature, and the result was, that a free school bill was passed
in both, and received the sanction of the Executive. The law
went into operation, but met with furious resistance in many
sections of the State ; indeed, in all parts, a party arose in opposition
to the law of 1834. The majority of the heavy tax-payers in
all quarters of the State were opposed to a law that abstracted
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 27
money from their pockets, as they conceived, without any justice
or right, save the enactment of the Legislature. The advantages
of elevating communities to a condition of intelligent citizen
ship were overlooked. Again, the law was opposed by many,
because the system severed religious from intellectual instruction;
/
and withdrew the education of the youth from the supervision of
the clergy and other church authorities. It was this latter objec
tion, that induced the heavy opposition on the part of the German
counties of the State, a resistance that, required years to overcome.
When the legislature therefore of 18345, assembled, petitions
began to pour in from all parts of the State, urging the repeal of
the school law that had been passed the year before. On the
17th of March, 1835, it was reported in the House of Representa
tives, that 558 petitions, signed by 31,988 names were before that
body, asking that the school law of 1834 be repealed, whereas but
49 petitions with 2,575 signers were in its favor. All the outside
pressure seemed to demand the repeal. A bill, revoking the
school law of the last year, was introduced into the Senate,
passed that body, and was transmitted to the House for its con
currence. Speech after speech was now made in the House, in
favor of what seemed almost the universal sentiment of the people.
Many short-sighted members, who had even favored the free
school law, were ready to vote for its repeal, as they feared to
place themselves upon record as supporters of a law which the
public, in their petitions, seemed so emphatically to have con
demned. Politicians are timid, and fear to support a measure,
that their constituents have reprobated, much as their judgment,
might approve it. Thaddeus Stevens was this year a member of
the Legi slature of Pennsylvania. His ~Ne w England birth and train
ing made him naturally inclined to favor the free school system.
He had the sagacity likewise to perceive that it would receive
the support of the poorer classes, much as it might be combatted
by the wealthy. It belonged to the equalizing movements of the
age, which seemed to harmonize with American ideas. Mr. Ste
vens therefore boldly resisted the repeal, in a speech of great
ability and force, delivered in the House. It was a fine oppor
tunity to become the champion for the elevation of the masses
at the expense of the monied classes. Such championship, in
America, ever secures for the demagogue high applause, whether
deservedly or otherwise. Mr. Stevens espied his own gain in his
28 A REVIEW OF THE
strong defense of tlie free school system, as he perceived that he
was thus making himself the leader of the people, in opposition
to the opulent few.
In him, the people and the timid free S3hool men found a
leader. His speech had a magical effect upon the sentiments of
members. Such a masterly, argumentative, and convincing array
of thought, as they conceived, had not been heard in the Pennsyl
vania halls of legislation for years. A master intellect had simply
defended the growing popular sentiment. All without distinction,
whether enemies or friends, acknowledged the overpowering
superiority of the speech. Many who had determined to favor the
repeal, changed their opinions, and voted to sustain the law of
1834. The House decided to lion-concur in the action of the Sen
ate, and thus the common school law was saved to the common
wealth. This speech ranked its author, henceforth, as one of the
first intellects of Pennsylvania.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 29
CHAPTER III.
MASONIC INVESTIGATION. STAR CHAMBER COMMITTEE. CHARTER OF THE
UNITED STATES BANK OF PENNSYLVANIA. MEMBER OF STATE
REFORM CONVENTION.
The political tide of Anti-Masonry was somewhat broken in
the Presidential election of 1832. But this, instead of weaken
ing, seemed rather to have had the effect of enhancing the force
of the moral onslaught which was made against the institution of
Masonry, and which, through the courage and intellectual superi
ority of Thaddeus Stevens, became more intense in Pennsylvania,
perhaps, than in any other State of the Union. The legislative
warfare in this State was begun in March, 1828, in the presenta
tion in the House of Rapresentatives, by a Mr. Diesbach, of three
memorials from sundry citizens of the Commonwealth, setting
forth that the society of Free Masons had become dangerous to
the free institutions of the Commonwealth, and that men who
are members of the order, are wholly incompetent to act as jurors
and arbitrators, in cases wherein a Free Mason and another citizen
are parties. The memorialists prayed for some legislation that
would afford the requisite relief in such cases. Other petitions
of like character were also presented, all of which were laid upon
the table. In this manner, the people, year after year, sent their
petitions to the Legislature, asking for some law to remedy the
evils of Masonry.
When Mr. Stevens took his seat as a member of the lower
House of Representatives at Harrisburg, the Anti-Masons found a
leader competent to marshall the party in the Legislature, and cope
with the ablest opponents that might be arrayed against it. He
was but a short time in the Houss, until he had an opportunity
of proving his capacity for leadership, in a speech delivered by
him in which he took occasion to review the course of the Jack
son party, and the men who molded its principles. As the antag
onist of Masonry, on February 10, 1834, he introduced the
30 A REVIEW OF THE
following resolution :
"Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire into the expedi
ency of providing by law for making Free Masonry, a good cause of per
emptory challenge to jurors in all cases, where one of the parties is a
Free Mason, and the other is not, and on the part of the Commonwealth,
in all prosecutions for claims and misdemeanors, where the defendant is a
Mason ; and also, where the judge and one of the parties are Free Masons,
to make the same provisions for the trials of causes as now exist whera
the judge and either of the parties are related to each other by blood or
marriage, and to make the same provison relative to the summoning and
return of jurors, where the Sheriff and either of the parties are Free
Masons, as now exists where they are related to each other by blood or
marriage, and that said committee have power to send for persons and
papers."
On the second reading, on the question shall the resolution as
offered pass, the vote was yeas, 34, nays, 45. By this vote the.
Anti-Masons were shown to be incapable of effecting any legisla
tion of a party nature. Mr. Stevens, as chairman of the com
mittee appointed to investigate Masonry, on the 27th of March,
1834, submitted the following report :
" Whereas, Numerous petitions, signed by a large number of highly
respectable citizens of this Commonwealth, have been presented to the
Legislature, stating their belief that the masonic fraternity is associated
for purposes inconsistent with the equal rights and privileges which
are the birth-right of every freeman ; that they are bound together by
secret obligations and oaths, illegal, immoral and blasphemous, subver
sive of all public law, and hostile to the full administration of justice.
They ask for a legislative investigation into the truth of these charges,
and, if supported, a legislative remedy ; and for the purpose of obtaining
authentic proof, they ask for the appointment of a committee to send for
persons and papers.
" In pursuance of what was supposed to be the prayer of the peti
tioners, a committee was appointed and the petitions referred to them.
The committee met and organized, and, supposing it to be their duty to
proceed to investigate the charges made against the Masonic institution
thus referred to them, they gave a precips for a subpoena for wit
nesses to the Clerk of the House, to be by him issued in the usual way,
signed by the Speaker. The committee would not deny their right to
inquire into the the truth of the charges, for the, investigation of which
they had been specially appointed. Nor did they suppose they had been
commanded by the House to perform that duty without being clothed
with the power asked for by the petitioners, and indispensably necessary,
and incident to its faithful and intelligent discharge. The Clerk and
Speaker of the House thought otherwise, and declined issuing the sub
poena. The committee appealed to the House to grant explicitly the
questioned ipower. It was objected to, on the ground (among others) that
it would subject refractory witnesses to punishment for contempt if they
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. SI
refused to testify ; a power which the House seemed disposed not to
pursue towards masonic witnesses. To obviate this objection, the com
mittee consented to modify the resolution, so as to give them power to
take the testimony of such witnesses only as would appear to. testify
voluntarily before them. But the House, by a vote of every member
present, except two, of all parties, not politically opposed to M asomy
refused the request. The committee were thus prohibited from ascer
taining by legal testimony the trus character of Free Masonry as prac
tised in Pennsylvania. Nor could they fail to view that decision as a
plain intimation by the House of their unwillingness to have the secret
designs, principles and practices of that institution established and made
known to the people. Feeling themselves bound by that intimation, and
trusting it with the respect which is always due to the wish of this body,
the committee feel themselves constrained not to make use of the proof
within their power, taken in other States to develops its alledged iniqui
ties. Such proof might and would be met with the allegation, that it
"might 6j New York, but not Pennsylvania Mason ry." To establish the
identity of Pennsylvania and New York Masonry by a legislative com
mittee, vested with adequate power, is left to a future time and other
hands. To suppose that this will not soon take place, would be a foul and
unwarranted libel on the intelligence and firmness of the freemen of this
Commonwealth .
"To show the necessity of the power asked for, and to justify their
failure to make a more extended report on the subject confided to them,
the committee will briefly state the nature and quality of the test mony
which they had intended to submit to this House. That the evidence
might be above suspicion, they had determined to call before them nono
but adhering Masons who could not be suspected of testifying out of
hostility to the institution. To leave no doubt as to the character of the
witnesses, it was proposed to examine the Masonic members of this
House and the Cabinet. It was particularly desirable and intended that
the Governor of this Commonwealth should become a witness, and have
a full opportunity of explaining under oath, the principles and practices
of the order of which he is so conspicuous a member. It was thought
that the papers in his possession might throw much light on the question
how far Masonry secures political and executive favor. This inspection
would have shown, whether it be true that applications for offices have
been founded on Masonic merit and claimed as Masonic rights ; whether
in such applications the "significant symbols" and mystic watch words
of Masonry have been used, and in how many cases such applications
have been successful in securing executive patronage. It might not have
been unprofitable, also, to inquire how many converted felons, who have
been pardoned by the present Governor, were brethren of the " mystic
tie," or connected by blood or politics with members of that institution,
and how few of those who could boast of no such connection have been
successful in similai applications. The committee might have deemed it
necessary, in the faithful discharge of their duty, to have called before
them some of the judges, who are Masons, to ascertain whether, in their
official character, the "grand hailing sign" has ever been handed,
sent or thrown to them by either of the parties litigant, and if so, what
S2 A REVIEW OF THE
has been the result of the trial. This would have been obviously proper,
as one of the charges against Masonry is it s partial and corrupt influence
in courts of justice. Who the witnesses were to be, was distinctly an
nounced to this House by the chairman of the committee on the disscussion
of his resolution. The House decided that no evidence should be taken;
every member of the Masonic institution present voting in the negative.
The committee have deemed this brief history of legislative proceedings
necessary to justify them for failing to make a report which is anxiously
looked for by the people. The committee are aware that most of those
who opposed the power to send for " persons and papers," did it on the
avowed grounds that it was unnecessary, as the principles of Masonry
were fully disclosed and known. For themselves, the committee have
no hesitancy in saying, that Masonry is no longer a secret to any but
those who wilfully make it so, and that its principles and practices are as
dangerous and atrocious as its most violent opponents have ever de
clared. They take pleasure, however, in saying that a great majority of
its members reject its doctrines, habitually disregard its principles, and
in honesty, honor and patriotism, are inferior to none of their fellow-
citizens. It is the duty of government, while it looks with charity and
forbearance on the past, to take care that in future none of our respecta
ble citizens should be entrapped into such degrading and painful thral
dom. To effect this object and give those who profess to be morally
opposed to Masonry an opportunity to record such opposition, the com
mittee report a bill " to prohibit in future the administration of Masonic,
Odd Fellow, and all other secret extra-judicial oaths, obligations and
promises in the nature of oaths."
As parties were constituted in the legislature, Mr. Stevens had
no further object in the submission of the above report than to
place upon record the demands and views of the Anti-Masonic
party. In the session of 1834r-5 the AntiMasons were again in
the minority in the legislature. Mr. Stevens being a member of
the House at this session also, considerable discussion took place
and there was the usual display of partizan tactics regarding the
question of Masonry. Mr. Stevens submitted a motion in the
House, prefaced by a lengthy preamble, detailing in varied items
the evils of Masonry and which contained a resolution "that the
Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to bring in a bill
effectually to suppress and prohibit the administration and recep
tion of Masonic, Odd Fellow and all other secret extra-judicial
oaths, obligations and promises in the nature of oaths" This
resolution was without delay laid upon the table and authority to
publish the same was denied by a vote of 38 yeas to 58 nays.
During the controversy w^aged throughout the country over the
question of the removal of the deposits by President Jackson,
Joseph E. Eitner was nominated for the governorship of Penn-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. S3
sylvania, distinctly as an Anti-Mason, and through, the division of
the Democratic party was elected. A majority was chosen to the
House of Representatives favorable to the same principles as the
Governor was supposed to represent. Mr. Stevens was again,
returned as a member from Adams County. Governor Ritner, in
his inaugural, expressed the sentiments of his party upon the
Masonic question, and spoke of his election as an endorsement of
Anti-Masonic principles. He said :
"The supremacy of the laws, and the equal rights of the people, whether
threatened or assailed by individuals, or by secret sworn associations, I
shall so far as may be compatible with the constitutional power of the
Executive, endeavor to maintain as well in compliance with the known
will of the people, as from obligations of duty to the Commonwealth.
In these endeavor ; I shall entertain no doubt of zealous co-operation by
the enlightened and patriotic legislature of the State. The people have
willed the destruction of all secret societies, and that will cannot be dis
regarded."
At the legislative session of 1835-6, on motion of Mr. Stevens,
a committee was appointed to investigate the evils of Free Ma
sonry and other secret societies. This was that to which the Free
Masons and their allies gave the name of the "Star Chamber
Committee" because of the attempt to extract information
from the Masons themselves, which as was believed, would be
prejudicial to the order. Subpoenas were accordingly served upon
Gov. Wolf, Geo. M. Dallas, Francis R, Shunk, Joseph R. Chand
ler, and a number of the other distinguished lights of Masonry,
citing them to appear before the committee and answer such
questions as might be asked them touching their knowledge of
Masonry. The questions as agreed on in committee to be pro
pounded to the parties subpoenaed were the following :
1. "Are you, or have you been a Free Mason ? How many degrees have
you taken ? By what lodge or chapter were you admitted ?
2. "Before or at the time of your taking each of those degrees, was an
oath or obligation administered to you ?"
3. "Can you repeat the several oaths or obligatiDns administered to
you, or any of them ? If so, repeat the several oaths, beginning with
the entered apprentice, and repeat them literally, if possible, if not,
substantially ; listen to the oaths, and obligations, and penalties, as read
from this book (Allyn s Ritual) and point out any variation you shall find
in them from the oaths you took. Is there a trading degree ?"
4. "D d you ever know the affirmation administered in the lodge or
chapter ?"
5. "Are there any other oaths or obligations in Masonry than those
contained in Allyn s Ritual and Bernard s Light on Masonry ?"
JU A REVIEW OF THE
C. "Is Masonry essentially the same everywhere ?"
7. "State the ceremony of initiation in the R. A. degree, and particularly
whether any allusion is made to the scripture scene of the burning bush.
State fully how that scene is enacted in the lodge or chapter."
8. "Are you a K. T.? If so, state fully the obligations and ordinances
of that degree. In that degree is wine administered to the candidate
out of a human skull ? State fully the whole scene. Listen to the
account of it as read from this book (Allyn s Ritual), and point out
whether it varies from the genuine oath or ceremony."
Most of those subpoenaed sent to the committee written replies,
declining to appear and answer in obedience to the writ; some
of them appeared in person before the committee and read their
reasons for refusing to answer any questions concerning Masonry,
and their connection therewith. Their reasons for declining to
answer, as gathered from their several replies, embraced sub
stantially the following. They claimed that the House of Rep
resentatives possessed no constitutional authority to institute an
inquiry concerning any organization within its borders, or its
secrets, that violated no law of the land. If their society, or
any other, was proved to have become injurious to the rights of
the commonwealth, in that event, the paramount superiority of
the State must subordinate all others. But until this be shown,
the State had no more right to interfere than would it have to
institute an inquiry concerning any private family affairs. Ma
sonry existed when the constitution of the State was first formed,
and no objection was made against it; and they claimed it, as
one of those natural and indefeasible rights which men possess,
to unite together in the pursuit of their own happiness. Again,
were it conceded that the Masons had been guilty of any infrac
tion of law, the proceedings contemplated the compulsory crimina
tion of the accused, a principle violative of constitutional privil
eges. Enact, however, a "constitutional law," as Joseph R.
Chandler remarked in his reply to the committee, " prohibiting
the existence of Masonic institutions, and I shall be the first to
withdraw from all communion with the order, without reference
to the weight of penalties, and shall feel bound to bear testi
mony in a court of justice against any Mason who might, within
my knowledge, violate the statute."
The committee asked authority of the House to commit those
subpoenaed for contempt, but this, after considerable disputation,
was refused. The cowardice of some who professed Anti-Masonic
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 33
principles, and the influence and standing of the parties charged
with the contempt, shielded the recusant witnesses from the im
prisonment which some, and amongst those Mr. Stevens, were
ready to inflict. Thaddeus Stevens was the soul and leader of
this movement, and in it showed himself equal to any emergency
when his party should summon his services. For his participa
tion in this undertaking, he subjected himself to great obloquy
and abuse from the members of the Masonic order and their
adherents. But the movement, on the part of Mr. Stevens, was
in itself sufficient to stamp him as a man of wonderful mental
stamina and courage ; and were nothing else of his public services
extant, this itself would record him among the famed names
of history. One man in this case, by the potent strength of his
intellectual superiority, sets up an investigation to overthrow an
order that claimed an existence from the building of Solomon s
O
Temple, and which the whole power of the Roman Catholic
Hierarchy and Priesthood had essayed in vain to destroy. Had
public opinion been a little more ripe for the attempt, it is un
known what results the investigation might have had. Secret
societies are never too strongly entrenched in public sympathy to
escape censure. The exclusive (never popular), in a free country,
must ever find itself an exotic, and be ranked with that wholly
anti-republican in its nature. Its development displays the aristo
cratic feelings of humanity, severs the people into classes, and
ultimately fits nations for governmental changes. Had the asso
ciate partisans of Mr. Stevens, who espoused the Anti-Masonic
cause, done so with equal ardor as himself, Free Masonry in Penn
sylvania, and perhaps in America, would in the main have ceased
to exist. It does not, however, seem to have been high moral
reasons that caused his opposition to Free Masonry ; but rather
because deformity had precluded his initiation into the mysteries.
But as it was, the order met a shock that will not soon be for
gotten. And while Free Masonry in the United States is
altogether likely to continue to be molded by the spirit of our
institutions, in order that it may still defer the crusade, which
(If our republic be resurrected) seems destined, in the march of
ages to eradicate it, with all the other relics of superstition and
monarchy.
The session of the Pennsylvania Legislature of 1S35-G, was
an important one in more respects than one. The charter of
33 A REVIEW OF THE
the United States Bank would expire on the 4th of March, 1836.
The political contest, regarding this institution, had been one of
violent and impassioned intensity. From the first intimation by
President Jackson, in his message in 1829, of his doubt as to the
constitutionality of the bank, the people were divided in senti
ment regarding it. Upon the appearance of the President s
Message, the stock fell six dollars per share, but when Congress
expressed a contrary opinion, the stock rose to a higher figure
than before. The affairs of the bank moved smoothly as before,
but in view of the expiration of its charter in 183G, its stock
holders in 1832 applied for a renewal of national banking privi
leges. The bill for the re-charter of the bank passed both Houses
of Congress, but met resistance in the veto of President Jackson-
This action upon the part of the Executive had the eSect of
arousing in Pennsylvania (where the bank w r as located and was
popular) a furious resistance against the national administration ;
and it was for a time believed that the President s policy would
not be sustained by the people of this State. A very large meet
ing was held in Philadelphia, in July, 1S32, soon after the veto
of the bank bill, which was composed of the President s former
political friends, at which resolutions were adopted disapproving
of his course, with regard to the bank, and deprecating his re
election to the Presidency as a national calamity, against the
occurrence of which, they pledged themselves to use their utmost
efforts.
The hostility thus arrayed against the President had the effect
of embittering him against- the bank and its supporters. In view
of the uncertain financial condition of the bank, the President,
in his Message of December, 1832, recommended the withdrawal
of the public funds from the institution. Congress, on the con
trary, by resolution expressed its entire confidence in the solvency
of the bank. William J. Duane, the Secretary of the Treasury,
in whose province it was to see to the removal of the deposits, if
in his judgment necessary, declined removing them, and he was
accordingly removed from the Secretaryship, and Roger B. Taney
appointed in his stead. The deposits were now removed,
and a period of financial stringency set in, which greatly em
barrassed the trade and business of the country. All this, in the
opinion of the President and his friends, was the result of the
improper conduct of the managers of the United States Bank.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. C7
The bank question remained for years one of the great subjects
of national politics, and by it, perhaps, parties then were mora
molded than by any other. It was a fruitful theme of discussion
for many years.
When it was fully discovered at length, that a national charter
for the United States Bank could not be secured, its friends con
ceived the idea of a State incorporation, in order to save the ex
piring bank from impending dissolution. Thaddeus Stevens was-
the admitted Achilles of the bank party in the Pennsylvania
Legislature. He was accordingly selected by the stockholders as
the man to champion in the Legislature the application for a State
charter of the United States Bank. On the 19th of January,
1836, he presented in the House of Representatives a bill for the
charter of the bank, with a capital of 35,000,000, which met
violent opposition from the Jackson party in Pennsylvania and
all over the country. It nevertheless passed both Houses of the
Legislature, and having received the approbation of the Gov
ernor, became a law. A leading inducement with the advocates
of the charter was, that the State was to receive a bonus of several
million dollars from the stockholders for internal improvements.
The resistance to the State charter manifested itself not only in
the denunciations of the Jackson press, but even in the legisla
tion of some of the States. Ohio passed a law in March, 1836,
prohibiting within the limits of the State any branch of the
Pennsylvania United States Bank. The institution thus chartered,
purchased the assets, assumed the liabilities of the old United
States Bank, and cqiitinued its business under the same roof.
But the new bank was unable to resist the adverse tide of finan
cial affairs, that was gradually approaching to a crisis. This set
in fully by 1837. All the banks in the Union, with few excep
tions, suspended specie payments. A resumption was attempted
in 1839, but was only persevered -in by the banks of New Eng
land and JSTew York. This new suspension, however, was not
generally followed by contraction of the currency in Pennsyl
vania until 1811, when another attempt was made to resume,
which proved fatal to the tTnited States Bank of Pennsylvania.
It was now obliged to go into liquidation.
In the fall of 1836, Mr. Stevens was returned a member of the
Heform Convention, which was fixed by the Legislature to be
chosen in November, the same time as the Presidential electors.
33 A REVIEW OF THE
The calling of the convention to amend the constitution of Penn
sylvania, had been for years a question of discussion, and was
decided in 1835, by a majority of 13,000 in favor of the call. In
1825 the people had voted in opposition to a convention by a
majority of 15,000. Among the members chosen to the body,
were some of the ablest intellects of Pennsylvania. Some of
these made lasting reputations from the part they bore in the
deliberations of that body. The convention assembled at Ilarris-
burg, May 2nd, 1837, and entered upon its duties of amending
the fundamental charter of the State. Mr. Stevens took a seat
in this convention, in the fullness of his intellectual vigor, and
with a reputation as one of the ablest men in the commonwealth.
At the opening of the deliberations, he assumed the position that
his consciousness of ability dictated as his place, and should a
larger share of hypocricy been part of his character, he would no
doubt have been able to wield much more influence in the work
ings of the convention than he found it in his power to do. Jeal
ousy soon manifested itself on the part of several members, who
were ready to measure swords with him, as regards intellectual
superiority. His readiness to express his opinions proved a source
of weakness to him, and oft exposed him to thrusts from his
competitors, which otherwise he might have avoided. Unlike
most politicians, his nature prompted him to avow what he sin
cerely believed ; and this trait made him appear to those who
have no convictions singular and erratic.
lie was placed by the president of the convention as chairman
of one of the principle committees ; but his great readiness to
assert his opinions, and some sweeping measures of reform, which
he was prepared to advocate, alarmed those even of his own
political party, so that he soon sunk from the rank of a deviser
and arranger of reforms, to be simply the disputant of those
already submitted. Much weaker men than he were those, as a
consequence, who suggested and carried through, by their mild
ness and amiable manners, the reforms that were adopted by the
convention. Radical men like Mr. Stevens, are never popular in
any body; and though they may do at times what none else
could accomplish, it is because they happen to Be in entire accord
with the sentiments of those whose influence and votes they
require. The agitator is mostly in the minority, and so it was
with Mr. Stevens in the convention of 1837-8. It is not, there-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 39
fore, in any particular measures that he proposed and caused to
be adopted, that he made his mark in this body, but rather in the
bold stand he in the main assumed, in the defense of what he
regarded as right.
Although belonging to the party in opposition to the Demo
crats, he was too violent an Anti-Mason to be popular with the
Whigs, now risen to considerable political importance in the
country. This branch was the rising sun of the opposition party,
whereas Anti-Masonry was that which was setting. ~No cordial
v O
affiliation had as yet taken place between the two wings, and as
a consequence , Mr. Stevens was far from being popular with the
Whigs of the convention ; indeed some of his most bitter assail
ants belonged to this branch of the party. In the advocacy of
his plan of representation, which would limit the largest city to
six representatives, he reiterated Jefferson s sentiment, that cities
are "sores of the body politic" and strongly advocated his views
before the convention. This induced a severe attack from AYm.
M. Meredith, of Philadelphia, wherein he applied to him some
cutting remarks, and though conceding his great ability, yet
designated him as the "great unchained of A.dams" and attached
to him other slurring appellations. Mr. Stevens reply upon this
occasion evinces his power of rejoinder, and as indicating this is
inserted :
"The extraordinary course of the gentleman from Philadel
phia has astonished me. During the greater part of his concerted
personal tirade, I was at a loss to know what course had driven
him beside himself. I could not imagine on what boiling cauld
ron he had been sitting to make him foam with -all the fury of a
wizzard who had been concocting poison from bitter herbs. But
when he came to mention Masonry, I saw the cause of his grief
and malice. He unfortunately is a votary and a tool of the
Handmaid , and feels and resents the injury she has sustained.
I have often before endured such assaults from her subjects- But
no personal abuse/ however foul or ungentlemanly, shall betray
me into passion, or make me forget the command of my temper,
or induce me to reply in a similar strain. I will not degrade
myself to the level of a blackguard to imitate any man, however
respectable. The gentleman, among other flattery, has intimated
that I have venom without fangs. Sir, I needed not that gentle
man s admonitions to remind me of my weakness. But I hardlv
40 A REVIEW OF THE
need fangs, for I never make offensive personal assaults ; how
ever, I may, sometimes, in my own defense, turn my fangless
jaws upon my assailants with such grip as I may. But it is well
that with such great strength that gentleman has so little venom.
I have little to boast of, either in matter or manners, but rustic
and rude as is my education, destitute as I am of the polished
manners and city politeness of that gentleman, I have a suffic
iently strong native sense of decency not to answer arguments
by low, gross, personal abuse. I sustained propositions which I
deemed beneficial to the whole State. Nor will I be driven from
my course by the gentleman from the city, or the one from the
county of Philadelphia. I shall fearlessly discharge my duty,
however low, ungentlemanly and indecent personal abuse may be
heaped upon me by malignant wise men or gilded fools."
When upon the presentation by Mr. Denny, of a petition from
sundry free citizens of color of Pittsburg, remonstrating against
the adoption of any clause in the new constitution, depriving the
free colored citizens of the right of suffrage, and when objection
was made to its reception, Mr. Stevens spoke as follows :
" I maintain that those who have petitioned this body, whether
white or black, have a right to be heard, whether on this or any
other subject relative to the business of the convention. We
have a right, then, to give the prayer of the petitioners a respect
ful consideration."
The question of suffrage before the convention, gave rise to
considerable discussion. The constitution of 1790, had confined
suffrage to freemen ; and as slaves then existed in Pennsylvania,
it was generally held that colored persons were not intended to
be included under the expression of freemen. However, as time
advanced, and the spirit of hostility to slavery grew stronger,
there were those in the State who claimed that all free persons
were meant, and even in some few counties negroes were permit
ted to vote, though in the most of them this was not attempted.
In large cities the attempt would have been attended with dan
ger. The question had been already decided by some of the
courts that the constitution of 1790 limited suffrage to the white
race.
When, therefore, this subject came up in the convention, it was
moved to incorporate the word white in the section, fixing suff
rage, which led to an animated debate, the convention being
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 41
somewhat, though not entirely, divided on this point by party
lines. The Democrats were almost a unit in opposition to negro
suffrage. But not all of the other party favored it. "Win. M.
Meredith, a AVhig, remarked : " That he knew no good reason
why they (the negroes) should be admitted into the political
class. They never had been admitted into it. * * * The
right of suffrage ought to be the privilege of white citizens
alone." Mr. Stevens, though a bitter opponent to the word
white, yet took no special part in the discussion. It was at that
time a very unpopular question ; petitions were pouring in from
all quarters of the State in opposition to negro suffrage, and the
strong supporters of such a measure would have become marked
men. This Mr. Stevens seemed to recognize, and may have acted
upon the reticent list in view of public opinion. If on this occa
sion he played politician, it was, no doubt, under the strong
rebukes of conscience, for his firm faith in human equality would
have prompted him to be the staunchest resistant to the intro
duction of the word white in the suffrage section. When the
first discussion on this question was before the convention, he was
present, but .was absent in January, 1838, when the first vote was
taken introducing the discriminating word. Mr. Stevens, in this
instance, evinced much of his real nature ; for while he desired
to be regarded as the bold defender of principle, he had that
much of corrupted nature as to keep an eye upon his future
political success.
During the last days of the convention, he attended the
sittings of the Legislature at Harrisburg ; having been elected to
the Lower House in October, 1837. And when the new Consti
tution was completed, he declined to append his signature to it,
because of the incorporation of that distinction of suffrage which,
for some reason, contrary to his nature, he had not the boldness
to battle. Thus far, ambition alone can be supposed as that which
triumped over principle, othewise he should have pronounced
some philippics that might have enhanced his reputation as an
agitator, but which in that event might forever have bolted
against him the doors of the Xational Congress.
Not long after the adjournment of the Legislature in 1838,
Gov. Ritner appointed Mr. Stevens one of the Board of Canal
Commissioners, John Dickey and a Mr. Pennebaker being the
other two members. One of the enterprises that drew upon
43 A REVIEW OF THE
Mr. Stevens much odium as a member of the Canal Board, was
his advocacy of the Gettysburg Railroad, which he was charged
by his political opponents as favoring, because of its passing his
furnace in Adams County. It was a measure, however, that had
received the warm support of Gov. Ritner ; but with the Demo
crats this in no wise shielded Mr. Stevens, as he was regarded
upon all hands as the controlling spirit of the Ritner adminis
tration. The Governor was viewed simply as a puppet in his
hands, and his messages as but the dictations of the power behind
the throne. The Gettysburg Railroad was designed to unite
with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, then in process of con
struction. The tortuous route that it was necessrry to take in
order to unite the points contemplated by railway, was what gave
this road the nickname of the " Tape-worm" An appropriation
was secured, and the route was surveyed, and considerable sums
of money expended upon its construction. The road was in
spected by the committee during the legislative session of 1837-8,
one from the House of Representatives, and the other from the
Senate. Both committees reported adversely to the completion
of the road. The Senate, at that time, had a majority of its
members of Mr. Stevens own party. John Strohm, a Whig
Senator, was Chairman of the Senate Committee, from whose
report some extracts are submitted :
"The Gettysburg Railroad, commencing at Gettysburg and extending
to a point at or west of Hagerstown, in the State of Maryland, is but ail
isolated link which can never become useful or profitable until the Balti
more and Ohio road, to be extended to Pittsburg or Whee ing, and the
Railroad from Gettysburg to the Columbia Railroad at Wrightsville are
completed. That portion of the latter which lies between Wrightsville
and York, about twelve miles is in progress. Between York and Gettys
burg an experimental survey has been made, but no permanent location
fixed ; and it is the opinion of many that an early completion of the said
road by the company need not be expected.
"It is evident, therefore, that no certainty can be attained, either in
regard to the location or time of completing the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad. Would it, then, be consistent with cautious prudence and
sound policy to persevere in expending millions in constructing a work,
the utility of which is dependant on such precarious and doubtful cir
cumstances V "
The Committee reported that, in their opinion, the objects
sought for by the Getty sbur Road, would much more advantage
ously be obtained by adopting the route through the Cumberland
Valley, by way of Chambersburg. The Gettysburg Road, in
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 43.
crossing tlie South Mountain, was obliged to select such a meand-
O O
erins: line, that it was not strange that it secured its surname of
O O
the " Tape-worm" On the aspect of this road the committee
say:
"But on tlie latter (tlie Gettysburg road) for about twenty -five miles,
the traveler is either ascending or descending at the rate of fifty feet to
the mile, a rugged, solitary and barren mountain, uninhabited and almost
uninhabitable ; on the one hand he sees perpendicular cliffs rise like tower
ing steeples above his head, covered with projecting rocks which threaten
him with instant death for his temerity ; on the other, he perceives a
frightful precipice, over which he is in eminent danger of being hurled
into the abyss below, with the certain prospect of being clashed to pieces
by the fall. Now he is whirled over a ravine, or an embankment of some
fifty or sixty feet in height, and now engulphed in an excavation from
which he can scarce see the sun ; or immured in a tunnel where daylight
may enter but cannot penetrate. The slightest accident must expose
him to danger of life, limb and property, from which nothing but a
miracle can save him."
half a million of dollars were expended upon this road
through the influence of Mr. Stevens, as was charged by his ene
mies, and as it from the first concentrated the hostility of the Demo
cratic party when David R. Porter came into power, the road was
abandoned. It, however, was one of those projects that clung to
Thaddeus Stevens throughout life, and like the poisoned spirit of
!Nessus, would have proved a fatal tunic to a weaker man, or,
perhaps, to any other than himself.
4.4 A REVIEW OF THE
CHAPTER IV.
THE BUCKSHOT WAB.
The event that will ever be known in the history of Pennsyl
vania as the " Buckshot War," and in the scenes of which Thad-
deiis Stevens bore a conspicuous part, to be understood must be
traced from its inceptive causes. At the general election, held on
the second Tuesday of October, 1838, the people of the County
of Philadelphia voted for two Senators and eight Representa
tives, besides other officers. The highest Democratic candidate
for the senate, C. Brown, received 10,036 votes, while "W. Wago
ner, the highest on the Whig ticket, had but 9,490 votes. On
the representative ticket the Democrat who polled the lowest
vote had a majority of 385 over the highest Whig candidate.
Charles J. Ingersol, the Democratic candidate for Congress,
had run several hundred votes behind his ticket, and as the vote
in his district was counted, he was defeated. It was averred, on
the part of him and his friends, that vast frauds had been perpe
trated in the district of the Northern Liberties. Articles imme
diately began to appear in the public journals and in handbills,
calling upon the people to be ready to assert their rights, and
urging upon them to attend at the meeting of the return judges,
at the State House, in Philadelphia, on Friday after the election,
in order to see that justice be done them and their friends. This
at once aroused public attention, and at the meeting of the return
judges, Mr. Ingersol and his friends appeared and demanded that
they be heard in defense of his claims. The board of return
judges numbered seventeen, representing the same number of
districts : ton Democrats and seven Whigs. Mr. Ingersol claimed
the privilege of proving that certain irregularities had taken
place at the polls in the Northern districts, and after considerable
discussion this right was granted by a party vote of the return
judges. Having proved that the law had been violated at one of
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 45
the polls in the Northern Liberties ; and as this whole district
voted in one building, it was demanded by Mr. Ingersoll and his
party friends, that the whole vote of the Liberties be excluded.
This vote amounted to about 5,000, and its rejection would have
the effect of electing the Democratic candidate for Congress, but
in no wise altered the result as regards the candidates for the
Senate and House of Representatives, save that it increased the
Democratic majorities. The Democratic return judges, having
the majority of the board, decided infavor of Mr. Ingersol s claim,
and the vote of the Northern Liberties was rejected. The Whigs
entered their protest against this action of the majority, but were
powerless to prevent it. They contended that the board of return
judges had no legal authority to exclude the vote of any district,
and that this power was vested in other tribunals. But as the
majority thought otherwise, duplicate returns were made out and
signed by the ten judges, which elected the two Democratic
Senators and the eight Representatives, one copy of which was
deposited in the Prothonotary s office, as the law required, and
the other was placed in the post office, directed to the Secretary
of the Commonwealth. After this the six Whig return judges,
in conjunction with the one from the city of Philadelphia, met
in another room of the State House, and they also prepared and
signed duplicate returns of the votes polled in seven of the seven
teen election districts of the County of Philadelphia. The one
of these returns they in like manner deposited in the Prothono
tary s office, and the other they handed to the Sheriff, who sent
the same by express on a steam engine to the Secretary of the
Commonwealth. This last return came first into the hands of
the secretary; and on this account, induced it would seem by
partisan logic, he chose to consider as the only legal one.
The Whigs assumed to believe that the Democrats, in casting
out the vote of the Northern Liberties, were guilty of a fragrant
outrage, and that dissenting as they did from the majority return,
no other remedy was left them save to act as they had done. The
Democrats, on the other hand, claimed that the minority return
was intended to force into the Legislature, as sitting members,
ten def oated Whig candidates from the County of Philadelphia ;
and by their votes before they could be removed by contesting
their election, to pass laws, to elect the Canal Commissioners, a
United States Senator, and other officers. The fear was even
46 A REVIEW OF THE
expressed that tliey would contest the Governor s election and
declare Ritner re-elected for three years longer, and thus set the
will of the people at defiance. That the honorable leaders of
either party desired anything but what wns fair, is hardly pre
sumable, much as the partisans of each may have desired to
advance their own interests. But it was about this time in the
history of Pennsylvania, when the most daring displays of politi
cal corruption first began to be witnessed. The corruptionists of
each party were ready to advance their cause by any means what
soever, and the upright and conscientious men of either organiza
tion were made to believe that the fraud all attached to their
opponents. As the election of 1838 had been warmly contested,
and as both parties had felt confident of victory, and had wagered
large sums of money on the result, it was not reasonable to sup
pose that the defeated would yield the contest, when fraud was
believed to have contributed to their overthrow. Accordingly,
Thomas II. Burrows, the Secretary of State, and who was also
chairman of the Whig State Committee, no doubt, after con
ference with his party counsellors, issued on the 15th day of
October, a few days after the election, the following address to
the friends of Joseph Ritner :
"FELLOW CITIZENS: The general election has resulted in a manner
contrary to all our reasonable calculations and just expectations. The
opponent for the office of Governor appears to be elected by at least
5,000 majority. This is an event to which, if it had been fairly produced,
we, as good citizens, would quietly, if not cheerfully, submit. But there
is a strong probability of malpractice and fraud in the whole transaction
that it is our duty peacefully to resist it and fully to expose it.
"The election has been characterized by features altogether unparall
eled in the history of our State politics. A few of those of a more
general nature may be here instanced.
"When the returns from all the counties shall be received, it will
probably be found that the whole vote given for Joseph L itner, on the
9th instant, is greater than that which he received in 1835 by a number
at least equal to the natural, regular and legal increase of votes in the
whole State in three years. It will a 1 so b3 found that his friends in
nearly every county polle I fully as many votes as they before the elec
tion expected to do, upon the strength of which expectation a reasonable
estimate gave him a majority of 10,000. Then grave questions arise.
Whence came the majorities returned for his opponent? And how can
he be defeated who has so well sust lined himself with the people and so
largely increased his vote ? It will be discovered that in the districts
where the friends of Joseph Ritner had the control of the elections, a
moderate increase of votes fcr him, arising from sufficient and well-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 47
known causes, took place ; while in the same districts his opponents had
fair play and polled their full number of legal votes. On the other hand,
it is known to all that in the district? in which the inspectors and judges
were the friends of Mr. Porter, not only were the friends of Joseph Rit-
ner in many cases wholly excluded from voting, but his opponents admit
ted without shadow of right, thus swelling the majorities of Mr. Porter
even beyond the wild expectations and extravagant calcu ations of his
own friends. Is it right that this state of things (the existence of which
each voter will determine by facts known to himself) should be submit
ted to hi a free country ?
" Finally it is known that in several counties in which our opponents
had the control, the votes of whole districts, favorable to our candidate.
were without shadow of law or justice, wholly rejected, and false and
partial returns made. Can there be any safety under republican institu
tions if such high-handed opp ession be tolerated ? No ! We owe it to
ourselves as free men and good citizens, to examine into this matter, and
if fraud be detected to expose and resist it. We owe it to our country
and posterity.
" On behalf, therefore, of the State Committee of Correspondence and
Vigilance, the propriety is suggested of taking measures at once for in
vestigating the manner in which the election was conducted and the
result produced. Now is the time to make the examination while the
facts are frash and the outrage recent. Let it be done then peacefully,
determinedly and thoroughly. But let it be commenced with an honest
resolution to submit to the result whether it be favorable or unfavorable
to our wishes. This is the duty of all who contend for equal rights and
the supremacy of the laws.
" But, fellow citizens, until this investigation be fully made and fairly
determined, let us treat the election of the $th instant as if we had not
been defeated, and in that attitude abide the result.
"In the meantime your State Committee will take all proper measures
on the occasion, and when the whole facts are known and the returns
received, will probably address you more at length."
This address, issuing from such authority, was accepted by the
Democrats as a threat of revolution, and taken in connection with
the return of the minority judges of Philadelphia, had the effect
of arousing partisan passion to its highest .pitch of intensity.
From that time till the meeting of the Legislature in December,
O O
the anticipated action of each party at that period was a subject
of discussion in the party journals, and preparation was made by
each for the probable colision that (as was believed by many) would
take place. As the time approached for the meeting of the
Legislature, the active partisans began to flock to Harrisburg to
be witnesses of the scenes that were about to transpire, and also
to see that their party friends obtained their constitutional rights.
By December 3d all the hotels were crowded, and bullies and
49 A REVIEW OF THE
roughs of both parties were parading the streets of the capitolj
loudly boasting what they would do in case their respective
parties were unjustly treated. Thaddeus Stevens, all this
time, was the centre of influence with his party friends, and the
principal object of malediction with the Democrats. The Whigs
and Anti-Masons looked to him for advise in all their movements,
while their opponents could see in him nothing but the incarnation
of all iniquity, fraud and corruption, against which they were
compelled to contend. The chief of the fallen angels himself, was
almost as honorable a character in the estimation of the violent
Democratic partisans, as was Thaddeus Stevens at this time.
He, the contriver of the whole plan for revolutionizing the State
goverment and securing ascendancy for his party, could be noth
ing better than an arch-fiend, and many a threat escaped the
mouth of a swaggering politician that he should bite the dust for
his treasonable designs against the rights of the people*
The memorable morning of the 4th of December, 1838, the
day fixed by law for the assembling of the Legislature, found
the adherents of both parties anxiously waiting the hour for the
House to assemble. The hour of meeting was 11 A. M. Long
before this time the hall, the galleries, aisles and lobbies were
crammed with members and spectators almost to suffocation, wait
ing the time for the organization of the House. Bowie knives and
pistols were in the pockets of a large number, who had come from
Philadelphia and the public works, in order, as they fancied, to
see justice done to their party friends. The matter in dispute
seemed well understood, not so well the cause of it. All, how
ever, recognized that the diffculty was concerning the Philadel
phia County delegation to the Senate and House of Representa
tives. This was about all that was generally understood; the
merits of the dispute had dot yet been closely inquired into.
When the hour of eleven struck, the Clerk called the House to
order, and Thomas H. Burrows, Secretary of the Common
wealth, stepped forward and handed that officer the Philadel
phia returns, which, contrary to custom, he had up to this time
failed to deliver. This was the occasion for some manifestation
of disapprobation in the galleries. Mr. Charles Pray, one of the
Democratic contesting members, from Philadelphia, rose and
handed the clerk a certified copy of the returns made by the
majority of the return judges, and desired also that it might be
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 49
read. Mr. T. S. Smith, another Philadelphia member, protested
against the reading of a document thus irregularly presented.
The law prescribed the officer by whom all returns must be
made ; and coining from any other they were illegal and void.
After some discussion, both returns were allowed to be read, and
afterwards the returns from the east of the State were read with
out opposition. The contesting members of both political parties
were thus, as it were, admitted ; and the House was now ready
for organization. Counting the eight contesting members, each
party had a majority. Thos. B. McElwee, of Bedford, next rose
and moved that the House proceed to elect a Speaker, which
motion was adopted. All this time great confusion reigned.
Scarcely was the voice of the clerk, when calling the names of
the members, audible above the din that prevailed through the
whole hall. "Win. Hopkins, of Washington County, was now
nominated for Speaker, and the tellers were appointed. Here
upon, Thaddeus Stevens arose and named as Speaker, Thomas S.
Cunningham, of Beaver, and having appointed tellers, immedi
ately put the motion and declared his candidate elected, who pro
ceeded to the speaker s stand and took the chair. He was greeted
by his partisans with tumultuous applause when he reached the
speaker s seat. A like election on the part of his partisans
declared Mr. Hopkins Speaker of the House, who mounted a
chair and began to address the multitude. Thos. B. McElwee ad
vanced to him and escorted him to the speaker s platform, and
gently removing Cunningham with his elbow, placed the Demo
cratic Speaker in his seat. This in turn was greeted by vocifer
ous cheering by those who saw in this act the advantage gained
by their party. Both Speaker s were now sworn by their parti
sans, and thereupon Mr. Cunningham assumed to adjourn the
House {ill 2:30 P. M. next day. The Cunningham members now
retired, and af terthe transaction of some unimportant business, the
Hopkins House also adjourned until next day at 10 o clock. The
crowd now gradually dispersed ; the Democrats, however, took the
precaution to leave some trusty guards in possession of the capitol,
in order to retain possession of the advantage they had gained.
Both parties now returned to their several hotels and boarding
houses, some chagrined and others jubilant over what had trans
pired. After dinner had been partaken of and the all-engrossing
subject for a short time discussed, the leading politicians began
50 A REVIEW OF THE
to wend tlieir way to the Senate chamber, which body was to
organize at 3 o clock. Like the hall of the House had been,
when the clock struck three, the Senate chamber was a perfect
jam. When the clerk called the Senate to order, Mr. Burrows,
the Secretary of the Commonwealth, handed to him the return
of the minority judges from the Comity of Philadelphia. At
this point the crowd gave vent to some tokens of disapprobation,
after which the roll was called and the Senators answered to their
names. A Mr. Hannah was one of the Senators from Philadel
phia who was returned by the Whig judges as elected. When
his name was called and he was about to be sworn, the utmost
confusion prevailed. The crowd broke over the lobbies, and
some of them mounted chairs and began to speak. Charles
Brown, one of the contesting Senators from Philadelphia, at
tempted to address the Senate, but was called to order as not
being a member of the body. This excited his partisans in the
crowd, and the shout was raised : " Hear him," " Brown,"
" Brown," " You shall hear Brown." These and similar out
bursts of excitement now for a moment rent the hall. For a
time all single voices were drowned in the universal clamor and
confusion which prevailed. Gen. Rodgers, of Bucks, a member
of the Senate, rose and moved that Mr. Brown be permitted to
address the Senate. Brown now addressed it and the crowd at
considerable length, and all the while the tumult remained
unabated. All this time Penrose, the Speaker, kept his seat and
endeavored to preserve order to the best of his ability, but to no
purpose. It was now near seven o clock in the evening. During
all this time Stevens had been in the hall, and was regarded by
his political enemies as the spirit that animated and inspired
confidence in the hearts of his partisans. Penrose, finding his
efforts to preserve order fruitless, beckoned to Gen. Rodgers to
take the chair, he retiring behind the desk. About this time,
Stevens perceiving that the waves of faction already resistless
were still surging with greater intensity, desired to make his
way out through the crowd, but was unable to do so. He went
back to the fire-place and while standing there, was told by a
friend that it was intended to kill him if he went out by the door.
It was then suggested that he and Burrows should leave by the
window of the room, near the fire. As it was too perilous a
descent to leap out of the window, they crept out by means of a
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 51
lamp lighters ladder, which had been obtained by some of their
friends, and secured against the back wall of the Senate Chamber.
While going out of the window the door of the room, opening at
the end of the lobby stood open, and they were seen by some of
the crowd. "Three persons, one of them with a long bowie
knife in his hand, ran out through the crowd, swearing he would
kill the scoundrel yet." * Had not these roughs mistaken
the direction of the window they might, in the intensity of the
excitement, have imbued their han$s in blood. Penrose, about
the same time, also made his escape. Shortly after the retreat
of Stevens, Penrose and Burrows, the Senate adjourned.
By this time the people of Harrisburg were in the midst of the
greatest excitement and terror. Every moment it was now ex
pected that a collision between the parties might ignite the flames
of civil war in their midst Stevens, Penrose and Burrows were
the triumvirate that received all the abuse of their political
opponents for what had happened, or was likely to take place,
As the preponderance of plebeian influence was possessed by the
Democratic party, it was already apparent that the "\Vhigs had so
far been necessitated to yield to its influence. Perhaps, even in
this case, the vox populi was vox dei^ much as reason might utter
its dissent. Passion and patriotism now had free scope for dis
play. A mammoth meeting of Democrats was held the same
evening at the Court House in the Borough of Harrisburg, pre
sided over by Gen. T, C, Miller, of Adams County, assisted by a
large number of vice-presidents, A number of stirring and
inflamatory addresses were delivered at this meeting by CoL J. J.
McCahan, of Philadelphia, George W. Barton, of Lancaster, and
others. A committee was appointed to wait upon Thomas II,
Burrows, and request him forthwith to furnish to the clerks of
the Senate and House of Reprentatives, the full and legal returns
of the election for the County of Philadelphia, held on the 9th
of October, 1838, A Committee of Safety was also appointed,
of which Gen. Adam Diller, of Lancaster County, was made
Chairman, The meeting then adjourned until next morning at
half-past eight o clock.
After the adjournment of the Senate, Gov, Eitner issued the
following proclamation :
Biographical History of Lancaster County, pjx
52 A REVIEW OF THE
Pennsylvania, ss : In the name and l>y the authority of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania^ l>y Joseph Ritner, Gov
ernor of the said Commonwealth :
11 WHEREAS, A lawless, infuriated armed mob, from the Counties of
Philadelphia, Lancaster, Adams, and other counties, have assembled at
the seat of Government with the avowed object of disturbing, interrupt
ing and over-awing the Legislature of this Commonwealth, and of pre
venting its proper organization, and the peaceable and free discharge of
its duties. And
" WHEREAS, The said mob have already, on this day, entered the Senate
Chamber, and in an outrageous and violent manner by clamoring, shouting
and threatening violence and death of the members of that body and
other officers of the Government, and finally, by rushing within the bar
of the Senate Chamber, and in defiance of every effort to restrain them,
compelled the Senate to suspend business. And
" WHEREAS, They still remain here in force, encouraged by a person who
is an officer of the General Government from Philadelphia, and are set
ting the law at open defiance and rendering it unsafe for the legislative
bodies to assemble in the Capitol.
" THEREFORE, This is to call upon the civil authorities to exert them
selves to restore order, to the utmost of their power, and upon the mili
tary force of the Commonwealth to hold themselves in readiness to repair
to the seat of Government ; and upon all good citizens to aid in curbing
this lawless mob, and in re-instating the supremacy of the law.
" Given under my hand and the great seal of the State, at Harrisburg,
this 4th day of December, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight
hundred and thirty-eight, and of the Commonwealth the sixty-third.
By the Governor.
"THOMAS II. BURROWS,
" Secretary of the Commonwealth. *
The Democratic citizens met pursuant to the adjournment at
the Court House meeting at 8:30 o clock A. M., of December 5th,
and were again addressed at some length by the eloquent Col.
J. J. McCahan. He exhorted them to use all peaceful measures,
in order to secure their rights. The Committee on Resolutions
submitted the following :
" Resolved. That we recommend to the citizens generally to pursue a
prudent and calm course, Avaiting the events of the day with that firm
ness which freemen in a free country have resolved upon.
" Resolv:d, That neither those in power, who endeavor to perpetuate
their reign through unlawful and fraudulent returns, as citizen soldiers,
who have the same feelings and interests with us, will intimidate people
resolved upon having their rights."
At 10 o clock, on Wednesday, December 5th, the Hopkins
House met pursuant to its adjournment, in the hall of the House
of Representatives, and elected their officers; and after the trans-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 53
action of some unimportant business, adjourned. About the
time the House was adjourning, a rumor was afloat that the
Whigs had taken possession of the arsenal with a large body of
armed men. Some of the members, going to ascertain the truth
of the rumor, found a large collection of men around the
arsenal. Armed men were seen parading in the arsenal, with
fixed bayonets. Gov. Ritiier had issued orders that a special
guard should be detailed for the defense of the State property in
the arsenal. The Democrats who surrounded the arsenal had a
field-piece and acted under the orders of the Committee of
Safety, of which Gen. Adam Diller was chairman. As they
viewed affairs, the occupation of the arsenal was but part of a
plan to coerce them into the relinquishment of their rights; and
to this they determined to interpose whatever resistance the occa
sion might demand. The proclamation of the Governor, calling
for troops, had now become known, and this now added fresh
fuel to the flames. The Democrats demanded either the evacua
tion of the arsenal, or that it should be guarded by equal num
bers of both parties. This latter demand was refused, and as the
parleying had already lasted for a considerable time, it was feared
by many of the "Whigs that unless some compromise were effected
& collision might ensue. At this point, George Ford, of Lancas
ter, and Joseph Henderson, called upon the Committee of Safety
and represented themselves as deputed by Stevens, Ritner & Co.
to confer in reference to the arsenal and the public property of
the Commonwealth. Messrs. Ford & Henderson pledged them
selves, "that as men of honor, no ordinance, arms, muskets, or
amunition, should by any order of the Governor, or any other
authority whatever, be taken from the arsenal for the purpose of
arming any forces that might collect in obedience to the proc
lamation of the Governor, and that if any use of them should
be made they would hold themselves, personally responsible for
the consequences."
The Committee of Safety thereupon despatched three of their
number to advise the citizens of the pledge that had just been
made, and the arsenal guard shortly afterwards consented that if
the citizens would withdraw, they would evacuate the premises.
Room being now made for the retreat, the garrison sallied forth
at full run for Gleims Hotel, the headquarters for the Ritner
party. In the chase, one of the fugitives, a known bully, was
5t A REVIEW OF THE
overtaken by a Philadelphia!! of like character, prostrated, and
severely handled. As soon as the arsenal was evacuated > an im
mense crowd gathered in front of Gleims Hotel, in which it was
rumored that live hundred muskets were deposited. These mus
kets, it was averred, had been purchased in Philadelphia by
Stevens and Burrows after the October election, and deposited in
a room of this hotel for service on the present occasion. It was
now past noon, and rain was falling in torrents upon the crowd,
now swollen to an immense size, in the streets and around the
hotel. Col. Lewis Corryel and Col. Piolett addressed the multi
tude and calmed them by assurring them that no immediate dan
ger of a collission now existed. The crowd after this, gradually
began to disperse.
As soon as Mr. Stevens had heard of the negotiation made with
the Committee of Safety, concerning the arsenal, by Ford and
Henderson, he disclaimed, in a public letter addressed to the
editor of the Pennsylvania Telegraph^ as far as he was concerned,
having authorized the parties to so negotiate. The following is
the copy of the letter :
" HARRISBURQ, Dec. Cth, 1808.
" To the Editor of the Pennsylvania Telegraph :
"SiR: I understand that a publication, issued by authority of the
rebel forces, who for two days past have had possession of the seat of
government and the State Capitol, states that while such forces sur
rounded the arsenal, yesterday, and were threatening to force it open, a
committee, consisting of Messrs. Ford and Henderson, sent by Ritner,
Stevens, Burrows & Co., pledged their honor, that if the people would
disperse no arms should be taken out of the arsenal by any per
sons, either in behalf of the government or others. I desire to contra
dict this statement, so far as it concerns myself. What Messrs. Ford and
Henderson may have done, I know not ; but no man had any counte
nance from me, in either making or listening to any suggestions from
the rebels on any subject ; nor do I believe that either of the gentlemen
named authorized any such communication. I have uniformly said that
I should deem it disgraceful to treat with the rebels on any subject, or
do any act, either now or hereafter, on their demand. Such acts I should
consider as disgraceful to myself, personally, and an infamous surrender
of the rights of the people of the Republic.
"Your obedient servant,
"THADDEUS STEVENS."
The hall of the House of Representatives was securely guarded
by the Democrats, during the whole of the 5th of December.
The Cunningham House had completed its organization in a room
of "Wilson s Hotel, in the City of Harrisburg, now the Lochiel
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 55
House. As Cunningham had adjourned his House when the two
parties on the 4th divided in their organizations, until half-past
two P. M. on the 5th, he directed a Mr. Spackman, of Philadel
phia, to proceed to the hall of the House of Representatives, and
again adjourn it till the next day. Meeting Thomas B. McElwee,
Spackman was asked by his political opponent, where he was
^oing. Spackman replied, "to adjourn the House." McElwee
told him he had no right to do so, as there was no House to
adjourn, and started immediately for the Speaker s stand. Some
one in the House (for the hall was again densely crowded) said to
him, " you will get a ball through your head if you attempt to
keep Spackman from the Chair." Spackman advanced to the
platform. McElwee the second time demanded of him what he
wanted, and the reply was, " to adjourn the House." The
interrogator remarked that there was no House to adjourn.
Spackman said, " the Cunningham House," to which McElwee
told him he would not be permitted to do so. Great agitation
now prevailed throughout the hall. Some, supposing a collision
iminent, raised the windows to make their escape if danger arose.
Some cried out, " Spackman, adjourn the House from where you
are." McElwee immediately remarked to some of the bystanders,
" gentlemen, remove this man from the hall." He was at once
seized by the men. and led to the door. While he was being
conveyed out, he remarked to one of those leading him, that " he
would adjourn the House from a member s chair." The gentle
man assured him that if he attempted to do so he would not be
responsible for his safety. Spackman then retired from the hall.
In the interval a rush was made, and the folding doors between
the hall and rotunda were burst from their hinges, and many
individuals leapt from the windows. Great confusion reigned
for a short time, some attempting to speak, in order to quell the
disorder. After some time the citizens again quietly dispersed,
and the hall was once more almost deserted.
Gov. Ritner, on the 5th of December, addressed a letter to
E. V. Sumner, Captain of the United States Dragoons, at Car
lisle, urging him " forthwith to march the troops at your com
mand to Harrisburg, for the protection of the constituted authori
ties of the Commonwealth, for the suppression of the insurrection,
and for the preservation of our Republican form of Government,
agreeably with the Constitution of the United States." Captain
56 A REVIEW OF THE
Sumner, on the same day, replied to the Governor as follows :
" As the disturbance at the Capitol of this State, appears to proceed
from political differences alone, I do not feel that it would be proper for
me to interpose my command between the parties. If this riot proceeded
from any other cause, I would offer you the services of my command
before you will receive this letter."
On Friday, December 7th, Gov. Ritner addressed the following
letter to the President of the United States :
HARRISBURG, PA., December 7th, 1838.
" SIR : It is my exceedingly unpleasant duty, officially to inform you,
that such a state of domestic violence exists at this place, as has put an
end for the present to all the regular functions of the State Government.
The Senate of the State has been compelled, by imtimidatioii, to break
up in confusion. The duly appointed presiding officer of the House of
Representatives was prevented from calling the House to order, to which
it stood adjourned, and was ejected from the hall by violence. The State
Department is closed, and I have not deemed it safe or prudent to proceed
to the Executive Chamber since the first disturbance, which took place
on the 4th instant.
" Under this state of things, I have thought it my duty, to the good
citizens of this Commonwealth, and to law and order, to lay the foregoing
fact before you, and to request you, in accordance with the Fourth Sec
tion of the Fourth Article of the Constitution of the United States, 4o
take measures to protect this State against the effects of the domestic
violence which is now in existence.
" That there may be no doubt, in your mind, as to the propriety of
some interference at the present moment, without an application of the
Legislature, it is only requisite to say that I have been officially informed
that neither branch of the Legislature can with freedom and safety meet
for the transaction of business ; and further, that though the Legislature of
this State annually convenes on the first Tuesday in December, I have
not yet been officially informed, in the usual manner, of their organiza
tion. I, therefore, do not believe that the Legislature can be convened
or that it is already in session. On yesterday I made a formal applica
tion to Captain E. V. Sumner, commanding the United States Dragoons,
and other forces at Carlisle, for the assistance of his command, of which
the accompanying papers will exhibit a copy of his reply.
* For the full information of your Excellency, I enclose the copy of a
proclamation which I have issued on the occasion, together with the
published statements of the facts connected with the riot in the Senate
Chamber, signed by a majority of the Senators, and the material facts
of which have been sworn to by the Speaker and other members of the
Senate, and other published documents.
I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect,
" Your obedient servant,
"JOSEPH RITNER.
" To his Excellency, Martin Van Buren,
" President of the United States."
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 57
The above letter of the Governor of Pennsylvania, was refer
red by the President to the Secretary of War, J. R. Poinsett,
who under date of December llth, replied to the application for
troops, a portion of whose reply is here inserted :
"The commotion," says the Secretary of "War, "which now threat
ens the peace of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, does not
ft] pear to arise from any opposition to the laws ; but grows out of
a political contest between the different members of the Govern
ment, most, if not all of them, admitted to be the legal represen
tatives of the people constitutionally elected, about their relative
i ights, and especially in reference to the organization of the pop
ular branch of the Legislature. To interfere in any commotion
growing out of a controversy of so grave and delicate a character,
by the Federal authority, armed with the military power of the
Government, would be attended with dangerous consequences to
our republican institutions. In the opinion of the President, his
interference in any political commotion in a State could only be
justified by the application for it, being clearly within the mean
ing of the Fourth Section of the Fourth Article of the Consti
tution, and of the Act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof,
and while the domestic violence brought to his notice, is of such
a character that the State authorities, civil and military, after
having been duly called upon, have proved inadequate to suppress
it."
Gen. Patterson, of Philadelphia, marched about one thousand
troops from that city to Ilarrisburg, arriving with them at the
State Capitol on Sunday morning, December 9th. A number
of troops were also marched from Carlisle by Gen. Alexander,
and companies prepared themselves to march in different sec
tions of the State, but were informed that their services were
not required. By Thursday, the 6th of December, the greatest
of the excitement had subsided ; and the Senate was again in
session at the close of the week transacting business. All the
soldiers were dismissed, and had reached their homes on Satur
day, December 22nd. The expenses occasioned by this attend
ance of the citizen soldiery, amounted to the sum of one hundred
and forty-seven thousand dollars.
The Cunningham House of Representatives continued to meet
ragularly in a room of Wilson s Hotel, and it was believed by
the Democrats for a time that the Senate would recognize th s
53 A REVIEW OF THE
body as the legally constituted House. The majority of the
Senators were Whigs, and as politicians usually stand by their
party, it was supposed that this case would present no exception
to the general rule. But after the whole truth, as regards the
election in Philadelphia County, came to be fully understood,
many of the Whigs doubted the propriety of resisting the fairly
expressed will of the people at the ballot box. Much as they
were entitled to the organization upon the return made by the
Secretary of the Commonwealth, yet it was gravely questioned
by many of them if that official had not transcended his authority
in discriminating between the two returns, and deciding upon a
matter which was by the constitution entrusted to the House of
Representatives itself. In this they agreed with their political
opponents. Accordingly, on Monday, December 17th, three
members of the Cunningham division, Messrs. Butler and Stur-
devant, of Luzerne, and Montelius, of Union, came into the
Hopkins House and offered to be and were sworn in as members.
This gave the Hopkins House a majority of the members
whose seats were uncontested. Mr. Micheler, a Whig Senator
from Northampton, on the 25th of December, offered a resolu
tion to recognize the Hopkins House of Representatives, as con
taining a majority of the legally elected members ; and this reso
lution was adopted, 1Y voting in the affirmative, and 16 in the
negative. The Whig Senators who supported this resolution, in
addition to the eleven Democrats, were : Messrs. Fullerton,
Case, Strohm, Micheler, McConkey and Miller. Two days after
the passage of this resolution in the Senate, a large number of
the Whig members presented themselves to the recognized House
of Representatives, and after being qualified took their seats.
Win. Hopkins on the same day resigned the Speakership, in order
to accord to the acceding members their choice in the selection of
a Speaker. He was, however, immediately re-elected, and the
remaining Whigs, one after another, except Mr. Stevens, whose
spirit was too proud to yield, came in, and after having been
sworn, took their seats. He who had been the soul of his party in
its struggle, was too spirited to succumb when defeated and even
deserted by all his followers ; and he chose rather to absent himself
during the remainder of the session.
In view of the adoption of the new Constitution, it was found
necessary, for certain reasons, to convene a special session of the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 59
Legislature, on May 7th, 1839. The political friends of Mr.
Stevens in Adams County, regarding themselves as entitled to
full representation in the Legislature, held a meeting and passed
resolutions requesting him to assume his seat in the House of
Representatives at the coming special session. A committee was
appointed to convey to Mr. Stevens the wishes of his constitu
ents. To this committee he replied as follows :
"GETTYSBURG, May 3d, 1839.
" GENTLEMEN : I have received your letter of the 27th ult, inclosing
resolutions of a county meeting held in my absence, approving of my
conduct in having refused to take my seat in the House, and suggesting as
the opinion of the meeting, that I could be of service to the Common
wealth by going into it at the adjourned session ; containing also flattering
expressions of confidence reposed in me by the meeting.
" My opinion of the legality of the body called the Hopkins House,
remains unchanged. I believe it to be an usurping body, forced upon the
State by a band of rebels who have shaken to their fall the pillars of our
Constitution. But I owe too much to the kindness and steady confidence
of the people of Adams County to disobey their wishes, however deli
cately intimated. I shall therefore conquer my repugnance to it and enter
the House at the adjourned session. I shall feel happy if contrary to my
expectations, I should be able to be of any service to you, the Common
wealth at large, and the liberty of the people which I fear is doomed to
a short existence. Accept gentlemen for yourselves my most cordial
thanks for the kind manner in which you have discharged the duties of
your appointment.
" To James Cooper, R. S. Paxon and M. C. Clarkson, Esq s, Committee.
"THADDEUS STEVENS."
Mr. Stevens presented himself at the special session of the
House on May 7th, 1859, and offered to be qualified as a member.
It was the occasion for the manifestation of intense hostility to
wards him. Thomas B. McElwee offered the following resolution :
" WHEREAS, Thaddeus Stevens, a person elected from Adams County,
claims a seat in this House ; And Whereas, if even the said Stevens has
had a right to sit as a member on this floor, he has forfeited this right by
acts in violation of the law of the land, by contempt of this House, and
by a virtual resignation of his character as a representative of Adams
County, therefore
"Resolved, That his admission as a member be postponed for the
present, and that a committee of five be appointed to investigate the
claims of Stevens to a seat in the House of Representatives of Pennsyl
vania, and whether he has, if duly elected, forfeited his seat by mal-
conduct."
The above resolution called forth considerable discussion, but
the committee was finally appointed and the following notice
served upon Mr. Stevens :
60 A REVIEW OF THE
"HARRISBURG, Saturday Morning, May llth, 1839.
" SIR : The committee appointed by the House of Representatives to
inquire whether Thaddeus Stevens, a member elect from Adams County,
has forfeited his right to a seat in the House, will meet for that purpose
in the committee room of the House, on Monday next at 4 o clock, or at
an earlier period if you desire it, where you may attend and be heard.
" To Thaddeus Stevens, Esq.
"CHARLES M. BEGINS, Chairman."
To this notice Mr. Stevens sent the following reply :
"HARRISBURG, May 13th ? 1839.
" SIR : I received your letter of the llth instant, informing me that
the committee to inquire whether Thaddeus Stevens, a member elect
from Adams County, has not forfeited his right to a seat in the House,
will meet on Monday next, when I may attend and be heard.
" I decline to appear before the committee, because I will not consent
to a palpable violation of the Constitution and laws. If, as on recent
occasions, I am compelled by force to witness such scenes, I can at least
withhold from them my sanction, both express and implied.
" The resolution admits the legality of my election and return, but
proposes to inquire whether I have not forfeited my seat before my ad
mission into the House. The grounds of such forfeiture are not specified
in the resolution, and I can only infer them from the remarks of the
original mover of the resolution, T. B. McEhvee. As set forth by him,
they consist in non user, misuser, contempt of the House, by calling it an
illegal body the offspring of a mob ; and for sundry personal improprie
ties. No constitutional disqualification was or is alleged, and for none
other can the House, without an illegal exercise of arbitrary power, pre
vent a member elect from taking his seat. Expulsion for good cause,
after admission, stands on different grounds, and is authorized by the
Constitution.
" I think it will trouble the committee to find a precedent of the de
clared forfeiture for non user of an elective representative office. For
two whole sessions the minority in the House of Parliament absented
themselves from the House, yet neither the King, the Speaker, nor the
majority dared to exercise the high-handed tyranny now attempted by
what is called the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania.
"That certain public executive or ministerial offices may be forfeited
for non user in England where no written paramount Constitution exists,
is true. The business of several departments of- government could not
otherwise be transacted. But it must be a continuing non user. It would
be too late to declare the forfeiture after the officer had taken possession
of his office, and was ready to discharge its duties. The forfeiture is a
remedy against public inconvenience, and not a punishment for an
offender. But in Constitutional Governments no such forfeiture takes
place, except for the causes and in the mode pointed out in the Constitu
tion itself.
" In the present case, the majority did not seem to consider the public
business as suffering by my absence, nor claim a right unknown to the
Constitution, to forfeit my seat ; else they would have declared it vacant
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. Cl
before the adjournment, and given my constituents a new election during
the vacation, so that they might be represented in the present session.
No intimation of a vacancy, no step to supply it was taken until I
appeared to take the oath and use the office. The House, therefore, seems
rather anxious to create than supply a vacancy.
I need hardly notice the allegation of misuser of an office, which I
have been prevented fro*m using at all.
" The right to exclude a member elect for speaking or writing con
temptuously of the House or its proceedings is a novel and dangerous
position. Until a member elect has taken the requisite oaths he can no
more participate in the proceedings of the House, nor is he any more
subject to its jurisdiction than a private citizen. Individuals may be
punished by the House for corrupt attempts upon its integrity by
attempting to bribe its members, or for disturbing or interrupting its
proceedings, as in the case of the December mob, but not for any written
or printed comments on its proceedings however severe. The Sixth
Section of the Ninth Article (the Declaration of Rights) of the Constitu
tion declares that " tlie printing press shall be free to every person who
undertakes to examine the proceedings of the Legislature or any branch of
tlie Government, and no law shall ever be made to restrain the right
thereof." Anything I may have published, therefore, is not subject to
your supervision, if the Constitution be yet considered as existing.
If I were an admitted member, and should demean myself indeco
rously and disorderly towards that body, the House has the power of
expulsion. And if calling it an illegally organized body, the offspring of
a mob, as was contended in debate, be sufficient cause for expulsion, I
think I may safely promise to furnish an excuse for that act soon after
my admission. I do consider the Hopkins House ? a usurping body
but like all other usurpers, having possession of the Government de facto,
its acts will be binding for good or evil on the State. Hence, my con
stituents have thought proper to ask me to take my seat and attempt to
moderate an evil which is now without remedy.
4i If the committee should occupy the ground pointed out by the mover
of the resolution, and sit in judgment upon decency and morality, I must
still further object to the tribunal. I mean no disrespect to the committee
for the majority of them I feel a high regard ; but the whole question
on their report will be again in the power of the majority of the House,
and I cannot agree to admit the intellectual, moral or habitual compe
tency of Thomas B. McElwee, his compeers, coadjutors and followers to
decide a question of decency and morals.
For myself, personally, I feel no anxiety for the result of this inquiry
or the reasons which may be given for it, and to put which upon the
Journal, I presume was the chief object of the proceeding. My only
anxiety is that the Constituti n may not be further violated, and that the
people may yet have some ground to hope that Liberty, although deeply
wounded, may not expire. I owe my acknowledgments to the committee
for their prompt attention to this business, and trust it may be speedily
finished. With proper respect, your obedient servant,
" To Charles Hegins, Esq., THADDEUS STEVENS.
" Chairman of Committee. &c."
62 A REVIEW OF THE
After tlie committee had submitted their report, a resolution
was adopted by a strict party vote of 58 to 34, declaring the seat
of Mr. Stevens vacant in tlie House, and ordering a new election,
to take place on the 14th of June* At the special election,
Mr. Stevens was re-elected, and on the 19th of June he appeared
in the House, and having subscribed the requisite oath, took his
seat. The Legislature adjourned on the 27th of the same month.
The following is his address when presenting himself as a candi
date at the special election :
" FELLOW CITIZENS : In accordance with your wishes, I presented my
self to the body now exercising the duties of the House of Representa
tives of this Commonwealth, and desired to have administered to me the
oath prescribed by law. A majority of that body, using the same unconsti
tutional and unlawful means which invested them with official authority,
refused to allow me to occupy that seat to which I had been called by
the free choice of my fellow citizens. Under the most shallow, hypo
critical and false pretences, they have declared my seat vacant and im
posed upon you the expense of a new election, to be held on the 14th of
June next. In doing so they have committed an unprecedented outrage
on the rights of the people. If submitted to by the people, Liberty has
become but a mere name. Already is the Constitution suspended and
the most sacred contracts between the State and individuals are violated
with the most daring and reckless audacity. The tyrants who have
usurped power, have determined to oppress and plunder the people. It
is for you to siy whether you will be their willing slaves. If they are
permitted finally to triumph, you hold your liberty, your lives, your rep
utation, and your property at their will alone.
"I had hoped that no circumstances would occur which would render
it necessary for me to be again a candidate for your suffrages. Both my
inclination and my interest require me to retire from public life. But I
will not execute that settled intention, when it will be construed into
cowardice or despondency. To refuse to be a candidate now would be
seized upon by my enemies as evidence that I distrust the people, and
am afraid to entrust to them the redress of their own wrongs. I feel no
such fear no such distrust. Without intending any invidious com
parison, I have always said what I still believe, that the people of Adams
County have more intelligence, and not less honesty, than the people of
any other county of the State. To such a people I can have no fear in
appealing against lawless aggression. To them I appeal to lestore to me
that which was their free gift, and therefore my right, and of which I
have been robbed by those who feel power and forget right.
" I present myself to you as a candidate to fill that vacancy which was
created to wound my and your feelings. I do not want to receive a party
nomination from rny friends. The question now to be decided is above
party considerations, and would be disgraced by sinking it to the level of
a party contest. Every freeman must be impelled to resist this public
outrage as a personal wrong to himself. Everything dear to him in his
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 63
country, his liberty, the liberty of his children and the title to his prop
erty admonish him to rise above every paltry personal consideration, and
rebuke tyranny at that great tribunal of freemen the ballot box.
" While, however, you are determined, resolute and energetic, let me
implore you not to imitate the example of our oppressors, but do every
thing calmly and temperately. This admonition is hardly necessary to
the orderly citizens of Adams County, but when oppression is so intolera.
ble, as at present, it is difficult for the most peaceable and quiet men to
control their indignation. ,
" With respect and gratitude, I am,
" Your obedient servant,
"THADDEUS STEVENS,"
Harrisburg, May 25th, 1839..
A number of prosecutions for riot were instituted against the
leading Democrats who participated in the scenes at Harrisburg
during the 4th and 5th of December, 1838, and true bills of
indictment were found by the Grand Jury, at the Dauphin
County January Sessions, 1839, against Gen. Adam Diller,
Charles Pray, George "W. Barton, and others. These bills were
quashed by the Court at the April Sessions, for reasons presented
by the attorneys for the defendants. Mr. Stevens was one of the
counsel for the prosecution in these riot cases.
When Mr. Stevens retired from the Legislature in June, 1839,
it was with the determination that it should be his last service in
the State Legislature ; but at the solicitation of friends he allowed
himself to be prevailed upon once more to become a candidate,
and he was returned again to the IJouse in 1841. On the organ
ization of the Legislature he was placed upon the Judiciary
Committee of the House, a position for which he was known to
possess rare qualifications. In February, 1842, the resolutions of
Mr. Rumf ord, suspending executions between the banks and their
debtors while the banks remained in suspension, came up on third
reading. Mr. Stevens obtained the floor, and moved to go into
Committee of the Whole, for the purpose of substituting in the
place of the bill then pending, one which he caused to be read at
the Clerk s desk. " He supported," says the reporter, " his motion
in a powerful speech such a speech as only Thaddeus Stevens
can make which cast into insignificance the attempts at oratory
which are daily made here. The bill provides for an immediate
resumption of specie payments, under specified penalties, amongst
which is that during the time of suspension the pay of all the
officers of the institution shall be suspended. The matter was
64 A REVIEW OF THE
postponed without any action upon it, as it was desirous to
get rid of a troublesome subject." .
During the same session, Mr. Stevens offered a resolution to
amend the Constitution by limiting the State debt to forty mil
lions of dollars. The resolution passed in the House by a largo
majority.
A large number of petitions being presented to the Legisla
ture at this session, asking for the abrogation of the death penalty
in cases of murder, and these being referred to the Judiciary
Committee, the latter through their Chairman, Mr. McElwee,
reported against the requests of the petitioners. George Shars-
wood and Thaddeus Stevens, two members of this committee,
submitted a minority report, setting forth their reasons for favor
ing the abolition of the death penalty, and concluding as follows :
" How imperfectly then, does the example of this punishment operate
to deter men from the commission of this crime (murder\ accompanied
as it is with so many multiplied chances of escape. Indeed, in the
present constitution of society, we rapeat, no crime is so likely to escape
its due and proportionate puni-hment as tha-t highest one, to which our
law has affixe 1 the severest penalties.
" Let the punishment be commuted to solitary imprisonment at hard
labor for life, and these chances of partial or entire immunity will no
longer exist. The terror of the doom, joined to the moral certainty of
its infliction, will bj ample to deter offenders. The natural horror felt
for the crime will not be lost in the minds of prosecutors, witnesses,
jurors and judges in sympathy for the accused. The mercy of the
Executive will not be extended, except in those cases in which from after
discovered evidence the innocence of the convict has been made appar
ent, or when after the probation of years, his moral reformation and
repentance are placed beyond a reasonable doubt."
The following review and estimate of Mr. Stevens as a member
of the Pennsylvania Legislature, from the pen of one of his own
partisan contemporaries, is appended as the conclusion of his career
as a State Legislator. It is from the Harrisburg Telegraph :
"We are aware that our columns have been accused of a blind devo
tion to Thaddeus Stevens ; and those whose aim it has been to detract
from his reputation, have sought to brand the sincere praises inspired by
his talents and eloquence, as the favoring sycophancy of the parasite.
Rut the wri er of the present article has never had the pleasure before
this session (14 ) of hearing Mr. Stevens in a deliberative body ; and ho
has been too deeply impressed with the commanding influence of his
talents, the well trained tone of his mind, and with his blended graces of
the orator and rhetorician, that he is no longer at a loss to discover why
it is that a 1 the invective which partisan spleen could suggest, all the
ribaldry which political malice could engender, all thescurr lity which a
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 65
corrupt press could procreate, and all the venom which was spit out
under the protection of a previous pardon, have been high heaped upon
him.
" So inveterate have been these attacks, so untiring the activity of his
assailants, that a portion of the very party with which he acts polili-
cally, has caught the tone of their opponents denunciations, and look on
him with distrust. It would be difficult for any who adopt this course to
explain their reasons. We look in vain through the public career of Mr.
Stevens to find in what particular he has been unfaithful to the cause of
democracy, unless we are to mistake for the pure fountain of truth the
pointed streams of partisan malignity. Whenever the destructive ten
dencies of his political enemies seek to make inroads on our constitu
tional safeguards, or batter the muniments of our chartered liberty, there
is he found contending for the letter and spirit of Freedom s magna
charta. When the illiberal policy of those who would fetter the minds and
hold in thrall the intellects of our rising generation exhibits itself, then
is he found exerting his giant powers in favor of an universal spread of
education, which, like the light-giving sun, shall shine on all alike and
gild with equal brilliancy, the yeoman s cottage and the demagogue s
stately mansion. If the acts of those who are recreant to the true in
terests of the free labor of the North, for the purpose of strengthening
their unwholly alliance with the slave drivers of the South, at any time
aim a deadly blow at agriculture and manufacturing prosperity, he wiil
be found throwing himself into the breach, and with fervid eloquence,
pointing to the lights of the world s experience and calling on all, to use
them as beacons to avoid the rocks on which thousands have foundered,
or the quicksands in which they have been engulphed.
" To judge of the varied powers of Thacldeus Stevens, it is only necessary
to review his course during the brief limit of the present session. In this
review would be included his powerful argument on the right of petition,
even from a meeting of repudiators, his cogent appeals on the necessity of
placing a constitutional limit to the State debt, and taking from any
future legislature the power of continuing the present system of wasteful
expenditure without any provision to meet liabilities incurred thereby ;
his able and practical remarks on the vital importance of the protective
policy to the interests of our nation, showing how the flood of commerce
poured into England under the Navigation Act ; how Holland, once the
commercial carrier of the whole world, was paralyzed under the influence
of free-trade doctrines, and how the first principles of legislation demand
that home labor should be fostered and protected. Whoever has heard
Mr. Stevens, at this session or at any other, cannot hesitate to accord him
the most commanding abilities and sound constitutional sentiments.
Hence it is, standing as he does, a giant among his pigmy opponents, that
every shaft of malice and invective is hurled at him by every puny whip
ster, who, like the fool of Crete, exposes his waxy softness to the fervid
glow of his eloquent reply.
" It is not so much our wish to eulogize Mr. Stevens as to direct the
public attention to the position he has assumed, and so well maintains.
We want the eyes of the Commonwealth directed towards him. We
GO A REVIEW OF THE
want him judged of by his acts, and not through the false medium of
political vituperation. We desire to see his course scanned with impartial
discrimination, and on its issue we want our Commonwealth to pronounce
its judgment. If he be found to swerve a point from the true cynosure
of democracy, or if he varies a line from the most matured principles of
legislative economy, let that judgment be of condemnation ; but if he pass
the trial, justice demands that the praises be awarded to him which ars
the meed of every public servant who has labored long and faithfully for
the best interests of the Commonwealth,"
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 67
CHAPTER V.
THE ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION.
The anti-slavery struggle in America, in which Mr. Stevens
bore a conspicuous part, is necessary to be somewhat considered
in order to have a more perfect understanding of his character,
as an individual and as a statesman, than otherwise could be
obtained. Born and educated in R"ew England, where anti-
slavery sentiments first developed themselves in the United
States, it is not strange that he should have manifested at an
early period of his life an opposition to the southern institution.
Besides, he belonged to the party that had led the resistance to
the admission of Missouri as a slave State into the Union ; and
from that period all whose convictions became fixed in that
memorable struggle remained unchanged, and were rather
strengthened than weakened a?, time progressed and the opposi
tion to slavery as a movement became more consolidated-
Human slavery has been one of the established forms of the
social organization of the ancient, msedieval and modern world.
Its establishment was based upon the assumed inequality of men, as
indicated by the clearest proofs of experience and reason in all
ages and nations. This manifest inequality, as witnessed in all
creation, was sufficient to satisfy the philosophers and legislators
of ancient nations that a system of subordination was necessary
to maintain that law and order which the constitution of society
and government seemed to require. Hence flowed those systems
of enslavement, that from the earliest periods of history caused
the feelings of humanity to enter their protest, but which in
modern times have overborne the logic of reason and proclaimed
a universal jubilee to all races of mankind throughout the civil
ized countries of the earth. But in the institution of slavery is
witnessed simply, as it were, the construction of all the social
forms of existence, as they obtained from the earliest periods of
time, with rare exceptions, down to the protestant reformation,
G3 A REVIEW OF THE
itself the first united remonstrance against mental and ecclesias
tical domination. Ancient policy was based upon subordination,
while the effort of modern times is to make speech, thought and
action, free. Freedom was first fully born when the Wittemberg
monk attached his theses to the castle gate of the city, and it has
been growing from that period until the present, branching in all
directions. Every movement, religious or civil, from the six
teenth century, owe their impulse to that which was then set in
motion.
But the American movement of anti-slavery is that alone,
after having glanced at its paternity, which concerns our atten
tion at this time. This protest of the Anglo-American mind
against the enslavement of the African race, had its immediate
birth in the sympathetic feelings, which were entertained by the
philanthropists of the 19th century for a race that they hoped to
elevate, by placing it in a system of legal equality with them
selves. It was about the year 1833, that the agitation first set
fully in, although individual protests against the institution of
slavery had hitherto been numerous. What, more than all else,
gave an impulse to that movement at this particular time, was
the result of British agitation, which was crowned with success
in August 1833, by Parliament decreeing the emancipation of
all the slaves on the West India plantations. ISTo event could
have occurred so gratifying to the wishes of the abolitionists, as
that enactment which proclaimed freedom to the "West India
negroes and raised them to the rank of equality with the whites.
At this time, however, the number of decided abolitionists were
comparatively few, and such as they were, persons of humble
condition and insignificant influence. Many there were whose
feelings were repugnant to slavery, but they had been taught to
believe that it was legal and based upon the words of revelation,
and hence they were unwilling to interfere with it. The influ
ence that set the agitation on foot was germinated in free
thought and promulgated by reformers who recognized a higher
than any written code. It was that of which universal humanity
was the recipient, and of which Yoltaire, Rousseau and Montes
quieu were the ablest apostles.
The enemies of negro slavery, about the period of the Ameri
can Revolution, were those chiefly who had imbibed the doctrines
of the French writers, who prepared the way for the scenes
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 60
that drenched the soil of France with blood in the convulsion of
1789 and 93. This species of abolitionism was quiet and sympa
thetic, but entirely unaggressive in its character, and yet potential
in its effects. It made its way through all the States of the ]STorth,
obliterating in each, one after another, the traces of slavery that
existed in them. It bore with it likewise the quickening influ
ences that helped to kindle the flame of aggressive anti-slavery
agitation which began as above stated. Benjamin Lundy, Charles
Osborne, Elilm Embree, humble yet sincere workers in the cause
of freedom, were early fanning the flame of anti-slavery agitation,
and arousing the American mind to its own consciousness of the
evils which the Southern blacks endured. The flrst named of these
bv 1815 had organized the Union Humane Societv, consisting of
1 7 O / J O
but five or six persons, and in the following year issued an appeal
to the philanthropists on the subject of slavery. Osborne, not
long after this, began the publication of the Philanthropist, and
the Emancipator also started by him, was afterwards issued for a
time near Jonesville, Tennesee. The first American Abolition
Convention was held in Philadelphia in the winter of 1823-4,
which was attended by men prompted by the love of humanity.
William Lloyd Garrison became a convert to the cause of
abolitionism in the year 1828. These various influences and
movements, like the different branches of a stream, were thus
uniting themselves, and by 1833 a swollen stream, with an active
current was visible, and one that attracted from this point con
siderable attention.
The movement up to this time had been chiefly philanthropic
in its character, and like the Colonization Society, met with sup
porters in both sections of the Union, South as well as North.
Already, however, the New England Anti-Slavery Society had
been organized, and the year, 1833, saw one instituted in New
York City, and a National Anti-Slavery Convention asssemble in
Philadelphia, consisting of sixty members, and representing ten
States of the Union. Every newspaper established in the interest
of anti-slavery, and every society which was organized and the
proceedings of whose meetings were published gave, as it were,
new impetus to the movement. But now it was that resistance
began to be encountered by the Abolitionists, and from this
period the agitation had a steady and increasing influence upon
the reorganization of the parties throughout the country. Up to
70 A REVIEW OF THE
1833, the Abolitionists drew recruits from both of the old politi
cal parties of the North ; but it is undeniable that by much the
larger proportion came from the Federal party, and its successors
as comprising the majority of the men of wealth, culture and
social position. The Democratic party, from its earliest organiza
tion, had been that to which the bulk of the people had been
attached. The reasons for this division of parties, it concerns us
not, on the present occasion to investigate.
The character of the earliest resistance to the anti-slaver} 7 agi
tation, showed itself in the mobbing of abolition lecturers in the
North, the dispersal of assemblages and the burning of halls
erected for the holding of liberty meetings, and the destruction
of newspapers published in that interest. The period of these
mobs and riots extended from 1833 up to about 1841, when they
mostly ceased. When these disturbances were first inaugurated,
they were participated in by men of character, and belonging to
both political parties ; but the preponderance of participants in
these demonstrations being usually composed largely of the party
of the people, and the majority of the lovers of law and order
belonging to the opposite one, it was not long till this division
itself arrayed a diversity of sentiment on this question amongst
the people of the North. It was reasonable to expect that the
Democratic party should become the staunchest advocates of the
rights of the southern people under the constitution. The prin
ciples of that party were fixed and well understood both North
arid South ; its creed founded upon the Virginia and Kentucky
resolutions of 1798, had been time and again proclaimed and
re-affirmed in State and National Conventions ; and its organiza
tion from the days of Jefferson was complete and entrusted with
the management of the General Government. The Federal
party, though originally comprising in its ranks the leading minds
of the nation, had forfeited the confidence of the country ; and
after the late war with Great Britain, it gradually disappeared as
a national organization. Anti-Masonry, which in the Northern
States took its place, never was able to attain to position in the
South, and as a consequence soon expired. Another reason why
the Democracy from the first were the attached defenders of
southern institutions, was that the party had national leaders in
the South who were slave-holders, and it was natural that the
party should defend these and their rights as their own,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 71
the anti-slavery agitation first began fairly, Gen. Jackson, a slave
holder, was the President of the United States, and the most
honored man in the Republic. An institution defended by him
and other eminent southern statesmen, would not be likely to be
viewed as odious by the masses of the people, and one deserving
of the abuse that the Abolitionists were in the habit of applying
to it. On the part of the Federalists and Anti-Masons the same
attachment was not felt for the President and his policy ; and
from political antipathy it is easy to perceive how a feeling of
sympathy for the negro slaves could gradually ripen into intense
opposition to the southern institution. And thus it was that the
Abolition ranks, secret and avowed, were swelled chiefly by enlist
ments obtained amongst the opposition to the Democracy.
From the year 1833, the varied evolutions of the contesting
parties in the interest of and opposed to slavery, would require
volumes to fully detail. Only the leading features, therefore, can
b3 expected to be grouped in a work of this character ; and such
as most fully illustrate the current of American opinion as it
shaped itself in both sections of the Union. In the mob resist
ance of the North, to the spread of abolition sentiments, is seen
simply an exhibition of the deep-seated conviction of the people
of the inferiority of the African as compared with the Caucasian
race ; an inferiority stamped by the hand of creative power, and
which history and experience had demonstrated to reflecting
minds in all ages. But the principle of the mob being altogether
adverse to the rules of social order, could not but sink to its
normal level, as the work of the lawless element of the body
politic. Its aim, though heartily approved by the respectable
and influential classes of society, could not long receive their
open and sanctioning encouragement ; and it soon, as a conse,
quence, became the work of the vulgar and degraded in society.
Not that the mob did not still continue to be inspired by the
leading minds of the different localities where it showed itself in
resistance to anti-slavery agitation ; for it may be accepted as a
truth that the turbulent members of society in such lawless
advances as above alluded to, ever receive their orders, or at least
their sanction, from higher authority than themselves. They are
in a sense, therefore, the expression of the public opinion of their
localities, and are, as it were, minor revolutions for the overthrow
or removal of grievances that are felt by society. The spirit of
73 A REVIEW OF THE
tumultuous resistance are but premonitions of the diseased con
dition of existing society, wliicli the laws of social being are
essaying to remedy by all possible efforts in order to its preserva
tion. The mobbing of Lovejoy, of Illinois, the seizure and
dragging of "Wm. Lloyd Garrison through the streets of Boston,
and the burning of Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia, were but
manifestations of the antagonism that the northern people ex
hibited towards the new ideas of the radical Abolition school.
But the Abolitionists, although in a miserable minority, had as
against mob resistance every moral advantage. They were the
champion^ of free speech and a free press, cardinal principles of
republicanism ; and all the elements of social order must natu
rally cling to these as the landmarks of freedom. As it was im
possible for any to justify lawbreaking, mob interposition must
gradually retire into the background.
But there was another form of resistance to anti-slavery agita
tion, germinated by the same influences that also began about
1833 ; and which, to properly comprehend the period, must be
considered. This was the moral dislike that showed itself to the
aggressions of abolitionism, and which was exhibited by the
educated and refined part of the northern people. The vastly
preponderating weight of intelligent public opinion in the North,
from the commencement of the anti-slavery agitation, was alto
gether in opposition to the innovating doctrines of the radical
reformers ; and this preponderance was early manifest in both
the secular and ecclesiastical American northern press. In the
Literary and Theological Review for December, 1835, published
in the City of New York, the position w T as boldly assumed and
ably argued that the Abolitionists were "justly liable to the
highest civil penalties and ecclesiastical censures." This sentiment
expressed the current opinion as held by a large number of the
leading men in America at that time, and, as a consequence, it
escaped all censure amongst the patrons of the journal, or even
from the organs of the rival theological party. In unison with
the sentiment as expressed in the above-named Review, a Grand
Jury of Oneida County, N. Y., a short time prior to the Utica riot
made a presentment, in which they declared that those who form
Abolition Societies are guilty of sedition, that they ought to be
punished, and that it is the duty of all citizens, loyal to the Con
stitution, to destroy their publications wherever found. In the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 73
same year, the Hon. William Sullivan issued a pamphlet in
Boston, in which the following desire was expressed : " It is to
be hoped and expected that Massachusetts will enact laws declar
ing the printing, publishing and circulating papers and pamphlets
on slavery, and also the holding of meetings to discuss slavery
and abolition, to be public indictable offences, and provide for
the punishment thereof in such manner as will more effectually
prevent such offences."
The intense indignation that inflamed the Southern people
against the anti-slavery agitation of the country may in a large
measure be considered as instrumental in producing the strong
conservative sentiment in the Northern States, which declared
itself in favor of the guarantees of the Federal Constitution.
The people of the South had been most ardent advocates of con
stitutional liberty, and had ever shown a steady attachment to
republican principles of Government. They had declared them
selves as ready to make any honorable sacrifice that might be
required of them, in order to secure the perpetuity of the Union
and the Constitution as it had been transmitted by its framers.
The institution of slavery, they claimed as one of the vested
rights that they, as a people possessed, and over which neither the
General Government nor any branch thereof had any authority
to interfere, either for the emancipation of the Southern slaves
or the amelioration of their condition. All this, they insisted,
was a matter over which the people of the several slave States
alone had jurisdiction. The attacks of the Northern Abolition
ists upon the institution of slavery had the effect of deeply
incensing the southern people, and they loudly protested against
the unjust interference, as they denounced it, and demanded that
their rights should be observed and their opinions respected.
Public bodies and legislative assemblies of the South offered
rewards for the rendition of northern agitators, and southern
Governors called upon northern officials to supress the anti-slavery
discussion, as calculated, unless checked, to disrupt in the future
the American Union. The whole southern people seemed a unit
in favor of this demand upon the North. The clergy of that
section from the first, with one accord, sanctioned the justice of
the request, and sought by every means in their power to help
to stifle the rising fire that might envelope the fair fabric of the
Republic in its flames. Kev. Thomas -S. Witherspoon, of Ala-
74 A REVIEW OF THE
bama, thus wrote to the Emancipator : " Let your emisaries
dare to cross the Potomac, and I cannot promise that your fate
will be less than Hainan s. Then beware how you goad an
insulted but magniminous people to deeds of desperation."
Rev. William S. Plummer, of Richmond, Virginia, in 1835
expressed the following sentiments : " "Let them (the Abolitionists)
understand that they will be caught if they come among us, and
they will take good care to keep out of our way. If Abolitionists
will set the country in a blaze, it is but fair that they should re
ceive the iirst warming at the fire."
Governor McDuffie, of South Carolina, in December, 1835,
called the attention of the Legislature to the subject of abolition
agitation at the North. On the 16th of the same month, both
Houses of the legislature adopted the following :
"Resolved, That the Legislature of South Carolina, having every confi
dence in the justice and friendship of the non-slave-holding States,
announces her confident expectation, and she earnestly requests that the
Government of these States will promptly and effectually suppress all
those associations within their respective limits purporting to be abolition
societies."
On December 19th, 1835, the General Assemby of North
Carolina resolved as follows :
"Resolved, That our sister States are respectively requested to enact
penal laws prohibiting the printing within their respective limits, all such
publications as may have a tendency to make our slaves discontented."
January, 7th, 1836, the Alabama legislature adopted the fol
lowing resolve :
"Resolved, That we call upon our sis L er States and respectfully request
them to enact such penal laws as will finally put an end to the malignant
deeds of the Abolitionists."
February 10th, 1836, both Houses of the Virginia Legislature
adopted the following :
" Resolved, That the non-slave-holding States of the Union are respect
fully but earnestly requested promptly to adopt penal enactments, or such
other measures as will efficiently suppress all associations within their
respective limits, purporting to be, or having the character of Abolition
Societies."
Resolutions were passed in the Georgia Legislatureof the fol
lowing import :
" Resolved, That it is deeply incumbent on the people of the North to
crush the traitorous designs of the Abolitionists."
The above resolutions were officiary communicated to the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 73
Governors of the ^Northern States, and by them laid before
their respective Legislatures. It was quite apparent by this time
that the leaven of abolitionism was principally confined to the
Whig and Anti-Masonic party of the IsTorth, for reasons as
before stated. The Democratic Governors and Legislatures were
ready to lend their influence for the repression of the agitation ;
whereas, many influential members of the Whig party were dif
ferently disposed. George Wolf, the retiring Democratic Gov
ernor of Pennsylvania, in his last Annual Message in December,
1835, expressed his disapprobation as regards the movements of
the Abolitionists in the free States; and predicted the conse
quences unless checked, and a reign of reason re-inaugurated.
But on the other hand, Joseph Hitner, the Anti-Masonic suc
cessor of the last named executive, stigmatized all such sen
timents as had been expressed by his predecessor in his Message
as a " bowing of the knee to the dark spirit of slavery." It was
believed, from the influence known to be exerted by Thadcleus
Stevens upon the mind of the Anti-^Iasonic Governor of Penn
sylvania, that the sentiment thus expressed in his inaugural as
regards slavery, was the inspiration of the former, who was
already an avowed opponent of the southern institution. Whilst
the leaven of abolitionism was confined in the main to the ranks
of the Whig party, there was nevertheless a strong section of it
that in no wise so sympathized. Edward Everett, ths Whig
Governor of Massachusetts, in his Message communicating the
southern documents, held the following language :
" Whatever by direct and necessary operation is oaiculated to excite an
insurrection among the States, has been held by highly respectable and
legal authority, an offence against the peace of the Commonwealth,
which may be prosecuted as a misdemeanor at Common law." ,
William L. Marcy, the Democratic Governor of E"ew York, in
his Message in January, 1836, upon the same subject, spoke as
follows :
"Without the power to pass such laws, the States would not possess
all the necessary means for preserving their external relations of peace
among themselves."
But in 1835 the movement of the anti-slavery agitation had
already become of such importance as to claim the attention of
President Jackson, who, in his Message of December in that
year, accused the Abolitionists of " unconstitutional and wicked
W A REVIEW OF THE
attempts," menacing the stability and perpetuity of the Federal
Union, and recommending as follows ;
" I would, therefore, call the special attention of Congress to the sub
ject, and respectfully suggest the propriety of passing such a law as will
prohibit, under severe penalties, the circulation in the Southern States,
through the mail, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the
slaves to insurrection. 1 "
The attention of the President had been called to this subject
by the tumultuous occurrences that had taken place, occasioned
by the transmission through the mails of Abolition documents to
citizens in the Southern States. On the 29th of July, 1835, a
riot, headed by the influential citizens of Charleston, had broken
open the post office in that city and destroyed the incendiary Ab
olition matter. From this time, Southern postmasters, and even
some in the North, assumed the authority of determining what
should not be transmitted through the mails. Samuel L. Gou-
verneur, the postmaster of New York, iirged upon the Anti-
Slavery Society " voluntarily to desist from attempting to send
their publications into the Southern States by the public mails."
Finding that his request was not heeded, he addressed Amos
Xendal, Postmaster General, for instructions on this point, who,
under date of August 22d, replied as follows :
I am deterred from giving an order to exclude the whole series of
Abolition publications from the Southern mails, only by a want of legal
power, and if I were situated as you are, I would do as you have done."
Gen. Jackson s recommendation for the enactment of a law
for the repression of incendiary matter through the mail was
referred by the Senate to a Select Committee, of whicji John C.
Calhoun was Chairman. The report of this committee, as sub
mitted, expressed the convictions of the southern people, and
also of the great majority of those of the North, as regards the
agitation of the slavery question. On this point, the report
speaks as follows :
" The inevitable tendency of the means to which the Abolitionists
have resorted to effect their object, must, if persisted in, end in com
pletely alienating the two great sections of the Union. The incessant
action of hundreds of societies, and a vast printing establishment throw
ing out daily, thousands of artful and inflammatory publications, must
make, in time, a deep impression on the section of the Union where they
freely circulate, and are mainly designed to have effect. The well in
formed and thoughtful may hold them in contempt, but the young, the
inexperienced, the ignorant and thoughtless^ will receive the poison. In
process of time, when the number of proselytes is sufficiently multi
plied, tke artful and the profligate, who are ever on the watch to seize on
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 77
, any means, however wicked and dangerous, will unite with the fanatics
and make their movements the basis of a powerful political party, that
will seek advancement by diffusing, as widely as possible, hatred against
the slave-holding States. But as hatred begets hatred and animosity,
these feelings would become reciprocal till every vestige of attachment
would cease to exist between the two sections, when the Union and the
Constitution, the offspring of mutual affection and confidence, would
forever perish. Such is the danger to which the movements of the Abo
litionists expose the country. If the force of the obligation is in pro
portion to the magnitude of the danger, stronger cannot be imposed
than is at present on the States within whose limits the danger origi
nates, to arrest its further progress a duty they owe not only to the
States whose institutions are assailed, but to the Union and Constitution,
as has been shown, and it may be added, to themselves."
But Mr. CaUioun, as a States right Democrat, clearly perceived
that the General Government had no right to legislate upon a
subject of this character, save by claiming authority not dele
gated in the Federal Constitution. The assumption of such
power would end in that consolidation of the Government, which
he and the other leaders of his political school had so persistently
battled, from the earliest organization of the Jefferson Republi
can party. On this point, in the same report, he reasoned as
follows :
" Nothing is more clear than that the admission of the right of Con
gress to determine what papers are incendiary, and as such, to prohibit
their circulation through the mail, necessarily involves the right to
determine what are not incendiary, and enforce their circulation. If
Congress may this year decide what incendiary publications are, they
may next year decide what they are not, and thus laden the mails with
real or corrupt abolitionism. It belongs to the States^ &nd not to Con
gress, to determine what is or what is not calculated to disturb their
security."
It was thus proposed that it should be within the province of
each State, to say for itself, what kind of reading it would deem
incendiary, and that Congress should prohibit the transmission of
such matter to that State. A bill for this purpose was submitted
as follows :
" Be it enacted, etc., that it shall not be lawful for any deputy postmaster
in any State, Territory or District of the United States, knowingly to deliver
to any person whatsoever, any pamphlet, newspaper, handbill, or other
printed paper or pictorial representation touching the subject of slavery,
where, by the laws of the said State, Territory or District their circulation
is prohibited ; and any deputy postmaster who shall be guilty thereof,
shall be forthwith removed from office."
The above bill was ordered to a third reading in the Senate by
78 A REVIEW OF THE
the vote of 18 yeas to 18 nays, Vice-President Yan Buren giving
the casting vote in the affirmative ; but it failed on the final vote,
and, as a consequence, never became a law. And thus ended the
effort to exclude the abolition literature of the age from passing
through the Federal mails. The moral victory thus gained by
the Abolitionists was of incalculable advantage to them and their
cause in all their subsequent movements, for they seemed to stand
forth before the world as the champions of free speech and a free
press, which all the power of President Jackson and his follow
ers were unable to suppress. The eclat of the victory resounded
far and wide, and became as it were the watchword in other con
flicts of like character.
The first great battle of abolitionism had been fought in the
Halls of the National Congress. Others of equal importance
were soon to be decided, but upon a less august arena ; but in all
the same principles were in dispute. The demand of the South
ern States that discussion should be suppressed on the slavery
question, w r as one altogether in seeming disharmony with the
generally received principles of republican liberty. On the 2d
of February, 1836, a bill was reported in the Legislature of
Rhode Island for the purpose of repressing slavery agitation in
the borders of the State. The attempt thus to muzzle free speech
appeared to liberal-minded men, an effort as it were, to turn back
the dial of the age, and as this was impossible, the Abolitionists
had, as allies, the advocates of progressive and independent free
thought. The small State of Rhode Island, accordingly, arrayed
itself through the efforts of George Curtis and Thomas W. Dorr,
in opposition -to southern demands. In New York a report w T as
adopted by the Legislature in May, 1836, responding to the
sentiments of Governor Marcy s Message, already cited, and
pledging the faith of the State to enact such laws whenever they
shall be requisite. But it is doubtful if even then, or at any
subsequent time, such legislation could have been secured, for the
belief in free speech is one of the cardinal principles of all who
believe in the democratic form of government.
But of all the Legislative collisions between those favoring the
repression af anti-slavery agitation, and the friends of free speech,
that which took place in Massachusetts in 1836, was the most
fiercely contested, and arrayed in opposition to each other, the
ablest and most eloquent opponents. A joint committee of both
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 79
Houses of the Legislature had been raised to report upon the
Southern demands, and of this committee Senator Lunt was chair
man. The anti-slavery committee at Boston were notified to
appear and make their defense on March 4th. A few prominent
men appeared on the side of the Abolitionists, and were heard by
the committee in defense of their principles. Those who spoke
took the ground that free speech was one of the unalienable rights
of every citizen of the old Commonwealth. Prof. Charles Folen
in the course of his remarks alluded to some outrages that had
recently been perpetrated against the Abolitionists, and averred
that any legislative interposition of the kind proposed, would
simply invite a repetition of what had occurred. The chairman
of the committee at this point silenced the speaker, as reflecting
offensively upon the legislative body of the State, and terminated
the interview. Such proceeding could have but one effect upon
minds conscious of rectitude, of intention, and attached to Amer
ican freedom. Much as they might dread slavery agitation in its
effects, they could not consent to see the right of free speech
frustrated. A Boston editor in giving an account of the pro
ceedings contended that the Abolitionists were entitled to a fair
hearing. During the next two days they issued their defense in
a pamphlet of over forty pages ; and a copy of this was soon in the
hands of every member of the Legislature, and scattered through
out the whole country. The committee was directed by the Leg
islature to allow the Abolitionists to complete their defense on the
8th of March. The adjacent country was now aroused, and the
Hall of the House of Representatives where the committee sat
was crowded at the hearing. Prof. Folen concluded his defense
and was followed by William Lloyd Garrison and others. Wil
liam Goodel, one of the speakers, charged upon the Southern
States a conspiracy against the liberty of the free North. He
was repeatedly called to order ; but alluding to the documents
from the South, lying on the table, he styled them fetters and
remarked : " Mr. Chairman ! are you prepared to attempt putting
them on ?" He was interrupted by the Chairman and ordered to
take his seat. He sat clown amidst the great agitation of the
assemblage. The bold words of freedom had already produced
their effect upon the crowd of spectators. The dauntless divine,
William E. Channing, was one of that assembly, and though not
identified with the Abolitionists, yet in the battle for free speech,
80 A REVIEW OF THE
lie could not be ai. indifferent spectator. His countenance alone
served to indicate the side he espoused, and his presence on this
occasion, more than all else perhaps, gave weight and respecta
bility to the abolition cause. After the last named speaker had
been silenced, all was in considerable confusion for a time, when
a couple of independent spectators rose, one after the other, and
remarked, that u the freedom of speech and of the press could
never oe surrendered by the sons of the jPilgrims" The commit
tee then adjourned, but the victory was again complete with the
Abolitionists. And thus ended in Massachusetts all attempts to
legislate adverse to the demands of freedom.
One of the methods pursued by the Abolitionists to arouse the
attention of the American people to the enormity of slavery,
was the petitioning of Congress for its abolition in the District
of Columbia, in the Xational Territories, and also for the sup
pression of the inter-State slave trade. At an early period in
the history of the Government, it had been solemnly determined
that Congress had no jurisdiction over the question of slavery,
as it existed within the States. But as regards its existence in
the Federal District and the Territories, it was believed by many
that Congress had the right to interfere. The points of attack
for the agitators were therefore limited ; and even as to thess
it was a matter of divided opinion whether Congress had the
moral right to interpose its authority. The main object, how
ever, of petitioning Congress, was to keep alive the agitation of
the slavery question, in order to educate public opinion up to an
opposition to the southern institution, and in that manner create
a sentiment that would effect its overthrow. For this purpose,
in 1835 and 1836, Congress was flooded with petitions praying
for the abolition of slavery in the Federal District, in the Terri
tories, and also for the suppression of the inter-State slave com
merce. These, taken in connection with the excitement that had
already been aroused by the transmission of incendiary publica
tions through the national mails, were the occasion of great
commotion in "Washington, the seat of the General Government.
The number of the petitioners and the zeal manifested by them
in such a cause, had the effect of alarming men both North and
South as to the safety of the federal Union. The right of
petition for a redress of grievances, was one which existed by
constitutional warrant, and any abridgment of this privilege
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 1
should be cautiously and only after full deliberation, adopted.
As the right generally was viewed, it was one that authorized
the citizens to petition for the removal of evils affecting them
selves, and their section of country. In the case of the Abo
litionists, they were asking for the abridgment of the constitu
tional and vested rights of citizens equally entitled to the
protection of the Government as themselves. They were de
manding the suppression of slavery, where it existed by virtue of
law and the constitution ; and in this view, Congress considered
that the petitioners had transcended their rights.
It became a matter of long and animated discussion what dis
position should be made of these petitions. The presentation by
James Buchanan, in 1836, of the memorial of the Cain Quarterly
Meeting of Friends asking for the abolition of slavery in the
District of Columbia, brought the question of these petitions
prominently before Congress. As far as can be gathered froni-
the debates in the Senate at that period, no member of this body
appears to have favored the sentiments of the memorialists.
The question, however was, how to dispose of the petitions.
John C. Calhoun expressed the southern view, upon this occasion,
in the following language :
" We must not permit those we represent to be thus insulted on this
floor. He stood prepared, whenever petitions like these were presented,
to call for their reading, and to demand that they be not received.
His object was to prevent a dangerous agitation which threatened to
burst asunder the bond of the Union. The only question was, how was
agitation to be avoided? He held that receiving these petitions en
couraged agitation, the most effectual mode to destroy the peace and
harmony of the Union."
Mr. Buchanan held the conservative attitude on this question,
and whilst opposed to the sentiments of the petitioners, he denied
that Congress had the right to refuse their reception, and insisted
that the true method was to act upon and reject them. His plan
was adopted in the Senate by 3i yeas to 6 nays. Substantially
the same manner of disposing of these petitions was pursued in
the House of Representatives. In 1836, on motion of H. L.
Pinckney, of South Carolina, a resolution was adopted to refer
all anti-slavery memorials now before the House, or that might
come before it, to a Select Committee, with instruction to report
against the prayers of the petitioners, and the reasons for so
doing. On the 18th of May, 1836, the committee, through Mr.
S3 A REVIEW OF THE
Pinckney, its Chairman, unanimously reported a series of resolu
tions, the last of which was as follows :
"Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions or
papers, relating in any way or to any extent whatever to the subject of
slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or
referred, be laid upon the table, and that no further action whatever
shall be had thereon."
The above resolution was adopted by 117 yeas to 68 nays, the
latter being chiefly Whigs from the free States. Resolutions
to control or allay the abolition excitement were adopted annually
by nearly similar votes to the above until 1840, when the sub
stance of these was incorporated amongst the standing rules of
the House of Representatives. The rule known as the twenty-
first, which excluded the abolition petitions remained in force
until December, 1845, when through the persistent efforts of
John Quincy Adams it was finally rescinded.
The northern Whigs, in the main, had opposed these resolu
tions as too strongly violating the right of petition. Many of
the Whigs from the free States were hostile to the avowed prin
ciples of the Abolitionists ; but they became their allies, so far
as to strive for their right of petition, an invaluable advantage to
them at this stage of the controversy. The privilege became a
shield, under the cover of which many an unavowed Abolitionist,
was able to make assaults upon southern institutions. The divis
ion of parties upon this question serves to show why it was that
the Abolition element of the North still clung to the Whig
instead of the Democratic party.
On this question, Thaddeus Stevens, though not yet become a
national legislator, was one of the most ardent advocates of the
O
constitutional right of petition ; and that such was his position
he during these congressional contests, gave frequent testimony
in his speeches in the Pennsylvania Legislature and elsewhere.
Whilst a member of the Legislature, at Harrisburg, so enthusi
astically did he champion the abolitionists right of petition, and
their free mail privilege with other citizens, that the contest on
these questions for a time would have seemed as if transferred
from the Halls of the National Congress to those of the Penn
sylvania Assembly. And in this manner it was that he had
much to do in imparting tone to the northern Whig members of
Congress in their resistance to the demands of the South. Thus
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA.
the propriety of incorporating, in a work treating of Mr. Stevens, a
view of the anti-slavery movement, that preceded his entry into
Congress is seen, when his influence as a molder of public senti-
tiineiit is considered. But for such as he there would havte been
no movement to call forth the action of Congress and of State
Legislatures as we have observed took place. Mr. Stevens could
with truth have remarked of the great social convulsion and
gathering revolution of his country, " quorum pars magnafui"
81 A REVIEW OF THE
CHAPTER VI.
REMOVAL OF MR. STEVENS TO LANCASTER. HIS SUCCESS AS A LAWYER
AND HIS MOVEMENTS AS A POLITICIAN.
Notwithstanding Mr. Stevens, up to 1842, had mingled con
siderably in politics, having been repeatedly elected, as we have
seen, to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, yet more
fortunate than most politicians, he was able to retain a firm
grasp upon his legal practice. Before his entry upon public life
at Harrisburg, he had laid the foundation of a fine legal practice,
and this (though absent at the State Capitol during the winter
months) rather continued to increase than diminish. The obstacle
with many lawyers, who would willingly enter into politics is,
that doing so breaks up their business, and having little or
nothing to fall back upon, they choose rather to keep out of the
entanglements of political life. Hot many American sjtatesmejgk
have ever been distinguished as la<iy_ers, and this because but few
possess the varied talents that are adapted for these different
careers. A man may be admirably suited for the politician, and
yet would find himself unable to cope with the weighty men
who try the important causes in our civil and criminal courts.
And on the contrary, not every successful lawyer would shine
upon the floors of Congress, or even in the Halls of our State
Legislatures. A peculiar structure of mind is needed for each of
these pursuits ; and he whose qualities fit him for the one, often
finds something lacking when he enters upon the other. Mr.
Stevens, however, had qualities that enabled him to attain a
front position, whether at the bar or in the halls of legislation,
and yet it cannot be denied that he most of all towered at the
bar. It was in this calling that his best energies were expended ;
and here also many of his most intellectual victories were achieved.
After the termination of his services in the Pennsylvania Leg
islature, severa^ motives contributed to induce him to remove from
Adams and locate in Lancaster County. His practice at the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 85
Gettysburg bar could in no probability ever become so profitable
as lie might secure in a county so wealthy and populous as Lan
caster. Besides the fine field offered in this latter place for the
practice of his profession, it was a county strongly of his political
sentiments, and this was a consideration in his view not to be
overlooked. These, no doubt, were amongst the leading motives
that induced his removal from Gettysburg to Lancaster City.
It was in August, 1812, that he reached this latter place, and he
immediately opened an office and began the practice of the pro
fession in his new home. Some time prior to his arrival, it had
become known that he intended to change his location, and cer
tain articles appeared in the Lancaster papers, eulogizing Mr.
Stevens as a man of towering abilities, and as a lawyer of rare
sagacity and shrewdness. His arrival soon became known
amongst the people of Lancaster County, and it is related that
many of them came to the County-seat to obtain a sight of the
man of whose fame they had already heard so much. He was
kindly received in his new location by the citizens generally,
although in the main bearing the reputation of being a tricky
and unscrupulous politician. His extraordinary talents were
upon all sides conceded ; and this reputation procured for him
kind and courteous treatment amongst all classes. He was, most
of all, viewed with suspicion by the members of the bar, who
are never disposed to look with favor upon new arrivals in the
profession, and such as may divide business with themselves.
But in Mr. Stevens they saw more than an ordinary additional
attorney who was come to secure amongst them his living at the
bar. In him they recognized a man ready and competent to cope
with the ablest of them in litigious warfare ; and one who mio-lit
even be disposed to wrest the sceptre of superiority from the most
distinguished of their number. It is not strange, therefore, that
his arrival in Lancaster was anything but agreeable to the wishes of
the members of one of the oldest and most renowned bars of Penn
sylvania. But gifted as he was with the sagacity needed in situa
tions such as he was then placed, he did not seem to observe the
jealousy of his brother barristers, but simply attended to his own
business, as if altogether unconcerned for their opinions regard
ing himself. The jealousy was most intense on the part of the
older lawyers, those who had taken the lead in business prior to
his arrival. With the younger members of the profession, he
86 A REVIEW OF THE
was rather an object of esteem ; for as they did not feel them
selves able to compete with him, they were disposed to admire
him rather than those who were jealous of his superior ability.
Samuel Parke, Reah Frazer, William B. Fordney and John
R. Montgomery were amongst the leading Lancaster lawyers of
that period. There were besides, many others of considerable
legal ability. The Lancaster bar had for years held the rank of
one of the first in the State of Pennsylvania. Many names of
wide repute had practiced in the old inland city James Hop
kins, Molton C. Rodgers, Jasper Slaymaker, William Jenkins?
James Buchanan, Amos Ellmaker and George B. Porter, had all
gained their reputations, as practitioners, at this old bar of German
Pennsylvania. These last named had chiefly retired from practice
when Mr. Stevens made his appearance in his new location.
Benjamin Champneys was upon the bench, but shortly afterwards
resigned this position, having been nominated by his party for the
State Senate, to which he was also elected. His place was filled
shortly after his resignation by the appointment of Ellis Lewis, a
lawyer of deep reading, and withal, a man of rare native sagacity.
At the August Sessions, in 1842, the first at which Mr. Stevens
made his appearance, he volunteered his services in behalf of a
colored man from Columbia who was indicted for assault and
battery with intent to kill. This was the first case in which he
appeared before a Lancaster County jury, and he handled it with
great ability, but the evidence being too clear, his client was con
victed and sentenced to an imprisonment for five years. His
fixed reputation immediately brought him business, and it was
not long till he had an opportunity of grappling with the leading
men of the Lancaster bar. Their first encounters with him
exhibited most intense feeling, and their weapons not always
hurled with courtly grace, sped as if impelled with savage malig
nity. One of the first who met the new Achilles of the bar, in
an important civil case was Benjamin Champneys, who, before
his elevation to the bench, had ranked as one of the ablest lawyers
of the State. Those who relate the circumstances of this trial,
and the fierce combat of words it elicited, have likened it to th3
fatal scene between Hector and the conquering Pelides. The
contest was warm, vigorous and spirited ; the dexterous combat-
tan ts hurled and counter-hurled, parried and counter-parried the
weapons, that flew across the arena of forensic strife ; but ths
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 87
superior prowess of the adventurous knight, though in the terri
tory of his antagonist, soon convinced all observers that whilst
victory might not in this encounter perch upon his banner, yet
that the claim of dominion would surely pass to the invading
chevalier of the bar. This first encounter but gave assurance
that others to follow would be with like result, for one after
another, of the old knights of the Lancaster bar were met and
stript of the fame they had long worn with credit, and the exult
ant warrior rode triumphant over the new field of his conquests
and future fortune. In six months after Mr. Stevens arrived in
Lancaster, there was no member of that bar that dared to dispute
his intellectual and legal kingship. He was crowned by common
consent, and wore the diadem to his grave.
At the first session of the Supreme Court, held at Harrisburg
in May, 1843, after his location in Lancaster, ho appeared in four
of the six cases from Lancaster County, that were tried at that
time. He was also engaged with Meredith, of Philadelphia, at
the same term, in the important case of the Commonwealth vs.
the Pennsylvania Canal Commissioners. A ii j cess such as this bas
scarcely a parallel in history. A new lawyer locating in a strange
county, without friends or social influence, and taking the lead at
a bar where there were several able, experienced and accom
plished members of the profession, is one of those events of history
that have rarely transpired, and which will be as seldom repeated.
Such marvelous success, more than all else, stamps him who has
accomplished it as one of the prodigies of creation. In May,
1844, at the following session of the Supreme Court held in the
same place, out of eight cases from Lancaster County Mr. Stevens
appeared in six of them, besides being employed in two from
Adams and also one from Franklin County. His practice was
now become very large and lucrative, and ranged for years from
twelve to fifteen thousand dollars per year. He was employed
in many of the most important suits tried in different parts of
the State.
The custom of making lengthy speeches before the court and
jury, was one of long standing with the Lancaster lawyers,
before Mr. Stevens located in their midst. When a cause was to
be tried, they were in the habit of bringing into the court room,
law books by the wheelbarrow load and piling them upon the
tables, and reading one authority after another for the support of
3 A REVIEW OF THE
the plainest and most common principles of the science. Some
times a case would consume a day or more in the arguments of
legal points, that were little illuminated by the long and tedious
discussion. The custom was an old one and inherited from their
predecessors ; and the lawyer who should not have conformed to
it, would have lost, in the opinion of his client, the credit of
possessing the requisite legal knowledge for the trial of an im
portant case. It remained for the new dictator cf the bar to
abolish the pernicious habit of speech-making by the day, and
long-winded arguments. After Ellis Lewis was appointed to the
bench, Stevens having a case for trial came into court one morn
ing and observed the tables stocked with law books, and his
legal adversary busily engaged in looking them over and prepar
ing them for citation. Judge Lewis was already upon the
bench, but the court had not yet been formally opened. Stevens
remarked, loud enough to be distinctly heard, "Wliat are all
these books for ?" Lewis replied, that he believed they were to
be used on the trial of the case now before the court. Stevens
rejoined that He " did not know who wanted to listen to the
reading of all those books." Lewis then remarked : "Mr.
O
Stevens, you are something of my opinion ; that a lawyer should
carry the law in his head and not always depend on his books."
The opposing counsel heard all this conversation, and its effect
was magical. It was the last time the tables were crowded with
law books upon the trial of a case. Afterwards only such books
were produced as contained authority directly applicable to the
points at issue before the court in the case then being tried. Mr.
Stevens never made lengthy speeches before either the court or
jury in the trial of cases in which he was concerned ; and in this
he was also imitated by the other members of the bar. The
making of long speeches soon disappeared, and no regrets were
ever felt for the departure. .
Mr. Stevens was gifted with a remarkable memory. In the
trial of a cause he very rarely wrote down any of the evidence,
as is customary with ordinary lawyers, trusting to their memory
for the remembrance of all the important facts required in their
t arguments before the court and jury. He possessed the rare
faculty of being able to perceive, as if by intuition, the real
point of every case ; and all his efforts in the elicitation of evi
dence was to support this view of it. Instead of wasting hi s
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 89
time in drawing out of the witnesses all the possible evidence,
and exhausting his energies in writing down the same, Mr.
Stevens, having a clear conception of the point to be supported,
simply sought for evidence for this purpose. lie rarely or never
took notes of the evidence, but often made a few strokes to
induce the opposing counsel to suppose that he was doing so.
But his memory was so powerful that often when a dispute arose
among counsel, as to the exact language used by a witness, he
would appeal to the judge s notes ; and in such instances he was
found almost invariably accurate in his recollection of the evi
dence. Had his memory not been so powerful as it was, he
should surely have proved a failure as a lawyer, for he neither
wrote with rapidity nor was his chirography even to himself,
much less to others, always legible.
In his legal argumenfs he likewise confined his attention, in the
main r to the turning point of his case, and brought it out in all
the clearness which his great ability was capable of doing ; and to
this method he was more indebted, perhaps, for his splendid suc
cess in his profession than to any other reason that might be
named. In this particular, his legal sagacity may in a sense be
compared with the strategy of the great Napoleon who was in
the habit of concentrating all the force of his assaulting columns
upon one point of the enemy s lines, and this being broken, rout
and disorder followed. Stevens, in like manner, as it were, by
being able to see the point upon which a case must turn, and by
so shaping the testimony as to make it bear directly in support of
that position, was able to carry the victory over an opponent less
dexterous than he, in the marshalling and argumentation of the
evidence. Hence, though a remarkably successful lawyer, he
never wearied the court with his arguments, nor the jury by a
tedious recapitulation of useless evidence.
Upon one occasion, on the trial of a cause, one of his witnesses
had detailed important testimony consisting of a statement of
facts that had transpired many years in the past. This witness
was subjected to a rigid cross-examination by the opposing coun
sel, with the view of impairing his testimony, by showing his
deficient recollection of facts altogether of no consequence, and
having no bearing upon the trial of the case, and only intended
to perplex the witness, and produce the impression upon the jury
that his evidence was unreliable. Mr. Stevens, seeing the delu-
90 A REVIEW OF THE
^ that was attempted to be produced, utterly discomfited his
legal antagonist by simply propounding in his humorous tone,
(itself revealing his design) the following question : " Mr. - ,
had you a pin in your coat collar that morning \ " The court
and jury at once saw the hit, and the effect was damaging to his
adversary. His ability to disconcert an opposing attorney, in a
trial, by some witty remark, as by asking a witness a question
eliciting laughter, was of incalculable value in his professional
career, Ridicule, which is often more potent than argument, he
had entirely at his command. All these appliances of his intel
lectual ability gave him an advantage over other men equally able
and. learned as himself, but unendowed with mental traits of this
nature.
As regards the knowledge of law Mr. Stevens was not BO
remarkable. There were other lawyers in Lancaster who were
quite as well if not better read in their profession than he ; his
great strength was with the jury in being able to present the strong
points of a case in a more powerful manner than it was the faculty
of most other lawyers to do. Before the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania, he could scarcely be said to be more successful than
any other able well-read lawyer. His consciousness of ability
gave him confidence in himself, and he was ready to express an
opinion upon almost any case without examination. Owing to
this disposition he allowed careful lawyers, who examine their
cases before giving an opinion upon them, the opportunity of
entrapping him and carrying cases against him, often with ease.
There have been instances where, having no confidence in a case,
he allowed the whole management of it in the Supreme Court to
a colleague, and the latter was successful in opposition to his
opinions. His great power as a lawyer, consisted in his being able
to influence ordinary minds and control them to his advantage.
Some of Mr. Stevens finest and most eloquent speeches as a
lawyer, were those made on trials in defense of fugitive slaves.
Even before his arrival in Lancaster, he was widely known as a
most violent opponent of southern institutions ; and from his
settlement in Lancaster County, he was almost uniformly retained
in the defense of the fugitives. It was not every lawyer, at that
period, that desired to be employed in the defense of a case of
that character. The slave master was fortified by legal enact
ment ; and the Constitution guaranteeing the surrender of f ugi-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 01
tires from service, public opinion, generally sanctioned the
enforcement of the law. It was only the extreme Abolitionists
who dared to resist the claims of the master ; but these, as
yet, had little influence, neither of the great political parties of
the country having espoused even their moderate principles as
national organizations. On one occasion, a negro had been
brought before Judge Lewis in Lancaster, under the Pennsyl
vania Act of 1826, and there being no evidence to show that he
was a slave, he was discharged. Mr. Stevens was employed Li
this case by the friends of the negro. After the discharge, the
claimant was advised to have the negro re-arrested under an old
Act of Congress, which required no evidence except the oath of
the owner of the slave. As soon, therefore, as he was discharged,
an officer took him in custody upon a writ issued by Alderman
Osterloe. Stevens, having been informed of this, went before
the magistrate ; and his speech before this officer is said to have
been one of the finest gems of eloquence ever delivered by him
in Lancaster. The negro, however, was discharged by the mag
istrate, after official evidence of the former trial before the court
had been certified to him.
But it is as a politician that Mr. Stevens is most widely known ;
and of his actions in this particular it remains for us to speak,
since the period of his removal from Gettysburg to Lancaster.
As soon as he had settled in his new home, a circle of politicians
gathered around him and deferred to him at once as their coun
sellor and adviser. Those who flocked to his standard were poli
ticians for the most part of the Anti-Masonic persuasion, who
had chiefly lost position in their party, and who wanted a leader
to make head against those who controlled the affairs of the
country. Anti-Masonry had for years been simply a name, the
great majority of those who had once rallied under its banner
were attached to the Whig party, now risen to national importance
and respect, under the leadership of Clay and Webster. Stevens
himself had for years been nominally attached to the "Whig
party, and had, in 18-iO, supported Harrison for President.
" In the great campaign of 1840, Mr. Stevens took a decided
stand in favor of the Hero of the Thames. For months
before the nomination of Harrison, it was understood throughout
Pennsylvania, that Mr. Stevens was to have a seat in the Cabinet.
That Harrison had selected him for Post-Master General is known
03 A REVIEW OF THE
with certainity, but through the open opposition of Clay and the
wavering of Webster, the appointment was given to Granger.
Stevens never forgave Webster for the part he took in this
transaction."*
But though united to the Whig party, Mr. Stevens found
himself powerless in this organization. Having showed himself an
ardent Anti-Mason, he encountered violent antipathies amongst
the Whigs on account of old animosities aroused by his course
against the ancient order. He was besides, viewed by the great
body of the Whig leaders as too violent and impracticable a man
to be entrusted with the management of the party affairs. Even
before leaving Adams County, this was the opinion generally
entertained of him by the leading minds of his own party. He
was able to control in a measure the party organization in Adams
County, but he met with strenuous resistance amongst his political
friends as soon as he attempted to influence beyond the bounds
of the county. But for this resistance there is little doubt but
he would have appeared in the State Senate of Pennsylvania, and
also in Congress, whilst a citizen of Gettysburg. Ko sooner,
therefore, had he appeared in Lancaster than the same Whig
opposition met him, and was potential in keeping him in the
political background of his party. By the fall of 184:3 a suffi
cient nucleus of strength, however, had gathered around him, as
to induce him to believe that he might inaugurate the political
game with his Whig friends for the control of Lancaster County.
He dared not to stand idle. He must act unless he chose to remain
a zero upon the chess-board of political strategy. Having
no strength in his own party, his first aim was to secure
such. Most of those who operated with him were equally
ignored by the Whig leaders, and, therefore, there was nothing
to be lost in making an effort to obtain that recognition which
they sought.
It was resolved, at the suggestion of Mr. Stevens, to make an
effort to revive the Anti-Masonic party in the county. It cannot
be supposed that a man of his sagacious mind, could have believed
that this was possible, at a period when the old organization had
years ago sunk into obscurity, and was already well nigh forgotten.
But it served in this case as the basis of a movement to divert
Biographical History of Lancaster County, pp. 582.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 93
votes from the Whig party in the county. The object hoped to
be gained by this, was to withdraw sufficient strength from the
controlling Whig party, so as to permit the Democrats to carry
the victory in the county. Could the Stevens wing effect this
they were then in a condition to dictate the terms of compromise.
Accordingly, a ticket was placed in nomination, but the Demo
crats of the county having been beaten for so long a time, failed
to rally in their strength at the October election of 1843, and
the Whigs again carried the victory by a considerable majority.
The new movement polled about 1,4:00 votes, but falling short of
securing a Democratic triumph, the leaders were prostrated
beneath the power of their opponents. Stevens was now fully
shorn of any political strength he might have had, and was forced
for a time to content himself to be simply a voter of the Whig
party, if he chose to remain in it, or to make choice of a new
organization with which to act.
The Whig party of Lancaster County was almost a unit for
Henry Clay for President in 1844. About the time that Mr.
Stevens and his associates were planning the resuscitation of
Anti-Masonry in the county, a monster Whig meeting was held
in Lancaster City, July 29th, 1843, for the purpose of recom
mending their favorite Clay as the Whig candidate for President in
1841. William Hiester presided over this meeting, and speeches
were made by Morton McMichael, Abraham Ilerr Smith and
others ; but Mr. Stevens had no invitation to participate in this
movement. When Clay was made the nominee of the party it
was deemed by the leaders politic to have all their partisans to
unite in support of the candidate ; but Stevens being inimical to
the great orator of Kentucky, ILarmar Denny was entrusted with
the task of reconciling him with the nomination. Denny assured
him that he was authorized by the Whig candidate to say that in
case of his election, " atonement would be made for past wrong."
It could not be claimed, however, that Mr. Stevens entered into the
support of Henry Clay with any enthusiasm, although giving him
his public endorsement upon the rostrum and elsewhere. Political
success was clearly his guiding star ; and it is necessary for poli
ticians to shape their craft so as to sail as much as possible with
the breeze, otherwise their hopes of fortune would soon end in
disappointment and despair. He made some speeches in the
campaign of 1844, and in these placed himself fairly upon the
94 A REVIEW OF THE
platform of the National Whig party. During the campaign he
was invited with Webster and other distinguished leaders of the
party, to address the great Whig meeting in Philadelphia ; and
the assemblage being very large, whilst Webster was speaking to
the people, another stand was erected at some distance from the
main platform, and Mr. Stevens was invited thence to address his
fellow-citizens. He mounted the newly erected rostrum, and
being gifted with those indispensable qualities of the popular
OAitor, wit and anecdote, he is said to have been able upon that
occasion to attract to his speaking most of those who had been
listening to the great Massachusetts statesman. But ardently as
was Henry Clay supported by his party throughout the country,
the election resulted in the choice of James K. Polk as President
of the United States.
Although Stevens and his followers supported Clay for Presi
dent in 1844, the division in the party in the county was never
theless kept up. There are generally two factions in each party
in every county ; and that Mr. Stevens was able from the iirst
to become the dictator of the one of these in the Whig party, is
evidence of his power as a political manipulator. Although
greatly in the minority at first, it was the foundation of what
afterwards obtained the control of Lancaster County, and which
placed Mr. Stevens upon the highway of his political success.
But the weakness of his influence in the county in 1844, was
apparent in the nomination of John Strohm for Congress, in that
year. Mr. Strohm had for years ranked as one of the principal
leaders of the Whig faction opposed to Stevens. As Senator
from Lancaster County, he was one of those who in December,
,1838, failed to sympathize with Mr. Stevens in his course at Har-
risburg, during the period of the " Buckshot War;" and who also
voted for the recognition of the Hopkins House of Representa
tives. To see one with these opinions nominated to Congress,
was galling to Mr. Stevens in the extreme ; but John Strohm was
a man of unimpeachable reputation ; and whose high regard for
probity had become proverbial. His course at Harrisburg in the
winter of 1838, had at first subjected him to considerable censure
from liis political friends, even in his own county ; but a reaction
soon set in, as the facts became better understood, and his
action was at length fully endorsed by the majority of the Whig
party of Lancaster County. His nomination for Congress in
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 05
1S44, was generally, therefore, viewed as an attestation of that
fact ; as also an evidence of the entire approval by his party of
his whole previous career as a public man.
Mr. Stevens, in this condition of affairs, could do little else
than attend to his legal business and gradually strengthen him
self amongst the citizens of the county. His ability as a lawyer
gradually introduced him to a wide circle of acquaintances ; and
this had the effect of enhancing his political power. An element
of political strength, in favor of Mr. Stevens, not to be over
looked, was found in the large number of young men who
studied law in his office and under his instructions. A greater
number of young men studied the elements of the profession
under his instruction, than with any other member of the bar
who ever before practiced in the inland City of Lancaster.
Although not all of these were members of his own political
party, yet the majority naturally being such, and these being
greatly devoted to him and his success, were ready upon any
occasion to buckle on their armor and march to the conflict
when the interests of their tutor were at stake. But few men
have ever had the faculty of securing more devoted and more
ardent followers than he. His students were almost equally
attached to him, as children to a father ; at least, this was the
case with a great majority of them. This was not altogether
unnatural. Young men in the selection of a legal preceptor,
generally endeavor to choose one whose reputation may enhance
their own prospect of success by a kind of radiation of fame, as
it might be termed. Although in the main delusive, yet the
impression has its weight in the choice of the man with whom
the profession is, as a rule, studied. In the case of Mr. Stevens, the
rule a-lso obtained ; and as advantage was anticipated by originally
selecting him as their instructor, the more they could add to his rep
utation by their efforts, would still extend, as they conceived, that
reflection of fame that might illumine themselves. Of students
who had studied with Mr. Stevens, or who became associated in
legal practice with him, and whose influence perhaps more aided
him in his after political career than any other individuals, were
Alexander H. Hood and Oliver J. Dickey, both men of admitted
native capacity. Both of these men were ardently attached to
Mr. Stevens. The former, a political editor, and also a member
of the Legislature, had studied law with him, having entered his
CO A REVIEW OF THE
office as a student shortly after liis arrival in Lancaster ; and tlie
latter was the son of one of his old political associates as a mem
ber of the Board of Canal Commissioners of Pennsylvania, and
who as a leader in the Anti-Masonic party, had been strongly
attached to him. Mr. Dickey visited Lancaster in 1846 and
became associated with Mr. Stevens in the practice of the pro
fession ; and this union proved the foundation of a life-long
attachment between them.
By 1848, Mr. Stevens, having extended his acquaintance in all
parts of the county, felt himself strong enough to aim at the
nomination for Congress in the Lancaster District. Although he
had many friends attached to him, he nevertheless had a power
ful opposition to combat. The old Whig leaders were mostly
opposed to his nomination for Congress, as were also the principal
organs of the party, the Examiner, published by E. C. Darling
ton, and the Volksfreund, a German newspaper. But both
factions of the Whig party in the county had endorsed the nomi
nation of Gen. Taylor for President, as the most available can
didate that could be presented. This endorsement seemed for
the time to indicate the complete union of the Lancaster County
"Whigs ; and Stevens was sufficiently sagacious to see the ad
vantage to be gained in this lull of the storm. A large Whig
meeting was held in Lancaster for the purpose of endorsing the
nomination of Zachary Taylor for the Presidency. Stevens and
his friends were the strong advocates of the objects of this meet
ing. Emanuel C. Reighart, an influential Whig, a man of high
social standing, and one who had never openly committed him
self to the interests of Mr. Stevens, assumed at this meeting, in
the name of the party, and in view of the subsisting harmony of
all factions, to publicly nominate him as a candidate for Con
gress. This had the effect of directing public attention to him,
as an aspirant for Congressional honors.
But the leaders of that part of the Whig party which hitherto
opposed Mr. Stevens were not ready to acquiesce in that kind of
nomination for a Congressional candidate. It was altogether an
unusual manner of placing a candidate before the party for this
office, and besides, there were individuals in their section of the
party whom they preferred to see elected to Congress. It was
not to be supposed, therefore, that they would tamely submit
to a nomination in which the choice of the people had not been
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 97
consulted ; and especially, where the candidate was a stranger in
the county, and one who a few years before had been engaged in
an effort to defeat the nominees of their party. Abraham
Herr Smith, a young lawyer of promise, belonging to one of the
oldest and most influential families of the county, who had served
with credit for two sessions in the Pennsylvania House of Rep
resentatives, and was just closing a term in the State Senate, was
induced to become a candidate for the Congressional nomination
in opposition to Mr. Stevens. Candidates at that period were
generally nominated in conventions of their party, the delegates
to which were elected by the party votes in the different
districts. Primary elections were, therefore, in accordance with
this recognized rule of the party, held all over the County of
Lancaster, and the respective friends of one or the other candi
date returned to the convention. In several of the districts
special instructions had been given to the delegates for which one
of the two candidates they should cast their votes. By the
returns from the several districts, Mr. Smith appeared as having
received a clear majority of the delegates of the county, and his
nomination before the assembling of the convention was by himself
and his friends regarded as quite certain. The balloting in the
convention, however, disappointed the anticipations of all parties,
and Mr. Stevens was nominated by one of a majority. Some of
the delegates in the convention from one or more of the districts,
violated their instructions by voting for Mr. Stevens, thus giving
him the Congressional nomination, according to the accepted rules
of the party.
What peculiar agencies contributed to this first nomination of
Mr. Stevsns for Congress, it is not within the reach of history
definitely to determine. The trait of character, as given by Al
exander H. Hood in his sketch of Mr. Stevens, in the Biograph
ical History of Lancaster County, may have somewhat contributed
to the result : " Beggars of all grades, high or low, are very quick
in finding out the weak points of those on whom they intend to
operate ; and Mr. Stevens was always, but more particularly when
he was a candidate, most unmercifully fleeced. This trait was
the cause of injury to the politics of this country. Before he
was nominated for Congress, no one here thought of spending
large sums of money in order to get votes. Now, no man, what
ever his qualifications, can be nominated for any office, unless
OS A REVIEW OF THE
lie answers all demands made upon him, and forks over a greater
amount than any one else will, for the same ofiice. It is a most
deplorable state of things, but the fact is not to be denied.""*
Some reflections, are in this connection submitted, as explana
tory of conduct that has attached odium to the character of Mr.
Stevens, but which rather flowed from the spirit of the times in
which he lived. All truthful history, is but subsidiary to the
development of higher forms of culture, and a more enlarged
comprehension of the mysterious design of creative power. So it
is believed a delineation of the errors of men and nations but lead
to a clearer apprehension of the truth, that all are anxiously
seeking. Men s mistakes, whether wilf ull or otherwise, demonstrate
the necessity for settled rules of action. The world and its intel
ligence are advancing. Perfection in civilization is being more
nearly approximated, but perhaps will never be fully realized.
Government is the form of social organism, that has from the
earliest ages, engaged much of man s attention. "Whether the
product of reason or of divine dispensation is not determined ;
neither of its primary forms, pure monarchy, aristocracy or de
mocracy seem to satisfy the advancing intelligence of the human
race ; and an eclecticism of these has in modern times amongst civ
ilized nations given the most general satisfaction. But that form
which is most condusive to the interests of a true civilization,
seems as yet, to be but faintly realized. The admirable system
of government adopted for the United States, by our republican
ancestors, proved for a period the noblest heritage of reason for
the management of society, that perhaps the world has ever
seen. The Government, however, presented by our revolutionary
forefathers, was itself a combination of the original forms, and in
such proportions as was then believed would, if properly observed,
perpetuate liberty, justice and equity to the most distant posterity.
But there is less real difference between the forms of govern
ment, as regards their practical working, than is popularly sup
posed. In absolute monarchies, no one man, though nominally
SD, is entirely supreme. The influence of other intelligent men,
besides the monarch, control the government. In democratic or
republican forms of government, on the contrary, the intellectual
men of tho State are those again in whose hands the power
chiefly resides. The mass of the people may or may not bo
^Biographical History of Lancaster County, pp. 589.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. CO
voters, and their power in either case is not far from being
equally balanced. In the one case they may be made the instru
ments of ambitious men for their own advancement and success,
and perhaps even to the ruin of liberty. As Aristotle and Plato
taught, society, like the human body, has its various members,
and in both instances the directive power centers in the head.
The intellectual men of a nation, under whatever form of govern
ment that may be adopted, are those who form the head of the
State. The great aim in government is that a people be able to
obtain wise and virtuous rulers, and the form under which these
can be secured is of less consequence.
After the adoption of the Federal Constitution, although uni
versal white suffrage was generally accepted, yet an intellectual
supremacy obtained in the selection of the rulers which almost
ignored the popular voice, save as by way of ratification so con
sidered. High toned honor ruled this intellectual conclave of
both political parties of the Union, and he who was unworthy of
initiation into this unorganized circle, was unable to secure the
objects of his ambition, and hence was an outcast of the body
politic. The highest principles of chivalry formed the founda
tion stones upon which the edifice of rule had been erected, and
a worthy applicant could scarce fail to receive that recognition to
which his merits entitled him. As the nation grew and expanded,
and wealth was accumulated, the people still kept insisting upon
greater privileges and power, and the rulers gradually yielded to
their demands. Large numbers of offices, that in the earlv history
of the government had been filled by appointment, were subjected
to popular elections. All this was more nearly meeting the pop
ular demand, and abandoning the conservative attitude of the
framers of our Republic. Popular education, it was urged, by
those advocating the innovation, was the great anchor of free
representative government, and that upon this the safety of a
nation depended. But this refuge itself was based upon the
assumed equality of men, which, however, all the observation
and experience of ages had disproved. Equality before the law,
and equality in fact, are quite different assumptions.
The seeming effort of modern advance, is entire freedom from
all restraint, save what is self-imposed. "Whether the world in
the future will attain to this is unknown, but at this time it seems
not yet prepared for it ; and till such period of perfection arrives,
100 A REVIEW OF THE
government must be perpetuated. For minds capable of devis
ing rules of social order, they should, as it would seem, be a rule
to themselves. The more, therefore, power is shifted from the
hands of the natural rulers and given into the possession
of those requiring a subjecting influence, though this be
but nominally, to such an extent, is the order of creative
design reversed, and the principles of corruptive political life
thence germinate. Herein, then, we have the causes which about
the period that Mr. Stevens was lirst nominated to Congress,
induced the introduction of the elements of political corruption.
Political power was found in the possession of the people more
than at any former period of history. To obtain political posi
tion, it w r as no longer essential to secure the recognition of that
chivalric intellectual body of men, that had hitherto so largely
wielded the power of the nation. Other means about this time
came to be effective in securing power. Wealth had become the
most influential agent in society. Honor only influences intel
lectual and reflned minds ; but that which now proved the most
potential with the mass of society, was that which the aspirants
for official place must employ.
The last years accordingly, of the history of the American
Republic, have been submitting volumes of testimony as to the
capacity of man for self government. The people are being
surfeited with political power, but the mountains of iniquity and
corruption that are arising amidst the vast upheaval of ages, are
shocking the innate moral convictions of the race. But reason
and right, those stern guides of the world, will yet be called
upon to render their verdict upon the last phases of republican
government, and remove the obstructions that still impede
humanity s, progress, to a higher and a purer civilization.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 101
CHAPTER VII.
AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND THEIR PRINCIPLES.
The Anti-Slavery movement in the northern States has already
been adverted to, and the excitement occasioned thereby, con
sidered in a preceding chapter at some length. It was not long
after the agitation began until the Abolitionists conceived that it
was necessary to unite the Anti-Slavery strength into a distinct
political organization, and this was accomplished in the year
1S40. As early as 183^, William Lloyd Garrison, speaking in
the Liberator of the necessities of co-operation for the purpose
of overthrowing slavery, remarked that, "a Christian party in
politics " was most of all things required. Prof. Charles Folen,
two years afterwards, suggested the utility of a new political
party of progress, the leading object of which should be the
abolition of slavery. A distinctive party for the purpose of secur
ing the cherished objects of abolitionism, was in 1839 urged by
Alvan Stewart upon the Executive Committee of the JSTew York
State Anti-Slavery Society. All these expressions indicated what
was becoming a somewhat prevalent opinion amongst the Abo
litionists, that if they wished ever to be successful in the eradica
tion of American Slavery, they must abandon all connection with
the old parties, and organize a new one of different principles.
As before stated, most of those who became avowed Abolition
ists, came originally from the Whig party, or at least that one
which was in opposition to the ^National Democracy.
All parties that have as yet existed in America, have belonged to
one or other of two antagonistic schools, the founders of which were
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton was a
member of the convention, which in 1787 formed the Federal
Constitution ; and in that body had the honesty and boldness to
propose a form of government, copied after that of Great Britain,
which he ever regarded as the most perfect model of political
polity which the world had discovered. There were several
102 A REVIEW OF THE
other able and intellectual members of tlie convention, who
entertained sentiments similar to those of Hamilton, but who,
for prudential reasons, chose not to avow them too publicly,
especially as in the state of public opinion that then obtained, it
was believed that anything but a republican form of government
was impossible to be established. The great majority of those who
sat in the convention, were Republicans in sentiment themselves
and besides they perceived that the demands of the age would
not permit a monarchical constitution to be fixed upon the Ameri
can people. They permitted themselves, therefore, to drift with
the current of popular opinion, and did so, even in cases where
their judgment entered strong protests to much that was done.
But as in the natural, so also in the political world, there arc
only two poles of aniagonistic opinion, those of monarchy and
democracy ; aristocracy being a mere compromise of the ex
tremes. Metaphysical philosophy teaches us that every man is
either a Platonist or an Aristotelian ; and of Americans, it can
with truth be averred, that every citizen is either a follower of
Hamilton or of Jefferson in political opinions. The one strove
for the adoption of a strong, and the other for a liberal Govern
ment, based purely upon human consent.
Alexander Hamilton, and those who sympathized politically-
with him in the Federal Convention, did not obtain that form of
government which they desired, but having secured what was
preferable to the old articles of Confederation, they favored its
adoption as the best that was then attainable. Jefferson was in
France during the sittings of the convention, and had no imme
diate share in the adoption of the instrument of Union that was
agreed upon, and which was sanctioned for the Confederation of
the States. His opinions, however, were well known, and were
similar to those of perhaps a majority of the members of the
Convention of 1787. The dividing line of party sentiment
was that which separated between those favoring and those oppos
ing a monarchical or strong form of government. The Hainil-
tonian party, in the formation of the Constitution, opposed every
liberal aspect that was given to the instrument, whilst the
Jeffersonians equally strenuously resisted -the incorporation of
every thing of a centralizing character. When the Constitution
was at length completed by its f ramers, it received the support
of all the Hamiltonians, because of the advantages secured in it
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 103
over the old form of union ; and it also found friends in the
Jeffersonian school, amongst those who believed it the best form
O
of government that could be secured ; and also on account of the
generally received interpretation that (as was agreed upon all
sides) should be applied to it. It cannot be denied, however, that
the leading opponents to the Constitution were members of the
Jeffersonian school. Their animosity was aroused against it,because
of the concession of certain powers to the Federal Government,
which were not possessed under the Articles of Confederation ;
and such as many of them apprehended might undermine the
liberty of the States at some future period. With the original
reasons for the division of the early American parties borne in
mind, it will be less difficult at any period to discover the descend
ants of each, notwithstanding slight intermixtures may have
been constantly taking place. The distinguishing features of
each of these early schools of political opinion have from that
tune been clearly discernible in all the different periods of our
history.
Those giving the Constitution their hearty support were enti
tled Federalists, and those opposing the same were known as
Anti-Federalists, Jefferson on account of his duties abroad, was
not involved in the disputes which arose upon the adoption of the
Constitution. Although friendly himself to the instrument, from
the known views of its framers, yet the large majority of his
political followers exerted themselves to their utmost to defeat
its adoption. But the Constitution was adopted, and as was
natural, those who had championed it before the people would
be those who would first be chosen to put it into operation. Gen,
Washington had been its friend in the Convention, and also before
the people ; and he was now chosen by a unanimous vote to be
the first who should pilot the new vessel upon the ocean of con
flicting American opinion. With that sagacity for which he was
in a high degree noted, lie strove to calm the antagonistic senti
ments that he knew prevailed throughout the country, by forming
his cabinet out of the opposing political schools. Hamilton and
Jefferson were accordingly placed as the heads of different de
partments of the government ; but this, instead of allaying the
strife, may be viewed as rather having hastened the full develop
ment of parties, which followed the first election of Washington
as President of the United States, It was not long till Jefferson
104 A REVIEW OF THE
and his party friends discovered, as they believed, that the aim of
the Hamiltonian leaders was to secure by Constitional interpreta
tion what they had failed to obtain in the original adoption of
the Federal pact. Power was claimed for the general govern
ment that had never been granted to it, and which had been
reserved alone to the States and people, as in the words of the
charter itself was expressed. But the Federal, was the party of
character, wealth and influence, and it required a considerable
period to divest it of that position of strength and power which
it had secured in the young Republic. At length, upon the
enactment of certain obnoxious laws, Jefferson and the other
Southern leaders who had always sympathized with him, and who
were the warm friends of liberal governmental views, succeeded
in grasping the reins of the general government. Federalism
sunk at once, never again to rise in its own name ; but not so its
principles. These lived and continued with modifications to
form the elements of vitality of every organization that was ar
rayed against the Jeffersoiiian party from that period.
So complete was the overthrow of the Federalists, that
many years elapsed before -any organization was able to make
a stand against the old party of Jefferson, or the National De
mocracy. In 1824, all the candidates for President ran as
members of the Democratic party, but the election of John Q.
Adams had the effect of attracting together the disunited
elements of Ilamiltonianism, and laying the foundation for
that structure which became, in a sense, the National Whig
party. This party was somewhat the expression of that re-
sistance r that must of necessity manifest itself in opposition
to the ruling organization ; but whose animating spirit was caught
from its Federal ancestors. This was true, rather as regarded
the Northern Whigs ; for in the Southern States, the peciiliar
Hamiltonian principles being exotic, never took deep root. In
the South the Whig party may be viewed as the embodiment of
the personal opposition that was marshalled by Clay and other
distinguished leaders against the administrations of President
/ackson, Yan Buren and others ; and in which principles, though
loudly heralded, were ever of minor significance. It was owing
to this fact that only a seeming harmony ever existed between
the northern and southern sections of the Whig party ; and also,
that in South Carolina no organization of this name,, for many
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 105
years had any political strength whatever. Anti-Masonry y
another daughter of Federalism, had its home in the North, and
in its missionizing tours in the South met but a cold reception.
The Anti-Slavery political party, which took its rise iii the
Liberty organization in 1840, with Birney as its Presidential
standard bearer, was also the growth of the centralizing principles
and the germination of Federalism.
The leading feature of distinction which characterized the-
Democratic party of Jefferson, was its advocacy of the doctrine
of State sovereignty, in opposition to the principle of centraliza
tion. The Democrats contended that the States were the sov-
erigns that had framed the general government, and that they
remained so, although they had delegated specified powers to the
Federal head, but only such as were clearly enumerated. The Yir-
ginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798-9, the former drafted
by Madison, and the latter by Jefferson, explicitly set forth the
doctrine that the general government w r as one of limited powers,
and that the States would not be bound to yield acquiesence in
the enactments of the Federal authority in an instance where the
power assumed, was clearly usurped, and did not come with
in those delegated in the Constitution. This doctrinal assertion
of principles, from the two leading statesmen of the old Repub
lican p&rty, was made at a time when it was charged that the
Federal party had violated the Constitution in the passage of
certain obnoxious measures; and the principles thus enunciated
in those resolutions from that time forward became the recognized
democratic creed, which was affirmed and re-affirmed in nearly
every State and National Convention of that organization that
was afterwards held. The doctrine was boldly anounced, as the
general understanding of all parties, who had participated in the
formation of the Federal Constitution, and at a period when the
principal actors who had taken part in its formation and adoption
were yet living, and able to controvert any assertions thus made
had they been false and unsupported by facts. But the doctrines
so set forth remained uncontradicted, an incontestible evidence in
itself that they were sustained in historical verity ; and especially,
as all this occurred at a time when it was in the power of a party
whose principles the resolutions opposed, to have disproved their
assertions had they been able to have done so.
The concession in the Constitution to the general government
IOC A REVIEW OF THE
of the power to execute its own enactments upon tlic citizens oi
the States, was that feature of the Federative compact, which
rendered it so vastly superior to the articles of Confederation
that preceded it. This, in the words of De Tocqueville, was :
" A wholly novel theory, which may be considered as a great
discovery in modern political science. In all the Confederations
which preceded the American Constitution of 1789, the allied
States, for a common object, agreed to obey the injunctions of a
Federal Government ; but they reserved to themselves the right
of ordaining and enforcing the execution of the laws of the
Union. The American States, which combined in 1789, agreed
that the Federal Government should not only dictate but should
execute its own enactments. In both cases the right is the same
but the exercise of the right is different ; and this difference pro
duced the most momentous consequences."* But, in the clear and
express enumeration of these powers, over which the general
government was alone to exercise authority, the Jeffersonian
State right Republicans felt that their safety rested. They will
ingly conceded that within these prescribed limits, the Federal
power was supreme over the States, but not beyond those bounds.
The various limitations of power had been agreed upon with
great care and deliberation ; and the several boundaries of author
ity, both National and State, were intended to be steadily and
scrupulously observed. .
The institution of slavery was one over which the general
government had no authority. It w r as altogether a matter for
State regulation, and was so conceded by the early statesmen of
all political parties. The movement of Abolitionism in the
North, with the consequent rise of the Liberty party in 1840,
al though engendered in humanitarian motives, was nevertheless a
direct avowal that all constitutional rights of the southern people
must yield to the behests of the new party, as soon as it should be
able to grasp the reins of the Federal Government. It w r as thus a
threat made against all constitutional government, in which the dan
ger did not alone consist in the determination to wrest from the
southern people so much property as was invested in their negro
slaves. If national compacts and plighted faith must bend before
the will of majorities, then constitutional governments become a
failure, and a despotism of numbers is installed in their stead.
*X>e Tocqueville s Democracy in America, Vol> I. pp. 481,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 107
A constitutional government is based upon the will of the people
at the time of its adoption, and if any alteration is at any time
sought to be made therein, this must be accomplished in accord
ance with the provisions of the original charter. Any other
method of change is revolutionary, equally as if produced by
the might of armies. The abolition movement, for the over
throw of slavery, was the commencement of the revolution for
the obliteration of slavery from the United States. The insig
nificant vote of a little less than 7,000 for Birney for President,
in 1840, seemed to the unreflecting as unworthy of notice ; it was
only to the deep comprehension of John C. Calhoun and such
as he, that the real danger was fully felt and appreciated. It
w r as the means by which the object to be attained was proposed
to be accomplished, quite as much as the result itself, that was
felt as so threatening to the principles of free government. It
was, in short, the announcement of the right of reducing gov
ernment to chaos, and out of the anarchy, reconstructing it in
accordance wdth the passions of the multitude. In principle
and essence, the avowal of the Abolitionists was equally as
alarming in one section of the Union as in the other. The
O
only difference was. tliat in the South, with abolition suc
cess, together with the overthrow of constitutional government,
the rights and privileges of the people of that section must
likewise perish in the flames of social convulsion. The Liberty
party asserted the right of the people of the E"orth to interfere
with slavery in the southern States, a doctrine before unheard of
and in utter violation of the compacts that had formed part of
the Constitution. The States were separate independent Repub
lics, that for valid reasons had formed a central authority, entrusted
with certain specified powers, the better to promote the interests
of all amongst each other, and with foreign nations. The peo
ple of the northern States, had therefore, no more legal or con
stitutional right to intermeddle with the affairs of those of the
South than in the concerns of foreign nations. They might
condemn slavery in the South or elsewhere, but when they
assumed to dictate to the southern people, or to organize a party
of aggression against the constitutional rights of any of the
States, they became revolutionists equally as had they rose with
arms in their hands to overthrow the existing constitution. But
the Abolitionists chose to confine their warfare within the moral
103 A REVIEW OF THE
arena ; and thus they escaped the perpetration of the crime of
treason, of which an armed assault would have made them guilty.
The whole Anti-Slavery movement in all the various channels
in which it flowed, took its rise in Ilarniltonian principles, which
demanded the subordination of all the States to the Federal
Government. One supreme central authority was demanded,
which should dictate what institutions and laws should, and what
should not exist in the several States. That system would inaugu
rate a national government of strength, one having unity of pur
pose and efficiency in its administration. Such had ever been
the fond hope of the old Federal leaders, ,and of all such as
believe that the principles of monarchy are essential for the gov
ernment of men and nations. But, besides the attitude and
action of the pure Anti-Slavery party, which was organized in
1840 ; in order to see the revolutionary movement as it progressed,
it is necessary to follow, in connection therewith, the course of the
Whig party, until its final overthrow as a national organization.
On the question of slavery, the "Whig party, North and South
was never harmonious ; and it w r as alone upon other questions,
that it was able to unite in opposition to the Democracy, the
party of unadulterated States right sovereignty. The Southern
Whigs, from the earliest agitation of the slavery question, were
about in sentiment with the National Democratic party, save
that as politicians, on unimportant questions, they w r ould at times
veer into seeming opposition to the slavery interests in their
section ; and they did so in order to bring themselves more into
harmony with their northern brethren, already dominated by aboli
tion sentiment.
The annexation of Texas was one of those questions that
severed the Whig party into a sectional division. John Q.
Adams, a Whig Member of Congress, was one of the first to
sound, as early as 1837, the bugle of northern anti-slavery oppo
sition against the project of annexing the new Republic of Texas
to the United States. Texas had secured her independence in
the memorable battle of San Jacinto, fought April 21st, 1836.
In March, 1837, the United States recognized the independence
of the new sister Republic. Daniel Webster, in his speech of
March 15th, 1837, at Niblo s Garden, expressed his entire disap
probation to the annexation of Texas, basing his opposition
to it on the ground that it would be extending the boundaries of
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 109
slavery. Avowed Abolitionists had first sounded the note of
opposition on the Texas question, and it was taken up by the
Whig politicians of the Xorth for the purpose, mainly, of secur
ing political capital from northern sentiment on the slavery ques
tion, as had happened in the interests of Federalism during the
contest on the admission of Missouri into the Union. The resist
ance thus early manifested in the Xorth against the annexation
of Texas, had the effect of delaying operations for some years,
for the consummation of the measure. It was only when the
anti-slavery agitation had advanced to such a stage as almost to
have divided the country into two sectional parties, indicated by the
Mason and Dixon boundary, that annexation began again seriously
to be discussed. That such a division had taken place between
the I^orth and South was undeniably true as regards the Whig
party, for although Harrison had been elected President by the
Y higs, yet this was more owing to the great personal popularity
of the candidate, than because of any unity of sentiment amongst
his partisans.
It was during the administration of John Tyler, the successor
of William Henry Harrison, that the incorporation of Texas
into the Union was fully resolved upon by southern statesmen,
who saw in this measure how they could perpetuate the balance
of power between the northern and southern sections of the
Union. Leading members of the Whig party in the South were
equally ardent for the admission of Texas as the Democrats,
although well aware of the antagonism generally entertained
towards the measure on the part of their political brethren of
the JS r orth. The question came to be one of importance in the
Presidential election of 1S44. It, and the tariff, were the leading
questions of that political struggle. Aspirants for Presidential
honors had a delicate task, therefore, in dealing with these national
questions ; and in this struggle the strength of parties was so
equally balanced that the writing of a letter, it is believed, turned
the scale of victory from one side to the other. Martin Yan Buren
clearly sealed his defeat as the candidate of the Democratic party
by his letter written to William H. Hammet, of Mississippi, in
which he took grounds against Texan annexation. The crafty
Statesman of Lindenwald thought to secure his nomination by
catering to the northern sentiment of opposition to the spread of
slavery ; but found himself entrapped by his letter, and which
110 A REVIEW OF THE
forever sealed his hopes of future Presidential promotion. The
Democratic party, in its National Convention, which met at Bal
timore on May 27th, 1844, boldly announced its principles on
the annexation question in the following resolution :
" Resolved, That our title to the whole Territory of Oregon is clear and
unquestionable ; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to* Eng
land, or any other power ; and that the re-occupation of Oregon and the
re-annexation of Texas, at the earliest practicable period, are great
American, measures which the convention recommends to the cordial
support of the Democracy of the Union."
The effects of anti-slavery agitation upon northern opinions by
1844, were conspicuously visible. The body of the public men
in the North, of both political parties would, as a matter of
choice, have voted that no more slave States be admitted into the
Union. They were aware that the enlightened sentiment of the
age, both in Europe and America, was averse, to the institution
as it existed in the Southern States ; and free from all party tram
mels they would have voted against its extension. There is little
doubt but that this was the prevailing sentiment of the enlight
ened classes of both political parties. Unlike certain Abolition
ists, however, they did riot regard slavery as a sin, but the steady
discussion of the question for years had at length produced its
influence, and they in general looked upon it as somewhat repug
nant to their moral convictions. In the Democratic as well as in
the Whig party, this feeling had considerable strength ; and the
above resolution of the Baltimore convention, endorsing the
annexation of Texas, met with opposition from men who upon
no other question had ever been found unfaithful to party
principles. Silas Wright, a prominent Democrat from New York,
had conspicuously opposed annexation in the United States Senate;
and knowing that the measure would be endorsed by his party
in the Presidential campaign of 1844, he declined the nomination
for Vice-president on the ticket with James K. Polk. Mr.
Wright nevertheless became the candidate of his party for Gov
ernor of New York the same year, and in a canvassing speech at
Skaneateles, he referred to his opposition as unabated, and de
clared that he never could consent to annexation. This sentiment
was loudly applauded in a large Democratic convention held in
Herkimer, in the autumn of that year. Messrs. George P.
Barker, William C. Bryant, John W. Edmonds, David Dudley
Field and Theodore Sedgewick united in a letter, urging their
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. Ill
fellow-democrats, while supporting Polk and Dallas, to repudiate
the Texan resolution, and to unite in supporting for Congress
Democratic candidates hostile to annexation.*
Henry Clay was the great Southern leader and idol of the
"Whig party, and had been long pressed by his ardent admirers
for the Presidency. But for the division on the slavery question
that had made its way into the Whig party, he would have been
nominated for the highest office in the Republic in December,
1839. The following extract from the Emancipator , an abolition
journal, explains the condition of the "Whig party at that period :
THE HARKISBrRG CONVENTION.
"Well, the agony i : = over, atid Henry Clay is laid upon the shelf ; and no
man of ordinary intelligence can doubt or deny that it is the anti-slavery
feeling of the North which has done it, in connection with his own osten
tatious and infamous pro-slavery demonstrations in Congress Praise
to God for an anti- slavery victory ! A man of high talents, of great
distinction, of long political services, of boundless personal popularity,
has been openly rejected for the Presidency of this i epublic on account
of his devotion to slavery. Set up a monument of progress there let
the winds tell the tale ! Let the slave-holders hear the news. Let foreign
nations hear it. Let O Connell hear it. Let the slaves hear it. A slave
holder is incapacitated for, the Presidency of the United States. The
reign of slaveocracy is hastening to a close. The rejection of Henry
Clay by the Whig Convention, taken in connection with all the circum
stances, is one of the heaviest blows the monster slavery has ever received
in this country/
The remarks of Garrison on the rejection of Clay by the Whig Con
vention are to the same purport : " All the slave States went for Clay^
Had it not been for abolitionism, Henry Clay would undoubtedly have
been nominated."
In the National Whig Convention, held at Baltimore in ISii,
the party nominated Henry Clay for President by acclamation.
His political letters on the Texas question, published. in the
National Intelligencer , in which he expressed his disapprobation
to the admission of Texas, had the effect of uniting in his sup
port the northern "Whigs ; and his real opinions known to his
southern friends, served to retain them likewise. In his letter
intended for northern circulation he dextrously struck the key
note to northern resistance to annexation in the following
language :
" I do not think Texas ought to be received into the Union, as an integral
part of it, in decided opposition to the wishes of a considerable and
respectable portion of the Confederacy. I think it far more wise and im-
*Greeley s Conflict, Vol. 1, p. 166
112 A REVIEW OF THE
portant to compose and harmonize the present Confederacy as it now
exists, than to introduce a new element of discord and destruction into
it. In my humble opinion it should be the earnest and constant endeavors
of American statesmen to eradicate prejudices, to cultivate and foster
concord, and to produce general contentment among all parts of our
Confederacy."
This letter of Clay upon annexation was found not to give
entire satisfaction to all his southern friends, and he was urged to
make a further statement of his views upon the Texas question.
Accordingly, on the 16th of August, a letter appeared in the
North Alabamian, which had been written by him to friends
in Alabama. In this letter occurred the following language :
" I do not think it right to announce in advance what will be the course
of a future administration, in respect to a question with a foreign power.
I have, however, no hesitation in saying, that far from having any per
sonal objection to the annexation of Texas, I should be glad to see it,
without dishonor, without war, with the common consent of the Union,
and upon just and fair terms."
This last letter was at once seized upon by the Democrats as
well as the Abolitionists, as an entire change of base upon the
part of Clay, and which had no doubt considerable influence
upon the result of the election. Many have ever believed that
this letter caused his defeat as President of the United States.
James G. Birney, the Presidential Abolition candidate of the
Liberal party, in the same canvass made a handle of Clay s Ala
bama letter, to abstract from him anti-slavery votes, and he was
successful in polling upwards of 60,000. James K. Polk, the
Democratic nominee, was elected President of the United States,
and this victory wao fairly interpreted as the national endorse
ment of the policy of Texan annexation. Congress, acting in
obedience to the public sentiment, as thus expressed, passed reso
lutions for the admission of Texas, and John Tyler affixed thereto
the Presidential signature March 1st, 1845.
On the 3d day of March, 1845, President Tyler despatched a
messenger to deliver to Mr. Donelson charge d affaires of Texas,
the joint resolutions of Congress for its admission into the
Union, and instructing him to communicate the same to the
Texan officials. The resolutions admitting the Republic as a
member of the Union, were submitted by the President of Texas
to a convention of delegates called for the purpose of forming a
State Constitution, and were assented to by that body in behalf L
of the people on the 4th of July, in the same year ; and thus one
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 113
more State was added to the number of the existing sovereignties
of the American Union. The Convention of Texas, thereupon
requested the President of the United States, to occupy and
establish posts without delay upon the exposed frontier of the
Republic, and to despatch such forces as might be deemed requisite
for the defence of the territory and people of the newly-admit
ted State. In accordance with this request, an "army of occupa
tion " was despatched by order of President Polk, under command
of General Taylor, and on the 26th day of July, 1815, the
American standards were unfurled over Texan soil. This move
ment, with the measures of annexation transacted between the
United States and Texas, were regarded by the Mexican govern
ment as acts of hostility towards the latter, and preparations
were made by the Mexican Republic f or^ an appeal to arms. On
the 5th of March, Gen. Almonte, the Mexican minister at Wash
ington, protested against the resolutions of the Federal Congress
providing for the annexation of Texas, and demanded his pass
ports, which were granted him ; and on the 3d of April the Gov
ernment of Mexico refused to hold further diplomatic intercourse
with the United States, and informed the American Minister that
such intercourse was irreconcilable with Mexican honor, in view
of the annexation of Texas. The President of Mexico, here
iipon, on the 4th of June, 1845, issued a proclamation declaring
that the annexation of Texas did not change the relations of
Mexico towards that Republic, and that she was resolved to
maintain them by force of arms. Under these circumstances,
the diplomatic relations were of necessity suspended between the
two countries, and this state of affairs so coritimied until the
commencement of hostilities in 1846. On the llth of May,
1846, the American Congress declared that war existed between
the United States and Mexico, by act of the latter the Presi
dent having announced that the Mexicans had " at last invaded
our territory and shed the blood of our fellow citizens on our
own soil."
Congress, two days after the reception of this message from
President Pclk, responded by the passage of an act calling out
50,000 vounteers, and appropriating ten millions of dollars for
the prosecution of the war with Mexico. The annexation of
Texas had thus resulted in what from -the first had been the re
peated prediction of the Whig party ; and although towards the
114 A REVIEW OF THE
prosecution of the war, the Whigs in Congress, in the main, voted
for men and money, yet did so with the greatest reluctance, at
the same time, stigmatising it as an unjust invasion of Mexican
rights, and an infringement of inter-national comity. Congress
remained in session until the 10th of August. In the meantime,
the encounters between the American and Mexican forces, gave
assurance that the war could not be of long duration, as a series
of victories had crowned the American standards from the first
commencement of hostilities. President Polk believed a treaty
of peace might be negotiated with the Mexican Government, and
that by the payment of a sum of money, not only the boundary
of the Rio Grande, but a considerable acquisition of territory
might be secured. lie accordingly sent a special message to
Congress on the 8th of August, two days prior to the time fixed
for the adjournment, asking that an amount of money be placed at
his disposal for these purposes. A bill was immediately reported
in Committee of the "Whole, making appropriations of $3,000,000
for the expenses of the negotiation, and $2,000,000 to be used at
the discretion of the President in making such a treaty. The
bill seemed on the point of passing through all its various stages
without serious opposition. After a hasty consultation with some
friends, David Wilmot, a democratic Member of Congress from
Pennsylvania, introduced his celebrated proviso, and moved to
add it to the first section of the bill now pending, and which was
to the effect that no part of the territory to be acquired should
l)e open to the introduction of slavery.
The introduction of the above proviso, proved a new fire
brand cast into the American Congress, as might have been
readily surmised by its author, had he but chosen to remember
occurrences of no remote date. Equity demanded that the people
of the South be treated as equal members of the Conferation, the
same as those of the North ; and that no discrimination should be
adopted to exclude them from their equal and constitutional
rights. Besides, the proviso was in direct violation, if not of the
words, at least of the spirit of the Missouri Compromise, a compact
in harmony with justice and sectional equality.
When the proviso was first offered, it met with the almost
universal favor of the Representatives from the North, doubtless
(as was likewise the case in the commencement of the Missouri
struggle) without any intention upon the part of most of those
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA, 115
from that section, of violating the rights of their southern,
brethren. So much discussion, however, had at one time and
another taken place with reference to the power of Congressional
legislation over the territory now possessed, or hereafter to be
acquired, that it came about this time to be generally believed in
the North that slavery in the national domain was subject to the
same control. Quite a different opinion, however, had ever pre
vailed in the South, as regards the power of Congress : and in view
of the intense feeling that had already been engendered in
the minds of the Southern people on account of the known
intention of the Abolitionists, the proviso was at once seized
upon by them as the greatest possible outrage that could be in
flicted upon them. The first vote on the proviso in the House,
was 80 ayes and 61 nays, only three Democrats from the North
opposing it. The North and the South had now fully divided on
this question, the sectionalizing of representatives having become
complete upon any issue affecting the institution of slavery.
The 10th of August, the time for the adjournment of Congress
arriving, put an end to further discussion, and the appropriation
sought by the President was not granted. The turbulent scenes
of the two days, however, that Congress was in session, after
the introduction of this apple of discord by Mr, Wilmot, was suffi
cient to communicate the inflamation to the people of all the
Southern States of both political parties, and, in the Legislatures
of several of these, conditional disunion resolutions were passed.
" Everywhere in the slave States the Wilmot proviso became a
Gordon s head a chimera dire a watchword of party, and the
synonym of civil war and the dissolution of the Union," *
The application of the Executive was renewed at the next
meeting of Congress, with this difference that instead of two he
now asked for three millions of dollars. A second bill was now
prepared and introduced into the House, and the proviso being
again incorporated into it, this passed by a vote of 115 to 105.
The bill being now sent to the Senate, the proviso was stricken
out by the vote of 31 to 20, and in this shape was returned to
the House of "Representatives where, upon a reconsideration, the
action of the Senate was concurred in by 102 yeas to t)l nays.
Thus, after a violent contest in both Houses of Congress, the
*J3enton s Thirty Years View, Vol. 2, p. 695,
116 A REVIEW OF THE
appropriation was granted without any anti-slavery restriction.
The excitement occasioned by the discussion that grew out of
the introduction of this proviso, was perhaps the most fiery and
intense that had ever yet taken place in Congress, and served
more than all else to inflame the public mind in both sections of
the Union.
After a series of brilliant victories, the conquest of Mexico
was effected, and the American standards waved over the Spanish
Republic. The conquest of Mexico was speedily followed by
the flight of Santa Anna, its President, and peace between the
two countries was concluded February 2d, 1848, by the treaty of
Gaudaloupe Hidalgo, by which Upper Calf ornia and New Mexico
were ceded to the United States. This treaty received the ratifi
cation of the Mexican Congress May 29th, 1848. The acquisi
tion of this new scope of country still increased the national
domain, and served to add additional complication to the already
unadjusted difficulties between the North and South, as regarded
the government of the national territories. The organization of
the territories from this period became one of the difficult
questions before Congress, and this because of the division of
sentiment on the slavery question which had sundered the two
sections, as it were, into antagonistic parties.
But, although the leaven of Abolitionism had already caused
somewhat of fermentation in the Democratic party, it yet re
mained thoroughly national in its principles, and decided in its
efforts to resist aggressions upon southern rights, A small wing
of the party in the North had allowed itself to be led captive by
free soil principles, which were producing discord in the old
Jeffersonian ranks. In the State of New York, these principles
had already produced a schism of the party into two factions, the
one of which was styled Hunkers, and the other Barn-burners*
In the Democratic Convention, which nominated Gen. Lewis
Cass and William O. Butler, for President and Yice-president, in
May, 1848, both factions of the party from New York, appeared
by their delegates, and claimed seats in that body ; and with the
desire of harmonizing the differences both were admitted to scats
in the convention, each being authorized to cast half the vote to
which the State was entitled. This served the Barn-burners with
the excuse which they desired ; and declaring themselves unwill
ing to be bound by the decision of the convention, retired there-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 117
from. After the Free Sellers, Radicals or Barn-burners had
withdrawn, the convention adopted a platform of principles,
national in its character, and very similar to those of previous
conventions of the same party. But as to the power of Congress
over the question of slavery in the territories, which had recently
come into prominence, the convention declined to commit itself.
On this question William L. Yancey, of Alabama, submitted the
following resolution :
"Resolved, That the doctrine of non-interference with the rights of
property of any portion of the people of this Confederacy, be it in the
States or Territories thereof, by any other than the parties interested
therein, is the true Republican doctrine recognized by this body."
This resolution was rejected nays 216, to yeas 36. Its rejec
tion was the work of the northern leaders of the party, although
not so indicated by the vote in the convention. This was the
first manifest wavering that the Democratic party had shown
before the abolition sentiment of the Korth ; and much as the
leaders of both sections believed in the justice of non-interven
tion, those in the Northern States feared to meet their constitu
ents, should this be endorsed as a cardinal principle. It was a
cowardice, however, of which no political party should ever be
guilty. If the principle was right, the resolution should have
been endorsed, even at the risk of party defeat.
The Whig National Convention assembled at Philadelphia, on
the 8th of June, IS-iS, and selected Zachary Taylor and Mil lard
Fillmore as its candidates for President and Yice-President.
Gen. Taylor was made the nominee of his party purely because
of his supposed availability as a candidate and the great personal
popularity he had gained in the Mexican war. As he was a
slaveholder, he was far from being -acceptable to the northern
Whig leaders, but circumstances compelled them to acquiesce in
his nomination. The disintegration and dissolution of the Whig
party were already nearly complete, and but time was wanting
to render it a finality. In this convention the party was unable
to agree upon a platform of principles. Repeated efforts were
made to endorse the principle of the Wilmot proviso, but with
out success, the motions made for this purpose being successfully
tabled. The ardent Abolitionists of the party on this account
took little interest in the election, but feeling themselves power
less in the party, they permitted themselves to drift with the
118 A REVIEW OF THE
political current. Several members of the convention declared
their utter dissatisfaction with the candidates ; and so great, in
deed, was the smothered opposition that the nominations could
not be made unanimous, according to custom. All this opposi
tion was stimulated by anti-slavery zeal. Mr. Allen, a delegate
to the convention from Massachusetts, said that the Whig party
was that day dissolved. Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, offered a reso
lution that the nominations should be unanimous provided Gen.
Taylor would pledge himself to the non-extention of slavery
over free territory. Such a pledge was never obtained ; and if
it had been, that moment the Whig party would have dissolved.
Gen. Wilson, of Massachusetts, declared that he would do all in
his power to defeat the nominee of the convention. "Gen.
Taylor, though an excellent soldier, had no experience as a states
man, and his capacity for civil administration was wholly undem-
onstrated. He had never voted ; had apparently paid little
attention to, and taken little interest in politics ; and though
inclined towards the Whig party, was but slightly identified with
its ideas and its efforts. Nobody could say what were his views
regarding Protection, Internal Improvement, or the Currency.
On the great question which our last acquisitions from Mexico
had suddenly invested with the greatest importance of excluding
slavery from the yet untainted Federal Territories, he had in no
wise declared himself ; and the fact that he was an extensive
slaveholder, justified a presumption that he, like most slave
holders, deemed it right that any settler in the Territories should
be at liberty to take thither and hold there as property, what
ever the laws of his own State recognized as property."*
But the strength of the Abolition sentiment of the North was
still advancing to more prominent recognition. The schism of
several of the leading churches into Northern and Southern com
munions, beginning with the Methodist Episcopal in 1844, had
already given an importance to the anti-slavery movement, that
it had not before possessed. And although the two great parties
of the country had their Presidential candidates in the field before
the nation, harmony no longer reigned in the ranks of either.
The Liberty party had supported candidates for President and
Vice President in 1840, and in 18M 3 but was able, to draw but a
comparatively feeble vote.
*Greeley s Recollections, p. 211.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 110
For the purpose of showing the rise of the Free Soil party
from Abolition authority, the following extract is submitted :
" In the midst of these exhortations, the National Convention of the
Liberty party assembled at Buffalo, October 20th, 1847. Gerrit Smith,
still a member of the Liberty party, was proposed as a candidate for the
Presidency. His nomination would have secured the co-operation of the
Liberty Lsague in his support. But the course marked out by the lead
ing men in the convention beforehand, required the nomination of a
different man from Gerrit Smith. The Liberty party for the first time
adopted the policy of going out of its own ranks for a Presidential can
didate. After debating awhile the question of nominating at all till
next year, they nominated Hon. John P. Hale, United States Senator
from New Hampshire, an independent Democrat, who had certainly done
himself honor in refusing to do homage to the slave power, and who had
drawn off a portion of the Democracy of New Hampshire to his sup
port." * "But the nomination of Mr. Hale was only a
temporary one, and answered its temporary purpose. Gentlemen active
in making it united with others of other parties in calling another con
vention, which was held at Buffalo, August 9th, 1848, composed of the
opponents of slavery extension, irrespective of parties and including of
course, as was designed, large numbers who did not intend to be com
mitted to the one idea of abolishing slavery. On that occasion was
organized the Free Soil party, in which the Liberty party was designe d
to be wholly absorbed.* *
The Liberty party was thus, in 1 848, metamorphosed into that
named Free Soil, through the machinations of Martin Van Buren
and his friends out of revenge to General Cass, who had been largely
instrumental in 1844, in causing the defeat of the former before
the Democ-ratic Convention of that year Although the Korth was
not yet fully ripe for the organization of a purely sectional party,
yet the free soil vote in 1848 indicated that the abolition move
ment would take that direction. Horace Greeley, speaking of
the ^National Democratic nominations in 1848, says :
" This ticket was respectable, both as to character and services, yet its
prospects were marred by the fact, that that faction of the New York
Democracy, which had been known as Barn-burners or Free Soil men,
resenting the admission of their competitors to seats in the convention
had bolted, and refused to be governed by the result. Ultimately, they
united with the Abolitionists and with sympathising Democrats in other
States in holding a National)- Convention at Buffalo, which nominated
Martin Van Buren, of New York, for President, and Charles F. Adams, of
Massachusetts, for Vice-president. This ticket, though it obtained no
*Goodel on Slavery, p. 478. fMr. Greeley should more properly have
said a Sectional rather than a National Convention, for there were no
delegates in it except from the Northern States, and the most of those
who figured in it were secret Abolitionists, whom policy deterred from
the expression of their honest sentiments.
120 A REVIEW OF THE
single electoral vote, blasted the hopes of General Cass and the regular
Democracy."*
The distinctive feature of the platform of the Free Soil party
was opposition to slave institutions, and a desire to abolish or
restrain slavery wherever this could be constitutionally accom
plished. These three principles were laid down : First, that it
was the duty of the General Government to abolish slavery
wherever it could be done in a constitutional manner. Second,
that the States within which slavery existed had the sole right to
interfere with it ; and third, that Congress can alone prevent the
existence of slavery in the Territories. By the first of these
principles, it was -the duty of Congress to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia ; second, to leave its regulation to the States
where it existed, and third, to abolish it in territory now free,
In the sectional aspect of this party lay its danger. Thomas
II. Benton speaks thus of the Buffalo Convention that nomi
nated Van Bureii and Adams :
"It was an organization entirely to be regretted its aspect was sec
tional its foundation a single idea its tendency to merge political prin
ciples in a slavery contention. The BaTtimore Democratic Convention
had been dominated by the slavery question, but on the other side of
that question, and not openly and professedly ; but here was an organi
zation resting prominently on the slavery basis. And, deeming all such
organizations, no matter on which side of the question, as fraught with
evil to the Union, this writer, on the urgent request of some of his politi
cal associates, went to New York to interpose his friendly offices to get
the Free Soil organization abandoned. The visit was between the two
conventions, and before the nominations and proceedings had become
final ; but all in vain. Mr. Van Buren accepted the nomination, and in
so doing placed himself in opposition to the general tenor of his political
conduct in relation to slavery, and especially in what relates to its exist
ence in the District of Columbia. I deemed this acceptance unfortunate
to a degree far beyond its influence upon persons or parties. It was to
impair confidence between the North and the South, and to narrow down
the basis of party organization to a single idea ; and that idea not known
to our ancestors as an element of political organizations. The Free Soil
plea was that the Baltimore Democratic Convention had done the same ;
but the answer to that was that it was a general convention from all the
States, and did not make its slavery principles the open test of the elec
tion ; while this was a segment of the party, and openly rested on that
ground."f
The election of 1848 resulted in the choice of Gen. Taylor
for President of the United States, and Millard Filmore for
* Greeley s Recollections, p. 213. fBenton s View, Vol. II, p. 723.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 121
Vice-President. In the Congress that assembled in December,
1848, after the election, the question on the organization of the
Territories came up, and was debated with great warmth and at
considerable length. A majority of the House of Representa
tives were desirous of excluding slavery from Kew Mexico and
California, but the Senate being unwilling that this principle
should be incorporated, no bill, as a consequence, for the organi
zation of these Territories was passed at this session. The terri
torial question was now become the great subject of dispute
between the Xorth and South ; and its discussion was the cause
of increasing bitterness and alienation between the two sections.
When it became manifest that no organization of these Terri
tories could take place at this session, the members of Congress
from the slave States united in an address to their constituents,
which was a clear resume from the pen of John C. Calhoun of
what the South regarded as their constitutional rights. Thus
ended the administration of James K. Polk, and with it ths
Thirtieth Congress.
123 A REVIEW OF THE
CHAPTER VIII.
COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1850.
The 31st Congress assembled in December, 1849. Thaddeus
Stevens made his first appearance at the beginning of this Con
gress as a Whig member of the National House of Representa
tives, having been elected during the campaign which, bore Gen.
Taylor into the Presidential chair. Questions of the greatest
importance for the harmony of the States and for the peace and
prosperity of the Union, were awaiting the decision of the new
Congress ; and the American people were looking to it with fond
hopes for the adoption of measures that might avert the threat
ened dissolution of the Confederacy. The territorial contro
versy was that which, most of all, was arousing the passions of
sectional hostility ; and which had now raged with intensity for
a considerable period. Repeated efforts had already been made
to solve the territorial problem between the North and the South,
but all in vain. Tho 30th Congress had adjourned after fruitless
attempts to terminate the increasing difficulties.
California, New Mexico and Utah were awaiting the action of
the Federal Legislature to clothe them with their republican
regalia, which the exigencies of their several conditions required ;
the first already having formed a State Constitution, was asking
to be received as a member of the Union. The great question
to be determined was the status that should be given to the new
Territories as regards the institution of slavery. For the first
time in the history of the Republic, a small body of Representa
tives from the North, took their seats in Congress upon the
platform of opposition to the extension . of African Slavery.
Besides these, the large majority of northern Representatives,
whether Whigs or Democrats, were likewise in sentiment averse
to the spread of the institution over States and Territories, now
deemed free. With these latter Mr. Stevens was identified.
This state of opinion being well understood at the South, it is
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 123
but reasonable to suppose that a high degree of excitement would
prevail iu that section.
"Never had any Congress convened under so much excitement or
under so great responsibility as did the one on which then devolved the
disposition of this (slavery) question, under all the circumstances attend
ing it. The embarrassments of the period were increased from the fact
that for the first time Southern Senators and Members were greatly
divided as to the proper course to pursue, in view of the question with all
its bearings. Some believed the time had come for a separation of the
States, and that everything should be done with a view to effect that
result. Others believed that the Union might still be preserved upon
constitutional principles, and that the object was worth the most earnest
and patriotic efforts. This class believed, however, that the time had
come for a total abandonment of all old party associations, and that the
united South should act in party organization with those of the North
only, who would maintain the system as it was established by the Con
stitution."*
The storm that had almost driven the Ship of State upon the
shoals of disunion and civil convulsion was still raging, and
showed no signs of abating. It was the ^Eolus of abolitionism that
had let fly the winds of strife, and all was in commotion. Many
of the ]S"othern States were arrayed in bitter antagonism to their
Southern sisters, and through their Legislatures assailed the
institution of slavery in the most harsh and offensive terms.
Vermont, Connecticut and other Eastern States had passed reso
lutions declaring that " the existence of slavery and j the slave
trade in the District of Columbia is a national disgrace, &c.;"
and that their Senators and Representatives in Congress " are
hereby strictly instructed" to vote in every possible case for
what is called the AYilmot proviso ; and " to vote always,
and in every state of the question, for the abolition of slavery in
the District of Columbia, and against the admission of another
slave holding State into the Federal Union." These resolutions
and others of like character, were sent to the Governors of the
different States and to their representatives in Congress. As
giving the tendency of such resolutions and their transmission to
the Southern States, the following extract from the National
Intelligencer, the leading organ of the Whig party is inserted :
" In the substance of these resolutions, as in that of the Vermont re-o-
lutions on" kindred subjects at an earlier period of the session, we find the
fruitful cause of much of the excitement that within the last few months
* Stephens War between the States. Vol. 2, p. 177.
12 i A REVIEW OF THE
manifested itself in the Legislatures of the Southern States ; the exempli
fication of a practice reprehensible in itself, inconsistent with friendly
intercourse and justly offensive to those who are the objects of it. It is
an idle pretence, that it is from any motive of courtesy that copies of
such resolutions, as these are forwarded to the Governors of the States
whose feelings, more than their interests, they are calculated deeply to
wound ; they can be so addressed \v.th no other intention than to incense
and irritate those whose known opinions and convictions they wilfully
assail. The practice is at best an invidious and ungenerous one, and
ought to be reformed altogether. The States are in all matters of opinion
at least sovereign and independent of each other, and no one of them has
a right to invade (so to speak) the domesticity of another. What does
the reader suppose would be the consequence were one of the govern
ments of Europe to address such a missive to another w T ith respect to its
peculiar institutions ? Suppose, for example, the Government of France
were to send its compliments to the Government of Russia, with a mes
sage that the Emperor s holding of Serfs, or permitting them to be held
in his dominion, was (in the language of the Vermont resolutions) a crime
against humanity a national disgrace, and demanding the abolition of
that feature of government. True or false, what answer could Russia
be expected to make to such a proposition, but a declaration of war, or
war without a declaration ? And in matters of internal government,
what more right has one of our States to address such language to another
in a matter of constitutional right, than one European Government would
have to do it to another government on the same continent, and not more
remote or distinct from it than the Government of Vermont is from half
of the States on this continent."*
But another grievance much complained of by the South, was
the disposition of the people of the North to interpose obstructions
to the surrendering to their masters of fugitives from labor. This
change of sentiment from what it was formerly, had been
the result of the Anti-Slavery agitation that had almost severed
the nation into two hostile parties. In the early history of the
Republic, such a spirit of comity reigned between the North and
South, that laws were enacted in near all of the Northern States
which permitted citizens from the Southern States to sojourn in
their midst with their slaves, and return home without loosing
the right to their services. In the year 1826, Pennsylvania, at
the request of the people of Maryland, passed a liberal law to aid
in the recovery of fugitive slaves, entitled, "An Act to give
effect to the Constitution of the United States in reclaiming fugi
tives from justice." Other Northern States acted in a disposition
of like liberality. However, after Anti-Slavery ideas rose to
power in the North, all this friendly legislation in behalf of
*Editorial in National Intelligencer, February 23, 1850.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 125
Southern rights underwent a change. In the case of Prigg vs.
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, decided in 1842, the Supreme
Court of the United States affirmed the constitutionality of the
fugitive slave act of 1793. This act of Congress had imposed
upon the State magistrates the duty of arresting the fugitives
from labor and returning them to their owners. This duty the
Supreme Court in the above decision, declared not to be binding
upon the State magistrates, and whether they would aid Southern
masters in the recapture of their slaves, was left entirely to their
own discretion. Under this decision of the highest tribunal, it
became competent for the State Legislatures to prohibit their own
functionaries from aiding in the execution of the Fugitive Slave
Act.
" Then commenced a furious agitation against the execution of this
so called sinful and inhuman law. State magistrates were prevailed
upon by the Abolitionists, to refuse their agency in carrying it into effect.
The Legislatures of several States, in conformity with this decision,
passed laws prohibiting these magistrates and other State officials from
assisting in its execution. The use of the State Jails was denied for the
safe keeping of the fugitives. Personal Liberty Bills were passed, inter*
posing insurmountable obstacles to the recover}- of slaves. Every means
which ingenuity could devise was put in operation to render the law a
dead letter. Indeed, the excitement against it arose so high that the life
and liberty of the master who pursued his fugitive slave into a free Sta.e
were placed in imminent peril. For this he was often imprisoned and in
some instances murdered. *
Even the conservative State of Pennsylvania, by her Act of
March 3d, 184:7, repealed her Sojourning Act of 1780, and
also the Act of 1826, and therein forbade her judicial authori
ties to take cognizance of fugitive cases ; granted a habeas cor
pus remedy to any fugitive arrested, and denied the use of her
jails for their confinement. Thomas H. Benton thus speaks of
the Pennsylvania Act of 184:7 :
i; Such had been the just and generous conduct of Pennsylvania towards
the slave States, until up to the time of passing the harsh Act of 1847,
Her legal right to pass that Act is admitted ; her magistrates were not
bound to act under the Federal law ; her jails were not liable to be used
for Federal purposes. The Sojourning Law of 1780 was her own, and she
had a right to repeal it. But the whole Act of 1847 was the exercise of
a mere right against the comity, which is due to States united under a
common Jiead, against moral and social duty, against high national
policy, against the spirit, in which the constitution was made, against
her own previous conduct for sixty years ; and injurious and irritating
*Bu_-hanan s Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, p. 17.
120 A REVIEW OF THE
to the people of the slave States, and parts of it unconstitutional, The
denial of the intervention of her judicial officers and the use of her
prisons, though an inconvenience, was not insurmountable, and might
be remedied by Congress ; the repeal of the Act of 1780 was the radical
injury, and for which there \vas no remedy in the Federal legislation,"*
Testimony might be indefinitely amplified as regards the injus
tice done the southern people by northern legislation, and the
unwillingness of the citizens of the North to acquiesce in the
requirements of the Constitution, but unwilling to overburden
with extracts, the following from Webster and Clay are alone
added :
But I will state these complaints, especially one complaint of
the South, which has, in my opiiiitm, just foundation, and that is that
there has been found at the North, among individuals and among the
Legislatures of the North, a disinclination to perform fully their constitu
tional duties in regard to the return of persons bound to service who
have escaped into the free States. In that respect it is my judgment
that the South is right and the North is wrong. Every member of every
Northern Legislature is bound by oath to support the Constitution of the
United States, and this Article of the Constitution which says to these
States they shall deliver up fugitives from service, is as binding in honor
and conscience as any other Article. No man fulfills his duty in any
Legislature who sets himself to find excuses, evasions, anfl escapes
from their constitutional duty, I have always thought that the Con
stitution addressed itself to the Legislatures of the States, or the States
themselves. It says that those persons escaping to other free States shall
be delivered up, and I confess I have always been of opinion that it was
an injunction upon the States themselves. When it is said that a person
escaping into another, and becoming therefore within the jurisdiction of
that State shall be delivered up, it seems to me the import of the passage
as, that the State itself, in obedience to the Constitution, shall cause him
to be delivered up. That is my judgment, I have always entertained,
and I entertain it now,"f
" MR. PRESIDENT. I do think that that whole class of legislation,
oeginning in the Northern States, and extending to some of the South
ern States, by which obstructions and impediments have been thrown in
the way of the recovery of fugitive slaves is unconstitutional, and has
originated in a spirit which I trust will correct itself, when those States
come calmly to consider the nature and extent of their federal obliga
tions, * * * * I know full well, and so does the honorable Senator
from Ohio know, that it is at the utmost hazard and insecurity to life
itself, that a Kentuckian can cross the river and go into the interior to
take back his fugitive slave to the place from whence he fled. Recently
an example occurred, even in the City of Cincinnati, in respect to one of
our most respectable citizens. Not having visited Ohio at all, but Cov-
*Benton s View, Vol. II, p. 775.
| Webster s 7th of March Speech, 1850, in National Intelligencer.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 127
ington, on the opposite side of the river, a little slave of his escaped over
to Cincinnatti, He pursued it ; he found it in the house in which it was
concealed, and it was rescued by the violence and force of a negro mob
from his possession, the police of the city standing by, and either unwill
ing or unable to afford the assistance which was requisite to enable him
to recover his property."*
During the last days of Mr. Folk s administration, the veteran
statesman of South Carolina, John C. Calhoun, became more
than ever convinced that a crisis was approaching in the affairs
of America, that would, unless checked, prostrate the South and
her institutions, and with them the liberty of self-government.
With this foreboding, he urged more thorough union amongst
the Southern States, and in accordance with this advice, a large
number of Senators and Representatives from that section united
in an address to the people of the South, setting forth a state
ment of wrongs on the part of the North that demanded redress.
This address was responded to by a convention of delegates of
the people of Mississippi, chosen without distinction of party,
which assembled in October, 1849, and recommended that " a
convention of slave holding States should be held at Nashville,
Tennessee, on the first Monday of June, 1850, to devise and
adopt some mode of resistance to the aggression of the non-
slave holding States." Several Southern States appointed dele
gates to the Nashville Convention, but the movement was not
popular with those who believed that a compromise of the pend
ing difficulties between the two sections was still possible. The
convention, nevertheless, met in June, but was not largely
attended. It issued an address enumerating a statement of
southern complaints.
Notwithstanding the grievances alleged by the South against
the North were manifold, that which more than all else caused
the present excitement, was induced by the opposition that ex
isted to permitting the extension of slavery into the Territories
or States hereafter to be admitted into the TJnion. The Northern
Representatives had shown their unwillingness to either permit
the application of the Missouri compromise to the new Territory,
acquired from Mexico, or to acquiesce in any settlement which
would permit slavery to enter it. This was claiming the lion s
share, surely. If the principle of the Missouri compromise was
to be only valid, as regards one section of the Union, the com-
* Clay s 6th of March Speech, 1850, in National Intelligencer.
128 A REVIEW OF THE
pact had become a nullity. And such was the veritable fact, as
the votes in Congress for some years had shown. Whenever its
application served the interests of anti-slavery proscription, the
compromise was made use of;. but when the reverse was the
case, other means were then resorted to without scruple.
Such was the attitude of affairs when the 31st Congress assem
bled. The iirst significant movement at the opening of this
body that arrested the attention of the country, was made by
those known as Southern Whigs.
" They set the ball in motion by refusing to act further with
the Whig organization, as it was then constituted, when the party
met in caucus to nominate a Speaker of the House. A resolu
tion previously prepared was submitted to this meeting, which in
substance was, that Congress ought not to put any restriction
upon any State institution, in the Territories, and ought not to
abolish slavery, as it then existed, in the District of Columbia.
Upon the refusal even to entertain this proposition, this class
retired from the meeting, and would not act with the Whigs in
the organization of the House." * Ilowell Cobb, of Georgia,
was the Democratic candidate for the Speaker s Chair, and Robert
C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, was placed in nomination for the
same position by the Whigs. Fourteen independent Free Soilers,
composed of Whigs and Democrats, refused to support either of
these nominees. Thaddeus Stevens and many other extreme
anti-slavery men acted with the regular Whigs, and supported
Mr. Winthrop for Speaker. But neither of the two great parties,
as matters then stood, having a majority in the House, the elec
tion for Speaker was a long and fierce contest, and attracted the
attention of the country as one that boded no future good.
Nearly a month was consumed before a Speaker was elected, an
event then unprecedented in the history of American legislation.
As parties were divided, no election would have been possible,
under the rules, but for the passage of a resolution declaring
that a bare plurality of votes cast for any one candidate, instead
of a majority of the whole, should constitute an election.
In the midst of the election for Speaker, Robert Toombs, one
of the leaders of the Southern Whigs, made a speech in the
* Stephens War. Vol. 2, p. 178.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 120
midst of great excitement, in which the following language
occurs :
"The difficulties in the way of the organization of the House aro
apparent and well understood here, and shou d be understood by the
country. A great sectional question lies at the foundation of all these
troubles. * * * * I do not, then, hesitate to avow before this House
and the country, and in the presence of the living God, that if by your
legislation you seek to drive us from the Territories of California and
New Mexico, purchased by the common blood and treasure of the whole
people, and to abolish slavery in the District, thereby attempting to fix a
national degradation upon half of the States of this Confederacy, I ani
for disunion ; and if my physical courage be equal to the maintenance
of my convictions of right and duty, I will devote all I am, and all I
have on earth to its consummation." *
That the sentiments of the Southern people at this period were
equally as intense as those of their leaders in Congress, the follow
ing extract from a conservative Southern journal is evidence :
" The two great political parties of the country have ceased to exist in
the southern States, so far as the present issue is concerned. United they
will prepare, consult and combine for prompt and decisive action. With
united voices (we are compelled to make a few exceptions, but they will,
we hope, soon cease to be so) contend with united voices they proclaim
in the language of the Virginia resolutions, passed a few days since,
the preservation of the Union if we can, the preservation of our rights if
we cannot. This is the temper of the South ; and this is the temper
becoming the inheritors of rights acquired for freemen by the blood of
freemen. Thus far shalt thou come and no further or else the proud
waves of northern aggression shall float the wreck of the Constitution.
"We only love a Confederacy of equals ; for as equals we entered the
Union, and we will remain in it upon no other condition. This is the
deliberate conclusion of the Southern people. There is no hesitancy, no
reservation, no escape. The Southern man should die who would accept
for his State any other condition."!
The period was altogether alarming. The threatening clouds
of disunion were gathering thick and fast along the Southern
horizon ; and everything betokened a collision of the elements
as rapidly approaching. The dashing waves of abolition fury
indicated that the storm was almost equally terrific in the northern
as in the southern sections. The Vessel of State was in danger
of being borne upon the billows of the uniting tempest, and
sunk beneath its blasts. The exigency called for one who was
able to say to the troubled waters, " Peace, be still !" He came
in the person of the Sage of Ashland, the great Pacificator of
* Congressional Globe, 31st Congress, 1st Session, p. 27.
fRichmond Inquirer, Feb. 12th, 1850.
180 A REVIEW OF THE
his country, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, who on former occasions
had guided the rocking bark of the Union, as between the roar
ings of Scylla and Charybdis, and moored her in the harbor of
safety and peace. But now, silvered with the locks of honored
wisdom, gained in a long and faithful public service, he returned
to the United States Senate, to do the last service for his country
in clutching her from the grasp of fratricidal convulsion, which
the condition of her nature had been long preparing. Coming
back thus in the far spent evening of a useful life, he was the
admired of all the patriotic lovers of the constitution, who be
lieved in the cardinal principles of republican government, that
all just authority rests upon the consent of the governed. His
watchword of safety for his countrymen was that which had laid
the foundation, cemented, and for upwards of sixty years pre
served the Republic. It was the watchword of freemen, compro
mise. All petty partisan malignity retired before the honored
chief ; and his advise is anxiously sought as the Nestor of his
age and country. His illustrious compeers of other days, Web
ster and Galhoun, were still in the Senate, anxious to aid in
saving the nation from the dangers that were surrounding it.
The above intellectual trio were surrounded by Cass, Benton,
Berrien, King, Bell, Mangum, Douglas and other gifted states
men, all glowing with zeal for the preservation of the Union
from impending disaster and dissolution.
On the 29th of January, 1850, Henry Clay introduced his
celebrated resolutions which were intended to embrace all the
questions involved in the sectional controversy. It having been
announced that Clay would address the Senate on this occasion,
it was iilled with a dense mass of spectators, attracted to catch
the words of wisdom and peace as they flowed from the golden
mouthed orator of America. But thousands, anxious to hear the
words of pacification that might calm the ocean of strife, w r ere
necessitated to retire in disappointment, being unable to penetrate
within the hearing of the speaker. This, of all the scenes, that
American history has yet unfolded, w r as most worthy the powers
of a Raphael or Michael Angelo. It was America s greatest
orator, prompted by the noblest motives of his nature, speaking
before the most august and intellectual body of the world, in
behalf of the grandest object of human conception, the preserva
tion of the most complete system of free government that the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 1C1
wisdom of man had yet devised, and urging for that purposo
those measures by which alone it could be perpetuated, concilia
tion and compromise.
Mr. Clay s compromise proposed the admission of California
under the Constitution she had adopted, although irregularly
framed ; the adjustment of the boundary between New Mexico
and Texas by negotiation with the latter ; the organization of
Utah and New Mexico without any restriction as to slavery ; the
enactment of an efficient fugitive slave law, and the abolition of
the slave trade in the District of Columbia, This plan, as a
whole, satisiiecl very few members, either in the House or Senate,
The great majority from the North desired the exclusion of
slavery from the Territories, and many of the same number were
equally unwilling to permit the enactment of a fugitive slave
law. With this latter division Mr, Stevens may be numbered.
He, and those of intense anti-slavery notions, were likewise dis
inclined to accept alone the suppression of the slave trade in the
District, but insisted upon its entire abolition. On the southern
side, an overwhelming majority resisted the admission of Cali
fornia, because of the irregularity that had obtained in the adop
tion of the Constitution without an Act of Congress warranting
it. Those styled Southern Whigs were ready to waive this
irregularity, but demanded that in the organization of Utah and
New Mexico, no exclusion of slavery should be allowed, but that
the people of all the States should be at liberty to emigrate
thither with their property of every kind ; that the citizens of
the said Territories should be permitted to form such State Con
stitutions as they chose ; and that they should be admitted into
the Union, when making applications therefor, whether their
Constitutions established slavery or otherwise. Thus was Con
gress divided upon these perplexing questions.
On the 18th of February, a resolution was offered in the
House by James D. Doty, of Wisconsin, which had for its object
the admission of California, without any settlement of the other
questions. A large majority of the House was in favor of its
admission, but of this number the Southern Whigs desired as a
preliminary, the settlement of the territorial question. By a con
certed arrangement, these with others thwarted action on Mr.
Doty s resolution by means of dilatory motions.
In the Senate the intellectual giants 3 one after another, exerted
132 A REVIEW OF THE
themselves in efforts to effect some form of compromise that
would allay the sectional passions and the excitement then raging.
The veteran statesman of South Carolina, too feeble to mingle
in the strife as once he had done, submitted his last views on the
crisis in a speech read for him on the 4th of March, in which he
warned his countrymen of the danger that was menacing free
government, lie was followed on the 7th of March by Webster,
who took decided grounds- against Congressional restriction in
the Territories. " This speech made a prof ounder sensation upon
the public mind throughout the Union than any one delivered
by him before. The friends of the Union under the Constitu
tion were strengthened in their hopes and inspired with renewed
energies by its- high and lofty sentiments." * On the 18th of
April, a resolution submitted by Henry S. Foote, of Mississippi,
an ardent friend of compromise, wa& passed in the Senate to raise
a Select Committee of Thirteen, to whom the resolutions of Mr.
Clay were to be referred. The selection of this committee was
made by ballot, and the Chairmanship of it was- by almost unani
mous consent awarded to Mr. Clay. On the 8th of the following
month, the Chairman of this Committee reported to the Senate
what was afterwards known as the " Omnibus Bill" covering
all the matters contained in his resolutions heretofore submitted.
An amendment added by the majority (without Clay s appro-
bation, as he stated) seemed to southern members generally, to
imply a positive Congressional exclusion of the South from the
Territories.
On the llth of June, Mr. Doty r s bill for the admission of
California, came up in the IIouse y it having been referred to the
Committee of the Whole on the 27th of the preceding February.
His iirst resolution, instructing the Committee on Territories
to report the bill, had miscarried, Mr. Green, of Missouri,
now rose and moved as an amendment the recognition of the
Missouri line through all the newly acquired territory. This was
rejected by a large majority. Mr. Stanton, of Tennessee, on the
13th of June, offered the following amendment :
" Provided, However, that it shall be no objection to the admission
into the Union of any State which may bs hereafter formed out of the
territory lying south of the parallel of latitude of 36, 30 , that the Con
stitution of said State may authorize African slavery therein/*
Stephens War, Vol. II, p. 211,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 133
This proposition was rejected, 78 yeas to 89 nays, fhe vote
being almost a sectional one. After this vote had been taken,
Robert Toombs spoke as follows :
" We do not oppose California on account of the anti-slavery clause in
her Constitution. It was her right, and I am not prepared to say that
she acted unwisely in its exercise ; that is her business ; but I stand upon
the great principle that the South has the right to an equal participation
in the Territories of the United States. I claim the right to enter them
all with her property and securely to enjoy it. She will divide with you
if you wish it ;* but the right to enter all, or divide, I shall never sur
render. In my judgment, this right involving as it does political equality,
is worth a thousand such Unions as we have, even if they each \vere a
thousand times more valuable than this. * * * Give us our just
rights and we are ready "as ever heretofore to stand by the Union, every
part of it and every interest. Refuse it, and for one I will strike for
independence. v f
" This speech of Mr. Toombs delivered on the 15th of June,
produced the greatest sensation," says Alexander II. Stephens,
" in the House that I ever witnessed by any speech in that body
during my congressional course. It created a perfect commotion.
Several Southern Whigs who had not before sympathized with
the class above alluded to,^: now openly took sides with them.
The House adjourned without coming to any further vote. The
excitement in the House increased that in the Senate. It ex
tended to the city, and the subjects discussed in the House,
become the topics of heated conversations 011 the streets and at
the hotels. This was Saturday. Monday, Mr. Doty made another
effort to get a resolution passed requiring the Committee of the
Whole to report his bill. The effort failed."
In the Senate the excitement was equally as intense as in the
House. At this stage of the proceedings, Mr. Soule, of Louisiana,
arose and offered the following amendment to the first section of
Mr. Clay s compromise, which related to the Territorial Govern
ment of Utah :
*By this remark Mr. Toombs expressed his willingness to abide by the
Missouri compromise, provide i its principle would be applied to all th-3
new Territories, but as just seen that had been rejected in the vote last
taken in the House. His proposition must ever be considered as equit
able, and embodied that principle by which alone equals can at all nego
tiate.
i Congressional Globe. 31st Congress, 1st Session, p. 1216.
He means those Southern Wnigs who refused to co-operate with the
remaining Whigs in the election of a Speaker and otherwise, after the
resolution v resented by them to the Whig caucus had been rejected.
^Stephens War, Vol. II, p, 217.
134 A REVIEW OF THE
" And when the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be ad
mitted as a State, it shall be received into the Union, with or without
slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission."
This amendment presented the issue squarely between the
North and the South, and become thenceforth " the turning point >
upon whose adoption every thing depended, so far as concerned
Mr. Clay s compromise."* Many a Inart beat with anxiety as to
the result of the vote upon this question in the Senate. Its re
jection in this august body of the nation, would have terminated
all hope of a satisfactory adjustment of the slavery question be
tween the two sections. The interest was greatly enhanced from
the uncertainty and doubt which existed as to the attitude of
several Northern Senators. Prior to this time, the "Wilmot pro
viso had received the support of several of these, who had given
no indication as to how they would vote upon the question of
leaving to the people of the Territories the determination of this
question when framing their State Constitutions. Of this number
was the great Senator from Massachusetts. Just before the ques
tion was put, and when anxiety had risen to its highest pitch,
this renowned statesman of New England arose to address the
Senate. The momentuous occasion aroused the dormant virtues
of the powerful defender of the Republic, and forgetful of self
or sectional interests, he proclaimed himself the advocate of the
rights of all under the Constitution. The amendment he de
clared should receive his support. lie concluded his masterly
effort in the following language :
" Sir, my object is peace my object is reconciliation. My purpose is
not to make a case for the North, or to make a case -for the South. My
object is not to continue useless and irritating controversies. I am
against agitators, North and South ; I am against local ideas, North or
South, and against all narrow and local contests. I am an American
and I know no locality in America. That is my country. My heart, my
SQntiments, my judgment, demand of me that I should pursue such a
course as shall promote the good, the harmony, and the union of the
whole country. This I shall do, God willing, to the end of the chapter."
" Daniel Webster resumed his seat," says the reporter, " amidst
the general applause of the gallery." The anxiety seemed im
mediately to subside. The great statesman of the North had
thrown his weight in the scale of the amendment. " The friends
of the measure felt .that it was safe. The vote was taken the
-Stephens War, Vol. II, p. 218.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 135
amendment was adopted. The result was soon communicated
from the galleries, and finding its way through every passage
and outlet to the rotunda, was received with exultation by the
crowd there ; and in less than five minutes, perhaps, the electric
wires were trembling with the gladsome news to the remotest
parts of the country. It was well calculated to make a nation
leap with joy, as it did, because it was the first decisive step
taken towards the establishment of that great principle upon
which this territorial question was disposed of, adjusted and set
tled in 1850."*
Mr. Clay s bill continued the subject of discussion in the Sen
ate until the 31st of July, when it was so mutilated and altered
as to leave nothing but that portion providing for a government
for the Territory of Utah, with the Soule amendment incorpor
ated in it, as stated. In this shape it passed the Senate and was
then sent to the House. In this way, Clay s " Omnibus Bill"
went to pieces. The Senate, however, immediately took up the
parts, embodied them in separate bills, which, after being passed,
were transmitted to the House for concurrence.
But the anti-compromise party of the Thirty-first Congress,
was far from being one of insignificance, either numerically or
intellectually. Being the result of the long anti-slavery agitation,
it comprised in its ranks men of large scholastic attainment, and
guch as were imbued with pure humanitarian impulses, but whose
minds partaking too largely of the reformatory bent, are never
safe counsellors in legislative capacities. For the establishment
and perpetuation of government, men of logical minds and
philosophical comprehensions are needed, rather than those de
voted to assumed conceptions which no rational considerations
could induce them to modify or abandon. The legislator and
the reformer f are widely variant characters, whose spheres of
-Stephens War, Vol. II, pp, 219 and 220.
t The reformer is the enthusiastic advocate of moral, social or religious
change as he conceives ; for the alteration he aims to effect may be a dire
calamity to mankind. He is the honest innovator upon the past "who is
guided by his feelings more than by his judgment. His aspirations are
too intense to allow reason to enter, and hence he gives way to the most
extravagant excesses that prostrate law and social order. Peter Munzer
and John of Leyden, were quite as sincere reformers as Martin Luther
and John Calvin ; and so as social reformers, Robespierre, Danton and
Mirabeau were as sincere and enthusiastic champions of human equality
as the world ever saw. But intolerance, proscription and zealous hate
more frequently accompany the character of the reformer than that
Pauline charity which even nature instills. That such should be the case
133 A REVIEW OF THE
duty dare never be intermingled, save at the risk of constant
t irmoil and governmental disquietude. The sentiments of this
reformatory party on the subject of compromise between the
North and South were expressed in the following extract of a
speech made by Thaddeus Stevens on May 20th, 1850 :
" It is proper, then, to inquire whether the thing (slavery] sought to be
.forced upon the Territories, at the risk of treason and rebellion, be a
good or an evil. I think it is a great evil which ought to be interdicted ;
and that we should oppose it as statesmen, as philanthropists, and as
moralists, notwithstanding the extraordinary position taken by the gen
tleman from Alabama (Mr. Hilliard) to the contrary.
"While I thus announce my unchangeable hostility to slavery, in
every form and in every, place, I also avow my determination to stand
by all the compromises of the Constitution and to carry them into faith
ful effect. Some of these compromises I greatly dislike ; and were they
now open for consideration, they should never receive my assent.* But
I find them in a Cor-stitution formed in difficult times, and I would not
disturb them.
"By those compromises, Congress has no power over slavery in the
States. I greatly regret that it is so ; for if it were within our legitimate
control, I would go regardless of all threats, for some just, safe and cer
tain means for its final extinction. But I know of no one who claims
the right, or desires to toujh it within the States. But when we come to
form governments for Territories acquired long since the formation of
the Constitution and to admit new States, whose only claim for admis
sion depends on the will of Congress, we are bound to so discharge that
arises from the nature of his character ; for as he conceives hi nself aid
those agreeing in opinion with him. as the only divinely illumine. I beings
on earth, he desires that all others shall either be converted to his views
or exterminated, so as to prevent their errors from proving the destruc
tion of themselves and others. The fires of Smithfield, the Inquisitc rial
flames of Spain and the Italian peninsula, and the blazes in whicii
Servetus expired, were all kindled by the excessive zeal of the reforma
tory spirit.
*As regards the principle of compromise, we think Mr. Stevens was
radically wrong, assu ning that he was a believer in the principles of
republican government. No general government for the States could
ever have been formed in America but for this principle. It lies at the
basis of all democratic government, and so soon as it is repudiated tho
monarchical principle takes its place. In accordance with this principle,
the Confederated American Republic was formed and perpetuated until
the breaking out of the war between the Northern and Southern States.
As evidence of what is thus affirmed as regards the principle of com
promise, the Supreme Court in the case of Pr g? vs. the Commonwealth,
speaking of the Fugitive Slave Clause in the Constitution, say : " His-
.torically, it is well known that the object of this clause (the above clause
of the Constitution) was to secure for the citizens of the slaveholdiiig
States, the complete right and title of ownership in their slaves as prop
erty, in every State of the Union into which they might escape from the
State where they were held in servitude. The full recognition of this
right and title was indispensable to the security of this species of property
in all the slaveholdiiig States ; and indeed was so vital to the preserva
tion of their domestic institutions, that it cannot be doubted that it con-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 187
duty as shall best contribute to the prosperity, the power, the permanency
and the glory of this nation."*
In the House the great sectional contest was fought on the
Soule amendment offered by Mr. Boyd, of Kentucky, to the
bill establishing the Territory of Xew Mexico. During this con
test, which lasted from the 2Sth of August until the 6th of
September, the discussions were of the most animated character,
and partisan tactics were made use of with the greatest skill and
adroitness. In this fierce strife of the sections, the debates seemed
to open on every succeeding day with renewed intensity, and
in the war of sentiments destiny seemed as but arousing the
combatants, and preparing them for the trials that awaited them
in the future. In this and similar encounters, unless the verdict
of universal history be reversed, the American Republic received
her first fatal stabs ; and it is for time to determine whether she
can outlive those already received, and those which, from the
nature of her being, the enemies of her own household in future
as in past collisions, will have it in their power to inflict. On
the last direct vote, on the Boyd amendment, the bill passed by
108 ayes to 98 nays. The anti-restrictionists had won the day at
last. The hall was in a general uproar. This was the kernel of
the compromise of 1850. The other associated measures de
pended upon this one, and with it formed the compact of settle
ment between the Xorth and South, After the passage of this
first bill, the others came up in order, and were likewise passed.
The fugitive slave bill, like that embracing the Territorial com
promise, met with a stubborn resistance from the Northern Anti-
Slavery men with whom Mr. Stevens acted.
The compromise measures were heartily accepted by the masses
North and South, as a settlement of the difficulties between the
two sections. It had received the support of the distinguished
leaders of the Whig and Democratic parties ; and the people are
ever ready to abide by the words of those possessing their confi
dence. Although the Anti-Slavery men in the Xorth, and the
Southern extremists had opposed the compromise, this was
stituted a fundamental article, without which the Union could not have
been formed. Its true design was to guard against the doctrines and
principles prevalent in the non-slaveholding States, by preventing them
from intermeddling with, or obstructing or abolishing the rights of own
ers of slaves."
* Appendix to Congressional Globe, 31st Congress, Part 1st, p. 1-11.
1C8 A REVIEW OF THE
not considered at the time as alarming. It was clear to all
observing men, however, that the dissolution of the Whig party
WS near at hand, as it was within the ranks of this organization
that most of the Free Soil snd Abolition element of the country
found itself. But it was also evident that the Democratic party
of the North was not, by any means free from the same element,
and the Southern leaders began to consider the propriety of a re
organization of parties. It was this which induced Henry Clay,
Ilowell Cobb, and many other Southern leaders, at the close of
the compromise session, to unite in a manifesto to the country
declaring that they in future would support no man for office
either State or Federal, who would not agree to stand by and
support the principles established by these measures. But in the
Southern States efforts were made to succeed under party ban
ners opposed to the compromise, all of which, however, proved
f lilures ; and the same was true where it was tried in the North.
Mr. Stevens was nominated for Congress in the year 1850,
while the compromise measures were yet pending, and his party
having an immense majority in Lancaster County, he was elected.
But his action in Congress as regarded the compromise arrayed
in 1852 a powerful opposition against him in Lancaster County,
and he failed to receive the nomination of the party in that year.
Isaac E. Hiester, a young and rising lawyer, was selected as the
Congressional standard-bearer in his stead. No other opposition
was urged against his nomination, except that of his having op
posed the compromise of 1850. His intellectual superiority over
all other aspirants in the county was generally conceded ; but he
was then regarded by the majority of his party (as he ever was by
the Democrats) as partaking too much of the character of the
agitator, one dangerous to the perpetuity of free institutions.
The great unanimity with which the Northern Whigs in Con
gress had opposed the compromise, made it a matter of uncer
tainty, whether the party would be able to unite as a National
organization in the Presidential election of 1852. The Whigs in
some sections of the North, fought the compromise with straight-
f >rward boldness, and arrayed themselves under banners inscribed
with ti condemnation. In 1851, the Whig State Convention of
Ohio passed resolutions repudiating the compromise as a measure
of their party, and nominated Samuel F. Yinton for Governor,
who, while in Congress, had opposed it. The New York State
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 139
Convention of the Whig party, shortly after Millard FiHmore
assumed the Presidential chair, refused to endorse his policy, be
cause he had sanctioned the Fugitive Slave Law. For the pur
pose, therefore, of testing Northern sentiment on the Slavery
question, hefore the assembling of the party conventions for the
nomination of candidates for the Presidency, Mr. Jackson, of
Georgia, on the 5th of April, 1852, submitted in the National
House of Representatives the following resolution :
"Resolved, That we recognize the binding efficacy of the compromises
of the Constitution, and believe it to be the intention of tAie people gen
erally, as we freely declare it to be ours, individually, to abide by such,
and to sustain the laws necessary to carry them out the provisions for
the delivery of fugitive slaves, and the act of the last Congress, for that
purpose included ; and that we deprecate all further agitation of questions
growing out of that provision of the questions embraced in the acts of
the last Congress, known as the compromise, and of questions generally
connected with the institution of slavery, as unnecessary, useless and
dangerous."
This resolution was opposed by all the Northern Whigs in the
House of Representatives except seven. The Whig Congress
ional caucus met on the 20th of April, 1852, in the Senate
Chamber, to consider matters of political interest to the Whig
party, at which Mr. Marshall, of Kentucky, submitted the fol
lowing resolution :
" That they regard the series of Acts known as the Compromise Meas
ures, as forming in their mutual dependence and connection, a system of
Compromise, the most conciliatory and the best for the whole country,
that could be obtained from conflicting sectional interests and opinions ;
and thert fore they ought to be observed and carried into faithful execu
tion, as a final settlement in principle and substance of the dangerous
and exciting subjects which they embrace."
This resolution was ruled to be out of order, and the decision
of the Chair was sustained by a vote of 46 to 21. The members
who voted to sustain the decision of the Chair were from the
North, and in principle opposed to the compromise. Thereupon
a number, of Whigs from the Southern States seceded from the
car.CLis and published an address to the party throughout the
United States.
The Whig National Convention assembled at Baltimore June
16th, 1852, and exhibited a division in its ranks without precedent
in party annals. The Northern Whigs, who had opposed the
passage of the compromise measures in Congress, and had never
110 A REVIEW OF THE
since acquiesced in their justice, (especially the fugitive slave
law) presented as their candidate for the Presidency General
Winfield Scott, who was believed to be opposed to the institution
of Southern slavery ; and on the other hand, the Southern Whigs
were favorable to the nomination of Fillmore, who had approved
the compromise measures of 1850. A few delegates from the
Northern States were desirous that Daniel Webster should be
made the party nominee. The Southern and the Northern anti-
slavery wing of the party held their respective conclaves in a
spirit of the most bitter hostility towards each other. Section
alism had severed the Whig party. All that remained of it was
the form ; and yet it was hoped that a Presidential campaign
might be made with a popular nominee, and that thus the lifeless
trunk might be galvanized into a brief vitality. A platform cf
principles for the party had been agreed upon by the Southern
delegates and the Northern friends of Webster prior to the meet
ing of the convention, which endorsed the compromise of 1850
as a measure of Whig policy. It was clsarly understood, that
miles? the party in convention affirmed this measure as a final
settlement between the North and South, the Southern delegates
would take no part in the proceedings. The Southern delegates,
with the Webster wing from the North, formed a majority of
the convention, and the compromise was endorsed by 164 ayes to
117 nayes. The resolution affirming the measure, as a principle
of the party, was in these words :
" The series of acts of the Thirty-first Congress, commonly known as
the Compromise, or the adjustment, (the act for the recovery of fugitives
from labor included) are received and acquiesced in by the Whig party of
the United States as a final settlement in principle and substance of the
dangerous and exciting questions which they embrace ; and so far as
these acts are concerned, we will maintain them and insist upon their
strict enforcement until time and experience shall demonstrate the
necessity of further legislation to guard against the evasion of the laws
on the one hand, and the abuse of their power on the other ; not impair
ing their present efficiency to carry out the requirements of the Consti
tution ; and we deprecate all further agitation of the questions thus
settled as dangerous to our peace ; and we will discountenance all efforts
to continue or renew such agitation whenever, wherever, or however
made ; and we will maintain this settlement as essential to the nationality
of the Whig party and the integrity of the Union."
General Winfield Scott and William A. Graham were nomi
nated for President and Vice-president of the United States.
After the enactment of the compromise, i i 1S50 3 the Demo-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 141
cratic party manifested its approval of this series of measures,
and its determination to abide by the same. In the year 1851,
the convention of this party for the State of Pennsylvania, met
at Reading and adopted resolutions condemning the Act of ISl 7,
passed by the State Legislature, which denied the use of her
jails for the detention of fugitive slaves, and also approving of
the compromise measures of 1850. The State Convention of
Ohio nominated Reuben Wood for Governor in 1851, and after
his election, in his inaugural address, speaking of the compromise,
he said :
"Under all the circumstances which surround us, it (the compromise)
should remain undisturbed, and this fruitful source of agitation and
excitement be forever closed."
The Democratic National Convention assembled on the 1st of
June, 1852, and adopted a platform of principles which was
strictly national, and reaffirmed its ancient position on the slavery
question. As regards the compromise of 1850, the convention
declared its purpose to " adhere to a faithful execution of the
acts known as the compromise measures, settled by the last Con
gress the act for reclaiming fugitives from service or labor
included ; which act, being designed to carry out an express pro
vision of the Constitution, cannot with fidelity thereto be repealed
or so changed as to impair its efficiency." " The Democratic
party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of
it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or
color the attempt may be made," The nominees of this conven
tion were Gen, Franklin Pierce and William R. King, of Ala
bama.
The Free Soil party, which had supported Yan Buren and
Adams in 1818, assembled again in 1852, and nominated for
President John P. Hale, of Xew Hampshire, and for Yico
President George W. Julian, of Indiana, It was then, as now,
styled the " Free Soil Democracy," The platform of this party
is quite elaborate in words, and yet it narrows itself down sub
stantially to a denunciation of the institution of slavery. It
declares slavery a sin against God and man ; pronounces the Fu
gitive Slave Law repugnant to the Constitution of the Un tid
States ; advocates the policy of recognizing the Independence of
Hayti, and says that " The Free Democratic party is not organ
ized to aid either the \Yhig or Democratic wing of the great
143 A REVIEW OF THE
slave-compromise party of the nation, but to defeat them both."
This party received the support of the radical abolitionists of the
Northern States. The number of votes polled by this partv was
not so large in 1852 as it polled in 1848.
The Democratic party obtained a triumphant victory in the
campaign of 1852, utterly routing their Whig opponents in every
State of the Union, save four. After his inauguration, Franklin
Pierce as President of the United States, took occasion in his
first annual message to the 33d Congress to announce his deter
mination to conform to the pledges given in his behalf by those
who had elected him to the Presidency, He said :
"It is no part of my purpose to give prominence to any subject which
may be properly regarded as set at rest by the deliberate judgment of
the people, but whilst the present is bright with promise, and the future
full of demand and inducement for the exercise of active intelligence,
the past can never be without useful lessons of admonition and instruc
tion. If its dangers serve not as beacons, they will evidently fail to ful
fill the objects of a wise design. "When the grave shall have closed over
all who are now endeavoring to meet the obligations of duty, the year
1850 will be recurred to as a period filled with anxious apprehension. A
successful war had just terminated. Peace brought with it a vast aug
mentation of territory. Disturbing questions arose, bearing upon the
domestic institutions of one portion of the Confederacy, and involving
the constitutional rights of the States. But, notwithstanding differences
of opinion and sentiment which then existed in relation to the details of
specific divisions, the acquiescence of distinguished citizens, whose
devotion can never be doubted, had given renewed vigor to our institu
tions and restored a sense of repose and security to the public mind
throughout the Confederacy, That this resposo is to suffer no shock
during my official term if I have the power to avert it, those who placed
me here may be assurrcd."
The career of the "Whig party was now terminated. The
Presidential canvass of 1852 was the closing contest in which it
participated. Clay and Webster, its renowned leaders, had de
scended to their graves and their party speedily followed them.
The last cohesive elements that had still united it, dissolved in
the demise of these patriotic and intellectual men, the noblest
productions of the American Republic. With these great states
men, broad, liberal, National ideas were cherished ; but with those
who rose to take their places, sectional views were fostered as of
paramount importance to confederated integrity. Only an op
portunity was now wanting to develop, to evident observation,
the existing schism that had rent the Whig party into sectional
extremes.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 143
CHAPTER IX.
RESISTANCE TO THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. CHRISTIANA RIOT, &C.
The disinclination of the Northern people to surrender fugi
tive slaves to their masters, when they had made their escape
amongst them, originated in that humanitarian feeling which
recognizes all men as equals and brethren of the same great
family. The equality of mankind, from its popular announce
ment in the Declaration of Independence and its constant repeti
tion in the newspaper press and elsewhere, had become in the
estimation of most Americans an accepted opinion, even amongst
the intelligent classes; and one that reason has difficulty to
contradict. Its repetition and belief was agreeable to the feel
ings of the masses, and proved in the possession of demagogues,
an admirable charm by which to seduce the unreflecting into the
support of their selfish interests and schemes. In its earliest
promulgation, it was thrown out simply as a declaration that
seemed to comport with Democratic theories, rather than as
expressing existing truth. In the estimation of the thinking
world, it could never have imported what it expressed ; for
inequality is clearly stamped upon the whole face of creation.
The proposition that " all men are born equal," is a sheer
absurdity. " All men are born unequal. Their education is un
equal. Their associations are unequal. Their opportunities are
unequal. And their freedom is as unequal as their equality.
The poor are compelled to serve the rich, and the rich are com
pelled to serve the poor by paying for their services. The politi
cal party is compelled to serve the leaders, and the leaders are
compelled to scheme and toil in order to serve the party. The
multitude are dependent upon the few who are endowed with
talents to govern. And the few are dependent on the multitude
for the power, without which all government is impossible.
From the top to the bottom of the social fabric the whole is thus
Been to be inequality and mutual dependence. And hence, all
144 A REVIEW OF THE
mankind, from the hightest to the lowest are subject to that
imperative necessity, the slavery of circumstances," *
But even truth itself, is for a time impotent to resist the se
ductive insinuations of the feelings, as the demonstrations of history
and experience abundantly prove. The opposition to the sur
render of Southern fugitives to their masters, which for years
had been increasing in intensity in the North, was germinated
amongst the masses in both social and ecclesiastical views. In the
latter aspect the position taken by the Northern Methodist, Bap
tist and other protestant churches, had largely contributed to
increase in the minds of innocent and pious Christians their
dislike of Southern slavery and their detestation to the rendition
of human chattels. Overlooking the fact that slavery opposition
had taken its rise in the schools of free thought, and in the ra
tionalistic churches of England and America, the zealous of the
other sects, marched blindly to the advocacy of principles that
have done more to subvert biblical Christianity and ecclesiastical
truth, than any other that could have been adopted. The daring
assumption of infidel teaching, that law and social order must
yield to private opinion as the most holy and sacred conservator
of truth, was loudly re-echoed by the Northern churches ; and
the doctrines avowed with unbl ushing eft ontry, that no enactment
of Congress could impose it as a duty, to aid the Southern master
in the reclamation of his escaped property. The angel s mandate
to Ilagar, and St. Paul s conduct towards Onesimus, together with
the action of the Christian church in all anterior ages, were entirely
forgotten. The modern churches had so far exchanged the prin
ciples of the bible for the infidel moral codes of latter ages ; and
blindly permitted their new teachers to exercise the chief influ
ence in their synagogues, and consecrate those filling the highest
seats in the nation.
In the case of those entertaining views as thus stated, it would
be resonable to suppose that the fugitive slave law could impart
no obligation to yield acquiescence in its provisions. No sooner
was it, therefore, enacted in 1850, as part of the great compro
mise between the States of the Union, than meetings were held
in various sections, and resolutions adopted by the rationalistic
high priests of the Northern sanctuaries and their neophite
church followers, denouncing the act as \vicked and inhuman.
^Hopkins Bible View of Slavery, p. 23 and 24.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. / 1-15 V
Of the rationalistic American churches, none had shown so
early and determined an opposition to the institution of slavery
as the Quakers ; and this, because of the character of its mem
bership and remarkable freedom from all faith domination. In
its organization, as an ecclesiastical body, it had divested itself of
every conceivable appendage of biblical belief, for which reason
was unable to interpose a solution ; and therefore it was not
difficult for it, in addition to all this, to accept as Christian teach
ing, what had been conceived in the schools of French and
British free thought. The Quakers, as a people, originally be
longed, in the main, to the humble and unpretentious classes:
and a simplicity marked their conduct and character, even to the
eschewing of the higher grades of intellectual culture and ad
vanced education. A plain, unadorned and unobtrusive manner
pervaded the every-day life of Quaker society, which seemed to
present a cognate affinity with the ascetic orders of history. It
is not strange, therefore, that that church should be the first to
denounce slavery as unchristian, which was able to set aside all
the historical verity of the world s existence ; and conceive that
society, with its attained development could subsist without the
resistant power ; and that national life could endure without that
highest coercive of humanity, legalized warfare.
" Upon the organization of the anti-slavery societies through
out the Northern States, it was to be expected that the Quakers
should figure prominently in these efforts to abolish slavery. All
that the Quakers and the other anti-slavery organizations could
effect was to keep up an agitation of the slavery question, and
thus endeavor to educate the public conscience up to their prin
ciples. In this, they were to a very great degree successful.
Their opinions entered others of the American churches, and
divisions of the same followed, marked by the Mason and Dixon
boundary. The American Union, in the eyes of many of the
leading statesmen of the nation, was again rocking in the throes
of disunion or civil convulsion ; and another compromise, headed
by Clay and Webster, was sanctioned by the National Congress
in 1850, which made it the duty of the Northern States to sur
render fugitive slaves to their masters, where. the proper legal
demand was made for them. Against the compromise of 1850,
and especially against the fugitive slave law, the Northern con
science at length fully revolted. Slavery being regarded as a sin
146 ; A REVIEW OF THE
by a large portion of the intelligent citizens of the North ; that
they should be compelled to render aid in capturing the fleeing
fugitive from labor, was altogether incompatible with their sense
of duty. In their view they would rather bear the penalty of
the law as aid in its execution. No law could justly, as they
believed, compel them to violate conscience."
" In no section of the whole North was there a more deter
mined feeling of opposition or disinclination to the execution of
the fugitive slave law than in the eastern part of Lancaster
County, where the citizens were mostly either Quakers or their
descendants. For years fugitive slaves had found among
the people of Sadsburg and Salisbury townships kind treatment,
and quite a colony of them had been congregated and settled in
the vicinity of^Cliristiana. It was natural to suppose that the
fleeing fugitive would direct his steps to a retreat amongst the
friends of his liberty, rather than amongst those who were ready
to surrender hiiir for pelf, or out of hatred to his race." *
Some of the slaves of Edward Gorsuch, a highly respectable
citizen of Maryland, had made their escape into the eastern part
of Lancaster County, and were living amongst others of their
race in that section. Mr. Gorsuch, having ascertained the locality
of his slaves, set out for Pennsylvania in search of the absconded
property. He called upon and made the requisite affidavits
before Edwaad D. Ingrahara, Commissioner of the United States,
appointed under the fugitive slave law of 1850. That officer
issued four warrants dated September 9th, 1851, directed to
Henry II. Kline, as Deputy Marshall, by virtue of which he was
authorized to arrest Joshua Hammond, George Hammond, Nelson
Ford and Noah Buley, four fugitive slaves, believed to be living
in Lancaster County. The facts of the issuing of the writs be
came known to a colored tavern keeper in Philadelphia by the
name of Samuel Williams, who with another colored man pre
ceded the official party to the neighborhood where the slaves
resided, and where the arrests were to have been made, and gave
notice to the negroes of the vicinage that officers would shortly
visit them for the purpose of capture. Word was at once circu
lated amongst the negroes of the colony, and such white persons
as were known to sympathize with them, and it was resolved that
^Harris Biographical History of Lancaster County, pp. 148 and 149.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 147
united resistance should be made to all attempts to recapture the
fugitive slaves. The negroes were emboldened to this resolution
by the known views of a large number of the influential citi
zens of the neighborhood, who in their hearing had frequently
expressed their disapprobation of slavery and the fugitive slave
law. Meetings of the citizens in that locality even had been
held after the enactment of that law, condemning it as wicked
and unjust ; and that the Northern people owed no obligation to
aid in its execution. Besides, there is little doubt but the negroes
had the quiet approbation of some of their influential neighbors,
by whom, perhaps, in all probability, the first suggestion of
resistance to capture may have been made*
As soon as the warrants for the arrest of the fugitives were
placed in the hands of Deputy Marshal Kline, arrangements
were made for executing the writs as speedily as possible, Edward
Gorsuch was accompanied by Dickinson, his son, Dr, Thomas
Pearce, a nephew, and Joshua Gorsuch ; besides two neighbors,
who had come to assist in making capture of the fugitives.
Deputy Marshal Kline and the Maryland capturing party set out
for Lancaster County, taking different modes of conveyance, and
arrived at Christiana early on the morning of September llth. "
Having secured the service of one acquainted with the locality,
they started on hunt of the fugitives ; and when they had neared
a tavern kept by a negro named Parker, about two miles from
Christiana, they espied one of the slaves coming down the lane
from Parker s house , As soon as the slave saw them, he returned
and fled to 1&e house, pursued by the party ; but he succeeded in
eluding their grasp. He made his way up stairs, and the party
in search of him immediately surrounded the house so as to pre
vent escape,
But it was soon apparent that resistance to the execution of
the writs was determined upon,, for as the party was approaching
the house, a horn was distinctly heard, which proved to be a sig
nal for the collecting of their friends, Edward Gorsuch, the
owner, and the Deputy Marshal, now entered the house and, dis
covering that several blacks were up stairs, they demanded of
them that they surrender, which they promptly refused and
began loading their guns, showing the utmost determination of
resistance, Mr. Gorsuch, addressing his slave by name, said :
" Come down, ^Nelson, I know your voice ; I know you," and
1-18 A REVIEW OF THE
after a pause added : " If you come down and go home with me,
without any trouble, we will overlook the past." One of the
negroes answered, " If you take one of us you must do so over
our dead bodies !" The Marshal now read his warrant aloud,
and assurred the negroes that he was clothed with the legal
authority to make the arrest. Mr. Gorsucli now called upon the
Deputy Marshal to ascend the stairs and arrest the fugitive ; and
in attempting to do so he was struck at with a sharp instrument
and compelled to desist. Mr. Gorsucli, in the meantime, stepped
outside and called to his slave and endeavored to persuade him
to surrender himself peaceably to his authority ; and while doing
so was shot at by one of the negroes from a window, but the
shot failed to take effect. The Marshal again read his warrant,
and advised the negroes of the peril of resisting the authority of
the Government ; and added, that if it became necessary, he
would call upon additional assistance to aid him in making the
arrest. lie told Parker, the keeper of the house, that he would
hold him responsible unless he surrendered the negroes, as the
law required. Parker replied that he was a Pennsylvania!!, and
did not care for the law, but asked for a few moments for reflec
tion, that they might determine what course to pursue.
During this period, two white men named Castner Hanway
and Elijah Lewis, the former on horseback and the latter on
foot, suddenly appeared upon the ground. This was seen to have
the effect of inspiring enthusiasm into the negroes in the house,
who immediately set up a cheering. Whether any previous secret
understanding had existed between these whites and the negroes,
may perhaps never be fully ascertained ; but the cheering raised
upon their appearance had a very suspicious aspect. Edward Gor
sucli requested the Marshal, to ask these white men to assist in
making the arrest. lie approached the one on horseback, Han-
way, and politely addressed him, without receiving any recogni
tion of his salutation. He then asked him if he belonged to
that neighborhood, and received as the reply, " it is none of your
business." He next inquired of him his name, and was told,
" you will have to find it out." The Marshal next informed him
! who he was, and of his authority for making the arrest, at the
same time handing him his warrant. Hanway read the warrant, and
returned it to the officer. He also handed it to Lewis, the other
white man, who read it in like manner, and afterwards returned
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 149
it. The Marshal now called upon them, by virtue of his
authority, to assist him in executing his writ. Han way replied,
that " he would have nothing to do with it ; he would not assist
at all ; the negroes had a right to defend themselves." By this
time a considerable number of negroes had made their appearance
near the lane armed with double-barrelled guns, pistols, corii-
cutters, scythes and clubs. The organization had been complete ;
and soon as the horn was sounded, as above indicated, the negroes
began to assemble from all directions. Lewis told the Marshal
that he had better desist from attempting to make the arrest,
otherwise blood would be shed. All this time the negroes were
gathering, and evinced by their manner a spirit of the most
determined resistance, and some of them were already standing
with their guns cocked, and near enough to hear the conversation
of the officer with Hanway and Lewis. The Marshal, seeing
the number of the negroes and the threatening demonstrations
made by them, asked Lewis to influence the negroes not to lire
upon them, and he would withdraw his party, but was told by
him that " the negroes might defend themselves." The blacks
in the house, seeing their friends gathered in such abundance,
came out and mingled with them. "Hanway walked his horse
up to where the crowd of negroes were, and he spoke something-
low to them, and they gave one shout ; he walked his horse about
twenty or thirty yards, and looked towards them, and they tired
up where Mr. Gorsuch was." *
Edward Gorsuch immediately fell, and his son Dickinson, run
ning to his assistance, was also shot in the breast and lungs, and
fell to the ground. Dr. Pearce was likewise shot in several
places, but succeeded in making his escape. Deputy Marshal
Kline, Joshua Gorsuch, and the other two individuals, kelson
and Hut chins, who formed part of the capturing party, all speed
ily made their escape as best-they could. Edward Gorsuch was
mutilated by the negroes, his pockets rifled of about $300, and
left lying dead where he fell. His son Dickinson was i esaued
from death through the interposition of an old colored man, who
begged of the murderers to spare his life, and he was shortly
afterwards removed by some white persons who visited the scene,
to the house of Levi Pownall, where he lay a considerable time
before he could be removed.
* Evidence of Marshal Kline in Report of Christiana Tragedy, p. 7.
150 A REVIEW OF TUB
As soon as the news of this ocrurrence reached Lancaster,
John L. Thompson, the District Attorney, and J. Franklin Rei-
gart, an Alderman, accompanied by some of the most resolute
citizens, repaired at once to Christiana, and after taking certain
legal steps, proceeded to arrest the suspected parties. Nine were
taken in less than two hours. Castner Hanway and Elijah Lewis,
hearing of the warrants, surrendered themselves without resist
ance. All were committed by Alderman Reigart, and conveyed
to the Lancaster Jail for a preliminary hearing. The United States
Marshal, the United States District Attorney and the Commis
sioner, with a strong force of Marines and a detachment of
Philadelphia police, arrived shortly afterwards at Christiana, and
lent their aid in making arrests of those supposed to be impli
cated in the transaction. Both parties proceeded to make arrests,
and in a short time every section of country was pretty well
scoured. A large number of additional prisoners were brought
in, and among them two whites, one named Scarlet, and the other
Hood.
It became a question of considerable dispute between the State
and national authorities, as to the disposition of the prisoners.
District Attorney Thompson contended, that the prisoners had
been guilty of the highest crime known to the law of Pennsyl
vania, wilfull and deliberate murder, and that as this had occurred
in Lancaster County, the prisoners should be taken to Lancaster
for trial. John W. Ashmead, the United States District Attorney,
on the contrary, insisted that the prisoners had been guilty of
the crime of treason, in levying war against the United States
authorities. In this he was sustained by the Commissioner, E.
D. Ingraham, and finally a compromise was effected, by which
each party was allow r ed to dispose of its own arrests. A prelimi
nary hearing of the prisoners was held before Alderman Reigart,
at which several witnesses were examined. At this hearing, J.
"W. Ashmead, Robert J. Brent and William B. Fordney, ap
peared for the prosecution, and Thaddeus Stevens for the prison
ers. Castner Hanway, Elijah Lewis, John Morgan, Henry Sims
and Jacob Moore, were committed to answer the charge of
treason, and delivered into the custody of A. E. Roberts, United
States Marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
~No event, scarcely, could have occurred that would have
aroused a more profound excitement throughout the country
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 151
tlian was occasioned by this riot at Christiana. Political -rancor
was in this occurrence fanned to its highest pitch. The news
papers gave full scope to the rehearsal of the facts as they were
reported ; and these in many cases grossly exaggerated, as has
become usual with the modern newspaper press. The deed was
as variantly viewed as were the creeds of the different parties.
Even in Pennsylvania, partisans condemned or exculpated the
act of the rioters as their political proclivities dictated. Shrewd
observers fully comprehended the nature of the transaction, and
where the fault originated ; but this did not appear upon the
surface; and hence the widely different reports that were circulated.
Blame was sought to be attached to the Whig Governor of Penn
sylvania, because of believed indifference shown by him in taking
steps to aid in arresting the rioters. It was not till the fourth day
after the riot that he issued his proclamation, offering a reward for
the capture of the murderers of Mr. Gorsuch. And even this was
delayed until a letter, signed by John Cadwallader, C. Ingcrsoll,
John W. Forney, and others, had demanded of him that he take
measures to " vindicate the outraged laws of the .Commonwealth."
The division in sentiment in Pennsylvania that chiefly obtained
as regards the riot, was seen to be marked very considerably by
party lines. It was not forgotten that the fugitive slave law had
met with almost universal opposition from the Northern Whigs
in Congress ; and the condemnation of the act of the rioters was
not believed to be sincere upon the part of many of that party,
who were loud in its denunciation. But with manv Whigs it
/ o
was so ; for, as before seen, by no means all of this party had
become tainted with abolition principles. Being a Whig at that
time, however, subjected an individual even in Pennsylvania to
suspicion, and something was needed to remove it. But it was
in the South that this negro riot created the greatest commotion.
In this section it was viewed as an illustration of the Northern
resistance to the compromise of 1850, which might still be
expected to display itself in one form or other ; and which would
thus render it a dead letter upon the statute books. A lingering
faith, however, that the majority of the people of Pennsylvania
and of the North, were still friends of the Federal Constitution
and the laws made thereunder, induced the South to hope that
the insulted authority of the nation would yet vindicate itself in
the Northern tribunals of justice.
152 A REVIEW OF THE
On Monday, November 24th, 1851, the trial of Castner Han-
way, for treason, was commenced in the United States Circuit.
Court before Judges Grier and Kane. The counsel who appeared
for the United States were, John "W. Ashmead, James R. Lud-
low and George W. Ashmead ; also, James Cooper and Robert
"W. Brent for Maryland. The counsel for Castner Hanway were
John M. Reed, Thaddeus Stevens, Joseph J. Lewis and Theodore
Cuyier. The trial lasted fifteen days, and was handled on both
sides with masterly ability. Although, without doubt, Mr.
Stevens was the brain of the defense in this trial, yet because of
his known anti-slavery sentiments, it was deemed prudential that
to John M. Read should be entrusted its principal management.
After the arguments of counsel on both sides had been made
and the Court had submitted their views of the law, the Jury
upon retiring from the box, returned after an absence of ten
minutes and reported a verdict of " IS r ot guilty." Castner Han
way and Elijah Lewis were then brought to Lancaster to answer
any charge that might be preferred against them. An indict
ment was laid before the Grand Jury for murder, but the Jury
ignored the bill, and thus ended the Christiana Riot Case.
This trial, in a measure, illustrated the inutility of attempting,
under our form of government, to convict an offender when a
respectable and influential party openly espouses his cause.
Members of the Anti-Slavery Society were present in court dur
ing the time of this trial, openly manifesting their sympathy
for the accused ; also for the other prisoners, black and white,
that were implicated with him in the transaction. When " Har
vey Scott, a free negro, who had thrice testified once at Chris
tiana, once at Lancaster, and once at Philadelphia to the fact of
being an eye witness to the murder of Mr. Gorsuch ; and now
on this trial, influenced by bribes, or some other corrupt con
sideration, when placed on the stand by the United States, openly
confessed that he had thrice committed perjury, and then swore
on this trial that he was not present and knew nothing about the
affair; this perjury was received with open applause in the
court room. Again, the counsel for the defense applied to the
Court for an order to bring out some twenty-four of the negroes
in prison to see which of them could be identified as participants
in the treason, by Henry H. Kline (the Deputy Marshal), a
material witness for the prosecution. At the opening of the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 153
court, on the next day, these negroes were seen sitting in a row,
supported on each side by white females, who, to the disgust of
ail respectable citizens, gave them open sympathy and counte
nance ; each of the negroes appeared with new comforts around
their necks their hair carefully parted and their clothing in
every respect, so as to present one uniform appearance to the
eye as far as possible all done doubtless for the double purpose
of giving " aid and comfort " to the accused murderers of a white
man, and of confusing so important a witness as Kline, in respect
to their identity. And this was manifestly done with the privity,
sufferance and consent of the officers having charge of the
prisoners, and passed unrebuked."* Sucli a degree of sympathy
did the members of the Anti-Slavery Society manifest for those
accused of participation in the Christiana riot, that on Thanks
giving Day they caused a banquet dinner to be prepared for the
prisoners, and A. E. Roberts, the United States Marshal, con
fessed in open court " that he had not only assisted at the dinner
but had sat down and partaken sparingly."f
The decisive points ruled by Judge Grier, and which proved
fatal to the prosecution, were in the following words :
"Without desiring to invade the perogatives of the jury, in judging
of the facts of this cas3, the Court feel bound to say, that they do not
think the transaction with which the prisoner is charged with being con
nected rises to the dignity of treason, or a levying of war not because
the number or force was insufficient, but first for want of any proof of
a previous conspiracy to make a general and public resistance to any law
of the United States ; second there is no evidence that any person con
nected in the transaction knew that there were any such Acts of Congress,
as they were charged with conspiracy to resist by force and arms, or
had any other intention than to protect one another from what they
termed kidnappers by which slang term, they included not only actual
kidnappers, but all masters and owners seeking to recapture their slaves,
and the officers and agents assisting them." \
Southern hopes, in the above trial, were once more disap
pointed. The tempting cup of promise which had been carried
to the lips in the compromise of 1850, was thus again rudely
dashed to the earth ; and nothing save chagrin and mortification
were left to console those south of the Mason and Dixon parallel.
The South was an integral portion of the Confederacy, the Con-
*Report of Robert J. Brent on the Christiana Treason Trial to the Gov
ernor of Maryland, p, 5.
fReport of R. J. Brent, p. 4.
t Report of R. J. Brent, p. 7.
154 A EEVIEW OF THE
stitution recognized their rights of property, and the National
Congress, in clearly defined terms, had guaranteed them these;
and yet all as they felt to no purpose. Their citizens were treated
as culprits and assassins when going ]S r orth to lay claim to their
escaped property ; yea, even in the event which had but just
occurred, the soil of Pennsylvania (without any redress being ac
corded) had drunk the blood of a most respectable citizen of Mary
land, who had dared to cross the threshold of his State to seek
his fugitive slaves. Another bond of confidence between the
North and South was again snapped asunder, and still more feeble
became those yet remaining. The fugitive slave law became
virtually a dead letter in most of the Northern States, and the
feelings of each section grew more and more estranged towards
the other. And all this was but leading the North and South up
to that pinnacle ^of mutual hate, frcfin which both to free them
selves, voluntarily plunged into the gulf of revolution and civil
convulsion, which a near future had in store for them.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMEEICA. 155
CHAPTER X.
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL, WITH THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COM
PROMISE. ORIGIN, RAMIFICATION AND ASPECTS OF THE
REPUBLICAN PARTY.
The 33d Congress assembled in December, 1853. Mr. Stevens
not being a member of this Congress, again devoted his attention
to the practice of his profession, a career in which he was always
remarkably successful. After the close of his second Congress
ional term, he found his legal business by no means diminished ;
and for the next six years he was little heard of outside of Lan
caster County, as mingling in political strife. These years were
for him a period of great professional activity ; and in many of
the most important suits tried in the courts of Pennsylvania, he
was during this period the leading counsel. He nevertheless
remained no indifferent spectator of public events, as they were
then transpiring. And all this time he held himself in readiness
to act his part when public sentiment might warrant his partici
pation.
Upon the opening of Congress in December, 1853, it was
found that certain portions of the public domain, embraced in the
Louisiana cession, were already sufficiently populated to require
local governments. Two delegates had been chosen by the people
of this Territory who were awaiting admission into the .National
Legislature, and seeking local organizations for their constituents.
O O O
On the 4th of December, 1853, Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, introduced
a bill into the Senate for the organization of a Territorial Gov
ernment for Nebraska, which was referred to the committee on
Territories, of which Stephen A. Douglas; was chairman. On
the 4th of the following January, Mr. Douglas reported back
this bill, with amendments so changing its language, as to make
it accord with the language of the Utah and New Mexico Bill of
1850, on the question of slavery. This Bill was accompanied
with an elaborate report, stating fully the reasons that had in-
156-..-X/1 A REVIEW OF THE
cluced the Committee to change its phraseolgy in these particulars.
The principle aimed at by the Committee was expressed in the
following words :
" In the judgment of your Committee, those measures (compromise of
1850) were intended to have a far more comprehensive and enduring
effect than the mere adjustment of the difficulties arising out of the
recent acquisitions of Mexican territory. They were designed to estab
lish certain great principles, which would not only furnish adequate
remedies for existing evils, but in all time to come avoid the perils~of a
similar agitation, by withdrawing the question of slavery from the Halls
of Congress and the political arena, and committing it to the arbitra
ment of those who were immediately interested, and alone responsible
for its consequences."
The report concluded with these words :
" The substitute for the bill which your Committee have prepared, and
which is commended to the favorable action of the Senate, proposes to
carry these propositions and principles into practical operation in the
precise language of the compromise measures of 1850."
Senator Douglas, speaking of the report of the Committee,
said :
"We were aware that from 1820 to 1850, the abolition doctrine of Con
gressional interference with slavery in the Territories and new States,
had so far prevailed as to keep up an incessant agitation in Congress and
throughout the country, whenever any new Territory was to be acquired
or organized. We were also aware that, in 1850, the right of the people
to decide this question for themselves, subject only to the Constitution,
was substituted for the doctrine of congressional intervention. The first
question, therefore, which the Committee were called upon to decide,
and indeed the only question of any material importance, in forming this
bill was this : Shall we adhere to and carry out the principle recognized
by the compromise measures of 1850, or shall we go back to the old
exploded doctrine of congressional interference, as established in 1820,
in a large portion of the country, and which it was the object of the
Wilmot proviso, to give a universal application not only to all the terri
tory which we then possessed, but all which we might hereafter acquire?
There were no other alternatives. We were compelled to frame the bill
upon the one or the other of these two principles. The doctrine of 1820,
or the doctrine of 1850, must prevail. In the discharge of the duty im
posed upon us by the Senate, the Committee could not hesitate upon
this point, whether we consulted our individual opinions and principles
or those which were known to be entertained and boldly avowed by a
large majority of the Senate. The two great political parties of the
country stood solemnly pledged before the world to adhere to the com
promise measures of 1850 in principle and substance. A large majority
of the Senate, indeed every member of the body, I believe, except the
two avowed Abolitionists (Mr. Chase and Mr. Sumner,) profess to belong
to the one or the other of these parties, and hence were supposed to be
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. \tt
under a high moral obligation to carry out the principle and substance of
those measures in all the new territorial organizations. The report of
the Committee was in accordance with this obligation."*
The original bill as amended and reported by the Committee,
was received in some parts of the country as effecting the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise Act, whilst in others it was differ
ently construed. In order that all ambiguity as regards this point
might be removed, Archibald Dixon, a Whig Senator from Ken
tucky, on the 16 tli of January, gave notice that when the
Nebraska Bill should come up for consideration, he would offer
an amendment repealing the Eighth Section of the Missouri Act,
as being inconsistent with the Compromise of 1850. On the
following day, Sumner introduced into the Senate a memorial
against slavery generally, and at the same time gave notice that
when the bill to recognize the Territory should come up for con
sideration, he would offer an amendment re-affirming the old
Congressional restriction of 1820. A manifesto was issued from
Washington on the 19th of January, denouncing the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise, signed by the following Senators and
Representatives, viz : S. P. Chase, Charles Sumner, J. R. Gid-
dings, Edward Wade, Gcrrit Smith and Alexander De Witt.
This remonstrance appeared in all the Abolition papers of the
country, and again roused the monster of sectional agitation from
his slumber. The remonstrants spoke of the old Missouri line
as a " sacred pledge" never to be violated. It became in their
estimation a " solemn compact " when its endorsement favored
their principles. " Three thousand New England Clergymen,
assuming to speak in the name of the Almighty God, joined in
the chorus. But when did these men, or any of their class
singly or collectively, ever before acknowledge any binding obli
gation of the now and so-called " solemn compact ?" Was it
when Missouri was denied admission by them under it ? Was it
when the admission of Arkansas was opposed by them ? Was it
when the provision was made for the admission of Texas ? Was it
when a government for Oregon was organized ? Was it when
this line was voted down for the last time in the House on the
13th of June, 1850 ?"f
The Committee on Territories, in view of the extent of domain
*Appendix to Congressional Globe, 33d Congress, 1st Session, p. 336,
fStephens War, Vol. II, p. 248.
158 A REVIEW OP THE
to be organized, deemed it expedient to divide it into two sepa
rate Territorial Governments, one to be named Kansas, and the
other Nebraska* Accordingly a substitute organizing two Terri
tories instead of one was reported in the Senate by Mr. Douglas
on the 22d of January. The language in each upon the subject
of slavery was identical, with that in the first Nebraska Bill with
the exception of that clause which in express words declared the
Eighth Section of the Missouri Act inoperative. This was in
the following words :
" Except the eighth section of the Act prepatory to the admission of
Missouri into the Union, approved March 6th, 1820, which being incon
sistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress, with slavery
in the States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation of Ib50,
commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared inopera
tive and void ; it being the true intent and meaning of this Act not
to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it there
from, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate
their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Consti
tution of the United States."
Senator Douglas^ speaking of the Missouri Compromise,
showed by whose dereliction it had originally been violated, and
that this violation of it had necessitated the abandonment of the
principle it had established, and a recurrence to that of non
intervention. In his speech of Jan. 30th, he said :
" True, the express enactment of the 8th section of the Missouri Act,
(now called the Missouri Compromise) only covered the Territory acquired
from France ; but the principle of the Act, the objects of its adoption,
the reasons in its support required that it should be extended indefinitely
westward* so far as our Territory might go, when new purchases should
be made."*
When Texas was admitted into the Union, on motion of Ste
phen A. Douglas, then a member of the House, the principle of
the Missouri Compromise was applied to it without open opposi
tion, doubtless lest abolition breach of faith would appear too
palpable. He also in 1848 made an effort as Senator, to have
the same principle applied to the newly acquired Mexican
Territory, Of this effort he speaks as follows ;
" Then, sir, in 1848, we acquired from Mexico the country between the
Hio dol ITorto and the Pacific Ocean. Immediately after the acquisition,
the Senate, on my own motion, voted into a bill a provision to extend
tlia Missouri compromise indefinitely westward to the Pacific Ocean, in
tlie caiiia sensa and with the eanie understanding with which it was
*NoiortaZ Intelligencer, February 2d, 1834.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 150
originally adopted. That provision passed this body by a decided ma
jority I think by ten at least and went to the House of Representatives
and was there defeated by Northern votes.
"Now, sir, let us pause and consider for a moment. The first time
that the principles of the Missouri compromise were ever abandoned, the
first time they were ever rejected by Congress, was by the defeat of that
provision in the House of Representatives in 1848. By whom was that
defeat effected ? By Northern States with free soil proclivities. It was
the defeat of that Missouri compromise that re-opened the slavery agita
tion with all its fury. It was the defeat of that Missouri compromise
that created the necessity for making a new compromise in 1850. Had
we been faithful to the principles of the Missouri Act in 1848, this ques
tion would not have risen. Who was it that was faithless ? I undertake
to say it was the very men who now insist that the Missouri compromise
was a solemn compact and should not be violated and departed from.
Every man who is now assailing the principle of the bill under consider
ation, so far as I am advised, was opposed to the Missouri compromise in
1848. The very men who now arraign me for a departure from the Mis
souri compromise are the men who successfully violated it, repudiated it,
and caused it to be superseded by the compromise measures of 1850.
Sir, it is with rather a bad grace that the men who proved false them
selves should charge upon me and others, who were ever faithful, the
responsibilities and consequences of their own treachery.
"Then, sir, as I before remarked, the defeat of the Missouri compro
mise in 1848 having created the necessity for the establishment of a new
one in 1850, let us see what that compromise was.
"The binding feature of the compromise of 1850 was Congressional
non-intervention as to slavery in the Territories ; that the people of the
Territories and of all the States were to be allowed to do as they pleased
upon the subject of slavery, subject only to the provisions of the Consti
tution of the United States.
"That, sir, was the leading feature of the compromise measures of
1850. Those measures, therefore, abandoned the idea of a geographical
line as the boundary between the free and the slave States ; abandoned
it because, compelled to do it from an inability to maintain it ; and in
lieu of that substituted the great principle of self-government, which
would allow the people to do as they thought proper."*
Speaking of the inconsistency of the Abolitionists as regards
the Missouri compromise, Senator Douglas- further said :
"Did not every Abolitionist and Free Soiler in America denounce the
Missouri compromise in 1820 ? Did they not for years hunt down, raven
ously for his blood, every man who assisted in making that compromise ?
Did they not, in 1845, when Texas was annexed, denounce all of us who
went for the annexation of Texas and for the continuation of the Missouri
compromise line through it ? Did they not, in 1848, denounce me as a
sla,ver.y propagandist, for standing by the principles of the Missouri com-
*Speech of Douglas, of Jan. 30th, 1854; in National Intelligencer Feb.
2d, 1854.
160 A REVIEW OF THE
promise, and proposing it to be extended to the Pacific Ocean ? Did they
not themselves violate and repudiate it then ? Is not the charge of bad
faith true as to every Abolitionist in America, instead of being true as
to me and tho Committee and those who advocate this bill." x
Mr. Douglas and those co-operating with him, hoped by tho
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, that the question of slavery
might be removed from the Halls of Congress, and left with the
people of the Territories themselves. This legislation was but
re-introducing first principles which had been abandoned when
the Missouri Compromise was adopted, and which the Southern
people accepted with reluctance as being an unjust discrimination
against their equality as integral members of the Confederacy.
Alexander II. Stephens, the philosophic statesman of the South,
whilst in Congress, in a speech delivered in the House, February
17th, 185, said :
"It (the Missouri Compromise) was literally forced upon the South as a
disagreeable alternative by superior numbers." f
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill asserted, upon its face, that its true
intent and meaning was that the question of slavery should be
left to the people of the Territories to determine for themselves
whether they desired it, and subject only to the Constitution of
the United States. Stephen A. Douglas, the author of the bill,
was violently assailed as false to his own democratic faith which
execrated all slavery agitation; but he justified his course by
affirming his entire conformity with the compromise measures of
1850. His object, as he contended, was simply to free the Terri
tories from all unconstitutional legislation, and to leave the ques
tion of slavery where the framers of the government had
designed, that is, with the people of the territories themselves.
The bill was not only discussed with great violence in Congress,
but was taken up by the abolition press in all sections of the
North, and contrary to expectation, the slavery agitation was
aroused in all its strength and intensity throughout the whole
country. The discussion produced one of the most terrific politi
cal storms that had ever yet raged upon the American continent.
The very flood-gates and windows of abolition fury seemdd now
for the first time to have been fully opened. The abolition
Whigs embraced this opportunity to retrieve their fallen political
^Speech of Douglas January 30, 1854 ; in National Intelligencer, Feb
ruary 2d, 1854.
\National Intelligencer, February 24th, 1854.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 161
fortunes, and unite the North in a sectional contest against the
South. Public meetings were held in the Northern States, de
nouncing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and remon
strances to the same effect flooded the National Legislature.
Large numbers of both political parties participated in these
meetings who had given Ijieir hearty adhesion to the Compromise
of 1850, and a monster meeting at Boston, was presided over by
Samuel S. Elliot, the only Whig representative from New Eng
land, who had favored that last national adjudication of the
slavery question.
The Bill, however, passed both Houses of Congress, and be
came a law by receiving the signature of the President on the
last day of May, 1854. It was clearly the refusal of the Aboli
tionists of the North to yield a fair and full acquiescence in the
Missouri Compromise, in letter and spirit, which led to its final
repeal in 1854. And it is also undeniable that this repeal
simply restored to its original normal position, the doctrine of
popular sovereignty, as it was designed to obtain from the foun
dation of the government. But it must also ba accepted as true,
that whilst the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in strict
interpretation, may have been effected by the principle adopted
by the Compromise measures of 1850 ; yet no averment was
made at the time that such was really so ; and it remained for the
year 1854 to disclose it. The Compromise of 1850, applied to
the Territory acquired from Mexico, whilst that of 1820 included
the Louisiana purchase ; and therefore entirely distinctive and
separate portions of the territorial domain were embraced by these
two famous National settlements. The Compromise of 1850 did
not expressly repeal that of 1820, and although it had in spirit
been repudiated by the North, yet in view of the intense opposi
tion that existed to the spread of slavery, over any of the
Federal territory, policy seemed to dictate that the South should
only claim what the clear letter of the Constitution and the
national contracts accorded them. That this was the opinion of
a considerable number of the leading statesmen both North and
South, is undoubted ; and even of those voting for the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise were some who regarded the act as
impolitic, and likely to entail in its train sad consequences. Gen.
Lewis Cass, whilst sustaining the Kansas-Nebraska Bill thus
expressed himself regarding the measure :
1G2 A REVIEW OF THE
" I should have been better content had the whole subject been left as
it was in the bill when it was first introduced by the Senator from Illinois,
without any provision regarding the Missouri Compromise."*
James Buchanan was another of those statesmen who viewed the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise, as in itself altogether im
politic and injudicious. " The Compromise measures of 1850
had his hearty adhesion, as in these he seemed to recognize the
settlement of the only question that could perhaps for ages
jeopard the national integrity. With the greatest anxiety and
dread was it, therefore, that he heard, whilst in Europe, of the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854. In a letter written
to a leading statesman of his party, about the time that the repeal
began to be mooted, he uttered solemn words of warning, and
strongly remonstrated against the abrogation of this time-honored
compact. lie depicted in strong colors the dangers he appre
hended would result should this unwise attempt be consummated.
From an intimate knowledge of the feelings of the people of the
North, he predicted the terrible storm that would be aroused
throughout the country by such an opening up of the slavery
agitation as this would occasion. "f
Mr. Buchanan, in the History of his administration on the eve
of the rebellion, page 28, speaks in this manner of the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise :
" After a careful review of the history of the Anti-Slavery party fro:n
its origin, the candid inquirer must admit that up till this period it had
acted on the aggressive against the South. From the beginning it had
kept the citizens of the slave-holding States in constant irritation, as well
as serious apprehension of their domestic peace and security. It is true,
they had denounced the assailants with extreme rancor and many
threats, but had done nothing more. In sustaining the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise, however, the Senators and Representatives of the
Southern States became the aggressors themselves, and thereby placed
the country in an alarming and dangerous condition from which it has
never since been rescued."
-The repeal of the Missouri Compromise afforded to the Abor
tionists the opportunity that was required to unite the North in
a sectional organization against the South. Many of the North
ern "Whigs of free soil proclivities had desired to see a party con
stituted upon principles adverse to the further spread of slavery,
and pledged to its linal extinction, could any means be devised
* National Intelligencer, March 7th, 1854.
f Harris Biographical History of Lancaster County, pp. 105-6,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 163
for that pin-pose. The following extracts from addresses made
by R. C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, and Thomas Corwin, of
Ohio, both distinguished leaders of the "Whig party, attest this
fact:
<; Why, my friends, how long is it since it was distinctly declared by
some of the leaders of the Republican party, that the great remedy for
existing evils was the formation of a party which should have no South
ern wing ; yes, that was the phraze no Southern wing; for it was added
that as long as there was a Southern wing there must be complaiiiers
and concessions to the South, and compromises would be the order of the
day."*
Thomas Corwin, speaking of the repeal of the Missouri Com
promise, said :
"And do you not see how gladly it was seized upon by those who have
been trying to form a Northern party for years, and how the war-cry
they raised went up through the whole North. And yet they are the
very men who had long denounced the compromise as an infringement
of right and freedom, "f
It was understood by the leading Whigs that their party was
composed of elements altogether too inharmonious to remain
united after the demise of Clay and Webster. The divisions of
the party, which had for years disclosed themselves in Congress,
was ample proof of this fact; and it was clear that the dis
harmony was every year becoming more apparent and decided.
After the defeat of Gen. Scott for President, in 1852, crafty
leaders availed themselves of the American sentiment, by means
or which to rear an organization that might take the place of the
old Whig party ; and early in 1854 the movements for this pur
pose were in active operation. The sentiment upon which this
new effort to construct a party was based, had repeatedly shown
itself in the United States, especially in the large cities ; and
owing to the social elements of the country, it is one that is
likely, more or less potentially, ever to make itself felt. An
antagonism to Catholics and foreigners is somewhat natural to
the bulk of the Protestant population of America ; and this will
be always greatly manifested when party spirit is dragged into
the arena. This was the effort in 1854, and theprospeet seemed
for a time as if it might be successful. It was at that time,
familiarly characterized as the Know Nothing movement, and it
achieved temporary triumphs in several States of the Union, and
*Speech of Gov. Winthrop, in National Intelligencer, Oct 30, 1856.
^National Intelligencer, Oct. 23d, 1856,
ICt A REVIEW OF THE
. even stoutly battled for ascendancy in the old Commonwealth of
Virginia. The elections in 1854 in the Northern States, were
largely influenced by the operations of this , party ; to it was
James Pollock indebted for his election as Governor of Pennsyl
vania. The success achieved by this organization was no doubt
largely due to the fact that it assumed the shape of a secret
order ; and curiosity (as is ever the case with secret associations)
induced elements of the most incongruous character to enter it.
But, because the order was made up of men of radically incom
patible views and purposes, its dissolution become simply a ques
tion of time. The Whigs who joined the order remained such,
and so did also the Democrats ; and it became soon apparent that
no views so discordant could long remain united.
The Know Nothing breeze became one of the currents that
served to confuse parties, as they existed in Lancaster County,
and enabled Mr. Stevens and his political wing to grasp hold of
the reins of power. lie permitted himself to be initiated into a
secret order, in which he recognized political power looming up
for himself in the distance ; and for the time he forgot the oppo
sition that he had years before waged against the Masonic fra
ternity. The American movement was for Mr. Stevens a very
important one, so far as his future prospects were concerned. It
served to prostrate his principal antagonists amongst the Silver-
Grey Whigs, and left him prospectively the master of the iield.
Although unable to secure the Congressional nomination for
himself in 1854:, yet he manipulated affairs so adroitly that A. E.
Roberts, an intimate and confidential political friend, was made
the party choice. This was a near advance to the goal of his ;
own ambition. lie had now become the power behind the
throne.
But what served most to unite a Northern sectional party, was the
opposition which arrayed itself against the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise and the further extension of slavery. The Whigs
in the Free States in 1854, were almost unanimously opposed to
the repeal, as were likewise a considerable number of Democrats.
In the meetings that were held to denounce the measure, men
of both political parties participated, but by far the larger
proportion was made up of Whigs. The Abolitionists sought at
once to form a party of fused elements, united in opposition to
the spread of the hated Southern institution ; but this met with
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA, 1C3
a spirited resistance from those who still preferred the
organization. The Whigs, in their State Conventions held in
the Xorthern States, repudiated the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise ; but many of the trusted leaders of this old National
party resisted its abandonment for what they clearly saw would
become a sectional one, and which would doubtless endanger the
perpetuity of the American Union.
The old party of Jefferson had a difficult task in the Xorth
during the campaign of 1854:. The party being virtually com
mitted to the principles of the Kansas-Xebraska Bill, found that
these would prove a heavy burden in the Free States. Stephen
A. Douglas, the author of the bill, upon his return home from
Congress, met in Chicago a storm of opposition, for which he
was not prepared. Those, who on former occasions, had listened
with delight to the glowing eloquence of the Illinois Senator,
refused now to hear him ; and as often as he attempted to speak
in his defense, they drowned h s voice with their hisses and
groans. Little more favorable receptions were accorded to him
in some other sections of his State. Democratic meetings ad
dressed by him, would as soon as adjourned, extemporize a new
one, and pass resolutions condemning his action as a Senator in
Congress, and denouncing the Kansas-Xebraska Bill. In every
State of the Xorth, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
proved a cause of disturbance in the Democratic party. The
majority of the party sustained the principles of the measure ;
but so intense and powerful was the opposition in some States,
that the party conventions refused to endorse it. In many
States the conventions split upon this all engrossing question.
The party leaders in the Xorth strove to meet the threatening
catastrophe by endeavoring to prevent the measure from being
made a party test. A number of leading Democrats of Michigan,
in 1854:, issued a circular urging as follows :
" We respectfully submit, that every consideration, both in principle
and policy, appeals to us to stand firmly against the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill as a party test. It is a measure which is strongly disapproved of by
a large portion of the Democracy of the nation. Unwisely introduced,
it has already done infinite mischief, and if made a party test it will
inevitably divide the Democratic party, and let loose a storm of the
wildest agitation."
The Democracy of the Empire State of Xew York were
divided into the Hards and Softs, the latter having largely the
166 A REVIEW OF THE
preponderance. Resolutions demanding the restoration of tlio
Missouri Compromise passed both Houses of the New York
Legislature by great majorities, and in Massachusetts, such were
adopted in the Senate by a unanimous vote, and in the House,
consisting of 400 members, with only thirteen negative votes.
In all parts of the North the repeal made an instantaneous im
pression, and the Democracy, as never before, began to stagger
under the unendurable burden. W. B. S. Moore, Chairman of
the Maine Democratic Committee on Resolutions in the Con
vention held in June, IS 54, remarked :
"We came into power eighteen months ago with an unprecedented
majority in the nation ; and in the State we had a great moral power-
perhaps too much. Since then, changes have* come over the aspect of
and the prospect of the Democracy. We have lost Maine, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, and it is nearly a draw game in New Hampshire, that ought
to stand firm as her granite hills."
JSkelton, an Anti-Nebraska Democratic Representative of New
Jersey, said :
" The party was strong and united until the passage of this bill. Now
it is divided in every Congressional District. It was introduced as a
measure of Peace, but it has rent the party and renewed the slavery agi
tation."
The Charleston Mercury, seeing the coming storm that was
rising in the North, in its issue of June 21st, 1854, said :
"The spectacle presented by the North and South at the present mo
ment is well calculated to arrest the attention of thoughtful men. In
the former we find society convulsed ; all the slumbering elements of
sectional bitterness roused and slavery agitation awake again, after its
brief and delusive sleep, strengthened by new accessions and eager for
the onset. Never before have the Northern press approached so near to
unanimity in the cause of abolition. Never before were all other issues
so far buried, and the sentiment and voice of the whole section so united
in war upon the South."
The fall elections of 1854 in the Northern States, one after
another swept from power the party which was held responsible
for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Maine, that had
remained firm to her democratize moorings since 1840, was carried
for the new party by an immense majority. The other Eastern
States followed in the same line ; and New York wheeled under
the banner of Anti-slavery extension. Not a single Congressman
from the Empire State that had supported the repeal, was re-
elected, and the Keystone State gave a congressional delegation
strongly Anti-Nebraska. Ohio rallied by an immense majority
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 167
to the Anti-Slavery standards, electing all Anti-Nebraska Con
gressmen. The People s party triumphed in Indiana, and the
strong oaks of the Democracy bent beneath the blasts of the op
position. The members of Congress throughout the whole
North, who had supported the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
were almost all defeated, and Anti-Slavery ideas rose at once to
ascendancy and power. The revolution passed like a hurricane
over the North ; and the new party in most sections styling itself
Republican, bore the banner of victory. The fruits of the long
Anti-slavery agitation had ripened; and a sectional Northern
organization was the result of the struggle. The agitators had at
length gained the prize ; the Northern States were now united
against the South and her institutions in clear and unmistakable
opposition ; and time alone could determine the result of the
conflict.
A REVIEW OF THE
CHAPTER XL
THE STRUGGLE FOR ASCENDENCY IN KANSAS. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CON
FLICTING VIEWS INTO SECTIONAL ANTAGONISM AND THE
ULTIMATE TRIUMPH OF REPUBLICANISM.
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise opened the Territories
to all the social institutions of the different States of the Union.
It was believed that this would terminate the national conflict on
the question of slavery by removing it from the Halls of Con
gress, and leaving it for disposition with the people of the Terri
tories themselves ; but in doing so, the public interest was only
the more aroused and intensified. The repeal of the compromise
appeared to the Northern mind such a flagrant violation of every
thing that was sacred in compact, that it was prepared to inter
pose every obstacle to the introduction of slavery into the new
Territories, which might in any wise baffle the friends of the in
stitution. Even Kansas, the most Southern Territory, belonged
to that part of the public domain which had been consecrated to
freedom ; and now that this should be snatched from its heritage
and offered as a prize to the fleetest occupant, was to Northern
sentiment offensive in the highest degree. The views and policy
of statesmen could not be expected to countervail the feelings of
the masses, that had for upwards of two decades been influenced
by Anti-Slavery agitation ; and which was every year evincing
greater opposition to the spread of the hated institution of the
Southern States. Northern sentiment on no former occasion rose
in such unanimity and earnestness to utter its protest against the
introduction of slavery into the Territories, as it did when Kan
sas and Nebraska were organized and laid open for settlement.
An Emigrant Aid Society was accordingly incorporated in
Boston in the year 1854, by the Legislature of Massachusetts, for
the purpose of encouraging settlers to emigrate to Kansas, who
would Le pledged to resist the introduction of slavery into the
new State. In the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 1C9
Southern people, on the contrary, seemed to recognize simply
the removal of all unjust discrimination against them in the
common Territories of the nation ; and the restoration of those
rights which they had originally enjoyed prior to the year 1820.
The movement of the Abolitionists in Massachusetts, therefore,
had the effect of arousing in the Southern mind a determination
of resistance ; and societies were speedily organized in Missouri
and elsewhere, pledged to promote the interests of settlers from
the South and those who favored the pro-slavery cause. These
acts of the antagonistic parties, so different from what had be
fore occurred in the settlement of the Territories, displayed the
wonderful zeal of the contestants ; and at once attracted public
attention to Kansas as the prize wlrci should reward for his
skill and prowess the conquering gladiator of his country. The
contest for Kansas thus rose immediately from State to national
importance ; and the removal of the question from Congress,
served but to light the flames of strife between the Xorth and
South in all parts of the country. The removal, therefore, was
fatal to the peace of the Republic, and proved also fatal to the
hopes of any man in the North, who had anticipated applause
and position from his instrumentality in its accomplishment.
Settlers from the South and emigrants from the North were
hurried into the new Territory, all more or less eager to win
Kansas for their party. The enthusiast and the fanatic, the
adventurous and the daring, all moved to this inviting El Dorado
of their political hopes, and the mixture was a sample of demo
cratic society in its native compound.* Anarchy and misrule
held high carnival in the new Territory, and for a time marauding
bands of partisan settlers were the only legislators who dispensed
law as their passions and prejudices dictated. Both of the politi
cal parties who were struggling for ascendency in the new region,
were amply represented by correspondents, whose chief aim was
to depict that which would meet the warmest reception in the
circle of their readers. The truthful chronicler, never popular,
was especially unadapted to such a state of society. Partisans
must have the food they desire, and such as will minister pleasure
* The democratic society, here meant, is that form of the body politic
where the government is"assumed to reside in the corporate mass ; and
it is not intended to designate any political party which may at any time
have borne that designation.
170 A REVIEW OF THE
to their corrupted appetites. An admirable field was presented in
Kansas for the Eastern and Southern press ; indeed, the narrative
of the same event, from different pens, appeared as altogether
separate occurrences, and only at times could the identity be dis
covered from a similarity of names. But the party readers who
are content to receive one version of a story, could not but be
incensed to the highest degree by the iniquity and injustice that
were perpetrated as they conceived upon their friends in the new
Territory. Section was thus aroused against section, and this
chiefly effected through the instrumentality of the party press,
one of the jreat evils of republican institutions.
A. II. Eeeder was appointed Governor of the new Territory,
and he, with such other officers as the territorial condition re
quired, arrived in Kansas in the fall of 1854. It being too late
to organize the full machinery of the Territory, no election was
held except for a delegate to Congress, which resulted pro-slavery,
in the choice of John "W. Whitfleld. Early in 1855, a census
having been taken, an election for a Territorial Legislature and
County officers was ordered on the 30th of March. This resulted
in a Southern victory, and as the Free State men charged, by the
aid of Missouri invaders. In such a state of society, nothing
else should have been expected, for the kind of voters who flock
to new Territories are not those who weigh scruples when parti
san interests are at stake. That their opponents were unable to
counteract all the frauds committed by the Missourians, was not
because greater conscientiousness interposed, but rather, that no
opportunity afforded the means. It was, in truth, the lawless ele
ments of society in conflict, and only somewhat restrained by the
subordination to which the General Government had subjected
them. Murder, bloodshed and rapine will always be the con
comitants of such states of the body politic.
But the Legislature as elected, w r as convened by the Governor,
and proceeded to enact a code of laws, molded by the most intense
pro-slavery feelings, and drafted in the interests of party views.
The formation of Kansas as a Slave State, was the animating
motive of every legislator who favored the adopted code. The
enactments of this Legislature was water upon the abolition mill.
The Northern press teemed with denunciations of an assembly
that was held up as representing Southern sentiments and views.
The Kansas settlers were amongst the extremes of their parties.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 171
Whilst the one party became extreme in its legislation, the other
was equally so in its resistance. Instead of waiting until they
might disposses the Southern party at the ballot-box, the Free
State men showed the utmost lawlessness in organizing at Topeka,
an independent government in opposition to that first elected,
and which had the regularity of law in its favor. Having framed
a Constitution, elected a Governor, Legislature and other County
officers, they applied to Congress for admission into the Union, but
were justly rejected, if for no other reason than that they lacked
that formal and legal status which entitled them to make appli
cation. Between two antagonistic territorial organizations, one
defying the other, disturbances must necessarily occur; and it
was only owing to the interposing authority of the General Gov
ernment that the territory was not precipitated into a party colli
sion, that might have engulphed the whole Union in the flames
ol civil war. The contestants were rapidly preparing for a clash
of arms ; and the outposts first met on the plains of Kansas, and
fought their initial sectional conflict.
The General Government nobly strove to hold the balance of
justice even between the parties of Kansas ; but law and order
demanded that no other authority should be recognized than that
which was created by virtue of the original charter. When,
therefore, the Legislature chosen under the Free State Constitu
tion, adopted at Topeka, determined to assemble on the 4th of
July, 1856, they were dispersed by Col. Sumner with a force of
regulars, by the orders of President Pierce. The spring and
summer of 1856 was the principal period during which the Kan
sas war raged ; and which formed a fertile theme for the abolition
papers of the JSTorth in the Presidential campaign of that year.
The war, in itself, was of little consequence, save as a means of
inflaming Northern and Southern sentiment. One of the prin
cipal conflicts was the battle of " Black Jack," wherein twenty-
eight Free State men, led by old John Brown, fought a somewhat
superior number of Southerners and defeated them. But the
Eepublican papers were glutted with the stories of Heeding
Kansas j some of these possessing a grain of truth, but largely
fictitious, and retailed for partisan circulation in the campaign
then pending. It was the discussion of this fertile subject, the
difficulties in Kansas, that served largely to solidify the Kepubli-
can party into symmetrical proportions, and give it that strength
172 A REVIEW OF THE
and full sectional importance which it obtained in the year 1856.
Although the opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Com
promise in many parts of the North, had united itself in 1854
into a party styled Republican ; yet in Pennsylvania the resist
ance was unorganized. No steps had been taken in Lancaster
County, the home of Thaddeus Stevens, for the organization of
the new party until the year 1855 ; and when it was first sug
gested to him by a political friend that something should be done
to organize such a movement in the county, the project, instead
of meeting his approbation, was rather discouraged. Political
advancement was the goal upon which Mr. Stevens had fixed his
eye ; and knowing the character of the people of his district, he
trusted not to commit his fortunes to an untried bark, that had
not yet been fairly launched upon the waters of American con
servatism ; and which had but made its passage in the smaller
bays of radical innovation. Not forgetful that his course in
Congress, as regards the Compromise of 1850, had bolted the
doors of the National Assembly against him, he chose to pursue
the path which policy dictated and watch the political gales be
fore he would permit his vessel to be trimmed. But the move
ment of Republicanism was onwards, and the Keystone State was
unable to remain aloof from its influence ; and finally a meeting
of those favorable to the cause was announced to meet in Fulton
Hall, in the City of Lancaster, and organize the new party in
the county. Those who assembled upon this occasion did not
exceed seventeen persons in all ; the great body of the Whig
leaders absented themselves until they might see what success the
future promised. Consistency, however, compelled the attend
ance of Mr. Stevens at this meeting. Republicanism w r as the
movement in which the principles he cherished had ultimated ;
and it was necessary that he should obtain the control over it in
his district ; otherwise he would be w r ashed into political retire
ment. He was present and addressed the small meeting, and
thus placed himself as its leader in that field over which his
influence extended. At a subsequent meeting he was selected to
represent the Republican party of Lancaster County in the
Philadelphia Convention of 1856 for the nomination of candi
dates for President and Yice-President of the United States.
The 3-ith Congress assembled in Washington, December 3d,
1855, and then began the great contest in which the sectional
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA.
Republican party strove for ascendency in the Halls of Na~
tional Legislation. This was the long struggle for the election
of Speaker in the House of Representacives, which lasted over
two months, and ended in the election of Nathaniel P. Banks,
the candidate of sectional ideas. In this triumph of Northern
opposition to the spread of slavery, the Republican party saw the
clearest omen of its future victory and triumph ; and the leaders
now exerted themselves to the utmost of their ability, to cement
and unite the organization in all the States of the North. The
first convention of this party from the Northern States, assembled
in Pittsburgh in February, 1856 ; and this was followed by that
of June 17th, which met in Philadelphia and nominated candi
dates for President and Vice-President of the United States,
John C. Fremont and "William L. Dayton were the candidates of
the Philadelphia Republican Convention. Thaddeus Stevens
was a member of this convention, although he took no very
prominent part in the proceedings. The adopted platform placed
the party in open and avowed resistance to the further extension
of slavery ; and made the organization the expression of the anti-
slavery sentiment of the Northern States. One of the resolutions
of the Philadelphia Convention declared :
" That the Constitution confers upon Congress, sovereign power over
the Territories of the United States for their government ; and that in
the exercise of this power, it is both the right and the duty of Congress-
to prohibit in the Territories, those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy
and slavery."
It was clear to all discerning men, in view of the composition
of the Republican party, that its objects as expressed in its plat
form were simply secondary to the xme idea, the entire abolition
of slavery throughout the Southern States. The announcement
of the real design of the party leaders would, however, have been
fatal to their prospects of success ; for much as the people of the
North were opposed to slavery, they were not yet prepared for
an unconstitutional attack upon the rights of their Southern
brethren. But the leaders adopted the whole argument of the
Abolitionists for the purpose of educating public sentiment up to
the highest demands of the radical school ; and at the same time
announced their objects to be simply the confinement of slavery
within its bounds. The growing national corruption was fully
evinced in this attitude of the new party, which was so organized
that it might gain power under false colors. The crafty argument
174 A REVIEW OF THE
y/as likewise made use of, that the exclusion of slavery was not
opposed for the sake of the negro, but because it was desired that
the Territory be preserved for the free settlers of the North
" free homes for free men."
The people of the South, and the calm and considerative of
the North saw, with the greatest alarm, the advances of the new
party threatening the peace and prosperity of the Union. The
maxims of the Republican creed promulgated the doctrine dan
gerous to free institutions, that the will of the majority may
determine the constitutional and vested rights of minorities.
The principle thus announced was revolutionary in itself, de
structive of all constituted authority, and engendered in the
Red Republican teachings of the old world. Patriotic men of
all sections, dreaded the consequences likely to ensue to liberty,
should the revolutionary party of the North succeed in grasping
the control of the Federal Government, and many of them ad
monished their countrymen of the dangers that threatened the
integrity of the Union, and earnestly advised them to beware of
the principles of sectionalism. Millard Fillmore, who had just
returned from Europe, w r hen he saw the aspect which the Republi
can party occupied in 1856, spoke ao follows :
" But tliis is not all, sir. We see a political party presenting candidates
for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, selected for the first time from
the Free States alone, with the avowed purpose of electing these candi
dates by the suffrages of one part of the Union only, to rule over the
whole United States. Can it be possible that those who are engaged in
such a measure can have seriously reflected upon the consequences which
must inevitably follow in case of success ? Can they have the madness
or the folly to believe that our Southern brethren would submit to be
governed by such a Chief Magistrate ? Would he be required to follow
the same rule prescribed by those who elected him. in making his appoint
ments ? If a man living south of Mason and Dixon s line be not worthy
to be President and Vice-President, would it /be proper to select one
from the same quarter as one of his Cabinet Council, or to represent the
nation in a foreign country, or, indeed, to collect the revenue or ad
minister the laws of the United States? If not, what new rule is the
President to adopt in se ecting men for office that the people themselves
discard in selecting him ? These are serious but practical questions, and
in order to appreciate them fully it is but only necessary to turn the
tables upon ourselves. Suppose that the South, having the majority of
electoral votes, should declare that they would only have slave-holders
for President and Vice-President, and should elect such by their exclu
sive suffrages to rule over us at the North ; do you think we would sub
mit to it? No, not for one moment! And do you believe that your
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 175
Southern brethren are less sensitive on this subject than you are, or le?9
jealous of their rights ? If you do, let me tell you that you are mistaken.
And, therefore, you must see that, if this sectional party succeeds, it
leads inevitably to the destruction of this beautiful fabric, reared by our
forefathers, cemented by their blood, and bequeathed to us as a precious
inheritance."
The disruption of the Whig party, occasioned by the slavery
question, induced many of the Southern Whigs to unite with the
Democracy, as the only party professing national principles, that
gave evidence of ability to cope with the new enemy. In attach
ing themselves to their former political rival, they in no wise
compromised their early principles, for the old Whig and Demo
cratic parties equally favored the constitutional rights of all
sections of the Union, in the States as well as in the national
Territories. A small portion of the Northern Anti-Slavery
Democrats had united with the Republicans ; but the large body
of the party in that section remained attached to the old prin
ciples of a former period. The Democracy of all the States
having met in convention at Cincinnatti, June 2cl, 1856, re
affirmed the ancient doctrines of the party on the slavery ques
tion ; and besides, announced their recognition of the principles
embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. James Buchanan and
John C. Breckenridge were next placed in nomination for Presi
dent and Yice-President of the United States.
A small portion of the Whig party, North and South, united
in the nomination of Millard Fillmore and Andrew J. Donald
son for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. This movement
being entirely the product of attachment to the old organization
of Clay and Webster, gave no evidence of any ability to coun
teract the dangerous principles which it assumed to oppose. The
Democratic party was the only one that possessed the semblance
of ability to defeat the sectional Republican organization of the
North. Patriotism would have demanded that any sacrifice
should be made for the welfare of the country ; but party spirit
interposed. This spirit, regardless of constitutional guarantees,
had organized the Republican party upon a basis of sectionalism
that arrayed one-half of the Union against the other. Ambitious
leaders, destitute of political principle, nocked to the rising party,
who could not but see that the success of the new principles
would entail civil war upon the country or a dissolution of the
Union. The want of principle in party leaders was at this
176 A REVIEW OF THE
time apparent upon all sides ; and to this cause was it mainly
owing that sectional organizations were permitted to obtain a
dangerous control in the nation.
But the result of the campaign of 1856 was one more
triumph of national principles and the election of the Presidential
candidates of the Democratic party. Sectionalism was simply
stayed by this victory, but by no means overthrown. The ban
ner of abolitionism waved in triumph over eleven States of the
North ; and the powerful vote indicated to a certainty the suc
cess of Republican principles in the near future. Southern states
men now clearly perceived that their institution was doomed so
soon as Northern ideas would obtain permanent control of the
General Government. The antagonism of the North to slavery
had produced its counterpart in the South, which had become a
unit in defense of their inherited rights. In Southern estimation,
therefore, the election of Buchanan and Breckenridge simply
granted a respite of four years to the Constitutional Republic.
James Buchanan was inaugurated President of the United
States, March 4th, 1857. Shortly after his elevation to the
highest seat in the gift of the people, the Supreme Court in the
Dred Scott case, announced the important decision that the Mis
souri Compromise had been an unconstitutional act of Federal
legislation ; that slavery existed in all the Territories by virtue of
the Constitution ; and that neither Congress nor a Territorial
Legislature could terminate its legal existence. It was only the
people of a Territory, when forming a Constitution, w r ho were
competent to determine whether slavery should exist or not, in
the new State. This decision of the highest judicial tribunal of
the nation, affirmed the doctrine on the slavery question, that had
always been held by the South, and also by the Democratic and
Whig parties ; and that which was the dictate of reason and of a
sound and enlightened public policy.
The people of Kansas had determined in the regular Territorial
Legislature, to call a convention for the purpose of forming a State
Constitution. Accordingly on the 20th of May, 1857, F. P.
Stanton, then acting Governor of the Territory, published his
proclamation commanding the proper officers to hold an election
on the third Monday cf June, 1857, for the choice of members
to this Convention, as the Act of the Legislature directed. The
election was legally held as directed, and the Convention assembled
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 177
at Lecompton, according to law, on the first Monday of the follow
ing September. Having framed a Constitution, the Convention
adjourned on the 7th of November, 1857. Only that clause of
the Constitution respecting slavery, which seemed to be the
principle question in dispute between, the parties in the Territory,
was directed by the Convention to be submitted to a vote of the
people for ratification or rejection. This submission took place
on December 21st. The Free State men, having chiefly absented
themselves from the polls, the vote resulted as follows : For the
Constitution, with slavery, 6,226 ; for the Constitution, without
slavery, 567. By the new Constitution it was directed, that an
election should be held on the 4th of January, 1858, for a Gov
ernor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer,
Members of the Legislature, and also a Member of Congress.
At the election held in October, 1857, the Free State party
participated, and the result was that a Territorial Legisla
ture of their selection w r as chosen, and also a Delegate to Con
gress. Acting Governor Stanton convened, by proclamation, an
extra session of the Free State Legislature, for which act he was
removed from office by the President, and Governor Denver
appointed in his stead. The Territorial Legislature, when
assembled in extraordinary session, also authorized an election to
be held on the 4th of January, 1858, at which the Lecompton
Constitution should be submitted de novo, to a popular vote of
the people of Kansas, for acceptance or rejection. Of this elec
tion, ordered by the Territorial Legislature, James Buchanan, in
in his Message of February 2d, 1858, said :
" This electionwas held after the Territory had been prepared for admis
sion into the Union, as a Sovereign State, and when no authority existed
in the Territorial Legislature, which could possibly destroy its existence
or change its character."
The election ordering the Lecompton Constitution to a new
vote of the people, resulted in its repudiation by over ten thou
sand majority. The Pro-Slavery party declined to vote, inas
much as they contended that the Constitution had been already-
submitted in a legal manner, and, consequently, adopted. But
both parties participated on the same day in the general election
appointed as before stated in the Lecompton Constitution, and the
result was a great triumph for the Free State party. The Anti-
178 A REVIEW OF THE
Slavery men were thus placed in the ascendant, and the political
power of the Territory was in their hands.
Afterwards, on the 30th of January, President Buchanan
received a copy of the Lecompton Constitution, with a request
from the President of the Convention that it might be submitted
to the consideration of Congress. This was done by the Presi
dent, in his Message of February 2d, 1858, in which he recom
mended the admission of Kansas, and the termination of the
pending territorial difficulty. He urged the admission of Kansas
because its Constitution had been adopted in a regular and formal
manner ; and, although the one party had declined to vote either
for the election of delegates to the Convention, or on the
question of slavery, when the same was submitted to the people
for adoption or rejection ; this, in his opinion, was no reason why
the Constitution as adopted was not valid. Mr. Buchanan further
contended in his Message, that no other course would so speedily
terminate the slavery agitation as the admission of the new State ;
and he also showed, that the people of Kansas had it in their
own power immediately to take steps for changing their Consti
tution and abolishing slavery if the majority of the citizens so
desired. In this Message he said :
" The people of Kansas have in their own way and in strict accordance
with the Organic Act, formed a Constitution and State Government ;
have submitted the all-important question of slavery to the people, and
have elected a Governor, a Member to represent them in Congress, Mem
bers of the State Legislature, and other State officers. * * *
For my own part I am decidedly in favor of its admission, and thus
terminating the Kansas question."*
" This message occasioned a long, exciting and violent debate
in both Houses of Congress, between the Slavery and Anti-
Slavery members, which lasted nearly three months. It was but
the re-echo of the storm that was raging throughout the land.
Mr. Buchanan was bitterly denounced as truckling to the slave
power, and as lending the weight of his high office towards fixing
upon the people of Kansas the curse of slavery against their will.
Members of Congress were classified during this controversy as
Lecompton and Anti-Lecompton, as they favored or opposed the
admission of Kansas. A wing of his own party separated from
Mr. Buchanan on this point, and among these Stephen A. Doug
las, of Illinois. Kansas was not admitted under the Lecompton
*Buchanan s Administration, p. 42.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. JTi
Constitution and was only admitted a short time before the close
of Mr, Buchanan s administration, with a Free Constitution."*
During the administration of James Buchanan, a permanent
schism developed itself in the Democratic party, which rendered
the triumph of Republicanism in the next Presidential election
almost a certainty. The discord which rent the old party of
Jefferson, was itself produced by Anti-Slavery agitation; and
emanated from the conflicting opinions that existed as to the
power of the people of a territory to legislate concerning slavery
whilst in a territorial condition. In the year 1817, Gen, Cass,
in his celebrated Nicholson letter, had given utterance to senti
ments that seemed to imply such power in the inhabitants of a
Territory ; and from this period the question was more or less
discussed in Congress and in the public journals. The great
object of the leading statesmen at that time appeared to be the
removal of the question of slavery from the Halls of Congress
and leaving it with the people, who were themselves directly
interested in it. It soon became evident that Southern Demo
crats viewed the doctrine of squatter sovereignty, as an innova
tion upon the ancient creed ; and from its earliest advocacy they
determined to resist its incorporation into the platform of the
party. In 1854 the Eichmond Inquirer^ speaking of General
Cass, said :
" The concerted efforts of the "Washington Union and other journals in
his interest, to run him a second time (for President) and incorporate
squatter sovereignty into the Democratic creed, will provoke a resistance
which may possibly end in a disruption of the party,"
That Gen. Cass had been rightly understood as favoring the
disputed doctrine, seems clear from remarks made by him in the
Senate in May, 1856, as follows :
"He held, however, that alter Congress had enabled a Territory to
assume legislative powers, it was not competent for Congress to restrain
any legislative act of such Territorial Government under the Constitu
tion of the United States ; and amongst such acts he held the admission
or exclusion of slavery. This was a necessary deduction of popular sov
ereignty."^
The Cincinnati Convention of the Democratic party in 1856,
did not determine in its platform the disputed question as regards
the power of a Territorial Legislature, but left it for future
decision. James Buchanan, speaking of this convention, says ;
Harris Biographical History of Lancaster County, p. 108.
\NationallnteUigeiicer, May 13th, 1850, .
180 A REVIEW OF THE
" It is altogether silent in regard to the power of a Territorial Legisla
ture over the question of slavery. Nay, more ; whilst affirming in
general terms the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, it specifica ly
designates a future time when slavery may be rightly dissolved, not by
the Territorial Legislature but by the people. This is when acting
through the legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual resi
dents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it (they assem
ble), to form a Constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be
admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect eqality with the other
States. Before this period the Cincinnati platform is silent on the sub
ject."*
The Congressional struggle over the Lecompton Constitution
was potential in widening the breach that already existed in the
Democratic party. Stephen A. Douglas, in view of the Anti-
Slavery storm that had been prostrating the ancient structures of
his party, deemed it necessary to find refuge for his own safety
in some of the modern edifices that were rearing their domes
around him. The contest for the admission of Kansas offered
the Illinois Senator an admirable opportunity to redeem his sin-
stained head from the impending destruction with which he was
menaced by the Anti-Slavery spirit of the North. He had seen
the terrific overthrow which the Democracy suffered in 1854, and
even had witnessed by his side the fall of his Senatorial colleague ;
and all this the product of his own conjuration in the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise. He must make peace with the aroused
demon, and obtain atonement for the deeds of the past. In
uniting with his former enemies in opposing the admission of
Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution, Senator Douglas
hoped again to so re-instate himself in Northern confidence as to
assure his return to the United States Senate in 1859. Some of
the high priests of Republicanism were ready to clothe him with
sacred robes for his able defense of their cause. Horace Greeley
says :
" It seemed to me that not only magnanimity but policy dictated to
the Republicans of Illinois that they should promptly and heartily tender
their support to Mr. Douglas, and thus insure his re-election for a third
term with substantial unanimity." f
This opposition of Senator Douglas and his friends to the
admission of Kansas, proved the entering wedge that distracted
the National Democratic party. But it was in the famous Illi
nois contest which took place between Stephen A. Douglas and
^Buchanan s Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, p. 55,
f Greeley s Recollections, p. 357.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 181
Abraham Lincoln, that the former revealed himself as the politi
cian, who sought to secure his election at the risk of disrupting
that party, to which he was indebted for all his substantial honors,
and upon whose harmony the union of the States perhaps de
pended. Although as touching the slavery controversy he had
obligated himself to acquiesce in the decision of the Supreme
Court, yet when this was rendered in 1857, he, with the Republi
cans, strove to evade its effect, in his pandering to the abolition
sentiment of the Northern masses. He declared in his Illinois
speeches, that it was within the power of any Territorial Legis
lature, by a species of " unfriendly legislation," to exclude slavery
from the new Territories and though conceding the Supreme
Court to have declared that the Constitution carried slavery into
all the public domain, and that neither Congress nor a Territorial
Legislature were authorized to exclude it jet Senator Douglas
argued that it could not exist, unless certain favoring enactments
O ? O
of the Legislature were passed for its protection. In this manner
he endeavored to conciliate the Anti-Slavery opposition of his
State, and to show that his attitude was equally antagonistic to
slavery extension as that of the Republican party.
Such subterfuges of the politician, however, are miserable to
contemplate. What a death of demoralization does the position of
Senator Douglas assume ? His plan for excluding slavery from
the Territories pre-supposed that every Territorial legislator was
ready to perjure himself in order to accomplish his political schemes.
Does not every legislator swear to support the Constitution of
the United States ? How then could the legislator, who believed
with Senator Douglas, that the Constitution guarantees the right
to hold slaves in the Federal Territories, free himself from his
oath, unless he favored such legislation as would enable the slave
holder to enjoy his property after transporting it to his new
settlement ? Does an oath to obey the Constitution, permit a
legislator to support laws violative of rights established by that
National compact \ Is he a supporter of the Constitution, who,
knowing or believing there is a right established under it needing
specific legislation, would refuse the required enactments ? Would
he not, by such refusal, violate the solemn oath he had taken to
support the Constitution ? And yet such " unfriendly legislation,"
received the approbation of Senator Douglas. He would have
the members of a Territorial Legislature, who were sworn to sup-
183 A REVIEW OF THE
port the guarantees of the Constitution, and which they themselves
accepted as genuine, assist in legislation intended to defeat those
rights. This was, in plain words, to counsel the repudiation of
legislative obligations. It is not surprising that the period of
political corruption had fully set in, when a prominent leader of
one of the great American parties could be guilty of such a breach
of moral conviction ; and yet at the same time, not alienate from
him his partisan followers.
If the principles of the Democratic party were wrong, neither
Senator Douglas,, nor any other man, should have advocated
them ; but if right, as he professed, then it was his duty to bat
tle for them before a corrupted public opinion, even if he must
fall in the contest. The Republicans challenged the truths of
the Democratic doctrines ; resisted openly the extension of slavery
into the Territories ; and planted themselves in opposition to tho
former principles upon which the Government from its origin
had been conducted. In the estimation of all men of clear per
ception, they were the revolutionists who strove for the over
throw of the old social status and the inauguration of a new one.
But, Stephen A. Douglass and his followers avowed themselves"
as Democrats; as friends of the existing order of government
and its institutions ; and yet they did nothing to avert the revo
lution which was threatening the country. Instead of presenting
themselves as a breakwater to the flood that was rising, they
simply added the squatter sovereignty current as a cumulative
force to the deluge, and permitted it, unobstructed, to beat with
still greater impetuosity against all the landmarks of ancient
order and constitutional guarantee. The Illinois Senator was
therefore no true man for the crisis. He was the sunshine patriot
whose voice was loudest when prosperity covered with her wings
the party to which he was attached; but when adversity ad
vanced, the ingrate was soon found a deserter in the enemy s
ranks.
But besides all this, the Congressional struggle over the Le-
compton Constitution, added new strength, as was anticipated,
to the Republican revolutionists of the North ; and the election
of 1858 resulted for them in another triumph. Thaddeus Stevens
was in this year returned from Lancaster County to the 36th
Congress, which assembled on Monday, December 5th, 1859. He
again took his seat in that body, of which he continued a member
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 183
during the remainder of his life, a period of the most eventful
interest in his own and the history of the Kepublic. The ele
ments of discord were at no former, time so threatening, as at
the opening of this Congress. The country had but just recov
ered from the shock produced by the raid into Virginia, led by
the fanatical John Brown and his deluded followers. In the
opinion of every reflecting man, a crisis was near at hand. The
portents indicating such were visible on all sides. The whole
period of James Buchanan s administration up to this moment,
was like a diseased body, one pustule appearing after another,
indicating the putrefying condition of the whole. The Southern
mind was highly alarmed with the state of affairs, and unity of
interest had cemented their States into an attitude of resistance
to JSTorthern sectionalism. The Republican nominee for Speaker
of the House, was John Sherman, of Ohio, who had made himself
especially odious to the South, by publicly recommending in con
nexion with sixty-eight other members of Congress, a document
called "Helper s Book," the doctrines of which were of the
most fanatical and revolutionary character. But political mad
ness and insanity ruled the hour ; and although the entire South
ern delegation gave warning that they would regard the election
of Sherman, or any other man with his record, as an open declar
ation of war against the South, the Republican revolutionists
defiantly continued to vote for him for nearly two months, giving
him a majority lacking but a few votes upon every trial of his
strength.* He was finally withdrawn and William Pennington,
from Xew Jersey, a member of the same party, was elected.
The Republican party, openly pledged to oppose slavery ex
tension, was already dominant in the Northern States. The
Douglas Democracy of the Xorth also advocated sentiments that
in Southern estimation would circumscribe slavery within its
present bounds; indeed, this was the secret of their reception
amongst that wing of the party, tinctured with anti-slavery views.
The anti-slavery agitation had raged with such intensity, and for
so long a period, that the Northern people were seduced by
the arguments of the Abolitionists into the belief that slavery
was a great social and moral evil, and repugnant to the instincts
of a refined humanity. But few remained unconverted to the
*PoUard s First Year of the "War, pp. 29.
184 A REVIEW OF THE
sentiments of the abolition reform, save those who were compe
tent to think and reason for themselves. The leading intellects
of the South were not slow in detecting the state of Northern
opinion upon the slavery question ; a vigilant statesman of the
South took occasion to denounce the Dougla&i defection as " a
short cut to all ends of Black Republicanism." Whilst the
"Helper Book" controversy was agitating the country, one of
the Georgia Senators was so bold as to denounce, in his place in
Congress, the entire Democratic jarty of the North as unreliable
and rotten.
Jefferson Davis, on the 2d day of February, 1860, offered in
the Senate a series of resolutions, expressive of Southern opin
ions, as regards the relation of the States of the Union, and the
power of Congress, or o,f a Territorial Legislature over slavery in
the Federal Territories. The resolution denning the Democratic
position on the slavery question, denied to Congress or a Terri
torial Legislature the power " to annul or impair the Constitu
tional right of any citizen of the United States to take his slave
property into the common Territories, and there hold and enjoy
the same while the territorial condition remains." These reso
lutions were adopted in the Senate by nearly a two-thirds vote ;
the Republicans, however, opposed their passage with unanimity
as conflicting with the principles of their party.
The States Right party of the South had in 1856 at Cincinnati,
united with the Northern Democracy upon a platform of princi
ples which received different interpretations in the two sections.
In the North it was believed by one wing of the party (the fol
lowers of Douglas ) to express the doctrine of popular sov
ereignty for the government of the Territories ; and in the
South a contrary interpretation obtained. The popular sover
eignty doctrine of the North claimed for the people of a Terri
tory,, the right to determine the slavery question for themselves.
Those favoring this view, asserted that this was the principle
established by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This assertion James
Buchanan refutes in the following language :
" If the Douglas*, construction of the act be correct, it is morally cer
tain that the Southern Senators and Representatives who were warm
advocates of its passage, could not possibly have so understood it. If
they had, they would then have voluntarily voted away the rights of
their constituents. Indeed, such a construction of the act would be
more destructive to the interests of the slaveholders than the Republican
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 183
doctrine of Congressional exclusion. Better, far better, for him to sub
mit the question to Congress, where he could be deliberately heard by
his representatives, than to be deprived of his slaves after he had gone
to the trouble and expense of exporting them, to a Territory, by a hasty
enactment of a Territorial Legislature, elected annually, and freed from
all constitutional restraints. Such a construction of the Kansas-Nebraska
Act would be in direct opposition to the policy and practice of the Gov
ernment from its origin. The men who framed and built up our institu
tions, so far from regarding the Territories to be sovereign, treated them
as mere wards of the Federal Government. * * * It was not
then foreseen that any political party would arise in this country claim
ing the right for the majority of the first settlers of a Territory, under
the plea of popular sovereignty, to confiscate the property of the
minority. "When the population of the Territories had reached a certain
number, Congress admitted them as States into the Union, under the
Constitution framed by themselves, with or without slavery, according
to their own discretion."*
The dual Democratic interpretation obtained, regarding that part
of the Cincinnati platform, which adopted the principles of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act ; and it was agreed amongst the leaders of
the party that the -subject should be referred to the Supreme
Court for adjudication. But when the Dred Scott decision was
promulgated, so violent was the clamor which was raised against
it by the revolutionary Republican party, that Stephen A. Doug
las and those agreeing with him in sentiment, were intimidated
from that defense of it, of which the high character of the
Court should have rendered it worthy. And, even though some
of the principles dec-ided might strictly not have been before
the Court, yet they disclosed what the judges regarded as law,
and were indicative of what would be affirmed when the point
in technical accuracy might arise. In this view of the question,
the Dred Scott decision was a positive affirmance of the Southern
interpretation of the Cincinnati platform. In this decision, all
Democrats, both North and South, should willingly have acqui
esced ; it was only for that party to dispute it whose principles
of policy were based upon the doctrine that no law or decision
of ai; ; court could justify the existence of Slavery in the States,
and much less its extension into the Territorial domain. Sup
ported by the decision of the highest Federal Court; by the
unanimous opinion of their own section and a respectable portion
of the Northern Democracy ; and also in the historical practice
of the country as regards the manner of governing the Territo-
^Buchanan s Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, pp. 54- 3.
183 A REVIEW OF THE
lies, the Southern people determined to insist npon their rights
and defend their honor as integral members of the Confederacy.
In view of the assembling of the Democratic party for the pur
pose of nominating candidates for President and Vice-President,
the people of several of the Southern States defined the condi
tions upon which their delegates should hold seats in the National
Convention, appointed to meet at Charleston, April 23d, 1860.
The Democracy of Alabama was first to move in this direction.
A series of resolutions were passed, affirming the Southern doc
trine that neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature were
authorized to interfere with Slavery in the Federal Territories ;
and also directing their delegates to see that these principles be
incorporated as part of the National Democratic creed, or that
they retire from the convention. Similar resolves formed the
credentials of the delegates from other Southern States.
The Democratic Convention which assembled at Charleston,
was composed of discordant elements, representing the unharmo-
nious condition of the only remaining organization that formed a
tie between the Northern and Southern portions of the American
Union. The Democracy now met as did the old "Whig party in
1852, when nothing remained of it save the name; for as to
principles, a full separation had taken place between its antago
nistic sections. It was soon apparent that the party would be
unable to harmonize upon a platform of principles satisfactory to
both divisions of the Union ; and this because such a spirit of
compromise w^as wanting as the exigency of the hour would have
demanded. Patriotism required that the Democrats of the North
should meet their brethren of the South in fraternal amity, and
accord them in a public platform of principles the recognition of
those rights which the Constitution guaranteed. This was all
they demanded, and whilst the constitutional compact endured,
equity suggested the fulfillment of its stipulations. The revolu
tionists were in serried array ; the alarming decree had gone
forth that the will of the majority must triumph, and that the
accorded rights of the minority must yield ; and yet the Demo
crats of the North stood stubbornly upon a principle in which it
was impossible for the South, as she conceived, to acquiesce
without a sacrifice of her honor as a member of an equal Con
federation. After the convention had been in session for several
days, the South was out-voted in the adoption of the platform ;
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 137
and tins ultimated in the disruption of the assemblage by the
withdrawal of the cotton States ; and an adjournment to Balti
more followed. The border Slave States still remained in the
convention in the hope of effecting some ultimate settlement of
the difficulty. But the breach, instead of being closed, widened.
The re-assembling of the convention at Baltimore resulted in a
iinal and embittered separation of the opposing delegates. The
majority still clinging with uncompromising tenacity to their
position ; Virginia and the other border States, except Missouri,
withdrew from the convention and united with the representa
tives from the cotton States, then assembled at Baltimore, in the
nomination of candidates representing their views. A portion
of the Northern delegates also retired from the convention and
united with them. Their nominees were John C. Breckenridge,
of Kentucky, for President, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for
Vice-President. The Northern Democracy placed in nomina
tion Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, for President, and Herschel
V. Johnson, of Georgia, for Yice-President
The Constitutional Union party, being the remnant of the old
Whig and American organizations, met in Baltimore May 9th,
1880, and nominated for President and Yice-President, John
Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts. The
platform of this party was a vague and undefined enumeration
of their politcal principles summed up in the following words :
" The Constitution of the country, the union of the States, and the
enforcement of the laws."
The Democracy was at length sundered, the Whig party was
virtually defunct, and nothing seemed now able to interpose
resistance to the triumphant march of the revolutionists to victory.
This party met in Chicago in June, 1860, and placed Abraham
Lincoln, of Illinois, in nomination for the Presidency, and Han
nibal Hamlin, of Maine, for the Vice-Presidency, and at the same
time adopted a platform declaring freedom to the normal condi
tion of the Territories. Sectionalism had now chosen its cap
tains for its last struggle with the principles of representative
democratic government. Its Anti-Slavery and Kon-Compro-
mise banners floated over the hastily constructed wigwam in
which the leaders had assembled, and the nominations as made
were received w r ith an eclat which seemed to portend triumph as
about to crown their standards. But reason was lost sisrht of in
183 A REVIEW OF THE
an assembly, which was intoxicated with the contemplation of
negro emancipation upon the Western continent.
The weakness and incapacity of men for self-government was
fully exemplified in the campaign of 1860. The people of both
sections of the country, in opposition to the admonitions of the
framers and ancient patriots of the American Republic, permitted
themselves to be seduced by false leaders into a hostility of sections,
which could not but carry with it revolution and constitutional
overthrow. Party success and partisan triumph, were the motives
of the politicians in a campaign which, of all others, should have
produced instances of pure disinterestedness and patriotic self-
devotion. But the contrary was everywhere apparent. Men
adhered to their parties, although in doing so, they were con
sciously adding firebrands to the Federal Republic, soon to be
ignited in the names of civil convulsion. The campaign resulted
as all reflecting men must have anticipated, in the election of the
revolutionary candidates, Lincoln and Hamlin. Republicanism,
save in New Jersey, triumphed throughout the entire North.
Sectional antagonism, which an Anti-Slavery agitation of many
years had been preparing, was at length fully complete. Destiny,
however, had in store for the American people the fruits of offi
cious interference and impolitic reform.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 139
CHAPTER XII.
SECESSION OF THE SOUTHERN STATES, AND THE EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE,
The Southern people correctly interpreted the import of
Northern ascendency in the election of Lincoln and Hamlin, on
the 6th of November, 1860. The composition of the Republican
party, the utterances of its orators and press, and the resolves
of its conventions, left no doubt as to the animus of the organi
zation, much as this, for political reasons, might be concealed.
The most violent Abolitionists of the North were the most ardent
champions of the new combination, and the entrusted chiefs in
all party manipulations, provided they displayed sufficient saga
city as not to disclose the esoteric doctrines of the initiated. The
enunciated principles of simple opposition to the extension of
slavery, were far from being those which raised the enthusiasm of
the sincere Abolitionists, and attracted them to the standards of
Republicanism. The same secret which attached to the rising
party, the enemies of slavery, aroused the friends of the institu
tion, and, as it were, admonished them of the adder in the
grass, whose poison was to be avoided. This antagonism resulted
from the existence of slavery in the Southern States, and although
the Republicans avowed no intention to interfere with the insti
tution where it existed, yet this addition to the creed was simply
a matter of time, and the education of Northern public opinion,
Southern institutions were doomed to a short existence under
the Federal Government in the hands of the Republican party.
This, leading statesmen of the South had often predicted, should
Northern sectionalism succeed in gaining control of national
affairs. It had been determined, therefore, by the controlling
minds in the slave States, that if their constitutional rights were
to be preserved, resistance would become necessary when a sec
tional party should come into power with principles known to be
violative of the guarantees of the Federal compact. In the
100 A REVIEW OF THE
election of Abraham *Lincoln, as they conceived, that period had
at length arrived. The predictions of Calhoun, Clay, and other
leading statesmen of the South were verified ; Northern Aboli
tionism, under the false name of Republicanism, had triumphed ;
and the Southern people would simply be conceded such rights
as the new rulers would see proper to accord. The only question
In the South, was the remedy to be adopted, in view of Northern
ascendency upon a basis of hostility to their institutions.
A number of prominent South Carolinians had met on the
25th of October, 1860, and had determined upon the secession
of their State, in case the Republican party, as was anticipated,
should triumph in the pending campaign. This determination
of the influential men of the Palmetto State, was shared very
generally by the controllers of public -opinion in the remainder
of the cotton States, The Legislature of South Carolina, being
convened by Gov, Gist, on Monday, November 5th, the day
before the Presidential election, for the purpose of choosing
electors ; the State politicians had an opportunity of perfecting
their plans, should Republicanism in the North triumph. The
Governor, in his proclamation, and other prominent men of the
State, who were serenaded on the evening of the 5th, expressed
the opinion that in the event of Abraham Lincoln being chosen
President of the United States, duty demanded that South Caro
lina should inaugurate the movement of separation from the
Union ; and set in motion the ball of resistance to the Northern
despotism.
The morning of the 7th of November, 1860, announced to
the people of the South the unwelcome news that the hated party
of the North had won its crowning victory, Abraham Lincoln
and Hannibal Hamlin were elected to the highest offices in the
gift of the people ; arid by a party pledged in its platform to
prohibit Slavery extension ; and animated with the resolve to
weaken the institution at all points, and ultimately effect its
entire extinction. William IL Seward, the life and soul of the
Republican party in 1848, thus spoke at Cleveland;
" Correct your own error that Slavery has any constitutional guaran
tees which may r?ot be released, and ought not to be relinquished. Say
to Slavery, when it shows its bond (the Constitution) and demands its
pound of flesh, that if it draws one drop of blood, its life shall pay the
forfeit." * * * "Do all this and inculcate all this, in the spirit
of moderation and benevolence, and not of retaliation and fanaticism,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 191
and you will soon bring the parties of the country into an effective
aggression upon slavery. Slavery can be limited to
its present bounds ; it can be ameliorated. It can be and must be abol
ished, and you and I can and must do it. The task is as simple and easy
as its consummation will be beneficent and its reward glorious."
Henry Wilson, another of the shining lights of Republicanism,
expressed himself in the following manner :
" We shall triumph in the end ; and we shall overthrow the slave-
power of the Republic ; we shall enthrone freedom ; we shall abolish
slavery ; we shall change the Supreme Court of the United States, and
place men in that Court who believe that our prayers will be impious to
heaven "while we sustain and support human slavery."
The diabolical and fiendish principles of the Helper Book,
which had been endors2d by 69 Republican members of Congress,
could never be forgotten by the people of the Southern States.
As soon, therefore, as the triumph of Abolitionism w r as made
known, secession was very generally determined upon by Southern
Statesmen as the remedy for evils which threatened the overthrow
of that form of Constitutional Government under which their
States had prospered, and to which they were devotedly attached.
The Legislature of South Carolina being at this time in session,
joint resolves were passed in both Houses calling for the election
of a convention on the 6th of December, and which should meet
on the 17th of the same month, to take into consideration the
question of separation from the Union. Steps leading in the same
direction were taken throughout the whole section of the cotton
States ; and the influential leaders in most of the remaining slave
States prepared themselves so to act as the current of a united
Southern sentiment might dictate. By general consent it seemed
now recognized that the period had arrived which demanded har
mony of counsel amongst the slave States, in order that they
might be able by united action to countervail Northern section
alism, and defend their constitutional rights as equal members of
the American Confederacy.
The South Carolina Convention, assembled at Columbia, the
Capitol of the State, on the day determined upon ; and on the
20th of December, 1860, proceeded to pass by an unanimous vote
an Ordinance of Secession, dissolving their connection with the
Federal Union. The secession of South Carolina was received
by the dominant party in the North as a matter of light conse
quence ; as only another nullification affair which would scarcely
192 A REVIEW OF THE
create a ripple upon the ocean of American life. Indeed, a
studied system of deception had characterized the utterances of
the organs of this party from its organization in 1854. During
the whole of the campaign of 1860, the declarations of Northern
and Southern Conservatives that the election of Abraham Lincoln
would produce revolution and civil war, were scouted by the
Republican orators and press, as simply election threats, intended
to intimidate the dough faces of the North ; and that as soon as
the election was over the Southern braggarts, as they were termed,
would tame down as on former occasions. This system of de
ception was simply a part of the programme to enable the party
to gain power. The objects to which they were leading the
Northern people, and the dangerous course over which the passage
led, must all be concealed from the eyes of the people, otherwise
these were unattainable. The Northern masses w T ere neither
prepared for the abolition of slavery, nor for civiJ war with their
countrymen of the South ; both of which were logical results of
the success of the Republican party.
But the eyes of the Northern masses were partially opened as
one after another of the cotton States followed in the wake of
South Carolina secession. Mississippi was the first to imitate the
example of the Palmetto State, and enrol herself under the ban
ner of Southern resistance, having passed an ordinance of seces
sion January 9th, 1861. Florida buckled on the secession armor
in defence of her inherited rights on the 10th of the same
month, and on the day following, Alabama was by her side in
similar warlike array. On three successive days, these last named
States had in secession resolves, donned the martial outfit of
Southern independence. Georgia, the old Empire State of the
South, was next to take her stand by the side of her resistant
sisters, and give character and weight to the movement of seces
sion. This she did January 19th, in an ordinance asserting her
State Sovereignty and independence of the Federal Government.
Louisiana passed her act of secession January 25th, and on the
1st of February the Lone Star of Texas was added to the nag of
the Southern Confederacy. On the 4th of February, 1861, a
Congress of Delegates from the seven seceded States convened
at Montgomery, the capitol of Alabama, adopted a Provisional
Government, and elected Jefferson Davis, President of -the Con
federate States.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 1S3
The deception that had been practiced began to show its lining
through the clouds, and as many as caught the glimpse broke in
all directions. Horace Greeley, the leading Abolition editor of
the North, says :
"Every local election held during the two months succeeding our
national triumph, showed great conservative gains. Conspicuous Aboli-
lionists were denied the use of public halls, or hooted down if they
attempted to speak. Influential citizens, through meetings and letters,
denounced the madness of fanaticism, and implored the South to stay
her avenging arm until the North could have time to purge herself from
complicity with fanatics, and demonstrate her fraternal sympathy with
her Southern sister."*
During all this period, the leading Republicans of Abolition
faith exerted themselves to the utmost to turn the tide that had
so strongly set in against them. The politicians, the journalists,
and the infidel clergy of the North, had another difficult task to
obscure the vision of the people and prevent them from seeing
the yawning gulph of destruction to which they were conduct
ing them. They were made to believe by these wolves in sheep s
clothing, that the South was only blustering in order to terrify
the timid conservatives and enable them to obtain further guar
antees for Slavery. Efforts at compromise were discouraged by
them because, as they assured the people, such would be vain and
useless. Sentences from the speeches of Southern men were
perverted from their connection ; and these were made to utter
sentiments which they never entertained. The papers teemed
with the declarations of Clingman, Chestnut, Rhett, and other
Southern statesmen, who were cited as asserting that no compro
mise would avail to arrest the revolution. But the reasons given
by these men for believing and asserting that no compromise
could heal the difficulties between the North and South, were
carefully concealed from the Northern people. Had they told
the whole story as it now stands revealed to history, and as
shrewd men w^ell understood at that time, such a demand for
conciliation would have gone up, as would have almost rent the
whole Northern heavens, and have driven the leaders from a plat
form of discord, which admitted no entrance for the Angel of
Peace ; but w T hich was conducting the American people to the
bloodiest chasm of civil war, that the annals of the world have
*Ureeiey s Recollections, p. 396.
19-1 A REVIEW OF THE
ever recorded. It was the Chicago conclave that interposed and
made harmony between the sections impossible. It was the
resolves of the Lake City Convention, in I860, together with
the knowledge of the designs of these men, that induced Southern
statesmen to declare that secession could not be arrested. To show
that the people were somewhat aroused to the alarming dangers
to which the Republican party had brought the country, the fol
lowing Abolition testimony is submitted. Horace Greeley says :
" In fa::t the attitude of the North during the two last months of 1860,
was foreshadowed in four lines of Collins Ode to the Passions. * * *
And the clanger was imminent that if a popular vote could have been had
(as was proposed) on the CritLenden Compromise, it would have prevailed
by an overwhelming majority. Very few Republicans would have voted
for it ; but very many would have refrained from voting at all ; while
their adversaries would have brought their every man to the polls in its
support, and carried it by hundreds of thousands."*
South Carolina and the other cotton States did not secede, as
was averred by the Republican leaders, on account of any hos
tility to the Union, or the people of the North, but simply because
they became fully satisfied that their rights were in jeopardy.
Mutual interest had originally induced the people of the South
to unite with those oi the North ; and while it was clear that it
was to their advantage to remain in the Union, like all other
people, the} w r ould do so. In the Union with their Northern
brethren they had grown wealthy and powerful ; and some valid
reason existed to induce them* to prefer a dissolution of the Union.
The reason was no clearer to Southern than to Northern appre
hension. It was the intermedling, fanatical disposition of the
Abolitionists of the North which induced them to interfere in the
affairs of others, and assume to be the rulers over all America and
her institutions. This in short was the lion in the way of an
amicable settlement of the National troubles. A party existed
confined to the Northern States, whose doctrines were antagonistic
to the interests of the Southern people ; this party was soon to
obtain control of the Federal Government; and as a consequence,
the Union for them had no further attractions. Nations, as well
as individuals, will ever seek such alliances as will redound, as
they conceive, to their advantage. It was so in the case of the
union of the States. But the long, bitter and intemperate Anti
Slavery agitation, had antagonized the North into a sectional
*Greeley s R?collectio:is, pp. 396-7.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 195
attitude against the South and her institutions; slavery was
clearly seen to be jeoparded in a longer association with a people
who could be seduced into such a hostile aggression against the
rights and interests of another people over whom they had no
legal control ; and therefore, reason and common sense dictated a
dissolution of a once friendly and happy alliance ; but which had
now become dangerous and threatening to constitutional civil
guarantees, and even to the perpetuity of free representative
government itself. The men of the South would have been pol
troons and worthy the doom of slavery themselves, had they
ignobly yielded to the dictation of Northern fanaticism; and
tolerantly permitted th^ inauguration of a policy that in the end
was sure to lead to the subversion of their constitutional rights.
In the system of disimulation and deception, by which the
Republican leaders blindfolded the Northern people in 1860 and
1861, there was no one more adroit than Thaddeus Stevens in
the use of such instruments as were required for the purpose ; and
one who was able to distort Southern sentiment, and pervert it
into the support of his own party position. An instance of this
is seen in his speech in the House, delivered January 29th, 1861.
He said :
" I regret, sir, that I am compelled to concur in the belief stated yes
terday by the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Pryor) that no compromise
which can be made will have any effect in averting the present difficulty." *
Mr Stevens fails to state in his speech (intended for circulation
in the Northern journals of the Republican party f ) what stood
in the way of compromise ; but this is seen in the speech of Mr.
Pryor, to which he refers. The latter, in his speech of January
28th, spolve as follows :
" MR. SPEAKER, since the fatal 6th of November to the present hour,
the Representatives of the South have invariably exhibited an accomo-
dating disposition. The first day of our session was signalized by a
proposition from a colleague of my own (Mr. Botteler), which contem
plated a pacific adjustment of our difficulties. A similar movement,
likewise originating with a Southern man, was initiated in the Senate,
* Congressional Globe, p. 621.
fHence flows one great evii of an unbridled press, which details all that
is deemed favorable to the intests of party ; but the antidote is rarely
permitted to appear. Under such a system as now obtains wiih most
party organs in America, the truth is with the greatest difficulty ascer
tained, even by investigators, but rarely by the masses. Some "method
would seem necessary to be devised which would better secure the dis
semination, of the truth than now exists.
193 A REVIEW OF THE
Meanwhile, various schemes of settlement have been submitted in one 01
the other House of Congress, of which, without much regard to their
intrinsic efficacy, we have uniformly avowed our support ; while on the
other side (the Republican), they have been as uniformly rejected with
a contemptuous disdain of compromise. Thus, while the South are will
ing to remain in the Union with an assurance of their rights, the North
declare, by a refusal of all concession, that they will destroy the Union
rather than renounce their aggressive designs. In the perverted patriot
ism of the dominant party, the Constitution of Washington is substituted
by the platform of Lincoln ; and rather than be reproached with logical
inconsistency, they chose to incur the guilt of civil war/ *
Mr. Stevens, on the 14th of February, 1861, in replying to a
Mr. Webster, of Maryland, who characterized his speech of
January 29th as "a strong Anti-Compromise speech," admitted
that instead of being sorry, he was gratified that compromise
could not save the Union. He said : " I did not agree to go for
compromise. I am opposed to compromise until there is some
thing to compromise. "f
Another illustration from. the speech of Mr. Stevens of Janu
ary 29th, is cited as an example of the illogical and clap-trap
method made use of by the Republican leaders to parry Southern
argument in favor of compromise, and by sophistry also, to arouse
Northern pride and false patriotism against the people of the
South. He spoke as follows :
" When I see these States in open and declared rebellion against the
Union, seizing upon her public lands and arsenals, and robbing her of
millions of the public property ; when I see the batteries of seceding
States blockading the highway of the nation, and their armies in
battle array against the flag of the Union ; when I see our flag insulted,
and that insult submitted to, I have no hope that concession, humiliation
and compromise can have any effect whatever.. \
Such was the pabulum that fed Northern venom during the
period when patriots North and South were engaged in the
holy mission of endeavoring to adjust the national difficulties,
and shield the Republic from bloodshed and fratricidal strife.
Much more worthily would the powers of Mr. Stevens have been
engaged, if in true republican spirit he had employed his intel
lectual abilities in logically controverting the positions of Southern
statesmen, and convincing them, in the forum of reason, that their
rights would be better secured in the Union than out of it.
* Congressional Globe, p. 603.
t Globe, p. 907,
\ Globe, p. 62 U
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 197
That was the method by which the Union had been framed, and
by no other could a republican Union be perpetuated. Instead,
therefore, of parading the iniquity of Southern secession, why
did not he and his party endeavor to prove that the reasons which
induced it were groundless ? The eloquent R. A. Pry or, of
Virginia, (against whom, as has been seen, Mr. Stevens in a
measure replied) submitted a resume of the causes that induced
the Southern revolt which deserved an argumentative rather than
a bitter, sneering reply. After recapitulating the non-execution
of the fugitive slave law by the Xorth, with many other viola
tions of Southern rights, Mr. Pryor said :
" But the defence of the South rests upon still stronger grounds ; and
her secession from the Confederacy is justified by even higher principles
than the right to vindicate a violated covenant. Absolute power is the
essence of tyranny, whether the power be wielded by a monarch or a
multitude. The dominant section in this Confederacy claims and exer
cises absolute power power without limitation and without responsi
bility without limitation, since all the restrictions of the Constitution
are broken down, and without responsibility, because in the nature of
things, the weaker interest cannot control the majority. Of all species
of tyranny, the South is subject to the most intolerable. Under the
rule of a despot we might hope something of his impartial indifference
between the sections ; but to be exposed to the unbridled sway of a
majority adverse in interest, inimical in feeling, and ambitious of domi
nation, is to be reduced to a condition more abject than that of the slaves
whose emancipation is the pretext of all this controversy.
It is against this sectional domination, this rule of the majority with
out law and without limit, a rule asserted in subversion of the Con
stitution, and established on the ruins of the Confederacy, it is in
resistance to this despotic and destable rule that the people of the South
have taken up arms. This, sir, is the cause of the South ; and tell me if
cause more just ever consecrated revolution ? It is the cause of self-gov
ernment against the domination of foreign power the very cause for
which our fathers fought in 1 776. I repeat, it is against the rule of a
sectional despotism that the South demands protection ; and it is to assert
the cause of civil liberty that she declares her independence. You of the
North lavished your sympathy on the people of Hungary in their revolt
against Austrian absolutism ; but our cause is identical, in principle and
in purpose.
"To-day, it is Southern interests which suffer from the overthrow of
constitutional guarantees and the irresponsible reign of the majority.
But the principle of absolute power, once ascendant in the Government,
no interest is secure ; and circumstances will determine against what
object it may be directed. The only safeguard of American liberty is in.
maintaining the integrity and preserving intact the limitations of the
Government. For that the South contends; and all are alike concerned
in her cause.
108 A REVIEW OF THE
"If, after the endurance of so many wrongs and the menace of others
still more intolerable, were anything wanting to justify the South in. the
public opinion of the world, it would be supplied by her solicitude to
avoid violence and redress her grievances within the Union. We are
reproached, I know, with precipitancy in not waiting an overt act of
hostility from the sectional administration. Sir, in our judgment, a
proclamation of war is an overt act, and such proclamation we find in
the election by an exclusively sectional vote of a President pledged to
put our rights and our property in course of Ultimate extinction, a
President who admonishes us in advance of his aggressive designs by
the sententious but significant declaration that they who deny freedom
to others do not deserve it themselves, and under a just God cannot long
retain it. We could not agree to await, inactively, the development of
the disposition of the President elect ; for we claim to hold our rights by
some higher and more solid tenure than the capricious temper of any
individual. Indeed, the arguments of our opponents involves a conces
sion of our case, inasmuch as it implies that the rights of the South are
no longer secured by constitutional guarantees, but are suspended on the
accident of an unfriendly administration.
A more imperative consideration still determined the South to act at
once and to act decisively. If negotiation might avail, we thought to
strengthen this by a demonstration of our spirit. If the sword alone
can reclaim our rights, we were resolved not to be unprepared for the
issue."*
The united South and the Democracy of the North were all
in favor of an adjustment of the dispute between the sections,
without recourse to coercive measures. Even a considerable wins:
o
of the Eepublican party which had supported- Lincoln for the
Presidency, were likewise favorable to a peaceful solution of
the national difficulties, in order to avoid a collision of arms that
would endanger the Federal Union, and might ultimate in a total
overthrow of republican institutions. Influential men of both
political parties, in view of Southern demonstrations, felt that a
crisis had arisen, that called for the efforts of patriots to exert
their influence to ward off the dangers with which the country
was threatened. Meetings were held in different sections of the
North for the purpose of giving expression to public opinion ;
and also with the design of securing such a coincidence of senti
ment as might lead to an amicable termination of the troubles
that were threatening the peace of the country. One of the
largest of these assemblages was that held in Independence
Square, in the City of Philadelphia, and which, by the advice of
the councils, had been summoned by Mayor Henry to counsel
*Globe of 2d Session, 36th Congress, Vol. I, pp. 603-3.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 19&
together, in view of the apprehension that disunion was immi
nent, unless the " loyal people casting off the spirit of party,
should in a special manner avow their unfailing fidelity to the
Union, and their abiding faith in the Constitution and laws."
This meeting the spontaneous outburst of the purest patriotism
that a people could exhibit was of vast magnitude, and showed
the interest that was felt by the masses who came in any wise to
realize the maelstrom of civil war into which the Ship of State
was rapidly descending. Addresses were made before this con
course of citizens by leading old line "VVhigs, Democrats and
Conservative Republicans, evincing a desire of compromise ; and
that fraternal concord might again be restored between the States
and the Union perpetuated without bloodshed. It was a clear
indication that the Northern people wished the Union to be pre
served by pacific remedies rather than risk its safety upon the
hazard of the sword. But power had passed from the hands of
those who desired that the Union should be perpetuated in the
manner it had been formed. In compromise its foundations had
been laid ; in conciliation its structure had been reared ; but this
policy must now yield to that which can terminate the career of
Slavery and end its existence as one of the institutions of the
American Republic.
The second session ot the Thirty-sixth Congress opened on
Monday, December 3d, 1860, and President Buchanan on the
next day transmitted to this body his fourth and last Annual
Message. In this document, the President essayed the discussion
of the national difficulties, and set forth as he believed the causes
that had induced the troubles. Tie said :
"Why is it then, that discontent now so extensively prevails, and the
Union of the States, which is the source of all our blessings, is threatened
with destruction? The long continued and intemperate interference of
the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States,
lias at length produced its natural effects. The different sections of the
Union are now arrayed against each other, and the time has arrived so
much dreaded by the Father of his country, when hostile geographical
parties have b.en formed. I have long foreseen and often forewarned
my countrymen of the now impending danger. This does not proceed
solely from the claims on the part of Congress or the Territorial Legisla
tures to exclude slavery from the Territories, nor from the efforts of
the different States to defeat the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law."
In both the Senate and House of Representatives, committees
were appointed to consider the state of the Union in view of tho
200 A REVIEW OF THE
threatening aspect of national affairs. The Senate Committee,
consisting of thirteen members, was composed of the most dis
tinguished Senators, representing the different parties to which
they belonged. It consisted of live leading Republicans, the
same number from the slave States, and three Northern Demo
crats/* The latter were intended to act as mediators between the
extreme parties of the Committee. The Committee of the
House consisted of thirty-three members, one from each State,
and was made up of sixteen Republicans, fifteen Southern men
and two Northern Democrats. Horace Greeley, speaking of this
Committee, .says :
"Mr. Speaker Pennington, who formed the Committee, was strongly in"
clined to conciliation, if that could be effected, 011 terms not disgraceful
to the North ; and at least six of the sixteen Republicans placed on the
Committee, desired and hoped that an adjustment might yet be achieved.
No member of extreme Anti-Slavery views was associated with them."f
The Committee of the Senate first met December 21st, and
preliminary to any other proceedings, they "resolved that no
proposition shall be reported as adopted, unless sustained by a
majority of each of the classes of the Committee ; Senators of
the Republican party to constitute one class, and Senators of
the other parties to constitute the other class." This resolution
was adopted, because it was well-known that any report that
might be submitted would be vain, unless sanctioned by at least
a majority of Republican Senators. Few Southern men ever
Relieved that these efforts at compromise would result in any
amicable settlement of the difficulties between the sections ; but
they were willing to co-operate in any measures that promised
the least hope of warding off from the country the calamities of
civil war. On the 22d of the same month, John J. Crittenden,
of Kentucky, submitted to the Committee his proposed amend
ments to the Constitution, which became popularly known as the
Crittenden Compromise. This was designed as a compromise of
conflicting claims, inasmuch as it proposed that the South should
surrender their adjudicated right to take slaves into all the Terri
tories, provided the North would concede this right in the Territory
* The five Republicans of the Committee were Messrs. Seward, Colla-
mer, Wade, Doolittle and Grimes ; the Southern Senators were Powell,
Hunter, Crittenden, Toombs and Davis ; and the Northern Democrats,
Douglas, Bigler and Bright.
f Greeley s American Conflict. VoL 1, p. 372.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 201
south of the old Missouri Compromise line. It was the accept
ance by the South of vastly less right in the Territories than she
possessed under the decision of the Supreme Court, and showed
Southern readiness to acquiesce in terms of reasonable compro
mise that might stay the flood-gates of civil outbreak between
the States.
Of the vast existing Territory, all was conceded to the North
by the proposition of Compromise, save New Mexico alone. And.
in regard to this section it was generally believed that it never
could with profit be made a slave-holding State. At first it was
thought by some that this amendment would be yielded by the
JSTorth as a peace offering to the South. It was in truth, but an
offer to restore the Missouri Compromise, against the repeal of
which the Northern Anti-Slavery men had struggled so fiercely
in 185i. It was hailed throughout the country as the rainbow of
peace, promising perpetuity to the Union. James Buchanan thus
speaks of this measure :
" Indeed, who could fail to believe that when the alternative was pre
sented to the Senators and Representatives of the Northern States, either
to yield to their brethren in the South, the barren abstraction of carrying
their slaves into New Mexico, or to expose the country to the imminent
peril of civil war, they "would choose the side of peace and union ? The
period for action was still propitious. It will be recollected that Mr.
Crittenden s amendment was submitted before any of our forts had been
seized, before any of the cotton States except South Carolina, had seceded,
and before any of the conventions which had been called in the remain
ing six of these States had assembled. Under such circumstances it
would have been true wisdom to seize the propitious moment before it
fled forever, and even yield, if need be, a trifling concession to patriotic
policy, if not to abstract justice, rather than expose the country to a
great impending calamity. And how small the concession required, even
from a sincere Anti-Slavery Republican."*
In advocacy of this Compromise, Mr. Crittenden used the fol
lowing language :
" The sacrifice to be made for its (that of the Union) preservation is
comparatively worthless. Peace, harmony and union in a great nation
were never purchased at so cheap a rate, as we now have it in our power
to do. It is a scruple only, a scruple of as little value as a barley corn
that stands between us and peace, reconciliation and union ; and we
stand here pausing and hesitating about that little atom which is to be
sacrificed, "f
*Buchanan s Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, pp. 136-7.
\Congressional Globe, 3i January, 1861, p. 237.
202 A REVIEW OF THE
As leading Southern statesmen however correctly apprehended,
the Crittenden Compromise failed to receive the approbation of
a single Republican member of the committee ; and therefore it
could not have been reported to the Senate as adopted, according
to the resolution which they had agreed upon, though all the
other thirteen members had voted for it. But because of the
unanimity of the Republican opposition, neither Jefferson Davis
nor Robert II. Toombs would stultify themselves by supporting a
measure in which they were willing to acquiesce, but which they
were satisfied the ruling party would not accept. In addition to
this, Senator Davis, in view of the attitude of his State, had
desired to be relieved from serving upon the committee when
first named as a member of it. Senator Toombs, in his speech
of January 9th, 1861, in enumerating the demands of the South,
evinced that all he desired was a fair and honorable compromise.
lie said :
" We demand that the people of the United States shall have an equal
right to emigrate to and settle in the present or any future acquired Ter
ritories, with whatever property they may possess (including slaves), and
be securely protected in its peaceable enjoyment, until such Territory
may be admitted as a State into the Union, with or without Slavery, as
she may determine, on an equality with all existing States. * *. *
We have demanded simply equality, security and tranquility. Give us
these and peace restores itself. * * * But although I insist
upon this perfect equality in the Territories, when it was proposed, as I
understand the Senator from Kentucky, now proposes that the line of
36, 30 , shall be extended, acknowledging and protecting our property
on the south side of the line, for the sake of peace, permanent peace, I
said to the Committee of Thirteen, as I say here, that with other satis
factory provisions I would accept it."*
In addition to this, we have the testimony of Senator Douglas
in his speech of January 3d, 1861, showing upon whom rested the
responsibility of the failure, to accept the Crittenden Compromise
in the Committee of Thirteen. He said :
" If you of the Republican side are not willing to accept this [a propo
sition of adjustment offered by himself] nor the proposition of the Sena
tor from Kentucky (Mr. Crittenden s), pray, tell us what you are willing
to do. I address the inquiry to the Republicans alone, for the reason
that in the Committee of Thirteen, a few days ago, every member from
the South, including those from the cotton States (Messrs. Davis and
Toombs), expressed their readiness to accept the proposition of my ven
erable friend from Kentucky as a final settlement of the controversy, if
* Congressional Globe, p. 208-70.
POLITICAL, CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 202
tendered and sustained by the Republican members. Hence, the sole
responsibility of our disagreement and the only difficulty in the way of
an amicable adjustment is with the Republican party. *
Iii his reply to Mr. Pugh, of Ohio, Senator Douglas re-affirmed
his former statement. He said :
" The Senator has said, that if the Crittenden proposition could have been
passed early in the session, it would have saved all the States except
South Carolina. I firmly believe it would. While the Crittenden propo
sition was not in accordance wi limy cherished views, I avowed my readi
ness and eagerness to accept it, in order to save the Union, if we could
unite upon it. No man has labored harder than I have to get it passed.
I can confirm the Senators declaration that Senator Davis himself, when
on the Committee of Thirteen, was ready at all times to compromise on
the Crittenden proposition. I will go further, and say that Toombs was
also ready to do so." f
Although Mr. Crittenden s measure failed before the Committee
O
of Thirteen, he did not despair of ultimate success with it.
After this he could not expect to carry his compromise as an
amendment to the Constitution, but believed it was possible to
obtain a majority of each House in its favor so as to have it
referred to a direct vote of the people of the States. He thought
a portion of the Republican Members of Congress might be will
ing to favor a reference of the questions in dispute to the people
themselves, as in this manner their party could relieve itself from
its former committals to the Chicago platform. Besides, he
scarcely conceived it possible that they w r ould be willing to
assume the responsibility of denying to the people of the States
an opportunity of expressing an opinion at the ballot-box, on
questions involving no less a stake than the peace and safety of
the Union. It was quite manifest to any one observing the cur
rent of public opinion at that time, that the people of perhaps
every State but one were ready to accept the Crittenden Com
promise as a settlement of all difficulties between the North and
South. Memorials in its favor poured into Congress from all
sections of the North. One of these presented to the Senate was
from the Mayor, members of the Board of Aldermen and Com
mon Council of the City of Boston, and was signed by over
22,000 citizens of the State of Massachusetts, praying the adop
tion of the Compromise measures proposed by Mr. Crittenden.
Another from the City of New York contained 38,000 names.
* Congressional Globe, 1860-61, p. 1391.
f Appendix to Congressional Globe, 1860-61, p. 41.
204 A REVIEW OF THE
A greater number of persons petitioned in favor of the Crit-
tenden Compromise than for any former measure that had ever
been before the American Congress.
Mr. Crittenderi made repeated efforts to bring the Senate
to a vote upon his propositions, but was steadily baffled by the
parliamentary tactics of Republican. Senators. On the 14th of
January, 1861, he made an unsuccessful attempt to have it con
sidered, but it was postponed until the following day. On this
day it was again postponed by the vote of every Republican
Senator present, in order to make way for the Pacific Railroad
Bill. He succeeded on the 16th, by a majority of a single vote,
in bringing his resolution before the body ; every Republican
Senator voting against its consideration. A direct vote upon the
resolution so earnestly desired by the country, now seemed inevi
table ; but Republican fertility was not lacking, and a new display
of tactics once more, baffled the compromisers. Mr. Clark, a
Republican Senator from New Hampshire, moved to strike out
the entire preamble and resolution offered by Mr. Crittenden, and
in lieu thereof insert those of a directly opposite character, and
such as were in accord with the Chicago platform. This motion
prevailed by a vote of 25 to 23, every Republican present voting
in its favor. Six secession Senators declined to vote on the Clark
amendment, being already firmly convinced that all efforts to
compromise between the sections would prove abortive because of
Republican obstinacy. Mr. Iverson, of Georgia, one of the six,
who declined to vote, in his speech of December llth, 1860, ex
pressed his utter disbelief that compromise in any wise could
effect, a solution of the National difficulties. He said :
" Then, sir, is it proposed by Congressional legislation to appease the
Southern States by the adoption of the doctrine of Congressional protec
tion to Slavery in the Territories of the United States ? Sir, I want to
know who expects that such a remedy as that will ever be occorded by
this Congress, or any other? We know that the Republican party, so
far as they are concerned, are a unit against any such provision. It was
the great Shibboleth, on which they fought the recent battle and won it.
It is the great principle which stands as the very basis of their political
organization that Slavery shall never advance one inch beyond its
present boundaries, and shall never plant a footprint in any Territory of
the United States.
" The Southern people now moving for secession, will never be satisfied
with any concession made by the North that does not fully recognize not
only the existence of Slavery in its present form, but the right of the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 205
Southern people to emigrate to the common Territories with their slave
property, and their right to Congressional protection while the Territorial
existence lasts. The recent battle of the South was fought upon that
very issue. The friends of Mr. Breckeiiridge put him upon the very
grounds of Congressional protection to slave property in the Territories ;
and it was upon that ground that he carried the cotton States.
" The North, if they yield at all, yield from an apprehension that the
South is going to dissolve the Union, and they yield from fear of the
consequences. Of what value would any concessions, made under these
circumstances, be to the South ? None, as long as this vitiated public
sentiment of Anti-Slavery exists in the hearts and minds of the Northern
people. And, when is that ever going to be changed ? Never, as long as
the Union lasts. It is a part, not only of their literary education, but of
their religious creed. It enters into all the complications of society. It
pervades the pulpit, the halls of legislation, the popular assemblies, the
school houses all teach the doctrine of the irrepressible conflict ; and
how many arguments in favor of Slavery, its morality, its social and
political advantages, ever reach the Northern eye and the Northern ear."*
Mr. Wigfal, of Texas, another of the six secession Senators
who refused to vote on the Clark amendment, gave his reasons
for so doing in a speech delivered by him January 30th, 1861,
He said :
"What were the Clark resolutions? They were resolutions asserting
that no amendments to the Constitution were necessary ; and that the
only matter of importance was that coercion should be used upon the
sovereign States that had declared themselves out of the Union. When
these resolutions came up as a substitute for the resolutions of the Sena
tor from Kentucky, every Senator who belongs to the dominant party
the party that is to be entrusted with the reins of Government on the 4th
of March next, voted for the Clark resolutions as a substitute for the
Crittenden resolutions. What then was the use of our stultifying our
selves ? What was the use of our sitting here and voting down resolu
tions, which expressed the opinion of the dominant party of the country,
in order that the Senator from Illinois might write letters or telegraph
to different States that the Union was about to be saved ; that the Crit
tenden resolutions had been passed through the Senate. I did not intend
to make myself a party to the fraud ; and therefore, when the question
came up between the Crittenden and Clark resolutions, I for one forbore
to vote. I knew the Senators on that side of the chamber had the ma
jority. We had appealed to them ; we had begged them in God s mercy
and for the good of their own people and for the peace of the country,,
to interpose and to settle this question upon some safe basis. "f
All hope of a compromise that could save the Union was vir
tually abandoned, when the Senate of the United States declined
to accept the Crittenden propositions, as the basis of an adjudi-
* Congressional Globe of 1860-61, pp. 49-50,
\Congressional Globe, 1860-61, p, 665,
203 A REVIEW OF THE
cation. The intense anxiety, however, that existed in the breasts
of those who desired to avert the calamity of civil war, suggested
one plan of conciliation after another, but all to no purpose.
The General Assemby of Virginia, on the 19th of January,
1861, adopted resolutions expressing the opinion "that unless the
unhappy controversy which now divides the States of the Con
federacy shall be satisfactorily adjusted, a permanent dissolution
of the Union is inevitable." For the purpose of averting this
calamity, they invited all the States to appoint Commissioners to
meet at the City of Washington, February 4th, 1861, in order
that an earnest effort be made " to adjust the present unhappy
controversies in the spirit in which the Constitution was originally
framed." These resolutions expressed tho belief that the Crit-
tenden propositions with perhaps some modifications, would " be
accepted as a satisfactory adjustment by the people of this Com
monwealth."
Seven of the Southern States had already either seceded or
were moving in that direction. Everything indicated the break
ing up of the Union, with its consequent calamities of civil war,
and the probable downfall of the Government. To avert these
calamities, all classes were willing to unite, except those who
were resolved to risk national disaster rather than compromise
their party principles;" and those, also, who were fully assured
that no satisfactory settlement could be obtained. The former
were the anti-compromise Republicans of the North, and the
latter, the Southern secessionists and their allies in the border
States. Commissioners were appointed to the Peace Conference
from fifteen Northern and seven Southern States, although the
movement was one w r hich met with little sympathy in Republican
circles. Some of the Northern States refused to appoint Com
missioners, and those who did so, selected men of strong Anti-
Slavery opinions, who were known to be opposed to any compro
mise whatsoever. Senators Chandler and Bingham telegraphed
to the Governor of Michigan, urging him to send to the con
ference radical Abolitionists, in order that no compromise might
be effected. A view of the composition of the conference, to
one acquainted with the antecedents of the members from the
North, was sufficient to satisfy tl ie observer that little hopes could
be based upon the actions of that body. What reasonable expec
tation of compromise could be anticipated from the deliberations
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 207
of an assembly in which such men as Salmon P. Chase and David
"Wilmot exercised a leading control ; and the majority of whose
members were associated together in the same political organiza
tion ? It was only in deference to public opinion, that the radical
Republican leaders consented at all, to participate in the move
merits of the Peace Conference, for they never for one moment
cherished the thought of acceding so far to Southern demands,
as reason dictated it to be necessary, in order to avert the calamities
of civil war. But the people demanded compromise, and it wag
necessary for the politicians, in view of the popular desire, to
yield in appearance, and thus shield themselves from public con
demnation. It was but a part, therefore, of that system of dis
simulation which had secured abolition ascendency under another
name, and which was now baffling the wish of the people, until
the party of new ideas had firmly grasped the reins of the Gen
eral Government.
But a compromise was adopted by the conservatives of the
Peace Congress, which restored the old Missouri division of 36
30 f to all the present territory of the United States. Xorth of
this line, slavery was to be prohibited, and south of it permitted ;
but this compromise was not to extend to future territorial acqui
sition. And even this diluted compromise was extorted with
such grinding reluctance, that it failed altogether in its effect.
Southern men, w r ho had still cherished some lingering hope of a
settlement of the difficulties, left the convention fully satisfied
that the day of conciliation had passed. John Tyler, the Presi
dent of the Peace Congress, however, in obedience to the resoln-
O
tion of that body, communicated February 27th to the Senate
and House of Representatives, the result of their deliberations.
In the Senate, on motion of Mr. Crittenden, this was referred
to a Select Committee. The Committee, on the following day,
reported it as an amendment to the Constitution, but the Senate
was never able to be brought to a direct vote upon it. Failing
in this effort, Mr. Crittenden made a motion to substitute the
amendment of the Peace Congress instead of his own proposi
tions. This was rejected by a very large majority, eight yeas to
twenty-eight nays. Mr. Crittenden, on the 2d of March, 1861,
after having been repeatedly thwarted, succeeded in getting a
direct vote in the Senate upon his propositions of compromise,
but they were defeated by a vote of nineteen in the affirmative
A REVIEW OF THE
to twenty in the negative. They were rejected by Eepublican
votes alone.
In the House of Representatives, everything looking to com
promise, met with resistance from Mr. Stevens and other leading
Republicans. He, with 3Y others, on the 1st day of the 2d ses
sion of the 36th Congress, voted against Mr. Botteler s resolution
to refer the President s message to a Committee of one from each
State. On the 7th of January, 1861, the Republicans of the
House on a vote of yeas and nays, refused to consider certain
propositions moved by Mr. Etheridge, of Tennessee, which were
less favorable to the South than the Crittenden resolutions offered
in the Senate. The Crittenden proposition in substance was sub
mitted as the ultimatum of the South to the House Committee
of thirty-three, by Albert Rust, of Arkansas, but was voted down,
no Republican sustaining it. Mr. Stevens, and 64 radical Repub
licans of the House, even voted against Corwin s amendment to
the Constitution, reported by a majority of the Committee of
thirty-three, and which declared that no power existed to interfere
with slavery in the States. Every act of the radical Republican
members of the House, as well as the Senate, during the last
session of the 36th Congress indicated, that the Abolition wing
of the party had fully resolved upon permitting no concession to
the South, such as might lead to a pacification between the sec
tions. "When a Conservative Avould offer in Congress, resolutions
looking to a settlement of the National difficulties, some radical
Republican would call for the regular order of business, and en
deavor to exclude their presentation. Mason "W. Tappan, a
Republican Congressman from New Hampshire, and a member
of the Committee of thirty-three, submitted February 5th, 1861,
a minority* report of that Committee, which declared that the
provisions of the Constitution, were ample for the preservation of
the Union. Speaking of the Crittenden plan of compromise, he
said :
" It would be the adoption into the Constitution of the creed of the
ultra portion of the Democratic party, who broke up the Charleston Con
vention, because the dogma of protection to Slavery was not inserted in
the Democratic platform. Sir, the Free States will never concede
these terms of settlement, let the consequences be what they may/ *
Galusha A. Grow, Thaddeus Stevens, Hickman, Lovejoy, and
"Congressional Globe, 1860-61,p, 760.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 209
other Radicals of the House, on the 1st of March, co-operated
in preventing the reception of the Memorial of the Peace Con
gress. They baffled its reception by refusing to allow the sus
pension of the rules of the House. Mr. Stevens, in voting to
prevent the suspension, remarked :
" I think we had better go on with the regular order (of business). We
have saved this Union so often that I ain afraid we shall save it to
death/ *
The day of compromise was past and the new era had set in,
with the advent of the Eepublicans to power. The Abolition
portion of the party were fully resolved to stand by their prin
ciples. B. F. Wade, in a speech delivered by him in the Senate,
December 17th, 1860, said :
" Sir, I know not what others may do ; but I tell you that with the
verdict given in favor of the platform upon which our candidates have
been elected, so far as I am concerned, I would suffer anything to come
before I would compromise that away. I say, then, that so far as I am
concerned, I will yield to no compromise. !
A New England dinner was given in the City of 2s"ew York
on Saturday, December 22d, 1860, at which a number of Repub
lican orators, including William II. Seward, made speeches, all
of whom rejected the idea of a compromise with the South.J
The ]S r ew York Tribune, of the same date, contained the follow
ing declaration :
" "We are enabled to state in the most positive terms, that Mr. Lincoln
is utterly opposed to any concession or compromise that shall yield one
iota of the position occupied by the Republican party ; that the great
North, aided by hundreds of thousands of patriotic men in the slave
States, have determined to preserve the Union peaceably, if they can
forcibly, if they must 1"
The following sentiments, to the same purport, were quoted
as emanating from Mr. Lincoln, by James II. Campbell, of Penn
sylvania, a Republican member of the House, in his speech of
February 14th, 1861 :
" I will suffer death before I will consent or advise my friends to con
sent to any concession or compromise which looks like buying the privi
lege of taking possession of the Government, to which we have a
constitutional right, because, whatever I might think of the various
propositions before Congress, I should regard any concession in the face
^Congressional Globe, 1860-61, pp. 1332-3.
\Globe of 1860-61, pp. 102-3.
{New York Herald, December 24th, 1860.
210 A REVIEW OF THE
of menace r,s Hie destruction of the Government itself, and a consent
on all hands, that our system shall be brought down to a level with the
existing disorganized state of affairs in Mexico." *
Following in the wake of the New York Tribune, the chame
leon organ of New England Puritanism, the influential press of
the North, with the exception of the Albany Evening Journal,
decried compromise with the South as an ignoble surrender to
the behests of the slave power. After the first alarm of seces
sion had extorted from their leader the declaration that he would
resist all coercive measures to preserve the Union, the w r hole
radical journalistic fraternity gradually veered into an attitude
that compelled their Jupiter Tonans of the press to change his
base with them. No compromise with traitors was henceforth
the standing utterance of the combined radical press of the
North. Even whilst Senators and Members of Congress, in
o
melifluous sentences and smooth words, spoke of fraternal affec
tion and the blessings of the Union, the radical press was teem
ing with the most bitter denunciations of the Southern rebels
o
and their institutions, and so far as they had the power, consign
ing them and the Northern compromisers to the lowest depths
of Iladean darkness and seething perdition. Shielded by the
press, those who hesitated elsewhere to utter their real sentiments,
spoke with courage, and vented their spite in strains of malignity
that cast into the shade the annals of all former history. The
radical ecclesiastical as well as the secular press were in entire
accord in this system of wholesale denunciation ; and besides, the
Abolition pulpit came in for its full share of credit in stemming
the tide of compromise, and fanning the flames of the approach
ing revolution.
Were Southern statesmen then, mistaken, when they declared
in Congress that no compromise could stay secession ? Why, it
was the stereotyped assertion of the radical press and pulpit of
the North, that the era of conciliation and compromise had passed
forever, and they all rejoiced to be able to say so. But, unlike
the sincere Abolitionists of the Philippo-Garrison school, they
lacked the honesty to declare manfully and openly the objects of
their party. By fraud and deception they continued still to de
ceive the Northern people, and have them to believe that they
were the only friends of the Union and free government.
* Congressional Globe, :8GO-G1, p. 110.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 211
"Wlnlst the Garrisonians rejoiced in the dissolution of the Union,
because they believed this event would overthrow slavery, the
political Abolitionists pretended that they cherished unbounded
love for the Constitution of the Republic, In opposing compro
mise, they felt assured that a collision of arms would supervene,
which would end in the overthrow of Southern slavery. That,
instead of the preservation of the Union, was what inspired
their opposition to every proposition of settlement with the
South. The mob philosopher of the Tribune^ in his journal
of the 26th of February, 1861, disclosed in somewhat oracular
words, his genuine opinions. He says : " We are no f , willing to
make every sacrifice for the preservation of the Union, because
we value liberty and right more than we do- the Union," Phil
osophers do not seek under dark expressions to hide their ideas ;
they express them fearlessly and accept the consequences. If
slavery was an unendurable evil, it should have been battled with
Gaorisonian weapons and under genuine colors : and history will
remove the philosophers cloak from the statue of every one who
otherwise fought it. The stern arbiter of time ever consigns the
agitating knave and hypocrite to the historic recesses of execration
and contempt, where the shades of Hobcspierre, Danton and
Marat are gathered.
212 A REVIEW OF THE
CHAPTER XIII.
STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND CENTRALIZATION, OR THE OPPOSITE PRINCIPLES
OF GOVERNMENT STRUGGLING FOR ASCENDENCY,
As stated in a former chapter, two schools of political opinions
strove for mastery in the Convention of 178 7, which framed the
Federal Constitution. The same fundamental questions which
divided the framers of our Government, have from that period
continued to separate the American people into two antagonistic
parties, each of which trace a lineal descent from revolutionary
ancestors. The effort of the one party was to consolidate the
States into a National Government, so as to give it that strength
and durability which monarchies possess ; but this was combatted
and successfully resisted by those who were unwilling to merge
the sovereignty of the States in any consolidated form. De
Tocqueville says :
"When the war of independence was terminated, and the foundations
of the new government were to be laid down, the nation was divided
between two opinions which are as old as the world, and which are per
petually to be met with, under all the forms and all the names which
have ever obtained in free communities the one tending to limit, the
other to extend indefinitely the power of the people,
" The party* which desired to limit the power of the people, endeavored
to apply its doctrines more especially to the Constitution of the Union,
whence it derived its name of Federal. The other party, which affected
to be more exclusively attached to the cause of liberty, took that of Re
publican. America is the land of Democracy, and the Federalists were
always in a minority ; but they reckoned on their side, almost all the
great men who had been called forth by the war of independence, and
their moral influence was very considerable. Their course was, more
over, favored by circumstances. The ruin of the Confederation had im
pressed the people with a dread of anarchy, and the Federalists did not
fail to profit by this transient disposition of the multitude. For ten or
twelve years they were at the head of affairs, and they were able to
apply some, though not all their principles ; for the hostile current was
becoming from day to day too violent to ba checked or stemmed. In
1801, the Republicans got possession of the Government : Thomas Jeffer
son was named President, and he increased the influence of their party
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 213
by the weight of his celebrity, the greatness of his talents, and the im-
menee extent of his popularity."*
Whilst the Federalists held the reins of the General Govern
ment, there were entrapped in the passage of the Acts of Con
gress known as the Alien and Sedition laws. These were seized
upon as an exposure of the cloven-foot of their monarchical prin
ciples ; and the people were aroused to the dangers that threat
ened free government from a further continuance of that party
in power. The leaders of the Republican or Democratic party
conceived that the liberty of the people was in jeopardy, if laws
infringing the Constitution could be passed with impunity ; and
they determined to resist the illegal measures of the ruling fac
tion and secure their condemnation by the verdict of American
public opinion. For this purpose Jefferson, the prominent advo
cate of the Republican theory of Government, drafted a series of
resolutions for the Kentucky Legislature ; and similar resolves
were sketched by Madison for the Virginia Assembly, both of
which received the sanction of these legislative bodies. The
resolutions were transmitted to the Legislatures of the other
States for their approval or disapproval. The Democratic party
throughout the Union endorsed - the correctness of the doctrines
enunciated in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798 ;
and these famous declarations of governmental principles formed
in after years the political creed of the organization. The sound
ness of the principles of these resolutions was necessarily dis
puted by the Federalists as being directed against their own
legislative measures. These resolutions formed the platform
upon which the Democratic party triumphed in 1800, and suc
ceeded in electing Thomas Jefferson to the Chief Magistracy of
the Nation.
The cardinal principle was laid down in the Virginia and
Kentucky resolutions, that the General Government was one of
limited authority, granted originally by the States as the sover
eign members of the Confederation, and that in ease undelegated
powers should be assumed, such became void and of no force,
because unauthorized in the original constitutional compact. It
was farther declared that the General Government was not the
u exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated
to itself, since that would have made its discretion and not the
*De Tocqueville s Democracy, pp. 187-8.
211 A REVIEW OF THE
Constitution the measure of its powers ; but as in all cases of
compact among powers having no common judge, eacli party has
an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the
mode and measure of redress."
The General Government, according to the above theory, was
simply the representative of the delegated authority of the sove
reign States of the Union, and was authorized to execute its civil
mandates upon the people of every State, so far as its authority
extended. It was, therefore, simply the agent of the States for
the execution of certain general powers, which are necessary in
ajl governments, and which alone, could properly be performed
by a federal head. . All the authority granted to the General
Government was of a civil nature, and specified only civil modes
for its execution. The union of the States was a Confederated
Republic, and was different from all former leagues of this
character, in the feature already mentioned, that it permitted
the Central Government to execute the general laws upon
the people of the States themselves. Under the articles of con
federation, the laws of Congress could only be executed through
the instrumentalities of the StSte organizations, and it was, in
the main, to remedy this defect that the Federal Union was
formed. All the power delegated to the Federal Government to
be executed over the people of the States, was either of a civil
character or such as the execution of civil law required. In the
convention which framed the Federal Compact, the exertion of
military power against the States or the people thereof, save
as the Constitution expressed, had been explicitly refused.
We find, by the proceedings of the Federal Convention of
May 31st, 1787, that the adoption of a clause was defeated,
" authorizing an exertion of the force of the whole against a
delinquent State." This Mr. Madison opposed in a speech, in
which he said :
" The use of force against a State, would look more like a declaration
of war than an infliction of punishment; and would probably be considered
by the party attacked, as a dissolution of all the previous compacts by
which it might be bound."
Upon Madison s motion, the consideration of this clause was
unanimously postponed, and it was never again presented.
The following extract from No. 16 of the Federalist, combats
the idea of the General Government being clothed with the right
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 215
of coercing the States of the Union, as chimerical and absolutely
preposterous :
"Whoever considers the populousness and strength of several of these
States singly, at the present juncture, and looks forward to what they
will become, even at the distance of half a century, will at once dismiss,
as idle and visionary, any scheme which aims at regulating them or
coercing them in their collective capacities, by the General Government.
A project of this kind is little less romantic than the monster-taming
spirit attributed to the fabulous heroes and demi-gods of antiquity.
Even in those Confederacies which have been composed of members
smaller than many of our counties, the principle of legislation for sover
eign States, supported by military coercion, has never been found effec
tual. It has rarely been attempted to be employed against the weaker
members, and in most instances attempts thus to coerce the refractory
and disobedient, have been the s gnals of bloody wars, in which one-half
the Confederacy has displayed its banners against the other. The first
war of this kind would probably terminate in a dissolution of the Union."
That eminent patriot and statesman, Alexander Hamilton, who
was a member of the convention which framed the Constitution
of the United States, in a speech delivered by him in the year
1788, in the ratifying convention of the State of Xew York,
used the following language in reference to the coercive power
being entrusted to the General Government :
" The coercion of States is one of the maddest projects that was ever
devised. A failure of compliance will never be confied to a single State.
This being the case, can we suppose it wise to hazard a civil war ? It
would be a nation at war with itself. Can any reasonable man be well
disposed toward a government that makes war and carnage the only
means of supporting itself a government that can exist only by the
sword? Every such war must involve the innocent with the guilty.
This single consideration shou d not be inefficient to dispose every peace
able citizen against such a government."
The Virginia and Kentucky principle of the sovereignty cf
States, and their non-coercion through military force by the Gen
eral Government, was the only doctrine compatible with republi-
(?an principles, which declare that all government rests upon tho
consent of the governed. And so signal was the overthrow of
the antagonistic doctrine of the Federal party, that the Govern
ment was a consolidated union of the people of all the States in
one National Republic, that from the election of Thomas Jeffer
son until that of Abraham Lincoln, no President was chosen upon
the avowed principles of consolidation. But the principles of
monarchy ever continued secretly to form the leading character
istics of the party, which at all times was arrayed in opposition
216 A REVIEW OF THE
to the National Democracy. On this point hear De Tocquevillc,
in his History cf Democracy, Yol. I, pp. 190-1.
" But when one comes to study the secret propensities which govern
the factions of America, he easily perceives that the greater part of
them are more or less connected with one or the other of those two
divisions which have always existed in free communities. The deeper
we penetrate into the workings of these parties, the more do we perceive
that the object of the one is to limit and the other to extend the popular
authority. I do not assert that the ostensible end, or even that the
secret aim of American parties is to promote the rule of aristocracy or
democracy in the country, but I affirm that aristocratic or democratic
passions may easily be detected at the bottom of all parties ; and although
they escape a superficial observation, they are the main point, the very
soul of every faction of the United States."
This penetrative writer elsewhere permits it clearly to appear
that the Democratic was the party of the people, whilst its oppo
nent w r as that which was ever influenced by aristocratic or mon
archical principles.
Resistance to the efforts of the Federal party to enlarge the
powers of the General Government led, as has been seen, to the
enunciation of the principles of the Virginia and Kentucky reso
lutions, and to the utter prostration, for the time, of the Consoli-
dationists. But, although the Federal party was overthrown, its
principles as already noted still continued to live, and inhere in
all the organizations which succeeded it in opposition to the
^National Democracy. The question of a protective tariff was
germinated in the principles of Hamiltonianism ; and after the
Alien and Sedition Laws, was the next which caused serious
alarm, and threatened danger to the Union. " Before 1816, pro
tection to home industry had been an incident to the levy of
revenue, but in 1816 it became an object." *
The tariff of 1816, having inaugurated the protective policy, the
measure was seized upon by the politicians of the Hamiltonian
school as one that might again re-instate their party in power.
From this period, once in every four years, the question was
brought up with the evident purpose of influencing the Presi
dential election. The tariff bills of 1816, 1820, 1824 and 1828,
each succeeding the other in its degree of protection, became the
regular appendages, as it were, of the Presidential canvas. The
great debate on the tariff before Congress at the session of 1823
* Benton s View. Vol. 1, p. 206.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 217
and 1824, was the commencement of that dispute which after
wards led to the nullification difficulties. Members of Congress,
" divided (at this time) pretty much on the line which always
divided them on a question of constructive powers. The pro
tection of domestic industry, not being among the granted pow
ers, was looked for in the incidental, and denied by the strict
Constructionists to be a substantive power to be exercised for
the direct purposes of protection ; but by all, at that time, and
ever since the first tariff 1789, to be incident to the revenue-
raising power, and an incident to be regarded in the exercise of
that power." * " After 1824, the ]S"ew England States (always
meaning the greater portion when a section is spoken of ) classed
with the protective States leaving the South alone as a section
against that policy." f The Southern States believed themselves
impoverished under the protective policy, to enrich those of the
North.
The Southern States were therefore almost a unit in opposi
tion to a protective tariff. The Act of 1828 bore the most
oppressively of all against the interests of the people of that
section. South Carolina, Xorth Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi,
Alabama and Virginia, had all united in remonstrances against
the principle of protection ; declared over and over again its un
constitutionally, and passed resolutions condemning the system.
The people of these and other Southern States pointed out the
inequality and the injustice of a protective tariff, and showed
that the one section of the country was enriched at the expense
of the other. This they urged was altogether unjust, and sus
tained by no warrant in the Federal Constitution. But Southern
remonstrance was in vain ; and all efforts to secure a repeal of
the odious tariff legislation proved useless and abortive. The
election of Andrew Jackson was a triumph of constitutional
principles over a protective policy ; and the Southern people de
manded that its true import be considered. After his second
election as President of the United States, South Carolina, seeing
7 o
no hopes for the attainment of their rights by a repeal of an un-
unjust tariff, determined to have recourse to those reserved rights
which she, as a sovereign member of the Confederacy, possessed.
A convention of her people accordingly assembled on the 19th
* Benton s View. Vol. 1, p. 32.
f Benton s View. Vol. 1, p. 97.
218 A REVIEW OF THE
of November, 1832, and passed an ordinance of nullification,
which declared the existing tariff " null, void and of no law, nor
binding on this State, its officers and citizens." The duties im
posed by the Federal law were forbidden to be paid within the
State after the 1st clay of February, 1833.
Matters had now approached a crisis ; and great caution and
sagacity were required in order to obviate a collision of authori
ties. Fortunately, statesmen at that period ruled America, if an
exception did not exist as to the Presidential occupant. A phil
osophic foreigner s estimate of President Jackson will not be out
of place in this connection :
" Gen. Jackson, whom the American people have twice elected to be
the head of their government, is a man of a violent temper and medio.
ere talents ; no one circumstance in the whole course of his career ever
proved that he is qualified to govern a free people ; and indeed the ma
jority of the enlightened classes of the Union have always been opposed
to him."*
If nothing more existed to show that Gen. Jackson was devoid
of the necessary judgment to conduct the Government of a free
people, sufficient would be found in his Proclamation of the llth of
December, 1832, to the people of South Carolina. The whole
scope and tenor of this proclamation to the nulliiiers, were
antagonistic to the principles of the party of which he professed
himself a member ; and if a body of prudent statesmen had not
been found in the country, the Republic at that early day might
have sunk beneath the waves of civil convulsion. For although
South Carolina was alone in her nullification attitude, her South
ern sisters sympathized with her in her demands, and would have
resisted her forcible coercion upon the battle field. Even the
patriotic statesman of Koanoke, though upon the brink of the
grave, declared that should Gen. Jackson attempt to coerce South
Carolina into the Union, he would cause himself to be buckled
upon his old white charger, and that he himself would fight in
defense of liberty and State sovereignty.
President Jackson recommended to Congress that additional
power be granted to him to collect the revenue at Charleston,
and that sufficient troops be placed at his command so as to
enable him to enforce the laws against the people of South Caro
lina. A bill for this purpose was reported by the Judiciary
*De Tocqueville s Democracy, Vol. I, p. 316.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 219
Committee in the Senate, which called forth an animated debate,
and for a period produced great excitement throughout the
country. Many feared that the days of the Republic were num
bered, and different opinions were entertained as to the best
method of averting the dangers that were threatening the peace
and integrity of the Union. The North permitted itself to be
seduced into the support of the monarchical measures recom
mended by President Jackson, one of which was the coercion by
military force of a State by the General Government. This had
ever been a cherished principle of the Federal Consolida-
tionists, and in this instance was seized upon by Gen. Jackson as
a weapon by which to defeat his political enemy, John C. Cal-
houn, the philosophic statesman of South Carolina, who was the
ablest defender of State Sovereignty, and the admitted father of
nullification. In enforcing the view of the General Government
held by Webster and the other leaders of the Federal school,
President Jackson placed himself in antagonism to the principles
he had ever professed to advocate, and inflicted upon free gov
ernment the severest blow it had ever been compelled to endure
in America. Being a Southerner by birth, education and sympa
thies, a member of the Jeffersonian State Right party, and a man
whose military career gave him a reputation with the whole
people of the country ; the President by the force of his position
and influence, was able to carry to the support of his measures
all except those who had carefully studied the character of the
General Government, and w^ho apprehended danger to liberty in
the exercise of undelegated authority ; and who, besides, had the
boldness to defend their sincere opinions, even in the face of
controlling authority. But the obsequious vassals of party are
ever ready to truckle before the throne of power, and pay their
obeisance to any despot who may for the time happen to fill it.
It was so in this case. Power emenated from the Federal Execu
tive, and obedience to his dictates was the surest method of
securing power.
Besides humbling his bitter enemy, the great statesman of
South Carolina, President Jackson, in asking power to enforce
the laws against the nullifiers, doubtless desired nothing more
than to be able to preserve the Union of the States. This was
the opinion of the Northern people, and also of many in the
South ; but the real danger existed in the establishment of an
220 A REVIEW OF THE
unconstitutional precedent. Rome was perfectly safe when she
called Cincinnatus from his plow, and clothed him with unlimited
powers ; but she had cause to grieve long when she gave the dic
tatorship to Sylla and Marius, whose legions overthrew the bul
warks of liberty, and rioted in the blood of their countrymen.
But a resolute band of Southern statesmen, seeing the danger
that threatened freedom, boldly arrayed themselves in opposition
to the demands of Executive power, and though prostrated,
placed upon record the unmistakable words of truth, which will
live and be cherished whilst republics endure. They declined
clothing President Jackson with power to coerce South Carolina,
not because (as most of them declared) they favored nullification,
but because the Constitution granted no authority for this pur
pose. All power granted to the Federal Government was of a
civil nature, and it was never contemplated by the framers of the
Government that the military authority should be exerted save
as auxiliary to the civil, and in that case as the Constitution
specified. In the debate upon that occasion, Judge Bibb, of
Kentucky, spoke as follows :
" It seemed to him that a falsa issue was presented. The question of
war against South Carolina is presented as the only alternative. The
issue was false. The first question was between justice and injustice.
Shall we do justice to the States, who were united with South Carolina
in complaint, and remonstrance against the injustice and oppression of
the tariff? Shall we cancel the obligations of justice to five other States,
because of the impetuosity and impatience of South Carolina, under
wrong and oppression ? The question ought not to be, whether we have
the physical power to crush South Carolina, but whether it is not our
duty to heal her discontents, to conciliate a member of the Union, to give
peace and happiness to the adjoining States which have made common
cause with South Carolina, to compel her to remain in the Union ? Shall
we keep her in the Union by force of arms for the purpose of compelling
her submission to the tariff laws of which she complains ?
"My creed is, that by the Declaration of Independence, the States were
declared to be free and independent States, thirteen in number, not one
nation, that the old articles of Confederation united them as distinct
States, not as one people ; that the treaty of peace of 1783, acknowledged
their independence as States, not as a single nation ; that the Federal
"Government was formed by States ; submitted by States ; and adopted
by the States as distinct nations or States ; not as a single nation or people.
" He would like to know when and where South Carolina surrendered
the right to secede from the Union in case of a dangerous invasion of her
rights by the Federal Government."*
Stephens War between the States. Vol. 1, pp. 425-27.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 221
John Tyler, of Virginia, said :
"The idea that ours is a National Government, has lately received
much encouragement from high sources, The President in his procla
mation, speaks of the people as one mass, and of the Government as
forming us into one Nation. When were the States, he would ask,
welded together ? Was ic before or since the revolution ?"
Further speaking of the overthrow of the principles of Fed
eralism, Tyler says :
"In the year 1798,* all these doctrines were, he had thought, put down
completely and forever. He had not expected to be obliged to renew the
cont:st. For thirty years they had now been in obscurity, but suddenly
they are waived into life, and brought into daylight by the President s
proclamation.
" The President of the United States had declared against the doctrines
of secession. But the President should not decide that doctrine for him.
The military power was called for, to support this foregone conclusion of
the President of the United States. If South Carolina secede, he is to be
armed with military and naval power to subdue her."
Mr. Tyler speaks of the dangerous precedent that would be
established by acquiescing in the executive demands. He said :
" He had all proper confidence in the Executive, but he was not dis
posed to confer very great powers upon any Executive. If they should
even be used by tiie present President for the common good, and our
institutions should come out safe from the trial, the precedent would be
left standing on the statute book, and other Presidents might not use the
power so beneficially."!
Mr. Poindexter, of Mississippi, deduced the origin of the un
constitutional power claimed by Gen. Jackson, as follows. He
said:
" But this extra official document (Jacksan T s proclamation to the people
of South Carolina) owes its origin, in reference to the political heresies it
cjntains, to the speech of the Honorable Senator (Mr. Webster) of Massa
chusetts, delivered in this body in 1830, on what were familiarly called
Foot s Resolutions," These principles have never before been avowed
by any political party in this country. They leave the old Federal School
far in the rear, in their utter con .oxidation tendencies, and were for the?
first time introduced to the notice of the American people, in the speech
of the Honorable Senator to which I have referred/ ^
Several other distinguished statesmen of the South, with John
C. Calhoun, took the ground that no power had been delegated
to the Federal Government to exert the military arm against
a State in its sovereign capacity, the people of which had assumed
*He refers to the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions,
^National Intelligencer, Feb. 6th. 1833.
\National Intelligencer, March 19, 1833,
*C3 A REVIEW OF THE
either a nullifying or seceding attitude. Even- the Virginia
House of Delegates condemned the doctrines contained in the
President s Proclamation, characterizing them as the product of
Federal inspiration. John Floyd, Governor of Virginia, in his
Message of December 13th, 1832, said ;
"Many questions of deep import have heretofore agitated these States,
but none have equalled this in importance, either in the interest it ought
to excite among the people or the effect it may produce upon the Confed
eracy A sovereign State has spoken her sentiments in relation to this
subject, and has pronounced those laws unconstitutional. Should force
be resorted to by the Federal Government, the horror of the scenes here
after to be witnesse 1 cannot now be pictured, even by the affrighted
imagination.
" The genius and spirit of our institutions are wholly adverse to such a
step, and ought not to permit the mind of any to look in that direction
for what safety has any State of her existence as a sovereign, if differ
ence of opinion should be punished with the sword as treason? Surely,
civil war is not a remedy for wrongs in a country where the people are
recognized as sovereign, and each individual has the right to the full and
free expression of his opinions, *
But, although the Force Bill became a law, reason and good
sense still whispered that the only proper way to preserve the
Republic, was by the removal on the part of the General Gov
ernment t of those features of the tariff, which had occasioned the
discontent in South Carolina and the other Southern States.
Measures introduced into Congress for that purpose, and which
received the approbation of those bodies, satisfied the South
Carolinians that it was the desire of the General Government to
respect their rights, and without delay they yielded all further
resistance to the national authority.
As soon as the storm of nullification had spent its strength, the
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions became again the acknowledged
creed of the Democratic party both North and South. Even
President Jackson, through his political organs, attempted to
satisfy public opinion, that no doctrine enunciated in his procla
mation to the people of South Carolina was repugnant to the
principles of Jeffersonian State Sovereignty. But all such
attempts failed to convince the logical understanding of the small
band of bold adherents of State rights, whom the popular storm
had well nigh overborne, because of their firm defense of the
principles upon which Republican Government rested. The
*Nattowd Intelligencer, December 18, 1832.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 223
staunch defenders of principle saw the fatal stabs that Jeffer-
sonianism had received, and the danger that threatened liberty
in the coercion precedent which had been established. The re-
endorsement of the resolutions of 170 S by the Democratic party,
was unable to give ample assurance of safety to the sincere be-
Jievers in State Sovereignty, in view of the manner those doc
trines had been trailed in the dust in obedience to the demands
of impassioned excitement and popular phrensy.
A lesson had been learned by the friends of Free Government
not soon to be forgotten. That little reliance was to be placed
upon the declarations of politicians, when interest admonished
their repudiation, was a demonstrated truth. It was also ascer
tained that the will of a people, expressed in times of great com
motion, is not the utterance of convictions based upon reason
and justice ; but rather the effervescence of passion and vindictive
hatred. The vast influence of position on such occasions was
likewise clearly perceived ; and it was observed that one man
may have it in his power, to so arouse a whole people that the
compacts of liberty afford no protection to guaranteed rights.
What assurance of safety had those who dreaded consolidation,
when the very party itself which came originally into power
upon the principles of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions,
could be induced, through Presidential influence, to repudiate its
cardinal doctrine ; and the one of all others that distinguished it
from its Federal antagonist. But the deed was done, the prin
ciples upon which the Constitution was founded were prostituted
at the anarchical cry of national preservation ; and it but re
mained for the enemies of the Federal Union, like the conquer
ors at Phillippi, to overwhelm in a general collision the defenders
of constitutional republicanism.
It was not difficult for State Sovereignty in the forum of rea
son to maintain its ascendency, while statesmen were permitted
to rule in the Halls of the nation. In peaceful times this prin
ciple triumphed, and no party in America could have sustained
itself that would have openly endorsed the contrary opinion. It
was only in the Northern wing of the Whig party that the
Hamiltonian principles were still visible. But the Abolition
party and its successor, the Republican, were based upon a pure
monarchical creed, which stamped them as the legitimate deendsc-
ants of Federal ancestors. The avowed and leading principle of
224 A REVIEW OF THE
lliat party, wliicli declared that no more slave States should be
admitted into the Union, was itself a plain repudiation of the
principles of Free Government, which assumes that all authority
flows from consent. And even the agitation of slavery by the
Northern people was an interference with the rights of those of
the Southern States, over whom, under the Constitution, they*
had no control.
The known principles of the Republican party were sufficient
to determine the people of the South, after the election of Abra
ham Lincoln in 1860, to seek their safety in the exercise of those
reserved rights which they, as States, had never surrendered to
the General Government. The preparations that from that
period, began to be made throughout the whole of the Cotton
States, again made the question of State Sovereignty a leading
subject of discussion in all parts of the Union. That portion of
the Democratic party in the North which still adhered to Jeffer-
sonian principles, viewed the Constitution as a compact between
the States, and that no power could be exerted agaiost the States
or the people thereof, save as had been already expressed and
delegated. According to this view of the. Constitution, in case
one or more of the States should choose to secede from the Gen
eral Government, no authority was believed to exist by which
these seceding members of the Confederated Republic could be
coerced back into the Union. James Buchanan, in his last Annual
Message, gave the following opinion with reference to the coer
cion of the seceding States :
"The question fairly stated is: Has the Constitution delegated to
Congress the power to force a State into i ubmission, which is attempting
to withdraw or has actually withdrawn from the Confederacy ? If an
swered in the affirmative, it must be on the principle that the power has
been conferred upon Congress to declare and make war against a State.
Alter much serious reflection I have arrived at the conclusion that no
such power has been delegated to Congress or to any other department
of the Federal Government. It is manifest upon an inspection of the
Constitution, that this is not amongst the specific and enumerated pow
ers granted to Congress ; and it is equally apparent that its exercise is
not "nece sary and proper for carrying into execution" any one of
these powers. So far from this power having been delegated to Congress,
it was expres ly refused by the convention which framed the Consti
tution."
Mr. Buchanan had taken the precaution to consult Jeremiah
S. Black, his Attorney-General, and one of the ablest lawyers of
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA, 223
the nation, as to the powers of the General Government, with
reference to, the question of secession . The Attorney General in his
reply to the President, showed clearly that military force could
only he used to aid in the execution of civil powers, and only
then, when the civil officers would be resisted in their duties, and
the appropriate State official would call upon the President for
assistance as the Constitution specifies, " But," says the Attorney-
General, " what if the feeling in any State against the United
States should become so universal that the Federal officers them
selves, (including Judges, District-Attornies and Marshals) would
be reached by the same influence, and resign their places ? Of
course, the first step would be to appoint others in their stead, if
others could be got to serve. But in such an event, it is more
than probable that great difficulty would be found in filling the
offices. We can easily conceive how it might become altogether
impossible. We are, therefore, obliged to consider what can be
done in case we have no courts, judicial process, and no
ministerial officer to execute it. In that event, troops would
certainly be out of place, and their use wholly illegal. If
they are sent to aid cgurts and marshals, there must be courts and
marshals to be aided. Without the exercise of these functions,
which belong exclusively to the civil service, the laws cannot be
executed in any event, no matter what may be the physical
strength which the Government has at its command. Under
such circumstances, to send a military force into any State with
orders to act against the people, would be simply making war
upon them,
" If it be true that war cannot be declared, nor a system of
general hostilities be carried on by the Central Government
against a State, then it seems to follow that an attempt to do so
would be ipso facto an expulsion of such State from the Union,
Being treated as an alien and an enemy, she would be compelled
to act accordingly. And if Congress shall break up the present
Union by unconstitutionally putting strife, and enemity, and
armed hostility, between sections of the country, instead of the
domestic tmnquility which the Constitution was meant to insure,
will not all the States be absolved from their Federal obligations ?
Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or
their blood to carry on a contest like that ?"
Without a further attempt to specify the names of leading
226 A REVIEW OF THE
^Northern Democrats, who maintained the doctrine of State Sov
ereignty ; and that the General Government was clothed v^ith
no power to exert the coercive arm against States in case of their
secession, it can be affirmed with confidence, that this was the
accepted doctrine of the great body of the party in the North,
as well as in the South. This was the opinion of all who, in any
wise, were conversant with the history of the formation of the
Federal Constitution ; and w T ho were disposed to resist the mon
archical tendency, which, from the origin of the Republic, had
shown its workings ; and which, to sagacious minds, seemed to
threaten entire overthrow to the Constitutional Government. The
American Union was, as they conceived, the product of the ad
vanced intelligence of the age and founded upon the principle
of consent alone. Experience had taught mankind to believe
that republican institutions could endure in their simplicity only
in the government of small countries and States ; and that if
they were to be extended over large territories, this must be
accomplished by means of confederations amongst these, still per
mitting the several allied States to remain sovereign as to all
power not expressly delegated to the Federal Union. That this was
the character of the American Confederacy, had been the received
and steadily avowed opinion of all who maintained rank amongst
the sound thinkers and statesmen of the Jefferson school of
politics. Even publicists,* who were strictly members of neither
political party, viewed the Government as a compact between the
several States ; and that as the Union was constituted, there was
nothing to prevent a State from seceding, should she choose to
assume and exercise her reserved powers.
But such a construction of the Constitution was never agree
able to that party, which strove to concentrate power and to dic
tate their opinions to the people of the whole country. That
school of politics, which have ever striven to impose their views of
social polity upon other States and people, would necessarily be
the enemies of State rights, as declared in the Virginia and Ken-
*Judge Tucker, Professor of Law in the University of William and
Mary, Virginia, in his edition of Blackstone s Commentaries, issued
about 1803, and Mr. Eawle, an eminent Jurist of Pennsylvania, in his
work upon the Constitution, published in 1826, took the view that the
General Government was simply the result of a compact between the
States ; and that the right of secession was a sequence that necessarily
flowed therefrom, should the States choose to exercise this denier remedy
for experienced or apprehended evils.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 227
tucky resolutions of 1T98. And hence Puritanism from the first
has been arrayed against them.
The doctrine of abolitionism could derive its support in
no other principle than that of monarchy ; even though slavery
should be conceded to be a moral and social evil ; for it was the
effort of one people to interfere with the affairs of another and
dictate how they shall manage them. The principle thus assumed
was the same as had ever enchained the nations of the old world
and bound them with the manacles of despotism ; and again,
not dissimilar from that which riveted ecclesiastical fetters upon
independent thought, which modern ages have busied themselves in
disrupting. The inquisitorial judges and the robed prelates of the
Spanish Peninsula, made no other assumption than was claimed
by the abolition band infidel priesthood* of the JS"orth, when they
demanded the emancipation of the negro slaves in the Southern
States. And all the blood that flowed on St. Bartholomew s
night, and that in religious wars moistened the soil of Europe,
was shed in obedience to that same dictatorial spirit, which would
impose the conscientious convictions of one people upon the
minds of another.
The peaceful and conservative policy of the Democracy was des
tined to yield to one of a different character upon the advent of
Hamiltonianism to power in I860, under the assumed name of
Republicanism. Prior to this time, the utterances of the leading
men of the party had been very guarded as regards their inten
tions, and those of them who had the honesty and courage to
express their real sentiments, were popularly viewed as enthusiasts
and fanatics, who would possess no influence under the new gov
ernmental regime. Even Thaddeus Stevens himself, was re
garded as one of those extreme men whose opinions would never
* " Wherever the seed of Abolitionism has been sown broadcast, a
plentiful crop of infidelity has sprung up. In communities where Anti-
Slavery excitement has been most prevalent, the power of the gospel has
invariably declined ; and where the tide of fanaticism begins to subside,
the wrecks of church order and of Christian character have been
scattered on the shore. * * * The effect of abolitionism upon
individuals is no less striking and mournful than its influence upon com
munities. It is a remarkable and instructive fact, and one at which
Christian men would do well to pause and consider, that in this country,
all the prominent leaders of abolitionism, outside of the ministry, have
become avowed infidels ; and that all our notorious abolition preachers
have renounced the great doctrines of grace as they are taught in the
standards of the reformed churches." Sermon of Rev. J. Vandyke, of
Brooklyn, New York Herald, December 10th, 1860.
223 A REVIEW OF THE
become the rule of the Republican party. But the news of the
election of Abraham Lincoln had scarcely flashed across the tele
graphic wires until a greater boldness of utterance was discernible
in the columns of the Republican press. This party had won
the political battle, and henceforth, inspired with confidence, they
assumed the attitute of masters that must be entreated rather
than menaced. The exiled monarch that had wandered in dis
guise, and in varied habits, since the people had elected Thomas
Jefferson to the Presidential Chair, at once returned and ascended
again the throne of his federal ancestors. The fiat was imme
diately issued to the magnates of power, that the principles of
compromise should be suspended, and the maxims of Empire
substituted.
But, that the humble obeisance of the vassals might be secured,
and a ready obedience to the orders of despotism guaranteed, a
preliminary course of instruction was required. The subjects so
long inured to the policy of peace and democratic leniency, must
be indoctrinated into the principles of the new school, and this
without delay was undertaken. In reference to the secession
commotion, the Republican press of the North instead of discus
sing the reasons of Southern discontent, and the method to effect
its allayment, spoke of the powers of the Government, craftily
thereby endeavoring to inflame the enthusiasm of the unreflect
ing masses, in behalf of national unity and the perpetuity of
the Republic. How captivatingly were the people admonished,
that the first question to be decided, was, whether we have a Gov
ernment or not. The Union was dear to the people of the North,
save to the abolitionists themselves, who had now succeeded in
gaining power under the Republican banner. The first aim of
the leaders of the triumphant party, was to arouse the people to
the danger by which the Union was threatened from Southern
secession. By the haranguing of an inflamatory press, Northern
sentiment was soon made almost unanimous against this dogma
of the State s Right School. No name at this period was so poten
tial with the people as that of Andrew Jackson, whose famous
declaration now formed the watch-word with the Constitution
destructives, " the Federal Union, it must be preserved" Those
seekino- to subvert the Constitution were now loudest in tlfeir
cries for the preservation of the Union.
Gen. Jackson in the nullification excitement had given ex-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 229
pression, as has been seen, to utterances for which he afterwards
had cause sincerely to repent. No man ever filled the Presiden
tial Chair, who was subjected to more malignant abuse by that
party which comprised in its ranks the monarchical or consolida
tion element of the country; and yet when this same school
succeeded in gaining political power in the government, the
unstudied expressions of this much abused President, were re
hearsed before his admirers, by those who despised and vilified
all his actions ; save the one in which he unfortunately erred, and
which was contrary to the whole tenor of his political life, and to
his subsequently expressed convictions. This same party whilst
retailing the declarations of President Jackson, studiously avoided
circulating the following extract from his farewell address to his
countrymen :
* ; It is well known that there has always been those among us who
wish to enlarge the powers of the General Government ; and experience
would seem to indicate that there is a tendency on the part of this Gov
ernment to over-step the boundaries marked out for it by the Constitu
tion. Its legitimate authority is abundantly sufficient for all the purposes
for which it was created ; and its powers being expressly enumerated,
there can be no justification for claiming anything beyond them. Every
attempt to exercise power beyond these limits should be promptly and
firmly opposed. For one evil example will lead to other measures still
more mischievous ; and if the principle of constructive powers, supposed
advantages, or temporary circumstances shall ever be permitted to justify
the assumption of a power not given by the Constitution, the General
Government will before long absorb all the powers of legislation, and you
will have in effect but one consolidated government. From the extent
of our country, its diversified interests, different pursuits, and single
habits, it is too obvious for argument that a single consolidated Govern
ment would be wholly inadequate to watch over and protect its interests ;
and every friend of our free institutions should be always prepared to
maintain, unimpaired and in full vigor, the rights and sovereignty of the
States, and confine the action of the General Government strictly to the
sphere of its appropriate duties."*
The excitement throughout the country had become intense
upon the assembling of Congress in December, 1860. As soon
as President Buchanan had submitted the views of the adminis
tration upon secession and coercion, the Republican press united
in a general condemnation of the principles therein enunciated,
and ridiculed the Executive as a coward and committed to the
interests of treason. Assaults upon the peace policy of the ad
ministration, now became one of the means by which the Eepub-
*Statesnian s Manual, vol. 2, p. 952.
230 A REVIEW OF THE
lican leaders strove to intensify Northern sentiment against
the Southern people ; and prepare the masses for that bloody
strife of sections which they found it necessary to foment in
order to strengthen their own political power and crush that of
their adversaries. When South Carolina at length seceded, the
auroral star of the millenium seemed to rise upon the vision of
those who had for upwards of a quarter of a century prayed for
a dissolution of the Union. ,Weiidel Phillips and his associate
band of open and avowed Abolitionists, were in exstacies over
the event. The harbinger of the new epoch was announced.
The emancipators shouted huzzas when the convention of South
Carolina had proclaimed secession. " Deck her with garlands
lade her with jewels," cried they; "because she has gone, and
God speed her on her journey."
, But the unavowed Abolitionists, Republicans in name, Eman
cipationists in principle, Wade, Hale, Stevens, and others, now
found a glorious opportunity to assault the South, the administra
tion and the Democratic party in general. Compromise with
traitors was ridiculed, and all members of the Republican party
favoring a conservative policy were denounced as derelict to the
principles of the Chicago platform. The strong current that set
in shortly after the election of Lincoln, in favor of compromise,
had the effect of intimidating all but the boldest Republicans
from expressing freely their designs as regards the coercion of the
Southern States. John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, was one of
the first who permitted it clearly to appear that it was determined
by the Republican leaders to declare war against the seceded
States. This announcement in the United States Senate embold
ened those editors of like opinions to utter their sentiments with
less reserve ; and the Republican press from this period teemed
with threats of coercion and condign punishment of the rebels.
As early as December 20th, 1860, the Springfield Journal, the
presumed reflector of the views of Abraham Lincoln, the Presi
dent elect, gave utterance to the following sentiments:
She (South Carolina) cannot get out of this Union until she conquers
this Government. The revenues must and will be collected at her ports,
and any resistance on her part will lead to civil war."
The following extract from the New York Herald, seems very
truthfully to portray the Republican attitude at the time of its
appearance :
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 231
" Because Mr. Buchanan has adopted the peace policy, he is denounced
by the Republicans as a dotard, an imbecile, a traitor, and a lunatic.
* * * The Republican journals of the North, are daily becoming
more and more bitter in the tone of their belligerent manifestations, and
in their vituperative advocacy of the extremest measures to reduce the
slave States to submission to the doctrines laid down in the Chicago
platform. Appeal to the inexorable logic or grooved cannon, Sharpe s
rifles, and the bayonet, takes the place of reflection and argument now,
just as cant, abuse, calumny and diatribe did that of truth and facts while
they were arousing their readers to that pitch of Anti-Slavery excitement
which has produced the present crisis. They demand that Mr. Lincoln
shall inaugurate his administration with blockades, bombardments and
invasions, as flippantly and impudently as though the welfare of the
country could be promoted by conformity to such diabolical fancies.
They decree that the South shall be put down as glibly as if fifteen States
were a vagrant to be arrested by the first policeman. "With quasi author
itative language, they pretend to foreshadow the policy of the incoming
administration as substituting the blood-red flag of civil war for the
stars and stripes which float over the Capitol ; and confidently predict
that the irrepressible conflict will be carried out with a ruthless bar
barity which John Brown himself would have hesitated to sanction.
" The transparent motive of so much furious clamor on the part of the
Republican press, is to drive Mr. Buchanan into initiating aggressive
measures against South Carolina and any other States that may secede,
in order that he and his administration may be charged with beginning
the war. He is denounced for not sending troops to Moultrie and sur
rounding Charleston with a naval cordon. Should Buchanan accede to
them, they would be the first to turn upon him the full vials of popular
indignation, and charge him as responsible for beginning the war."*
The tide of denunciation against President Buchanan and his
peace policy, rose still higher and higher ; and broke upon the
public ear in all its vindictive fury and tumultuousness. The
roar of the Abolition press resounded throughout the whole
length and breadth of the Korth ; a partisan malignity seemed
as if ready to engulph all reason and sobriety beneath the opening
waves of the social convulsion. Henry Ward Beecher regretted
that destiny had not vouchsafed to America, at this time, an
Oliver Cromwell for President; and the Republican journals
urged that in the imbecile attitude in which the country found
itself, owing to the treasonable dereliction of the administration,
it behooved the loyal States of the ]^orth to act with reference
to the emergency and prepare for the coming crisis. Some of
the Republican Governors called attention to the condition of the
country and urged upon their Legislatures to place the military
*New York Herald, Dec. 24th, 1860.
232 A REVIEW OF THE
iorces of tlieir States upon such a footing as to be ready to respond
when called upon by the Federal authority. All these move
ments in the North served to indicate what the proposed policy
of the incoming administration would be, as regards the seceded
States.
That it was the full intention of the Republican leaders after
their elevation to power, to inaugurate coercive measures against
such Southern States as might secede from the Union, admits of
no reasonable doubt. And although "William H. Seward and
other members of the party, attempted to appear as conservative
in their views, and willing to extend the olive branch of peace ;
yet all these vascillating .manoeuvres were simply designed to
enable these diplomatists to veer between the Scylla of Aboli
tionism and the Charybdis of Conservatism. The New York
Senator had been selected as the premier of the incoming admin
istration ; and yet in view of the opposition that existed against
him in his own party, and the growing strength of the movement
favorable to compromise, he esteemed it prudential to feign con
ciliatory sentiments ; and at the same time avoid committing
himself to any definite line of policy. By this means he sailed
in the centre current of his own party and avoided touching the
extremes. As regards personal popularity and promotion, he felt
that this was altogether his safest method ; and at the same time
he was sufficiently astute as to perceive that in times of commo
tion, the extremists of party always lead the Conservatives. In
sentiment he either was or had ever feigned himself an extremist ;
but he now chose to be led to that point, where in truth, he
wished to conduct others. On the one hand his early radicalism
allied him with the Abolition wing of his party ; on the other,
his sentiments as uttered in his speeches in the Senate and else
where, since the election of Lincoln, gained him the confidence
of the Compromisers ; and he therefore was prepared for leader
ship in the Cabinet, should public opinion even force a conserva
tive policy upon the new administration.
Remembering that the Republican leaders almost unanimously
resisted all compromise which might prove satisfactory to the
Southern people, was it not apparent in view of events that one
of two things must occur, either a dissolution of the Union, or
civil war to prevent it 3 Must it not then be accepted as an un
deniable truth that they preferred either of these results, rather
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 233
than acquiesce in a compromise ? And yet they sought to evade
these logical inferences which necessarily flowed from their words
and actions. But the popular mind was unable to detect the real
aim of those who despised the old Union, and who simply sought
to arouse the Northern people to fight in its defense, in order
that they might effect its destruction.
An ominous silence was maintained by Abraham Lincoln as to
the policy which would be pursued after the Government came
into his hands. For over three months after his election not a
word was spoken by the new President that served clearly to
indicate what his future policy would be. This silence was main
tained in order that he might be free to accept that guidance
which the controling opinon of his party might indicate. It
can not be doubted, but that he with other leaders of the party,
had fully agreed upon a course of action after his accession to
the Chair of State, and time simply was permitted to determine
whether the proposed plan could be executed or not. And this
silence was simply a part of the revolutionary programme, which
from the organization of the Republican party it was impolitic
and politically dangerous to disclose. It was not believed by
the Southern leaders, and by many in the Korth, that there was
doubt as to the course the new administration would pursue
when once installed in power. The unanminity of the Republican
party, favoring the coercion of the seceded States by military power,
made it sufficiently clear what the policy of the Lincoln Admin
istration would be. This unanimity was but the echo of the well
understood views and expressions of Members of Congress and
other leaders of Republican opinion. Any one, at all attentive to
the discussions which took place in the Senate and House of
Representatives during the second session of the Thirty-sixth
Congress, would have shown remarkable obtuseness not to have
discovered, that war was the policy determined upon by the
Republican leaders. The following extract would seem to indi
cate that the sentiment on this point was almost unanimous:
" The Republican leaders and journalists, with one or two exceptions,
insist upon holding the Chicago platform, the whole platform, and noth
ing but the platform, no matter what may be the consequences to the
party, the country, or the human race. * * * * They de
clare they will maintain it to the bitter end, though civil war should be
the consequence.* *
* New York Herald, January 21st, 1861.
34 A REVIEW OF THE
The great difficulty, with which the Republican leaders had to
contend, was the growing current of conservatism that set in after
the Presidential election in November, 1860, and which flowed
in opposition to their wishes, and which they feared might bear
their revolutionary bark upon the rocks of political disaster.
This current showed itself in the numerous petitions that flooded
Congress in favor of compromise with the South, in the mani
fest changes which marked the local elections in many sections
of the North, and also in the breaking up of Abolition assem
blages and John Brown demonstrations, which six months before
had been popular and held without interruption. It was the
general belief of all the conservative classes, that the troubles
likely to burst upon the country had been produced by the fanati
cal agitation of the slavery question, and respectable citizens, in
different places, aided in dispersing meetings of Abolitionists,
believing that such were but gathering additional fuel for the
flames of civil discord now threatening to consume the fair fabric
of the American Republic. But this popular opposition only
served the more to intensify the efforts of the whole radical
school of the Republican party ; unite the better in one com
pact band, the avowed and secret Abolitionists, and give this
faction the leadership and entire control of the political ma
chinery of the organization. "Wendel Phillips, Beecher, Sumner,
Hale, Ilickman, Howard, Stevens, Love joy and others were com
pactly united together in a band of brotherhood, pledged by
mutual consent to unite their forces in a general assault upon the
citadel of State Rights and Southern Slavery. It was soon
manifest that the radicals were master of the situation, and
Thurlow Weed * and other Republicans who had advocated com
promise were threatened with ostracism for the their opinions.
Even the editor of the New York Tribune, the pretended
staunch advocate of principle, after having declared in favor of
peaceable secession, was compelled by the radical conclave to
espouse the policy of coercion against the seceded States. Arid
after permitting himself to be made the mere mouthpiece of the
* " Thurlow Weed has been denounced and his peace propositions repu
diated by the journals and leaders of the Republican party." Movements
were even made to start a new paper in Albany opposed to him, and
which the leaders promise shall be conducted " ivithout temporizing con
cessions and vacillating expediencies." New York Herald, December 17,
18GO.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 20o
ruling faction, lie, to whom the editorial fraternity gave the
name of philosopher, became the bitterest amongst his country
men in resisting a compromise with the Southern people, and the
most ardent in hounding on the masses of the JSTorth to a conflict
that must work the prostration of the principles of Free Govern
ment, and the downfal of the Constitutional Union.
At length the pilgrimage of the new President, from his home
in Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, began on the llth of
February, 1S61 ; and the people of all sections of the country
now looked with anxiety for a disclosure of the views of the man,
who more than all others held the future destiny of the Union
in his hands. But the country was sadly disappointed. At a
time when double-dealing should have been laid aside, and when
manhood and honor demanded a clear and explicit declaration of
the future intentions of the Chief Magistrate, we iind him in
his speeches made to the crowds that flocked to see him, giving
utterance to ambiguous expressions ; and such as but served to
conceal his real intentions. His home organ, the Springfield
Journal, about the time of his departure for the Seat of Govern
ment, contained the following enunciation of policy, which doubt
less expressed the intentions of the journeying President : but
which State craft and perfidy would not permit him openly to dis
close. The Journal said :
" The seceding States are in rebellion against the Federal Government,
and it is the duty of this Government to put down rebellion. Away with
compromises. We should not talk of compromises while the flag of
traitors floats over an American Fort, and the flag of our country trails in
the dust. Until that flag is unfurled over Moultrie and every other stolen
Fort, Arsenal, Custom House and Navy Yard until the laws of this
Government are obeyed and its authority recognized, let us never talk
of compromise. Let the stolen Forts, Arsenals and Navy Yards be re
stored to the rightful owners, tear down your rattlesnake and pellican
flags, and run up the ever glorious stars and stripes, disperse your
traitorous mobs and let every man return to his duty."*
But the only competency shown by the New President on his
journey to Washington, was the proficiency he displayed in the
science of Machiavelism, by which he was enabled to discourse to
the people concerning the brewing troubles, and yet conceal from
them his opinions. Otherwise his speeches gave no evidence of
intellect ; but were interspersed with the flinisey jests of the low
^ Extracted in New York Herald, Feb. 14, 1861.
C33 A REVIEW OF THE
politician, altogether unbecoming the man that was chosen to
succeed the honored statesmen, who, from Washington to Bu
chanan, had graced the Presidential Chair. In his harrangues to
the crowds which intercepted him on his journey, at a time when
the country was in revolutionary chaos ; when commerce and
trade were prostrated, and when starving women and idle men
were among the very audiences that listened to him, he declared
to them, in his peculiar phraseology, that " nobody was hurt"
that " all would come out right" and that there was " nothing
going wrong" Nor was his rhetoric the only entertainment he
afforded those who flocked to hear the new Sovereign.
His conduct and speeches disclosed the demagogue ; and evinced
his admirable adaptedness to be the President of the radical con
clave, that was to dictate to him as a subaltern the duties required
of him to be performed. As President, he was the creature of
and for the occasion. He was chosen in revolutionary times, for
revolutionary purposes, and by the revolutionary element of the
country. Statesmanship was at a discount ; the destructive in
politics ruled, and reason and reflection must of necessity be laid
aside. A conservative President was not wanted by the men
who controlled affairs in the new party ; and Lincoln was known
to be of that pliable disposition which would allow himself and
his policy to drift with the current.
In his Indianapolis speech, the touring President sufficiently
disclosed his sentiments for esoteric ears, but which the uninitiated
mass accepted simply as interrogatories. He said :
" If the United States should merely hold and retake its own Forts and
other property, and collect the duties on foreign importations, or even
withhold the mails from places where they are habitually violated,
would any of these things be invasion on coercion ? Would the march
ing of an army into South Carolina be invasion ?"
By these and many other similar remarks, it was ascertained
that coercion had been determined upon by the radical Repub
licans. Senator Chandler, during the last days of the Thirty-
sixth Congress, declared that the Republican party were ready to
stand in blood. Fessenden, of Maine, remarked " that if the
time was coming to use force, he was perfectly ready to do it."
Thaddeus Stevens, in the course of the debate upon the Navy
Bill, expressed it to be the intention of his party to retake the
Southern forts.* A volume might be filled with similar declara-
York Herald, February 22nd, 1861.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 237
tions, all to the same purport, showing that civil war was the
pre-determined policy of the radical school.
The first distinct enunciation by Abraham Lincoln of the
course he would pursue was made in his inaugural address, wherein
he says :
* It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion,
can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances to that
effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or
States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary,
according to circumstances.
"I, therefore consider, that in view of the Constitution and the Laws,
the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take care,
as the Constitution expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union
shall be faithfully executed in all the States.
In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall
be none unless it be forced upon the national authority."
Did despot ever lay down more dogmatic and authorative
dicta than are contained in the extracted portion of this inaugural ?
Without condescending to consider the alleged grievances of
the Southern people, or recommend any terms of concession, as
a wise and virtuous ruler, master of his own thoughts, would
have done, the Republican President proceeds in one sentence to
declare State Sovereignty, the cardinal doctrine of the Jeffer-
sonian school of politics, as baseless and unfounded. Was greater
presumption ever manifested ? The matured thought of a whole
school of distinguished American statesmen was not to be over
thrown by the mere declaration of a man, whom accident rather
than intellect had elevated to power. But presumptuousness
and conceit were the characteristics of the party to which he was
indebted for the position he occupied, and he must necessarily
display a similar pretentiousness with that of his compeers.
He next declared that he would cause the laws of the Union
to be faithfully executed, as the Constitution expressly enjoins,
which to the American ear was more palatable, than to have told
them what he meant, which was that he and his party had deter
mined to conquer by military force the Southern States. But
the Constitution did not permit, much less enjoin him to make
war upon the seceding States in order to preserve the laws, and
purposing to do so, as his party leaders had resolved, he falsely
accepted his obligation to the Constitution, which he pretended
to obey. But a part of the secret programme still remained to
be performed. This consisted in sending a naval squadron, under
203 A REVIEW OF THE
the pretence of relieving the Southern garrisons, when in truth
designed to provoke an attack upon the American flag, and thus
obtain a pretext for declaring war against the South, under the
plea of defending the Union. This scheme, which was craftily
planned, was entirely successful, and on the 12th of April, 1861,
the attack upon Fort Sumpter lighted up the flames of civil
revolution, and the triumph of centralization was now assured.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 239
CHAPTER XIV.
WAR FOR THE UNION.
The news of the attack on Fort Sumpter aroused the demon of
the North, in all his ferocious hate and unreasoning madness.
Revenge, deep and bitter, was resolved upon in every hamlet and
village from the most remote corner of Maine to the furthest
extremity of California. The Southern secessionists who had
dared to question the National authority and fire upon the flag
of the Republic, became at once in the public mind, the objects of
malediction and of the most burning execration ; and resolves of
vengeance seemed for the time written upon nearly every coun
tenance. Insanity, in truth, ruled the hour. It was a people at
length fully awakened to a realization of the dangers, of which
they had often been admonished, but which they as repeatedly had
been assured, were groundless and without foundation. Like a
mob destitute of that reflection by which it should weigh causes
and consequences, the people were everywhere borne in blind zeal
to oppose resistance to the immediate agent of their dread. The
Government was threatened ; the Southern people had turned
their cannon upon a Federal Fortress and forced its evacuation ;
and all the sacred associations of the Union, Constitution and
National integrity were jeoparded. At once they forgot the
lesson of philosophy, that " the aggressor in a war is not the first
who uses force, but the first who renders force necessary."*
Although the people of the North had been admonished by
patriots and Statesmen, from Washington to Buchanan, that the
formation and success of sectional parties could not but endanger
the perpetuity of the American Republic ; still all their counsel
was rejected and their admonitions unheeded. Men had arisen
vdio repudiated the wisdom of former generations ; and who had
succeeded in securing followers, a majority in the Northern
Hallam s Constitutional History.
240 A REVIEW OF THE
States. The most studied efforts had been made by leading Re
publicans, in their speeches and through their presses, to convince
the people that the object of the Southern secessionists was to extort
from a passive North, further guarantees for slavery, as they had
succeeded in doing on former occasions. And they were also
told that even should actual resistance occur : and the South be
found to be in earnest in their determination to sever their con
nection with the Union by force of arms, the collision would
prove one of short duration ; and that a month, or at furthest,
ninety days would end the struggle. Believing these declara
tions, the mass of both political parties in the North, regarded
the suppression of the rebellion as an undertaking of no great
difficulty.
Now was the opportunity for the deep, crafty schemes of
Abolition consolidation ; and with admirable adroitness was it
seized. With a full knowledge of the delusion which reigned in
the public mind, as regarded the rebellion, and for the purpose of
still farther strengthening this false impression, Abraham Lin
coln, as President of the United States, on the 15th of April,
1861, issued his proclamation calling for seventy-live thousand
men to suppress the insurrection in the seceded States. Assum
ing to treat the Southern revolt as mere insurrectionary resist
ance, he ordered the seceders to disperse in twenty days from
the issue of his mandate. Will posterity ever give him credit
for believing that the rebels would disperse at his bidding, or
that his quota of soldiers would prove sufficient to overthrow the
armed resistance of the South ? If matured reflection shall
satisfy coming ages that the role he played on this occasion was
not an hypocritical one, then the only alternative to be accepted
will be, that his party made a great mistake in selecting one of no
superior sagacity for President of the United States.*
The idea promulgated at Washington of a ninety days com
motion was encouraged by the Northern press, with the same
*The great admirers of the Sage of Springfield, in justification of the
call for seventy-five thousand men for tnree months, will attempt to de
fend him in asserting that he acted in accordance with the law of 1795,
in calling out the militia and ordering the dispersal of the insurgents in a
specified time. It is true that he did model his call for troops after an
Act which contemplated simply the raising of armed posses, in aid of
the civil authorities. In doing so, however, he disclosed the desperate
length that he and his party were ready to go for the purpose of carrying
cut their designs.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 241
design as had influenced the Executive Chief in the Federal
o
Capitol. It was all done to continue the deception that had heen
practised from the organization of the Republican party. The
rebellion was derided as a matter of mere insignificance, and
belittled in language which no sane men but imposters could
utter. The New York Tribune, the leading organ of the Re
publican party, declared that it was nothing " more or less than
the natural recourse of all mean spirited and defeated tyrannies,
to rule or ruin, making of course a wide distinction between the
will and power, for th hanging of traitors is sure to begin before
one month is over. The nations of Europe," it continued, " may
rest assured that Jeff. Davis & Co., will be swinging from the
battlements at Washington at least by the 4th of July. We spit
upon a later and longer deferred justice."
The New York Times expressed the following confident
opinion :
" Let us make quick work. The Rebellion, as some people designate
it, is an embryo tadpole. Let us not fall into the delusion, noted by
Hallam, of mistaking a * local commotion for a revolution. A strong,
active pull together will do our work effectually in thirty days.
We have only to send a column of twenty -five thousand men across the
Potomac to Richmond, and burn out the rats there ; another column of
twenty-five thousand to Cairo, seizing the cotton ports of the Mississippi,
and retaining the remaining twenty-five thousand included in Mr. Lin
coln s call for seventy -five thousand men at Washington, not because
there is need for them there, but because we do not require their services
elsewhere."
The Philadelphia Press declared that no man of sense, could
for a moment doubt, that this much-ao-about-nothing would end
in a month. The Northern people were " simply invincible."
" The rebels," it predicted, " a mere band of ragamuffins, will
fly like chaff before the wind on our approach."
The people of the West in no wise flagged in their competency
to depreciate the magnitude of the troubles that awaited the
country. It was necessary for the political success of the Re
publican party to under-rate the impending evils that were
threatening the nation ; for had the people fully realized the
magnitude of the undertaking they were entering upon, the Peace
party would have been too potential to have permitted the inau
guration of the carnage that was to drench the land in blood.
The Chicago Tribune, the valorous sheet of the Lake City, in
sisted that alone and unaided, the West should be permitted to
243 A REVIEW OF THE
fight the battle through, since she was probably most interested
in the suppression of the rebellion and the free navigation of the
Mississippi. "Let the East," demanded this warlike organ, "get
out of the way ; this war is of the West. We can light the
battle and successfully, within two or three months at the furthest.
Illinois can whip the South by herself. We insist upon the
matter being turned over to us."
Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, who
skillfully performed his part in helping to deceive the masses of
the North into the belief that the rebellion would melt away in
sixty days, was willing, however, to be judged in history as an
imposter rather than a fool. In his history of the war he says :
" The original call of President Lincoln on the States for 75,000 militia,
to cerve for three months, was a deplorable error. It resulted naturally
from that obstinate infatuation which would believe in defiance of all
history and probability, that an aristocratic conspiracy of thirty years
standing, culminating in rebellion based on an artificial property valued
at four thousand millions of dollars, and wielding the resources of ten
or twelve States, having nearly ten millions of people, was to be put
down in sixty or ninety days by some process equivalent to the reading
of the Riot Act to an excited mob, and sending a squad of police to dis
perse it."*
After the fall of Sumpter, it was indeed esteemed disloyal to
even intimate a doubt of the speedy overthow of the rebellion-
Many a patriotic citizen was branded as a traitor, because his
reason admonished him that the conquest of a people so united
as were the Southern Confederates, would be an undertaking requir
ing years, and also vast outlays of blood and treasure. Many,
who in other matters were endowed with excellent sense, either
really agreed with the short-sighted rabble in believing that the
South would soon be conquered, or for the sake of selfish interests
permitted themselves to drift with the current of public opinion.
Such an apparent change of sentiment as took place upon the
fall of Sumpter, perhaps never was before witnessed in any
country. Newspaper editors, who up to this period had battled
the positions of the Abolition party, and pointed out the dangers
into which their anti-compromise policy would drift the country,
shifted their positions without delay into the advocacy of war
against the South. Notwithstanding they had contended that
the coercion of the seceding States was altogether unconstitutional,
*Greeley s American Conflict. Vol. 1, p. 551.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA, 243
yet in obedience to selfish aspirations, or induced by fears of mob
violence, war for the Union was now urged by them with as
much vehemence and zeal as before had been conciliation.
Other leading citizens, who before had been prominent and
influential members of the Democratic and old Whig parties;
and who had never sympathised with the abolition movement,
immediately changed positions ; and permitted themselves to be
made instruments of fanaticism to unite the North, in a war
against the Southern people and their institutions* Democratic
ex-Governors, Mayors, Members of Congress and other influential
men of the party, presided at war meetings, and thus lent their
aid and encouragement to the war party, Daniel S, Dickinson,
of New York, who had even enjoyed the reputation of a
" Northern man with Southern principles," became one of the
fiercest advocates of war, and consigned his former friends in
the South to fire and sword, Edward Everett, the scholarly
orator of New England, who a few months before declared that
the Southern States should be permitted to secede in peace, be
came an apostle of coercion, and exhausted his beautiful rhetoric
in proclaiming the new gospel of subjugation. The conversions
of this character were remarkably abundant, indeed; and men of
all professions and occupations received the outpouring of the
war spirit, and became new creatures in their whole walk and
conversation, No doubt their olfactories scented the sweet per
fumes of power, and they forgot the past in anticipations of the
future. So manifest and mighty w^as the change that had been
wrought, that the unregenerate could but look with amazement
upon the scenes in which their eyes and ears were unable to
deceive them.
The crusade of passion, fury and blasphemy, which set in
against the South is entirely undescribable. It would have
seemed as if the fiends of Pandemonium had burst forth from
their confines and were exciting the frenzied multitudes of the
North to deeds of hate and cruelty. The infidel clergy of New
England, #nd their pious brethern of the modern ecclesiastical
schools, feasted their souls in the holy anticipations of humani
tarian elevation, through the blood and carnage of their Northern
and Southern countrymen. The holiness of the war was pro
claimed from the pulpit as well as from the hustings. Dr. Tyng,
a distinguished divine of New York, assembled certain ferocious
214 A REVIEW OF THE
ciit-tliroats of that city, commonly known as " Billy Wilson s
men," presented them bibles, and declared to them that in carry
ing fire and sword into the rebellious States they would propitiate
Heaven, and would go far to assure the salvation of their souls.
Were the dark ages ever guilty of more uugodlike and unchris
tian abomination ? But this is but an illustration of the senti
ments that were popular and lauded to the skies throughout the
Northern States.
A like madness seized the people in their seeming adoration of
the flag of their country. The national emblem was flung to the
breeze in nearly every street of the Northern towns and cities ;
and floated from the house-tops and windows of the most intensely
loyal of the people. When these signs of war ardor made no
voluntary appearance from a residence, a committee of patriotia
citizens often deemed it their duty to admonish the inmates that
a token of loyalty should be displayed. Some few bold men,
however, who claimed to have opinions of their own, and who
believed that they still lived in a free country, refusing to be
driven into an apparent endorsement of an inquitous and uncon
stitutional war, declined to display any other insignia of patriot
ism than the laws of their country demanded. But those
manifesting such independence, in all cases did so at the risk of
life, property, business and reputation; and were sure to be
branded as sympathisers with treason, and desirous of seeing the
Government overthrown.*
Up to this period in the history of the country, one oath to
support the Constitution of the United States was deemed suf
ficient ; but this opinion also underwent a change at the outbreak
of the rebellion. Men whose intelligence and self-respect should
have shielded them from the commission of acts only designed
to win popular applause, permitted themselves to assume the
patriotic attitude of moving that all the members of their bar
renew their official oaths, and swear, more firmly than ever, that
they would support the Federal Constitution. An instance of
this superflous swearing was enacted in the Court Room in Lan-
*The portraits of Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy
under James Buchanan, of C. L. Vallandingham, and other eminent
Democrats of the North, were placed in the Rogue s Gallery of New York
with the design of blackening their reputations with the unthinking
masses. And journals like the New York Tribune endorsed such malig
nant partisan conduct as higlily becoming and creditable.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 245
caster City, one morning after the reduction of Fort Sumpter ;
and clone at the instance of Benjamin Champneys and seconded
by Thaddeus Stevens. TThat a prostitution of the sacredness of
an oath to attempt to render that more binding which was already
sealed before Heaven as the holiest obligation which humanity is
capable of attesting. The annals of the French revolution would
be scanned in vain for an instance of greater mockery of sacred
solemnities.
It is not strange, that with the prospect of a short war, given
out from Washington and encouraged by the whole Republican
press, the rage for volunteering would be immense. Going to
the war for three months, under the first call of Abraham Lincoln,
was viewed as a sort of holiday excursion ; and had peculiar at
tractions for large numbers of the fast youth in the Northern
cities. From this material it was boasted that the North could
gather the most terrible and invincible army that ever enacted
deeds of war. Some of these adopted the Zouave costume in
order to gratify their desire for singularity, and add to their fero
cious appearance ; and a company of them even went through the
ceremony of being sworn, in a public hotel in New York, to " cut
off the head of every d secessionist in the war." Such exhi
bitions of ferocity were retailed with glee and devoured with the
most gratifying satisfaction by the most saintly advocates of the
war. These valiant defenders of liberty were extolled for their
burning patriotism, after having plundered the stores of some
sympathizers with treason ; and prostrated the persons of others
who presumed to question their inalienable right to act as they
saw proper in the city of their birth. They were simply giving
evidence of the manner they could handle Southern traitors ; and
these experiments upon Northern sympathizers afforded the
greatest satisfaction to their admirers. These acts were retailed
with the most fiendish pleasure by the Loyalists, as they termed
themselves, and were cited as proof that the crusading army from
the North would strike terror into the secession bands, and win
the brightest and bloodiest laurels on the fields of battle.
But it was not the vagrant and unrully classes of the Northern
cities alone that enrolled themselves in the war for the ^Jnion ;
the quiet and orderly young merchants, clerks, printers, farmers
and others, entered the race for glory. The North was full of
martial courage, and war ardor animated both rich and poor.
246 A REVIEW OF THE
Gov. Dennison, of Ohio, telegraphed to Washington, tendering
thirty thousand troops for the service. Weston, the Governor of
Indiana, received assurances- that a like number of soldiers was
eager for enlistment in his State. A. G. Curtin, the Executive
of Pennsylvania, was not to be outdone in his promises to the
Washington authorities. Massachusetts and New York were
pressing in their offers of men for tt the three months war."
The deceptions- conduct of Abraham Lincoln and his coun
sellors, gradually displayed itself as time advanced. The second
call of the President of May 4th, 1861, for forty-two thousand
volunteers, for three years or during the war, besides the twenty-
two thousand called for at the same time for the regular army,
and eighteen thousand seamen, would on its face seem to evince
that the Federal authorities had rapidly changed their views as
regards the magnitude of the conflict that was to be encountered.
The truth, however, simply was that the administration feared to
alarm the country by calling at first for a large force of volun
teers, until the sections had become so far involved in the strife
as to preclude all further efforts of the Peace party at accommo
dation. This is clear from the endeavors which were quietly
made to induce the three months soldiers, soon after their enrol
ment, to re-enlist for three years, even under pain of dishonorable
dismissal from the army. The Lancaster Express correspondent
of May 15th, 1861, says :
"The call was for three months, but we are now asked to serve for
three years ; should we decline the latter proposition, we are told that we
will be discharged in such a way as not to leave the service with honor. *
So great had been the willingness of the administration to
enroll a large army, and one much greater even than its several
calls would indicate that by the middle of June, 1861, it was
estimated that the number of men already in the Government
service amounted to 308,875.
But an administration that was inaugurating a policy in viola
tion of solemn obligation and constitutional warrant, and striving
for the utter overthrow of Republican Government, was not one
to hesitate at any stage of periidy, that might be required for the
accomplishment of its designs. It was but in harmony, there
fore, with a well-matured and pre-arranged programme when
President Lincoln, in the presence of Gen. Scott and his Cabinet,
and in conflict with his proclamation calling for 75,000
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 247
solemnly assured the Mayor of Baltimore and other leading
men of that city, that the troops called for were simply for the
protection of the Federal Capital. Of this assurance Mayor
Brown said :
"The protection of Washington he (the President) asseverated with
great earnestness, was the sole object of concentrating troops there, and
he protested that none of the troops brought through Maryland were in
tended for any purposes hostile to the State, or aggressive as against the
Southern States."*
That William H. Seward was well skilled in the tortuous ways
of perfidious diplomacy, and admirably suited to be the colleague
of a President who would deny his public record and intentions,
no evidence from Judge Campbell was needed to determine.
The Premier s letter to Governor Hicks, of Maryland, furnishes
abundant testimony on this point. "With reference to the passage
of the troops through Baltimore, he wrote a letter to the Gov
ernor, April 22d, in which he says :
" The force now sought to be brought through Maryland is intended
for nothing but the defense of the Capitol."
Horace Greeley, the editor of the Tribune, perceiving the
bald untruth of the Secretary s declaration, and with reference
to it, said :
"Is this true ? Is it safe ? It certainly is not very consistent with the
President s Proclamation, which Governor Seward countersigned. The
militia of the loyal States were called out to suppress combinations that
defy the laws and obstruct their execution not in Washington, but in
the disloyal States. Having reached Washington, they are several hun
dred miles on their way to those States not to speak of the rebellion
that has suddenly broken out in Virginia and Maryland. Having drawn
men enough to Washington to repel the apprehended attack, is it prob
able that they will be sent home without even attempting to effect the
object for which they were expressly called out? And if not, will not
the Government be accused of bad faith in giving the assurances em
bodied in Governor Seward s letter, and then acting in defiance of them ?"{
The "War against the seceded States was inaugurated by Abra
ham Lincoln and his party, for the purpose as they declared of
preserving the integrity of the Union. But the maintenance of
a Union and Constitution that guaranteed the existence of slavery
could not be desired by any save a hyprocritcal member of a
party, whose animating principle was opposition to the Southern
institution. Every sincere and honest leader in the Republican
* Annual Cyclopaedia, 1861, P. 717.
f New York Tribune, April 26th, 1861.
243 A REVIEW OF THE
organization, had avowed the mission of his party to be tlio
eradication of Southern Slavery, and it was left to state craft
and deception to devise a policy which could carry to its support
sufficient strength to accomplish the party aim. Had not Abra
ham Lincoln and the members of his Cabinet, repeatedly declared
their antipathy to the institution of slavery, and that its existence
was incompatible with republican institutions ? And yet when
war was proclaimed, did not these same statesmen avow that the
object of the administration was simply to preserve the Union
and the Constitution, and that the destruction of slavery was
altogether out of their power and foreign from their intentions ?
On the contrary, however, the honest and manly avowals of
Wendel Phillips, Gerrit Smith and others, proved that the
administration was sailing under false colors in order to catch
the popular gale. In his speech of Apr .l 27th, Gerrit Smith said:
" The end O.L slavery is at hand. If we suffer it to live, it may return
to torment us. Let no Northern man henceforth propose, for any reasons
whatever, the sparing of slavery. Such measure, such insult, such con
tempt of her interests and rights and honor, the North will stand no
longer. Thank God ! the spirit of the North is at last aroused at this
point. She is determined to kill slavery, and she will be patient with no
man who shall thrust himself between her and her victim."*
"With the above compare the following words from Abraham
Lincoln s inaugural :
"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the insti
tution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful
right to do so ; and I have no inclination to do so."
Which of these two men, will posterity determine, expressed
most sincerely and honestly his convictions ? Which of them
must forever bear the brand of hypocrite upon his brow, and be
enrolled in the category of those who deserve the execration of
mankind ?
Influenced with the same design as President Lincoln, his Sec
retary of State, William H. Seward, in his letter of instructions,
in April, 1861, to the Federal Minister in Paris, says :
" The condition of slavery in the several States will remain just the
same, whether it (the rebellion) succeeds or fails. The rights of the
States, and the condition of every human being in them, will, remain
suoject to exactly the same laws and form of administration, whether
the revolution shall succeed or whether it shall fail. Their Constitutions
and forms and customs, habits and institutions, in either case will remain
*New York Tribune, May 3d, 1861.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 249
the same. It is ha "dly necessary to add to this incontestible statement,
the further fact that the new President, as well as the citizens through
whose suffrages he has come into the administration, has always repudi
ated all designs whatever and wherever imputed to him and them, of
disturbing the institution of slavery as it is existing under the Constitu
tion and laws, The case however, would not be fully presented were I
to omit to say, that any such effort 011 his part would be unconstitutional,
and all his acts in that direction would be prevented by the judicial au
thority, even though they were assented to by Congress and the people."
But the political Abolition editor of the Xew York Tribune
discloses the reason which detered the administration from allow
ing the war to appear as waged for the destruction of slavery.
He says :
" This war in truth is a war for the preservation of the Union not for
the destruction of slavery ; and it would alienate many ardent Unionists
to pervert it into a war against Slavery."*
This humane editor and would-be philosopher , this wise and
sagacious statesman, like the administration, through dread of
antagonizing the conservatives of the country, declares that the
war is prosecuted for the preservation of the Union ; and yet, in
an issue of four days earlier, he eulogizes Daniel S. Dickinson,
who had advocated the extermination of the Southern people in
order to eradicate slavery, the germinating root of the revolt. It
was this philosophic editor who first of all the members of his
party most clearly explained the policy of the administration war
for the Union ; and, calmed by the following arguments, the
complaints of those who early demanded that it should be
directed for the emancipation of the Southern slaves. The war
for the Union, argued he, is sure to ultimate in the destruction of
slavery, and therefore it behooves all Abolitionists to give it their
support. Do not strive to have emancipation proclaimed, for by
doing so many friends of the Union will be turned into enemies
of the war, which will only procrastinate the overthrow of the
Southern institution. Let those fight for the Union who will,
for in doing so they likewise aid the cause of emancipation.
Many patriots do not desire the liberation of the slaves, and it
is necessary, therefore, that the war be waged in behalf of the
Union and the Constitution ; and in this manner . the enemies of
emancipation really aid the movement of abolition. We who
perceive the results to follow the war, favor it because of these ;
*New York Tribune, May 14th, 1861.
250 A REVIEW OF THE
and lience both Unionists and Abolitionists can unite in its prose
cution. This, in brief, was the whole secret and philosophy of
the Abolition enthusiasm in the war for the Union.
The first acts of the Federal authority, in the prosecution of
the war touching the institution of slavery, were made to con
form strictly to the assurances that had been given. An extrav
agant zeal was shown by Federal officials to prove that the war
was prosecuted alone for the restoration of the Union. Fugitive
slaves were not only arrested within the Federal military lines
and returned to slavery, but were taken in the streets of Wash
ington and surrendered by judicial process to their masters. On
the 26th of May, 1861, General McClellan issued an address to
the people of Western Virginia, assuring them that not only
would his troops abstain from any interference with their slave
property, but that they were ready likewise to assist in quelling
any efforts at servile insurrection. General McDowell issued an
order prohibiting fugitive slaves from coming into, or being har
bored within his lines. All these acts were permitted by the
Federal administration, in order to disprove the assertion of the
Southern people, and of those in the North who charged the
Republicans as secretly designing the overthrow of slavery.
But the administration and the Republican leaders awaited
with impatience for an opportunity to allow the commencement
of that line of policy which was to ultimate in the entire over
throw of slave institutions. The war had been inaugurated for
the avowed maintenance of the Union and the Constitution;
but other aims animated most of the sincere friends of the
coercive policy. The first opportunity which permitted a change
of base for the administration, was furnished by General B. F.
Butler, a former member of the Democratic party, and one high
in its confidence. Some fugitives had made their way into the
camp of General Butler at Fortress Monroe ; and being demanded
by an officer of a Confederate force in the neighborhood, Butler
declined to surrender these ; choosing to consider them contra
band of war, as being the property of rebels. He placed the
able-bodied negroes at work upon his fortifications, and immedi
ately notified the War Department of his action as regards the
fugitives. Other fugitives, men, women and children, shortly
afterwards came to his camp, and he now chose to consult the
War Department as to his duty under the circumstances. The
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 231
administration felt itself safe in accepting and endorsing the
views of a States Right Jeffersonian Democrat, who was fighting
for the Union and the Constitution. Gen. Cameron, Secretary
of War, under date of May 30th ; 1861, replied to our Contraband
General as follows :
"Your action in respect to the negroes who came within your lines,
from the service of the rebels, is approved. The Department is sensible
of the embarrassments which must surround officers conducting military
operations in a State by the laws of which slavery is sanctioned. The
Government cannot recognize the rejection by any State of its Federal
obligations, nor can it refuse the performance of the Federal obligations
resting upon itself. Among these Federal obligations, however, none
can be more important than that of suppressing and dispersing armed
combinations, formed for the purpose of overthrowing its whole consti
tutional authority. While, therefore, you will permit no interference
by persons under your command with the relations of persons held to
service under the laws of any State, you will, on the other hand, so long
as any State within which your military operations are conducted, is
under the control of such armed combinations, refrain from surrendering
to alledged masters, any persons who may come within your lines. You
will employ such persons in the services to which they may be best
adapted, keeping an account of the labor by them performed, of the
value of it, and the expenses of their maintenance. The question of
their final disposition to be reserved for future determination."
This decision of the administration, which touched the slaves
of rebels voluntarily seeking refuge within the Federal lines,
was reached with great misgivings at the time as to the effect it
might have upon public sentiment and the prosecution of the
war. The aim of Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet was to
so conduct the Government policy, with reference to the slavery
question, as to follow rather than lead popular opinion in the
Xorth ; and which was steadily being shaped by abolition agita
tion. Aware that in civil convulsions the radical revolutionists
ever triumph over the moderates, the same, it was believed by
President Lincoln and his counsellors, would happen in the Re
publican party. They could, therefore, afford to permit events
to dictate the varied changes of policy to effect the cherished
objects ; yet, nevertheless, aiding by every means in their power,
to hasten the steps that would permit their open espousal of the
changed schedule.
But Congress, at its extra session in 1861, aided the adminis
tration in making a new advance towards its destined goal, in the
enactment of the first Confiscation Bill, which the President,
232 A REVIEW OF THE
with great hesitation, approved. This bill " limited the penalty
of confiscation to property actually employed in the service of
the rebellion, with the knowledge and consent of its owners ;
and instead of emancipating slaves thus employed, left their
status to be determined either by the Courts of the United States
or by subsequent legislation."* This was as bold a move, at so
early a period in the history of the war, as dared be hazzarded ;
and was only engineered through the Senate and House of Rep
resentatives amidst the greatest misgivings upon the part of
many Republicans, and after the defeat of the Federal army at
Bull Run had aroused the country to the necessity of putting
forth every effort that might weaken the rebellion. It was con
tended by the political Abolitionists, that the rebel property,
including slaves, should all be confiscated, in order to aid in
breaking the strength of their enemy in arms against the Gov
ernment. Whilst really striving to effect in this way the eman
cipation of the slaves by confiscation, they streriously maintained
that the object of the war was simply the maintenance of the
Union ; and that negro liberation was only one of the means to be
made use of to put a termination to the conflict. This disguise
was well made up, and prevented those who could not penetrate
the veil from showing to the dim-eyed masses the naked skeleton
^emancipation that stood in the background.
During the extra session of Congress in 1861, the conservative
patriot of Kentucky, John J. Crittenden, on the 19th of July,
1861, asked the unanimous leave of the House of Represetatives
to submit the following resolution :
"Resolved, By the House of Representatives of the Congress of the
United States, that the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon
the country by the disunionists of the Southern States now in revolt
against the Constitutional Government, and in arms around the Capitol ;
that in this national emergency Congress, banishing all feeling of mere
passion and resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country ;
that this war is not waged on our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for
any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of over
throwing or interfereing with the rights or established institutions of the
States, but to de end and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution,
and to preserve the Union, with all the dignities, equality and rights of
the seceded States unimpaired, and that as soon as these objects are
accomplished, the war ought to cease."
The most thoroughly consistent member of the Republican
*Letter of Joseph Holt, of Sepembter 12, 1861.
ft-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 253
party in the House at that time, (Thaddeus Stevens) objected to
the reception of the above resolution, and when it passed by
an almost unanimous vote, he declined to allow his name to
be recorded, either affirmatively or negatively. The cowards
and hypocrites of his party in Congress, like Abraham Lincoln
and William H. Seward, feared to disclose their real designs of
emancipation, and supported a resolution which expressed senti
ments contrary to their feelings, and by which they never meant
to be obligated. That negro freedom was the darling goal of
aspiration of the Republican party, the following from " Occa
sional " in the Philadelphia Press of August 31st, 1861, would
seem to attest :
"Thousands who have recoiled from a mere Anti-Slavery war, now
advocate emancipation as an imperative necessity."
Although Thaddeus Stevens, Owen Lovejoy, Charles Sumner,
and a few other radicals, had somewhat partially disclosed the
designs of the Republican party, it was altogether too soon for
the Administration to show its hand upon the slavery issue.
These men though the soul of their party, were represented by
the crafty Republican leaders as extremists, whose views would
never be adopted by any organization ; and much less by the
conservative administration of Abraham Lincoln. Such were the
stereotyped reiterations of the Republican press of the !N"orth.
But time disclosed whose sentiments really represented the heart
of the party in power; and to what point the highly Conservative
Republican administration was drifting.
On the 10th of August, 1861, the Secretary of the Interior,
Caleb Smith, in an address to the citizens of Providence, Rhode
Island, declared the policy of the Government in the following
language :
" The minds of the people of the So^iith have been deceived by the artful
representations of demagogues, who have assured them that the people of
the North, were determined to bring the power of this Government to
bear upon them for the purpose of crushing out the institution of slavery.
I ask you, is there any truth in this charge ? Has the Government of the
United States, in any single instance, by any one solitary act, interfered
with the^ institutions of the South ? No, not one. The theory of this
Government is, that the States are sovereign within their proper sphere.
The Government of the United States has no more right to interfere with
the institution of slavery in South Carolina than it has to interfere with
the peculiar institutions of Rhode Island."*
^ Annual Cyclopedia, 1861, p. 643.
2t4 A REVIEW OF THE
But it remained for General Fremont to strike the key note of
Kepublican sentiment, when in his proclamation of August 30th,
1861, he said :
"Real and personal property of those who shall take up arms against
the United States, or who shall be directly proven to have taken an active
part with their enemies in the field, is declared confiscated to public use,
and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free men."
From this period the famous explorer, in Abolition estimation,
became the beau ideal of an American General and Statesman ;
and the laudations that were showered upon him by the Republi
can press, were almost bewildering* The chord of radical aspira
tion had been touched ; and the harmony that followed showed
the real motives of the revolutionists, much as they had endeav
ored to conceal them. But the border States and the conserva
tives of the Korth were yet an object that could not be dispensed
with by the war party* Abraham Lincoln and his counsellors
deemed it too soon to permit the aim of their party to appear before
the vision of all ; and the avowed emancipationists now had the
bitter mortification of seeing the confiscation order of their
favorite general rescinded, The President, under date of Sep
tember llth, issued to John C. Fremont the following order;
" Yours of the 8th, in answer to mine of the 2d, is just received. As
sured that you, upon the ground, could better judge of the necessities of
your position than I could at this distance, on seeing your proclamation
of August 30th, I perceived no general objection to it ; the particular
clause, however, in relation to the confiscation of property, and the
liberation of slaves, appeared to me to be objectionable in its non-con-
formity to the Act of Congress, passed the 6th of last August, upon the
same subjects ; and hence I wrote you expressing my wish that the clause
should be modified accordingly. Your answer just received, expresses
the preference on your part, that I should make an open order for the
modification, which I very cheerfully do. It is therefore ordered that
the said clause of the said proclamation be so modified, held and con
strued, as to conform with and not to transcend the provisions on the
same subject contained in the Act of Congress, entitled, An Act to con
fiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6th,
1861, and that said Act be published at length with this order,"
Events now sped with a rapid gait, and upon the assembling
of Congress, in December, 1861, it was discovered that legislative
timidity was being laid aside, and frank avowals were made by
Thaddeus Stevens and other bold leaders, showing still more
clearly the objects of the war. The session was a long and
active one, and the administration gathered strength and conti-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 253
dence as one legislator after another expressed himself as regards
the exigencies of the occasion. By the middle of February,
1862, the Marat of the revolution, the editor of the New York
Tribune, was able to make the following announcement :
" Some of our readers will have noticed with interest, a recent promi
nently published despatch of a Washington letter writer, whose correct
ness has never been denied, announcing that President Lincoln had, in a
conversation with Gen. Lane, declared that after much deliberation he
had come to the conclusion that he could not recognize the existence of
slavery in the seceded States. Slavery must be deemed to be abolished
within those States by the very action of the State seceding ; and of
course there can be no return of the fugitives from those States nor any
constitutional recognition of the institution."*
At length the bold attitude of the radical leaders in Congress,
O O
the tone . of the radical press, and the recollection of the eulo
gistic praise which had been heaped upon Fremont by the Aboli-
itonists, coupled with a Jiolij zeal for negro freedom, induced
General Hunter, commanding the Department of the South, to
essay emancipation in order that his name likewise might be
enrolled, as one of the distinguished commanders of the world,
along with the great California explorer. For this purpose, he
issued an order putting the States of Georgia, South Carolina and
Florida under martial law, and declaring that as slavery and
martial law were incompatible, the slaves of those States should
be forever free. If the exuberant commendations of the Eepub-
lican press were sufficient to place General Hunter in the category
of famed military heroes, then had he truly reached the height
of his ambition, for his eulogists assigned the zealous foe of
Southern serfdom to a rank with the Cromwells and Napoleons
of history. With the patriot daughters of the North he was the
valorous knight, sans peur et sans reproche, and far eclipsed all
the Bayards of chivalry. But Abraham Lincoln was Com-
mander-iu-Chief of the American armies, and some glory was
his due. Were he to permit his pragmatical subordinates one after
another, to strike off the chains of slavery in their different de
partments, nothing would remain for himself, the Jupiter tonans
of the abolition camp, to perform. He needed no council from
Generals Fremont and Hunter ; wiser and more cautious intel
lects supplied him with advice. No threats by infidel orators of
New England of encircling his brow with a slave hound wreath*
*2sew York Tribune, February 12th,, 1862.
250 A REVIEW OF THE
would induce him to yield to the hasty behests of hair-brained
enthusiasts who were unable to preserve their own secrets, much
less dictate his governmental policy. When the omens gave
assurance that a servile and degraded people would fully sustain
his decree, the grand jubilee of freedom would be proclaimed.
They did not as yet so admonish him. General Hunter s procla
mation of freedom was accordingly set aside, and the officious
commander rebuked.
But during all this time, the fruit was maturing, and the fields
of abolition were rapidly ripening for the harvest. The long
period of growth was ended. The husbandmen- had watched
and waited with patience, and the reapers would soon be called
to finish the work, The call of the master was now looked for
with longing anxiety.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA, 207
CHAPTER XV.
EMANCIPATION DECREED.
The shock of war which aroused the nation from its slumber,
had for a time a depressing effect upon abolition agitation and
the utterances of the school. An upheaval of union aspiration
arose in the Northern breast, all else being stifled in the general
desire that the compact of the fathers should not be broken, and
the leaders of the revolutionary sect found it necessary to retreat
for a period from the public gaze, and discuss their sentiments in
retirement. It was only in the secret chambers where these
leaders dared any longer to give expression to opinions that were
now perceived upon all hands as those which had plunged the
nation into the throes of intestine strife and bloodly revolution.
Gerrit Smith, an honest pioneer in the cause of emancipation, on
the 30th of October, 1861, spoke as follows :
"For months the state of the public mind has not been such as to
encourage me to speak or write as an Abolitionist."*
Thaddeus Stevens was one of the Members of Congress who
were looked upon as the extemi3ts of their party, and the mantle
of power was but cautiously conferred upon him, and onjy when
it was perceived that the night of contempt which had weighed
upon the Abolitionists was beginning to depart, and their aurora
of dawn to ascend the political horizon.
The agitating crew began again their movements with the de
sign of influencing public thought, and preparing the nation for
the reception of their views, which were the emancipation of the
negro slaves in the Southern States, and their social and political
equality with the whites. After the battle of Bull Run, a plausi
ble pretext was afforded them to argue that slavery must be
destroyed in order to weaken an enemy that had so contrary to
all expectations shown such dexterity upon the battle-field. As
the preservation of the Union was the sole object of the masses
*New York Tribune, November 9, 1861.
258 A REVIEW OF THE
that had espoused the prosecution of the war, the agitators had
the sagacity to perceive that they could now urge with safety a
, policy and measures that were calculated to weaken the Southern
Confederates. The services of the political club, the abolition
pulpit and the rostrum of the revolutionary lecturer were again
brought into requisition to further emancipation, and intensify
Northern hate against the Southern cause. The following extract
from the New York Herald of July, 18G1, shows the movement
of the avowed abolition school of the Eastern States :
" The speeches delivered at Framingham, Massachusetts, on the 4th of
July ; the resolutions of Lovejoy ; the epistolary manifesto of Gerrit Smith,
from Peterboro ; and the renewed vigor in behalf of Abolitionism
of Wendell Phillips, Garrison, Chandler and Greeley, with their satellites,
all prove that the deadly fear of consequences which frightened the
revolutionary demagogues of the Northern States into silence, threo
months ago, is subsiding, and that they are renewing their mischievous
attempts to undermine the Constitution and perpetuate the dissolution of
the Union. They have commenced a simultaneous onslaught upon Mr.
Lincoln, and abuse him openly for not having made the destruction of
slave institutions and the confiscation of Southern property a part of \\\s
programme. Wendell Phillips, at Framingham, gives the President the
choice of having slave-hound branded on his forehead, or being the
liberator of four millions of bondmen."
The utterances of .the radical Jacobins, simply betokened that
the army of revolutionists were near at hand and ready to second
their most violent demands. The New York Republican Cen
tral Club, |in influential organization, petitioned Congress soon
after the battle of Bull Run, to pass a law abolishing slavery ;
and letters began to come in inquiring why Government would
not destroy the root of the evil to save the nation. * By the
middle of September, the Northern. Abolition pulpit was fully
freighted for the crusade, and performed its full share of service
in shaping opinion to subserve the objects of the timid political
leaders that stood at the helm of Government. The following
extract of a sermon of Dr. Cheever, preached in the Church of
the Puritans, will show the boldness of the utterances that were
by this time become current. Dr. Cheever said :
"The desire in England and in Europe, is to see in us a nat : on, hon
ored, great and noble, by abolishing slavery and putting away the
accursed thing from among us. This is it, which chids Christian sym
pathy and draws upon us instead, the rebukes of the English people.
* * * There can be no peace there must be none till this rebellion 13
*New York Tribune, August 2d and 3d, 1861.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 259
put down. * * We say to England, give us your sympathy, for
ours is a holy conflict, we are fighting the battle of ages ; the battle of
humanity and mankind against the most odious and wicked rebellion the
world ever saw. But to the South we say, down with your rebellion, we
do not object to slavery, we have never interfered with it. Why the
newspapers load their columns with arguments to prove that we never in
tended to interfere against slavery, and that we do not mean to interfere.
They say to the South, you may keep your slaves, and if you return to
your allegiance we will assist you in keeping them. The declaration that
you may keep your slavery in the Union ! What an attitude to hold be
fore the world I In God s name, the people demand emancipation, not
only as an act of beneficence to the slaves, but as their right. Tho.=e only
are traitors who refuse this ; and the only treason that can destroy the
Government, is the denial of this measure of righteousness. This meas
ure can only save the country engaged against the most wicked and
atrocious Confederacy of hell. We must not loose sight of the fact that
this is God s war against slavery. He has given to us the means of putting
an end to slavery, through the rebellion. * * * If the people are
faithful and resolute, they will petition and memorialize the President
until he issues a proclamation to all the bond of the country. The Church
must do this. If the Church takes a lead in it, the masses will follow.
There must be an uprising in the Church, in the demand for justice to
the slaves, as there was an uprising when the booming of the first cannon
was heard from Sumpter. It is said on all sides that the force of circum
stances must be relied on for bringing about the emancipation of the
slaves. This is a false, cowardly way of dealing with the great question."*
Xo man, perhaps, in the nation, since the outbreak of hostili
ties, had done more to strengthen the courage of the Abolitionists
throughout the2s"orth, and add new fuel to the flame of agitation
that set in after the battle of Bull Run, than Thaddeus Stevens,
Although he himself labored tinder the suspicions of his party
friends of being too outspoken in his views ; jet he was an hon
ored and influential member of a body that represented the voice
of the Northern people. At the extra session of Congress even,
called in July, 1861, he maintained the bold and independent
attitude of one who had little desire to conceal that so far as he
could influence events, the war should be engineered in the interest
of emancipation and negro elevation. And when the distin
guished John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, offered his famous
resolve in Congress, on the 19th of July, 1861, that "whenjhe
Union should be restored by force of arms, the war ought to
cease" Mr. Stevens was the only member of his school who was
unwilling to be enrolled as a hypocrite. In manly utterances he
*New York Herald, September 16th, 1861.
2GO A REVIEW OF THE
objected to the reception of a resolution which lie could not
approve ; for with him the war meant something more than the
simple restoration of the Union. Again, during the same session
when the bill was before the House to confiscate property used
for insurrectionary purposes, he had given utterance to the follow
ing sentiments, that by no means were heard with patience by
his more cautions compeers. Mr. Stevens said :
" If this war is continued and is bloody, I do not believe that the free
people of the North will stand by and see their sons, brothers and neigh
bors slaughtered by thousands and tens of thousands by rebels with arms
in their hands, and forbear to call upon their enemies to be our friends,
and help us in subduing them. I for one, if it continues and has the
consequences mentioned, shall be ready to go for it, let it horrify the
gen ileman from New York or anybody else. That is my doctrine; and
that will be the doctrine of the whole free people of the North before
two years roll around, if this war continues.
" As to the end of the war, until the rebels are subdaed no man in the
North thinks of it. If the Government are equal to the people and I
believe they are there will be no bargaining ; there will be no negotia
tion ; there will be no truces with rebels, except to bury the dead, until
every man shall have laid down his arms, disbanded his organization,
submitted himself to the Government and sued for mercy. And, sir, if
those who have the control of the Government are not fit for the task
and have not the nerve and mind for it, the people will take care that
there are others who are although, sir, I have not a bit of fear of the
present administration or of the present Executive."
"I have spoken more freely, perhaps, than gentlemen within my
hearing might think politic ; but I have just spoken what I felt. I have
spoken what I believe will be the result \ and I warn Southern gentlemen
that if this \var is to continue, there will be a time when my friend from
New York will see it declared by this nation, that every bondman in the
South belonging to a rebel recollect ; I confine it to them shall bs
called upon to aid us in war against their mas,ers and restore this Union."
It was to be expected that speeches such as the above from
men of the conceded capacity of Mr. Stevens, would embolden
Abolitionists everywhere to utter their opinions with more free
dom than they had as yet been able to do since the outbreak of
the war. A writer in the New York Tribune in November,
1861, spoke as follows of the growing sentiment of the people,
which in other words was simply abolitionism gradually with
drawing the mask which it had hitherto carefully worn. This
writer says :
" We do not think we over-estimate the rapid march of public sentL
ment in this direction. Cautious and conservative men are going forward
faster than they imagnine. All now conceive, " if Slavery or the Union
POLI1ICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 201
must fall, then let Slavery instantly perisli. And the number of those
who believe that this alternative is close upon us is multitudinous, and
increases with every reverse of our arms, and with every day that post
pones a decisive victory of our forces.
" When the Confiscation of August last was passed, discharging from
labor or service every slave who had been used by the rebels, directly or
indirectly for carrying on the war, the President even hesitated to sign
it Weeks rolled on, our arms encountered reverses, the rebellion assumed
gigantic proportions. At length Fremont s proclamation appeared.
After a little breathing spell, and when the President resolved to modify
it so as to make it conform exactly to the Act of Congress, these timid
and conservative classes, who had stigmatised this law as an abolition
scheme, rushed to the defense of the President, and eulogized the Act of
Congress as a wise measure.
"And we recollect how cautiously the people received and how gin
gerly the administration handled the contraband proposition which Gen.
eral Butler let fly at the public from Fortress Monroe. The War Depart
ment, after much painful cogitation, and despite not a few misgivings in
conservative circles, restricted the application of this novel doctrine
exclusively to the slaves of rebels who voluntarily sought shelter within
the walls of the fort, and were then to be set at work only in pacific
employments. But we now find the department applauded in all quar
ters, while instructing commanders invading the South, not only to
receive and arm them in companies to aid in crushing the rebellion in a
word, to convert them into military auxiliaries. This rule is to be ap
plied not to the slaves of rebels only, but to those of loyal citizens, giving
assurance to the latter that Congress will pay them for their losses."*
By the time the Thirty-seventh Congress assembled in Decem
ber, 1861, the current of agitation had become quite rapid, and
every day added to its velocity. Yast armies had been called
from both sections of the country to meet each other in mortal
combat, and many a field had been drenched with American blood
without any decided advantage having been secured up to this
period by either of the contestants. The flag of the Xorth was,
however, rather in the ascendant. Severe blows had been dealt
to the Southern Confederacy in Missouri, Kentucky, and West
Virginia ; and the stars and stripes were floating over Hatteras
and Port Royal on the Eastern coast.
The conflicting sentiments that had, from the formation of our
Constitution, formed the basis of the two political parties of the
nation, with the meeting of Congress, in December, 1861, were
again brought forward in marked contrast. The unanimity of
approval that the prosecution of the war for the Union seemed
York Tribune, November 12th, 1861.
2G3 A REVIEW OF THE
to Lave secured, after the assault upon Sumpter, began now to
disappear ; and the leaders assumed in somewhat disguised bear
ings, before the country, the respective positions that marked
their several views. The radicals of each of the divergent par
ties were the first to display their positions. Clement L. "Vallan-
dignam and George II. Pendleton, of Ohio, and ex Governor
"Wickliffe, of Kentucky, were conspicuous amongst those who
undisguisedly maintained the old attitude of the Democratic party,
that the war against the South was an encroachment upon
the Federal Constitution, and an invasion of State rights and of
t
the immunities of the Southern people. It was an unpopular
position for a statesman to defend in the midst of the excitement
of war; for the people, the large proportion of whom are in
capable of reasoning and deducing logical conclusions, were
already carried away by their zeal in behalf of the Union, as
they conceived ; and which they now regarded as in great
jeopardy and danger of dissolution. It was indeed with the
greatest difficulty that these men and the few who heartily co
operated with them, w r ere able to unite all the Democratic Rep
resentatives of Congress in a phalanx of solid resistance to the
unconstitutional measures of the dominant party. Their resist
ance, however, was but ciceronie and vain in its results. They
simply could enter their protests against the behests of power
sustained by the bristling bayonets of a hireling soldiery ; and in
doing so they periled their reputations and future political pros
pects before their several constituencies, to such an extent that
most of them, by degrees, sunk beneath the waves of a boisterous
political ocean. They, however, are the politioaJ patriots and
martyrs whom truthful history will enroll on the same pages with
Cicero, Brutus and Cassius ; and with the patriots who sunk with
Eoman liberty on the field of Phillippi.
Civil war was no period for calm reflection, and for the suc
cessful display of considerative statesmanship, such as is needed
to guide the affairs of States and Nations. But, upon the other
hand, it was the epoch for bringing to the surface of the political
caldron, the revolutionary and fanatical leaders whose mission
in life w r ould seem to be most appropriately characterized by styl
ing it the destructive. Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner and
Owen Lovejoy arose to the ascendant, as leaders of their party,
and displayed a disregard of inherited rights and of the man-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 203
dates of the Federal Constitution, that find no parallel in Ameri
can history ; and to be equalled, must be found, if at all, on the
dark and bloody pages of the French Revolution. These men
came to Washington, all of them, for one reason or another,
freighted with cargoes of gall and bitterness to pour upon the
heads of the Southern people driven to rebellion ; and now the
opportunity was fully come for such a display of partisan tactics,
as would enable them to triumph over their ancient foes, and
ultimate the struggle in universal emancipation. Thaddeus
Stevens, the dreaded extremist of his party, was at length har-
nassed by his coadjutors in the glittering armor of strength,
being now the honored Chairman of the Committee of Ways
and Means of the Lower House of Congress. Representing a
constituency, in which his party could figure five thousand ma
jority, he was the representative of all others who dared to be
frank in his public expressions, and bold in his recommendations
of measures to accomplish the objects of the revolutionary school.*
And, instead of being, therefore, any longer the shunned North
ern radical, he now towered in his strength as Achilles on the
plain, and his blows were dealt with unerring aim upon slavery,
his Hectorean antagonist. At the beginning of Congress, he
was one of the first members of the House to open his batteries
upon his foe, and indicate the aim of the war party. On the
first day of the session, he submitted the following preamble and
resolutions :
" WHERE A.S, Slavery has caused the present rebellion in the United
States ; and whereas, there can be no solid and permanent peace and
union in this Eepublic so long as that institution exists within it ; and
whereas, slaves are now used by the rebels as an essential means of sup
porting and protracting the war ; and whereas, by the law of nations it
is right to liberate the slaves of any enemy to weaken its power ; there
fore,
1st. " Be it resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America, in Congress assembled, that the President be
*"Some of our public men do not hesitate to say, that rather than
bring back the seceded Slave States into the Union, they would agree to
a peaceful and prompt separation. They contend* that in the event of a
reunion, the slave despotism would rule by its unity and with the aid of
the Breckinridge Democrats of the Free States ; and by means of the
divisions of the Republicans, th? destinies of the future of our country
will be completely controlled by traitors to the Federal Constitution.
Although no open demonstration in favor of this theory has yet been
made, it is undoubtedly sincerely entertained in certain influential
quarters," " Occasional," in Philadelphia Press, January 21, 1862.
2G4 A REVIEW OF THE
requested to declare free, and to direct all our gencrnls and officers in
command, to order freedom to all slaves who shall leave their masters,
or who shall aid in quelling this rebellion.
2d. " Be it further resolved, That the United States pledge the faith of
the Union to make full and fair compensation to all loyal citizens who
are, or shall remain active in supporting the Union, for the loss they
shall sustain by virtue of this Act." *
In the above resolutions, the animus of the Republican party
was clearly betokened ; yet the more cautious manipulators of
partisan tactics contended that they expressed simply the views
of the extreme Abolitionists; and that they would never be
made the basis of the party creed.f Indeed so closely veiled
had Abraham Lincoln and his esoteric advisers been able to keep
their opinions, that the rash men of the Abolition wing of his
party, came to suspect the head of the Government as lacking in
zeal for the cause of emancipation. His zeal, however, was
equally ardent with their own, as time at length disclosed. But
he was surrounded with an array of counsellors who were sagac
ious enough as to perceive that the only way by which slavery
could be destroyed, was to permit the administration to appear as
if led by public opinion, to lay the axe to the root of the insti
tution they were all seeking to extirpate. In one of the earliest
caucuses held by the extreme Abolition members of Congress,
after the assembling of that body in December, 1861, and con
vened for the purpose of considering the emancipation measures
already submitted ; Mr. Stevens, who was recognized as the lead
ing radical spirit of the House, if not of his party at "Washing
ton, made an attack upon the President for refusing to acquiesce
at once in the expediency of the emancipation programme. In
that speech he is reported to have said :
" That the Republican party have been sold in the election of Lincoln
to the Presidency ; that the North West had deceived them by assur-
* Congressional Globe, part 1 of Second Session of 37th Congress, p. 6.
j-The manner in which the Republican papers deceived the country, is
seen in the following, from "Occasional," of the Philadelphia Press, of
June 16th, 1862 : "In the campaign that is about to be opened against
the administration and the war. powerful emphasis is to be laid upon the
empty accusation that the friends of Mr. Lincoln favor unconditional
emancipation and negro equality. Contemptible as this accusation i?, it
is frequently repeated by men who, in their heated partisanship, forget
that they are intelligent and reasonable beings. The
men in the Free States who advocate unconditional emancipation, are
very few in numbers ; and in the Republican party they do not number
one in five hundred."
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 2G5
ances that he was a true and sound Republican ; but that assurance had
failed."*
"Wendell Phillips and other ardent Liberators, had before this
made repeated assaults upon the President, and accused him of a
desire to perpetuate the institution of Southern Slavery. Mr.
Phillips had even been so bold as to assert that the President
had it in his own choice, either to wear a wreath of contempt or
be enrolled in history as the destroyer of Southern serfdom.
The resolutions, tactics, and tone of the radicals of the Repub
lican party in this Congress, disclosed that it had been fully
determined that slavery should either perish in the national
struggle then waging, or a restoration of the old Union be ren
dered impossible. Indeed, Mr. Stevens from this period made
little concealment that this, so far as he could influence public
affairs, was his fixed and determined resolve. He and his zealous
coadjutors should have been less severe upon. Abraham Lincoln
and the administration ; for this official was not in a situation to
give as free utterance to his opinions as others ; and besides, he
had dextrously disclosed in his message to Congress of December
3d, 1861, that he was in spirit, in full accord with the most
outspoken radical of his party. In that message he disclosed, to
an observant mind, his Willingness to accept the most extreme
results of the emancipating crusade, that is to say the social
equality of the black race. He said :
"If any good reason exists why we should persevere longer, in with
holding our recognition of the independence and sovereignty of Hayti
and Liberia, I am unable to discover it. Unwilling, however, to inaugu
rate a novel policy in regard to them, without the approbation of Con
gress, I submit for your consideration the expediency of an appropriation
for maintaining a charge d affairs near each of those new States."
The recognition of these States, and the appointment of gen
tlemen to fill the new posts of honor, was a clear and unmistakable
recognition of the social equality of the negro with the white race.
One of the earliest measures submitted by the radical leaders
of the Republican party, in this Congress, was the bill to punish
officers and privates of the armies for arresting, detaining or
delivering fugitive slaves to their masters. But this, at first, was
feared by many of the party, as too plain a disclosure of their
views ; and one that might not meet with public approbation.
The Fugitive Slave law stood yet unrepealed upon the statute
*New York Herald, December 10th, 1861.
2G6 A REVIEW OF THE
books of the nation ; and the bill now proposed, too clearly, Imd
the appearance of conflicting- with that law. Being stubbornly
resisted by the Democrats, and also by some Conservative Re
publicans, it was defeated in its original shape ; but it was after
wards in February, 1862, reported from the Military Committee
as an additional article of war in the following words :
O
"All officers are prohibited from employing any of the forces under
their respective commands, for the purpose of returning fugitives from
service or labor, who may have escaped from any persons to whom such
service or labor is claimed to be due. Any officer who shall be found
guilty by court-martial of violating th is Article, shall be dismissed from
the service."
This bill, after having been resisted in its new shape by the
Constitutional defenders in both Houses, was passed and received
the sanction of the President on March 13th, 1862. Indeed, it
seemed clearly apparent, almost from the beginning of this ses
sion of Congress, that one spirit, without any digested plan,
animated the leading Abolitionists in these bodies, inasmuch as
innumerable propositions one after another were submitted in the
two Houses, all having one general aim, negro emancipation.
But the bill which, of all others, was intended as the real
entering wedge for all subsequent emancipatory measures, was
that prepared as early as December 17th, 1861, reported by
Merrill, of Maine, on February 13th, 1862, and which was to
free the slaves of the District of Columbia. The bill served its
purpose of testing the sentiment of the country as regards this
radical advance, and assured the extreme Republicans how far
the moderate men of their party would follow them. They
were determined to overleap all constitutional barriers in their
way, and if a sufficient following in their ranks would permit
the passage of this radical measure, the future seemed clear for
them. This bold attempt to subvert the plain spirit of the Con
stitution, the Democrats and Lorder State Representatives battled
with the most stubborn resistance ; but their efforts, as on former
like occasions, were futile ; and they were obliged to witness
another invasion of the constitutional immunities of their country
men. The arbitrary assessment of $300 as the value of the slave
of each loyal master in the District, was a most palpable infrac
tion of the Constitution, which declared that no man shall " be
deprived of life, liberty and property without due process of
law." The rapid change of base by the Republican party, which
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 267
the support of this measure indicated, did not escape the animad
version and severe reproof of Senator Davis, of Kentucky, who
stood by the landmarks of the Constitution, and fought as an
ancient Roman in behalf of his country s liberty. He said :
" There is a very different spirit and there are very different purposes,
now in the dominant party in relation to slavery, to what were declared
a few months ago."
This bill was passed in both Houses by an almost strict party vote,
and received the approval of the President April 16th, 1862.
The abolition re-echoes of approval to the passage of this law,
giving freedom to the few slaves in the District were heard
throughout the whole North, as therein the fiery advocates of
negro liberation recognized an assuring harbinger of their long
anticipated millennium.
In the midst of the blows that were falling thick and fast
upon the institution of slavery, it would have indicated great
lack of ardor had not Abraham Lincoln, the Agamemnon of
the Abolition host, shown some apparent readiness, at least, to
do his full share in the great battle of emancipation. He must
somewhat keep pace with his ardent chieftains, or all the honor
of the victory might be borne away by others ; and he left to
pine in grief because of inactivity. Accordingly, on the 6th of
March, 1862, he submitted in a special message the proposition
that Congress should pledge the Government as ready to co
operate pecuniarily with any State, that might be willing to
inaugurate measures for the emancipation of the slaves within
its borders, His proposition, as he was well aware, could not
fail to attract some agreeable perfume in the shape of abolition
adulation to his olfactory sensibilities ; and might in a measure
compensate for some of a contrary character, to which he had
been repeatedly subjected. It is true his proposition was not
composed of the ingredients coveted by the Stevens wing of his
party ; for this leader of the House characterized it as " the most
diluted milk and water-gruel proposition that was ever given to
the American nation."
Mr. Stevens, however, w r ho by this time had come more fully
to realize the qualities of Darwinian development possessed by
the head of the Government, moved and carried in the House, a
reference of this message to a Committee of the Whole on the
state of the Union. All the unconstitutional objections that
263 A REVIEW OF TUB
were urged against the passage of this measure ; and every lack
of warrant shown to draw money from the National Treasury
for the purpose of freeing slaves, were insufficient to swerve from
their purposes the reckless leaders of the Republican party.
Emancipation was the first goal they were bent upon reaching ;
and all obstacles that stood in the way of their passage must be
removed at any cost. The object must be reached or the Union
of the States must pay the forfeit. President Lincoln, before
submitting this proposition of compensated emancipation, was
well aware that no Southern State either desired, or could be in
duced under the existing circumstances voluntarily to emancipate
its slaves. Honor and integrity, therefore, should have demanded
of the President to declare what he really meant ; that if the
Southern. States declined to accede to the abolition demand, he
would shortly relieve them of that necessity. But the subject
afforded the President an excellent opportunity to exhibit him
self as disposed to be fair and generous to the loyal slave holders
of the South ; whereas, neither he nor his party ever meant that
the proposition should be accepted. The measure, however,
passed both Houses, and received the assent of its proposer,
President Lincoln.
The abolition current was by this time become a rapid tide,
and was washing away one constitutional embankment after
another. Every day developed more clearly that the assurances
which had been made by the Republican leaders and press, that
they did not intend to interfere with slavery, were all deceptions
and intended to blindfold the nation, until it became involved in
fratricidal strife with the people of the Southern States. One
Member of Congress after another was disclosing his secret views
that the destruction of slavery with the zealous leaders had from
the first been a deliberate and well matured resolve. Members
no longer hesitated to declare upon the floor of Congress, that
they would not vote a man or a dollar for the further prosecution
of the war, unless it be made one for the emancipation of slavery,
clearly expressed.
Even the attitude that the party had assumed in the 36th
Congress, in the organization of the new Territories of Colorado,
Nevada and Dacotah, was hypocritical and false. These Territo
ries had been organized after the withdrawal of the Representa
tives from the Cotton States ; and by Acts which maintained a
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 2f>9
profound silence as regarded slavery. These Acts Were passed at
a time when Abolitionism was rather at a discount, in view of
the calamities it was bringing upon the nation. But as soon as
its former strentgh was regained, and it became apparent that the
nation was intoxicated with the fumes of blood and fratricidal
strife, this territorial legislation must undergo a like metamor
phose. For this purpose, Owen Lovejoy reported a bill at this
session of Congress for the abolition or prohibition of slavery in
all the Territories of the United States. This Bill after having
passed the ordinary ordeal of resistance, as the other measures
already alluded to, became a law in the Abolition sense, though
stigmatized as unconstitutional.
Affairs were now nearing a crisis. Congress had shown itself
ready to endorse the most extreme measures of the radicals of
the Republican party. All the extreme measures seemed to em-
enate from the representatives of the people ; and the President
had hitherto been fortunate in being able to appear before the
country as a Union man, with or without slavery. He and his
advisers were sufficiently shrewd to have him preserve an equi
poise amidst the extremes. While therefore, the President stood
before the friends of the Union, as a Union man, Senator Sumner
who could communicate with the inner recesses of his soul, was
early in 1862, able to assure his Abolition friends in the East.
that they need not be solicitous as to the views of the Commander
in Chief. That personage was all right, as time would fully
disclose. Time did precisely what the Senator had promised.
The country was fully committed to the task of subjugating the
Southern States. A people cannot reason amidst the strife of
warfare. All this the President or his advisers knew ; and the
long anticipated opportunity seemed near at hand when the curtain
could with safety be raised.
In an interview with the Representatives from the Border
States, the President urged them to accept compensated emanci
pation for their several States ; but these men, educated in schools
in which a reverence for right and obedience to the Constitution
had been taught, spurned an offer that they felt no other save a
usurper of his country s liberty was able to tender. A fitting
parallel to this proposition of the American President is found
in the instance of that individual who escorted the Son of Man
to the pinacle of the Temple, and temptingly proposed, " all these
70 A REVIEW OF THE
will I give thee" Neither in the one case nor the other, was it
in the power of the proposer to execute his promise ; but in the
modern instance it was designed to enable the deceiver the better
to devclope his contemplated programme.
Northern arms on the battle-iield were still slowly penetrating
the rebellion, and General Lee, the commander of the Southern
invading army, had left the field of Antietam with no advantage.
The President was buoyant with a victor s joy, and four days
after this sanguinary contest, on the 22d of September, 1862, he
issued his famous emancipation decree, to take effect with the
beginning of the coming year. The edict of the master was at
length issued ; the goal of emancipation had been reached ; and
like death upon the pale horse of apocalyptic vision, the abolition
fiend went forth conquering and to confer.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA.
CHAPTER XVI.
EXECUTIVE ^CONSTITUTIONALISM.
The declaration of war by President Lincoln against the people
of the seceded States, was in conflict with the letter and spirit of
the Federal Constitution ; which was but the receptacle of such
clearly specified powers, as the framers of that instrument, the
States, through their Representatives, had deemed it expedient
to delegate. But the party to which he owed his election as the
Chief Magistrate of the nation was the legitimate successor of
Federalism and its descendants ; that party which during all the
anterior history of the Government had struggled for a liberal
interpretation of the Constitution, as it was termed, in opposition
to the strict construction of the Democracy. Indeed, this principle
of constitutional construction with the new party was a necessity,
as otherwise the institution of slavery, whether in the States or
Territories, was invulnerable. It came into power, therefore,
bearing upon its front the clear and unmistakable evidence of
Ilamiltonian parentage ; and the period now seemed to have
arrived that promised verification to the anticipations of the an
cient monarchist.
The leading patriots of the nation, Clay, Webster, Calhoun,
Benton and Buchanan, had from the inception of the Anti-
Slavery agitation, clearly perceived the tendency of the new
school of theorists, should they ever succeed in grasping the
reins of government. And now, when this at length had taken
place in the election of Abraham Lincoln, the declarations of
these philosophic statesmen were verified. The Constitution, as
they had predicted, was trampled upon, and the laws of the
Government set at defiance. This was worse than monarchy
itself it was the inauguration of the despotism that followed.
The monarchical Alexander Hamilton, and these later American
patriots, were equally logical and sagacious. Both perceived
that the future of America was freighted with dangers to the
272 A REVIEW OF THE
perpetuity of free Constitutional Government ; equally was it
manifest to their logical visions that under republican institutions
wild, turbulent and selfish leaders would be able to seduce the
people, and ascend the seats of power ; and fully conscious of these
dangers, the one foresaw the eventual overthrow of the Republic,
and the others, hoping against hope, still fondly clung to their
darling favorite and strove in vain to battle the rising fanaticism
that endangered it.
But the unconstitutional declaration of war against the seceded
States, was simply the commencement of the despotic power of
the party calling itself Republican. The great inheritance of
English liberty, the culmination of individual rights, the famous
privilege of Habeas Corjyus that had been wrested by the staunch
freemen of the mother country from the Sovereigns of Great
Britain, was next to fall before the usurping despot, who had
been chosen by a revolutionary party to trample upon the inherited
rights of his countrymen, and give freedom to a race of men,
whom history had shown to be incapable of building up or sus
taining civilization But usurpers usually proceed with cautious
steps, and it was so in this case. In the name of libery and
clothed with the sanctimonious garb of humanitarianism, the
ancient inheritance is invaded. The American President, with
out any legislative sanction,* directs the suspension of the
*The su-pGnsion of the Habeas Corpus by President Lincoln, was a bold
undertaking for an American Executive to assume, and one that should
have caused his arrest as an usurper of his country s liberties. Up to
the outbreak of the war, all the expository writers on the Constitution,
Avithout exception ; all the most eminent jurists of the country ; and all
the Members of the only Congress in which the question was fully dis
cussed (during the Burr conspiracy), had agreed that this extraordinary
power, the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, was lodged in Congress
alone. It was regarded as a legislative power, but one which no former
Congress deemed it expedient to exercise. The exertion of this power,
by President Lincoln, from the first met with the steady and almost
unanimous opposition of the best legal minds of the nation of both politi
cal parties ; and it was only a few second-rate lawyers (anxious to sup
port revolutionary principles) whose legal endorsement in this particular
the Pr. sident ever received. Attorney-General Bates, and the octogena
rian, Horace Binney, of Philadelphia, were conspicuous amongst the
President s defenders.
In the celebrated Merryman case, Rodger B. Taney, Chief-Justice of
the Supreme Court, clearly enunciated the doctrine that the suspension
of the Habeas Corpus by President Lincoln was unconstitutional and
void. This same view was expressed by Chief-Justice Dixon, as the
unanimous opinion of the highest Court of the State of Wisconsin.
Judge Dixon says : " And first, I think the President has no power in
the sense of the Ninth Article of the Constitution of the United States
to suspend the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus. Upon this ques-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 213
Habeas Corpus in a specified district, by virtue of which a citizen
of Maryland was seized and incarcerated, who was guilty of 110
defined le<ral offence and an inhabitant of this State was made
o
the object of despotic power, because of the strong sympathy of
its people with those who had raised the banner of revolt to
abolition domination ; and because, in phrenzied Northern opin
ion, the people of these States should be held in the strictest reins.
The President and the powers behind the throne, felt assured
that the abrogation of the privilege of the time-honored writ of
Habeas Corpus in behalf of a citizen of Maryland, would be less
resented in the condition of public opinion that then obtained,
than were the like attempted in New York or Pennsylvania.
This first essay of such <power was wholly experimental, but the
result justified further advances. Sustained by his obsequious
Attorney-General and a maddened public sentiment, President
Lincoln was able to set at defiance the mandate of the learned
and venerated Rodger B. Taney, the Chief-Justice of the highest
court of the nation j and it was then apparent that no bounds
tion. it seems to me that the reasoning of Chief -Justice Taney, in ex-
parie Merryinan. is unanswerable." Annual Cyclopaedia, 18b2, p. 515.
Judge Hall, in the Northern District of New York, in a case tiiat came
before him, expressed the same opinions and fortified the same by a vast
array of legal learning. Judge Curtis, of Boston, one of the dissenting
members of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, published a strong
argument combatting the position of President Lincoln in assuming the
right to suspend the writ. Even the ablest Republican lawyers 0: Con
gress were unwilling to advocate a view of constitutional law which was
repugnant to their legal understandings, and to all just theories of inter
pretation. Senator Sherman, of Ohi >, in his speech of December 9th,
186:4, said : "Oar attention was called to this question at the extra
session by the opinion of the Attorney-General, that the President had
the power and by the actual exercise of it by his proclamation, of suspend
ing the writ in certain cases. I formed and expressed tue opinion, at an
early period of the session, that this power was purely a legislative
power, to be exercised by Congress with the approval of the President.
This opinion has been strengthened by subsequent reflection, by the able
criticisms of lawyers and statesmen, which the discussion has elicited
and by the decisions of some of the Courts. It is apparent from the
context in which this power is found, that the framers of the Constitution
classed it with the delegated powers of Congress. In. its nature it is a
legislative power."
Senator Trumbull, in a speech of December 9, 1862, said : " The better
opinion, as has been stated here to-day among judges, lawyers and con
stitutional commentators, surely is that the writ of Habeas Corpus was
never intended by the Constitution to be suspended, except in pursuance
of an Act of Congress."
John Merrymau was the party arrested, and in behalf of whom Rodger
B. Taney issued a writ of Habeas Corpus, but which, in pursuance of
instructions from President Lincoln, was not obeyed. A full report of
this case is found in the 9th Volume of American Law Register, p. 524.
274 A REVIEW OF THE
could be placed to his usurpations. The renowned Massachusetts
Senator s prediction was thus early fulfilled, that if ever the
fanatical Abolition party came into power, the Constitution would
perish, the Supreme Court be overthrown, and its decrees
repudiated.
Another unconstitutional stretch of executive authority, was
the Presidential Proclamation of the blockade * of April 19th,
1861, along the whole seceded coast, and which afterwards, upon
the secession of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas,
was enlarged so as to embrace the sea-coast of these latter States
that had united their fortunes with the new Confederacy. In.
support of these infractions of the Federal compact, the tyrant s
plea of necessity was omnipotent to refute every argument that
could be urged against the President s illegal assumption of power.
An observer, even at this early period, might have reflected in
the following strain. The weakness of free government is strik
ingly exemplified in this convulsion, and this should seem patent
to every reflecting mind. Here is a ruler elected in accordance
with the letter, but in violation of the spirit of the Constitution
of the country, and who has sworn to defend it, striking down
that same Constitution, in order that he and his party may be
able to grasp objects, which are unattainble as long as the old
Magna Charta subsists. The friends of the Constitution are in
banishment, in apparent array against the Government, though in
truth fighting its battles, and Cataline holds the gates of the
city. The people are in confusion ; have mistaken their enemies
for their friends ; are crusading under the banners of duplicity,
and fast digging the graves of constitutional republicanism and
free government. But the elected ruler is guilty of no higher
offence than all the other leaders, who have sworn allegiance to
the governmental compact; but who like him were too cowardly
to openly assail it, yet who gained control of affairs by falsehood
* Thaddeus Stevens was too able a lawyer to be willing to acknowledge
that the General Government could blockade its own ports. In his
speech of December 9th, 1862, in the House of Representatives, he said :
" We, ourselves, by what I consider a most unfortunate act, not well
considered declared a blockade of their (the Confederate States) ports-
have acknowledged them as a power. We can not blockade our own
ports. It is an absurdity. We b ockade an enemy s ports. The very
fact of declaring this blockade, recognized them as a belligerent power
entitled to all the privileges and subject to all the rules of war, accord
ing to the law of nations."
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA, 275
and fraud ; and then, as matricides, stab the kind parent who
nourished them and shielded their ascent to power. A people
that can be seduced by such leaders, and induced to light fo. %
principles they utterly abhor, neither deserve nor or they compe
tent to preserve the inheritances of freedom. They evince this
inability in disclosing the simplicity and weakness here presented,
and time is but required to fasten the rivets of Imperialism upon
their social structure.
But madness and fury had carried reason away, and the masses
seemed bent upon their own downfal and destruction. The sac
rifice of peace, liberty and prosperity were insignificant, provided
only the subjugation of the Southern Confederates could be
effected. This object in the general fanatical opinion, was worth
all it might cost, though the Union and Free government itself
should perish in the achievement. Even the breaches made by
Lincoln and his administration in the walls of the Federal Con
stitution, were greeted with shouts of applause by an infatuated
populace ; and with still greater huzzas, should some honest
defender of that ancient heritage, utter his feeble protest against
the Presidential usurpation. The impotent friend of his country s
liberty was execrated as a traitor; whilst the cool, calculating
tyrant who had fraudulently seized the helm of State, was ap
plauded as Honest Abe,
At the extra session of Congress, which assembled on the 4th
day of July, 1861, little else was transacted save that men and
money were freely voted to the Administration for the prosecu
tion of the war against the South; and the infractions of the
Federal Constitution were also condoned. A larger appropriation
of money, and a, greater number of soldiers even, were granted
by Congress for the war, than Lincoln had asked for in his
message ; and a resolution was introduced in the Senate by Wil
son, of Massachsetts, and pressed for a considerable time with
the greatest zeal to legitimate the confessedly illegal acts of the
President, But this body, although overwhelmingly Eepublican,
was unwilling as yet to place itself upon record as openly en
dorsing the plainest violations of the Constitution, and such as
no partisan justification would serve to exculpate. Public senti
ment was not yet clear upon this point The manner, however,
in which the leaders of the Eepublican party in both Houses of
Congress, chose in their conduct to excuse the unconstitutional
273 A REVIEW OF THE
acts of the President, demonstrated tliat instead of censure being
intended for him, his whole course, since his elevation to power,
met with their warmest approval. No necessity, therefore, dic
tated to him to be at all guarded in his further advances on. the
highway of despotism, and he, himself, was sufficiently shrewd
as to perceive that a general Congressional permit was now
granted to him to strike down without reserve the remaining lib
erties of his countrymen.
President Lincoln, as the Chief Executive of the Northern
and of such Southern States as the Government had been able
to retain in its military grasp, with the adjournment of this
Congress, began through his Secretaries to order with less hesi
tation the arrest and imprisonment of prominent Democratic
citizens; and those who disbelieved in the war against the
seceded States. The hated bastile, that relic of barbarism, which
had sunk amidst the upheaval of the French revolution, arose on
the Western continent, and became the receptacle of those
Americans who feared not a despot s oppression, because they
loved the institutions of the country under which they had been
reared and educated, Arbritrary arrests of prominent individu
als in all sections of the country, subject to the Lincoln adminis
tration, were matters of common occurrence in nearly every
community ; and the little bell of Secretary Seward became an.
instrument of daily requisition in the overthrow of the people s
inalienable rights. Instead of Americans being free, by virtue
of a written Constitution, which guaranteed to all life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness ; the further enjoyment of these
rights depended upon the individual will of a ruler and his
satellites. Men who had ranked as eminent and worthy states
men, were without warrant seized in the seclusion and sanctity
of their homes, and dragged thousands of miles and immured in
loathsome cells yea, at times in dungeons, because, perhaps,
they had given expression to some sentiment unpalatable to a
member of the party in power. Judges, who for years had
adorned the chairs of justice, were dragged from their seats by
a ruthless and vulgar squad of soldiers, and often brutally
* wounded in the struggle that occasionally ensued on such occa
sions. Should the party to be arrested demand the authority for
the arrest, and the accusation with which he was charged, he
would in all probability be told that he was a Democrat, and that
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 277
all such were traitors and deserved not only to be arrested but
also to be hung. One of the incarcerated in Fort Lafayette,
afterwards describing his condition of imprisonment, says :
Here you would see men from almost all the States, the largest por
tion of whom were in the vigor of manhood. You would find men who
had ably represented our Government at foreign courts, had adorned the
United States Senate, been Governors of States, Judges of courts, Mem
bers of Congress, State Legislatures, doctors, lawyers, farmers, and in
deed almost all departments of business were here represented, not one
of whom was tainted with any crime. *
Forts Lafayette, "Warren, McHenry, the old Capitol at Wash
ington, and other places of confinement were crowed with inno
cent citizens who had been arrested without legal warrant in all
sections of the North and in the border States ; and these vic
tims of Federal power were subjected to indignities and outrages,
the recital of which yet fires a freeman s blood with honest
indignation. Citizens of almost all ages and conditions of life
were compelled to wear the chains of despotic power, such as
Americans in their palmy days would have broken with vindic
tive fury ; and consigned the destroyer of their country s peace
and constitutional liberty to ft felon s cell, there to await his doom
on, Hainan s gallows. Persons who had the misfortune to be
incarcerated in one of these filthy Federal fortresses, were for
months not even informed of the accusations that had been
alleged against them ; and the most studied eiforts seemed to be
made by the despot and his minions to degrade the manhood of
those in their custody.
The miserable wretches, clad in Federal uniforms, who acted
the jailor s role in these bastiles, in guarding those who had re
sented a tyrant s will, conscious of their degredation, were but
too anxious to reduce to their own level, the noble spirits they
held in custody. But they found in their keeping those whose
spirit no oppression could bend ; and who chose to endure for
months and years the prison and oppression of despotism, rather
than gain their freedom by dishonorable concessions. Many a
patriot was subjected to the rigor and petty tyranny of a shoulder-
strapped turnkey who compelled them to submit to the taunts
and insults of the sentinels placed over them by day and night.
The prisoners were reprimanded, yea, even punished, should
American Bastile, p. 516.
278 A REVIEW OF THE
they dare to retort or resent the scoffs G the boorish soldi ers,
who stood over them as guardsmen. They were not even per
mitted to leave their quarters to visit a fellow-prisoner, unless
leave were granted them by some sergeant whose loyal uniform
indicated his- master s service. The wives and friends of the
inmates, who came to visit them, were not allowed access until a
pass were obtained from Secretary Stanton, or some other mag
nate of Federal authority. And even when admitted, the con
versations of the prisoners with their relatives, were limited to an
hour, and that in the presence of the Commandant.
The black inquisitorial system of incarceration was germinated
in a desire to repress all critical investigation of the acts and con
duct of the revolutionary party ; and those especially were the
victims of this species of despotism, who were perceived to be
most likely to influence public opinion, and thus thwart perhaps
the designs of the revolutionists. Can history determine aught,
but that the man who wielded the whole executive power of the
nation, and by whose sanction all these tyrannous outrages upon
constitutional freedom were enacted, was anything save a demon
incarnate, who, under the guise of humanitarian impulses, tramp
led upon the rights of his countrymen 2 His name, in spite of
all party efforts to enshrine it in hallowed recollection, will be
written upon the same darkened pages upon which those of
Louis XI and Lucretia Borgia stand inscribed.
Besides the restrictions that almost totally precluded intercourse
with the friends and relatives of the prisoners, the interposition
of legal counsel, that agreeable solace in times of difficulty was
peremtorily forbidden. In being thus precluded from securing
the assistance of gentlemen learned in the law, to bring their
cases before the judicial tribunals of the country, another Article
of the Federal Constitution was trampled upon, which prescribed
that in all criminal prosecutions, " the accused shall have the assist
ance of counsel for his defense." On the 3d of December, 1861,
the commanding officer at Fort Lafayette came to the prisoner s
quarters and read a document signed by a Federal satrap, in
which was the following language :
"I am instructed by the Secretary of State to inform you, that the
Department of State will not recognize any one as an attorney for politi
cal prisoners, and will look with distrust upon all applications for release
through such channels, and such applications will be regarded as addi
tional reasons for declining to release the prisoners,"
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 279
Of all the States in the Union, Maryland suffered most- from
the tyranny of the Federal administration. In September, 1861,
the Democratic Members * of the Legislature of this State were
arrested by orders of the Government, and conveyed to Federal
fortresses, because of their known sentiments which were hostile to
the party in power. The pretence alleged was, that they were
concerting a scheme to have the State secede, and unite its for
tunes with the Southern Confederacy. But this excuse lacked
all basis, as at the time of the arrest, the Northern Government
had its tyranous heel upon the neck of a people who could not
but revolt in sentiment against the invasion of its sister Southern
States, and the inauguration of the despotism they witnessed.
The pretence of the Federal Administration was further desti
tute of foundation, because, that at the Special Session of the
Maryland Legislature, called by Governor Hicks in April, 1861,
the question of secession was fully disposed of and determined.
The session opened on the 26th of that month, and on the follow
ing day a Select Committee of the Senate reported an address to
the people of the State, in which occurs the following language :
"We cannot but know that a large portion of the citizens of Maryland,
have been induced to believe that there is a probability that our delibera
tions, may result in the passage of some measure, committing this State
to secession. It is, therefore, our duty to declare that all such fears are
without foundation. We know that we have no constitutional authority
*The following is the statement of S. T. Wallis, Chairman of the Com
mittee on Federal Relations, of the Maryland House of Delegates : "I
was a member of the Maryland Legislature in 1861, and was arrested at
midnight at my dwelling, in the City of Baltimore, about the middle of
September, 1861 ; from which time until the 27th of November, 1862, I
was confined in one or other of the fortresses of the United States, which
have been appropriated by Mr. Lincoln for the use of State prisoners. I
have never been informed of the grounds upon which I was arrested.
" The commission, consisting of Messrs. Dix and Pierrepont, which
was created by the Secretary of War, for the examination of the cases
of prisoners arrested and confined like myself, held a session at Fort
Warren in May, 1862 ; but I was not vouchsafed any communication as
to the charges against me or any opportunity of being heard in my own
defense. The commissioners, in fact, took no notice of my existence.
Counsel I was not permitted to employ, for as early as the 28th of Noveml
ber, 1861, the United States Marshal, at Boston, visited Fort Warren for
the purpose of communicating to my fellow prisoners and myself an
order from Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, announcing that no one
would be recognized by this Department (which then had charge of us)
as attorney of any State prisoner ; and that the employment of counsel
by any of us, would be regarded by him as a sufficient reason for the
prolongation of our imprisonment. On the 26th of November, 1862, I
was released from Fort Warren without conditions or explanations of
any sort. The authority for my discharge, as I suppose for rny arrest
was a telegram." .Yew York World, Dec. 30, 1862.
280 A REVIEW OF THE
to take such action. You need not fear that there is a possibility that
we will do so."
In the House of Delegates, at the Special Session, the question
of secession also came up, on the petition of 216 voters of Prince
George County, asking of the Legislature of Maryland the pas
sage of an Ordinance of Secession without delay. On the 29th
of April, this petition was referred to the Committee on Federal
Relations. This Committee submitted both majority and min
ority reports, in the former of which, the following language
occurred :
" That in their judgment the Legislature does not possess the power to
pass such an ordinance as is prayed for, and that the prayer of the memo
rialists cannot be granted."
The minority of this Committee begged leave " to report un
favorably to the prayer of the memorialists." From that period
down to the forcible suppression of the Legislature by Mr. Lin
coln s orders, the subject was never again mooted, but w r as con
sidered on all hands as absolutely and permanently disposed of.
With personal liberty, the freedom of the press also sunk
beneath the weight of the Lincoln despotism. As early as Sep
tember, 1801, several of the leading Democratic newspapers of
New York were suppressed by orders from Washington, and the
editors conveyed to Fort Lafayette, where they were detained at
the pleasure of the administration. Many independent presses
in the border States and in other sections of the JSTorth, were
compelled either to moderate their tone of hostility to the ruling
powers, or suspend their publication. Some of the most resolute
editors chose the latter alternative, which was generally accom
panied with free ingress into a governmental bastile. To many the
alternative was not presented ; and the doors of a Federal fort
ress fastened upon them, before they were made aware of the
charges that were preferred against them. The sum of all their
sinning consisted in their belief in the principles of the Virgirii i
and Kentucky resolutions ; and in occasionally attempting to
argue in their papers that the Constitution warranted no military
coercive force for the maintenance of the Union. Many, indeed,
known simply to entertain these views of the Constitution, were
subjected to incarceration in a military fortress for the utterance
of sentiments that in others would have escaped all animadver
sion.
" If a Democratic paper did not proclaim war with the zeal of
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA, 281
a Moharnedan, and denounce all who opposed it with the appro-
brious epithet of " traitors" and recommend them as fit subjects
for the "rope and halter " : tt\Q editor himself was liable to receive
these delicate attentions."* Should a paper contain sentiments
severely reflecting upon the Administration, for the inauguration
of the war, or otherwise condemning its policy, a crowd of ex
cited citizens, instigated by some pimp of power, was likely to
assemble and demolish the office from which the offending sheet
made its appearance; and likewise maltreat the editor, should he
be so unfortunate as to fall into their hands. Many papers in
different parts of the Xorth were destroyed by infuriated mobs
of lawless citizens, who had been instigated in their conduct by
men who stood high in the confidence of Republican leaders ;
and from whom a word of dissuasion would have been sufficient
to prevent the outrage. Persons who desired to figure in com
munity as respectable personages, would make remarks calculated
to inspire the mob-element like the Eastern college President,
who declared himself as " opposed to tarring and feathering trai
tors /" but who added -that he " was forced to admit that this
act had at times been well done." It is apprehended that it would
require no logician to deduce the intent of this loyal Puritan s
remarks. And in scarce a single instance where the law had
been violated, was adequate satisfaction able to be obtained ; for
prejudice ran to such extremes that Democrats, with the greatest
difficulty, could secure justice at the hands of partisan courts
and juries. Indeed, citizens of all grades of outspoken anti-war
opinions, were villified with all kinds of abuse during the whole
continuance of the rebellion ; and the word traitor or copperhead
would often be heard by them, whilst walking the streets and
engaged in the pursuit of their daily avocations.
Early in 1862, an order was issued transferring the matter of
arbitrary arrests to the War Department. From this department
a proclamation emenated by order of President Lincoln, which
in itself virtually subverted republican government, inasmuch as
Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, was authorized to appoint a
number of men to constitute a corps of provost marshals, clothed
with authority, in addition to their military duties, to arrest any
citizen throughout the country. These marshals were appointed
^American Bastile, p. 119.
233 A REVIEW OF THE
and proved an annoyance to peaceable citizens in all sections of
the unrcbellious States ; they had it in their power, upon indefi
nite charges, to arrest any person against whom accusations
might be alleged, and for this purpose they were warranted to
call in military aid to sustain their authority. They were required
to report to the central power at Washington, and hold prisoners
in custody subject to its authority. In truth, these provost mar
shals were vested with imperial power in their respective dis
tricts, and could order the arrest of any citizen whatever, without
dread that their conduct would be subjected to an investigation.
In Maryland, Missouri and other Southern States, commission
ers were appointed, under military authority, who proceeded by
a kind of illegal inquisitorial surveillance, to take cognizance of
the acts and even sentiments of their fellow-countrymen ; and
those whom these judges determined to be sympathizers with
treason, were arbitrarily assessed certain sums of money by way
of assessments upon their property ; and compelled under pain
of confiscation to liquidate these assessments.* Assessments of
this kind, purporting to be sanctioned by marshal law, but in
flicted in districts where no authority warranted its proclamation,
were palpable violations of the Constitution, which prescribes
that no individual shall be " deprived of life, liberty or property
without due process of law." And though the establishment of
these extraordinary tribunals may in many instances have been
the work of executive subordinates, still their existence could not
escape the notice of the Washington authorities, or endure with
out their sanction.
But as the war against the Southern States and people was
inaugurated in conflict with the plainest principles of republican
ism, and in accordance with those of imperialism, it must of
necessity be in the same manner sustained. There was no other
way of sustaining a war which the frainers of the Constitution
never designed to be proclaimed. When the Northern armies
had overrun portions of Tennessee, North Carolina, and other
Southern States, and overthrown the State authorities, President
Lincoln, without any constitutional warrant whatever, appointed
Military Governors for those States, in order thereby to re-erect
State authority. Andrew Johnson was appointed Military Gov-
*New York World, Sept. 20th, 1863.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 283
ernor of Tennessee, and Edward Stanley of J^orth Carolina ;
and others were again assigned as the Military Executives of
other States. Thaddeus Stevens was too able a lawyer to be
willing to stultify himself by claiming that such appointments
found support in the Federal Constitution. He and his special
school of radical followers ignored all restraint of the Constitu
tion, averring that they acted outside of that charter, and in
accordance with the law of nations ; but seeing the absurdity
and hypocritical audacity of President Lincoln, who assumed to
be guided by that instrument, on the 9th of December, 1862 5
he spoke as follows :
" I see the Executive one day saying, you shall not take the property of
rebels to pay the debts which the rebels have brought upon the Northern
States. Why? Because the Constitution is in the way. And the next
day I see him appointing a Military Governor of Virginia, a Military
Govenor of Tennessee, and some other places. Where does he find any
thing in the Constitution to warrant that ?
" If he must look there alone for authority, then all these Acts are
flagrant usurpations, deserving the condemnation of the community.
He must agree with me, or else his acts aie as absurd as they are unlaw
ful ; for I see him here and there ordering elections for Members of Con
gress, wherever he finds a little collection of three or four consecutive
plantations in the Rebel States, in order that men may be sent here to
control the proceedings of Congress, just as we sanctioned the election
held by a few people at a little watering place at Fortress Monroe, by
which we have here the very respectable and estimable member from
that locality."
But the culminating point of Executive despotic innovation on
Constitutionalism was reached, when President Lincoln issued his
proclamation declaring the emancipation of the negro slaves in
the rebellious States. If the ruler of a people was ever guilty
of the violation of faith, solemnly plighted in his own and the
declarations of his party, it was in this instance. From the
origin of the Republican party in 1855, the only object to be
obtained by this organization, as gathered from the declarations
of its leaders, the utterances of its presses, and its so-called
national platforms, was to prevent the further extension of slavery
into free territory. During the campaign of Fremont in 1856,
and again of Lincoln in 1860, the Republican leaders solemnly
repudiated all designs of interfering with slavery in the Southern
States. They were unanimous in their solemn declarations, that
they neither possessed the power nor the inclination to meddle
with the institution where it existed. The Constitution was
284 A REVIEW OF THE
pointed to as an obstacle to any apprehended designs they might
be supposed to entertain, as to the eradication erf slavery in the
States where it already had a legal existence.
But revolutionary partisans do not stop for obstacles. They
can readily find excuses (as in the instance of the wolf and the
lamb) to abandon their assurances, and seize the objects which
form the centre of their designs. It was so in the case of the
Republican party. From the composition of their party, and
the enthusiasm which it arrouscd in the breasts of the undis-
sembling Abolitionists, it was apparent that the ultimate aim of
the party was universal emanicipation, much as the leaders strove
to conceal this. In this, Southern and Northern conservative
statesmen were not deceived, as they repeatedly predicted. But
the achievement of this object must depend upon circumstances.
That it would surely be the result of Republican success in the
nation could easily be affirmed, when the principles were con
sidered. It was a necessary sequence. The poison lay in that
dogma of their creed, that would give to the majority of the
people of the United States, a right to determine questions in
which those of the several States had constitutional interests. It
was, in a word, to allow democracy to override constitutionalism.
This itself, an efflux of centralization, the product of imperialistic
rule, was subversive of all constitutional guarantee, and -calcu
lated to awaken serious alarm in the minds of thinking men both
North and South. It was sure to overwhelm the ancient State-
right landmarks, as soon as a party of these principles gained
control of the General Government. ,
The emancipation decree of Abraham Lincoln was simply the
legitimate fruit of Republican teaching, and an aim of the party
that was striving for the social and political equality of the negro
race. Though its promulgation had been from the first fully
resolved upon, yet in the estimation of the President and his
confidential advisers, its further postponement might have been
judicious. Public opinion, as the President feared, was scarcely
prepared for the measure. But the pressure of the ardent eman
cipationists, amongst whom Mr. Stevens ranked conspicuous,
compelled the Executive, as it were, to issue a proclamation
which but a few days before he had declared could prove of no
utility to the Abolition cause. The Massachusetts Republican
State Convention, however, had assembled some days prior to its
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 285
issue ; and this body had declined to give the President the usual
resolution of confidence, which every Chief Magistrate expects of
his party. Mr. Lincoln was deeply wounded by this indignity in
the very citadel of Republicanism ; and he must hasten to do
penance for his transgression. He understood what the slight
of his party betokened. A secret meeting of New England
Governors had also been held which indicated no confidence in
the Administration. The Republican State Convention of the
Empire State was soon to assemble at Syracuse ; and it behooved
the President to endeavor to obviate a new animadversion upon
his conduct, such as he had experienced in the Bay State.
Besides, the novelty of enlisting for the three months war had
subsided. The soldiers and the people had been deceived by the
Republican orators and journals ; and additional recruits were
needed to fill up the depleted ranks of the Northern armies, held
at bay by the Confederates. Additional deception was again
required. Indeed, it was the constant pabulum of the soldiers,
and the easily deluded people, during the struggle. The rebel
lion was always just upon the brink of yielding. Governor
Andrews, of Massachusetts, and other radical statesmen, now
predicted that so great enthusiasm would follow the promulgation
of emancipation, that the roads would be crowded with soldiers
who would flock to the national escutcheon to defend the cause
of universal humanity.
Indeed, the deception practised by men in power during this
time was of the very grossest character, and if for no other
reason, the names of those who practised such fraud and imposi
tion, should be written upon tablets of contempt, and handed
down for execration to the remotest posterity. A worthy cause
needs not such means for its execution. But the means em
ployed have sown the seeds of such social and national demorali
zation, that Republican Government is no longer able to perpet
uate liberty, honor and integrity, and but time is required to
evolve a new order of things.
A REVIEW OF THE
CHAPTER XVIL
LEGISLATIVE UNCONSTITUTIONALISM,
When the elements and fundamental principles of the Repub
lican party is considered, it will not seem strange that the Con
stitution, after the inauguration of war against the South was
found to interpose but a slight check upon the lawless invasion
of civil rights. The enthusiastic, self-styled reformers, whose
opinions of right can tolerate no contradiction ; the Maine liquor
advocates whose efforts to remodel society had for years been dis
tracting social order ; and the narrow ecclesiastical sectaries, who
can only see moral evil in distorted visions ; all these and others
of like character had become consolidated into one a^orefmted
Oo cD
mass of turbulent agitators. This agitating army of fanatical
sealots, found its home in that political organization termed the
Republican. Abraham Lincoln and the majority of the Thirty-
seventh Congress, were the choice of that party of the American
people largely composed of the enthusiastic classes, whose zeal
ever surpasses their wisdom.
That the Republican President and the Members of Congress
chosen on the same ticket with him, should be persons of the
same characteristics as the partisans to whom they owed their
election, was to be expected. The discussion of the slavery
question had largely eliminated the zealous classes from the
Democratic party, and attached them to the new organization
that was combatting the institution of Southern slavery. These
all were fired by the same zeal for the emancipation and eleva
tion of the negro race, as had been Innocent III. and his coadju
tors in the establishment of the Roman inquisition. The spirit
of persecuting ecclesiasticism was again to be witnessed upon a
new arena ; and the maddened zeal that flamed forth as in fiery
volumes from the North, was the result of the sincere desire
upon the part of the ardent classes for the extirpation of the
Southern institution. It was, however, in itself that same prin-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 287
ciple that ever destroys civil organism and leaves but a wreck of
ruins in its path; and which, perhaps, prepares the minds of
the reflecting classes for the disagreeable reception of imperial
istic, when constitutional Republican Government has failed.
The reformer and the statesman are designed to occupy very
variant spheres in the world s life, and never can with safety be
exchanged. The philosophic ruler holds the scepter even, between
all conflicting opinions, and permits none to overstep the bounds
of constitutional order ; but the zealot becomes the medieval
iconoclast, or the persecuting prelate who causes rivers of blood
to flow, that the souls of men be not endangered.
The war from its inception was waged with a spirit of malice
and vindictive hatred, such as had been witnessed in modern
warfare but once (during the French revolution) since the period
of the religious wars of Europe, during the 16th and 17th cen
turies. The ancient animus was revived, the dial of time was
turned back for centuries, and all the guarantees of constitution
alism which philosophic ages had secured, were madly and
fanatically overturned in the wild and delusive hope of elevating
to equality with the Caucasian, a race totally incapable of even
sustaining the fruits of civilization. Negro liberation and eleva
tion being the sole objects to be achieved by the fiery enthusiasts
who gave life and soul to the Republican party, it would have
been contrary to all experience had not vindictiveness ruled the
hour. "Were it to be expected that zealots, who esteemed the
emancipation of four millions of negro slaves, the great blessing
of the 19th century, would at all be lenient and tolerant in meas
ures for the achievement of the result ? Since the commencement
of the civil war, the union of the States instead of being
any longer a league with death and a covenant with hell, had
become at length the great centre of their fondest hopes. Men
of enthusiastic aspirations, had ascended the seats of power, bent
upon wresting the ancient fabric of the Republic from its foun
dations; and fully determined upon breaking down all those
parts of the Constitution that interposed obstacles to their de
signs. The legislation at the extra session of Congress in 1861,
was chiefly confined to the granting of men and money to the
Administration for the prosecution of the war of invasion against
the South. But as " out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketk;" so from the utterances and conduct of Thaddeus Ste-
288 A REVIEW OF THE
vcns, Sumner and other leading members of Congress, it was
already clearly apparent to an observer, that the Federal Consti
tution, would be found to interpose slight resistance to the
designs of these most extreme partisans and radical revolutionists,
who now found themselves in position to so shape the laws of the
nation, that their emancipating designs might be fully ultimated.
The Constitution having conferred no authority upon the Presi
dent or Congress to make war against the seceding States, was it
to be anticipated that no further invasions of that instrument
would take place ?
The resolutions submitted by -Members of Congress, and the
majorities that endorsed these, exculpating the blockade of the
Southern coast, the illegal arrests of innocent citizens and other
unconstitutional acts of President Lincoln, clearly demonstrated
that ulterior objects to the preservation of the Union and the
Federal Constitution, were entertained by the leading men of
both branches of Congress.
An initiative measure was enacted near the close of the session,
which declared the confiscation of all the slaves employed with
the consent of their masters to further the cause of the rebellion.
The object of the war to a discerning eye was clearly portended
in this enactment, but the people of the Border States and the
Democrats of the North were assured that this was simply a
military measure that the laws of war demanded. It was one,
however, that Napoleon had disdained to make use of in his
wars with Russia, although repeatedly solicited to employ it.
But the European Emperor w^as lighting for conquest, the Ameri
can Congress, though professing the same, for emancipation.
When the 37th Congress assembled in December, 1861, an
advanced attitude on the slavery question, as we have seen in a
former chapter, was presented ; and fully matured plans seemed
to have been agreed upon, by Sumner, Wilson, Stevens, Lovejoy
and other leading radicals. There was nevertheless a number of
conservative Republicans in Congress who strove to defend the
Constitution to the best of their ability ; but whom a deluded
public opinion, either kept for the most part in radical traces, or
democratic quarters ultimately gave them refuge. The Con
gressmen of this character were either reflective thinkers or sound
constitutional statesmen, whose districts and States had become
abolitionized ; and they as politicians, must either yield to the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 289
current or retire from public life. Those chose the latter alter
native with whom conscience ruled supreme.
On the llth of December, 1861, Senator Trumbull, a Repub
lican, offered the following resolution :
" Resolved, That the Secretary of State be directed to inform the Sen
ate, whether in the loyal States of the Union any person or persons have
been arrested or imprisoned, and are now held in confinement by orders
from him or his Department ; and if so, under what law said arrests
have been made and said persons imprisoned."
In support of his resolution, and speaking of illegal arrests,
the Illinois Senator said :
" The unconstitutionally of such action as this seems to be admitted
by the Senator who comes to the defense of this despotic power. Why,
sir, the power without charge, without examination, without oppor
tunity to reply, at the click of the telegraph to arrest a man in a peace
able portion of the country, and imprison him indefinitely, is the very
essence of despotism. "What, sir, becomes of constitutional liberty, what
are we fighting for if this broad ground is to be assumed and to be jus
tified in this body, and any man is to be thanked for assuming an uncon
stitutional and unwarranted authority? What are we coming to, if
arrests may be made at the whim or the caprice of a Cabinet Minister ?
Do you suppose he is invested with infalibility, so as always to decide
aright? Are you willing to trust the liberties of the citizens of this
country in the hands of any man to be exercised in that way ? May not
his order send the Senator from Connecticut or myself to prison ? Why
not ?"
Most of the Republicans in the Senate opposed the above reso
lution of Senator Trumbull, many of them warmly justifying
the President for all the arrests he had caused to be made ; and
as only Democrats, whom they chose to entitle traitors, had
been made to suffer, they had no fault to find with the
Executive Department of the Government. Senator Fessenden,
of Maine, expressed the sentiments of the majority in the follow
ing language :
"Indeed, I know, that under the directions from the Secretary of
State, certain individuals in the loyal States have been arrested and im
prisoned. That is notorious ; the whole country is aware of it. I will
eay here, that I do not believe there is the slightest warrant of law for
any such proceedings, and I do not suppose that you will find a lawyer
who does think there is any warrant of law for such proceedings, and yet
I do not shrink from it. I justify the act, although it was against law.
I justify it from the necessity of the case."
The resolution of Senator Trumbull was consigned by a vote
of the Senate to its lethean tomb, the Committee on the
Judiciary.
290 A REVIEW OF THE
Besides the unconstitutional measures passed at this session of
Congress, and clearly intended to advance the cause of emanci
pation, some of which have been detailed in a former chapter,
others of the same character, both of a direct and indirect nature,
and yet designed to effect similar aims were likewise enacted. A
monetary crisis supervened with the close of the year 1861, in
the general bank suspension, and the wheels of coercive govern
ment were likely to stop, unless the herculean might of despotic
power could be invoked, also to relieve the financial condition.
This crisis was enhanced, because of the constant delusion that
had been practised upon the public mind, that the war would
be of but from sixty to ninety days duration. Indeed, the men
at the helm of government, dared not to disclose to public view
the delusion* that had been perpetrated, although themselves
well aware of it, through fear of the general alarm it would
occasion. In that event, they feared that a peace party at the
North would be likely to grasp the reins of power, and thus the
aims of the revolutionists would be baffled. The public for a
time had freely loaned of their money to support the Govern
ment, but Congress being as yet fearful to enact laws to tax the
people, the sinews of war were at length exhausted.
But doubtless it had been from the first apparent to Salmon
P. Chase, the Head of the Treasury Department, that the solution
of the problem committed to his charge would necessitate a
complete revolution in the financial affairs of the country, in
order to enable the government to prosecute the war with sue-
cess, against the seceded States ; and for that length of time,
which his discerning mind must have assured him, that it would
*Those who had the sagacity to perceive the delusion and the courage
to expose it, were denounced by the intensely loyal hypocrites, as traitors
and deserving of the severest punishment. It was incumbent upon one
who desired to be esteemed a friend of the Union, that he be willing at
all times to deceive his countrymen. As an illustration of the deception
practised by the leading men, the following extract from a speech of
Representative Merrill, of Vermont, of February 4, 1862, is cited : "We
are urged by the gentleman from New York to pass this bill as a war
measure, a measure of necessity ; and to enforce this idea he gives you
the figures of our probable requirements, if the war should be prolonged
until July 1st, 1863. Sir, I have no expectation of being required to sup
port a war for that length of time. The ice that now chokes up the
Mississippi is not more sure to melt and disappear with the approaching
vernal season, than are the rebellious armies upon its banks, when our
Western army shall break from its moorings, and rushing with the cur
rent to the Gulf, baptise as it goes in blood the people to a fresher alle
giance." Congressional Globe, 2d Session of Thirty-seventh Congress,
Part 1, p. 630.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA, 291
be necessary to do so, to effect their subjugation. This was in
deed a necessity, when our form of Government be taken into
consideration. The principles upon which the States had united
to form a union, based upon consent, had, as we have seen, been
violated by the declaration of war to coerce those that had seceded.
That in itself was the assumption of imperial power by the
General Government, which had never been delegated to it.
The war was at first pretended to be prosecuted upon republican
principles, and by means of voluntary loans* For the first three
months money was freely furnished to the Government, because
the people expected its speedy termination ; and for the next six
months loans were with still increasing difficulty secured upon
republican principles. The effort on the part of the Government
to conduct a war, anti-republican in its character, by means of
republican principles, was absurd, self -contradictory, and simply
designed for the delusion of the Northern people. This, Secre
tary Chase and all the leading officials of his party, from the
first must have clearly perceived, otherwise they were utterly
incompetent for the positions they were chosen to fill.
But theirs was the party of revolution, and it behooved them to
proceed with cautious steps, so as not to alarm the people, until
the sections had become so far entangled in the conflict, and the
Northern people so embittered in the carnage that the peace
party would be impotent. The same sagacious shrewdness, there
fore, was required by the Secretary of the Treasury and the
revolutionary element in Congress to get the financial affairs so
shaped as that the administration could control the national purse,
as it was also designing to do with the sword.
The monetary crisis that took place at the close of the year
1861, was but the natural sequence, therefore, of the incongru
ous effort to wage a monarchical war upon republican principles.
It was. in short, only circumstances necessitating the revolutionary
monarchists to show their real designs ; and with the greatest
dexterity and adroitness was this essayed before the country.
Secretary Chase, in his report of July 5th, 1861, and also in that
of December 9th of the same year, suggested his plans by which
he deemed it feasible that the national purse might be grasped in
order to further the work of abolitionism. The great work to
be achieved by his party for this purpose, was to obtain the over
throw of the principle of State Sovereignty, so far as the same
293 A REVIEW OF THE
in any wise conflicted with the central authority now fully re
solved upon negro emancipation. For this purpose the currency
of the country must undergo a radical change from what it had
heretofore ever experienced. Mainly, therefore, in accordance
with the suggestions of the Secretary in his reports, a bill was
matured by the Committee of Ways and Means, of which Mr.
Stevens was Chairman, and submitted to the House on the 30th
of December, 1861. This bill proposed the issue of one hun
dred millions of Treasury notes, which with the fifty millions
of demand notes already in circulation, should be a legal tender
for all claims due the Government, and also, for all debts public
and private within the United States, whether the same were
already due, or to be collected in the future.
This was indeed a revolutionary movement of revolutionary
men ; but many of the conscientious adherents of the Republi
can party refused to give it their sanction, because of its utter
violation of all justice and equity and of the whole spirit of the
Federal Constitution. A cardinal principle of that fundamental
charter w r hich the legal tender clause of this measure proposed to
repudiate, was that which declared that no State shall pass any
law impairing the obligation of contracts ; and it was one, the
denial of which up to this period no American statesman had
been bold enough as to conceive. But because this prohibition
had not been applied in express terms to the Government of the
United States, the Republican majority in Congress, had the
audacity to introduce and sustain a measure plainly void and un
constitutional. Secretary Chase, in his letter of January 29th
to Mr. Stevens, also gave his approbation to the legal tender
feature of the Treasury Note Bill,* but at the same time ex-
*After\vards, when success had crowned the Abolitionists, and Salmon
P. Chase had been elevated to the most honored seat upon the Supreme
Bench of the United States Court, he could speak in language that in
1862 would have been denounced by the loyal as treason. Speaking of
the prohibition imposed by the Constitution upon the States to " pass any
law impairing the obligation of contracts," Chief Justice Chase said :
" It is true this prohibition is not applied in terms to the Government of
the United States. Congress has express power to enact bankrupt laws,
and we do not say that a law made in the execution of any other express
power, which inc dentally only impairs the obligation of a contract, can
" be held to be unconstitutional for that reason.
But wo do think it clear that those who framed and thosa who
adopted the Constitution, intended that the spirit of this prohibition
should pervade the entire body of legislation, and that the justice which
the Constitution was ordained to establish, was thought by them to be
incompatible with legislation of an opposite tendency. In other words,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 203
pressed his loathing for such legislation. On this point he- said :
" It is not unknown to them (the Committee) that I have felt, nor do I
wish to conceal, that I now feel a great aversion to making anything but
coin a legal tender in payment of debts."
Much, however, as conscience interposed, so great was his zeal
in the cause of negro emancipation that he did not have the moral
courage to utter his protest against a measure for which he well
knew there was no warrant in the Federal Constitution. The
necessity for such legislation was even insisted upon by him, as
a means of prosecuting the war with success against the South.
The Democrats in both Houses of Congress, and some of the
ablest Republicans opposed the passage of the Legal Tender Bill,
with a stubborn resistance that 110 radical measure since the inau
guration of Abraham Lincoln had encountered. It was shown
to be entirely revolutionary in its character, and in conflict with
the universal legal thought of the country, from the foundation
of the Government. The opinion of no jurist, publicist or
statesman was able to be cited by the advocates of the measure
favorable to their position ; but the declarations and writings of
the most eminent men were adduced, combatting the views of
the revolutionists. Daniel Webster, the great expounder of the
Constitution, in his speech upon the renewal of the charter of
the United States Bank in 1832, spoke as follows :
"Congress can alone coin money. Congress can alone fix the v.ilue of
foreign coin. No State ca*i coin money. No State, not even Congress
can make anything a tender but gold and silver in payment for debts." *
Webster again expressed the general thought of the country
on this question, in his speech in the Senate on the Specie Cir
cular in 1836, in which he held the following language :
"Most unquestionably there is no legal tender, and there can be no
legal tender in this country under the authority of this Government, or
any other, but gold and silver either the coinage of our own mints, or
foreign coin at rates regulated by Congress. This is a Constitutional
principle, perfectly plain, and of the highest importance. The States
we cannot doubt that a law not made in pursuance of an express power,
which necessarily and in its direct operation impairs the obligation, is
inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution." Hepburn vs. Griswold,
in American Law Register, 1870, pp. 187-8.
The Supreme Court of the United States, in the above case of Hepburn
vs. Griswold, decided that the clause in the acts of 1803 and 1863, making
United States notes a legal tender in the payment of all debts, public
and private, is, so far as it applies to debts contracted before the passage
of these acts, unwarranted by the Constitution,
*Webster s Speeches. Vol. 2, p. 81.
29i A REVIEW OF THE
are prohibited from making anything but gold and silver a payment of
debts ; and although, no such prohibition is applied to Congress, yet as
Congress has no power granted to it in this respect but to coin money
and regulate the value of foreign coin, it clearly has no power to substi
tute paper or anything else for coin as a tender in payment for debts, and
in discharge of contracts." "~"
An array of intellectual men in Congress, of both parties, as
before stated, placed themselves in opposition to the passage of
the Legal Tender Bill, and strongly argued that the measure was
unconstitutional ; and one that would launch the country on a
sea of irredeemable paper currency, amidst whose billows the
ship of free government might ultimately submerge. Roscoe
Conkling, a Republican Representative from New York, spoke
as follows on the constitutionality of the question :
" The proposition is a new one. No precedent can be urged in its favor ;
no suggestion of the existence of such a power can be found in the legis
lative history of the country ; and I submit to my colleague, as a lawyer,
the proposition that this amounts to affirmative authority of the highest
kind against it. Had such a power lurked in the Constitution, as con
strued by those who ordained and administered it, we should find it so
recorded. The occasion for resorting to it, or at least referring to it, has,
we know, repeatedly arisen ; and, had such a power existed, it would
have been recognized and acted on. It is hardly too much to say, there
fore, that the uniform and universal judgment of statesmen, jurists, and
lawyers, has denied the constitutional right of Congress to make paper a
legal tender for debts to any extent whatever. But more is claimed here
than the right to create a legal tender, heretofore unknown. The pro
vision is not confined to transactions in futuro, but is retroactive in its
scope. It reaches back and strikes at every existing obligation, "f
The same gentleman depicted the moral effect of such legisla
tion, in the following words :
"But, sir, passing as I see I must from the constitutional objec
tions to the bill, it seems to me its moral imperfections are equally
serious. It will, of course, proclaim throughout the country a saturnalia
of fraud, a carnival of rogues. Every agent, attorney, treasurer, trus
tee, guardian, executor, administrator, consignee, commission-merchant,
and every debtor of a fiduciary character, who has received for others
hard money, worth a hundred cents on the dollar will forever release
himself from liability by buying up, for that knavish purpose, at its
depreciated value, the spurious currency which we will have put afloat.
Everybody will do it, except those who are more honest than the Ameri
can Congress advises them to be."|
George H. Pendleton, a distinguished Democratic Represen-
* Webster s Works. Vol. 4, p. 271.
^Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, part 1, pp. 634-5.
^Congressional Globe, Second Session, 37th Congress, Part 1, pp. 634-5.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 295
tative from Ohio, argued the unconstitutionality of the measure,
and the intrinsic inequity of a law that would attempt to unset
tle all iixed values and unjustly confiscate, as it were, the credits
of every man in the community. He predicted the calamitous
consequences of such legislation as follows :
" You send these notes out into the world, stamped with irredeemability.
You put on them the mark of Cain ; they will go forth to be fugitives
and vagabonds on the earth. "What then will be the consequence ? It
requires no prophet to tell what will be their history. The currency will
be expanded ; prices will be inflated ; fixed values will depreciate ; in
comes will be diminished ; the savings of the poor will vanish ; the
hoardings of the widow will melt away ; bonds, mortgages, notes, every
thing of fixed value will loose their value ; everything changeable will
be appreciated ; the necessaries of life will rise in value ; the Govern
ment will pay two-fold certainly largely more than it ought for every
thing that it goes into the market to buy ; gold and silver will be driven
out of the country."*
The radical republicans supported the Legal Tender measure
of their party, believing it to be a matter of necessity to enact the
same, to accomplish the subjugation of the Southern people.
Belonging to that school of interpretation which professed to be
able to -find in the Constitution, any power that they deemed
necessary for the national weal, it was not difficult for the leaders
ta find support in that instrument for any species of legislation
which they desired. They, however, favored the measure be
cause it was germinated in monarchical principles, and because
such were needed upon the financial arena, and such as already
had been and were to be introduced into the other avenues of
the Government.
The measure was of a monarchical character, as it relied upon
force for the circulation of the notes to be issued, looked to the
direct and despotic coercion of arms, over-rode both the letter and
spirit of the Constitution, shocked every principle, not only of
justice between the Government and the citizens, but also be
tween the citizens themselves, and of all sound political philoso
phy. That the Legal Tender Bill was simply a part of the
financial scheme of Secretary Chase and the influential men of
his party, to subsidize to their control the monied interests of the
country, C. L. Yallandigham, of Ohio, had the clearness of vision
to perceive. In his speech of February 3d, 1862, this patriotic
and sagacious statesman uttered the following words :
* Congressional Globe, Second Session, 37th Congress, Part 1, p. 551.
;0 A REVIEW OF THE
"The notes are meant to circulate generally and permanently as cur
rency, at least till the Secretary s grand fiscal machine, his magnficent
national paper mill, founded upon the very stocks provided for by this
bill, can be put in operation, when this sort of bills of credit are
to become the sole currency of the country, and to drive all gold and
silver and ordinary bank paper out of circulation."
The main argument urged in behalf of the bill was its neces
sity, and that no express words in the Constitution forbade such
an enactment.
The friends of the measure denied that more than one hun
dred and fifty millions of legal tender bills would need to be
issued by Congress ; and in these denials we have another ex
ample of the deceptions method pursued by the Republican
leaders to conceal the magnitude of the rebellion ; and it was one
whose Janus-faced visage was ever presenting itself during the
whole progress of the war. Thaddeus Stevens, who was a warm
friend of the Treasury Note Bill, in reply to a question pro
pounded to him on the 6th of February, 1862, said :
" But mv distinguished colleague from Vermont, fears that enormous
issues would follow to supply the expenses of the war. I do not think
any more would be needed than the $150,000,000."
But this assurance proved, like most others emenating from
radical sources and made with reference to the duration and the
expenses of the war, simply deceitful ; and especially so in this
case ; it having been uttered by a man who had the sagacity
from the commencement of hostilities to somewhat clearly meas.
ure the magnitude of the rebellion, and the length of time and
the vast expenditures that would be required to overthrow it.
Instead of one hundred and fifty millions being found sufficient,
very many additional hundred millions of legal tender notes
were necessary to be issued to perfect the great work of emanci
pation, and allow the tide of war to fully inundate and deluge in,
blood the States of South.
Another necessary feature of the financial scheme was that
which imposed the requisite taxes upon the people to support the
Government demands. The imposition of these was, however,
made with the greatest caution ; for it was perceived that noth
ing would so surely open the eyes of the masses as the infliction
of onerous taxation. The Republicans steadily resisted the enact
ment of a sufficient internal revenue law as long as possible ;
and acquiesced in supporting such a bill only when circumstances
rOLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 2C7
forced them into the measure. By the Act passed August 5th,
1801, it was estimated that twenty millions of revenue could be
raised ; but that sum was by no means adequate to support the
wants of the Government.
During the second session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, the
question of revenue became a pressing one, upon the attention of
Congress, and all schemes were resorted to in order to press off
the consideration of so unpleasant a concern. The elections of
1862 were nearing themselves, and the agricultural interests of
the country required to be handled with the greatest caution that
political managers could employ. A revenue bill was at that
time of ah 1 things most needed to sustain the wants of the ad
ministration, as Secretary Chase in his reports had undissem-
blingly shown. Congress at length found itself compelled to
take up the consideration of this question. Mr. Stevens, the
Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means in March,
1862, submitted a complicated tax bill, which the members of
the Committee had for nearly two months been busily engaged
in elaborating. In the bill, as submitted, almost every con
ceivable tax was imposed upon manufactures, the profits of
trade and industry, and the incomes of individuals. The most
studied effort was made in the preperation of this system of rev
enue, so as to allow the agriculturists seemingly to escape from the
burdens imposed. But the escape was only apparent, for upon
the consumers ultimately fall the taxes of the community. The
fallacious, hypocritical scheme, however, served as the blind to
hide the enormous burdens that the revolutionary party was neces
sitated to impose upon the people, in order to carry through their
designs of emancipation and negro elevation; and which was
but a part of the centralizing plan they had in view in their war
against the South.
This revenue bill met in Congress with no steady party oppo
sition, for, although its whole features had a centralizing tendency,
yet the Constitution clothed the law making body with the power
to raise taxes. It is evident from the discussions in Congress,
that a decided aversion was felt by all real Democrats to the pas
sage of the bill, inasmuch as they were conscious that the money
to be raised by it was to be expended for an unconstitutional
and altogether anti-republican purpose. AVilliam H. Wadsworth,
a Representative from Kentucky, made no concealment of his
298 A REVIEW OF THE
opposition to the measure, on account of the known objects to be
achieved in the prosecution of the war against the seceded States.
The bill, after a long deliberation in both Houses of Congress,
became finally a law on the 1st of July, 18G2.
This Internal Revenue Bill was very long and minute in its
details, almost every transaction of business being obliged to
submit to the imposition of stamp duty. This repulsive feature
of British rule, that had aroused our revolutionary ancestors to
resistance against the Crown of the mother country, was imposed
by the radical Congress, and was submitted to by the people, be
cause large armies and dictatorial satraps compelled obedience to
the Federal Administration. But it was very unwillingly obeyed
by a large body of the people, who somewhat faintly realized
the objects to be promoted by the money wrung from the
people by relentless partisans professing humanitarianism, yet
rioting in the overthrow of Constitutionalism. A tax of three
per cent, was levied upon all manufactures, and upon all incomes
upwards of six hundred dollars. All professional gentlemen and
men engaged in various departments of industry, were addition
ally taxed by means of licenses, and compelled either to pay the
same for the advancement of abolition ideas, or withdraw from
the occupation of their lives.
But as abolitionism and all other fanaticisms must necessarily
accompany each other, it would have been remarkable had not
the total prohibition influence, made itself felt in the internal
revenue legislation of Congress. Representative Morrill, of Ver
mont, one of the first to explain the features of the bill, declared
that the object of its framers was to impose upon the liquor trafic
as heavy a tax as possible, so as to repress that trade to the
utmost of their power. As a member of the American mon
archical party, he could cite British precedent for such discrimina
tion, with regard to duty on liquors, and said :
"In England, the duty on spirits is ten shillings and five pence, or
about $2.52, per gallon."
Another Representative, a Member from Maine, a Mr. Rice,
true to the principles of his State fanaticism, spoke as follows :
" I would not discriminate, partially, against any citizen engaged in
any honest and reputable business ; but I would to the fullest extent im
pose excise duty on liquor and tobacco, let it come from whatever source
it may, or let it injure whom it may. If men are driven out of this
business, it will be all the better for the country. I was in favor of tha
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 200
amendment proposed by the gentleman from Kentucky, because I under
stood it, though not so intended by him, to be an absolute prohibition
against distillation. If Congress would only put down, either by direct
or indirect means, these distilleries that pour out fire and death over all
the land, I think it would be performing a good work. It would be doing
more good to the people than any other enactment it can pass.
" I hope the day will come when a prohibition will be put upon all
distillation ; when such a tariff will be placed on spirituous liquors as
will exclude their importation. That will be a glorious day for the
country."*
In the author of the last cited extract, we hear one of the
ancient holy Pharisees and hypocrites, who would seem to have
arisen from the dead ; and who sets himself up as more pure and
righteous than all other men ; and whose opinions must be
accepted as the whole rule of rectitude and moral probity. His
doctrines admirably harmonized with the hidden monarchical
sentiments of his party, but were altogether in disharmony with
the principles he professed to advocate, that is to say : the free
dom of all men. His own and the principles of his party would
allow all to be free to the extent that his infallible judgment and
despotic will would permit. Delightful freedom indeed was it
that he and his fanatical Maine law compeers advocated.
A tax of about one hundred per cent, was imposed by this act
upon spirituous liquors, which, by subsequent acts, was largely
increased, all with the design of indirectly excluding by a species
of Maine liquor law legislation, all kinds of spirituous, vinous
and malt liquors from circulation in the community. The article
of tobacco was likewise highly taxed in the Revenue Act of
July 1st, 1862, because this article had also been condemned aa
unworthy of trafic in Puritan estimation.
The revenue to be raised by this act, estimated as about to yield
150,000,000, was a burden greater than was borne by the citi
zens of the most despotic governments of Europe ; and yet so
thoroughly deluded were the masses of the people by abolition
fanaticism, that they seemed to yield their necks with pleasure
to the burdens. But after submitting to the load, they ever
afterwards were unable to relieve themselves ; and the despots
only continued to further lade the servilely adapted beings who
had so ignobly yielded to their sway. They had unwittingly
assumed a constantly accumulating load of debt, which, as Weii-
*Congrcssional Globe, Second Session, 37th Congress, Part 3, p. 1309.
800 A REVIEW OF THE
dell Phillips, one of the task masters, had the candor to admi f ,
would weigh down themselves, their children and descendants, to
remote generations. A happy thought, indeed ; possibly endur
able, had the compensation therefor only been of an adequate
character. But it is doubtful if fanaticism be competent to grasp
that idea. Probably the conception is too logical, save for minds
rarely seduced by fanatical delusions.
An inquisitorial spirit also displayed itself in the radical legis
lation of almost every character. The bill passed by Congress
and approved July 1st, 1862, which stamped the Mormon matri
monial unions as criminal violations of social polity that deserved
severe punishment, especially evinced this spirit in a marked
degree. Lack of logical perception allowed the law-givers in this
instance to forget that they were the boasted champions of lib
erty, both civil and religious, and being such, Mormondom was
equally entitled with themselves to enjoy that privilege. But
like their prototypal predecessors of the Hildebrandian and
Cromwell ian cast, they reserved to themselves the right to dictate
what should be esteemed liberty. And in this they were not in
consistent with themselves, for fanaticism ever assumes the holiest
mantle, much as it tramples, as in this case, upon the plainest
constitutional guarantees.
But whilst trampling upon the Constitution of their country, it
behooved the Hepublican leaders likewise to bid for popular sup
port at the expense of governmental traditions, and by the most
lavish and prodigal expenditures. After the enactment of the
Homestead Law in 1862, an Act in conflict with the conservative
teaching of early legislators, they must annul the well settled
internal improvement principles of former Presidents and states
men, in the passage of the Union Pacific Railroad and Telegraph
Line, from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. Indeed, a
seemingly malicious zeal appeared to animate Mr. Stevens and
the leading radicals in Congress, to effect in every particular as
complete an overthrow and removal of the rubbish of the old
constitutional edifice of the fathers, as was possible to be con
ceived. The existing Constitution, with its spirit and traditions,
had been the work of slave holders and their allies ; and all this
must be remodelled, lest some foul taint might soil the new
superstructure.
An oath to support the Federal Constitution, the only pledge
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. SOI
heretofore required of the American citizen or ruler, was no
longer deemed a sufficient guarantee of official incumbents, that
they would discharge their functions with that fidelity which
duty required. Pretended dread of future turbulence induced
the revolutionary Congress to exact of every person elected or
appointed to any office of honor or profit under the Government
of the United States an oath of office, to which no conscientious
Southern resistant of the abolition tyranny would be able to sub
scribe. This unwise effort to exclude from public trusts the
participants in the so-called rebellion in the event of their over
throw, was still further proof that the advocates of such measures
lacked the capacity of far-seeing statesmen, who always strive to
harmonize, rather than provoke conflicting opinions. But arti
fice and craft were the large ingredients that influenced the parti
san legislation of the last named character, and which was
designed chiefly to exclude in future from power, those most
competent to combat and circumvent the designs of the revolu
tionary legislators themselves.
A legal principle of universal application that had been coined
in the jurisprudence of the mother country and which in
essence was made a part of the Constitution of 1787 ; and also
of all the different States of the Union, that every offender shall
be tried by a jury of his peers, was next to be wiped from the
statute book of the nation. By the Act of July .16, 1862, Con
gress, fearful to run in open violation of the plain letter of the
Constitution, which declared that in treason the " trial shall
be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been com
mitted" nevertheless repealed the Act of 1789, which required,
in cases punishable with death, that twelve jurors be summoned
from the county where the offense was committed. In the repeal
of that act, the spirit of the Constitution was equally violated, as
had the enactment directed, that a jury drawn from a different
State than that in which the offense was committed, should be
intrusted with the trial of criminals. Such legislation was also
the product of necessity, as the revolutionists clearly foresaw that
no convictions for treason could be secured in any of the Southern
States, unless under a species of packed jury system, which this
law of July aimed to establish.
During the second session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, the
confiscation of the property of rebels, became a question of lead-
302 A REVIEW OF THE
ing importance ; and one that was discussed in both Houses at
some length. The ardent advocates of confiscation were impelled
solely by the desire to secure the emancipation 45 " of the negro
slaves by an indirect measure of this character ; as no other so
feasible a plan presented itself to the revolutionists to secure,
under the guise of legislation, objects not warranted by the Con
stitution. Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, had the candor to
confess, during the discussion of this question, that emancipation
was the main feature of the confiscation movement that especially
interested him. Sufficient laws were already in existence to
punish treason of every grade ; and it would have been time to
enact further penalties when the rebellion was overthrown and
the national authorities in condition to determine of what crime
the Southern rebels were guilty.
But as the freedom of the Southern slaves was the grand
object of the war, and as the Constitution of the United States
forbade Federal interference with the aifairs of the States, some
kind of legislation must be excogitated to gratify abolition aspi
ration. The punishment of treason was within the power of
Congress to determine ; and this body was free to fix penalties,
however severe, provided that " no attainder of treason shall work
corruption of blood and forfeiture, except during the life of the
person attainted." The framers of the instrument which, inter
posed this check upon national legislation, had witnessed in
history the cruel excesses of sanguinary despots from the days of
"William the Norman, to Oliver Cromwell ; and they were un
willing that the innocent descendants of convicted traitors should
be made to suffer for the crimes of their ancestors. Whilst,
however, this restraint was the result of the molifying current
of a refined civilization that had gradually obliterated the asperi
ties of earlier epochs, it was this same obstacle that produced
such anxiety in the Republican party to devise means, notwith-
*Senator Saulsbury, of Delaware, addressing the Abolition Senators,
June 24th, 1862, said : "Your purposes are known, your motives are
understood. The present knows them and history will record them. Did
not slavery exist in the Southern States, you would never have thought
of a confiscation bill. Your design is to make this a war for the destruc
tion of slavery. You desire to destroy the domestic institutions of the
States. Abolitionism will be satisfied with nothing less than universal
emancipation ; and abolitionism would not prosecute this war another
day or another hour, were it not for the hope that these objects may be
accom lished." Congressional Globe, Second Session, 37th Congress,
Part 4, p. 2901,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 303
standing this, to accomplish their main purpose, emancipation.
To this end, one bill after another was prepared by abolition
members of both Houses of Congress, all having the same fond
object in view. C. A. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, spoke in the
following manner of these bills :
" The Chairman of this Committee, to whom had been referred all the
wild, mad and unconstitutional bills, twenty in number, has given to the
House the two bills under consideration. I have carefully collected a l
of these bills. I shall have them bound, and with an appropriate title-
page preserved, that they may remain and be read after the excite
ment of the day shall have subsided ; that those who may survive me
shall take warning from the evidences which they afford, of an utter
disregard of the Constitution of the country, and the danger to civil
liberty "which such disregard threatens. And if our liberty and consti
tutional Government shall survive the assaults made upon it at this hour,
or if it should fail, then they may find among the many causes of its
overthrow, these evidences of the reckless efforts of legislators to substi
tute passion for patriotism, as a rule of action, in the exercise of official
duties and powers."*
Horace Greeley, in his history of " The American Conflict"
speaks of the cautious method by which the Republican party
approached the question of confiscation :
" The policy of confiscating or emancipating the slaves of those en
gaged in the rebellion, was very cautiously and timidly approached at
the first or extra session of this (37th) Congress. Very early in the ensu
ing session, it was again suggested in the Senate by Mr. Trumbull, of
Illinois, and in the House by Mr. Elliott, of Massachusetts."!
The position which first secured a somewhat unanimous ap
proval amongst the revolutionary leaders in both Houses of
Congress, was that which asserted for the military arm of the
Government, the right to break the shackles from the limbs of
the Southern slaves in order to weaken the cause of their masters.
This bold and sweeping advance of the extreme Abolitionibts
was altogether too radical a change for timid and conservative
Republicans ; and the proposition besides encountering the united
opposition of the Border State Congressmen and Northern Dem
ocrats, also met a warm resistance from Senators Cowan*, of
Pennsylvania, Browning and Collamer, of Vermont, who de
nounced it as in glaring antagonism with the Federal Constitution.
Out of the boiling caldron of radical Senatorial views, a bill
was prepared which proposed to clothe President Lincoln with
* Appendix to Congressional Globe, Second Session, 37th Congress, p. 260.
i Greeley s Conflict, vol. 2, p. 202.
804 A REVIEW OF THE
discretionary power to proclaim free, the slaves of all persons
who should -be found in arms after a definite period.
In the House, a similar vehement contest was fought, over the
question of confiscation of rebel property ; and finally, two bills
were reported from the Judiciary Committee that seemed to
accord in the main with the known sentiments of radical Sena
tors. The one provided for confiscating the real and personal
property of rebels against the government ; and the other for the
emancipation of their slaves. In vain did the Democrats, Border
State Representatives, and certain Conservative Republicans,
argue the unconstitutionality of these measures ; and to no pur
pose were they shown to violate all the principles of modern
warfare among civilized nations. Judge Thomas, of Massachu
setts, a Conservative Republican, spoke of these bills as follows :
"That the bills before the House are in violation of the law of nations
and of the Constitution, I cannot I say it with all deference to others
I cannot entertain a doubt/ *
But though unconstitutional and violative of all modern inter
national codes, the revolutionists must of necessity enact laws of
the most extreme rigor against the rebels and their property ; so
that under the pretence of wholesale confiscation, they would be
enabled to secure the great prize, the freedom of the slaves. No
doubt many members of Congress, such as Thaddeus Stevens,
Owen Love joy, and others, would ardently have desired to see
the most extensive confiscation of rebel property that was possible
to be secured ; but the honest Abolitionists, who were influenced
by moral principle, rather viewed the proposed severity in the
confiscation movement as a feint to cover the real object to be
grasped, emancipation. At least it was never seriously believed
by any great number of Abolition Congressmen, that they would
be able to inflict upon the South any general system of property
confiscation. The measure, however, proved admirable for agita
ting purposes, and in the preparation of public opinion for par
tisan objects.
Both the Confiscation and Emancipation Bills introduced into
the House, passed that body but failed to meet the approbation
of the Senate. Although this latter body contained a large
number of the most radical Abolitionists, still a majority were
unwilling to go to the extreme length of enacting that all kinds
*Greeley s Conflict, vol. 2, p, 2C4.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. S05
of property should be wrested from rebel control without judici
ally action, and by the mere force of Executive fiat. The bills
which had received the approbation of the one body of Con
gress, were upon a conference between the Senate and House of
Representatives, so modified as to form one act providing for
both confiscation and emancipation. In this shape the bill became
a law and received the Presidential assent.
The main feature which the Senate impressed upon the confis
cation scheme, was that which contemplated the conviction and
punishment of traitors by due legal process, before their property
could be legally sequestered. And yet little credit seems due to
Senators who preferred to have the enactment in conformity
with the Constitution in one particular, when in another they
were not at all careful to regard it. For it was alone the knowl
edge that the assent of President Lincoln would otherwise be
withheld from the bill, that induced Congress, very reluctantly,
to declare by resolution that the act was only intended to operate
upon the life interest of convicted traitors.
306 A REVIEW OF THE
CHAPTER XVHI.
GOVERNMENTAL CONSOLIDATION REACHED.
When the Thirty-seventh Congress met on December 1st,
1862, the Government had thrown aside all disguise that its
future policy should embrace emancipation as a means of weak
ening the rebellion. President Lincoln had seemingly permitted
himself to be dragooned, by his active abolition partisans, into
fulminating the proclamation of September 22d, which, by the
beginning of the new year, should set all the slaves in the rebel
lious States in absolute freedom ; and yet a more unwise measure
for the accomplishment of that object was scarcely conceivable,
as the President himself expressed it, in his interview with the
Chicago divines, a few days prior to its promulgation. It could
scarcely be believed, even by the most enthusiastic champions of
negro liberation, that a paper proclamation, issued by the Execu
tive of one of the contesting sections of the country, would be
able to emancipate the slaves of the other more rapidly than the
progress of arms warranted. But fanaticism reasons not, it sym
pathises, agitates, and runs counter to the rules of ratiocination i
and in this instance, having engulphed philosophical forecast in
clamor, it could do what at another time would have been utterly
impossible.
The enactment of a few measures were still demanded of the
American Congress, in addition to the numerous unconstitutional
encroachments already made, in order that the consolidating pro
gramme of the revolutionary party might have a finished and
symmetrical contour. The union of the purse and sword, a
necessity of despotism, was the grand desideratum yet to be
accomplished in the subversion of the rights of the States and of
the immunities of the people. The traditionally recognized
power of the States must be overthrown by every possible means,
and no conceivable method seemed to promise greater results in
this direction than the establishment of a national banking sys-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 307
tern. A national bank was one of the darling projects of Alex
ander Hamilton, the idol of Federalism and its successors ; and in
the history of American politics it proved one of the onerous
burdens that always weighed upon the shoulders of those who
favored its establishment.
And although a National bank had ceased to be a question in
American politics since the period of John Tyler s administration,
yet with the advent of Republicanism to power, the new brood
soon betrayed their parentage in the advocacy of the old measures
which Webster himself had declared obsolete. So thoroughly
grounded, however, had become the opposition of Americans to
wards a bank of the United States, that the establishment of an
institution of this character was deemed hazardous ; and was only
attempted after the leaders had discovered that the will of the
people could with safety be defied, with large armies in the field
from which all information dangerous to party success, could
easily be excluded. And again, for the purpose of avoiding tte
popular objections which stood coined in the general mind against
the establishment of a national bank, the scheme was varied by
proposing a bill to incorporate banks in all sections of the country.
A very captivating variation, indeed, was it, and one promising
popular advantages to business circles. The danger of a national
bank proving a political engine in the hands of whatever party
might happen to control the Government, the main evil foreseen
by President Jackson was equally great, whether one central
establishment were created or thousands of banks with national
privileges, because the latter, equally with the former, would be
subordinate to federal control.
The establishment of a system of national banks, was believed
by the revolutionary leaders to be one of the most efficient means
to subvert the rights of the States, and draw all authority into
the hands of the General Government. In this manner it was
hoped that objects could be grasped by a species of monarchical
encroachment, which otherwise were unattainable; and that a
grand central government, nea$y"~resembling that of Great
Britain, could be established in the midst of the turbulence and
excitement of the rebellion. Indeed, Alexander Hamilton him
self had predicted that the Federal Government would prove a
failure ; and that it would only, after a time, be molded into
consistency when it should have experienced the shock of war.
SOS A REVIEW OF THE
That Federal aspirations prompted the warm advocates of the
national banking scheme, seems disclosed in the following extract
from the speech of Elbridge G. Spaulding, a Republican Rep
resentative from New York, of February 19th, 1863. Mr. Spaul
ding said :
"It is now most apparent that the policy advocated by Alexander
Hamilton, of a strong central government, was the true policy. A
strong consolidated government would most likely have been able to
avert the rebellion ; but, if not able to prevent it entirely, it would have
been much better prepared to have met and put down the traitorous
advocates of secession and State rights, who have forced upon us this
unnatural and bloody war. A sound national bank upheld and supported
by the combined credit of the Government, and rich men residing in all
the States of the Union, would have been a strong bond of union before
the rebellion broke out, and a still stronger support to the Government
in maintaining the army and navy to put it down."
The national banking system deduced its whole genealogical
descent from monarchical principles. Its successful inauguration
depended upon the suppression of the State banks, which existed
constitutionally, as the Supreme Court of the United States had
authoritatively declared ; and which the General Government
had no delegated power, either directly or indirectly, to suppress.
But, when men could be found that had the boldness openly to
declare that Congress had the right to appoint a dictator, as
Thaddeus Stevens had already done, it is not strange that any
kind of bill could be enacted depriving the States of their clear
and constitutional authority to establish banks witk State charters.
During the discussion on the National Bank Bill, the right of the
States to create banks was not questioned ; but a sufficient tax
was imposed in the bill upon the circulation of the State banks,
as would compel them to exchange their notes for the new ones
to be issued by the General Government. It was, in brief, sim
ply a new method of indirectly doing that which the Constitu
tion, as interpreted by the highest judicial tribunal of the country,
had forbidden to be done.
The National Banking Bill met the approval of the most
revolutionary Republicans of both Houses of Congress ; and
received the sanction of President Lincoln February 25th, 1863.
It encountered, however, the united opposition of the Democracy
and of a considerable number of the more conservative Repub
lican Members of Congress, in the Senate and House of Repre
sentatives. In the Senate, such Republicans as Collamer, Cowan,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA, S09
Grimes, Howard and Trumbull, refused to support the measure.
The Democrats in general viewed the bill as one of the con
solidating measures designed to wrest power from the States and
strengthen the central authority* Senator Powell, in his speech
of February 10th, 1863, said:
"It is a grand scheme of consolidation; one that, in my judgment,
will become dangerous to the public liberties, and I believe that it should
not be forced upon the people of the States, particularly when it is forced
there to destroy their banking institutions,"
Senator Davis, in his speech of February llth, said :
" This is a bold and daring attack upon the State banks, * * *
I think it is the most stupendous and most dangerous scheme of policy
that was ever introduced in a deliberative body."
That the National Bank Bill was of an altogether revolutionary
character. Senator Howard contended in his speech of February
11, 1863, in which he used the following language :
* It contemplates a general revolution in the banking and currency
system in this country ; and it is admitted by its advocates as being in
tended to bring about an extinguishment of all the State banks by means
of the machinery which is to be employed under the provisions of the
bill."
The unconstitutionality of the bill was argued by Senator
Collamer as follows :
<% In the case of Kentucky, the Supreme Court decided, that the long
continued usage in this country in States to make banks was constitu
tional, and that a State had a right to make a bank of issue. * * *
Now, sir, if a State has that right, it has the right certainly, independent
of the consent of Congress. Does it hold it at the will of Congress?
Certainly not. The United States, in making a United States Bank, held
it independent of State action, and it was so decided. If the State has
this right and has it independent of the consent of Congress, it cannot
have that right if the United States can tax it out of existence. Hence,
I say, the United States have no more power to tax a State institution
out of existence, than a State has to tax a United States institution out
of existence,"
The Federal Government, by the passage of the bank bill,
had become the keeper of the people s purse ; the sword must
next be grasped, and then the power of the States and the cili-
zens thereof could with impunity be defied. Men, as well as
money were in abundance for a period, after the inauguration of
the war, in answer to the calls of the President ; but time dis
closing the great deception that had been practised, neither could
any longer be had in such qualities as the exigency demanded.
310 A REVIEW OF THE
Congress, at its extra session in 1861, had given authority for
raising vast armies ; and all the soldiers whose services could be
secured were enlisted under various proclamations of the Presi
dent but still more were in demand to end a rebellion whose
resistance had far surpassed the popular expectation. But the
Republican method of filling monarchical armies raised for mon
archical purposes, soon displayed its incongruity as had been
witnessed on the financial arena, and new plans were necessary
to be adopted to save the revolutionary party from disintegration,
and its aims from failure, should a majority of the Northern
people discover the delusion that had been inflicted upon them.
By the middle of 1862, Northern patriotism was greatly flag
ging, because enlisting for the war was already discovered to be
no holiday recreation, but a stern reality that few cared to en
counter, save those whom fancied sympathy for the negro had
blinded into the espousal of the abolition cause. It was now
perceived that the war steed of Northern patriotism must expe
rience a slight goad from the spur of his furious rider, in order
to enable him any longer to penetrate to the front of the battle,
and grapple with his rebel combatant upon the field of Southern
conflict. This slight prick was essayed in the passage of the Act
of Congress of July 17th, 1862, which authorized the calling out
by draft of the militia of the loyal States for nine months, for
the suppression of the Southern armies, and the restoration of
the national authority.
But the rebellion against abolition domination, notwithstanding
this, stood up in all its mighty strength and colossal magnitude.
The enlisted legions of the North, from Maine to California,
were sinking before the shafts of Southern resistance ; and the
invading armies had become so attenuated by the close of 1862,
that more stringent means than had as yet been made use of,
must be employed if the administration of Abraham Lincoln
was to triumph over its stubborn foe. The might of Herculean
despotism must be invoked to the rescue, or the flag of abo
litionism must lower its folds on the field of battle. Neither the
war cry of freedom for an enslaved race, nor the peans of the
victorious soul of the felon of Charlestown, marching to victory,
were sufficient any longer to arouse martial ardor in the breasts
of the enrolled soldiers of Northern fanaticism.
The loathsome beast of despotic innovation now reared a more
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 311
hideous aspect than it liad as yet presented. An act was passed
in both Houses of Congress ignoring all authority of the States
over their own militia ; and subjecting all able-bodied men of the
JSTorth, between certain ages, to a merciless conscription, which
found sanction neither in constitutional warrant nor in prior
Anglo-Saxon history. Britain s Annals were scanned in vain for
a model to subject to Presidential control the independent free
men of the Xorth ; and resort was necessarily had to the conti
nental despotisms of the old world, which alone were able to
supply a genuine copy. Charles J. Biddle, a Member of Con
gress from Pennsylvania, in his speech of February 23, 1863,
grouped the Conscription Bill as one of that concatenation of
measures which changed the whole fabric of the Government
from a Republic into a consolidated despotism. In his speech he
said:
This (the Conscription Bill) is a part of a series of measures, which to
my mind seem materially to alter the structure of the Government un
der which we live. The bill to transfer to the President, without limita
tion of time or place, our power over the writ of Habeas Corpus ; the
bill of indemnity which, to use the words of the Senate s Amendment,
secures for all wrongs or trespasses committed by any officer of the
Government, full immunity, if he pleads in the courts of justice the
order of the President, and which also deprives State Courts of their
jurisdiction in such cases ; the bank bill, which puts the purse strings in
the same hands with the sword ; these bills, to my mind, couple themselves
with this bill, and they seem to me, taken together, to change the whole
framework of this Government ; and instead of the Constitutional Gov
ernment, which was originally so carefully devised for this country,
they leave us a system which does not materially differ, according to any
definition I can frame, from the despotism of France or Russia."
The passage of the Conscription Bill was found to be in dispen
sable, because the abolition leaders perceived that the prosecution
of the war, by means of enlisted soldiers, would surely prove a
failure. Thaddeus Stevens, the Corypheus of abolition impulse, in
the House of Representatives already had declared on the floor
of Congress, that no more volunteers could be had from the JSTorth ;
and that other methods of filling the Union armies must be
adopted. Yast numbers of soldiers who had voluntarily entered
the Northern armies, afterwards deserted ; some because they
believed the Administration had forsaken the principles upon
which the war was originally prosecuted ; others did so, infected
by the corrupt influences already everywhere prevalent.
Benjamin F. Thomas, a Republican member of the House,
312 A REVIEW OF THE c \
from Massachusetts, submitted his reasons for the necessity of
enacting the Conscription Bill, in the following language. He
said:
"The policy inaugurated on the 1st of December, 1861, has been fruit
less of good. It has changed the ostensible, if not the real issue of the
war. That policy, and the want of persistent vigor in our military
counsels, render any further reliance upon voluntary enlistments futile.
The nostrums have all failed. Confiscation, emancipation by Congress,
emancipation by proclamation of the President, compensated emancipa
tion, arbitrary arrests, paper made legal tender, negro armies will not do
the work. Nothing will save us now but victories in the field and on the
sea ; and then the proffer of the olive branch, with the most liberal terms
of reconciliation and re-union. We can get armies in no other way, but
by measures substantially those in the Bill before us, unless the Admin
istration will retrace its steps and re turn to the way of the Constitution."*
The Democrats and Border State men of both Houses of
Congress combatted the Conscription Bill with a zeal and ardor
worthy of Charlemagne s paladins, and the knights of feudal
history. But the conflict waged by these chivalric friends of
their country in behalf of liberty and the Constitution, was
nevertheless hopeless ; yet, impelled by motives of uncalculating
patriotism, they rushed within the breach and yielded themselves,
sacrifices worthy of immortal glory. Senator Bayard, of Dela
ware, in his speech of February 28, 1863, used the following
language concerning the Conscription Bill :
" From the foundation of the Government to this day, no attempt has
been made in this country to pass a law of this character, by any Con
gress of the United States ; no such bill has been introduced ; no such
doctrine as is involved in this bill has been contended for that under
the power to raise armies, you can raise them in any other mode than by
enlistment or recruiting, or by the acceptance of volunteers. Has this
power ever been attempted to be exercised by the Parliament of Great
Britain, with all its omnipotence ? No I"
Senator Kennedy, of Maryland, in the debate on this bill, said :
"As to the bill itself, I look upon it as odious and despotic. It goes
further to subjugate the people of a free country than any I have ever
read of in history."
Senator Saulsbury, of Delaware, during the same debate,
uttered the following sentiments :
" I regard it as the crowning act, in a series of acts of legislation,
which surrender all that is dear to the private citizen into the keeping
and at the mercy of the Executive of this nation. I
assert, that under the law governing this administration, under the law
*Annual Cyclopedia, 1863, p. 280.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 813
as declared by the highest law officer of this Government, this bill not
only authorizes the calling into the service of every able-bodied white
man. but it authorizes the calling into the service of every able-bodied
free negro, between the ages of twenty and forty-five, in the land. I
say this because the Attorney-General of the United States has expressed
the opinion, in writing, that the free negroes are citizens of the United
States. * * * Sir, if the theory of this bill be the theory of
your Government, if this be the power conferred upon Congress by the
Constitution of the United States, tell me where is the difference between
your form of Government and the most absolute and despotic form upon
the face of the earth."
The Conscription Bill received the assent of President Lincoln
March 3d, 1863, and contrary to the patriotic wish of the older
statesmen, the power of the purse and the sword was united.
The passage of the National Bank and Conscription Bills effected
a complete revolution in the workings of the General Govern
ment, and though retaining the name of a Republic, no Empire
in Europe now exerted a more absolute and despotic control over
its citizens.
Absolutism had been reached in the passage of these two last
named bills ; but to round the figure more in harmony with
Asiatic despotisms, all the unconstitutional excesses that had been
committed since the advent of the Republican party to power
must be condoned, and unlimited authority granted to the Fede
ral Executive to trample in future upon civil liberty. It was not
enough to satisfy the abolition appetite that the Constitution had
been ignored, the reserved rights of the States overthrown, and
the liberty of the citizen set aside ; all these flagrant violations
of right must be justified by an American Congress, intoxicated
with the fumes of fanatical zeal and revolutionary incendiarism.
It was a dark period in our history, when an assemblage of
enthusiastic emancipationists had under deceptions colors stolen
their way into the seats of representation in the National Capitol,
and at length had it in their power to repudiate all the traditions
of the anterior epochs of the Republic, and desecrate the holiest
sanctuaries of the people.
Thaddeus Stevens, the cool, calculating demagogue, like his
prototype, Cardinal Wolsey, paying hypocritical adoration at the
shrines of zealous humanitarianism, on the 8th of December,
1862, brought into the Lower House of Congress a bill to indem
nify the President and other persons for suspending the privilege,
of the writ of Habeas Corpus, and acts done in pursuance
314 A REVIEW OF THE
thereof. Up to this period it would have been difficult to have
discovered in the utterances of the real or pretended emancipation
zealots, with a few exceptions, that anything had been done by
the President and Cabinet, or by any of their numerous subordi
nates throughout the country, that was not in strict accordance
with the Constitution and the laws of Congress heretofore en
acted. Had not an obsequious Attorney-General convicted the
Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of
error, when the latter decided that the suspension of the Habeas
Corpus was the perogative alone of the Federal Congress? Had
not the revolutionary party by their representatives in both the
United States Senate and House fully endorsed that view of
constitutional interpretation, and acted in entire conformity there
with ? Had not, again, a partisan press throughout the North,
echoed the above sentiments to the eclat, and hurled anathemas
and opprobrium upon the heads of those, who had the boldness
and honesty to stand up and question the right of the President
and his subordinates to suspend the Habeas Corpus, and do what
ever else they might deem advantageous in furtherance of the
abolition cause ? Tomes would be required to contain all the
labored arguments that filled to satiety the Northern press, de
signed to prove the entire constitutionality of the many violations
of civil liberty, that were inflicted upon the citizens of the loyal
States, and which would have driven to revolution the people of
the most despotic governments of Europe ; and could only ha-vo
been perpetrated with impunity upon degraded serfs by the
Ghengis Khans and Tarnerlanes of history.
But the introduction and party support of the Indemnity Bill
to a philosophical mind, was clear and palpable proof of the
conscious falsity of the abolition reasoning, which claimed to find
support for the infractions of the Constitution in that instrument
itself. Mr. Stevens was far too clear in his perceptions to be de
luded into the belief, that any sanction could be found in the
Constitution for many acts to which he himself had freely given
his adhesion. In support!: g the admission of West Virginia, he
had declared that there was no constitutional warrant for such
action ; but contended that the measure was justified by the exi
gency of the times. On many other occasions he had expressed
similar sentiments, defending his views nevertheless by political
necessity, and not by any authority to be found in the Federal
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. S15
Constitution. At the beginning of the session of this Congress,
he even had the boldness to declare upon the floor of the House,
that he " had grown sick of the talk about the Union as it was,
and the Constitution as it is."
The bill of indemnity, as it passed the lower House of Con
gress, led by Mr. Stevens, was too open a repudiation of the
Constitution to receive the unqualified approval of a more
cautious Senate. This body, the majority of whom were equally
desirous to enact a bill of general oblivion for all the illegal and
unconstitutional acts of the President, Cabinet, and all the infe
rior subordinates of the administration, was nevertheless more
guarded in endeavoring to have its legislation apparently to con
form with the words of the Federal Constitution, so far as the
same could be made to do so. Senator Collamer, of Vermont,
took grounds of opposition to the constitutionality of the Indem
nity Bill, passed by the House, and prepared a substitute for it,
which was reported by the Judiciary Committee of the Senate
on the 27th of January, 1863. The main feature of the Senator s
Substitute was that it provided for the removal to the Circuit
Courts of the United States of all actions commenced, or to be
commenced in the State Courts against persons who had violated
the individual rights of their citizens. This was simply an in
direct method of reaching, as far as possible, the same objects
sought by the Indemnity Bill of Mr. Stevens, that is to say,
absolute immunity for all the past and future unconstitutional
acts of the Federal administration and its satellites. It was per
ceived that were authority granted to remove actions from a
State into a Circuit Court of the United States, the judges and
jurors of which were the menials of Federal power, the absolute
oblivion of these actions was well nigh reached. Whilst this
bill was before the Senate, James A. Bayard, of Delaware, ex
pressed his views of the measure in the following language :
"With the solitary exception of an amendment, proposed by the Hon
orable Senator of Ohio, which was originally rejected and afterwards
adopted, there is nothing in the bill that does ought than advance us
towards a despotic exercise of power. It refers not only to the past, but
to the future action of the Executive of the United States, and it throws
a shield over every act of aggression that he can commit against the
rights of an American citizen ; and interposes a bar, in point of fact, to
the right of recovery against even the individual who is the agent for
the purpose of infracting those rights. * * * They (the friends of
81G A REVIEW OF THE
the measure) will have, by the passage of this bill, brought the legislative
power into accord with the Executive, so as to prevent for past action
and for future action of the Executive, any redress on the part of an
American citizen, however great the outrage may have been. In my
judgment, it would have been better to pass the House Bill. That is a
plain, open, manly defiance of the Federal Constitution* This is more
indirect. It is in some respects sustainable ; but I trust that in others,
when it comes to the criterion of the Courts, it will be adjudged to be
void and of no effect. It is useless to particularize now ; but whether it
be done under cover of law, and whether it be sustained or not, it is, in
my belief, equally true that the passage of the bill is but an advance
towards a centralized despotism, in this country,"*
The Senate bill having passed that body, came up in the House
on the 18th of February, for consideration. Mr. Yoorhees, of
Indiana, spoke at considerable length in opposition to the meas
ure. He said :
" SIR : The bill now before the House has no parallel in the history of
this or any other free people. It is entitled An Act to indemnify the
President and other persons for suspending the privilege of the Writ of
Habeas Corpus, and acts done in pursuance thereof. But it embraces
even more than its startling title would indicate. It gives to the Execu
tive and all his subordinates, not merely security for crimes committed
against the citizen in times past, but confers a license to continue in the
future the same unlimited exercise of arbitrary power, which has brought
disgrace and danger to th^ country, I propose, to the best of my ability,
this day to show that neither indemnity for the past nor impunity for
the future can be bestowed on those who have violated, and who propose
further to violate the great and fundamental principles of constitutional
liberty."
After an extended debate in the House, the Senate s Substitute
was rejected, and a Committee of Conference was appointed.
This Committee reported a bill, which embodied a compromise
of views between the two Houses ; but which to the unobserv
ant seemed to embrace new matter. One section of this Com
promise Bill authorized the President, at any time during the
rebellion, and when in his judgment required, to suspend the
privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus throughout the United
States or in any part thereof. In another section, provision was
made for removing into a Circuit Court of the United States any
action " commenced in a State Court against any officer, civil or
military, or against any other person for any arrest or imprison
ment made, or other trespasses or wrongs done or committed, or
Annual Cyclopedia, 1863, p. 2S&
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 317
any act omitted to be done, at any time during the present rebel
lion, by virtue or under color of any authority derived from or
exercised by or under the President of the United States, or any
Act of Congress."
The bill, as submitted by the Committee of the Senate and
House of Representatives, met the approbation of the majority
in both these bodies ; and receiving the sanction of President
Lincoln March 3d, 1863, became a law. This act completed the
series of measures which completely ^ changed the character of
the Government from a confederation of States, into what his
tory should entitle the monarchically consolidated American
Union. With the enactment of this series, the legislative revo
lution was completed. The party of fanaticism had at length
introduced their principles into the workings of the General
Government ; it next behooved them to sustain these upon the
battle field, and thus carry forward and complete the social revo
lution, towards which they looked with anxiety.
The purse and the sword had now been grasped in one hand,
and civil liberty, the birth-right of every American freeman, was
wrested from its deposit, the Constitution, and committed to the
keeping of Abraham Lincoln. This Chief Magistrate, whoso
oath demanded obedience to the Constitution and a faithful exe
cution of the laws, though a guilty participant in the sacrilege
of robbing his country s Magna Charta, became by the act
of his criminal compeers, the repository of the sacred emblems
of civil right, which anterior ages had bequeathed. Freedom
ceased to be any longer what its name signified. From that
period forward every American citizen possessed only such
liberty us the Federal executive saw proper to accord him. The
President had it in his power, by virtue of the act of Congress,
to order the arrest and incarceration of any citizen in the broad
arena of the Union ; and no authority in the States or in the
Federal Judiciary could withstand the dictator. His will, though
feeble, was absolute, and that of the fiendish Nero and the tyrants
of the French revolution was no more. These earlier despots
were able to deprive of liberty whomsoever they chose ; so could
the American President.
Abraham Lincoln and his guilty associates in crime were voted
by the Eump Congress entire immunity for all offences that any
of them, under the guise of authority, had perpetrated, since the
318 A REVIEW OF THE
commencement of the rebellion, upon the persons and property
of innocent and unoffending citizens ; against whom no accusa
tion could be preferred, save that they believed the abolition war
policy to be unconstitutional and inimical to the principles of
republics. But fortune, in her grant of imbecility, compensated
for the grave error that a maddened and intoxicated people, in
the midst of an appalling revolution, had committed. That
beneficient goddess either had other duties for the American
Union, or she wished in future to witness on the Western Con
tinent, a chivalric combat of crown worthy heroes ; for had Na
poleonic will and ambition conjoined themselves with the powers
of the Federal President, the days of the great occidental repub
lic in name, even, would have been chronicled amongst the things
of the past. The name was retained, however, because fear for
bade its abandonment; but governmental consolidation in its
fullness had been reached.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 319
CHAPTER XIX.
DEMOCRATIC ANTI-WAR ATTITUDE.
Party ties, for a time, after the inauguration of hostilities
against the South, seemed * to the unreflecting almost to have
disappeared ; but this was so in appearance, rather than in reality.
A wave of deceived love for the Union swept over the JSTorth,
and washed into the war current the masses of all political
organizations, and large numbers of the Democratic leaders were
also carried by the flood into an antagonism of sentiment to that
which they and their party, prior to the attack on Fort Sumpter
had advocated. In this rapid transit, from one school of politi
cal opinions to the opposite, we have a fair illustration of the
manner in which modern pretended leaders are ready to abandon
their principles and creed, when a storm of popular favor carries
their opposing party bark into the port of triumphant victory.
13ut all those competent to think for themselves, and whose
principles harmonized with the opinions that had been uniformly
entertained by the representative men of the Democratic party,
notwithstanding the popular clamor, remained attached to their
sentiments ; but from the necessity of the situation, they were
either compelled to conceal their thoughts or run the risk of
political martyrdom. Owing to the large desertion that had
taken place in their ranks, the Democratic leaders that remained
true their principles had become too few to be able to rally their
followers into an opposition to the coercion doctrine of the aboli
tion party. The cry for the Union drowned all the patriotic
* " There Is, or has been quite a general impression, backed by constant
and confident assertions, ;hat the people of the free States were united
in support of the war, until an Anti-Slavery aspect was given to it by the
administration. Yet that is very far from the truth. There was no
moment wherein a large portion of the Northern Democracy were not at
least passively hostile to any form or shade of coercion ; while many
openly condemned and stigmatised it as attrocious, unjustifiable aggres
sion. And this opposition, when least vociferous, sensibly subtracted
from the power and diminished the efficiency of the North," Greeley s
Conflict. Vol. 2, p. 513.
320 A REVIEW OF THE
expostulation of those who endeavored to prove that a war
against the South found no warrant in the Federal Constitution,
or in the principles of an enlightened republican confederacy.
It soon seemed as if the war current was irresistible, and the
large and cautious portion of those who believed the coercion
policy to be unconstitutional, deemed it prudential to refrain
from the utterance of their opinions, and thus the flood gates of
war fury were permitted to open to their fullest extent. A small
and resolute band, however, of bold and courageous freemen,
members of the Democratic party and others antagonistic to
ultra-abolitionism, declined to surrender all their sense of man
hood and independence, and, without any hypocritical conceal
ment of their opinions, steadfastly combatted the doctrine of
coercion as wicked, anti-republican and unconstitutional, and one
pregnant with future evils for the perpetuity of the free institutions
of America. That war and bloodshed could unite in fraternal
concord the two sections of the Union, now become inharmonious
from a sectionalized antagonism of conflicting principles, appeared
to this class of citizens as madness in the extreme. This class of
Democrats was the only one deserving to be recognized as the
followers of that party, which from the flrst endorsed the senti
ments of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions ; and had such
doctrines found no supporters even in the darkness of revolution,
human nature on this occasion would have been convicted of a
perfidy to principle unheard of in the annals of all anterior
epochs.
The disintegration that had nearly penetrated to the core of
the Democratic party, displayed itself in unmistakable colors
when the war cry of abolitionism was heard throughout the
length and breadth of the Republic. Men, who up to this
period, had in words staunchly defended the cardinal principles
of the old party of Jefferson, which denied to the General Gov
ernment any power to compel by arms the people of a State to
remain in a Union distasteful to them, at once changed their
position and planted themselves under the banner of the coer-
cionists.
And although the American people in appearance had divided
the Northern against the Southern, a division, however, not of
sections, obtained as the true one. On the one side were arrayed
all those who. deducing their lineage from Federal and Tory
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 331
ancestors, favored the employment of the war-power for tlie en
forcement of the national will against the States and their people ;
and on the other were found those who denied that the General
Government had ever been clothed by its framers with such
august authority. The rebels in battle array were marshalled,
ready to dispute the right of the Government to coerce by arms
the people of any of the States, and they, like the anti-war party
of the ]STojrth, based their opinions upon the often endorsed
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798- 9.* Dissemble the
situation, therefore as we may, truth demands of the impartial
historian the fair admission, that during the war of the rebellion
but two real parties existed in the nation ; the Southern Confeder
ates and the Northern anti-coercion Democrats forming the one of
these, and the unconcealed Abolitionists, who sincerely strove for
the emancipation and elevation of the negro race, the other.
In former chapters, the hypocritical guise assumed by the
political abolitionists, has been discussed at length ; it now remains
to be presented the false attitude likewise maintained, for selfish
ends, by Democratic leaders, during the war ; and to this de
ceptions position are due, in a large measure, the vast calamities
that have been entailed upon the country, from an unholy and
fiendish crusade of one section of the Union against the other.
D
Had the influential Democrats of the Northern States boldly
faced their political enemies upon the question of Southern sub
jugation, and sternly demanded that no men should be taken
from any of the States for the wicked and unconstitutional pur
pose of crushing a kindred people, the demoniacal purpose of the
fanatical party of Lincoln would have been foiled. Such a
demand would have paralysed the power of the abolition admin
istration, and prevented it from securing recruits for the vile
object it was secretly plotting to accomplish, under the pretense
of defending the Union. But, instead of asserting what justice
and the principles of the Federal compact demanded, and resisting
* " From a period as early as 1798, there had existed in all the States a
party almost uninterruptedly in the majority, based upon the creed that
each State was in the last resort the sole judge, as well of its wrongs, as
of the mode and measure of redress. * * * * The Demo
cratic party of the United States repeated, in its successful canvas of
1836, the declaration made in numerous previous political contests, that
it would faithfully abide by and uphold the principles laid down in the
Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798 and 1799, and that it adopts
those principles as constituting one of the Main foundations of its politi
cal creed. Special Message of Jefferson Davis of April 29, 1S81.
322 A REVIEW OF THE
the war and its prosecution ; false and treacherous leaders within
the Democratic organization, pretended that they were in favor
of defending the national authority by arms, and compelling the
obedience of the Southern States to the General Government.
They confined their open opposition to contending that the war
must be waged upon constitutional principles ; whereas, it was
clear to the mind of every conscientious and intelligent member
of the Democratic party, that such a thing as a constitutional
war against the Southern States was an utter absurdity ; for the
General Government possessed no further power than was con
ferred upon it by the Federal Constitution ; and this instrument
was silent as regarded any such authority.
The campaigns of 1861 were contested, seemingly without a
political difference, both parties in the North advocating a most
vigorous prosecution of the war against the South, in order that
the restoration of the national authority might be effected. In.
some sections, certain Republicans united with the Democrats
under the name of the Union party, and the resolutions of these
in conventions, called for vigorous measures against the seceded
States. The small party that found itself within the Democratic
organization, was too feeble to make its voice heard in the party
resolutions of county and State conventions.
In the resolves of Democratic conventions, the sentiment of
the party might reasonably be supposed to have been indicated ;
but it was far from being so at this period. Like by its oppo
nent, the Republican party, a false attitude was assumed by the
Democratic party before the country, induced by a fear of popu
lar opinion, which unmistakably had committed itself in favor
of the war for the Union. The Republicans found it necessary
to disguise the sentiments of all those in their party who sought
to make the emancipation of slavery the direct object of the war
against the South ; and the Democrats deemed it also expedient
for partisan effect to preserve as much as possible from disclosure
the opinions of their independent men, who resisted from prin
ciple the prosecution of the war against the South. Both parties
w^re thus false to their known creeds and antecedents, as was
well understood by shrewd discerners of partisan opinions. From
the first the political leaders of each party were able to detect
the real sentiments of their adversaries. The Democrats accused
the Republicans of designing negro emancipation, as their
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 323
ultimate aim, which the latter stoutly denied ; and on the other
hand, the Republicans charged upon their opponents that they
were in reality opposed to the war, though pretending to favor its
prosecution ; and this latter accusation was likewise vehemently
denied. These accusations were indeed both well founded, as
truthful history will be obliged to determine.
The Democrats of principle were opposed to the war, because
it was an assumption by the General Government of an authority
that had never been delegated to it. The States, as they viewed
matters, having been originally Sovereign Commonwealths by
their successful revolt against Great Britain, and their recognition
as such in the family of nations, afterwards agreed to unite for
commercial and other purposes in a general confederacy, in order
that they might the better be enabled to defend their independ
ence, and advance their happiness amongst the other nations of
the earth. But the powers delegated by the States were clearly
defined in the Constitution, and embraced only certain matters
of a civil nature, which as the framers of the Government be
lieved, could be better discharged by Federal than by State
officials. The General Government, in this manner constituted,
was simply as designed, the representative agent of the States,
and in no wise clothed with authority to originally dictate to its
component factors, the States themselves, the independent sove
reignties, over all matters of government not clearly enumerated
in the Federal bond of Union, the Constitution. The framers
of the Federal Compact had discussed the question of granting t ne
right to the central authority to coerce by force of arms the States,
but this power they expressly refused to confer. In democratic
eyes, therefore, what else could the war be, but an unwarranted
exercise of unconstitutional authority.
Another reason that induced Democratic opposition to a war
of subjugation, arose from the belief that all efforts of that kind,
instead of cementing the antagonistic portions of the country,
would simply widen the breach that had for years been forming
between the people of the ISTorth and those of the South ; and
render a permanent Union of the two sections upon republican
principles impossible. The history of the rise and fall of repub
lics, and the philosophy of human nature, were sufficient to
satisfy reflecting Democrats that the preservation of Govern
ments, such as the American Union, must ever rest upon the
804 A REVIEW OF THE
free and unconstrained consent of the controlling minds of every
community. This consent can alone be retained by that govern
ment which metes out equal and exact justice, according to the
letter and spirit of its institutions, to all its component sections
and their citizens. The Democratic party had ever done so whilst
the reins of power were in their hands ; and no serious revolt of
any State ever raised its head during their administration of pub
lic affairs ; and when dissatisfaction upon any occasion manifested
itself, wisdom dictated to their representatives to remove the
same, and this having taken place, peace instantly returned.
Again, the Democratic party could not approve of the war
begun against the South, under the pretence of restoring the
Union, when fully satisfied that other reasons formed the motives
for its inauguration. Had they not read the declarations of
Seward, Giddings, Burlingame, and other leaders, whose words
clearly proved that negro emancipation, and that alone, was the
secret that urged the Abolitionists to take up the cause of that
same Union, which before this period had in their eyes been con
temptible ? If, argued the Democrats, the preservation of the
Federal Union alone, influenced the Republican party in its
movements, why did its representative men refuse all terms of
compromise when offered by Southern statesmen ; and at a time
when this, as was admitted upon all sides, would have rescued
the country from the bloody chasm into which abolition obsti-
nancy and fanaticism were driving it? The party of reason and
reflection could not be ignorant of all these facts ; and when the
war was made and prosecuted in violation of rectitude and a true
and enlightened policy, was their approbation of the govern
mental iniquity to be expected ? Not unless error and madness
were to be canonized as truth. And would even true philan
thropic motives have called for the emancipation of the Southern
bondmen, the demand, nevertheless, would have forbidden war
and bloodshed for the accomplishment of their freedom. For as
Caucasian serfdom had perished in the different countries of
Europe, before the advancement of a refining and Christian
intelligence, without any revolutionary uprising ; so also should
the same influence, penetrating the Southern States themselves,
have been permitted to remove African slavery without any
obtrusive Northern intermeddling. Was then the Democratic
party required to give its support to a war commenced in viola-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 325
tion of all the principles of modern civilization ? If it was not,
what else, to be obedient to conscience, could sincere and intelli
gent members of the party of Jefferson in the ]S"orth do, except
to oppose to the utmost of their ability, the abolition war, as
unconstitutional, unchristian, and altogether anti-republican in
its aims and tendencies?
As the war against the South progressed, one occurrence after
another revealed more clearly the changing programme of the
administration party. The legislation of the first regular session
of the Thirty-seventh Congress, disclosed to the eyes of thinking
men that the overthrow of negro slavery, under the pretence of
devotion to the Union, was fully resolved upon, by Republican
leaders assembled at Washington and throughout the North.
O O
And as abolition approval became enthusiastic in its endorse
ment of the war and its changing schedule, so in like ratio did
the Democratic party unite in a more solid phalanx of opposition
to the anticipated designs of abolitionism.
In the different States of the Xorth, an organized opposition
in the Democratic party to the war, began first to display itself
with intensity in the political campaigns of 1862 ; arid yet no
important convention of that party fully committed itself to an
open denunciation of the war for the Union. The politicians
who are ever upon the lookout for political ascendancy rather
than for the success of principle, held in check those Democrats
who would have had the party in its conventions to declare
openly against the war, and baave to the utmost abolition malig
nity. An avowal by the Democratic party of its open repudia
tion of the war of invasion against the South, would have
released it from its hypocritical attitute, and placed it in a posi
tion where its blows would have been more felt by its adversary.
But in the base and ignoble condition in whicn it was placed by
false leaders, men of honor and courage were unable to grapple
successfully with their political opponents. How could men,
thoroughly imbued with the belief that the war was unconstitu
tional, give a hearty support to candidates nominated upon a
platform which called for the restoration of the Union by blood
shed, and for vigorous hostilities against the seceded States?
They only did so as a choice of evils, convinced at the same time
that the spirit of the Democratic party was repugnant to all
coercive measures ; and although the latter had been endorsed in
326 A REVIEW OF THE
their conventions, yet they felt that a cowardly policy alone had
been instrumental in inducing their leaders to approve of such
undemocratic principles.
The Democratic party went into the several State canvases,
animated by hostility to the war, and thoroughly imbued with the
conviction that the theory of the administration for the restora
tion of a Confederated Union was baseless and chimerical. The
contest already having proved one of longer continuance than
popular expectation had anticipated, was calculated to induce
most of those who had originally favored compromise to support
the principles and candidates of the Democratic party. A strong
Northern tide of antipathy to the movements of abolition
ism, had indeed been rising since the meeting of Congress, in
December, 1861 ; and which continued to flow the more rapidly
as the curtain of disguise continued from time to time to be
lifted. The Presidential proclamation of September 22d, 1862,
might seem to have produced a crisis of popular revulsion against
the abolition policy, which showed itself in the anti-administra
tion victories of the autumn of that same year.
The victories of this year, in the Northern States, recuperated
somewhat the prostrate Democracy, and inflicted a slight blow
upon the Republican administration, which was fruitful of bene
fit. Horatio Seymour, of New York, and Joel Parker, of New
Jersey, were elected Governors of their respective States by con
siderable majorities. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois,
were carried by the Democrats by small majorities on their State
tickets. All these States sent heavier Democratic delegations to
the Lower House of National Representatives, than were found
in the Thirty-seventh Congress. Michigan, "Wisconsin, and most
other Western States, showed a decided falling off in administra
tion strength.
It was natural that the result of the elections of 1862, should
infuse a buoyancy of spirit into the breasts of the Northern
Democracy ; and many of them, forgetful of the platforms upon
which their victory had been won, credited the growing anti-war
sentiment of the people of their different States as the chief
cause of their success,, No doubt this sentiment was largely in
strumental in keeping up the compact organization of the party ;
but the time had elapsed when the subjugationists, with vast
armies in the field and the whole machinery of the National
POLITICAL CONFLICTIN AMERICA. 327
Government at their command, could successfully be resisted.
But the Peace Democrats of the Western States and elsewhere,
emboldened, nevertheless, by the late successes, believed that the
party could now be brought into an attitude of open resistance
to the war ; and, impressed with this conviction, they deemed it
their duty to make the effort.
Besides, the Thirty-seventh Congress would have seemed to
an indifferent spectator as if desirous of adding additional incen
tives to the Peace party, to resist the war of subjugation. For
if ever a people should rebel against an ungodly and wicked fac
tion having control of a Government, then the Northern people
would have been fully justified in doing so at this period.
But, notwithstanding the odious and unconstitutional legislation
of this Congress, the people were found to be as slaves, utterly
incapable of resisting the tyrannous despots, and the old party
of law and order was still compelled to muzzle its utterances
and stigmatize those resisting with arms the national tyranny, as
traitors and assassins of liberty.
The anti-coercion sentiments of Benjamin Wood, one of the
outspoken and independent peace Congressmen of the the North,
which will ever reflect increasing lustre and glory upon his name
throughout distant ages, are here given at considerable length ;
and this because they are typical of the views of those who from
the first opposed the inauguration of hostilities, and who ever
afterwards continued to advocate a cessation of arms in order
that reason might be left free to restore what fanaticism had dis
rupted. Mr. Wood, in his speech of February 27th, 18^3, said :
"We can never by force of arms control the will of a peo
ple, our equals in the attributes of enlightened manhood ; and
while the will of that people remains adverse to political com
panionship with us, political companionship is impossible. Blood
shed, destruction of property and occupation of lands are possi
ble ; much suffering, grief and folly are possible ; we have too
sadly proved it ; but a constrained union of Sovereign States is
an impossibility, which if omnipotence could accomplish, omnis
cience would not attempt.
" I feel that upon the fresh, pure soil of the New World, we
have thrown the seeds of discord, and they will take root. But
328 A REVIEW OF THE
while my experience and the testimony of our fathers through
eighty-seven years of prosperity and progress, have well estab
lished my faith in the beneficence of a union of the States, I
cannot understand that its blessings are of a nature to be enjoyed
upon compulsion.
" But granting it possible, the question arises of equal moment,
is it desirable ? Has not the struggle already been too fierce to
admit of unity and cordial feeling between a conquering and a
conquered section ? Sir, I fear it has ; I believe that while the
memory of this w T ar exists, the people of the North and South,
united by constraint, would not sufficiently forgive the past years
record to admit of kindly relationship in the same politcal house
hold. Right or wrong, men will cling to their own impressions
of a great and sanguinary struggle, in which they or their sires
have been participants. As the living fathers of future genera
tions this day feel, so will they bequeath to their children, and in
natural course, the North and South will nurse their own seperate
views of this unparalleled epoch of carnage and contantion."
" Will the text book of history, conned by the boys of Massa
chusetts, serve hereafter in the school rooms of the Carolinas 2
"Will the stories of Manassas, of Shiloh, of Antietam, of Freder-
icksburg, and of a hundred other battle fields, be told in the
same spirit, Northward and Southward from the banks of the
Potomac ? Will the winter tales be similar when the youth of
either section gather about the hearthstone, and feel the young
blood tingle in their veins at the words of white haired heroes ?
Will the matrons of Louisiana train their offspring to venerate
the name of Butler ? Will the remembrances of Davis, Lee and
Johnston be identical in New England and Virginia ? No, sir,
unless mutual consent should re-unite us, the pages of history
and the words of tradition will breathe of the sympathies that
now exist ; and the generations to come will as surely be educated
to distinct and opposite prejudices. The school-room, the pulpit
and the press, would then, as now, inculcate doctrines that cannot
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 329
assimilate ; and in this Capitol, the representatives of the people
would be the representatives of sectional antipathies. Sir, to
avoid this, we must avoid inflicting the sting of submission, or
engendering the. pride of conquest.
" Our fathers gave us a Union founded on mutual consent,
concession, and reciprocal attachment ; we would entail upon our
children, a political connection based upon hatred, suspicion, and
opposing prejudices. A Nationality thus constituted, would be
a mockery of republicanism and its bane; a political prostitu
tion ; the joining of hands before an altar whose divinity could
attest the heart s irrepressible loathing and disgust. Had I the
faculty to crush with one blow the material power of the South,
I would not strike. My pride as an American would revolt at
the thought of dragging them reluctant, hopeless, and spirit-
broken into a fellowship that they abhor. Union restored by
subjugation would be but the prelude to increasing altercation.
It is not enough to affirm that I would not enforce the unnatural
connection ; sir, I would not consent to it. I would oppose it as
a degredation to ourselves, an insult to our institutions, and a
violation of the priciples of self-government. I would oppose
it as an impediment to our national progress ; as a perpetuation
of discord and contention between States, and as involving either
its own future dissolution, or the assumption by the General
Government of military and despotic functions, fatal to republi
canism. I confess, sir, that I apprehend no difficulties or mis
fortunes in the event of a separation at all commensurate with
those that must inevitably prove the sequences of reunion by
mere force of arms.
" I cannot conceive a happy, prosperous and republican Union,
cemented by blood, remolded in repugnance, and prolonged by
the submission of the weak to the dictation of the strong,
"A partnership in our Confederacy should be granted as a
boon, and only to those that seek it ; not enforced as an obliga
tion upon those that ask it not. It should be held a privilege to
330 A REVIEW OF THE
be proud of, not an imposition to shrink from and protest against.
"Were I certain that, in a military sense, this war would prove
successful, nevertheless I would oppose it ; for with the destruction
of the resisting power of the South, would vanish every hope of
their existence as equal and contented members of one household.
" In my view this war, nominally for the Union, has actually
been waged against it.
" But upon what foundation was the structure (of the Union)
built ? Sir, upon the free will of the people. Not of one
State, or of one section, but of all the States and of all the
sections. While that free will existed, the temple was of a
nature to withstand the ravages of time. That free will has
ceased to exist, and the temple has crumbled into dust. It is no
more. It is a glory of the past. "What you conceive to be the
structure is but a memory, so intense that it seems reality ; but
the substance is not there. Rebuild it if you can ; but you must
first obtain the free will of the South which your armies and
navies cannot secure.
" I have never voted a dollar for the war. As a legislator, as
a citizen^ and as a man, I claim to be absolved from all participa
tion in this murderous strife. "With all my humble abilities I
have endeavored to arrest it. I shall still endeavor, and if in
vain, let my efforts attest before God and man, that I am un
stained with the blood of my countrymen.
"Sir, you may have observed that I have spoken without
regard to the views of other men or the doctrines of political
organizations. If I stand alone, my isolation conjures up no
phantoms of doubt or fear. While my country groans beneath
the stroke of her own dagger, I forswear all allegiance to party
Whatever proposition in my mind shall enhance the prospect of
peace shall have my vote. Peace is the goal of my political
course the haven of my hopes. I care not by whose chart I
steer, or whose hand shall guide the helm, so that the compass
shall guide thitherward. Whosoever shall raise its standards,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 331
shall find ine ready to serve beneath its folds. Whosoever shall
blazon the olive branch for his devise, shall have me his adherent.
In whatever shape the demon of destruction shall appear, I will
oppose him. In whatever garb the spirit of peace shall clothe
her radiant form, I will embrace her. Conciliation, compro
mise or seperation, each shall be acceptable to me, if as its conse
quence, we shall be spared the scourge of war. Let the most
zealous emancipationist suggest a cessation of hostilities, and I am
with him. Let the staunchest member of the opposition uphold
the war, and I am against him. I have no sympathies with those
who denounce the Administration, and yet call for vigorous
hostilities. In my view, the Abolitionist is a more honest politi
cian and a more conscientious citizen. lie is a fanatic not a
mere time server ; wrong, but consistent in his wrong ; the wor
shipper of a false God, but earnest in his adoration. Would
that all who denounce him, were as sincere and as bold in the
expression of their opinions." *
During February and March, 1863, the Peace Democracy
began to assume a bolder position than they had as yet done ;
and the slurring epithet of Copperheads , from this period, was
currently applied to them by their political enemies. Meetings
of the Peace men were held in different sections of the country ;
and a large one in Mozart Hall, New York, was addressed by
Fernando Wood and others of similar sentiments. Resolutions
strongly denunciatory of the war were adopted by the Mozart
Democracy.
The Democratic party of Connecticut, in the spring of 1863,
placed in nomination for Governor, Col. Thomas H. Seymour,
an early, consistent and outspoken opponent of the Abolition
war ; and the Convention which nominated him, adopted the
following resolution :
" Resolved, That while we denounce the heresy of secession, as unda-
fended and unwarranted by the Constitution, we as confidently asserb,
that whatever may heretofore have been the opinion of our countrymen,
the time has now arrived when all true lovers of the Constitution are
ready to abandon the "monstrous fallacy" that the Union can be restored
*Appendix to Con. Globe, 3d Session of 37th Congress, Part 2, pp. 134-5.
802 A REVIEW OF THE
by the armed hand alone ; and we are anxious to inaugurate such action,
honorable alike to the contending sections, as will stop the ravages of
war, avert universal bankruptcy, and unite all the States upon terms of
equality as members of one Confederacy.
The war party now became more bitterly denunciatory of their
political antagonists, than before, accusing them of a desire either
to establish slavery throughout the North, or to disrupt the Union
in the interest of the. rebellion. It soon became evident that
such abuse and vilification would be able to detract timid men
from the support of the Peace party ; and neutralize their
strength by detaining them from the polls, or attract them to the
support of those boasting themselves the Union party of the Nation.
That the Peace Democracy would not be able successfully to
contest with the party that already had seized the National purse
and sword, become evident in the Connecticut campaign. Thomas
H. Seymour was defeated and the peace movement crippled.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA.
CHAPTER XX.
THE NEW ERA.
A new era of American affairs began with the 1st of January,
1863 ; this being the date of the emancipation edict, which pro
claimed freedom to the negro slaves of the South. In this
famous proclamation, President Lincoln boldly avowed the false
hood of his own former assurances of his constitutional inability
and also his disinclination to interfere with the institutions of the
seceded States* ; and without any further disguise he declared
that the future policy of the Government should embrace not
alone the non-extension, but the entire removal of African Sla
very. In more senses than one, therefore, did this constitute
the commencement of a new era. It was impossible but that
this proclamation emenating from the Chief Magistrate of the
Nation, and clearly disproving his own former utterances and that
of his party, should sanctify perfidy and breach of faith ; and
tend to enoble every form of treachery and corruption of which
mankind are capable.
*" Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States,
that by the accession of a Republican administration, their property and
their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has
never been any reasonable cause for such apprehensions. Indeed, the
most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been
open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the public speeches of
him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches
when I declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere
with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I
have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. Those
who maintained and elected me did so, with full knowledge that I had
made this and similar declarations, and had never recanted them.
And more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and
as a aw to themselves and to me the clear and emphatic resolution which
I now read.
"Resolved, That the maintenace inviolate of the rights of the States,
and especially the right of each State, to order and control its own do
mestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively, is essen
tial to the balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of
our political fabric depend ; and we denounce the lawless invasion by
armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what
pretext, as among the grossest crimes." Lincoln s Inaugural of March 4,
1861.
834 A REVIEW OF THE
The new era being thus inaugurated in the promulgation of
the final emancipation proclamation, the 37th Congress by the
time of its termination, had so welded the chains of despotism,
as to render the revolution complete and irreversible. The prin
ciples of the radical revolutionists, Simmer, Stevens, Lovejoy and*
others, which at first were seemingly repudiated utterly in Con
gress, now came forward and found party recognition, being sus
tained by a pretended popular opinion in the Northern States.
The new era was especially significant in this, that legislation
came to be molded by what showed itself, from a despotic sup
pression of opposing opinion, as the will of the majority.
The revolutionary leaders were sagacious and far seeing, and
from an early period of the war, little doubt, even prior to its
commencement, had planned the entire future policy of their
party, which was to remodel the whole social system of the South
as also of the North, should the might of numbers finally tri
umph over the defenders of the Constitution, and the principles
of free government. Did not Charles Sumner offer his famous
resolutions in the United States Senate, which declared the for
feiture of statehood by all the seceded members of the South
ern Confederacy 2 and did he not do so at so early a day that his
senatorial friends deemed it impolitic that they should commit
the Republican party to their endorsement? Did not the radical
Congressmen, from the first, oppose the admission of Representa
tives from the reclaimed sections of the South, out of fear for
their favored State-suicide doctrine, which would territorialize the
revolted States, and place them fully beneath the heel of their
despotic power? Did Thaddeus Stevens, Bingham, of Ohio,
Eliot, of Massachusetts, and certain other radicals in the House,
vote for the admission of Flanders and Halm as Representatives
from the First and Second Districts of Louisiana, after the cap
ture of the Crescent City by the Union army ? Henry L. Dawes,
himself a Republican, in his speech of February 17, 1863, showed.
the motive for the opposition to the admission of the Louisiana
Representatives. He said :
"My own colleague (Mr. Eliot) has another remedy. These States,
according to him, have destroyed themselves, and can re-enter the Union
through the preparatory stage of Territorial Governments."
Again, the new era gave fresh impetus to the movement
already begun of enrolling colored soldiers into the Northern
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 335
armies. A few enthusiastic Union Generals had in the latter
part of 1862, done everything in their power to impel the
Washington authorities to determine to accept slaves and free
negroes into the military service of the country ; but President
Lincoln and his advisers did not yet deem it prudent to take so
important a step, until its entire safety in Northern public opinion
might be premised. Fugitive slaves, had however, been accepted
by several of these federal commanders, and at the sam^ time
with the knowledge of the Washington Administration. No
express warrant to do so had as yet been given, and nevertheless
negro regiments were recruited and daily drilled without any
fear of rebuke from Abraham Lincoln or his Cabinet. Theara
officers, however, well understood the spirit and tone of the
Administration, and hence had no dread of any reprimands that
might be inflicted, for they were fully assured that none such
would be given by the President, unless in deference to opinions
which he himself by no means cherished.
The revolutionary abolitionists had for some time been advo
cating the enrollment of negroes into the Union armies, and
mainly in behalf of the future political equalization which they
intended to advocate, should the overthrow of the rebellion be
effected. With the new era, therefore, negro enrollment may be
said to date its open approval by the National Administration.
The President, in his Emancipation Proclamation, declared in
language still somewhat guarded, that negroes should henceforth
form a part of the military forces of the nation. He said :
" And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable
condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to
garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and to man vessels of
all sorts in said service.
The Abolitionists now conceived their victory as almost com-
plete, since they, at length, had succeeded in having the Execu
tive to declare before the nation that negro soldiers might be
r taken into the federal service. And, notwithstanding, in the
cautious language which the President had made use of, he had
scarcely committed himself beyond what was already granted in
the Act of Congress of July 17, 1862. This Act had authorized
the employment of negroes in constructing intrenchments, and
in performing camp and other naval and military service, for
which they might be found competent. Full equality in the
8C8 A REVIEW OF THE
military service, however, was not therein conceded, and Abraham
Lincoln, though designing this equality, guarded his language so
carefully, as that he should not appear before the country to be
extending what in reality he meant to grant. His intentions,
nevertheless, were fully understood by those of his friends and
enemies, who were not deceived by words alone. But his ambig
uous expressions admirably served the purpose of his political
partisans, who were thus enabled to interpret them as exigencies
might require.
The enrolling of negroes into the Union armies, which was so
discouraged by the administration during the first and second
years of the war, soon came now to be everywhere allowed. It
was in accordance with what might readily have been surmised,
that Massachusetts, the home of revolutionary republicanism,
should be found to be the first place in the North to open its
doors for negro recruiting. And the earliest upon record that
invoked the privilege of doing so, was Governor Andrew, the
prophetic Executive of the Bay State, who foresaw the streets
and highways of his own Commonwealth crowded with soldiers,
rushing to the battle s front, when the Presidential bugle of free
dom should sound its blast throughout the land. This highly
coveted privilege was accorded to the enthusiastic Chief Magis
trate of the Old State of the Pilgrims, by Edward M. Stanton,
Secretary of War, on the 20th of January, 1863.
And lest his characteristic timidity should deter Abraham
Lincoln from allowing negro recruiting to be prosecuted with
sufficient zeal in all sections of the Union, Thaddeus Stevens
deemed it his duty to exert his utmost efforts to strengthen the
Presidential nerves. It was the policy that Mr. Stevens had
long desired to see inaugurated ; and one which his fellow-mem
bers in Congress credited him as being the first to advocate upon
the floor of the House. Long delay interposed, though wit and
scorn gave frequent admonition of Presidential duty ; but finally
hesitation relaxed its hold. The decree had gone forth. And
now others, perchance, might carry off the glory in equalizing
the human races, should the leader of the House not conspicu
ously show himself the ardent champion of that movement
which he had labored so faithfully to inaugurate.
His amendment of the 27th of January, to the bill before
the House, to raise additional troops for the service of the Gov-
POLITICAL CONFLICT EN T AMERICA. 337
eminent, placed Mr. Stevens in full accord with the new era ;
and none need seek, after that exhibition of desire for negro
equality, to snatch from Vermont s son the laurels he kad so
fairly won. From this period the name of commoner was iitly
applied to the Lancaster statesman. But as the great orator of
Kentucky, Henry Clay, also bore the same appellation, for dis
tinction s sake in history, it will be well to entitle the younger
statesman the negro commoner.
But this effort of Mr. Stevens, to raise negro soldiers, though
it received the approbation of the Lower House of Congress,
already quite obedient to his dictation, was deemed altogether
needless, in the estimation of sagacious Senators. This highly
learned body were unable to see any necessity for legislation,
additional to what had been enacted in the preceding July.
Senators contended that ample power had already been conferred
upon the President to enable him to recruit negroes for any de
partment of the land or naval service for which he might con-
eider them competent. It might have been thought matter of
surprise that these two loyal bodies should differ so widely as to
the powers granted to the President, in regard to the enrollment
of the negroes into the Union armies. Had no fears, however,
been entertained as to the consequences of adopting the policy
of the new era, it is apprehended that much greater harmony of
sentiment would have prevailed between the Senate and House
of Representatives. A clearly avowed negro equalizing and
enlistment policy was yet dreaded by leading Republicans. Ac
cordingly, the Thirty-seventh Congress adjourned, having its
role of despotism finished and complete, but leaving as the mis
sion of the new era to accomplish what reason discouraged, vis :
to equalize as soldiers and citizens the people of every race and
clime.
In view of the popular antipathy to the enrollment of African
soldiers into the army, by far the most prudential method for the
Government to pursue, was to permit the War Department to
apcord the privilege of raising colored troops, and thus elude
public scrutiny to better advantage. Indeed, the wide spread
contempt and hatred of the colored race, was turned to practical
account by the philantrophic reformers, who argued that these
despised men should be taken into the public service, in order
to spare the lives of free white men of the North. The white
333 A REVIEW OF THE
soldiers of the North became at once very dear to the enthusiastic
negro equalizers, when an object gratifying to their malicious
souls was to be served. It had not before occurred to them that
the lives of the poor white men should have been considered, at
a time when the war could have been averted by a slight con
cession of principle to confederate allies, whose conscience and
judgment were equally deserving of regard as their own. But
they were the infallible conscience guides of the races, and the
least swerving from the pre-arranged programme might have
been fatal to their darling hopes of sable elevation.
The new era, with its despotic phases and Africanizing evolu
tions, was now fully installed. The qualm of loathing that had
been rising for some time in democratic sentiment, was sufficient
almost to produce a counter rebellion in the North to resist
equally, what the Southern Confederates were battling. But
much as any rebellion would have been justified, under the cir
cumstances, in resisting the most consummate traitors and des
pots that had ever disgraced the principles of free government ;
a successful one was utterly impossibe at a time when all the
governmental machinery was in the hands of the enemies of the
Confederacy of the fathers, and when vast armies of the youth
ful men of the country were under arms, enlisted in the belief
that they were called into to the service of their country to de
fend the Union and the Constitution ; whereas, every stroke they
inflicted was a stab at that Constitution they adored, and the civil
liberty of their countrymen.
It was the principle of rule or ruin that spurred onwards the
revolutionary men (though a minority of the American peo
ple) who had, under the guise of law, snatched control of the
reins of Government ; and which they determined either to
remodel to suit their wild and delusive ideas of right, or to per
ish in the struggle. And so has it ever been in the world s his
tory ; and the Western revolutionists differed little from their
elder brethren across the waters. Thaddeus Stevens, Charles
Siimner and Horace Greeley varied but triflingly in spirit and
sympathy from Robespierre, Danton and Marat, the men who
were willing to subvert church and State, constitutional and
social order, and overwhelm in one universal vortex of ruin
everything that interposed obstacles to their mad designs and
ambition.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 339
The negro enrolling of the new era, was prosecuted with steady
continuity in face of all the protests of the people of the Bor
der, and the Democrats of the Northern States. Soldiers of
African descent henceforth were enlisted into the service through
out the North, and likewise in those parts of the South which
had been rescued from the control of the Confederates. Fugitive
slaves were all the time making their way into the Union lines,
and being speedily metamorphosed into regiments and corps
d} Afrique, were steadily drilled by white officers. By the 22d
of May, 1863, a special Bureau of colored troops was found nee-
essarv to be organized in the War Department for the manage
ment of this branch of the Federal army. President Lincoln,
in his Message of the 8th of December, following, was able to
speak of the colored recruits as follows ;
<; Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion, full one
hundred thousand are now in the United States military service, about
one-half of which number actually bear arms in the ranks,"
The new era, again, was not alone revolutionary in the move
ments originated by the radicals for placing the negro in the
Union armies, in order to pave the way for his future political
equalization. It was the product of and pregnant with revolution.
The old stable land marks of law and order must be removed to
further the views of men who regarded neither the will nor
interests of the people, further than they could make the same
subserve their own purposes. Had public interests influenced
them, would not their conduct from the first have been different ?
Should not the opinions and sentiments of the Southern people,
being a part of the United States, have been consulted as to their
demands and the conditions upon which they would have been
willing to remain in the Union ? Did not justice and reason so
dictate? Did not the Northern Democratic party, in its con
ciliatory policy, demand this consideration in behalf of the rights
of the Southern people ? Were not the united South and the
Democrats of the North a great majority of the citizens of the
Union I It follows, then, as a sequence, that the Abolitionists,* a
vast minority of the American people, despising the constitu-
*The word Abolitionists will be seen to have been employed at time \
to designate the Republican party, for the reason that though all Repuu-
licans were not Abolitionists, yet all Abolitionists were Republicans,
And besides, it is difficult from the period of the Emancipation Procla
mation, to conceive how any save Abolitionists could act with the
Republican party.
340. A REVIEW OF THE
tional guarantees of their Southern brethren, drove the latter into
rebellion in defence of their inherited rights.
Permission for the soldiers to vote in the army was one of the
instrumentalities seized upon by the revolutionists as an admirable
means for the perpetuation of their power. And as a phase of
the movements of the new era, it deserves to be considered.
The defeat of the Republicans in the Autumn of 1862 in the
North by the Democratic party, came upon them as a clap of
thunder from a clear sky, and they were puzzled to devise plausi
ble excuses for the disaster they had sustained. Their shrewd
leaders fully comprehended the reasons that influenced the popu
lar verdict that had been pronounced against them. But born of
dissimulation, it was not to be expected that they would admit
the real causes which they were aware had contributed to the
result. The main excuse urged by them was, that it was owing
to the absence of such vast numbers of their voters in the army,
that the elections had resulted in their overthrow. It was a
plausible pretence that crafty leaders could employ to good ad
vantage ; for it was reasonable to suppose that all who had
enlisted in the Federal armies would be favorable to the prosecu
tion of the war for the restoration of the Union. And, there
fore, the presumption seemed probable that the majority of the
enrolled men in the different Union armies could be relied upon
to sustain by their votes the war in which these same soldiers
were enlisted.
Immediately after the Republican reverses of 1862, move
ments were set on foot to amend the law, so as to secure the
political aid of the soldiers in the field, in order that all future
efforts of the Democracy to snatch power from Abolition hands
might be thwarted. A purely deceptions method was instituted
to change the law as it stood, in favor of soldier suffrage. Most
of the Constitutions of the Northern States contained provisions
adverse to the right of any indivividual voting, except he was
prepared to tender his ballot in the district or the precinct where
he resided. AVell matured reasons had induced the framers of
the different State Constitutions to demand of every voter that
he be a resident citizen in tliat place where he offers to vote. A
voting army has never been deemed a safe phenomenon by pure
patriots who had no interests to subserve, save those of civil
liberty and free representative government.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 341
The method adopted by the Eepublican leaders, was simply to
obtain the passage of a law by the Legislatures of the different
States, permitting their soldiers in the army to vote ; and that
this result should be remitted and computed with the home vote.
Laws to this effect were passed by the Legislatures of Pennsyl
vania, Connecticut, Iowa, and other States, which were de
clared unconstitutional. A bill also passed both Houses of the
New York Legislature, which was promptly vetoed by Governor
Seymour. It seemed madness to enact laws clearly in violation
of the fundamental charter of a State, but an object was to be
gained in so doing. The Democrats, as consistent men and as
friends of their State Constitutions, could not support a measure
in plain violation of these instruments. The opposition of Horatio
Seymour, of New York, George W. Woodward, of the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania, and of other constitutional men in the
different States, was made use of as an electioneering argument
to induce the soldiers and their friends to believe that the Demo
crats of the North were disinclined to granting them the right
of suffrage.
The Democrats did not meet the demand for soldier voting
with that prompt opposition which duty required ; but they
temporized by showing their readiness to acquiesce in the change
sought for, by supporting, in 1863, in the New York Legislature,
Judge Dean s Bill for an amendment to the Constitution, pro
viding for soldier suffrage. Instead of the evasive resistance to
what they must have felt to be a violation of fundamental prin
ciple , an open and manly resentment of the political wrong
contemplated, would have obtained strong support, even amongst
intelligent soldiers themselves. But in none of the States was
united party opposition made by the Democrats to the voting of
the soldiers in the army, when it once came to be a question of
amending the Constitution for that purpose. There can, how
ever, be but little doubt, that from the time when the question
of voting in the army was first mooted, it was viewed by all
sound constitutional Democrats with dislike, because based upon
unsound principles ; but they saw the disadvantage under which
they would be placed in attempting to combat it. But the Re
publican party, under the captivating pretence of equality, con
tinued zealously to press the right of all citizens to vote, even
when in the service of their country ; and by 1864, fourteen
312 A REVIEW OF THE
States had authorized their soldiers in the field to deposit their
ballots in all elections of the people.
But, until the State Constitutions could be changed, the Repub
lican party was necessitated to resort to the desperate expedient
of sending home from the armies, as many of their partisans as
were necessary to turn in their favor the election in any State in
which a canvass was pending. This was done in the New
Hampshire and Connecticut elections in the Spring of 1863,
before alluded to; and in the succeeding elections in other
States, steadily repeated. Indeed, the army from this period
was manipulated into an engine of omnipotent power in the
hands of unscrupulous partisans, who were willing to do any thing
to perpetuate their hold of the machinery of Government. The
most daring and high handed excesses and violations of all moral
principle were resorted to by bold and bad men, instigated without
doubt, by the highest officials, to counteract the will of the people
through the instrumentality of the ballot. It was an easy matter
for the officers of the army, the great majority of whom were
favorites of the Administration, to send home to any election the
Republican soldiers, and such others as were known to be in
sympathy with the professed objects of the war party. Those
known to be of contrary opinions, could easily be detained upon
a thousand frivolous excuses, the enumeration of which would
iill a volume. No excuse might be able to detain from his home
on election day, a bold and intelligent Democrat like Lieutenant
Edgerley, of New Hampshire, who knew that thousands of Re
publican soldiers had been sent to their States to vote ; but, it
was easy to cashier one of such independence, (as was done in
this case*) for distributing Democratic ballots at his own home.
It was easy for Louis Napoleon, by means of his beautiful
snare of universal suffrage, to carry away the liberty of his native
France ; and so in like manner it was no difficult task for the
Republican party, by aid of the soldiers, from whom all informa
tion was excluded, to turn any election in their favor that they
desired. The despotism required for the purpose was of course
equally as perfect as that which enabled the French aspirant
across the waters to seize the reins of absolute power. When
no newspapers were allowed to circulate in the army, except such
as the President and his officers were pleased to allow a and when
York Herald of April 27, 1863.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 843
soldiers were not permitted to discuss public questions and freely
canvass the acts of the Administration, what else could be eifpected
than that the great majority of them would vote in favor of -that
same Administration ?
The very constitution of an army makes it an available engine
in the hands of that Administration by which it is directed, and
hence arises the danger of allowing the right of suffrage to be
exercised by its soldiers. The officers of the army are dependent
upon the Administration and its agents, for their original posi
tions, for assignments to duty suitable to their wishes, for leaves
of absence, and for chances of appointment in the regular army,
when mustered out as volunteers. As a consequence, the more
submissively they act, the more probabilities exist for such ad
vancements and other favors which they are desirous of obtain
ing. Upon these officers, in turn, the soldiers are dependent for
the promptness of their pay, for humane treatment, for fur
loughs, for relief from exhausting duties and exposure, for con
siderate forbearance, in view of the petty breaches of discipline,
and for numerous other mitigations of the hardships of military
service.
In addition to the official, the sutler influence is of vast weight
in making an army a machine, as it were, subject to the control
of that political party, which for the time, has in its hands the
power of the government. The sutlers are a class of men
usually destitute of all moral principle, and such as have secured
through official friends, their "privilege of fleecing the ignorant
soldiers ; they, as a consequence, become serviceable adjuncts in
the hands of unscrupulous politicians, to influence the will of the
soldiers in the army. In view, therefore, of the subordinated
relationship and dependence between the governing party in a
country and its armies, what more potent instrumentality of des
potism can be thought to exist than a voting army machine ?
Another phase of the new era was the management of the
freed negroes of the South after their liberation from bondage.
The propriety of the emancipation of the slaves was made to
rest upon the assumption of the equality of men of all races ;
and that all men are worthy of freedom, and capable of enjoying
its fruits and advantages. The truth of this assumption being
accepted, it should have seemed needless to resort to additional
pains in behalf of the negro after his emancipation had been
344 A REVIEW OF THE
secured. But not so ; for when this was once accomplished, the
freednfan (whose inferiority was felt by all) must next be taken
under society and governmental tutelage ; first, for his subsistence
and secondly in order to n t him for that position in society which
his liberators were secretly but busily carving for him. The
young, the aged and the infirm negroes of those districts, rescued
from the Confederates, must be supported by that Government
which had effected their emancipation. The families of those
who had enlisted in the Union armies, were at least, as was
argued, become the especial wards of their charitable liberators.
In a word, all the freedmen were the especial objects of abolition
care and attention ; and their education and preparation for all
the functions of manhood, w r ere inaugurated with unparalled zeal
and enthusiasm.
Schools were established amongst the freedmen ; and industrious
teachers entered upon the work of communicating to the emanci
pated slaves the rudimentary elements of an English education.
As citizenship was the goal of all these efforts, a preliminary
question for consideration should have been to have inquired
into the nature of modern civilization; and ascertained the
requisites of the American citizen. It should have been borne
in mind that with all the developments of modern progress and
enlightenment, it still remained a question of great doubt
whether good government can long endure the strain of the uni
versal suffrage of even the Caucasion race alone. If a large
proportion of the civilized race have been found utterly incapa
ble of wielding the ballot in the furtherance of individual views,
could it reasonably be supposed that the lowest barbarian race
should be able to do so \ Might it not have been well to have
remembered the axiom of philosophic thinkers, that a race can
sustain that form of civilization alone, which it was originally
able to germinate ? And especially did it seem inconsistent that
the ardent advocates of negro education and elevation, should
come from that same party of Americans, who had heretofore
criticised democratic extension of the right of suffrage to the
foreign emigrants who landed upon our shores. A large propor
tion of these foreigners possessed a much higher order of educa
tion than it was possible for the freed negroes to attain. But the
principles of these anti-foreign suffragists, at once seemed to
undergo a sudden change, and the emancipated Africans appeared
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. C15
to loom up in their imaginations as the idea. Americans of future
ages.
The crop of corruption that so luxuriantly sprung up with the
new era, and also proved one of its features, was evidence that
an enemy had entered the fields of the republic, and scattered
impurities baneful to representative government. How could it
be otherwise when men were honored with the highest trusts of
of the nation, who had coiled their way to power by means
of the basest appliances of debauchery and political prostitution ?
At no period before in the history of government had men been
honored with the highest appointments by the Executive of the
nation, and by Congress, whose whole former career had been
one continued succession of villainy and fraud from their first
entry upon the career of public life. One man, Simon Cameron,
had been selected to a seat in the Presidential Cabinet, and
afterwards transferred to a ministerial position abroad, who with
a blasted reputation had secured, as was generally charged, a
Senatorial chair in the Congress of the United States by the
means of filthy lucre, and the basest strategy that could be em
ployed. Another, Thaddeus Stevens, a man long reputed as one
of the most corrupt politicians of his State, by the selection of
his political associates, had been made Chairman of the Com
mittee of Ways and Means, the most important and responsible
position in the Lower House of Congress.
In the distribution of governmental favors, no discrimination
was made between men of corrupt antecedents and those of un
blemished reputations. This in itself was to cast away entirely the
scales of moral scrutiny. It was essentially the introduction into
the workings of government of that thoroughly debasing norm
of social life, which treats that individual with most consideration
who possesses the largest sum of money, whether the same be the
acquisition of honorable effort or otherwise. Besides, what other
but an augmenting demoralizing influence could the breach of
plighted Presidential faith produce upon the minds of the masses
of society, who are always more ready to imitate the vices of
their rulers rather than their virtues ?
Indeed, the Republican party seemed in a large measure to be
the fountain from which political corruption flowed. In differ
ent Northern Legislatures accusations of bribery and all other
corrupting influences were charged in the newspapers of both
8-46 A REVIEW OF THE
political parties. It was ventilated in the partisan sheets, that
the sum of $25,000 had been tendered a member of the Legis
lature of Pennsylvania in the Winter of 1863, for the vote that
would determine the election of a leading Republican to the United
States Senate.* Stalking corruption had also raised its filthy
head in the New York Legislature. It was publicly charged in
the newspapers that Callicott, a corrupt democratic representative
of the State of New York, in consideration of the Speakership
of the Assembly, had allowed himself to be bribed by the
Republicans to support their measures , and assist them in the
election of a United States Senator. The following extract from
the Tribune, depicts the corruption of the New York Legislature,
both branches of which were Republican :
" If we are to credit information that reaches us from most respectable
sources, the Legislature now sitting at Albany, is fast earning a reputa
tion for profligacy. We are well assured that there are committees of
either branch, that levy regular assessments oil bills passing through
their hands, demanding $100 to $500 for those of considerable impor
tance, but taking $50, or ev^n $20 each, when the measure is of secondary
consequence, and no more can be had. ; How much money is in this
bill F is the first inquiry when a proposition is submitted. Have they
got the money here in Albany ? comes next. Promises to pay when the
bill becomes a law, or at the close of the session, are scouted ; and offers
of interests in the enterprise to be promoted very rarely command atten
tion.
" A friend who recently spent a day at the Capitol, represents the pre
valent corruption as more general and shameless than was ever before
known. How much has been or must be paid for this or that report or
vote ; how many members are interested in the passage of this or that
bill ; how A or B was fixed as to this robbery, or by whom C was seen
in behalf of that gauge, is discussed as cooly and openly as the time
made in the last notable race, or the cost of double locks on the Erie
canal. And the lobby is represented as more numerous, more impudent,
and more shameless than ever before."f
From the inauguration of the new era, was witnessed in an
especial manner, a weakness of republican government ; and
this because of the truckling subserviency of political leaders to
policy, for the masses, even in educated communities, just as in
ancient times, think only as their leaders advise them. The
chains of despotism had been forged in great abundance, and
every political right was virtually withdrawn from citizens, and
* New York World, January 24, 1863.
fQuoted in New York World, of April 18, 18G3.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 347
placed in the keeping of the President of the United States.
But for the falseness of the majority of the leaders, a cry for
vengeance would have resounded throughout the land, and the
Abolition traitors that had subverted liberty and the Constitu
tion of their country would have been driven into speedy exile,
or exalted to gallows high as those upon which Hainan swung.
As before remarked, but two consistent parties existed in the
North the outspoken abolitionists who sought the overthrow
of the system of Southern slavery, and the elevation of the
emancipated negroes to equality with their former masters; and
the unconcealed peace men, who opposed the prosecution of the
war against the South as a violation of the Constitution, and an
infraction of the principles upon which -epublican government
is based. Properly speaking, these two parties, which were
purely consistent, were simply the antagonistic extremes of the
respective organizations with which they operated, and neither
the peace men nor the Abolitionists could enlist full Democratic
or full Republican endorsement. It must have been clear, how
ever, to every penetrating Republican, after the commencement
of the new era, that the measures sustained by his party could
lead to no other result than that which was desired by the revo
lutionary Abolitionists. In sustaining the prosecution of the
war, then, what else was he doing save perpetuating the delusion
that the war was waged for the restoration of the Union \
The masses of the people of the North, of both political par
ties, cared little whether slavery lived or died in the struggle
that was being waged between the sections. Indeed, slight
doubt can exist that in the abstract, Northern Democrats as well
as Republicans, were disinclined in sentiment to the institution
of slavery : and that as a choice, they preferred in their own
minds to see an end to the system of Southern bondage rather
than its perpetuation. Republicans who were not confirmed
Abolitionists, very nearly agreed, in their views of slavery with
the most of the Democrats themselves ; and yet all these were
devotedly attached to the Union of the States , and in its preser
vation they considered their future liberty and happiness to be
involved. The Democrats, who were in favor of peace at any
price, were those who viewed the war as an utter violation of the
Constitution ; and these, as before noted, formed the only con
sistent opponents of the Abolitionists, who from the first de-
848 A REVIEW OF THE
signed the destruction of slavery, and all the constitutional
guarantees upon which it was based.
The great attachment of the Northern people to the Union,
was the result of pure delusion, the product of prejudice and
popular fancy ; which could see liberty and republican happiness
alone in its preservation. In this particular the Northern people
differed little from the ancient Romans, who were so devoted to
the name of the Republic that they were unable to perceive the
loss of their freedom, whilst the naked form of that which they
adored was preserved ; and whilst the name of king would have
driven them to revolt, that of imperator (emperor,) a more des
potic title, was by no means discordant to their sensibilities.
Reflecting men, after the full installation of the new era, saw
that the shadow of the old Union alone remained ; but that its
substance had fled. The number, however, of those who per
ceived the popular delusion, as regards the Union, and were suf
ficiently honest and courageous to attempt to dispel it, were too
few to accomplish the mighty task. It is always easier to accom
pany currents than to attempt to strive against them. A bold
ness is demanded of the man, who dares to question popular
opinions, that is not possessed by a large portion of mankind.
Only true freemen are competent for this undertaking ; and
whilst these pass through the fires of martyrdom, hypocritical
demagogues gather applause and honors amidst popular ruin and
governmental shipwreck. Owing to the original yielding of the
Democratic party to the false demands of fanaticism, the w r hiii
pool currents obtained too strong a hold upon the vessel of State
any longer to be resisted ; and all was now rapidly sinking in one
common vortex of destruction.
The New York and other riots of 1863, were simply the
natural reaction against the tyrannical despotism that had encir
cled its coils around the American Republic ; and which, like
Laocoon, was dying encompassed in serpentine folds. But for the
delusive devotion to the Union which had blinded the people so
that they were unable to perceive civil liberty, save as an efflux
from their favorite idol, instead of unorganized resistance to
Federal conscription, the flames of Northern revolution would
have burst from their confines and quickly consumed the gilded
fabric of despotic tyranny, which abolition fanaticism had erected.
The thunders of denunciation which, but for the above delusion 5
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 340
would have advised the administration of Abraham Lincoln of
its criminal violation of the Constitution, in the arrest of Clement
L. Yallandigham, the patriot of Ohio ; instead of inducing
replies of attempted justification from the daring usurper, would
have hushed him into the silence of contempt, and admonished
him of the volcano of revenge that was ready to overwhelm all
who dared to repeat the foul deed which his servile minion had
perpetrated.
In the latter part of the year 1863, the political parties again
began to prepare their platforms for the Autumn elections. The
Eepublican leaders, conscious of the unpopularity of the, differ
ent unconstitutional acts that had been passed by the Hump
Congress, and enacted by the Presidential dictator, deemed it
politic to conceal from the public that such measures received
party endorsement. This was simply to continue the same hypo
critical method pursued by Republican leaders from the first
organization of their party in 1855. That method consisted in
the enunciation of a platform of principles, and after power had
been grasped to steadily act disregardful of pledges. The Xew
York Herald spoke of the Republican State Convention, held in
September, 1863, at Syracuse, as follows:
* The Emancipation Proclamation, the Confiscation Act, arbitrary
arrests, the suppression of the freedom of speech and of the press in the
loyal States, the Indemnity Act and the Conscription Act, have not been
endorsed. The Emancipation Act received only a qualified endorsement.
All reference to it was omitted in the regular series of resolutions, as
reported by the Committee and adopted by the Convention. But a radi
cal, having moved its endorsement, this was adroitly evaded by an
amendment endorsing it simply as a war measure/
The revolutionary Republicans, before this time, had clearly
mapped out the boundaries they intended to traverse. Charles
Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, and other leaders of the same senti
ments, had already indicated clearly that their aim was the terri-
torialization of the seceded States ; and that their re-admittance
into the Union should be fully interdicted until the total prohi
bition of slavery within their borders could be secured. The con
servative policy advocated by the political Republicans, with
whom, for popularity sake, President Lincoln pretended to sym
pathize, simply demanded the restoration of the Union, and of
the States in statu quo ante ~bellum. Sumner and Stevens
represented the real, the Republican manipulators the ostensible
350 A REVIEW OF THE
policy of abolitionism. The one formed the line of attack, the
other the protecting columns that came upon its flanks and
formed its steady support. The preparation of the State and
other platforms was the work of that crafty body of politicians,
whose principal object was party success. Even the Republican,
convention of Massachusetts, in 1863, only endorsed the Eman
cipation Proclamation as a war measure.
The Democratic party, eqally with the Republican, permitted
its platforms to be drafted by its politic men. Mozart Hall was
necessitated to yield to Tammany ; and the popular sails were again
unfolded to the breeze, in order to still further perpetuate the
delusion that cowardice and craft had originally permitted. The
Herald spoke of the Albany Democratic State Convention, and
as compared with the Syracuse Republican, as follows :
** They are both entirely conservative. They both return thanks to
our brave soldiers, who are now risking their lives in defense of the
Union, They both pledge their supporters to sustain the Government
and the Administration in all necessary measures for the suppression of
the rebellion. They both express the desire of the people of the North for
an honorable peace. They both oppose disunion and maintain the integ
rity of the Union. They differ in this: the Democrats condemn the
Emancipation Proclamation, Confiscation, Conscription and the Indem
nity Acts ; while the Republicans shuffle oat of the responsibility of these
acts, and only endorse the Emancipation Proclamation as a war meas
ure."*
In other States, the war policy of the Government for the
restoration of the Union, was also approved, in words, by the
Democratic party. Its ambiguous conduct was illustrated in the
States of Maine, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, during the campaigns
of 1863. In these States war platforms were adopted and peace
men nominated in each of them as the candidates for Governor.
In Pennsylvania, George "W. Woodward, a conspicuous peace
man, whose opinions and sentiments were known to harmonize
with the cardinal principles of the old party of Jefferson, per
mitted himself to be induced to write a letter, a few days before
the October election, in which he expressed his approbation of
the war policy for restoring the Union. This was enough to
destroy all the enthusiasm felt in behalf of his election ; for no
others, save peace men, could be enthusiastic supporters of the
Democracy.
*New York Herald, September 13, 1863,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 331
The result of the elections of 1863, were Waterloo defeats in
the States where peace men were the candidates. C. L. Yallan-
digham, the Democratic candidate for Governor, was defeated in
Ohio by over one hundred thousand majority ; and George "W.
Woodward, in Pennsylvania, by upwards of iifteen thousand.
The entire North, with the exception of New Jersey, was swept
by a hurricane of administration victories. The Democratic
party was utterly overthrown ; and far more weakened and de
moralized than had it fought the battle beneath its real colors,
by opposing the abolition war upon principle ; and though de
feated, its moral integrity would have been rescued ; and, like
the young giant of the past, which it was, it would have returned
to the combat with renewed strength, ready to grapple with its
hated foe. Yallandigham and other peace men were signally
defeated, because their cowardly compeers lacked the courage to
follow honest leaders and urge their comrades to the onset. They
permitted the enemy to be the attacking party and to crown
their banners with victory.
353 A REVIEW OF THE
CHAPTER XXI.
THE MILITARY SATRAPS.
The utter inconsistency of making war for the preservation of
a republican Union was clearly exemplified in every effort that
was made by the coercion party, from the outbreak of hostilities
between the sections. The first error having been committed, it
was necessary, as a sequence, that a train of inconsistencies should
follow. When the principle of military force was once brought
into requisition to compel the seceded States or the people
thereof to obey the behests of a central authority, the principle
of republicanism died and that of monarchy took its place.
The principle of making war to coerce the people of the
South being thus anti-republican, all the means required to sus
tain the war policy must necessarily be of the same character.
It was the principle of domination, which was the reverse of
consent, that upon which republican government is based.
And yet so great was the clamor for coercive measures that all
who denied to the Government the right to exert the strong arm
of military power, were denounced as traitors and enemies of the
Republic. The preservation of the Union being once determined,
then, to depend upon the employment of force, it became alto
gether needless in coercionist opinion to consult the will of the
people further than necessities required. And so far, therefore,
as the aims of the revolutionists were attainable, success alone
was considered.
Instead of endeavoring to effect the conciliation of the dis
affected people of the South, as sound judgment would have
dictated, one despotic advance after another was made by the
men who shaped the abolition counsels of the nation. Besides
those before this enumerated, another of the unconstitutional
means made use of to retain the power already grasped, was the
suppression of the freedom of. the ballot in the States of Dela
ware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri ; and also in those parts
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 333
of tlie other Southern States, over which the arms of the Federal
Government had been successful.
The Democratic party had aimed at compromise for the settle
ment of the difficulties between the North and the South ; and
the people by the adoption of their policy would have prevented
the rebellion from breaking out, as it did, and drenching the
land in blood. Indeed, the acceptance of their policy at any time
during the rebellion, would have stayed the tide of blood and led
to a settlement of the sectional troubles. All the Southern rebels
at any time demanded, was that their fair and constitutional rights
as equals in the Confederate Union, should be recognized ; and
to this they were justly and honorably entitled. For, even after
the rebellion broke out and blood had been shed, though rebels,
they did not cease to be American citizens and men ; and their
rights were equally as deserving of being considered as before
any acts of secession had taken place. And their rights were
respected by all who loved the Union of the fathers as it had
existed from the origin of the Government, and for the preser
vation of which, a hypocritical party pretended to have made
war. But other objects than its preservation were to be secured,
and any compliance with the principles which true republicanism
demanded, would have been fatal to the objects that Abolitionism,
through the pretence of devotion to the Union, sought to obtain.
Fanatics were not now likely to permit the suspension of a
strife which they had succeeded in enkindling, in order to allow
the sections to adjust their disputes by any peaceful method,
And, as Anti-Republican war had been made against the rebels,
something of a similar nature also must be inaugurated against
the peaceful citizens of those Southern States that remained in
the Union. Many rights had already been wrested from the
Northern Democrats, and others who disapproved of the war
policy of the Government, in the suspension of the Habeas Corpus
and in the suppression of freedom of speech, and of the press and
other unconstitutional proceedings. But, because of the infatua
ted delusion that had seized control of the minds of the Northern
people, a greater excess in the despotic overthrow of civil rights
by the Administration, was permissible in the Southern unseceded
States, than in any portion of the loyal ^orth. For it was unde
niable that the people of the whole South, as a unit, almost,
believed that the party of Abraham Lincoln, was a revolutionary
354 A REVIEW OF THE
one ; and that its principles would produce lasting disorder anfl
the destruction of the Confederate union of the States. Enter-
tertaining these sentiments, could the body of the border people,
after the unconstitutional proclamation of war, do else than
sympathize with their Southern brethren, whose guaranteed
rights were to be obliterated in the fiendish conflict that was
being waged against them ?
Instigated by the proclamation ef freedom and the succeeding
measures allied to it, were those which were framed to carry
forward by the might of despotism the principles of emanicipa-
tion, and firmly fix them in the legislation of the States and
nation. The Government of the several border Slave States
must be controlled by one or other means by the party of eman
cipation, and skillful plans were devised by which this could be
accomplished. A small and insignificant body of voters* in
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,. Kentucky and Missouri had sup
ported Mr. Lincoln for President, and in this was found the
nucleus for the party of emancipation in these States, after the
edict of January 1st, 1863. The balance of the citizens of these
States who had cast their votes either for Douglas, Breckenridge
or Bell, were considered by the rulers as more or less unsound
advocates of the war policy of the Government, and of tha
freedom of the slaves designed by it to be accomplished.
The masses of a people, during periods of turbulence, like
ours, seem always ready to lick the feet of power. By the
wholesale arrests of Legislatures, and of influential citizens,
effective resistance to the administration in the border Southern
States was soon broken ; and the hands of truckling hypocrites,
who sought to better their worldly condition at the expense of
honor and integrity, were strengthened. Shrewdly conceived
oaths were prepared both for the voters and the officials of these
States, so as to exclude from the polls and stations of trust, all
those who had heretofore been the respected citizens and ruling
men of their several States and localities. And these oaths were
so skillfully framed as to exclude from the polls, by virtue of
apparent right, all voters who had extended aid or even cherished
any sympathy for the cause of the rebellious South. That they
* In Delaware only 3,815 voters supported Lincoln for President in 1860,
2.294 in Maryland, X929 in Virginia, l,3Gi in Kentucky, and 17,028 ia
Missouri,
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 855
should have cherished none such, was to suppose an entire rever
sal of reason, and of the instincts of an enlightened humanity.
Large numbers of the people of these States, being thus unable
to accept the wholly unconstitutional oaths, wore disfranchised ;
and the States, as a consequence, fell under the control of the
few original Abolitionists, and of thoss perfidious and dishonorable
classes who are ever ready, servilely, to bend their necks to the
yoke of might, in order to grasp the thrift that fawning secures.
Those who do so, however, are the ignoble souls of life, who are
fitted for servitude, but unworthy of freedom, because unen
dowed with the traits needed for its maintenance.
In one election in the city of Baltimore, after the inauguration
of the new schedule, full two-thirds of the citizens refused to go
to the polls to tender their votes. They chose rather to preserve
their honor, than sacrifice it in a vain effort to resist the authority
of that unreasoning party, which wielded the sword of an arbi
trary despotism.
The method which the revolutionists made use of to control
the elections in these States, and defeat those who, in spite of
unconstitutional oaths, dared to press their rights of freemen,
was to send their military satraps/ with soldiers, under the pre
tence of guarding the polls and preventing invasion and domestic
violence. But the President of the United States had no right
to send his military subordinates into any State to control or in
terfere with the elections, unless first requested so to do by the
civil authorities. As in other matters, however, the Constitution,
in this particular, was likewise violated with impunity, In some
cases, then, the citizens were intimidated from appearing to vote
their sentiments, inasmuch as proclamations had been issued by
the satraps which threatened seizure of the property of the dis
loyal. And voting against the Government was declared to be
conclusive evidence of this disloyalty. In other instances, the
citizens who were known to entertain democratic opinions, as
they appeared to vote were arrested and detained in custody
until the election was closed, and then they were discharged.
In the Winter of 1863, a convention of the Democratic party
of Kentucky, assembled at Frankfort, for the purpose of making
nominations for State officers, was dispersed by a Colonel Gil
bert, who commanded a regiment of troops. And when one of
the Senators from this State afterwards demanded of the United
856 A REVIEW OF THE
States Senate, that the conduct of the officer who interfered \villi
that political assemblage of his State should be investigated, the
demand was refused. The majority of this body, as then con
stituted, seemed to regard naught save partisan success, whether
achieved by constitutional overthrow or otherwise.
The following extract from the speech of Senator Powell, of
Kentucky, of March 3d, 1864, gives an illustration of the con
duct of the military satraps in his State :
"In many counties the name of the whole Democratic ticket was
stricken from the poll book by the military authorities. In many voting
places, and in entire counties of Kentucky, no man was allowed to vote
for the ticket. In the county in which I live, the names on the Demo
cratic ticket were stricken from or not allowed to go into the poll books
of three or four of the voting precincts. It is asserted that in one pre
cinct of that county sixteen votes were cast, all for the Wickliffe ticket.
The military then came there, took the poll books from the judges and
clerk, returned them to head-quarters and stopped the election.
"Sir, there is abundant evidence of the facts that I have indicated.
Since the beginning of time there never was a more atrocious assault on
free elections, than took place in many counties of Kentucky. In many
places the candidates were arrested. In the First Congressional District
Judge Trimble, the candidate for Congress, as loyal a man and as true
to the Constitution and Union of his fathers as lives in the Union, was
arrested by military authority. He was brought to the City of Hender
son, a town just without his district, and there he was kept in military
confinement near a month until after the election was over. They told
him if he would decline being a candidate for Congress they would
release him. He would not so degrade his manhood as to decline the
canvass at the bidding of military tyrants and usurpers, and he was kept
in prison. They found that he would be elected by a large majority,
notwithstanding his imprisonment, and then they sent the military over
his district, and had his name stricken from the polls in almost every
voting precinct in the district. The gentleman who beat him got some
four thousand votes in a district that polls about twenty thousand."
The pretended excuse for the interference of the military
authorities in the election of Kentucky in 1863, was found in
the declaration of martial law, in that State, by Gen. Burnside,
the jailor of Yallandigham. This satrap of the Administration,
assumed the right to subordinate civil to military authority,
because, forsooth, one thousand rebels were yet found within the
borders of that State. The true reason was, that in this man
ner, it was conceived a plausible excuse would be offered to his
subordinates and their justifiers for their unlawful and outrageous
conduct. The excuse, however, was lame and impotent, for at
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 857
the time, the small remaining number of rebels were leaving the
State, and General Burnside had fifty thousand soldiers under
his command to confront them.
But Federal soldiers were also sent to the polls in Maryland,
and interfered with the elections in this State, although no pre
text therefor could be found in the existence of rebel soldiers in
the old Commonwealth. The freedom of elections was likewise
overthrown by military interference in the other border Southern
States. Governor Bradford, of Maryland, in his protest against
military interference with a free ballot in his State, speaks as
follows :
" On the day preceding the election, the officer in command of the
regiment, which had been distributed among the counties of the Eastern
shore, and who had himself landed in Kent County, commenced his
operations by arresting and sending across the bay some ten or more of
the most estimable and distinguished of its citizens, including several of
the most steadfast and uncompromising loyalists of the shore. The jail of
the county was entered, the jailor seized, imprisoned, and afterwards sent
to Baltimore, and the prisoners confined therein, under indictment, were
set at liberty. The commanding officer referred to, gave the first clue to
the character of the disloyalty, against which he considered himself as
particularly commissioned ; by printing and publishing a proclamation,
in which, referring to the election to take place next day, he invited all
the truly loyal to avail themselves of that opportunity to establish their
loyalty, by giving a full and ardent support to the whole Qovernmcnt
ticket, upon the platform adopted by the Union League Convention; de
claring that, none other is recognized by the Federal authorities, as loyal
or worthy of the support of any one. ivho desires the peace and restoration
of the Union. "
"When these outrageous proceedings were reported in the United
States Senate, and referred to the Military Committee, instead
of condemnation they received the approval of the committee in
a long report, which set up a full justification for all that had
been done. The tyrant s plea of necessity was the prolific re
pository, whence all excuses were drawn for the violation of the
Constitution and the laws of the States. The Senators of the
revolutionary party, in general, defended all the unconstitutional
acts of the military satraps ; and thus granted to the Adminis
tration and its subordinates full license to trample upon the free
dom of elections in the Southern States.
By such means, this freedom was destroyed ; and the revolu
tionary party, calling itself Union, obtained the control of
Maryland, West Yirginia and Missouri. For a time, also the
358 A REVIEW OF THE
freemen of Delaware and Kentucky were defeated by the revo
lutionists. It was not astonishing, then, that conventions elected
under the dictation of the military satraps ; and when large
numbers of the best citizens of these States were disfranchised
by means of unconstitutional test oaths, should be ready to do
the work of abolitionism. In West Virginia, Maryland and
Missouri, conventions were elected under military dictation ; and
these bodies proceeded to decree the emancipation of slavery
within their borders.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 359
CHAPTER XXII.
THE GREAT CONSPIRACY REVEALED.
As events progressed, during the period of the rebellion, the
conspiracy to overthrow slavery, change the status of Southern
society, and elevate the negro race to equality with the white,
more and more displayed itself. Upon the assembling of the
Thirty-eighth Congress, in December 1863, President Lincoln
craftily submitted a plan for the restoration of the rebellious
States to unionship, when the armed resistance should be so far
overcome as to warrant measures for this purpose. As the
chief representative of the nation, it was expected of him that
some method would be pointed out, by which the seceded States
should again be numbered amongst the Commonwealths of the
Federal Union.
The President fully understood the disharmony that reigned
in his party upon the question of Southern reconstruction, and
in view of this, greater caution was needed to be observed by
him, in submitting a plan for the restoration of the seceded
States. He was well aware that the State suicide theory of
Charles Sumner,was that which received the approval of Thaddeus
Stevens, Salmon P. Chase, Wendell Phillips, and the other
radicals of the Eepublican party ; and at the same time he was
sufficiently astute to perceive that this policy was as yet too ex
treme to meet public approval.
In the submission of his method of restoration for the Southern
States, it is not to be believed, that the President meant to fix
any definite mode ; but it was rather enunciated and designed to
serve as a toy for conflicting sentiment, and to be molded to suit
public opinion as the same became more developed. Indeed, the
President declared his plan as not intended to exclude others in
the following words of his proclamation of December 8th, 1863 :
"And while the mode presented, is the best the Executive can suggest,
SCO A REVIEW OF THE
with his present impressions, it must not be understood, that no other
possible mode would be acceptable."
That the President or his party should at all be trammeled by
obligations of governmental compacts, was not to be expected
after the entire repudiation of plighted faith, on their part,
that had already been witnessed. Firm adherence to any promise
or obligation would have been fatal to the principles of the rev
olution, for the accomplishment of which, the Republican party
had been originally organized and brought into powder ; and a
studied caution, as a consequence, therefore, was required to be
observed in the submission of any plan of reconstruction, so as
to permit any change of policy which ever varying circumstances
might require. The President, in truth, had in his mind no h xed
mode of restoration that he esteemed more than another, save as
it might aid Abolition views ; and his only object in submitting
the one which he did, was to answer public expectation on that
point.
The plan proposed by the President for restoring the Southern
States to their former relationship in the Union, was in entire
harmony with the prior Abolition programme. It was the em
bodiment of the principles of monarchy and revolution ; such as
we have discovered to have given tone to so-called Republicanism,
from its earliest advent to power. The fears that induced the
slave States to rebel in defense of their constitutional rights,
were entirely overlooked. ISTo tender of assurance was made,
that the anticipations on their part had been groundless ; but the
attitude assumed by the President, still more clearly proved that
Southern Statesmen had not been mistaken, in their conceptions
of the danger that threatened their institutions. Like a con
queror, on the contrary, and despot which he was, utterly regard
less of the fears and anticipations of those contesting his power, the
President announces his plan of forcing all the armed resistance
under his dominion and authority. He declares in explicit terms
that slavery must be abandoned in all the rebellious States ; and
even in those sections of them in which he himself had made an
exception in his Emancipation Proclamation of January 1st,
1863. Treating the Southern Confederates as traitors and out
laws, he compels them before they shall be permitted to secure
again for their several Commonwealths, the right of Statehood,
to accept an oath not demanded by the Constitution ; and which
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 361
no democratic freeman of the North, with a sense of manhood,
would have subscribed. This odious oath, required of all voters,
before being re-clothed with citizenship, to swear to abide by and
support all acts of the Federal Congress, passed during the re
bellion with reference to slaves ; and also to support all procla
mations of the President, made or to be made during the rebellion,
which had reference to the same. A delusive exception, it is
true, was inserted, should these laws and proclamations at any
time be modified by Congress or the Supreme Court. The Pres
ident, however, too well understood the designs of Congress, to
fear aught from that quarter ; and as to the Supreme Judiciary,
it had been for some time a topic of discussion to so remodel
this tribunal, as to render it harmless to Abolition progress, should
any danger in that direction be seriously apprehended.
What an entire disregard of republican principle did the
Presidential mode of reconstruction manifest ? It was a plain
violation of the Constitution, which clothed the Chief Magistrate
with no power to dictate the qualifications of suffrage in any
State or Territory. It was an entire reversal of the cardinal
principle of Democracy in essaying to found government upon
the will of a small minority of the people of a State, rather than
upon that of the majority. Again, the method proposed by the
President seemed strongly to imply his own disbelief in the
current assertion of his party, that in all the rebellious States a
majority of the people were loyal and attached in feeling to the
Federal Government. He, himself, upon any other hypothesis,
had condemned the war against the South as an outrage and a
crime. But when he comes to find voters who shall bring back
the rebel States into the Union, this majority of Southern patriots
would seem to have escaped his recollection, inasmuch as his
restoration plan was so framed, as did he think that it might be
necessary, in some cases, to be satisfied with one-tenth of the
citizens of a rebel State, out of whom his loyalists should bo
manufactured. And that a smaller number than the one-tenth
of the people should constitute the basis of citizenship for recon
structing a seceded State, would scarcely have been proposed by
the most radical revolutionist of the North.
But, admitting even a modicum of truth in the Abolition
assumption of the loyalty of a majority of the Southern people ;
the policy of restoration proposed by President Lincoln, claimed
3G3 A REVIEW OF THE
the right to do what the Constitution in express terms forbade.
This instrument precluded the taking of the private property of
any citizen for public purposes or otherwise, unless ample com
pensation therefor should be made. And yet the President, in
the plan submitted by him, proposed, without any recompense,
to cancel the value, and destroy all the slave property in the
rebel States, whether the same belonged to loyal or disloyal indi
viduals. By this high-handed exercise of despotic might, the
fears entertained by the Southern people of the designs of
Northern fanaticism were fully sustained ; and the rebellion from
this period, at furthest, must ever stand justified in history. The
rebels, anticipating the designs of abolitionism, from the. collected
utterances of the leaders of that party, originally revolted against
its rule in behalf of their constitutional rights and privileges ;
and now, when their surmises had been verified in the action of
the Federal President and the congressional radicals, what was to
condemn the rebellion ? Instead of rebels am^ed, striving to
destroy the Union and the Constitution, the Confederates stood
before the world as patriots, defending within their States, in
essence, that same Constitution and the principles of republi
canism guaranteed by it.
But despotic and unconstitutional as was the Presidential plan
of reconstructing the seceded States, it by no means met the
approbation of the radicals in Congress and throughout the
North. Negro suffrage from this period, began to peer forth as
one of the measures that must be secured in the revolution that
was being urged forward. This, indeed, was a part of the great
conspiracy that was now daily revealing itself.
The doctrine of human equality, being that which lay at the
foundation of abolitionism, it was not to be supposed that the
fanatics should halt with the achievement of simple emancipa
tion. The more evidence the progress of arms gave the hopeful
enthusiasts that the rebellion would probably, in the end, be
overcome, the more effort was made by them to shape legislation
in the interests of race equality. All the conflicting views re-
gprding the restoration of the States to Federal autonomy,
hinged therefore upon this question. Hitherto, emancipation
was the principal result of equality, that was presented before
the people in the agitating crusades that had been waged against
Southern slavery. But shortly after the meeting of the Thirty-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 363
eighth Congress, and the submission of the Presidential plan of
reconstruction ; revolutionary leaders come forward and took
open grounds in favor of extending the right of suffrage to the
emancipated slaves of the seceded States. From this period the
revolutionary party may be considered as composed of avowed
negro and of anti-negro suffragists. And of the latter, many
were such, simply because they deemed it impolitic as yet openly
to avow their principles.
There can be little doubt even that President Lincoln agreed
with the negro suffragists, and that his characteristic hypocrisy
alone deterred him from avowing the principle in his reconstruc
tion scheme of December 8, 1863. He was very solicitous, how
ever, to shift the avowal of the doctrine of negro suffrage upon
others,* whose position more securely guarded them from the
assaults of public opinion. Owen Lovejoy, a man equally radi
cal with Thaddeus Stevens, seemed to have fully understood the
President s motives and feelings. In his letter of February 22d,
186-i, to William Lloyd Garrison, he speaks of the President in
the following language :
" I write you, although ill health compels me to do it, by the hand of
another, to express to you my gratification at the position you have
taken in reference to Mr. Lincoln. I am satisfied, as the old theologians
used to say in regard to the world, that if he be not the best conceiv
able President, he is the best possible. I have something of the facts
inside during his administration, and I know that he has been just as
radical as any of his Cabinet. And, although he does not do everything
that you or I would like, the question recurs whether it is likely we can
elect a man who would. It is evident that the great mass of Unionists
prefer him for re-election ; and yet it seems to me certain that the Provi
dence of God during another term will grind slavery to powder, "f
* The following letter to Governor Halm, of Louisiana, discloses the
President s double dealing course of action :
"EXECUTIVE MANSION, )
" Washington, March 13, 1864. I
" HON. MICHAEL HAHN.
"Hy Dear Sir; I congratulate you on having fixed your name in
history as the first Free State Governor of Louisiana. Now you are
about to have a convention, which, among other things, will probably
define the elective franchise. I barely suggest, for your private consider
ation, whether some of the colored people may not be let in, as for
instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought
gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help in some trying time
to come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom. But this
is only a suggestion, not to the public, but to you alone.
"Yours trulv,
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."
f Annual Cyclopedia of 1864, p. 4SG.
364 A REVIEW OF THE
The State suicide doctrine of Charles Sumner was inspired by the
desire to secure in the Southern States for the negro, full equality
with the Caucasian race. And all the efforts of Thaddeus
Stevens and the other unconcealed revolutionists, to establish the
principles of State destruction, the confiscation of Southern
property, and the exclusion of Southern Representatives from
the halls of Congress, were influenced by the same desire. These
men, the soul and spirit of their party, were compelled, however,
to await the developments of time, whilst the treacherous hypo
crites within the same, were enabled still further to lure their
countrymen into the snares that were set for them. The suicidal
resolutions when first offered by Sumner, in 1862, met the cold
reception of silence ; and the Congressmen from Louisiana, and
other military reconstructed States, were welcomed to the Na
tional Halls of the Thirty-seventh Congress, in spite of the oppo
sition of Mr. Stevens and others, who were keen-sighted enough
as to see the logical effect of such admission. But Mr. Stevens
and others who agreed with him, were able to exclude from the
Thirty-eighth Congress A. P. Field and the other Representa
tives of Louisiana and other subjugated States of the South. In
their exclusion of Southern Representatives, additional evidence
of the great conspiracy w r as presented.
The belief of the equality of all races of mankind, having
germinated the movement of abolitionism, the fanaticism must
run its full length, the control of the Government being now, as
believed, firmly grasped. Nothing less than the complete politi
cal and social equality of races, would satisfy zealots who allow
feeling rather than reason to guide them. And, as if to prove
that their enthusiastic visions of human equality, could controvert
logic and all the experience of anterior ages, they set themselves
to work to elevate a race, fitted alone for barbarism or subordi
nation.
The education of the colored race in the District of Columbia
having been determined upon, after the act of Emancipation had
passed, every other step must be taken in order to elevate the
newly liberated man up to the full measure of perfect equality.
As the Africo- American freedman had been introduced into the
Northern armies, his standing in that position must be guarded ;
and all offences to his lately achieved dignity, resented by a Con
gress, desirous of obliterating the repugnant decrees of eternity.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 803
And when a shoulder-strapped member of the enfranchised, race
found himself forcibly ejected from the cars in the City of
Washington, the elevators of the colored men were aroused to
the utmost ; and a law was speedily enacted by Congress which
precluded the officers of the railroad companies of the City of
Washington and Georgetown, from determining w r hat regulations
should be observed with regard to their passengers. Ko negro
dare in future be ejected from any railroad cars in the District,
under a severe penalty. It was not enough for the colored
American that he be provided by the railroad companies with
equal facilities for travel, and cars of equal quality with w T hite
people, he -must be allowed to obtrude himself into white com
pany, where his presence was offensive. This kind of legislation
was an attempt to undo what God had done ; that is, to obliterate
the distinctions which he had made. Herein another evidence
of the great conspiracy was disclosed.
Equalizing the compensation of all the soldiers in the armies,
whether of African or Caucasian descent, was a part of the
schedule that radical legislation must complete. And, as no
Member of Congress seemed to long more ardently for this form,
of equality than Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, and he who
stood the acknowledged leader of revolutionary radicalism in the
House, Thaddeus Stevens, it was appropriate and fitting that
these distinguished representatives should be the first to propose
the desired legislation. Accordingly, on the 8th of January,
1S64, Mr. Wilson introduced into the Senate a bill to promote
enlistments, which provided that all persons of African decent, who
may have been mustered into the military service of the United
States shall receive the same uniform, clothing, arms, equipments,
camp-equipage, rations, medical and hospital attendance, pay and
emoluments, as other soldiers of the regular and volunteer forces
of the like arm of the service. After a spirited contest in the
Senate, the bill as above proposed in substance was adopted in
that body ; and on the 30th of April, Mr. Stevens called it up in
the Lower House of Congress. The measure likewise met the
approbation of the House, and colored soldiers were placed on an
equality with white from January 1st, 186i. " The Attorney-
General has finally decided, that colored soldiers are in all respects
entitled to the same compensation as white soldiers." *
* Henry Wilson s Anti-Slavery Measures in Congress, p. 312.
306 . A REVIEW OF THE
The most persistent efforts were made by the radicals in the
first session of the 38th Congress, in both the Senate and House
of Representatives, to allow the negro to grow to the full stature
of free manhood, with which he, however, was but simply in the
process of being endowed. He was clothed by Act of Congress
with the right of appearing in all tjie courts of the United States
as a witness, not so much because this privilege was then espe
cially demanded, but rather because it was believed that it would
aid in the final extirpation of slavery, the first grand object of
the revolutionists. The repeal of the law, which precluded ne
groes from carrying the mails, was also strongly urged during
this session, chiefly for the same reasons.
In this session of Congress, a Bill was prepared in the House,
providing for the organization of the Territory of Montana, and
having passed the same in the usual form, was remitted to the
Senate for its approval. When the Bill came up for consideration
in this body, Senator Wilkinson, of Minnesota, moved to strike
out of section five, of the organizing Act, which prescribed who.
should be voters, the words " white male inhabitant," and insert
" male citizen of the United States, and those who have declared
their intention to become such." The undenied object of this
amendment, was to secure the organization of the new Territory
in accordance with the principles of the avowed Abolitionists,
who already were beginning to urge that the right of suffrage
should be extended to the negro race. Prominent members of
the party in different sections of the North, had already given
utterance to this recent demand of Abolitionism,
The amendment met with a considerable opposition from
Republicans themselves, chiefly because they feared to encounter
in the coining Presidential canvass the opposition that would
array itself against the principle of negro suffrage. The majority
of the Senators, however, all Republicans, showed themselves
as favorable to universal suffrage by supporting the amendment.
It was carried in the Senate by 22 yeas to 17 nays. Several of
the Senators who supported the amendment made no conceal
ment that they heartily favored the principle which it expressed j
its adoption by the Senate, however, was admitted to be a pure
abstraction, as not one negro inhabitant at the time was found in
the new Territory. And of those also, who deemed it impolitic
to agitate the question of suffrage at the time, in view of the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 367
approaching Presidential election, were some who declared them
selves as not opposed to granting negroes the right of voting.
The submission and support of the amendment in the Senate,
was the first clear proof that the Republican leaders were ready,
when a fair opportunity would present itself, to extend the right
of suffrage to all races of men. Up to this period they had
studiously sought to elude the avowal of this principle, and pos
itively averred that no such design was at all entertained by them,
In the most solemn assurances, they declared that the emancipa
tion of the negroes from the chains of slavery, would be the ulti
mate limit of humanitarian effort in behalf of the degraded
race. It was even resented, as offensive, that they should be
accused of the design of intending to open the ballot to ignorant
African menials. But before the inauguration of the war, and
for a time afterwards, had not they in equally strong terms re
sented the imputation, that the emancipation of slavery in the
Southern States was designed by them ?
The House of Representatives, however, declined to concur in
the Senate s Amendment, because they saw clearly that negro
suffrage would be too heavy a burden to carry in the Presidential
contest of 1864. But enough was disclosed, from its adoption
by the Senate, and from the sentiments that were beginning to
be uttered by conspicuous radicals, favorable to this principle, to
satisfy reflecting men, that it formed the main part of the great
conspiracy that was rapidly revealing itself in its fullest extent.
The full completion of the conspiracy required the repudiation
of the Fugitive Slave Laws, and also of that provision of the
Federal Constitution which supported the Acts of 1T93 and
1850. A bill for this purpose having been referred to the Ju
diciary Committee of the Senate, was reported back adversely.
Repeated efforts were made, prior to January llth, 1864, to
effect the repeal of the Act of 1850, and also that of 1T93. At
the latter date, on motion of Charles Sumner, the question of
the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Laws was referred to a commit
tee of seven Senators, the majority of whom reported favorable
to the measure. The Repealing Act received the approbation
of the members of the revolutionary party in Congress, and was-
approved by President Lincoln, June 28th, 1864.
The bill was stubbornly resisted by the Democrats of both
Houses of Congress, because of the violation which the repeal
8C8 A REVIEW OF THE
inflicted upon the Federal Constitution. The passage of the
Repealing Act, in Democratic opinion, was an open and palpable
infraction of the bond of covenant, according to the terms of
which the States had united to form the Union ; and for the
preservation of which the radicals claimed that the war was being
waged by the General Government. It was also argued by the
Democrats that no practical good could result from the repeal at
that time, as the slaves in the Border States were already in such
a state of insubordination that they were free to go where they
chose. All State control over the slaves had for months, prior
to this period, almost entirely ceased in the Border States ; and it
was only in these States that the law could be considered as of
any avail. But, besides, the Northern people at that time would
not have permitted any fugitive slave to be reclaimed in their
midst by any Southern master, however loyal to the General
Government he may have been.
But in truth, the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Acts was simply
a part of the programme which the revolutionary leaders, from
the origin of their party, had designed, viz : to destroy slavery
regardless of every guarantee which the Constitution contained.
The report was really nothing, save an Act of the purest des
potism and revolution, of which history affords an instance. It
was utterly unwarranted and unjustified; and altogether as great
a violation of civil right as w r ould communism be guilty of, should
it ultimately assume to wrest all property from its possessors, and
distribute the same as its principles would dictate.
The plan of reconstruction, submitted by President Lincoln,
in December, 1863, although in entire accord with the principles
hitherto acted on and approved by every branch of the Federal
Government, could not, as we have already observed, meet with
the approval of the radical leaders of his party. It was not
upon its face, sufficiently revolutionary to meet the approbation
of men, utterly regardless of all constitutional restraint whatso
ever. Members of Congress who were ready to avow that the
war was carried on outside of the Constitution, as they viewed
it, were not likely to agree with the Presidential plan of restoring
the seceded States, to their Federal status in the Union.
The main reason why the Executive plan of reconstruction did
not meet radical approval, was as before remarked, because the
principle of negro suffrage had been entirely ignored. Salmon
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. SC9
P. Chase, a member of the President s Cabinet, in his letter to
Gerrit Smith, of March 2d, 1864, speaking of the plan submitted
by the head of the Nation, said :
" The Amnesty Proclamation seems to fail. I don t like the qualifica
tion in the oath required, nor the limitation of the right of suffrage to
those who take the oath, and are otheiwise qualified, according to the
State laws, in force before the rebellion. I fear these are fatal conces
sions. Why should not all soldiers who fight for their country vote for
it ? Yv T hy should not the intelligent colored man of Louisiana have a
voice, as a free citizen, in restoring and maintaining loyal ascendency."
From the identity of sentiment that pervades this letter of the
Secretary, and that of President Lincoln, to Michael Halm, of
Louisiana, before quoted, they would both seem to have flowed
from the same school of abolition thought. And, although the
Executive preserved himself before the country as the apparent
conservative, his views permitted him to drift beneath the cur
rent as an unseen revolutionist and a radical amongst his brethren.
The question of reconstruction during the first session of the
Thirty -eighth Congress, was viewed as a favorable one for agita
ting purposes. It was regarded as very different when Mr.
Ashley introduced the same question in the early part of the
TL. rty-seventh Congress. The revolution, however, had now
advanced so far that but little fear was entertained to discuss in
Congress the most radical topics. The most extreme revolu
tionists were able, at length, to promulgate their views on the
question of suffrage ; and so long as both Houses did not agree
upon a measure of this kind, the leaders had it in their power to
deny that such opinions would ever be adopted by the Adminis
tration.
On the 4th of May, 1864, Mr. Davis, of Maryland, Chairman
of the Committee of the House, to whom had been referred the
President s views upon the restoration of the rebel States, sub
mitted a Bill, embodying a fixed and elaborate plan of reconstruc
tion. This also, like the President s plan, was revolutionary as
it assumed, without warrant and contrary to the former avowed
policy of the Government, that the statehood of the seceded
Commonwealths were altogether overthrown. The war for the
repression of the rebellion, from its outbreak, had been waged
upon the principle that the rebellious States were still in the
Union ; and that no act of secession could loosen the cords that
held together the members of the old Confederacy. And the
310 A REVIEW OF THE
policy of the Government, for a long time after the outbreak of
the war, was so shaped, lest something might .be done or omitted,
which would operate as an admission that the rebel States had
in law seceded.
The bill prepared by the Reconstruction Committee of the
House, provided for the appointment of a Provisional Governor
by the President in each State declared to be in rebellion, to
serve until a State Government should have been organized and
recognized by the General Government. On the suppression of
military resistance to the authority of the United States in any
such State, an enrollment of white male citizens was to be made,
and a convention was to be called, when a majority of them
should have taken the oath of allegiance, to act upon the re-es
tablishment of a State Government. All persons having held
any office in the rebel service, civil or military, State or Confede
rate, and all those having borne arms in such service, were to be
prohibited from voting for, or being elected as delegates to the
State Convention. The convention was required by the bill to
insert in the new Constitution to be formed by it, provisions dis
franchising those who " held or exercised any civil or military
office, (except offices merely ministerial, and military offices below
the grade of colonel) State or Confederate under the usurping
power;" also, prohibiting slavery, and repudiating all debts
created by or under sanction of the usurping power, State or
Confederate. The State Government, thus created, was to be
recognized by the President after obtaining the assent of Con
gress, and only after such recognition was it allowed for the State
to be represented in Congress and in the Electoral College.
Slavery was further formally declared to be abolished in all the
States in question, with remedies and penalties to give this decla
ration effect. Those rebels, holding any civil or military office
with the conditions above stated, after this bill should become a
law, were declared not to be citizens of the United States.*
The bill having passed the House of Representatives, was sent
to the Senate for its concurrence, and after some debate and
interchange of sentiment between the two Houses, was finally
adopted by the latter body. The President could not approve
the reconstruction plan of Congress, without too openly exposing
* Barrett s Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 5G3.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 371
himself to the charge of puerile vacillation and breach of plighted
faith ; for he was already fully committed to the recognition .of
the new State Governments of Louisiana and Arkansas, These
States, in accordance with his own plan, had chosen Governors,
changed their State Constitutions, and done whatever else was
enjoined upon them to regain their lost Statehood in the Union,
He had likewise appointed Military Governors for other Southern
States, Besides, no essential abolition advantage would be
gained, even should the President append his signature to the
Reconstruction BilL He, therefore, shrewdly withheld it.
The culminating movement in the great conspiracy, was that
instituted to effect the final overthrow of Southern slavery, under
the appearance of an apparent amendment to the Federal Con
stitution. This was an adroit, weli-pl aimed scheme of the revo
lutionists, to obtain in the midst of and by means of revolution,
the object of abolition zeal, the eradication of the hated institu
tion. The Constitution provided for an amendment, when the
same having been proposed by the two-thirds of each House of
Congress and submitted to the States, -should be ratified by three-
fourths of these.
Shortly after the assembling of the Thirty-eighth Congress,
with other revolutionary measures, an amendment to the Con
stitution abolishing slavery in all the States was proposed by
Jaines M. Ashley, the super-serviceable member of the Lower
House of Congress from Ohio, And as evincing concert of
action, a proposition with like design not long afterwards was
also submitted in the Senate, and referred to the Committee on
the Judiciary,
After a time, the amendment having been matured, a joint
resolution was offered that the same be submitted to the States
for ratification. The resolution aroused a spirited opposition
upon the part of the Democrats, who saw nothing in it save a
subtile and crafty method of subverting that very Constitution
which the revolutionists, hypocritically, were preparing in name
to amend. For did not the amendment propose to interfere with
the social economy of the States, even of the unrebellious States,
and with affairs over which, the General Government had no
authority to legislate or interfere 2 It was in violation even of
that resolution of the Chicago Convention of I860, which de
clared that " the maintenance, inviolate of the rights of the States
873 A REVIEW OF THE
and especially the right of each State, to order and control its
own domestic institutions, according to its own judgment ex
clusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the per
fection and endurance of our political fabric depends."
The Democrats took the position that changing the fundamen
tal charter of a country, was an action demanding so great
solemnity that it should never be undertaken during a period of
effervescence and civil commotion. Besides, no such pressing
haste required an amendment to the Constitution to obliterate
slavery, as the institution would prove well nigh invulnerable,
so long as Southern armed resistance was not overcome upon the
battle iield. But slavery being the mark of abolitionism, it was
not to be expected that men deeply indoctrinated with its
fanatical views could rest, save in exerting to the utmost their
strength in one or other method for the extinction and destruc
tion of their hated foe. Statesmen of balanced minds, saw how
ever, the inutility of all such maddened legislation, provided
the restoration of the Union was the object to be achieved.
It was also argued that as the amendment proposed to interfere
with social interests, its character was revolutionary. It was the
introduction of a principle antagonistic to that which underlies
all republican government. The Union was made for the polit
ical government of its members ; and only for certain specified
objects of a very general nature. The management of domestic
affairs, according to the letter and spirit of the compound system
of the United States Government, was remitted entirely to the
States and to their people. The General Government, by the
Constitution, was entrusted with no control over the marital or
religious relations of the people of the States, or with the right
of eminent domain within their limits. All these were social
and State relations ; so also was the institution of slavery.
Again, the Democrats viewed the effort to destroy slavery by
an amendment to the Constitution, as at variance with its spirit,
as a breach of good faith, and wholly unjust in its method. It
was a breach of faith, because the war had been prosecuted upon
the assumption that the seceded States yet formed integral parts
of the Union ; and being such, the Government was bound to
see that the private property, at least of all loyal citizens, be pre
served unharmed. For even in a pure monarchical government,
it is deemed due to all adherents of the crown, that they suffer
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 373
no loss in person or estate by reason of others in their midst
having rebelled. How then, in the republic of the United States,
could such be deprived of their property, unless a fair compensa
tion were first made to them by the Government ?
The leading Democrats of both Houses iirinly contended that
the Constitution, could not legally be so amended, as to destroy
slavery in the States without the unanimous consent of those
States. Senator Saulsbury, of Delaware, in his speech of March
31st, 1864, spoke as follows :
" I firmly believe in the truth, that if the Senate of the United States
were to adopt this joint resolution, and were to submit it to all the States
of this Union, and if three-fourths of the States should ratify the amend
ment, it would not be binding upon any State whose interest was affected
by it, if that State protested against it."
" I know that the popular theory is that a convention can frame a
Constitution, and if three-fourths of the States ratify it, it is obligatory
in reference to everything and anything they do. * * * * If
that be so, then I ask you, could three-fourths of the States say that you
should have no manufactories, that you should plant no corn, that you
should not have property in anything else which is the subject of
property.
"Sir, property is not regulated, and was not intended to be regulated
by the Constitution of the United States. Property is the creature of the
law of the State, and whenever this Government undertakes either by
legislative enactment, or operating through and by three-fourths of the
States to say to the people of any State, "ice will what shall be property
and what shall not be property in your midst ; that subject shall be regulated
by a Federal Constitution or by a Federal law" they violate the purposes
and objects for which the Constitution was framed ; and do that which,
if they had proclaimed had been their object in the beginning, "would
have prevented the formation of that Constitution, and of the Union.
"Can Congress propose an amendment to the Constitution which,
being ratified by three-fourths of the States, shall become the supreme law
of the land, by which there shall be an equal distribution of property
throughout the United States? "
Senator Hendricks, of Indiana, on the same subject, in his
speech of April 7th, 1864, said :
" I am not satisfied that this proposed amendment is one that can be
made to the Constitution. The institution of slavery is a domestic insti
tution. It exists not by virtue of the Federal Constitution, not by virtue
of any law passed pursuant to the Constitution of the United States, but
it had its existence before the formation of the Federal compact, before
the establishment of the Federal Constitution. It was the Constitution of
the Colonies."
George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, a member of the House, in
his speech of June 15th, 1864, said
874 A REVIEW OF THE
"There is in three-fourths of the States neither the power to establish
nor to abolish slavery in all the States. The Federal Government has
power over the relations of the States with foreign nations, and over the
relations of the States as between and among themselves. It has no power
aver the purely internal affairs of the State. This principle was as
familiar as household words three years ago. Every power delegated to
the Federal Government, relates either to the inter-national or the inter-
State relations of the United States. The domestic internal affairs of a
State having no connection with the Federal Government, or with for
eign nations or with the other States, are reserved to the absolute, ex
clusive, sovereign power of the States respectively, and to the people
thereof. The other States are not affected by them, and have no interest
in them. The Federal Government has no cognizance of them. The
power of amendment, which is confided to three-fourths of the States,
does not reach them nor the power to regulate them, but is limited to
the subjects and powers delegated to the United States."
The resolution prc posing the submission to. the States of tho
constitutional amendment, which should abolish slavery through
out the Union, passed the Senate April 8th, 1861, by the strong
vote of 38 yeas to 6 nays. The question was also considered in
the House and a vote taken upon it June 15th ; but there was
a failure to secure two-thirds of this body in its favor. The vote
in the House was 95 yeas to 66 nays, the Democrats in general
opposing the resolution. Four Democrats, however, believing
a further defence oi the Constitution hopeless, voted with the
majority.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 873
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864.
The Presidential campaign of 1864, was an anomalous one in tlio
history of the American Union. It was to be conducted during
the existence of the most gigantic revolution which free govern
ment had ever experienced, since the commencement of time.
The sectional party which had grasped the reins of Administration
in 1860, had as before shown, been the result of the long period
of agitation which had cemented together the fanatical elements
of the ]S"orth, and made the ruling aggregation of this section,
a, somewhat homogenous compound.
But the long period of turbulence and civil war which had
separated the sections of the country, had proved an eliminating
process which had more and more strongly placed fanaticism aad
reason in opposition to each other. From the time when it was
discovered, after the secession of the Cotton States, that the
Republican leaders would not consent to settle the difficulties
between the North and South by fair and honorable compromise,
the reasoning classes began to enter their protests ; and, although
this protesting was chiefly in silence, it nevertheless had its influ
ence in molding the aspect of the parties of the country. From
that period, reflective men* began to drop their connection with
the Republican, and become quietly absorbed in the Democratic
party. And from the beginning of the war, during its whole
progress, this process of separation was going on, and a counter
elimination was likewise all this time taking place, which was
drawing the most corrupt and selfish material from the Democratic
into the so-called loyal party of the country. Fanaticism had at
length become profitable ; and it was not unusual to find men
who had figured as conspicuous friends of peace and compromise,
*It is not meant, however, to assert that all the reflecting men deserted
the Republican paity ; but that many did so is undeniable. Interest and
other motives detained sagacious men in the Republican party who couid
not be ranked as Abolitionists.
376 A REVIEW OF THE
tarn out to be tlie most blatant advocates of the war and Southern
subjugation.
When the time approached that candidates should be selected
for a Chief Magistrate of the United States to succeed Abraham
Lincoln, the two parties of the country had become more dia
metrically antagonistic than had ever before been witnessed in
the country. The boiling caldron of war had stirred society to
its foundation ; and its sedimentary dregs that heretofore had
remained quiescent, were cast to the surface, and were exerting
an influence not felt on former like occasions. The enthusiastic
mob, the fanatical agitators, and the intolerant clergy of the
North, found themselves in the so-called Republican party, which
was bent upon crushing out all resistance to the Federal despot
ism reared by them ; and against these were arrayed the calm,
considerative classes, who could only see destruction to free gov
ernment in the policy and movements of the party that sustained
the war and its further prosecution.
Never in the history of the country did the people s govern
ment exhibit itself in such odious features. Its like had alone
been seen during the dark and bloody epoch of the French revo
lution. The preservation of republicanism had ever, to thinking
men, seemed problematical ; and the old Federal Union was
believed to have afforded the most perfect illustration of a repre
sentative Republic which was anywhere to be found upon the
globe. But all through tb 3 representative system of the American
Union, a necessary substratum of intellectual and cultivated
society, from the formation of the Constitution, had firmly held
the helm of State ; and cautiously guided it amidst the rocks
and quicksands of social disorder, upon which like forms of gov
ernment had been wrecked. An intelligent and polished class of
society existed in the Southern States, from the peculiar race
subordination of that section, which produced a succession of
clear-headed statesmen, in whose estimation honor and integity
formed guiding stars. The plan of the Federal Union itself was
the conception of these eminent men ; and its unclouded pros
perity, until 1860, was owing to the influence they exerted in the
maintenance of order and the repression of corruption.
But, whilst Southern statesmen formed a Union with slavery,
it remained as the task of the intelligence of New England and
the North to form a more perfect Union, where men of alK
POETICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 377
races should be equal, both socially and politically. Northern
fanaticism, by means of the free school system, conceived this to
be attainable, although in direct contravention to all anterior po
litical philosophy. Sound reason would rather have dictated a
method of instruction, which would render each individual bet
ter fitted for the task and station of society, for which God and
nature had chosen him ; for the statesman and the religious pre
ceptor, the highest grade of moral and scholastic culture, but for
him chosen to fill the humble walks of life, the plainest elements
of knowledge.
Human equality was first promulgated by the Redeemer of
men, in a spiritual sense, and by Thomas Jefferson, in the
Declaration of Independence, as the deduction of the thought of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries* in an ethical and
philosophical sense ; yet contradistinguished from a natural and
political sense. For no man of the keen sagacity, and intuition of
the Virginia statesman would have been willing to stultify himself
in the eyes of the scientific and philosophical world by asserting
what his unclouded reason must have assured him was untrue, viz ;
That all men are created equal ; as he could not but see that all
men are created unequal, intellectually, physically and politically.
The Hyder Alis and Pontiacs of their times are born unequal to
any of their subjects; and though devoid of all save nature s
education, exert a political power that their innate superiority
alone accord them. Could it be proven that the author of the
declaration meant to teach the entire equality of men, he would
forever stand in the light of reason and common sense, as the
purest demagogue that ever attempted to delude mankind. Such
a conclusion is not, however, to be assumed, without the clearest
evidence to sustain it. Natural and political inequality obtains
amongst all men, because of the original endowment of creation ;
and it does not disappear in a representative republican govern
ment, when it is abstractly said, that all men are born equal.
Democratic equality is purely speculative, and brings to the great
body of the people no greater power than the same class enjoy
under a monarchy. Power in an inertial condition, inheres, it is
true, in the mass of society, but like the human body, it is ever
exerted by the head of the body politic, those possessing the capacity
^Speech of R. M. T. Hunter, at the University of Virginia, on the 30th
of June, 1805, p. 16.
C73 A REVIEW OF THE
to direct the social organism. It is so in all society, monarchical,
aristocratical and democratical ; and this was as clearly seen by
Aristotle, the philosopher, over two thousand years ago, as at the
present day. But for the men whose thought controls commu
nities, eternal anarchy would reign. Political power is simply
the effort of intellect directing society ; and a few thinkers per
form the task in every subdivision of government. The very
superior minds control the aggregated whole of society, and the
body of voters exert no more authority than the same number in
the purest despotism of Asia. All the people can have, is the
liberty for each individual to fill up and enjoy the full measure
of his being. Good government does not depend, therefore,
upon the general intelligence of the masses, but upon the supe
rior intellect, culture and virtue of the few, w T ho are by nature
fitted for rulers.
The first successful effort of the abolitionized Horth, inde
pendent of the cultured South, to select a President, had resulted
in a concession to the equalizing ideas of that section. Instead
of an erudite, high-toned and honorable scholar, a tricky, jocular,
village politician of mediocre capacity, was chosen to fill the seat
that the most eminent citizens and educated Statesmen alone had
heretofore graced. A boorish President w r as acceptable to parti
sans, who believed in the full equality of all men ; and, although
men are necessitated to qualify themselves for the ordinary avo
cations of life, a rail-splitter and flat boatman was deemed equally
as competent for President of the United States, as the most
acute logician and finished Statesman. Indeed, it may be
averred, as a political axiom, that modern fanaticism can neither
produce nor secure the services of a Statesman of Hamiltonian
or Websterian calibre. This declaration finds support, when
reference is made to the class of men elevated by the revolu
tionary party to Congress, and to other governmental trusts.
Charles J. Ingersoll, a modern thinker, says :
" We know, and only a great public change can account for it, that in
the Revolution of 1776, a country of some three millions of people pro
duced illustrious men ; and in that of 1860 the same country, ten times as
populous, did not produce one." *
The unnatural, equalizing tendency of the Republican party,
having originally secured a President of ordinary ability and low
* Fears for Democracy, p. 121-3.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 879
tastes, and a Congress likewise of nearly the same grade ; it was
not to be expected that higher aspirations would guide the party
in 1864 ; inasmuch as the whole social structure was in a condi
tion of turbulence and revolution. But, common and revolu
tionary as Abraham Lincoln had exhibited himself during his
administration, he yet lacked some of the qualities that were
considered at that time desirable to be possessed by the President
of the United States. He did not have the lightning celerity of
movement, and that utter disregard of the whole spirit of the
Constitution which the radicals desired. His common sense
assured him that too great haste spoils the work / and he waited
to see the currents of opinion, before too clearly disclosing his
own views. The radicalism of the President was intense, in the
highest degree ; but he caused it to be tempered with a greater
degree of caution than the extreme revolutionists desired.
In pursuance of a movement inaugurated, in the winter of
1863-4, a convention of extreme radicals, who were opposed to
the re-nomination of Abraham Lincoln, for President, met at
Cleveland, May 31st, 1864 ; and after the adoption of a platform
of principles, named John C. Fremont, as their candidate for the
Presidential Chair. And in order, the more fully, to pi ace them
selves, in direct opposition to the President s policy, they an
nounced the doctrine, that the reconstruction of the Southern
States, was a question for the consideration of Congress, rather
than the Federal Executive. The extreme revolutionary charac
ter, of the sentiments of the members of this convention, was
also displayed in the endorsement of the principle of confiscating
the lands of the rebels, regardless of law and the express words
of the Constitution. In this convention, Thaddeus Stevens,
Charles Sumner, and men of their revolutionary principles, if true
men, should have been found, either in person, or by letters.
Being deceivers however, they waited the assembling of another
convention, which feared jto avow, what its real leaders intended
to carry into execution.
Great numbers of the radicals, no doubt, strongly sympathized
with the Cleveland convention movement ; and wished it success,
but were too timid, openly to commit themselves to it. They
altogether doubted that it could accomplish any potent result,
inasmuch as the popular current in the Republican party seemed
too strong ill favor of Abraham Lincoln to be diverted from him
880 A REVIEW OF THE
by any effort that could be made. They surmised correctly, for
the Cleveland Convention scarcely produced more than a passing
ripple upon the surface. The President had a large army of
subordinates, who were all interested in his re-nomination ; and
besides his skillful knowledge of the politician s art had enabled
him to appear before the country as the man of all others, who
was believed to be fitted to carry his party onwards to victory.
His own remark, that it is never safe to change horses in crossing
a stream, served to coin an impress upon the public mind that
was now craftily utilized by him.
The Republican politicians assembled at Baltimore, June 7th,
1864, to make Presidential nominations for their party, and
amongst these Thaddeus Stevens appeared as a delegate to the
convention. And, in order to appear consistent before the
country, in view of the contemplated plan of reconstruction,
which w r as now the kernel of radical policy, Mr. Stevens strove
to the utmost of his power to exclude all delegates to the con
vention from any of the rebel States. " He declared that he
had never recognized Virginia as being in the Union, since she
passed the Ordinance of Secession ; and the applause which had
greeted the delegates from those States that had spoken in the
convention to-day, was to him a more dangerous element than
armed rebels in the field. "* In spite of the commoner s pro
test, the delegates from Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas, were
admitted to seats in the convention, and accredited the full priv
ileges of members from other States.
The Republican representatives in the Baltimore Convention,
announced their platform as demanding the unconditional aband
onment of all resistance to the Government, without any tender
of compromise, and that slavery should no longer be tolerated by
the Federal authorities as an institution of the country; the
Emancipation Proclamation of the President, and the employ
ment of African soldiers were also approved by the party leaders.
An amendment to the Constitution was likewise recommended,
so as finally to put an end to slavery in all of the States. But ?
although President Lincoln had made the subject of reconstruc
tion, the capital topic of his message in December, 186S, and,
although his plan was already scouted and derided by -a large
section of his party, a cowardly hypocritical silence was main-
*New York World, June 8th, 1864.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN A% ERICA< 333
tained upon this most important point. TV eoiI sly to show itself
question of the time, which underlay all otho Clay Webster a cl "
ing close on the heels of military success, Wi^ecome so imprvder
of importance. It especially deserved to be i>nent of. j^nonest
men, who desire nothing but the advancement ^^fiistice. The
truth, however, was that the Republicans were so divided on this
subject, that any attempt to define a policy would have cleft the
party asunder, and fixed a great gulph between the two seg
ments, the warm adherents of Lincoln, and the Stevens and
Sumner extremists.
The nomination of Abraham Lincoln, as Robert Breckenridge,
the temporary Chairman of the Baltimore Convention substan
tially expressed it, was une fait accompli, even before the
assembling of that body. It simply registered the pa^y determi
nation, as it had generally been arranged and understood through
out the ^orth ; inasmuch as no other candidate could be substi
tuted, who would so heartily unite all classes of Republicans in
his support. Being a man of no positive ideas, he could permit
his opinions to be shaped to suit the popular gale. He, there
fore, admirably suited as the Presidential foot-ball to be played
by the revolutionists, who could propel him in whatever direction
they chose. A man of fixed principles was by no means a
suitable instrument of the existing emergency. Besides, Abra
ham Lincoln had the sobriquet of "honest"* appended to his
name, which was well calculated to catch the unthinking herd of
voters.
The nomination of a candidate for Vice-President, was a mat
ter that likewise called for shrewdness at the hands of the Re
publican managers in the Baltimore Convention. Three men
of early democratic faith Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, Han
nibal Hamlin, of Maine, and Daniel S. Dickinson, of Xew York
were the prominent candidates for this position. The first
named of these received the endorsement of the convention, in
the face of the protest of Thaddeus Stevens, who saw in the
*Dr. Orestes Brownson, the clear-headed thinker and philosopher, him
self a member of the Republican party, had the sagacity to perceive
what the title of " honest" in American politics indicates. In a speech
made by him, June 27th, 1864. he remarked that he had no confidence in
any man who had the appendage of honest to hi^ name, as he will in
variably be found to be a cunning man, a canny man, a foxy man/
He also added, " There is not a more cunning man in this country thaa
Abraham Lincoln." New York World, June 2Sth, 18(34
880 A REVIEW OP THE
bj any effort that coiandidate a stab at his favorite theory of re-
co Cleveland Convr the valuable services to the cause of aboli
tions 5 upon the s - oy the Military Governor of Tennessee, could
not be ^Jve, who^d by party manipulators, who more highly
prized the igritfjie surrender of life cherished principles than the
manly performance of honorable duty. This nomination was
but in keeping with the promotion of Callieott* and others of
like antecedents, who were rewarded in proportion to the low
obeisance they had made to the corrupt beast of infamy that had
been set up for universal homage.
The selection of rulers by universal suffrage, to govern man
kind, is a republican process. It is the result of modern thought,
in opposition to the principles of monarchy ; and designed to
bestow upon all classes of men as large an amount of liberty and
power as may be compatible with moral and governmental in
tegrity. Philosophical reflection, in its desire for the elevation
of general humanity, up to the period of the French revolution,
had concurred in the justice of the effort to equalize men as
much as possible in their social and political relations. The boil
ing, however, of the French caldron, upset the hopes of many
calm European thinkers in the capacity of man. for self-govern
ment; and from that period absolutism in the old world has
been surrounding itself with strong barriers, so as to prevent
further outbreaks of incendiary madness and lawless revolution.
But the Federal Union was the product of modern thought, as
It was molded prior to the French revolution. This Confederacy,
having been early grasped from the hands of the monarchical
faction, that for a time controlled it ; under the administrations
of wise rulers it was rendered the model republic of both the
ancient and modern, world. The extraordinary prosperity which
it enjoyed under the principles of Democracy, was because wis
dom kept in harmony the complicated machinery of the whole
system, based upon tacit, universal consent During all this
time, the turbulent, lawless and fanatical elements of societv
were kept in due subordination by that succession of wise and
eminent Statesmen who stepped to the helm of Government in
1800, and held the ship steady for sixty years. But the violent
* Salmon P. Chase appointed ex-Speaker Callicott to official position
little doubt in consideration of his base desertion of democratic nrm,
pies. New York World, April 25^ 1801
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 883
rocking of the vessel began almost instantaneously to show itself
with the departure of the great helmsmen, Clay, Webster and
Calhoun. The false doctrine of equality had become so impressed
upon the popular mind, that with the retirement of these dis
tinguished Statesmen, nearly every newspaper reader conceived
himself as equally competent to rule the nation as the elected
representatives of the people. Free schools in the Xorth had
done their fancied work ; they had educated a nation of States
men ; and the millennial days of freedom were yet in store for
the republic,
With such thoughts, the Northern people having originally
elevated Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, not because of his
intellectual superiority, but because of his representing the ruling
sentiments of his section ; it was not to be expected that another
than he or his like, would be the Presidential nominee of the
republican party in 1S.61. Reason had beon discomtite .1 in the
election of 18(30, and being fully dethroned, was in banishment
in ISiU. Popular election being the mode during pacific times,
which wise men in State and Federal compacts had agreed upon
for the choice of rulers, to whom the reins of power were to be
entrusted, would this same method promote liberty and equity
when these Constitutions were overthrown, and a period of dis
order had seized the country ?
Such was the condition of affairs, when Lincoln and Johnson
were nominated at Baltimore, as candidates for President and
Vice-President of the L^nited States. Republican success in 1860,
was due to the political prostitution of former Whig and Demo
cratic leaders to the abolitionized sentiments of the North, already
pregnant with revolution and constitutional downfall. But as
the pretended foes of slavery extension, and the courtiers of
popular opinions, had been exalted to high seats in the temple of
Mammon, was it probable th.it in 1S6, they would abandon
their seats, after having caused hundreds of thousands of
deluded soldiers to be drowned in seas of blood and carnage,
to sustain the non-compromise policy of knaves and madmen.
Again, the party that had grasped power in 1SGO, under
the watchwords of economy and reform, was now necessi
tated to defend, not the annual expenditure of seventy mil
lions of dollars for the support of the Government, but of
one thousand millions. Delightful economists and reformers in
884 A REVIEW OF THE
truth ! The party also, that had through the thousands of utter
ances of its leaders, proclaimed that no danger was to be appre
hended from the secession of the Southern States, was now
compelled to face an unsubdued rebellion of near four years
duration. And the men who came into power vituperating and
vilifying Democratic Administrations as having been dishonestly
conducted, were since their advent to place, busily engaged in
rearing a pagoda of fraud, iniquity and corruption, such as the
civilized world had never before contemplated.
The Republican party, although boasting itself of its Christian
designs and moral purposes, was the great destroyer of principle
amongst the American people. Its organization rested upon
the perversion of man s moral nature, the basis of which is
truth. Its secret, but unavowed objects, had attracted to its
folds; the infidel clergy and statesmen of the North, whose
numbers are legion and whose God is humanity. The party from
its origin, was the embodiment of conscious untruth in pretend
ing that its only object war. to prevent the extension of slavery
into free territory ; whereas, from its organization, it aimed at
the complete extirpation of the institution, even where it had a
constitutional existence. The personal liberty bills also had been
enacted upon the pretence that these were for the protection of the
citizens of the free States ; yet, the sole object of these, though
violating the Constitution, was to prevent the return of fugitive
slaves. During the war again, the Republican party pretended
to regard the emancipation of the slaves as a military necessity,
when in truth it only meant to take advantage of the war to
accomplish its original object. It also pretended to regard
Democrats as traitors ; but this was assumed simply to render
them odious, and drive them from power. This method of ostra
cism, proved indeed a valuable aid to the revolutionists. During
the whole war, indeed, falsehood colored the utterances of the
Republican press, so as to delude the people concerning the pro-
oress and movements of the national arms. Oaths were not
binding upon the consciences of the President, Cabinet Ministers,
Senators or Congressmen, who subscribed to a higher law than
the Constitution. Plighted faith was no longer required to be
observed, according to the principles of those who sought by all
means the eradication of the hated Southern institution. From
the head of the nation, therefore, to the lowest party subaltern.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 385
almost, deception and fraud were employed to further the cause
for which war had been made against the South. These and
other influences necessarily germinated the festering corruption
and demoralization, that arose all over the North in gigantic
forms, after the installation of the Republican party ; and which
threatened to bury humanity in a night of universal gloom.
But the deluge had come ; the foundations of the great deep
of society were broken up, and constitutional ruin a ad prostration
were everywhere visible. The anarchical mob of the North was
ruling the nation, both in the Cabinet and upon the field. The
Baltimore Convention was its selection, and the candidates its
choice. Law, liberty and order were subordinated to the dictates
of fanatical propagandism and revolutionary freedom. And it
even militated nothing adversely to Abraham Lincoln, the favor
ite of the social dregs, that he had the courage at length to avow
his infamous conduct in violating the Federal Constitution. In
his letter of April 6th, 186tt, to Colonel Hodges, he said :
" I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become law
ful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution,
through the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this
ground, and now avow it.
Society being at this time, in a condition almost of chaotic
anarchy and tumultuous disorder, public opinion was no fair
index of the intelligent reflection of the reasoning classes, who
must always guide the ship of government, or ruin invariably
ensues. And as occurred in the French revolution, in the change
of attitude by Mirabeau, La Fayette and others, the thoughtful
men of the North, who could descry the maelstrom of social
overthrow that the vessel of State was approaching, left (as
before remarked) the Republican party in considerable numbers,
after the commencement of the war ; but for every one of this
character that deserted the organization of fanaticism, two of an
opposite kind came to it from the Democracy, now likewise
become imbued with the spirit of revolution. A bitter partisan
press was all the time fanning the flames of hatred against the
South, and urging onwards the Northern armies to finish the
work of destruction in which they were engaged. The anti-war
Democrats were pointed out as sympathisers with the Southern
rebels, who were drenching the fields of the Republic in the best
blood of its citizens, patriotically fighting in defence of the life
386 A REVIEW OF THE
of the nation. The unreflecting democrat, whose son had fallen
at Chancellorsville or Gettysburg,, was stirred to rage when told
that his party friends were opposed to the war against the peo
ple s enemies* He could not see that it was the wicked refusal
of the Republican leaders to compromise the difficulties with the
Southern people, which had impelled the sections into deadly
conflict, and the same which had prolonged it, and flooded the
land with blood.
In this state of sentiment, there existed but little probability
that the Democrats could do more than protest against the acts
and policy of the Administration party. But that they should
resist, was in the nature of things ; for do not all oppose those
injuring them, if they have the power to do so I The Democratic
party perceived that war was anti-republican and suicidal to the
principles of free government ; and they should have been false
to the instincts of humanity not to have expressed their disap
probation of a further prosecution of the war. Accordingly, on
the 29th of August, 1864, the National Convention of this party
assembled in Chicago, and resolved in favor of a cessation of
hostilities, in order that peace and the Union might ultimately be
restored by pacific remedies. And as the dictate of reason and
true republican sentiment, this resolution must ever stand justi
fied before the w^orld and the intelligence of coming ages.
The large majority of the members of this convention, were
decided peace men, and made but little concealment of their
views. But a portion of the delegates viewed the platform as
entirely too strong a committal in favor of peace ; and to coun
terbalance this, they insisted upon the expediency of nominating
a war Democrat, as the party candidate for the Presidency, The
name of General George B. McClellan was presented to the con
vention, amidst great applause ; and being known to be very
popular with the masses of the party, he received the nomina
tion. This candidate was, however, by no means the choice of
the avowed peace men, and was accepted by them with considerable
reluctance. Could the reverse of that have been expected, when
the peninsular hero s participation in the illegal arrest of the
Maryland Legislature was as yet unforgotten. George H. Pen-
dleton, a peace man, was settled by this convention as the Demo
cratic candidate for Yice-President.
General McClellan s letter of acceptance had the effect of
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 337
deadening Democratic enthusiasm in his support. The military
chieftain carried his martial autocracy with him in his letter
accepting the nomination ; and laid down an interpretation of
the platform of his party which was agreeable to himself. But
his letter evinced a base truckling to the corrupted war sentiment
of the North ; and the party should at once have repudiated him
as its nominee, and selected a true representative of Democratic
principles, who could have aroused warm enthusiasm in his sup
port. There were indeed mutterings heard ; but the Democracy
had become too far demoralized under the guidance of selfish
leaders to be capable of bold action. There were yet Spartan
bands in its ranks in abundance, but competent leaders were
wanting to unite and lead them to victory, or even honorable
defeat.
But even the apparent united array of the old party, that had
so long borne victory upon its banners, was terrifying to the
enemy. A closing up of ranks was at once ordered. Fremont
and his retiring followers deemed it also prudential to return to
the fold in order that fanaticism united, might be able to grapple
with the common foe. The campaign was short and spirited
upon one side alone. Genuine enthusiasm was lacking in the
breasts of the Anti-war Democracy. The candidate was tar
nished in the eyes of true men, having fought the battles of the
wicked despotism that was overthrowing the liberties of the
country.
The Republican leaders, on the contrary, were buoyant with en
thusiasm in anticipation of the victory of might over right. The
legions of infidelity, malice and rapine, were moving their serried
columns to the battle that was to crown them victors over equity and
plighted compact. The spirit of intuition appeared to the Demo
cratic freemen of the North, and audibly whispered in their tents,
before the onset began, " / will meet the at Pliillippi" On
November 8th, 1864:, the battle was fought, and constitutionalism
was prostrated upon the Western continent.
Abraham Lincoln was again elected President, carrying the
electoral vote of every State considered in the Union, except
three New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky. Over four hun
dred thousand of a popular majority endorsed his election. The
anarchical mob-spirit of the North had again triumphed over
reason and reflection ; and the party, which was regardless of
388 A REVIEW OF THE
law and order, had anew seized the helm of Government. The
exhausted youth of the South, now alone stayed the oppressor s
advance. Should their resistance at length be fully overcome,
the Juggernaut of Northern incendiary fanaticism, would then
roll its hideous figure over the prostrate form of constitutional
government.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 389
CHAPTER XXIV
FANATICISM TRIUMPHS.
The tide of warfare and invasion still continued to swell, and
was rapidly submerging in a sea of blood, section after section of
the Southern States. The available military strength from the
old Dominion to Texas, had been conscripted to repel the hated
Yankee invaders ; the chivalric armies of defense were greatly
reduced in numbers, and still further melting away in daily colli
sions with the enemy ; and no avenues now remained open that
promised replenishment to the rapidly exhausting Confederacy-
The spirit and courage that had shown themselves upon a Ijun-
dred battle-fields were yet unconquered, but the rolling waves of
fresh levies from the JSTorth were advancing with steady move, and
promised to prostrate in a general overthrow the still struggling
remnants of the Southern armies. Cut oif from the outside
world, the Confederate defensive strength must alone be raised
upon their own soil, and their armies replenished from their own
citizens.
The American sectional struggle, being the commencement
upon the Western Continent of the great battle of Communism
with capital and stable government, the Red Republicans of the
old world lent all their influence to the cause of the revolution
ists, throwing their weight into the abolition scale by enlisting
themselves in tens of thousands in the Northern armies. Europe
imported its exuberant sans culotte population upon our shores;
fanaticism turned the negro slaves of the South into conscripting
fields; and from these two sources, the Northern military strength
in a large measure was steadily replenished. But the conquest
of the Southern rebels had not taken place in sixty days, as had
been promised. The negroes of the South now proved a valua
ble reserve, upon which the war party of the 2s"orth could fall
back, and red republicanism also arose in demand to assist in the
390 A REVIEW OF THE
completion of the work that had at first been sneered at as a
matter of insignificance.
That abolitionism and communism should have united in our
sectional struggle, was altogether natural, inasmuch as they had
like aspirations, being sisters of a common patronage. Both*
followed the movement of modern free thought, which for ages
had desired to reach in governmental spheres, the practical equali
zation of humanity. To strive, however, for full human equality
was to endeavor to remove what the inscrutable wisdom of Diety,
for certain reasons, had implanted in nature. And those who
did so, influenced by logical reasoning, were they for the most
part, who were unwilling to recognize the existence of a Supreme
Creator and ruler of men ; and their desire was to remove all the
inequalities, which the creative .mind had left upon the face of
universal being. They were those who officiously set themselves
up as wiser than the Divine Lawgiver, and as competent to rec
tify the work of His hands.
Freedom itself has been the conception of the philosophical
thought of the world ; and an attribute of those alone who have
been able to comprehend and enjoy it. It has been the birth
right of the few in all ages and countries ; and so will it ever
remain. The great mass of mankind are born either tyrants or
slaves, both being endowed with like characteristics. For the
slave becomes the most unrelenting task-master, when circum
stances have elevated him from his former menial condition ;
and the tyrant, in turn, readily sinks to a state of servitude,
when reverses of fortune have overtaken him. It is only he
whom nature has endowed with the principles of freedom, who
stubbornly resists the condition of slavery, in which his birth
may have placed him ; and who makes incessant effort to relieve
himself from the chains of bondage. The great bulk of man
kind do not realize the bondage of their creation ; and hence
thay make no effective effort to relieve themselves from it.
Freedom does not consist in being relieved from the necessity of
manual labor, but in the right to think, speak and act as a moral
intelligence. Esop and Epictetus, the philosophers, were free
men, though occupying the condition of slavery. He alone is a
free man, whom his moral and intellectual qualities make free.
And he is one, again, who only asks from others what he would
be willing to extend were circumstances changed ; but seeing the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 391
inequality implanted upon the face of creation, wisdom admon
ishes him to permit the laws of destiny to remain unquestioned
as they are fixed*
Free government, likewise being the product of philosophical
thought, has hitherto sunk, because too large a proportion of
mankind have ever permitted themselves to be made the slaves
of designing tyrants, who care alone for their own promotion
and success. The ancient Republics of Greece and Rome disap
peared, because their freemen were too few in numbers to defend
them against the natural foes of their existence. Centralization,
the antipodal force to freedom, from the origin of government,
has been active and has always succeeded in submerging free
institutions in the abyss of despotism. During the middle ages,
also, the Teutonic intellect succeeded in establishing free repub
lics and an enlargement of freedom in different parts of Europe ;
but all these were overthrown in the centralizing movements
that reared absolute monarchies in France, Spain, England and
elsewhere, about the close of the fifteenth century. The tvrants
pretended to enlarge the liberties of the lower classes, in order
to entice them to their support and by means of the aid thus
obtained they were enabled to prostrate freedom in one common
ruin, and ride in triumph over those whose services they had so
treacherously subsidized.
And in the alliance between abolitionism and the communistic
element of Europe, free government in the Western world was
again assailed by enemies who appeared in the habiliments of Con
federates, These foes stood forth as the friends of freedom and
universal humanity; and professed the most sincere love for
America and her institutions. The attitude, however, which
these assumed, clearly demonstrated that their zeal outstripping
their wisdom, rendered them like Matthison and John of Ley den,
the enemies of social order and constitutional law ; and that their
efforts to extend freedom beyond its natural limits, would in the
end turn out to be labor in vain and purely abortive. And worse
than this would follow, as it was perceived, that these super-
serviceable efforts would prove the suicidal, and destroy even
liberty of those worthy of it ; and as had happened in other
ages, aid in centralizing all the power of the government, and
ultimately lead to the establishment of an empire where the peace
ful and prosperous Republic of America had flourished.
593 A REVIEW OF THE
A tendency to centralization, as before observed, had existed
from the origin of the Federal Union ; and it was one, which of
all others, distinguished the Federal party and its successors from
their opponent, through all the periods of our history. Against
this trait of Federalism, the Democratic party early arrayed
itself, and steadfastly adhered to this position ; and, although it
was the party of the humble classes, and the one which might
have been supposed most likely to sympathize in all efforts to
elevate mankind ; yet comprising in its ranks a body of philosoph
ical thinkers, whom principle alone detained, it was not strange
that it ever remained the Constitutional party of the country,
which was opposed to all useless aims of fanatical zeal. The
Democratic party was indeed, from its origin, the exponent of
the most enlarged freedom of which men are capable. It was
the one that made our country the home of the oppressed of all
nations, and which strove by means of constitutional law to
afford them all the means by which they might uninterruptedly
work out their own destiny. It, however, never accepted the
theory of the universal equality of all races of men. But Cau
casian equality, in a certain sense, having been the established
theory upon which the government was framed, this was accepted
as the embodiment of the largest practical liberty that was attain
able. The Democratic was, therefore, simply the Constitutional
parly of the nation.
Having been such, then, rather than a sans culotte Democracy -,
which its name might have implied ; when the fanatical and rev
olutionary element of the country had developed itself to strength,
and, like the tyrants of Europe, sought to subvert the funda
mental theory of government, under the hypocritical cry of
universal Democracy, it was natural that the party of Jefferson
should stand by the constitutional institutions of the Republic,
It thus exhibited itself as consistent with its early record, and
opposed to the destructive principles of fanaticism and com
munism ; both of which ever lie in wait for the overthrow of ail
established government when an opportunity presents itself.
The uneasy, agitating and revolutionary elements of Europe,
led by Yictor Hugo, Garibaldi, and others of like character, were
very naturally, therefore, in sympathetic accord with American
fanaticism. The British Red Republican classes were so grati
fied with the re-election of Abraham Lincoln, that a large body
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA, 893
of them in a letter, promptly congratulated the successful can
didate upon his political success.
Fanaticism in America, fortified as it was, therefore, in the
affections of the unreflecting millions of Europe, was a force of
nearly invincible power. It is ever such in its nature, being
propelled by the emotions rather than by the reason of mankind.
What else furnished the crusaders the material, that prolonged
for centuries their struggles for the conquest of the holy land ?
The thirty years war of Germany was inspirited by that evei
living principle of the human breast ; and the blood that flowed
on Saint Bartholomew s night, and which moistened the soil of
France, Spain and the Netherlands for ages, was shed by this
active enemy of human repose. Did not, indeed, leading Abo
litionists openly declare that nothing could justify the flooding
of American fields with crimson gore, except the principle which
had produced the war ? And what was that principle, as they
themselves confessed it, but that urging of the equality of
all mankind ? In behalf of this, then, European and American
fanatics were united. This union could not, therefore, be but
almost omnipotent and resistless.
Fanaticism was the ruling force during the middle ages, and
down to the peace of Westphalia. But philosophic reason rose
to the helm about this period. The principles of Des Cartes and
Bacon, taught men that when two religious parties of antago
nistic principles live in the same country, it is the dictate of wis
dom, that the one do yield to the other, so far as that they can
live together in peace, rather than in a state of perpetual war
fare. It was perceived that conquering a people does not lead
to the change of their opinions, but rather intensifies them in
their former notions. Fanatical and religious wars disappeared
as the consequence of such views, from the face of Europe ; and
the adjudication of questions of this nature, was remitted to the
forum of reason and sound -judgment. The peace of Minister
inaugurated in government the era of religious coleration.
Compromise, from this period, settled what before had been re
ferred to the arbitrament of arms.
But as Christianity, the religion of peace, haa been perverted
by fanaticism into one of enthusiastic zeal and bloodshed, so was
the philosophy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
changed by the like influence into revolution and governmental
894 A. REVIEW OP THE
rnin. The same classes of men who, upon the religious arena,
had converted the divine love of the master into bloody fervor,
mow entered the department of social life, and corrupted the
principles of pure thought in the furnace of the French revolu
tion. Excessive zeal and fanatical ardor, threatened during this
eventful period, to overturn all sound government in an abyss of
social destruction ; and it was simply owing to the sagacious wis
dom of European Statesmen, that the current of fanaticism, now
found in the new channel, was able to be successfully stemmed.
The stream of fury, crime and madness was at length stopped,
but numerous lessons were written by the hand of destiny for
the edification of future ages.
Fanaticism ever performs acts of kindred character. Doing
the bidding of emotion, it never consults reason, and hence its
work is hastily and imperfectly executed. Being the quality of
feminine minds, it moves without the guidance of reflective
thought, which is needed to direct human action. American ab
olitionism being of like quality Avith other fanaticisms, its move
ments in the war against the South must likewise be similar.
And so indeed did it show itself. Having refused all tenders of
amicable settlement and compromise between the sections, before
the outbreak of hostilities, it was not to be supposed these pa
cific modes would be embraced after the demon of battle had lit
up the flames of sectional strife. Death must continue his work
of destruction, or the zeal of the invaders would not be satisfied.
Instead of terms of adjustment being considered, the car of rev
olution pressed onwards to its final goal,
Sherman s invading hosts, by means of fire and sword, cut
their way through South Carolina and Georgia ; arid Columbia,
the capitol of the Spartan State of the Southern Confederacy,
sunk amidst the cracking of hostile flames and the bombs of
Northern artillerists. The shade of the brave Count Pulaski,
from his honored monumental summit in the City of Savannah,
was next compelled to view the old flag of the Republic, carried
as a ^despot s banner, for which ignoble service the heroic Pole,
in his devotions to constitutional liberty, had never consecrated it.
Torn up railroads, burnt bridges, and plundered residences,
marked the path of General Stoneman and his followers through
South-western Virginia and Western North Carolina, Alabama
and Y7cstern Georgia received rude experience in the severities
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 395
of war. Captured cities and the remains of burned locomotives,
cars and cotton, attested the presence of Wilson and his raiders.
The beautiful and fertile valley of the Shenandoah, meandered
by the river of its own name, was made memorable in modern
warfare, because of the fiendish and Attilla-like destruction of
property by General Sheridan and his devastating soldiery. The
flouring mills and barns * of this large valley district of Virginia
were consumed in the flames of Federal atrocity, an act of bar
barity that finds no parallel in the annals of civilized war. And
upon the flimsy pretext that a Northern engineer had been killed
by some unknown rebel, the Federal Haynau confesses that "all
the houses, within an area of five miles, were burned." f
Destruction and desolation spread their ravages in all directions,
as the armies of the North meandered in tortuous courses,
through the barren fields of the South;, and the black and
smoking ruins that marked the invaders paths, presented sad
evidence of the love that held together in fraternal union the
Northern and Southern people.
Whilst the blows which fanaticism dealt, were falling thick
J O
and fast upon the Southern Confederacy ; and whilst its walls
already breached, upon all sides, were showing unmistakable
signs of yielding to the assaults of the enemy, the valleys began
to resound with shouts of joy for the nearly grasped victory.
The mask that had so long been worn to conceal the object of
the war, was now laid aside by the boldest of the radical leaders.
George W. Julian, a Member of Congress from Indiana, in his
speech of February 8th, 1865, boldly avowed that the designs of
his party never contemplated anything further in their war for
* General Sheridan reported the destruction effected by his soldiers, as
follows :
" In moving back to this point, the whole country from the Blue Ridge
to the North Mountain, has been made untenantable for a rebel army.
I have destroyed over 2,000 barns filled with wheat and hay and farming
implements, over seventy mills filled with flour and wheat ? have driven
in front of the army over 4,000 head of stock, and have killed and issue 1
to the troops not less than 3,000 sheep. This destruction embraces the
Luray Valley and Little Fort Valley, as well as the main valley."
Greeley s Conflict, Vol. 2, p. 611.
f Horace Greeley, in his History of the American Conflict, Volume 2,
page 611, speaks as follows of the devastation of the Shenandoah Valley :
" It is not obvious that the national cause was advanced, or the national
prestige exalted, by this resort to one of the very harshest and mosc
questionable expedients, not absolutely forbidden by the laws of civilized
warfare,"-
390 A REVIEW OF THE
the Union, expect their triumph for human rights, that is tho
the emancipation of the negro race, and their elevation to equal,
social and political rights with the whites. Characterizing the
conflict as a war of the people, he said :
"They (the people), expect that Congress will pass a bill for the con
fiscation of the fee of rebel landholders, and they expect the President
will approve it. They expect that Congress will provide for the recon
struction of the rebel States, by systematic legislation, \vhich shall
guarantee republican governments to each of those States, and the com
plete enfranchisement of the negro. * * They expect that
Congress will provide for parcelling out the forfeited and confiscated
lands o the rebels in small homesteads, among the soldiers and seamen
of the war, as a fit reward for their valor, and a security against the
ruinous monopoly of the soil in the South."
In the same speech Mr. Julian even admitted that " the whole
policy of the Administration had been revolutionized." But
this was an acknowledgment that would not have been made at
a much earlier period. It had beon the standing accusation of
the Anti-wnr Democrats, but was steadily resented by the men
themselves who had produced thg revolution. Now, however,
when their hold of the Government for the next four years was
fully established, and when the rebellion seemed to be nearing
its close, the men that had hitherto averred, in the most solemn
language, that the war was alone prosecuted for the defense of
the Union, could step forward, the success of their ideas being
assured, and confess their hypocrisy and the deception that had
been practiced upon the country.
In the second session of the 38th Congress, fanatical hopes were
buoyant beyond what had before been witnessed. The Presi
dential election that crowned the Republican party with victory ;
and had dispirited, in a corresponding measure, large numbers
of Democrats who felt that for the time being, their party was
utterly prostrated. The car of radical destruction had obtained
such velocity that it seemed to many as labor in vain to attempt
any longer to resist it. And when Representative Ashley on the
6th of January, 1865, called up in the House his favorite joint
resolution to submit to the States, the Constitutional Amendment
abolishing slavery throughout the Union, several Democrats who,
in the former session of Congress, had opposed the Amendment,
now co-operated with the Republicans and gave it their support.
Those who now for the first time supported the measure, had
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 397
become fully convinced that though violative of the Constitution,
it would be finally carried ; and that longer resisting it would
be attended with no beneficial results. And notwithstanding,
duty to principle and obedience to their oaths, demanded of all
sincere Democrats, that they defend with their votes the Federal
Constitution ; and that they allow the responsibility for its vio
lation and overthrow to rest upon other shoulders than their own.
After a heated controversy of three weeks on the floor of the
House, the joint resolution was adopted by 119 yeas to 56 nays.
"When this result was announced, fanatical zeal as it ever does,
burst all the barriers of order, and filled the Hall of Congress
with loud and continued demonstrations of joy. One historian,
himself a Republican, says : " Never was such a scene before
witnessed in any legislative hall."*
At this session of Congress, the establishment of a Freedmen s
Bureau was considered. A measure of this character was found
necessary to be established, when the authority of the Southern
master had been broken by the Presidential edict ; and the negro
slaves set adrift as freemen. And the demand for governmental
protection came from the same classes of the people, who had
ever claimed for the negro the highest rights ; and that they
were fully competent to take care of themselves if freedom was
granted to them. The request for such a bureau came from the
Freedmen s Aid Societies of Boston, New York, Philadelphia
and Cincinnati ; End from men who were the most ardent friends
of emancipation and negro equality. As soon, however, as this
equality had been proclaimed by the Government, these same
people instinctively shrunk, as it were, from allowing the negro
unaided to make his future way through life. They were fully
conscious that he was incompetent to cope with thu superior
white man in the struggle for existence, much as they had
boasted of his ability. But their emotional natures, driving them
without rudder or compass, they had looked to emancipation as
the long sought haven of hope ; and as soon as this had been
reached, a gleam of reason seemed to signify to them that
the freed African was incompetent to retain, if left to him
self, what he had grasped. George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, when
this matter had been discussed, at the former session of Congress,
^Barrett s life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 68G.
393 A REVIEW OF THE
turned the argument against the Abolitionists in the following
words :
* Nor need I remind gentlemen, that this very difficulty was frequently
foretold, that the incapacity of the negro to take care of himself, was
often alluded to, and that you always ridiculed the idea. What will you
do with the negro when you shall have emancipated him? was fre
quently asked ; and as often your virtuous indignation boiled over at the
bare intimation that he was not thoroughly competent to take care of
himself."*
The Freed men s Bureau Bill was the subject of a long and
heated discussion in both Houses of Congress. It was contended
by those opposed to the measure, that the Constitution con
ferred no authority upon the General Government to establish
such a bureau of African affairs ; but it was become necessary,
that stronger arguments should be urged against the passage of a
bill, than its unconstitutionality. The faction whose aim was
resisted by that instrument of compact, was not likely to heed
arguments drawn from it. This was particularly so now, when
the revolutionists believed that they were about to triumph in
the near future over the armed combattants of the South. Some
of the Republicans of both Houses, besides the Democrats,
opposed the passage of the Freedmen s Bureau, as a measure not
contemplated within the purview of the General Government.
John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and others, argued that as the
negro was now freed, he should be left to manage his affairs to
the best of his ability. The measure, however, passed both the
Senate and House of Representatives, and having received the
assent of President Lincoln, became a law March 2d, 1865.
The act embraced the management of the affairs of freedmen
refugees, and abandoned lands in the South. The bureau created
O 5
by it was attached to the War Department; and its friends,
doubtless wishing to excite no inquiry as to the expense that
would be required to sustain it, made no appropriation for carry
ing out its purposes. But E. M. Stanton, the Secretary of War,
exhibited his humble obeisance to his masters ; and greatly en
deared himself with them in the service he rendered their pro
ject by his illegal action. lie assigned army officers to take
charge of the new bureau s concerns, provided buildings for its
accommodation, and furnished the supplies required by requisi
tions on the Quarter-Master s Department. By this method the
*Spcejh of March 1st, 1861
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. SS9
expense needed to sustain the newly created bureau, could not
easily be known, as the War Department was able to cover the
whole with its ample wings.
The proceedings of the second session of the Thirty-eighth
Congress, evinced a spirit of malignity and vindictiveness on the
part of the revolutionary men who shone conspicuous in those
bodies, that even supassed in intensity the worst exhibitions that
the war fury had as yet produced. Indeed, this spirit in a
measure animated the breasts of the war patriots from the com
mencement of hostilities. Bloody conquest and destruction of
the Southern people, was the motto imprinted upon the banners
of the braves, led by the hyena captains of the North, and in
spired by the infidel clergy of New England ; the hypocrites
who pretended to be the followers of the meek and lowly man
of Nazareth ; but who were simply the exponents of the princi
ples of Yoltaire, Condorcet and Rousseau, and visionary propa
gandists of the murderous creed of the leaders of the French
revolution.
Universal extermination of the Southern whites, wholesale
seizure of their property, and its distribution amongst the eman
cipated negro slaves, were the proclaimed doctrines of Stevens,
Wade, Sumner, and the other stars of the first magitude that
sparkled in the firmament of fanatical glory. Rather than com
promise with traitors, Thaddeus Stevens, early in the war, had
announced himself as willing " to see the Union shattered into
ten thousand fragments" One revolutionary scheme after
another had been from the first proposed in Congress by the
most violent of these men, all designed to destroy the Southern
whites and elevate barbarians to political equality with them. A
retroactive spirit, antipodal to the destructive, during the first
stages of the war, had the ability to hold the demoniac force in
more circumscribed bounds than the French Girondists had been
able to do, in the old world. The spirit was the same, however,
but no vast American city afforded equal opportunities for its
development, as existed across the waters.
The closing session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, supplemented
former acts of negro elevation, by opening, at last to the new
American, the privilege of carrying the United States mails.
This was done at a period when demoralization and corruption,
had made such inroads into the Republican party, that it was,
400 A REVIEW OF THE
perhaps, difficult for t\ie_pure government of fanaticism, to find
enough of loyal whites, of sufficient honesty to perform even
the menial service of carrying the mails. But, if negro purity
was even at that time above par, the leaders had unfortunately
omitted to consult their great Apostle, Jean Jacques Rousseau,
who would have advised them that the African s morality would
sink in the proportion as culture was thrust upon him.
The leading revolutionists, during this session of Congress,
had a fine opportunity to inflame the minds of the Northern
unthinking people, by accusing the rebels of cruelty towards
Federal prisoners of war. It was not at all sincere sympathy
for the Northern soldiers lying in Southern prisons, that excited
these complaints, but the desire to intensify Northern hate
against the rebels, which was the sole food that sustained the
revolutionary Republican party. Generous breasts were equally
touched with pity for prisoners of war, whether confined in
Northern or Southern prisons. But the party that had it in
their power to end the captivity of all the Northern prisoners by
an exchange for Southern in their possession, and refused to do
so, could not be supposed to entertain very ardent sympathy for
their captives languishing in the enemy s custody. At this time,
the North held twice as large a number of Southern prisoners, as
the Confederates had in their keeping. Besides, real sympathetic
men, would not have spurned the generous tender of Lord
"VVharncliffe, a British Nobleman, to mitigate the miseries of
Federal prison life, as William 11. Seward, the representative
of the Administration, had the audacity to do.
Retaliation, confiscation and extermination were the current
watch-words of fanatical feeling ; and no measures of Congress
received ardent support, save as they approximated the attainment
of these righteous standards of intemperate zeal. Even the
patriot daughters, the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, and
the other charitable agencies of the North, could raise their five
hundred millions of dollars to support Congress in its unconsti
tutional advances ; and to aid in sending the demon of war upon
his fiendish mission to the South. Another Madame Roland upon
the American continent might have cried aloud : " (9, Christi
anity, what crimes are committed in thy name /" An infidel
priesthood had deluded the people into the belief, that the bible
meant what its words contradicted ; and an oligarchy of mad-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 401
dened enthusiasts, at the dictation of an atheistic Congress, sought
to canonize the overthrow of constitutional rights as the highest
attainment of humanitarian effort. Passionate hatred of slave
holders was esteemed by all these as the holiest inspirations of
Divinity.
The 38th Congress closed its session March 3d, 1865, having
expended their every effort to pour out the full vial of their
demoniac wrath upon the heads of the Southern people. Meas
ures of almost every character, were considered to complete the
work of destruction. The leaders, however, were unable to secure
the passage of their bill of retaliation, which should permit them
to inflict vengeance upon the rebel prisoners in their hands, al
though the same was pressed for a tune with great earnestness.
Full confiscation of rebel property, as Mr. Stevens would have
desired, was also too daring a project to run the gauntlet of
public criticism in the North. Its pressure was left in abeyance.
The great question of reconstruction, although considerably de
bated, was likewise left for future discussion when fanaticism had
fully grasped its victory.
But the tide- of war moved onwards, and speedily prostrated
one embankment of opposition after another. The battle of the
Five Forks was lost by the Confederates ; and the long and
heroic defense of Richmond and Petersburg, was ended. The
Capitol of the resistant States was evacuated, and General Robert
E. Lee and his depleted army were compelled to surrender them
selves prisoners of war to the Northern invaders. The sun of
the Confederacy sunk at Appomattox ; and the night of fanatical
despotism covered with its mantle the thirty-six States of the
American Union.
The old Whig party had been prostrated by fanaticism ; the
Democracy had been rent and overthrown by it ; and now, after
four years of the bloodiest strife that civilization had ever contem
plated, the united South was forced to lower her standards from
the Potomac to the Rio Grande, and do repentant homage for
daring to defend the inherited rights of her people. The Roman
Republic was buried on the field of Phillippi ; American Free
Government was also gathered to its fathers, in the land of its
birth, beneath the soil of Virginia. The social cataclysm that
the founders and friends of the Republic had foreseen and dreaded,
with pensive awe, had come at last in all its direful reality.
402 A EEVIEW OF THE
The windows of a wrathful heaven had opened wide upon their
hinges ; and the foundations of the great deep of constitutional
liberty were broken up and destroyed.
Victory, however, had fully perched upon the banners of the
revolutionists, and their triumphant armies were receiving the
plaudits of a deluded people. Kivers of blood had been shed,
and near a million of America s youth had perished in the
terrific confict of arms which madness had provoked. Besides
the enormous expenditure of several thousand millions of dollars
which were required to prosecute a four years war, a debt of
almost three thousand millions of dollars, and a large pensionary
list were entailed as a legacy upon the country, for the benefit of
coming ages. But the fanatics knew no bounds to their ecstasy,
when victory finally crowned their banners. The gain was so
incalculable, in their estimation, that their shouts of applause
almost rent in twain the whole Northern heavens. They had
wrested, without compensation, four millions of negro bondmen
from the ownership of their Southern masters, and they had
done nothing more. What was this, however, save the equity
and justice which robbers exhibit ? But had they not (as history
will inquire) also preserved the Union from destruction and dis
memberment ? The old Union, the product of mutual consent
and compromise, needed no defenders before the rise of the
Abolition party of the North ; and but for this baneful organi
zation no defense should have been at all necessary. The free
government of the Constitution had been metamorphosed into a
despotism under the name of a Republic. Such is the govern
ment which Abolitionists preserved for Americans. And their
service in behalf of the Union simply resembled, therefore, the
aid of those generous banditti, who enroll their names as a
municipal constabulary, to protect the city against their own
secret robberies.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 03
CHAPTER XXV.
THEORIES IN CONFLICT.
The rebellious armies, after their long and valorous resistance,
finally stocked their arms in submission to the Federal Adminis
tration. Iniquity and crime were now permitted to take their
seats as conquerors, and dispense justice to their humbled vassals.
But vengeance, one of the compensating furies of humanity, turned
her hand and snatched the figure-head of conquest from its ex
alted seat, which left a void to be filled by another. The rancor
of Marat, and the revenge of Charlotte Corday, had crossed the
ocean, and were again confronting each other. In the moment
of despair a victim is sacrificed. The American President was
shot in Ford s Theatre, in the City of Washington, by the furious
J. Wilkes Booth. The apparent embodiment of the victory, as
usually happens, rather than of the crimes committed, was the
one consigned by the fates to the eternal shades.
But Abraham Lincoln, the representative of the Abolition
party, was by no means the worst man in its ranks ; and ven
geance missed its mark when he was selected to bear into the
wilderness the sins of fanaticism. The Marat of the revolution
had escaped, and was still breathing forth slaughter against the
objects of his venom. But the act of canonization performed
over the manes of the deceased President, will fail to rescue
his name from the odium that must ever rest upon it as the
representative despot who, in violation of his oath, trampled
upon the Constitution of his country. Saintship in this case was
too hastily conferred ; and, it is to be feared, that in after years
the adversary will yet rise and read so long a list of charge?, that
a re-hearing being granted, the verdict of fanaticism may be
rescinded. "Will not the enemy be tempted to cite even the
place of the assassination, as an unbecoming one, in which saints
and martyrs should be congregated, when the blood of their
countrymen was moistening many a battle field. The assassin s
404 A REVIEW OF THE
poniard drank the life-blood of Saint Thomas a Becket, in a
spot more holy than the theatre. But Nero is said to have fid
dled whilst Rome was burning, which was of a piece with visit
ing the theatre when death in every shape was stalking the
land.
The mantle of the assassinated President fell upon Andrew
Johnson, the Yice-President, who, after qualifying himself,
entered upon the discharge of his official functions as the Chief
Magistrate of the United States, ]\lr. Johnson was a Southern
citizen ; and as a Senator in Congress from Tennessee, had re
sisted the secession movement of his people with all the ability
he could command. Even after his State had seceded he re
mained firm in his attachment to the Government ; and for so
doing had been burned in effigy in nearly every village of Ten
nessee. Although elected to high positions by his countrymen, nc
cordial sympathy had ever existed between the ruling classes oi
the South and himself. The former viewed him as a sans
culotte of ability, who had risen to position without wealth,
culture or social standing. A natural antagonism, in turn, re
pelled him from these ; and allied him in feeling with the hum
ble classes of his- State and of the whole country. And again,
though a member of the extre^i^ Southern State Rights party,
yet having lacked that cultured training needed to produce
the finished statesman, he never fully accepted the ultimate de
ductions of the Jeffersonian and Calhoun theory of constitutional
construction ; and when secession came, his repugnance to- the
slave-holding classes of the South, induced him to take his stand
with the representatives of the General Government, as being
the surer embodiment of freedom and popular democracy.
A hurricane of . rage and vindictive fury swept over the
Northern States, as the news of the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln sped over the telegraphic wires of the country. It was
the period of the highest intensity of public feeling that had man
ifested itself since the announcement of the attack on Fort Sump-
ter in April, 1861. Freedom of opinion disappeared absolutely f or
a time, and it w r as expected that a sad melancholy should clothe
the countenances of all in sorrow, for the misfortune that had
befallen the Union. A philosopher would hardly have expected
that all should be wrapped in sadness for the death of one who
had permitted himself to be the leading representative of the
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 405
fanatical classes of the country ; who, In order to carry out their
wild and chimerical ideas, had overthrown all the embankments
of constitutional liberty, and flooded in a sea of blood the one-
half of the States of the Federal Union. A sort of compensa
tion, however, always obtains in the affairs of men and nations.
Such may have happened in this case, in the divine order of
omnipotence. Fanaticism had triumphed. A check was re
quired ; and a subservient President would by no means supply
the demand. Destiny had selected one of stern material for the
performance of the service she required. Andrew Johnson, with
unquailing firmness, had already passed through the furnace of
opposition, which had steeled him. with the courage that enabled
him to grapple successfully with the boldest assailant he might
be compelled to encounter.
But to comfort themselves for the removal of their Presi
dent, the Abolitionists pretended to believe that they recog
nized the finger of Providence in what had occurred. The kind
hearted, charitable and humane Abraham Lincoln, as they ef
fected to believe him to have been constituted, was not the man
to dispense full and exact justice to rebels and traitors, who had
maliciously exerted themselves, to the best of their ability, to
destroy the Union, and establish a new one with slavery as its
corner stone. The man who, as Military Governor of Tennessee,
had shown himself relentless towards traitors, was the one to fill
the Presidential Chair which the times demanded. Such ex
pressions as the following were everywhere current : " The
traitors have killed their lest friend Andrew Johnson will
show no mercy to traitors / Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee
will now swing high on a sour apple tree"
The new President in his expressions and conduct, at first
gave seekers of blood some verbal assurance that the mantle of
authority had fallen upon suitable shoulders. Delegations of
citizens from different States waited upon the Chief Magistrate,
and tendered him their hearty support. To one of these from
New Hampshire, shortly after his installation, he used the fol
lowing language :
Treason is a crime and must be punished as a crime. It must not be
regarded as a mere difference of political opinion. It must not be ex
cused as an unsuccessful rebellion, to be overlooked and forgiven. It is
a crime before which all other crimes sink into insignificance ; and in
406 A REVIEW OF THE
saying this, it must not be considered that I am influenced by angry or
revengeful feelings."*
Not only did President Johnson express himself in the strong
est terms, that treason must ~be made odious ; but as an adroit
dissembler he humored public sentiment, and moved with the
current as it drifted. Deferring to public opinion, which came
to suspect that Booth and his accomplices, were simply - instru
ments in the hands of the President of the defunct Confederacy,
and other prominent men of the South, on the 2d of May, 1865,
he issued a proclamation offering large rewards for the arrest of
certain prominent characters, whom suspicion had designated.
In this proclamation, one hundred thousand dollars were offered
for the capture of Jefferson Davis; and twenty-five thousand
each, for Clement C. Clay, Jacob Thompson, George N". Sanders
and Beverly Tucker ; and ten thousand for William C. Cleary,
the late clerk of Mr. Clay.
It was not long, after the President s accession to the Chair of
State, that one remark after another began to disclose his real
sentiments ; and show that he was not in sympathy with the
revolutionary element of the party to which he owed his election.
In an address to a delegation from Indiana, April 21st, 18G5, he
touched the cardinal question of the time, that of reconstruction,
in the following words :
"Some are satisfied with the idea that States are to be lost in terri
torial and other divisions, are to loose their character as States. But
their life-breath has only been suspended, and it is a high constitutional
obligation we have to secure each of these States in the possession
and enjoyment of a republican form of government. *
While I have opposed dissolution and disintegration on the one hand,
on the other I have opposed consolidation or the centralization of power
in the hands of the fe\v."f
Such language disclosed the fact that Andrew Johnson was neith
er an advocate of the State suicide theory of Sumnerand Stevens
nor a consolidationist of the school of Alexander Hamilton. To
reconcile, however, the above and other utterances of like char
acter, with expressions made whilst he was Military Governor of
Tennessee, is a somewhat difficult problem, but which time per
haps may aid in solving. But a Maurice of Saxony, was needed to
figure upon the arena of American history. In Andrew John-
* Annual ( ycJopcedia for 1865, p. 801.
^Annual Cyclopaedia, for 1865, p. 801.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 437
eon, it may have been that the gold of constitutional democracy
was again beginning to gleam through the sedimental fiith of
fanaticism, which had flooded it since the advent of the revolu
tionists to power.
The President for a time was very guarded in his expressions,
and only an occasional sentence dropped from him, that (as time
disclosed) indicated his genuine opinions. The excitement aroused
by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, upon the close of the re
bellion, caused almost the firmest defenders of principle to vacillate
somewhat in their political action, and bend before the terrific blasts
of vindictive fury that were coursing all sections of the country.
President Johnson w y ould have required well-nigh super-human
endowments to have resisted all the demands which fanaticism
exacted of him ; and to have steadily opposed every effort which
the revolutionists made to utterly crush with the merciless heel
of oppression, the conquered people of the Southern States. On
the first of May, 1865, the President, following the advice of
his Attorney-General, appointed a military commission to try
the conspirators for the assassination of the murdered President.
This officer pretented to find in the law of nations, authority for
trying the culprits by military rather than by civil law. It was
not difficult for that law officer of the Administration to invent
excuses for the appointment of a military commission, when,
after the close of the war he could, as chief legal expositor of
the Government, declare that the wearing of Confederate uni
forms was a fresh act of hostility.
The military commission, charged with the trial of the conspira
tors, sat from May 13th until June 29th, 1865 ; and, after having
heard the evidence, sentenced the accused to punishments which the
civil law had no power to inflict. Four of those charged as
conspirators, David E. Harold, George S. Atzerodt, Lewis Payne
and Mary E. Suratt, were sentenced by the Commission to be
hung, which sentence was approved by President Johnson, and
the 7th of July was fixed for their execution. A writ of Habeas
Corpus, sued out in behalf of Mrs. Suratt, was suspended by the
President; and strenuous efforts were made in the interests of
this individual, in order to shield her from the doom of legal
murder to which the American officials had condemned her.
Even President Johnson, on the morning of the execution,
refused to meet the suppliant daughter of the devoted woman,
403 A REVIEW OF THE
whom the furies were about to immolate to the manes of
Abraham Lincoln. A dark cloud must ever rest upon the mem
ory of the President who permitted fanaticism to exult in the
sacrifice of this innocent female. Indeed, the execution of these
four victims will ever stand in American history as one of the
darkest blots upon its pages. The four victims were virtually
murdered, inasmuch as they were tried and condemned by a tri
bunal unauthorized by the Federal Constitution. This govern
mental compact declares that :
"No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous
crime, unless on the presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except
in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in
actual service, in time of war or actual danger."
On the 29th of May, 1865, the President instituted measures
for the re-establishment of Federal authority in the subjugated
States of the South. On this date he issued his Proclamation
of Amnesty and Pardon, granting general forgiveness for past
offenses to all those engaged in the rebellion, with fourteen ex
ceptions, which included the most influential and intelligent of
the Southern Confederates. And following in the wake of his
predecessor, President Johnson, as a Roman Emperor, would
have selected his pretors, named one after another, Military
Governors for the States of North Carolina, South Carolina,
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi arid Texas ; but none
were appointed for Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana.
The measures already taken by Abraham Lincoln for the re-or
ganization of these last named States, were regarded by his
successor as having placed them rectae in curia. William M.
Holden, the first appointed of these, was named Governor of
North Carolina the same day on which the afore mentioned edict
of amnesty had been promulgated. In this pronunciamento it
was ordered, as regards all voters in the South, before being re-
clothed with the elective franchise, that they should take and
subscribe an oath which the Constitution did not prescribe ; and
which required them to abide by and support all laws and proc
lamations, which had been made during the rebellion, with ref
erence to the emancipation of slaves. All such demands made
of the people of the South, were utterly inconsistent with the
principles of the Federal Government. In the appointment of
the Governors, and in the forced dictation of terms for the res-
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA. 09
toration of authority in the subjugated section, whilst the States
were still named as such, they, nevertheless, were treated simply
as conquered provinces ; and governed by the laws of military
dominion, which obtained during the middle ages.
Revolutionary as was the method pursued by President John
son, for restoring the rebel States to their autonomy in the
Union, it was not sufficiently so to meet the approval of the
radical Abolitionists. It was clearly understood before the
avowal of any plan of restoration by the President, that unless
his views coincided with the radicals, his policy would be coin-
batted by them. The unconcealed Abolitionists no longer de
manded emancipation alone for the negro, but they now in
sisted likewise upon his social and political equality with the whites.
Wendell Phillips, one of the early and consistent leaders of the
Abolition party, in a speech delivered at the Cooper Institute,
May 12th, 1865, gave utterance to the following sentiments :
"Abolitionists secured liberty for the black man ; he achieved but half
of his work, which he had pledged half his life to effect during thirty
years. I shall never relax my efforts till an amendment to the Constitu
tion is passed, declaring that no State shall make any distinction between
persons born on our soil, and those residing on it, on account of race,
color or descent." *
iu) sooner, therefore, had the President avowed his plan of
restoring the Southern States in the appointment of William ~W.
Holden, as Military Governor of isorth Carolina, than the con
flict with him was commenced. By his method, which was
simply pursuing that inaugurated by Abraham Lincoln, the
Southern whites would have had in their hands the sole power
to re-shape their Constitutions, and mold the legislation of their
respective States. Two antagonistic theories were striving for
the ascendancy in the work of reconstruction. The Presidential
plan was reprobated at once by Wendell Phillips, Salmon P.
Chase, Horace Greeley, Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, and
other shining lights of radicalism. A division in the Republi
can ranks was imminent ; but it was the work of the tacticians
to keep it from spreading to any further extent than could be
avoided. .
The Military Governors appointed by the President, issued
proclamations to the people of their different States, calling
*New York World, May 13th, 1865.
410 A REVIEW OF THE
upon them to elect delegates to conventions to revise their several
Constitutions ; these being now viewed by the conquerors as en
tirely defunct. All the proceedings, however, which looked to
the restoration of the Federal authority in the Confederate
States, were deemed necessary to be employed in .order to com
plete the first measure of radical desire. The plan of revising
the several State Constitutions, was a more modest method of
getting fully rid of the institution of slavery, than any other
that might have been devised. Abolition aspiration from the
inauguration of the war, aimed at this as the first object to bo
accomplished ; and no method promised for this result absolute
surety, save the suppression of the institution by the Southern
States themselves, after having been brought under Federal con
trol. And the task was no difficult one upon the downfall of
the rebellion. The great object of the war being well under
stood by all intelligent classes, whether Northern or Southern ;
when resistance to the Government was abandoned, the Con
federates, with one consent almost, gave up any further defense
of their institution.
Prominent statesmen throughout the South, declared their
readiness to acquiesce in the overthrow of the institution of
slavery, deeming the further advocacy of it nugatory. It was
altogether as they conceived, ready to be ranked amongst the things
of the past. There were many, however, who \iewed the
amnesty oath, which the citizens were obliged to subscribe before
being clothed with the elective franchise, as a despotic trampling
upon the rights of free men born in a republican government ;
but the current of popular opinion in the South, notwithstanding
this, turned strongly in favor of resuming, at the earliest practi
cable moment, and by the only method proposed, amicable
relations with the people of the Northern States. Officers w^ere
authorized in all places to administer oaths of amnesty to the
citizens, and furnish them such certificates thereof, as would
enable them to participate in the elections to be held for dele
gates to the conventions to revise their several State Constitu
tions. Before taking the oath, the applicant was required to
make affidavit that he did not belong to any of the fourteen ex-
cepted classes. Having subscribed this, he was then allowed the
oath of amnesty, which operated as a pardon for all past political
offenses, and restored him fully to the rights of citizenship.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IIS AMERICA. 411
Public meetings were held throughout the entire South, and
candidates of talent and character were nominated, and in many
instances pledged to the repeal of the Ordinances of Secession
and the abolition of slavery ; and also, in favor of such amend
ments to the State Constitutions, as might seem necessary, under
the new condition of affairs.
All the time, from the announcement of the Presidential plan
of reconstruction, public opinion in the iSTorth was in a condition
of ebullition. Political lines began at once to divide somewhat
upon the new issues. Prominent radical papers began to endorse
the ideas of Sumner, Stevens and other leaders, who had ex
pressed themselves as favorable to universal suffrage. Democratic
newspapers, on the contrary, soon after the appointment of
William "W. Holden as Governor of North Carolina, began to
view the new President, although elected by Republicans,, as a
man who was not dominated by fanatical ideas, and who desired
a fair and honorable restoration of the Southern States to their
place in the Federal Union, and with all their rights save slavery
unimpaired. Early in June, 1865, Democratic Committees re
corded their endorsement of the President s reconstruction
policy. In endorsing the President s plan of reconstruction,*
the Democrats did so, however, simply as a choice of evils, and
not because it was a method which they, as rulers, would have
devised. A considerable number of prominent Ilepublicans also
ranked themselves under the Presidential banner. Many of
those who did so, were anxious to preserve harmony in the
Republican party. Even as strong a radical as Gov. Andrew,
of Massachusetts, thought the effort to force negro suffrage in
the South, was premature ; and that the Government should
^President Johnson s plan of reconstruction, was the same as that which
Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet had originated. William H. Seward.
the Secretary of the State, under both administrations, in his speech of
October 20th, 1865, at Auburn, New York, said : "We are continually
hearing debates concerning the origin and the plan of restoration. New
converts, North and South, call it the President s plan. All speak of it
as if it were a recent development. On the contrary, we now see that
it is not specially Andrew Johnson s plan, nor even a new plan in any
respect. It is the plan which abruptly, yet distinctly, offered itself to
the last Administration, at the moment, I have before recalled, when
the work of restoration was to begin ; at the moment when, although
by the world unperceived, it did begin, and it is the only plan which
thus seasonably presented itself ; and, therefore, is the only possible
plan which then, or ever afterwards, could be adopted." New York
World, October 2th, 1863.
412 A REVIEW OF THE
simply retain its military grasp of the rebel States, and universal
suffrage would in time follow. The Governor was very anxious
to avoid a breach, with the President. General Cox, the Repub
lican candidate for Governor of Ohio, came out in a letter early
in 1865, opposing negro suffrage.
The fissure between President Johnson and the radicals once
formed by the announcement of his plan of reconstruction, con
tinued steadily to grow wider and develope itself. It soon be
came apparent in the Summer of 1865, that the leaders of the
conflicting theories of State restoration had taken their posttioiis,
and that no retreat was contemplated by either party. The
!New York World spoke of this party schism as follows :
" The split in the Republican party has made too much progress to be
arrested. Several of the most eminent Republican leaders, with a ma
jority of the party to back them*, stand against negro suffrage and they
will not recede. Chief Justice Chase, Senators Sherman, Wilson, Sum-
ner, and others of equal influence and distinction, are ardent negro suf
frage men, in declared opposition to the policy of the President ; and the
first Republican State Convention held since Mr. Johnson s avowal of
his policy on this subject (that of Iowa on June 14th, 1865), adopted
negro suffrage as a plank in their platform. * * * The quar
rel will be likely to culminate in the next Congress, when the radical
members will assume to revise the Constitutions of the reconstructed
States, that do not admit negroes to the elective franchise."!
Iii a public speech, Senator Wilson had already been bold
enough as to warn the President that the radicals in Congress
would reject every State Constitution, which did not come up to
their mark on the slavery question. Radical meetings were held
in different sections of the North, favoring negro suffrage. The
Republican Convention of the State of Maine, held in 1865,
took exception to the President s reconstruction policy, and by
implication condemned it; the Democratic Convention of the
game State, on the contrary, endorsed it without reservation.
The representative party bodies of other States, placed themselves
in about the same attitude towards the President s policy as did
those of the States already named.
* This clause of the World s statement, that the majority of the Re
publican party stood with those leaders who opposed negro suffrage was
clearly overdrawn. The majority of the party at this time were favor
able to universal suffrage. Negro suffrage was made a party question in
the State of Connecticut in 1865, and only defeated by 6272 votes. No
Democrat supported it.
\New York World, June 21st, 1875.
POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICA.
The confiscation and extermination theory of reconstruction,
also found its advocates along with the others that were advocated
in 1865. The leading representative of this theory was Thad-
deus Stevens, who upon the close of the war, loomed up as the
great beacon of radicalism ; and the man who was destined to
exert a potent influence upon the reconstruction policy of the
nation. Since the commencement of the war he had stood before
the country as the most radical abolitionist in the lower House of
Congress ; and the representative of all others, who determined
that no constitutional barriers should interpose between him and
his party in their race towards the goal of universal liberty and
equality. Being the extreme leader of the extreme wing of his
party, crowned at length with victory over their opponents, Mr.
Stevens was now able to bear a weight upon his political arms
that cone other could pretend to carry. He could with impunity,
therefore, dare to advocate a policy that would have been unsafe
for any other leader of his party to have urged. Regarded as
the unconcealed opponent of the principles that had triumphed
in the overthrow of the rebellion, he was free to claim their
legitimate fruits ; and with unabashed effontry, he assumed as
the dictator of his party, to demand them.
In September, 1S65, Mr, Stevens delivered a speech in the
City of Lancaster, in which he advocated the confiscation of the
property of all the leading rebels whose estate was worth ten
thousand dollars, or whose land exceeded two hundred acres in
quantity. He estimated that one-tenth of the whites only
would loose their property by such a proceeding ; yet that most
of the real estate would be confiscated, it being held by the few.
Of the property thus to be taken from the wealthy rebels, he
declared that justice demanded that forty acres of it should be
given to each freedmen, and the balance sold to liquidate the
national debt. He calculated that by this process the sum of
three thousand five hundred millions of dollars would flow
into the public treasury, enough to pay off the debt contracted
in the subjugation of the Southern people. The alliance be
tween abolitionism and communism was proven in the demand
of this intellectual leader. A more wholesale confiscation of the
property of the discomfitted resistants of fanaticism, was urged
by Mr. Stevens, than had taken place in England under William
the Norman, The real animus of abolitionism, however, was
<U* A REVIEW OF THE
shown in the position of this bold champion of his party.
The elections for the constitutional conventions took place at
the times determined upon in the different States of the South.
The delegates to these promptly convened and proceeded to organ
ize, as the conquerors prescribed. Many of the prominent men
of these States, and those even who had figured in the rebellion,
appeared and took seats as members of the constitutional con
ventions, A dictatorial oath was likewise imposed upon every
member of these several conventions, that they would support
all laws and proclamations which had been made during the war
with reference to slaves. These bodies adopted resolutions re
scinding the acts of secession which their several States had
enacted and abolishing slavery ; and they framed Constitutions for
their respective Commonwealths in conformity with the altered
situation of affairs. After the adoption of the new Constitutions,
elections were held in these different States for Governors, Mem
bers of Congress, Members of State. Legislatures, and other
officials. When the Legislatures convened, they in general
adopted the amendment to the Constitution proposed by Con
gress, abolishing slavery. President Johnson strongly urged
upon the Legislature of South Carolina, that it ratify the newly
submitted amendment, as an example for the imitation of the
other States. It did so, by an almost unanimous vote. But the
representative assemblies of these States were for the time
being, pure automata,* subject to the dictation of those who
controlled opinion at the seat of the National Government ; and
their acts in no wise represented the free and independent senti
ments of their people.
* Thaddeus Stevens was fully conscious that the Constitutions already-
forced upon the Southern States, in 1865, were altogether the result of
Northern domination. Speaking of the Confederates, when once re
stored to their place in the Union and become masters of their own
alfairs, in his speech of December 18th, 1865, he said : " That they (the
Southern people) would scorn and disregard their present Constitutions,
forced upon them in the midst of martial law, would be both natural
and just. No one who has any regard for freedom of elections, can look
on those governments, forced upon them in duress, with any favor."
Congressional Globe, ZWi Congress, First Session, Vol. 1, p. 74.
POLITICAL CONFLICT Ds AMERICA. 415
CHAPTER XXVI.
ANTI-REPUBLICAN RECONSTRUCTION.
The unconstitutionally and anti-republican character of tlie
war for emancipation and negro elevation, under the pretense of
defending the Union, were fully displayed after the close of the
national conflict; when efforts were inaugurated to re-cement
" the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious
Union." The appalling spectacle in all its horror was in full
view, which !N"ew England s ablest statesman, with ardent love
of country, had wished never to contemplate. The prayer of
the patriot had been heard, but the drama was being witnessed
of " States discordant, belligerent, a land rent with civil feuds,"
and but lately " drenched in fraternal blood." The glorious
ensign of the Republic was no longer waving over the peaceful
fabric of the American Union -, but what remained of it, typi
fied an anarchical despotism, more ignoble and tyrannous than
could be found outside of the dominions of Asia.
The principle of monarchy had mailed the batallions that
prostrated constitutional government on the American continent.
The harmonious people of the States had been hurled into sec
tional strife by mischievous intermeddling, induced by the
monarchical conception which assumed in essence to declare, " /
am holier than thou" Instead of a free and happy Union,
whose yeasly governmental expenditure did not require over
seventy millions of dollars, the "unrighteous war of the emanci
pationists entailed upon it an annual expense of nearly five hun
dred millions, in order to meet the interest upon the Northern
debt and other attendant demands. A highly oppressive tariff,
enhanced for the consumers the value of the articles of every
day necessity, and yielded for the liquidation of current
e 
