X 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 .^'\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 v^JV 
 
 ^<. 
 
 

 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 K' 
 
 
 
 5»^ 
 
jr. 
 
4 i-S.^ 
 
 THE 
 
 NEW ADMINISmATION; 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 COMPLETE AND AUTHENTIC 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 OF 
 
 Grant and his Cabinet. 
 
 By 
 EDWAKD WINSLOW MARTIN. =^^fi^^^ 
 
 GEORQE S. WILCOX. 
 
 18G9. 
 

 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOS 
 
 ULYSSES S. GRANT, President of the United States 6 
 
 SCHUYLER COLFAX, Vice-President of the United States 85 
 
 JAMES G. BLAINE, Speaker of the House of Representatives. ... 65 
 
 .HAMILTON FISH, Secretary of State 70 
 
 . JOHN A. RAWLINS, Secretarj' of War 8S 
 
 -JACOB D. COX, Secretary of the Interior 93 
 
 <3E0RGE S. BOUT WELL, Secretary of the Treasury 122 
 
 ADOLPH E. BORIE, Secretary of the Navy 182 
 
 JOHN A. J. CRESSWELL, Postmaster-General 138 
 
 EBENEZER R. HOAR, Attorney-General 180 
 
Bntered, according to Act of CJongrese, in the ye&r 1869, 
 
 By George S. Wiixx)x, 
 
 tn the CleA'B office of the District Court of the United Statee for the 
 
 Southern District of Nevr York. 
 
ULYSSES S. GRANT, 
 President of the United States, 
 
 So much has been written of late concerning 
 the new President of the United States that 
 another biography of him, however brief, seems 
 superfluous. Yet the present work would be in- 
 complete without some mention of him. It is not 
 our intention, however, to offer the reader any- 
 thing like a biography of the distinguished head 
 of the nation, but merely to glance briefly at 
 some of the leading events of his life, by which 
 we may hope to arrive at a fair estimate of his 
 character. 
 
 Ulysses Simpson Grant was born at Point 
 Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, about twenty- 
 five miles above Cincinnati, on the 27th ot April, 
 1822. He came of a race of soldiers, his ances- 
 tors having fought bravely in the the old French 
 War and the War of the Revolution. 
 
 He was born the son of a tradesman in humble 
 circumstances, and his youth was passed in a 
 
6 The New Administration. 
 
 country too recently settled to possess many of 
 the charms of civilization. His early life was 
 Lard, practical, and unromantic, but exhibited in 
 a marked degree many of the traits of energy, 
 intensity of purpose, and self-reliance, for which 
 his manhood has been distinguished. He was a 
 stubborn, self willed child ; he has developed into 
 a firm, resolute man. He was fearless and fond 
 of danger in his boyish pastimes : he has shrunk 
 from no peril, but has met and overcome every 
 obstacle in his manhood. As a child he was 
 remarkable for the readiness with whicli he de- 
 Tised the means of accomplishing difficult under- 
 takings ; as a man this same fertility of resource 
 has won liim great and glorious victories. 
 
 His ambition inclined him to dislike his father's 
 trade, and to crave a better education than the 
 country-schools in his vicinity afforded. In order 
 to gratify this wish, his father procured for him 
 an appointment to a cadetship at West Point. 
 He entered the Academy in 1839, and remained 
 there four years. 
 
 Ho became a lieutenant of infantry in the 
 regular army of the United States, in July, 1843. 
 
The New Administration, 7 
 
 He was then a little over twenty-one years of 
 age. For the two years immediately succeeding 
 his graduation he was employed against the In- 
 dians on the frontiers. He served gall intly 
 through the war with Mexico, being engaged in 
 every battle in that struggle except Buena Yista. 
 His gallant and meritorious conduct in these 
 engagements won him the brevet rank of Captain 
 in 1847, and the full rank in 1853. 
 
 At the close of the Mexican War, he was 
 stationed on the frontier of British America, and 
 in 1854 resigned his commission in the army, and 
 removed to St. Louis, where he married Miss 
 Julia Dent. Soon after this he settled on a farm 
 near St. Louis, and for a few years devoted him- 
 self to the business of this farm, which did not 
 support him. In consequence of this he removed 
 to Galena, Illinois, in 1859, and went into busi- 
 ness there with his father and brother. He was 
 residing there as a simple and almost obscure 
 leather merchant when the attack upon Fort 
 Sumter called the nation to arras. 
 
 Had any one at that time been called upon to 
 name the future hero of the great war, the man 
 
8 The New Administration, 
 
 who should crush out che rebellion, and give 
 peace to the land, he would have pointed to Scott, 
 McClellan, McDowell, or some of the old soldiers 
 whose names were on every tongue. Had he 
 even so much as hinted that the obscure ex-Cap- 
 tain in the West would ever attain the command 
 of a brigade in the new army, he would have 
 been laughed at as an idiot. Even Grant himself 
 had no expectation of doing more than contrib- 
 uting in a modest way to the success of the cause, 
 by using his military knowledge for the purpose 
 of organizing a company of volunteers. 
 
 As soon as the news of the President's call for 
 troops reached him, he determined to oifer his 
 services to the Government. He said to a friend, 
 "The Government educated me for the army, 
 wliat I am I owe to my country. I have served 
 her tlirough one war, and live or die, will serve 
 her through tliis." 
 
 He at once raised a company of volunteers and 
 marched it to Springfield, where he requested the 
 Governor to give liim his Captain's Commission. 
 Being informed, however, that a friend desired 
 the position, he generously withdrew in his favor. 
 
The New Administration, 9 
 
 Being appointed Adjutant-General of the State 
 of Illinois soon after this, he administered the 
 affairs of his department so ably, that the Illinois 
 troops were sent forward with greater prompt- 
 ness and in better condition than the State au- 
 thorities had ventured to hope. Says Governor 
 Yates, " He was plain, very plain ; but still, sir, 
 something — perhaps his plain, straightforward 
 modesty and earnestness — induced me to assign 
 him a desk in the Executive office. In a short 
 time, I found him to be an invaluable assistant 
 in my office and in that of the Adjutant-General. 
 He was soon after assigned to the command of 
 the six camps of instruction which had been es- 
 tablished in the State." 
 
 This quiet, humdrum life did not suit a man of 
 Grant's character. He longed for activity. He 
 had promptly offered his services to the Govern- 
 ment, but no notice had been taken of his offer. 
 In June, Governor Yates made him Colonel of 
 the 21st Illinois Volunteers, and sent him to the 
 field. Here his military skill made itself so con- 
 spicuous that his friends easily procured him a 
 commission as brigadier-general of volunteers. 
 
10 The Kew Administration. 
 
 His first battle made him as many enemies as 
 friends, for fully one half of the people of the 
 Union soundly denounced his entire course in 
 connection with the battle of Belmont. 
 
 Fort Donnelson won him the rank of major- 
 general, and showed the man in his true charac- 
 ter. He had come to attack a heavy force of the 
 enemy, strongly intrenched, and the gunboata 
 upon which he had depended so much, were 
 "worsted and made useless in their first encounter 
 with the fort. Several days of heavy lighting 
 had greatly exhausted his men, who were suffer- 
 ing extremely from the cold, and had not dis- 
 lodged the enemy from their works. The obsti- 
 nacy of the defence and the crippling of the gun- 
 boats had discouraged his men, and he was urged 
 by Flag Officer Foote to intrench and await the 
 overhauling and repairing of the gunboats. He 
 was not disposed to adopt such a course, how- 
 ever. He knew that his attacks had been as 
 vigorous as tlie defence of the Confederates had 
 been stubboin, and he was convinced that they 
 were as exiiausted as his own army. Should he 
 attack at once and boldly, he felt sure he could 
 
The JSTew Ad^ninistration, 11 
 
 secure the victory. It required a very nice and 
 evenly balanced judgment to decide upon the 
 proper time for making such an attack, a judg- 
 ment possessed only by trained and experienced 
 commanders. Fortunately for the country, Grant 
 was possessed of this quality. He made his 
 attack, disheartened the enemy, and won the 
 victory. 
 
 Thus in less than a year the obscure leather 
 merchant had risen to the high grade of Major- 
 General in the Army of the United States, audi 
 had achieved the greatest victory which had ever 
 been won upon the Continent. He had won his 
 honors fairly.' Political influence had done noth- 
 ing for him. On the contrary, the politicians 
 were at the very moment of his victory slander- 
 ing him to the President, and scheming for his 
 removal. He had risen by the simple force of 
 his merits. lie had not schemed or intrigued for" 
 his laurels. He had won them as tlie true? 
 knights of old won their spurs — in the field, and 
 he was fairly entitled to enjoy them. He had 
 shown military knowledge and skill of a liigh 
 order, and an energy, promptness, and decision 
 
12 The JVew Administration, 
 
 of which even his best friends had not believed 
 him capable. He had confidence in himself, how- 
 ever, and in this confidence lies the secret of his 
 success. 
 
 With his major-general's commission, Grant 
 T^as given command, of the District of West Ten- 
 nessee. He had hardly entered upon his new 
 sphere, before the terrible and bloody battle of 
 Shiloh brought him again prominently before the 
 public. The calm, unflinching courage, as well 
 as the sound judgment which he displayed in 
 that tremendiious conflict, go far to establish his 
 claims to military renown. The field was not of 
 his own selection, but was chosen during his ab- 
 sence by the veteran General Charles F. Smith. 
 fie was with another part of the army trying to 
 hurry it forward when the battle began, and did 
 cot reach the field until after his first lines had 
 been driven in. Matters looked bad when he 
 arrived, and continued to grow worse during the 
 day, for the enemy had gained such advantages in 
 the early part of the battle, that it was only 
 with great difficulty that our ground could be 
 held at all. Grant was everywhere during the 
 
The New Administration, 13 
 
 day, animatiDg and encouraging his men, and at- 
 tending personally to the execution of his most 
 important orders. While others were despon- 
 dent, he was calm and cool. His great hope was 
 to hold his ground until night should put an end 
 to the battle. Should he succeed in doing this, 
 he meant to reorganize his columns under the 
 cover of the darkness, and, with the first light 
 the next morning, attack the enemy with a fury 
 and determination which he felt sure would win 
 success. He meant to do this whether Buell 
 came up or not during tlie night. General Sher- 
 man has declared that Grant at this juncture 
 related to him the story of the taking of Fort 
 Donnelson, and explained to him his favorite 
 theory " of the mutual exhaustion of both armies 
 in every great battle, when, by some vast power 
 you must rouse your own, and go in to triumph. 
 He thought the rebels were about in the right 
 condition then, and if it were not night, should 
 attack ; but gave orders that they * should he at- 
 tacked at daylight.'' " * 
 
 * Phelps' Lil'e of Grant. 
 
14 The New Adminisi/raticn. 
 
 He had no idea of retreating. When General 
 Buell, who reached the field in advance of his 
 army, asked him, 
 
 " What preparations have you made to secure 
 your retreat, general ? " 
 
 He replied, 
 
 " We shall not retreat, sir." 
 
 *' But it is possible," said Buell, **and a pru- 
 dent general always provides for contingencies." 
 
 " Well, there are the boats," said Grant. 
 
 " The boats ! " said Buell, '' but they will not 
 hold over ten thousand men, and we have thirty 
 thousand." 
 
 " Tliey will hold more than we shall retreat 
 with," was the grim rejoinder. 
 
 Grunt's favorite theory proved correct. The 
 Southcin forces were gieatly exhausted and de- 
 moralized by the lii-st day's hard fighting, for 
 General Beauregard acknowledges that on the 
 second day they " fought bravely, but with the 
 want of that animation ap.d spirit which charac- 
 terized them the preceding day." 
 
 Calm, cool, collected and hopeful, the great 
 soldier remained during the entire battle, and 
 
The New Administration. 15 
 
 there can be no doubt that this sublime confidence 
 on his part contributed in a marked degree 
 towards preserving the enthusiasm and determi- 
 nation of the troops. Nor was this confidence a 
 mere idle feeling. It was based upon a profoand 
 knowledge of his profession, of the character and 
 vigor of the enemy, and received on the spot the 
 cordial endorsement of General Sherman. To 
 hold his ground till niglit was his determination, 
 and he did hold it. The arrival of Buell with 
 fresh troops made the next day's task easier, but 
 there can be no doubt that Grant would have at- 
 tacked at dawn the next morning, even had Bueli 
 not been present, and when we consider the ex- 
 tent of the discouragement and demoralization 
 which General Beauregard admits prevailed in 
 his army, it is not asserting too much to say that 
 the attack would have been successful. 
 
 As Commander of the Department of West 
 Tennessee, the limits of which were bounded by 
 the Mississippi and the Tennessee rivers. Grant 
 exhibited administrative ability of the highest 
 order. His rule was strict and stern, but strict- 
 ness and severity were needed. So well pleased 
 
16 The New Administration, 
 
 with his conduct of affairs was the Government, 
 that the President extended the limits of his 
 command, so as to include the State of Missis- 
 sippi, in which was situated the great stronghold 
 of Yicksburg, the key to the Mississipi River. 
 
 When the Confederate leaders in the Fall of 
 1862 began the execution of their brilliant plan 
 for dislodging him from the territory he had occu- 
 pied, he penetrated their design instantly, and 
 by a series of movements, no less brilliant and 
 more successful than those of the enemy, repulsed 
 their attacks both at luka and Corinth, and drove 
 them in disorder across the Tallahatchie. Had 
 his orders been obeyed implicitly the Southern 
 army opposed to him would have been captured 
 or destroyed, and the way to the rear ot Yicks- 
 burg have been opened. 
 
 The country was delighted with the successes 
 won by the silent soldier, but could hardly re- 
 alize that the modest, unassuming, quiet man was 
 really a great general. General Badeau very 
 truly says : " The truth is, that Grant's extreme 
 simplicity of behavior, and directness of expres- 
 sion, imposed on various officials, both above and 
 
The New Administration. 17 
 
 below him. They thought him a good, plain 
 man, who had blundered into one or two suc- 
 cesses, and who, therefore, could not be immedi- 
 ately removed ; but they deemed it unnecessary 
 to regard his judgment, or to count upon his 
 ability. His superiors made their plans invari- 
 ably without consulting him ; and his subordin- 
 ates sometimes sought to carry out their own 
 campaigns in opposition or indifference to his 
 orders, not doubting, that, with their superior 
 intelligence, they could conceive and execute 
 triumphs which would excuse or even vindicate 
 their course." 
 
 His first campaign against Yicksburg was bold 
 and skillful in its conception. Its failure was due 
 to the treachery of the officer left in command at 
 Holly Springs. By surrendering that post to the 
 enemy, he exposed all Grant's communications to 
 their mercy, and made it necessary for our army 
 to retrace its steps. 
 
 The reader is familiar with the long and vexa- 
 tious delays of the siege of Yicksburg ; how plan 
 after plan was tried only to find it a failure. He 
 is also familiar with the fact that the country 
 
is The JVew Mministration. 
 
 was almost unanimous in demanding the removal 
 of Grant, and the appointment of another com- 
 mander. Mr. Lincoln seems to have been the 
 only person who appreciated him, for when urged 
 to remove him, he replied that he would first 
 " try him a little longer," as he " liked the 
 man." 
 
 Amidst all this clamor for removal, all the 
 denunciation which was heaped upon him. Grant 
 was as calm, as hopeful, as silent as ever. He 
 indulged in no unseemly boasts, in no defence of 
 any kind. He persevered in his undertakings, 
 answering all fault-finders with the confident 
 ^i'A^QYium/^ I shall tahe Vichsbui^gy Even while 
 his generals questioned the soundness of his 
 plans they could not help being afifectcd by his 
 confidence. Sherman, especially, while frankly 
 condemning his commanders plan, earnestly as- 
 Bured him of his warm and hearty cooperation in 
 any undertaking the latter should see proper to 
 venture upon. 
 
 All the ai)provcd plans having failed. Grant 
 resolved to put into execution one of his own 
 conception. This was nothing more nor less than 
 
The New Administration, 19 
 
 to sever his connections with his base of oper- 
 ations, plunge boldly into the enemy's country, 
 invest Vicksburg and open a new line of com- 
 munications with his fleet. The reader well 
 knows how he passed his guuboatsand transports 
 by the batteries, marched his army to Hard 
 Times Bend, crossed the river, and moved boldly 
 upon the Southern forces, defeating and driving 
 them at every step. The rapidity with which 
 his movements were made, the vigor with which 
 his blows were struck, and the boldness and 
 brilliancy of his entire plan of operations con- 
 fused and bewildered the enemy, and before they 
 recovered from their surprise, he had driven 
 Johnson out of Jackson, penned up Pember ton's 
 beaten army in Yicksburg, and had opened a 
 new and secure line of communication with the 
 fleet under Admiral Porter. In eighteen days he 
 had marched two hundred miles, crossed two 
 rivers, fought five battles, taken six thousand live 
 hundred prisoners, killed and wounded six thou- 
 sand of the enemy, captured eighty-eight cannon 
 of all kinds, compelled the abandonment of 
 Grand Gulf, captured the Capital of Mississippi, 
 
20 The New Administration, 
 
 and destroyed the railroads leading into Vicks- 
 biirg. His army was firmly planted in the rear 
 of the Southern stronghold, the fall of which had 
 become a mere question of time. A few weeks 
 later, and the city, with thirty-two thousand 
 prisoners, with the arms and equipments of the 
 garrison, fell into his hands. 
 
 This magnificent capture — the greatest ever 
 made in war — was due to Grant alone, and it 
 more than vindicated his genius. He had con- 
 ceived and carried out the movements which led 
 to it, in the face of remonstrances from his supe- 
 riors, and predictions of failure from his subor- 
 dinates. Says General Badeau , 
 
 " So Grant was alone. His most trusted asso- 
 ciates besought him to change his plans ; while 
 his superiors were astounded by his temerity, and 
 strove to interfere. Soldiers of reputation, and 
 civilians in high place, condemned in advance a 
 campaign that seemed to them as hopeless as it 
 was unprecedented. If he failed, the country 
 would concur with the Government and the 
 generals. Grant knew all this, and appreciated 
 the danger, but was as invulnerable to the ap- 
 prehensions of ambition as to the entreaties of 
 
The JVeto Ad7ninistration. 21 
 
 friendship, or the anxieties even of patriotism. 
 That quiet confidence which never forsook him, 
 and which amounted, indeed, almost to a feeling 
 of fate, was uninterrupted. Having once deter- 
 mined in a matter that required irreversible 
 decision, he never reversed, nor even misgave, 
 but was steadily loyal to himself and his plans. 
 This absolute and implicit faith was, however, 
 as far as possible from conceit or enthusiasm. It 
 was simply a consciousness, or conviction rather, 
 which brought the very strength it believed in ; 
 which was itself strength ; and which inspired 
 others with a trust in him, because he was able 
 thus to trust himself." 
 
 Henceforward there could be no doubt in the 
 mind of any candid person that Grant was a great 
 soldier. His Vicksburg campaign was a depart- 
 ure from the old principles of war, and one of 
 the boldest and most brilliant evidences of his 
 genius that he could have given. It showed that 
 he was not only capable of organizing a great 
 campaign, but that he could, move and fight his 
 army rapidly and successfully, and find victory 
 where others only saw danger and disaster. 
 
22 The JVeiD Administration. 
 
 Well did he deserve the plaudits and blessings 
 which went up from every part of the land, when 
 the news came flashing over the wires that Vicks- 
 burg was ours. No man was ever tried more 
 severely by much praise, and none ever passed 
 better through the ordeal. He had vindicated 
 his own genius and won a great victory for the 
 country, and he was satisfied. He exhibited no 
 elation, indulged in no boasting or self-laudation. 
 In the midst of his success he was more moderate 
 and modest than ever, and equally as reticent. 
 Instead of seeking a holiday and coming North 
 to enjoy the praise he had won, he applied him- 
 self at once to the administrative details of his 
 department, and soon had the whole system in 
 the best condition. 
 
 Ordered to proceed to Chattanooga for the 
 purpose of retrieving the disasters which had be- 
 fallen Rosecrans, he hurried forward, though 
 partially disabled by an accident, making dispo- 
 sitions as he went for reinforcing the Army of 
 the Cumberland, whose heroic commander had 
 pledged himself to hold Chattanooga until con- 
 quered by starvation. Having received hia 
 
The New Administration* 23 
 
 orders from the Secretary of War, in person, 
 and made his arrangements to bring up his re-en- 
 forcements as rapidly as possible, he hurried 
 forward to Chattanooga accompanied only by 
 his staff. He reached the town at night, unex- 
 pected and unannounced. He was cold, wet, and 
 hungry, and General Thomas at first scarcely 
 recognized him. 
 
 Without the loss of a moment, he set to work 
 to provide means for driving off the enemy. 
 The army was near starving, and the enemy had 
 closely invested our position. Bragg was confi- 
 dent of success, and our own men had begun to 
 despond. In a fortnight, however, the situation 
 was changed. The army was re-enforced and 
 well supplied ; the enemy had been driven into 
 their main line on Missionary Ridge, and every- 
 thing was in readiness for a bold and vigorous 
 attack upon the Confederates. Instead of sub- 
 mitting to a siege, as Bragg had expected, Grant 
 had assumed the off'ensive, and was ready to 
 crush his antagonist. The brilliant success which 
 crowned his attack decided the war in the West, 
 and opened the way for Sherman in the ensuing 
 
24 The JTew Administration. 
 
 Spring. The immediate fruits were the relief of 
 Chattanooga and Knoxville, the salvation of 
 Tennessee, and the capture of six thousand prison- 
 ers, seven thousand stand of arms, and fortjr 
 pieces of artillery. It was pronounced by an 
 eye-witness, himself an officer of merit and ex- 
 perience*, the best ordered and best delivered 
 battle of the war. 
 
 The thanks of Congress, a gold medal from 
 the same body, the thanks of State Legislatures^ 
 and public assemblies of all kinds were showered 
 upon the victor, and the whole land rang with 
 his praise. All this while he was passing to and 
 fro in his new Department, making himself fa- 
 miliar with the country, and the wants of the 
 army, and selecting the best routes for bringing 
 up supplies. The snow was deeper than had 
 been known for thirty years, and often the Gene- 
 ral and his staff were forced to wade through 
 drifts, through which their half-frozen horses 
 were powerless to carry them. 
 
 The dangerous illness of his eldest son called 
 
 oQuartermaBter-Qeneral Meigs. 
 
The JSCew Administration. 25 
 
 him away from his command for a few days. 
 The citizens of St. Louis overwhehned him with 
 profers of distinguislied honors, but he declined 
 them all with the sintjle exception of a public 
 dinner. He shrunk from display, from everything 
 that savored of egotism. 
 
 Congress conferred upon him the highest rank 
 in the army — that of Lieu tenant- General — and he 
 promptly repaired to Washington to receive his 
 commission at the hands of the President. This 
 done, he applied himself at once to the task before 
 him, declining all public honors. 
 
 Invested with the chief command of all the 
 armies of the United States, he relinquished to 
 Sherman the direction of affairs in the Mississippi 
 Valley, and applied himself to the task of defeat- 
 ing the Army of Northern Virginia, and captur- 
 ing the Capital of the Southern Confederacy. He 
 knew the magnitude of his task, and entered upon 
 it quietly, but with energy. 
 
 The undertaking proved more difficult than he 
 had anticipated, but he clung to it with a grim 
 energy and resoluteness of purpose which dis- 
 heartened the enemy not a little, and encouraged 
 
26 The Jfew Administration, 
 
 to a corresponding degree the people of the loyal 
 States. In General Lee he had a great soldier to 
 contend with, but he did not doubt his final suC' 
 cess, and the sequel proved the justness of his 
 convictions. He compelled the surrender of the 
 Army of Northern Virginia, made a prisoner of 
 the great leader of the South, and brought the 
 Rebellion to a triumphant close. 
 
 In the hour of success he was greater than ever. 
 No harshness or unkindness was shown to the 
 vanquished. Bad as he regarded their cause, he 
 knew that his prisoners were his countrymen, and 
 that they had shown courage and heroism worthy 
 of the American name, and he was too true a 
 soldier not to pity them in their misfortunes. So 
 kindly did he deal with them that many shed tears 
 when informed of his generosity. He had been 
 a terrible foe, and he now proved a generous 
 friend. 
 
 Congress revived the grade of " General of the 
 Army of the United States" for him, in gratitude 
 for his great services. He accepted the new rank 
 modestly, and administered the duties appertain- 
 ing to it with vigor and ability. As time wore 
 
The JSTew Administration. 2T 
 
 on the powers confided to him were increased to 
 an enormous extent. They were safe in his hands, 
 for he used them with a moderation and forbear- 
 ance remarkable in any man. Self was left out 
 of the question, and everything was done to give 
 peace and restored prosperity to the country. He 
 performed his labors with the same modesty and 
 reticence which always distinguished him. The 
 nation has sustained him in every act. He has 
 won the confidence and affection of his country- 
 men fairly, and they have never failed him yet. 
 
 The Republican party, in selecting him as their 
 candidate for the Presidency, but acted in accord- 
 ance with the known wishes of the people of the 
 Union, who regard his name as the symbol of 
 order, peace, and prosperity. His election was a 
 foregone conclusion from the time of his nomina 
 tion. 
 
 He has entered upon his new duties as the 
 chosen head of the American nation, with the 
 brightest prospects ever enjoyed by any President. 
 He has the perfect confidence of the whole people. 
 There may be, and doubtless will be, political 
 cliques which will oppose and denounce him, but 
 
28 The J^ew Administration, 
 
 he will always possess the confidence and aflfection 
 of the country at large as long as he remains true 
 to the principles which have guided his past life. 
 Even his political opponents are prepared to 
 accord him a hearty support, and a very large 
 class of them are sincerely glad of his election. 
 The champion of order, peace, prosperity, and 
 reform, he has a future before him which he need 
 not fear to tread. Millions of prayers go up daily 
 for his welfare and success, and millions of hands 
 are ready to co-operate with him in the good work 
 before him. 
 
 That the public confidence in him will be more 
 than realized, we feel fully warranted in asserting. 
 His history, from the time he dcYOted himself to 
 his country's cause, is a sure guarantee for the 
 future. 
 
 A man who, amidst all praise and honors which 
 have been showered upon him so lavishly, has re- 
 mained so truly modest and simple, so utterly free 
 from vanity or elation, who has ruled himself so 
 firmly, may well be trusted to govern a nation 
 with wisdom and moderation ; and one who has 
 remained bo free from taint, in the midst of so 
 
The J^ew Administration, 29 
 
 much corruption, may safely be relied upon to keep 
 pure the fountains of our national life and pros- 
 perity. 
 
 As for the principles by which his administra- 
 tion will be guided, he has himself well enunciated 
 them in the following brief but explicit "In- 
 augural," with which we conclude this hasty re- 
 view : 
 
 " Citizens op the United States : — Your suf- 
 frages having elected me to the office of President 
 of the United States, I have, in conformity with 
 the constitution of our country, taken the oath of 
 office prescribed therein. I have taken this oath 
 without mental reservation and with the deter- 
 mination to do, to the best of my ability, all that 
 it requires of me. 
 
 " The responsibilities of the position I feel, but 
 accept them without fear. The office has come to 
 me unsought. I commence its duties untrammelled. 
 I bring to it a conscientious desire and determina- 
 tion to fill it to the best of my ability to the satis- 
 faction of the people. On all leading questions 
 agitating the public mind I will always express 
 my views to Congress and urge them according 
 to my judgment, and when I think it advisable 
 will exercise the constitutional privilege of inter- 
 
30 The JVew Administration. 
 
 posing a veto to defeat measures which I oppose. 
 But all laws will be faithfully executed, whether 
 they meet my approval or not. 
 
 " I shall on all subjects have a policy to recom- 
 mend, none to enforce, against the will of the 
 people. Laws are to govern all alike, those 
 opposed to as well as those in favor of them. I 
 know no method to secure the repeal of bad or 
 obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent 
 execution. 
 
 " The country having just emerged from a great 
 rebellion, many questions will come before it for 
 settlement in the next four years which preceding 
 administrations have never had to deal with. la 
 meeting these it is desirable that they should be 
 appreciated calmly, without prejudice, hate, or 
 sectional pride, remembering that the greatest 
 good to the greatest number is the object to be 
 attained. This requires security of person, prop- 
 erty and for religious and political opinion in 
 every part of our common country, without regard 
 to local prejudice. All laws to secure this end 
 will receive my best efforts for their enforce- 
 ment. 
 
 *' A great debt has been contracted in securing 
 to us and our posterity the Union. The payment 
 of this, principal and interest, as well as the re- 
 
The New Administration, 31 
 
 turn to specie basis as soon as it can be accomp- 
 lished without material detriment to the debtor 
 class or to the country at large, must be provided 
 for. 
 
 " To protect the national honor every dollar of 
 the government indebtedness should be paid in 
 gold, unless otherwise expressly stipulated in the 
 contract. Let it be understood that no repudiator 
 of one farthing of our public debt will be trusted 
 in public places, and it will go far towards 
 strengthening a credit which ought to be the best 
 in the world, and will ultimately enable us to re- 
 place the debt with bonds bearing less interest 
 than we now pay. To this should be added a 
 faithful collection of the revenue, a strict account- 
 ability to the Treasury for every dollar collected, 
 and the greatest practicable retrenchment in ex- 
 penditures in every department of government. 
 
 " When we compare the paying capacity of the 
 country now, with ten States still in poverty from 
 the effects of the war, but soon to emerge, I trust, 
 into greater prosperity than ever before, with its 
 paying capacity twenty-five years ago, and cal- 
 culate what it probably will be twenty-five years 
 hence, who can doubt the feasibility of paying 
 every' dollar then with more ease than we now 
 pay for useless luxuries ? Why, it looks as though 
 Providence had bestowed upon us a strong box 
 
32 The ISfew Administration, 
 
 the precious metals locked up in the sterile moun- 
 tains of the far West, which we are now forging 
 the key to unlock, to meet the very contingency 
 that is now upon us. 
 
 " Ultimately it may be necessary to increase the 
 facilities to reach these riches, and it may be ne- 
 cessary, also, that the general government should 
 give its aid to secure this access. But that 
 should only be when a dollar of obligation to pay 
 secures precisely the same sort of dollar in use 
 now, and not before. 
 
 "While the question of specie payments is in 
 abeyance the prudent business man is careful 
 about contracting debts payable in the distant fu- 
 ture. The nation should follow the same rule. 
 A prostrate commerce is to be rebuilt, and all in- 
 dustries encouraged. The young men of the 
 country — those who form this age and must be 
 rulers twenty-five years hence — nave a peculiar 
 interest in maintaining the national honor. A 
 moment's reflection upon what will be our com- 
 manding influence among the nations of the earth 
 in their day, if tliey are only true to themselves, 
 should inspire them with national pride. All di- 
 visions, geographical, political and religious, can 
 join in this common sentiment. 
 
 " IIow the public debt is to be paid or specie 
 
The New Administration, 33 
 
 payments resumed is not so important as that a 
 plan should be adopted and acquiesced in. A 
 united determination to do is worth more than di- 
 vided counsels upon the method of doing. Legis- 
 lations on this subject may not be necessary now, 
 nor even advisable ; but it will be when the civil 
 law is more fully restored in all parts of the 
 country, and trade resumes its wonted channels. 
 It will be my endeavor to execute all laws in 
 good faith, to collect all revenues assessed and to 
 have them properly disbursed. I will, to the 
 best of my ability, appoint to office only those 
 who will carry out this design. 
 
 " In regard to foreign policy I would deal 
 with nations as equitable law requires individuals 
 to deal with each other, and I would protect the 
 law-abiding citizen, whether of native or foreign 
 birth, wherever his rights are jeopardized or the 
 flag of our country floats. I would respect the 
 rights of all nations, demanding equal respect for 
 our own. If others depart from this rule in their 
 dealings with us we may be compelled to follow 
 their precedent. 
 
 *'The proper treatment of the original occupants 
 of this land, the Indians, is one deserving of care- 
 ful study. I will favor any course towards them 
 which tends to their civilization, Christianization 
 and ultimate citizenship. 
 
84 The New Administration, 
 
 " The question of suffrage is one which is like- 
 ly to agitate the public so long as a portion of 
 the citizens of the nation are excluded from its 
 privileges in any State. It seems to me very de- 
 sirable that this question should be settled now, 
 and I entertain the hope and express the desire 
 that it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth 
 amendment to the Coiistitution. 
 
 " In conclusion, I ask patient forbearance one 
 towards another throughout the land, and a de- 
 termined effort on tbe part of every citizen to do 
 his share towards cementing a happy Union, and 
 I ask the prayers of the nation to Almighty God 
 in behalf of this happy consummation." 
 
The JVew Administration, 35 
 
 SCHUYLER COLFAX, 
 
 Vice-President of the United States, 
 
 Like his immediate superior in office, Mr. Vice- 
 President Colfax has reached his high position by 
 the force of his own unaided genius. 
 
 He was born in the City of New York, on the 
 23rd of March, 1823, and is consequently in his 
 forty-sixth year. He comes of good stock, his 
 paternal grandfather having been the commander 
 of Washington's Life Guards during the Revolu- 
 tion, and his grandmother, on the same side, a 
 niece of General Philip Schuyler, of New York. 
 His father died four months before his birth, 
 leaving his mother in straightened circumstances^ 
 so that the childhood of the future Vice-President 
 was passed almost in poverty. 
 
 He was sent at an early age to the grammar- 
 Bchool of his district, from which he was promoted 
 to the High School in Crosby street. The public 
 Bchools of the Metropolis had not then attained 
 
36 The JVew Administration, 
 
 the degree of excellence for which they are now 
 famous, and the means of improvement held out 
 by them were but limited. Nevertheless, young 
 Colfax was quick to profit by them, and proved 
 so bright and apt a pupil as to win the highest 
 praise from his instructors. 
 
 When he was ten years old, he was taken from 
 school, his mother's means being too limited to 
 continue his education. A friend received him 
 into his store as a clerk, and he remained there 
 three years, contributing by his slender earnings 
 to the support of his widowed mother, and giving 
 perfect satisfaction to his employer. At the end 
 of tliat time, his mother having married a gentle- 
 man named Mathews, removed with her husband 
 to St. Joseph County, Indiana, and took her son 
 with her. This was in 1836. Upon reaching 
 Indiana, the boy obtained a clerkship in a store 
 in the town of New Carlisle, and lield it until he 
 had completed his seventeenth year. 
 
 In 1840, although still a boy, he made his first 
 appearance in public life. He was appointed 
 Deputy-Auditor of the County, and for the better 
 
The JYew Administration. HY 
 
 discharge of his duties removed to the town of 
 South Bend, where he has continued to reside. 
 
 Appreciating the fact that his advantages for 
 improvement had been limited, he applied himself 
 diligently during such time as he could spare 
 from his ofiacial duties, to remedy the defects in 
 his education. Strictly speaking, he had no leisure 
 hours, for the time that others would have spent 
 in recreation, he devoted to a thorough and sys- 
 tematic course of study. He read law, history, 
 biography, travels, everything that could add to 
 his store of knowledge or improve his mind. His 
 friends entertained a high opinion of his legal 
 knowledge, and often consulted him upon points 
 of law, in preference to applying to a regular 
 practitioner. 
 
 In 1845, when just twenty-two years old, he 
 established " The St. Joseph Valley Register^' a 
 weekly journal, of which he was sole editor and 
 proprietor. He even learned to set type in order 
 that he might work at the case, and thus diminish 
 the cost of composition. The paper met with, 
 and passed through, the usual difficulties and 
 Ticissitudes of a country journal, but was at length 
 
38 The J^ew Administration. 
 
 established on a paying basis. The office with 
 all its fixtures was destroyed by lire a lew years 
 after the beginning of the enterprise, but Mr. 
 Colfax made good his losses, and started out with 
 better prospects than before. He continued his 
 connection with the paper for about twenty years, 
 writing regularly for it one letter per week dur- 
 ing his earlier Congressional career. Mrs. Stowe 
 Bays of this paper : 
 
 " Besides paying well, the Register^ as con" 
 ducted by Mr. Colfax, is entitled to the much 
 higher praise of having been a useful, interesting 
 and a morally pure paper, always on the side of 
 what is good and right in morals and society. It 
 has been, for instance, constantly in favor of 
 temperance reform; and it has always avoided 
 the masses of vile detail which so many papers of 
 respectable position manage to distribute in 
 families under the pretence that they must give 
 full news of police reports and criminal trials." 
 
 A village debating society afforded him the 
 means of becoming a proficient and ready speaker, 
 and this advantage, like all the rest, was carefully 
 
The New Administration, SO* 
 
 and conscientiously improved. His friend, Mr. 
 John D. Defrees, now the accomplished Superin- 
 tendent of the Public Printing, and thcra the pro- 
 prietor of the Indianapolis Journal^ made him 
 reporter of the debates of the State Senate, which 
 post he held for several years. It was here that 
 he laid the foundation of that intimate acquain- 
 tanceship with parliamentary forms and law, 
 which has made him so efficient a Speaker of the 
 lower House of Congress. 
 
 In politics he was a Whig, and he earnestly 
 advocated the principles of that party in the 
 columns of his newspaper, and on the stump. In 
 1848 he was sent as a delegate to the National 
 Whig Convention, which nominated General 
 Taylor, and was chosen Secretary of tliat body. 
 The county in which he resided was thoroughly 
 Democratic, but so great was his personal popu- 
 larity that, in 1850, he was elected, by a handsome 
 majority, to a seat in the Convention which framed 
 the present Constitution of the State of Indiana. 
 In this body he distinguished himself by the earn- 
 estness and eloquence with which he opposed the 
 
40 The JVew Administraiion, 
 
 measure forbidding the settlement in the State, of 
 free colored men. 
 
 In 1851 he was nominated by his party to 
 represent his district in Congress. The district 
 was so strongly democratic that the election of a 
 Whig seemed an impossibility. Nevertheless Mr. 
 Colfax's opponent was elected by only 238 ma- 
 jority in a poll of 18,474 votes. He was offered 
 a renomination at the next election, but declined 
 •it in consequence of his business engagements, 
 and his party was defeated by over one thousand 
 majority. A nomination to the State Senate, 
 with a fair prospect of success, had been declined 
 previous to his first Congressional campaign. He 
 was a member of the National Whig Convention 
 of 1852, which nominated General Scott, and 
 took a prominent part in the campaign which 
 resulted in the defeat of his party. 
 
 In 1854 he was elected to C ngress by a 
 majority of 1,7G6 votes over his Democratic com- 
 petitor, and upon the meeting of the Thirty- 
 fourth Congress in 1855, was appointed by the 
 Speaker a member of the Committee on Eleo- 
 
The New Administration, 41 
 
 tions. He distinguished himself in the struggle 
 which preceded the election of Mr. Banks as 
 Speaker, and detected and foiled two of the best 
 planned and most ingenious manceuvers of the 
 Democratic party to get possession of the Chair. 
 During the debates on the famous Kansas- 
 Nebraska Bill, Mr. Colfax was the earnest and 
 fearless champion of freedom, and delivered two 
 powerful speeches in behalf of the free settlers, 
 and exposed and denounced the outrages practised 
 upon them. So highly did the Kepublican party 
 esteem his first address on this subject, that it 
 was re-printed at the expense of the party, and 
 circulated as a campaign document during the 
 Presidential campaign of 1856. During his first 
 session in Congress, Mr. Colfax took and main- 
 tained a leading position in the ranks of his 
 party, and gave such satisfaction to his constitu- 
 ents that he was returned to the Thirty-fifth 
 Congress by a majority of 1,036 over Mr. Stuart, 
 Ms Democratic competitor. 
 
 In the third session of the Thirty-fourth Con- 
 gress, he delivered an able address in favor of a 
 repeal of the duty on sugar. His argument was 
 
42 The New Administration. 
 
 regarded as unanswerable; but the protective 
 ideas of the House could not be overcome by any 
 argument. 
 
 In the case of James W. Simonton, a recusant 
 witness, he protested against any violation of 
 the rights of a citizen. Said he : 
 
 " I agree with the gentleman from Maryland 
 (Mr. Davis) in one thing, and that is, that the 
 witness having stated that there were members 
 of this house who had approached him with pro- 
 positions for the sale of their votes, sheuld have 
 answered the questions propounded to him by 
 the Select Committee. But he is an American 
 citizen. He stands here at your bar, and has the 
 right before he is confined for even an hour, to 
 be heard, either by himself or counsel. And I 
 move to amend the resolution by striking out all 
 after the word 'Eesolved, and inserting * That 
 he shall have the privilege of being heard at the 
 bar of this House, in person or by counsel.' " 
 
 The reader will not forget that when a reso- 
 lution was introduced into the House last year by 
 General Butler, authorizing the Speaker to open 
 and inspect the private correspondence of another 
 recu.saiit witness, Mr. Colfax indignantly declared 
 that the House had no power to authorize such 
 an outrage upon the rights of any citizen. 
 
The New Administration, iZ 
 
 At the opening of the Thirty-fifth Congress, 
 he was appointed a member of the Committee on 
 Indian Affairs. 
 
 He favored strong and severe measures to- 
 wards the people of Utah, for the purpose of 
 compelling them to perform their obligations to 
 the General Government ; and urged a revision 
 of the neutrality laws for the purpose of vindi- 
 cating the national honor by putting a stop to 
 fillibustering expeditions from our shores. Said 
 he: 
 
 " Mr. Chairman — I concur with the language 
 which fell from the gentleman from New York 
 (Mr. Cochrane) when he offered his amendment ; 
 and I like that amendment because it was clear 
 and decisive. It meant something. It would 
 have called forth an expression of the opinion of 
 the committee upon the question which is now 
 agitating this entire country. But I regret that 
 the gentleman should have afterwards modified 
 his amendment so that it would call for no ex- 
 pression of opinion whatever; and I now offer 
 my amendment to the amendment, for the purpose 
 of having a test vote in the committee upon the 
 question whether they believe the neutrality laws 
 ought to be made more rigorous and efficient, or 
 not. We owe it to ourselves, and to our country's 
 
44 The JVew Administration. 
 
 reputation, that we shall see that these laws shall 
 not be full of loopholes and escapes, whereby 
 expeditions can go from our shores under the 
 disguise of agricultural expeditions and bands of 
 emigrants, and that we shall never allow this 
 country to be made a place where expeditions of 
 a piratical character may be fitted out and pre- 
 •cipitated upon other and weaker nations in our 
 vicinity. I, therefore, desire to ascertain the 
 sense of this committee, that a clear expression 
 of their opinion may be sent to the country upon 
 this important question. I desire a test vote 
 upon this question." 
 
 He warmly advocated the granting of pensions 
 to the veterans of the War of 1812, and of the 
 Indian wars of that period, declaring that the 
 grant was " a debt of individual justice and of 
 national honor. All of those men who were in 
 the second war of American Independence are 
 now in the evening of their days and decline of 
 their lives; and the small pittance proposed by 
 this bill to be given to them would assist at least 
 in smoothing their passage to the grave." 
 
 The Postal affairs of the nation received liis 
 earncr^t care from the time of liis entrance into 
 
The JVew Administration. 45 
 
 Congress, and he was from the lirst an uncom- 
 promising enemy of the " franking swindle." 
 His best eiforts were in favor of retrenchment 
 and reform, and of an economical and judicious 
 expenditure of the public funds. 
 
 In 1858, he was returned to the Thirty-sixth 
 Congress by a majority of 1,931 votes. 
 
 The Thirty -sixth Congress met just after the 
 John Brown affair at Harper's Ferry, and in the 
 midst of the intense political excitement which 
 culminated in the Rebellion. The slavery ques- 
 tion was being violently agitated, and the North 
 and South were arrayed against each other in a 
 contest which admitted of no compromise. The 
 excitement invaded both Houses of Congress, 
 breaking out there first in the famous " Helper 
 Book quarrel." The Republican candidate for 
 Speaker, the Hon. Mr. (now Senator) Sherman, 
 of Ohio, had endorsed this book, and had urged 
 its general circulation in the Free States, and the 
 Southern members endeavored to force upon the 
 House a resolution declaring that no man who 
 had endorsed the book was fit to be Speaker of 
 the House. The struggle over the SpeakershiD 
 
46 The JVew Administration, 
 
 was unusally exciting and protracted. It delayed 
 the organization of the House several months, and 
 at length resulted in a compromise, by which the 
 Hon. Mr. Pennington of New Jersey, a Republi- 
 can, was elected Speaker. 
 
 Mr. Colfax took a leading part in this memor- 
 able struggle, asserting and maintaining the rights 
 of his party on all occasions, and dealing some of 
 the hardest blows delivered from the Republican 
 side of the House during the entire contest. 
 
 Upon the organization of the House, in Febru- 
 ary 1860, he was made Chairman of the Post 
 Office Committee, of the House ; for which posi- 
 tion he was eminently qualified by reason of his 
 great knowledge of the affairs and wants of that 
 department. As Chairman of that Coramittee, ho 
 either originated or procured the adoption of 
 many of the most important features of our pre- 
 sent postal system. He secured to the Pacific 
 Coast and the Western Territories that splendid 
 overland mail system, which is the pride and 
 boast of the far West. He was the firm and con- 
 stant friend of the Great Pacific Railway. He 
 procurod the establishment of post offices and 
 
The JYew Administration. 47 
 
 mail routes in the Territories, knowing that there 
 was no surer way of encouraging emigration 
 thither. He introduced reforms into the ocean 
 mail service. He procured the passage of the 
 law allowing publishers of newspapers and peri- 
 odcials to in form their patrons of the expirations 
 of their subscriptions by a printed notice on the 
 wrapper. He reformed the drop letter system^ 
 introduced the bill allowing the return of uncall- 
 ed-for letters to the writer thereof after a given 
 time — a measure which has done much to faciltiate 
 the business of the country. The telegraph to the 
 Pacific received his warm support, and everything 
 in his power was done to bring the Western 
 Coast into more intimate relations with the At- 
 lantic States. He embarked heartily in the 
 Presidential Campaign of 1860, advocating with 
 his pen and voice the election of Mr. Lincoln. 
 He had the satisfaction of seeing his State car- 
 ried by the Republican party by a majority of six 
 thousand. During this same campaign, he was 
 re-elected to Congress, for a fourth term, by a ma- 
 jority of 3,402 votes. 
 
 The second session of the Thirty-sixth Congress 
 
48 The JVew Mministration. 
 
 was that which immediately preceeded the War, 
 Mr. Colfax, as Chairman of the Post Office Com- 
 mittee, introduced a bill in January 1861, to dis- 
 continue the mails in the States which had se- 
 ceeded from the Union. The measure was op- 
 posed by the Southern Congressmen, who still 
 held their seats, and was defeated for the time. 
 There can be no doubt that Mr. Colfax was 
 right in proposing the measure, for the sudden 
 discontinuance of all postal facilities in the re- 
 volted States would have occasioned an immense 
 amount of dissatisfaction and confusion in those 
 States, and have done much to induce the people 
 thereof to return to their allegiance to the Gen- 
 eral Government. 
 
 A strong eff'ort was made to induce Mr. Lin- 
 coln to give Mr. Colfax a place in his first Cabi- 
 net, as Postmaster General. Being a warm 
 personal friend of Mr. Colfax, the President 
 would have made the appointment cheerfully, but 
 for the fact that the Secretary of the Interior had 
 already been chosen from Indiana. 
 
 In the Tliirty-seventh Congress, Mr. Colfax 
 was re-appointed Chairman of the Post OfiBce 
 
The New Jldministration. 49 
 
 Committee. From thi-s time, throughout the 
 whole period of the Rebellion, he exerted himself 
 actively in behalf of all measures calculated to 
 strengthen the hands of the Government against 
 the public enemy. He was heart and soul for the 
 restoration of the Union, and was quick to per- 
 ceive that no half-way measures would accomplish 
 that result. 
 
 The Array received his especial care. Appre- 
 ciating the anxiety which those at home would 
 feel to hear from their friends and relatives at the 
 front, and knowing that the troops would rarely 
 be in possession of surplus money, he introduced 
 and procured the passage of a law, allowing sol" 
 diers in the army to send their letters through 
 the mails without pre-paying the postage, which 
 was to be collected at the point of destination. 
 Soon after this, he procured the passage of 
 another law, requiring that all pro-paid letters to 
 Boldiers in any regiment in the service of the 
 Union, and directed to a \K)\nt where they had 
 been stationed, should be forwarded, whenever 
 practicable, to anv other point to which they 
 
50 The New Administration, 
 
 might have been ordered, without additional 
 
 postage. 
 
 His eulogy upon the heroic Baker, elicited uni- 
 versal admiration, being considered one of the 
 finest efforts ever listened to in the House. 
 
 In the fall of 1862 he was re-elected to Con- 
 gress, as the champion of the Administration 
 and its measures. The Government was then in 
 the midst of its heaviest reverses, and the confi- 
 dence of the country in the ability of the Admin- 
 istration was sorely shaken. It was conceded by 
 all that no other man but Mr. Colfax could pos- 
 sibly be returned from his district, in which con- 
 siderable disaffection existed. The election was 
 close and exciting, and Mr. Colfax was returned 
 by a majority of 249 votes. The victory was de- 
 Kjisive, under the circumstances, and a striking 
 proof of the great confidence reposed in their rep- 
 resentative by the people of the district. 
 
 Although a jealous foe to any infringement of 
 the personal rights or liberties of the citizen, he 
 advocated the bill to indemnify the President, and 
 those acting under his orders for the suspension 
 of the habeas corpus, and acts done in pursuance 
 
The JSTew Mministration. 51 
 
 ol the same. He knew the President intimately, 
 and had confidence that he would not abuse the 
 extraordinary powers he had assumed — the firm 
 exercise of which Mr. Colfax was persuaded was 
 necessary to the salvation of the country. 
 
 He favored the admission of West Virginia in- 
 to the Union, as a State, and voted for the bill to 
 that efi'ect. 
 
 In January, 1863, he reported a bill authoriz- 
 ing the Postmaster General to allow the trans- 
 portation through the mails, at book postage 
 rates, of small packages, not exceeding four 
 pounds in weight, sent by persons in the loyal 
 States, to their relatives and friends in the Army 
 and Navy. 
 
 He inaugurated measures making the rates of 
 postage uniform all over the country, and giving 
 postmasters fixed salaries instead of fluctuating 
 commissions. He procured the introduction of 
 the free carrier system, and introduced several 
 other important and useful reforms. 
 
 Upon the meeting of the Thirty-eighth Con- 
 gress, in December, 1863, he was chosen Speaker 
 of the House of Representatives, a graceful and 
 
52 The Mw Administration. 
 
 fitting recognition by that body of his eminent 
 services. Being charged with the duty of presi- 
 ding over the deliberations of the House, he was 
 not connected with any special measure during 
 this Session ; but his influence, which was great, 
 was always exerted in behalf of the measures of 
 the Government. 
 
 In the Fall of 1864, he was returned to the 
 Thirty-ninth Congress by a majority of 1,680. 
 During this campaign he exerted himself warmly 
 in favor of the re-election of Mr. Lincoln, and 
 had the satisfaction of witnessing the splendid 
 triumph of his party in Nong nber of that year. 
 
 His course as Speaker of the House, during the 
 Sessions of the Thirty-eighth Congress, won him 
 the hearty approval of both the Republicans and 
 Democrats in that body and the warmest tribute 
 to him at tlie close of the Second Ses:*ion came 
 from the brilliant Democratic orator, Mr. S. S. 
 Cox, then of Ohio, but now of New York. 
 
 It was his sad privilege to receive the last 
 farewell the Martyr Prcdidcnt ever spoke on 
 earth, and to stand by his deatli bed, and to 
 watch tlie grandly-nimple Boul of the great man 
 go out into eternity 
 
The JSTew Mministration, 53 
 
 The last sad rites paid to his dead friend and 
 chief, he turned his face westward. It had been 
 his desire for a long time to visit the far West 
 and the Pacific Coast, and see for himself that 
 great and growing country, in whose behalf he 
 liad labored so faithfully. His journey across 
 the Continent was one continuous ovation. 
 Everywhere he was received with demonstrations 
 of the profoundest respect and the warmest friend- 
 ship. His expectations of the importance and re- 
 sources of this portion of the country were more 
 than realized, and the knowledge gained by him 
 in this journey will prove of the greatest benefit 
 to the far West. He passed over the plains, 
 along the great overland route, visited the towns 
 and cities of the distant territories and of the 
 Pacific States ; inspected the mines, railroads and ■"^^'^'' 
 
 internal improvements in that section, and came 
 home better prepared than ever before, to act in '^^ 
 behalf of this growing and enterprising portion 
 of the Union. 
 
 Upon his return from the Pacific Coast, Mr. 
 Colfax repaired to Washington to take his seat 
 in the Thirty-ninth Congress, of which body he 
 
54 The New Administration, 
 
 was elected Speaker. He presided over the 
 stormy deliberations of that memorable session, 
 which marked the commencement of the unhappy 
 quarrel between the President and Congress, and 
 from which the country has suffered so much. 
 He was a warm advocate of the second Freed - 
 man's Bureau Bill, the Civil Rights Bill, the 
 Tenure of OflSce Act, and all the Reconstruction 
 measures of Congress. He endorsed the pro- 
 ceedings which resulted in the impeachment of 
 President Johnson, the last step being one of 
 which he, in connection with the Republican 
 party, heartily approved of. 
 
 In the fall of 1866, he was re-elected to Con- 
 gress by a majority of 2,148 votes. He was 
 elected Speaker of the Fortieth Congress— this 
 being the third time he was chosen to that ele- 
 vated position. His conduct as presiding officer 
 of the House during the six years of his Speak- 
 ership is the source of the most earnest satisfac- 
 tion to his friends. He presided over the stormy 
 sessions of that body with a grace and dignity 
 which won him the admiration of all his asso- 
 ciates, and with a faiiness which elicited the 
 
The JVew Administration. 55 
 
 praise of men his political opponents. He has 
 been well termed " the most popular Speaker 
 since the days of Henry Clay." 
 
 The National Convention of the Union Repub- 
 lican Party, met at Chicago on the 20th of May, 
 1868, and after nominating General Grant as 
 their candidate for the Presidency, conferred 
 upon Mr. Colfax their nomination for the Vice- 
 Presidency. He was chosen amidst a storm of 
 enthusiasm which showed that his friends had not 
 miscalculated his strength. The news of his 
 nomination was at once telegraphed to him at 
 Washington. The news found him in the Speak- 
 er's Room at the Capitol. 
 
 " On the receipt of this dispatch," says a cor- 
 respondent of the Trifmne, '^ the room rang with 
 cheers, which were again and again repeated. 
 Mr. Colfax was congratulated by the entire com- 
 pany, and the scene thereafter may be imagined. 
 Telegrams now came pouring in on him from all 
 quarters, which it was utterly impossible to an- 
 swer. The room was thronged with visitors, all 
 eager to sliake his hand, and at one time it 
 looked as though escape from his thousand ad- 
 
56 The I^ew AdmhiistrcUion. 
 
 mirers was an uttor impossibility. Demo- 
 crats and Republicans, Wade men and Wilson 
 men, all beset him, and the expression of 
 hearty good wishes and good will has been 
 seldom equalled. As he was leaving the room 
 the employees of the Capitol gathered around 
 him in the most affectionate manner and tendered 
 him their regards. Walking through the Capitol 
 grounds, he was stopped by citizens who had 
 never spoken to him before, but to whom his 
 features were familiar, and they rushed up to him 
 and shook him by the hand. His progress up 
 the Avenue was indeed an ovation. No man has 
 recently been the recipient of more hearty and 
 soul-felt good wishes than the next Vice-President 
 of this Republic. The choice of the Convention 
 for the first and second positions in the gift of 
 the people, was everywhere approved by Republi- 
 cans, and even Democrats conceded the wisdom 
 of the nominations. 
 
 Mr. Colfax took an active part in the Presi- 
 dential campaign, working hard for the success of 
 the Republican ticket. The result of the strug- 
 gle is well known to tlie reader. " Grant and 
 
The J\rew Administraticm. 67 
 
 €olfax " were elected President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent by handsome majorities, and the principles 
 of the Republican party were a third time en- 
 dorsed by the people of the country at large. 
 
 During the Fall of 1868, Mr. Colfax was mar- 
 ried to Miss Nellie Wade, of Ohio, a neice of 
 Senator Wade of that State. 
 
 He continued to preside over the deliberations 
 of the House during the second session of the 
 Fortieth Congress, rendering good service to the 
 country and to his party during that time. Not 
 the least of these services was the firm and de- 
 termined manner with which he put down the 
 disturbance created by General Butler and others, 
 during the official counting of the Electoral 
 Votes of the States, in the joint Convention of 
 the two Houses of Congress, in February last. 
 
 On the morning of the 3d of March, he called 
 Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, to the Chair, and requested 
 him to preside over the House until the election 
 of his successor. Then turning to the House, he 
 announced his resignation of the Speakership, ac- 
 companying it with the following eloquent and 
 appropriate remarks : 
 
58 The New Adminiatration, 
 
 " Gentlemen : The opening of the legislative 
 day, at the close of which I must enter upon 
 another sphere of duty, requires me to tender to 
 you this resignation of the office which by your 
 kindness and confidence I have held ; to take ef- 
 fect on the election of a Speaker for the brief 
 remainder of this session. The parting word, 
 amongst friends about to separate, is always a re- 
 gretful one ; but the farewell which takes me 
 from this hall, in which so many years have been 
 spent, excites in me emotions which it would be 
 useless to attempt to conceal. The fourteen 
 years during which I have been associated with 
 the representatives of the people here, have been 
 full of eventful legislation, of exciting issues, and 
 of grave decisions, vitally affecting the entire 
 republic. All these with the accompanying 
 scenes, which so often reproduced in this arena 
 of debate, the warmth of feeling of our antago- 
 nizing constituencies, have passed into the domain 
 of history. And I but refer to tliem to express 
 the joy which, apparently, is shared by the mass 
 of our countrymen, that the storm cloud of war, 
 which has so long darkened our national horizon, 
 at last passed away, leaving our imperilled Union 
 saved, and that by the decree of the people more 
 pov/erful than President", or Congresses, or ar- 
 mies, liberty was proclaimed throughout the 
 
The Mew Administration. 59 
 
 lawd to all the inhabitants thereof. But I can- 
 not leave you without one word of rejoicing over 
 the present condition of our republic amongst 
 the nations of the earth, with our military 
 power and almost illimitable resources, exempli- 
 fied by the war that developed them ; with our 
 rapidly augmenting population, and the welcome 
 to our gates to the oppressed of all climes ; with 
 our vast and increasing agricultural, mechanical, 
 manufacturing, and mineral capacities ; with our 
 vantage on the two great oceans of the globe, 
 and our almost completed Pacific Railroad uni- 
 ting these opposite shores and becoming the 
 highway ; the United States of America com- 
 mands that respect among the powers of the 
 world which insures the maintenance of all its 
 national rights and the security of all its citizens 
 from oppression or injustice abroad. Nor is 
 this all. The triumphal progress of freeinstitu^ 
 lions here has had its potential influence beyond 
 the sea. The right of the people to govern, 
 based on the saci ed principle of our revolution,, 
 that all governments derive their just powers 
 from the consent of the governed, is everywhere 
 advancing, but with slow and measured steps, but 
 with a rapidity that within a few years has been 
 so signally illustrated in Great Britain, Spain, 
 Italy, Prussia, Hungary, and other lands. May 
 
60 TJie JVew Administration* 
 
 we not hope that bj the moral but powerful 
 force of our example, fetters may everywhere be 
 broken, and that some of us may live to see that 
 happy era when slavery and tyranny shall no 
 more be known throughout the world, from the 
 rivers to the end of the earth ? I cannot claim 
 that, in the share I have had in the deliberations 
 and the legislation of this House, as a member 
 und an officer, I have always done that which was 
 wisest and best, in word and act ; for none of us 
 are infallible. But that I have striven to per- 
 form, faithfully, every duty, and that, devoted 
 as all know, to principles that I have deemed 
 correct, the honor and glory of our country have 
 always been paramount and above all party ties, 
 I can conscientiously assert. And that I have 
 sought to mitigate, rather than to intensify, the 
 asperities which the collision of opposing parties 
 so often evoke, must be left to my fellow-members 
 to verify. In the responsible duties of the last 
 six years, I have endeavored to administer the 
 rules you have enacted 'or your guidance both in 
 letlei" and in spirit, with an impartiality uninflu- 
 enced by political associations or antagonisms. 
 And I may be pardoned for the expression of 
 gratification that, while no decision has been re- 
 versed, there has been no appeal, sometimes ta- 
 ken as they are by a minority as a protest against 
 
tihe j^e:'j Administration, . 61 
 
 i\^ power under the rales of a majority, which 
 hi\s ever been decided by a strict party vote If, 
 in the quickness with which a presiding officer 
 here is often compelled to rule hour after hour 
 on parliamentary points, and in the performance 
 of his duty, to protect all members in their rights 
 to advance the progress of the public business, 
 and to preserve order, any word has fallen from 
 my lips that has justly wounded any one, I de- 
 sire to withdraw it unreservedly. I leave this 
 hall with no feeling of unkindness to any member 
 with whom I have been associated in all the years 
 of the past, having earnestly tried to practice 
 that lesson of life which commands us to write 
 'our enmities on the sand, but to engrave our 
 friendships* on the granite. But the last word 
 cannot longer be delayed. I bid farewell to the 
 faithful and confiding constituency whose affea- 
 tionate regard has sustained and encompassed me 
 through all the years of my public life ; farewell 
 to the hall which in its excitements and restless 
 activities so often seemed to represent the throb- 
 bings and the intense feelings of the nation's 
 hearty and finally, fellow-members and friends, 
 with sincere gratitude for the generous support 
 you have always given me in the diiferent and 
 oft^n complex duties of the chair, and with the 
 
62 The JVew Administration. 
 
 warmest wishes for your health, happiness and 
 prosperity, one and all, I bid you farewell." 
 
 This address was greeted with warm applause 
 from the members on ihe floor, and i'rom the vast 
 audience in the galleries. At its conclusion Mr. 
 Colfax retired to the floor of the House. Mr. 
 Woodward, of Pennsylvania, one of the leaders 
 of the Democratic party, immediately arose, and 
 offer.. d the following resolution, which was warm- 
 ly endorsed by the political opponents of the 
 Yice-Presidciit elect, as well as by his friends. 
 
 " Resolvtd, That the retirement of the Hon. 
 Schu} ler Colfax from the Speaker's chair, after a 
 long and faithful discharge of its duties, is an 
 event in our current history which would cause 
 general regret were it not tliat the country is to 
 have the benefit of his matured talents and ex- 
 perience in the higher sphere of duty to which 
 he has been called by a majority of his country- 
 men. In parting from our distinguished Speaker, 
 the House records with becoming sensibility ita 
 high appreciation of his skill in parliamentary 
 law, of his promptness of administering the rules 
 and facilitating the business of the body ; of his 
 urbane ntaniicrs, and of the dignity and impar- 
 tiality with which he has presided over the delib- 
 
The New Administration^ 63 
 
 erations of the House. He will carry with him 
 into his new field of duty and throughout life the 
 kind regards of every member of this Congress." 
 
 The resolution was put to the vote, and carried 
 unanimously. An engrossed copy of it, to be 
 signed by the officers of the House, was ordered 
 to be communicated to Mr. Colfax. 
 
 On the morning of the 4th of March, Mr. 
 Colfax entered the Senate Chamber, which was 
 filled to overflowing with a brilliant and distin- 
 guished throng, and iu the presence of this au- 
 dience, took the oath of office at the hands of 
 acting Vice-President Wade, and entered upon 
 his new duties. He delivered the following brief 
 address upon this occasion : 
 
 ** Senators : In entering upon the duties in 
 this cham))er, to the performance of which I have 
 been called by the people of the United States, 
 I realize fully the delicacy as well as the respon- 
 Bibilities of the position. Presiding over a body 
 whose members are in so large a degree my 
 seniors in age, and not chosen by the body itself, 
 I shall certainly need the assistance of your sup- 
 port and your generous forbearance and confi- 
 dence. But, pledging to you all a faithful and 
 
64 The JVew Administration, 
 
 inflexible impartiality in the administration of 
 your rules, and earnestly desiring to co operate 
 with you in making the deliberations of the Sen- 
 ate worthy not only of its historical renown, but 
 also of the States whose commissions you hold. 
 I am now ready to take the oath of office re- 
 quired by law." 
 
 Mr. Colfax is still in his forty-sixth year, and 
 is in the full vigor of his manhood. He is a 
 man of fine attainments and considerable elo- 
 quence. He is about five feet six inches high, 
 and is inclined to be stout. His brown hair is 
 beginning to show silver streaks — the marks of 
 care and intellectual exertion. He has an ami- 
 able, pleasant face, the expression of which indi- 
 cates considerable firmness of character. He is 
 quick and energetic in his movements, and an 
 untiring worker. He is rarely idle, his time 
 being devoted almost entirely to public business. 
 He is polite and kind to all, and deservedly 
 popular with all classes. 
 
 He is a fit associate in the Government of this 
 great country, for the man upon whom the nation 
 has conferred the highest office in its gift. 
 
The JYew Administration, 65 
 
 JAMES G. BLAINE, 
 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
 
 James Gillespie Blaine, was born iu Wash» 
 ington County, Pennsylvania, in 1830, and is 
 consequently less than thirty-nine years old. He 
 received a fair education in the common schools 
 of his native county, and at the age of seventeen 
 graduated at Washington College, one of the 
 finest institutions of Western Pennsylvania. 
 
 Soon after graduating he removed to the State 
 of Maine, and entered upon the profession of a 
 journalist. He labored faithfully to win distinc- 
 tion in the iield upon which he had entered, and, 
 in the course of a few years, became the editor of 
 the Kennebec Journal^ which post he held for 
 several years. He then became the editor of the 
 Portland Advertiser^ in which position he con- 
 tinued four or five years. He was a thorough 
 master of his profession, an able and accom- 
 
60 The JVew Administration, 
 
 plished writer, and won a high reputation by the 
 skillful manner in which he conducted these influ- 
 ential journals. 
 
 The position of editor of a first class newspaper 
 being one which requires considerable political 
 ability, and an intimate knowledge of parties and 
 party measures, as well as of the history and gen- 
 eral wants of the Union, is usually in this country 
 made the stepping-stone to higher positions in 
 public life. That no better school could be had 
 is shown by the number of able and accomplished 
 men which the press has contributed to the service 
 of the Republic. 
 
 Mr. Blaine followed the general rule, and 
 stepped from his editorial chair to a seat in the 
 lower house of the Legislature of Maine. He 
 served in the Assembly four years, exhibiting 
 high qualities as a statesman, and winning a fine 
 reputation. At the commencement of his tliird 
 year in that body, he was elected Speaker of the 
 lower House, by a handsome majority, and held 
 this position for two years. 
 
 He identified himself with the Republican party 
 at the outset, and rendered good service in its 
 
The JVew Administration. 67 
 
 behalf both with his pen and by his eloquent 
 and stirring addresses. When the Rebellion 
 broke out, he was one of the first to urge upon 
 the Government a firm and vigorous policy in 
 dealing with the revolted States, and exerted 
 himself actively to promote volunteering in his 
 own State. 
 
 In 1862 he was elected to the Congress of the 
 United States as an administration candidate, and 
 at once took a prominent rank in the House aa 
 one of the best men in the Republican party. He 
 gave a vigorous support to the members of the 
 Government for the prosecution of the War, and 
 repeatedly urged upon his constituents at home 
 the duty of putting away for the time all side 
 issues, and giving their cordial co-operatioa ta 
 the great task of restoring the Union. 
 
 In .1 864 he was re elected to Congress, and 
 again in 1866, and in 1868. He took a promin- 
 ent part in the Reconstruction measures of Con- 
 gress, and was the author of the provision which 
 offered to any State of the South a full restora- 
 tion to its former rights and privileges upon the 
 
68 The JVew Administration. 
 
 ratification bj it of the Constitutional Amend- 
 ment. 
 
 During the Presidential campaign of 1868, he 
 was particularly active in behalf of the nomina- 
 tions of his party, speaking often and eloquently, 
 and using every means in his power to bring 
 about the triumph of the Republican ticket. His 
 labors were crowned with success, and he had the 
 satisfaction of seeing his State carried for Grant 
 and Colfax by a majority of over twenty-eight 
 thousand. At the same time he was re-elected to 
 his seat in Congress by three thousand three hun- 
 dred and fortyrsix majority! 
 
 The brilliant reputation won by Mr. Blaine 
 during the. six years of his connection with the 
 House, marked him as the most fitting successor 
 of Mr. Colfax in the Speakership, and early in 
 the last Session of the Fortieth Congress, his 
 friends began to advocate his claims. Mr. Dawes, 
 of Massachusetts, was also mentioned for the same 
 position, and for awhile the votes of the Republi- 
 can members were divided between these two 
 gentlemen, either of whom was eminently quali- 
 fied for the post. Towards the close of the 
 
The I^ew Administration. 69^ 
 
 fiion, however, Mr. Dawes withdrew in favor of 
 Mr. Blaine, and that gentleman soon after received 
 the Republican nomination in Caucus. 
 
 Of course this nomination was really equivalent 
 to an election, for the Republican party held the 
 power in their own hands : but on the morning 
 of the fourth of March a formal election for 
 Speaker was held at tho opening of the Forty- 
 first Congress. Mr. Washburne, of Illinois, 
 nominated Mr. Blaine, as the candidate of the 
 Republican party, and Mr. Randall, of Pennsyl- 
 vania, nominated Mr. Korr, of Indiana, as the 
 choice^of the Democratic members of the House. 
 The roll was called, and with the following result : 
 Mr. Blaine received one hundred a,nd thirty-six 
 votes, and Mr. Kerr fifty-seven votes. The Clerk 
 thereupon declared Mr. Blaine elected Speaker of 
 the House of Representatives for the Forty-first 
 Congress. He was then conducted to the Chair, 
 and the business of the House began. 
 
"Tt) Th^ New Administration, 
 
 HAMILTON FISH, 
 
 Secretary of State, 
 
 Hamilton Fish is a member of one of the 
 oldest and most honored families of the Empire 
 State. He was born in the City of New York 
 in 1809, and is consequently about sixty years 
 old at present. 
 
 His father was Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas 
 Fish, who served gallantly through the War of 
 the Revolution, and was an intimate friend of 
 Washington and Alexander Hamilton, after the 
 latter of whom the subject of this sketch was 
 named. He married Elizabeth Stuyvesant, the 
 daughter of Petrus Stuyvesant, the heir and a 
 lenial descendant of the famous Dutch Governor 
 of that name. Fort Fish, one of the defences 
 built by the Americans during the Revolution, on 
 that part of the island now included in the 
 Central Park, was named after him. He lived 
 
The JVew Administration. 71 
 
 a short distance out of the city, and his residence, 
 in which the present Secretary of State was born, 
 is still standing. It is now located on Stuyvesant 
 street. 
 
 Young Fish was educated at the best schools 
 in the city, and passed through Columbia college 
 with distinction, graduating at that institution 
 with high honors. He studied law, after leaving 
 college, and in 1830 was admitted to tlie bar in 
 his native city. He did not practice his profes- 
 sion long, however, as the management of the 
 large estate which he inherited from his father 
 occupied the greater part of his time and atten- 
 tion, and finally induced him to relinquish his 
 practice altogether. Being very wealthy, and 
 having no occasion to work for a livelihood, Mr. 
 Fish devoted himself to the task of improving his 
 natural gifts by reading and study. 
 
 In politics he was a Whig of the most ardent 
 school, but for some years took no active part in 
 public affairs. In 1834, however, he made his 
 first appearance in politics as a candidate on the 
 Whig ticket for the Assembly. He entered into 
 
72 The Kew Administration," 
 
 the contest with spirit, but was defeated, with 
 his associates. 
 
 In 1842 he was nominated by the Whigs as 
 their candidate for Kepresentative in Congress 
 from the Sixth District, which was then comprised 
 of the Eleventh, Twelfth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, 
 and Seventh Wards of the City of New York. 
 This district was strongly Democratic, and in 
 1840 had been carried for Martin Van Buren by 
 nearly one thousand majority, and it seemed ab- 
 surd for the Whigs to hope to carry it. Nothing' 
 dismayed, however, they entered warmly into the 
 contest, which was heated and exciting, and suc- 
 ceeded in electing Mr. Fish by 205 majority, the 
 vote standing as follows : Fish --(Whig) 5,904, 
 McKean (Democrat) 5,699. 
 
 Mr, Fish won a fine reputation in Congress as 
 an earnest and forcible speaker, and a man of 
 Bolid and practical attainments. He made many 
 friends, and succeeded in establishing a founda- 
 tion upon which his friends hoped to see him 
 build a fame worthy of the race from which he 
 came — an expectation which has not been disap- 
 Dointed 
 
The JSTew Administration. 73 
 
 In 1844, in spite ol the good name he had won 
 in Congress, and the services he had rendered his 
 party, the Whigs of his district ignored his claims 
 for a re- nomination, and selected Mr. William W. 
 Campbell, the Know Nothing, or Native Ameri- 
 can Candidate, for their suffrages. In conse- 
 quence of this desertion Mr. Fish was urged by 
 his friends to enter the contest as an Independent 
 candidate. He did so, but was defeated by a 
 very large majority. 
 
 For the next two years he took no active part 
 in politics, but remained a keen and intelligent 
 observer of the events transpiring in the country. 
 In 1846 he was nominated by his party for the 
 post of Lieutenant-Goverror of the State. He 
 was badly beaten in this contest, running heavily 
 behind his ticket, in spite of the fact that the 
 Whig candidate for Governor was elected by a 
 majority of over eleven thousand. He was not 
 disheartened by this failure, however, but in 1847, 
 was again a candidate for the same office — a 
 vacancy having been created in it by the resigna- 
 tion of Lieutenant-Governor Gardiner. This 
 
74 The New Administration. 
 
 time he was successful, and was elected by a 
 majority of 30,000. 
 
 In 1848 he was the candidate of the Whigs for 
 Governor of New York, and alter a warm and 
 memorable contest was elected. The reader will 
 remember that the Presidential election occurred 
 at the same time, and the fight in the State was 
 upon both local and national issues The Demo- 
 cratic party in New York had been split into two 
 wings or factions, one of which put forth Reuben 
 H. Walworth as its candidate for the Governor, 
 and the other John A Dix. This split in the 
 ranks of the Democracy enabled the Whigs to 
 carry the State for General Taylor, and also to 
 elect Mr. Fish, Governor. Mr. Fish's administra- 
 tion was eminently successful, and established the 
 fame of which he had laid the foundation in the 
 lower House of Congress. 
 
 In 1857 he was chosen United States Senator 
 by the Legislature of New York, and served his 
 full term in the Senate. He was closely identi- 
 fied with all the prominent measures of his party, 
 and was an ardent advocate of the old Whig 
 doctrine of protection to American industry. 
 
The JVew Administration, 75 
 
 He retired at the close of his term, leaving be- 
 hind him a fine reputation, and many friends, 
 who had been drawn to him by his high qualities 
 of head and heart. 
 
 After leaving the Senate, Governor Fish re- 
 tired to private life, declining to take any further 
 active share in politics. He was satisfied with 
 the part he had already played, and was anxious 
 to devote the remainder of his life to his private 
 affairs. He travelled extensively in various 
 parts of the world, and was a careful and 
 thoughtful observer cf the political systems and 
 people of the old world. He also devoted much 
 time to travelling through the United States, and 
 observing the growth and prosperity of the vari- 
 ous parts of the country, and informing himself 
 in all things relating to them. He has been a 
 close student all his life, and has acquired a vast 
 fund of knowledge, which, added to his great ex- 
 perience, has made him one of the most cultivated 
 and best informed men of the country. 
 
 When the Republican party was organized, 
 Governor Fish became one of its supporters. 
 Since then he has generally voted with it, though 
 
T6 The New Administration. 
 
 he has sometimes cast his ballot for a Democrat, 
 He has never been a partisan, but has set hi& 
 countrymen the good example of exercising his 
 right of suffrage thoughtfully and conscientiously, 
 voting with his party only when its candidates 
 and measures were such as to meet with the 
 approval of his judgment. It would be well for 
 the Eepublic if his independence of thought and 
 action were more generally shared by his country- 
 men of all parties. He possesses a calm and 
 evenly-balanced judgment, which is not apt to 
 load him astray in public affairs, and has always 
 been regarded as one of the most thoroughly con- 
 scientious statesmen in the land. 
 
 Governor Fish has generally sympathized with 
 the Kepublican party in its aims, and lias en- 
 dorsed the greater part of its measures. He has 
 been eminently conservative, however, and has 
 discouraged ralher than promoted party violence. 
 Be gave a warm and active support to the mea- 
 sures of the Administration duiiiig the war, and 
 all measures calculated to bring about a peaceful 
 end of the struggle found him a ready and gener- 
 ous advocate. During the quarrel between the 
 
The Neio Administration. 77 
 
 Congress and President Johnson, he sympathized 
 -with the former, but set a good example in re- 
 fraining from any attack on the latter. His ex- 
 perience taught him the folly and danger of the 
 bitter course indulged in by the partisans of 
 Congress, that they could not succeed in their 
 efforts to degrade the man without dragging the 
 office in the mud, and weakening much of its 
 moral force. He was a member of the ^* Stewart 
 Committee," of New York city, and engaged 
 heartily in the efforts to secure the election of 
 General Grant, for whom he had long since con- 
 ceived a high admiration and sincere friendship. 
 
 During the recent speculations as to the prob- 
 able cabinet ministers of President Grant, public 
 opinion was prompt to assign him a position in 
 that august body, both by reason of his eminent 
 fitness for some such office, and the friendship 
 existing between Grant and himself, It was 
 generally believed that he would be made Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, but in view of the many 
 questions at issue between the United States and 
 foreign powers, there can be no doubt that he 
 lias been assigned the post for which he is best 
 
78 The New Administration, 
 
 swited, and ia which the country can be most 
 benefited by his acknowledged abilities. 
 
 Governor Fish is a man of great wealth, and of 
 irreproachable character. His large experience 
 of American politics, and his intimate knowledge 
 of the affairs of the leading Powers of the Old 
 World, make him a fitting head for the State 
 Department. 
 
 At present, he is the President of the Board of 
 Trustees of Columbia College, one of the Trus- 
 tees of the Astor Library, Vice-President of the 
 consolidated railroads from New York to Phila- 
 delphia, and holds other prominent positions of 
 honor and trust. 
 
 In a recent issue, the New York Worlds thus 
 Bums up his character — an estimate all the more 
 complimentary to him since it is the frank tribute 
 of a political opponent : 
 
 "Hamilton Fish, the Secretary of State, may 
 not be a very great, or a very brilliant statesman ; 
 but he is, beyond all controversy, one of the 
 most estimable, most judicious, most upright, and 
 most respected citizens of this State or of this 
 country. A gentleman who has enjoyed the 
 advantages of hereditary wealth ; of superior cul- 
 
The JVew Administration. 79 
 
 ture ; in the full vigor of ripe faculties ; of varied 
 official experience ; great social consideration ; 
 an example or all private virtues, — he has long 
 possessed, what is better than the fame of a great 
 statesman, in a life so unblemished, a deportment 
 so quiet and unostentatious, a weight and credit 
 in the management of educational, religious, and 
 charitable institutions which so commend him to 
 general esteem, as to place him by universal con- 
 sent in the very first rank of good citizens. 
 Christian gentlemen, and exemplars of the kindly 
 domestic virtues. Returning to public life with 
 a character which disarms criticism and extorts 
 the respectful homage of those who differ from 
 him in politics, and with an exhaustless fund of 
 good will to draw upon, he is secure of more 
 indulgence than he is ever likely to need in a posi- 
 tion which he has not sought, and for which he 
 possesses some qualifications of a very high 
 order. 
 
 " First in the list of these, we unhesitatingly 
 place the moral elevation which lifts him above 
 the danger of that mental distortion which would 
 seek, or submit to, anything but justice in our 
 transactions with foreign nations. There will be 
 no over-reaching diplomacy or crooked politics 
 in Mr. Fish's management of our foreign affairs ; 
 
80 The JYew Administration, 
 
 and the spirit of candor and justice which he will 
 bring into all his duties will probably save him 
 from embarrassing entanglements requiring any 
 cunning and dexterity to untie. He has never 
 displayed any surprising fetches of ingenuity, be- 
 cause a man of his character never has any 
 occasion for them ; nor will the nation have any 
 occasion for them, if he is permitted to have his 
 own way in the management of our foreign inter- 
 course Next in the list of Mr. Fish's qualifica- 
 tions, we should place a singular soundness and 
 rectitude of judgment, and long-established habits 
 of caution and circumspection. Probably there 
 could not be a safer adviser, except in emergen- 
 cies requiring great boldness ; a kind of emer- 
 gencies not likely to arise in time of peace. Mr. 
 Fish is perfectly familiar with the contemporary 
 history and the merits, pro and con, of the chief 
 public questions both of our own and of the chief 
 foreign countries ; and among the minor but 
 necessary qualifications for his new office, he has 
 a fluent command of the French and one or two 
 other Continental tongues. For the social duties 
 of a position in which social influence counts for 
 so much, no man is better qualified than Mr. 
 Fish. 
 
 " We regret that what we have further to say 
 of the new Secretary of State cannot be in the 
 
Th£ Mew Mministraticm. 84 
 
 same strain of unmingled commendation. In 
 national politics Mr. Fish is a Republican, though 
 a Republican of that moderate class who march 
 in the rear instead of advancing with the front. 
 Pie is by conviction a Federalist ; a believer 
 in a strong central government ; but his Feder- 
 alism is somewhat tempered by the pride which 
 he has always felt in the State of New York. In 
 former times, he was a Whig and was among the 
 last to give up the Whig party ; and though he 
 has never quite sympathized with the Republican 
 party, he has pretty uniformly supported its lead- 
 ing measures, although, when he first acted with 
 it, opposition to the extension of slavery was his 
 only point of agreement. We fear he has never 
 had much liking for the Democratic party ; but 
 in State and city affairs he has sometimes, of late 
 years, voted for Democratic candidates who com- 
 manded his confidence. Since we must have a 
 Republican at the head of the Cabinet, we can 
 think of no one competent for the place whose 
 politics are less objocUonable than those of Mr. 
 Fish." 
 
 H 
 
S3 The J^ew Administration, 
 
 JOHN A. RAWLINS, 
 
 Secretary of War, 
 
 John A. Rawlins was born in Joe Davies 
 County, Illinois, on the 13th of February, 1831. 
 His parents were in moderate circumstances, and 
 were able to give him but a plain education. 
 For a little over two winters he attended a com- 
 mon school in the neighborhood of his father's 
 farm, and afterwards passed eight months at the 
 Rock River Seminary, at Mount Morris, Illinois. 
 The remainder of his time, from the peroid at 
 which he became old enough to labor, until the 
 year 1854, was spent in working on the farm and 
 burning charcoal. 
 
 In November 1854, he entered the office of Mr. 
 J. P. Stevens, of Galena, Illinois, and began the 
 Btudy of law. lie prosecuted his studies with 
 energy and detormination, and in October 1855 
 was admitted to the bar. Hia legal instructoi 
 
The J^ew Mministration. 83 
 
 having formed a friendship for him, offered him a 
 partnership in his practice, which he at once ac- 
 cepted, and the firm thus inaugurated continued 
 to labor successfully until August 1856, when it 
 was dissolved by mutual consent, Mr. Rawlins re- 
 taining and carrying on the practice. In Sep- 
 tember 1858, he associated with him in business 
 David Sheehan Esq., with whom he continued to 
 practice his profession until the beginning of the 
 War. 
 
 Mr. Rawlins entered actively into the political 
 questions of the day. He was an ardent Demo- 
 crat of the Douglas school, and was the Douglas- 
 Democratic Candidate for Presidential elector from 
 the First Illinois district in the Presidential elec- 
 tion of 1860. He canvassed his district with his 
 Republican opponent, Judge Allen C. Fuller, in 
 this Campaign, and won much credit by his abili- 
 ty as a speaker and politician. 
 
 Being conservative in his views, Mr. Rawlins 
 exerted himself earnestly to bring about a peace- 
 ful solution of our national troubles. He was 
 willing to concede much to the Southern States 
 for the sake of the Union, and was so earnest in 
 
84 The New Administration, 
 
 his efforts to promote a peaceful settlement of the 
 questions at issue, that he laid himself open to 
 severe denunciations by the Republicans of his 
 State, as a sympathizer with treason. They were 
 soon to see, however, that they had done him 
 gross injustice. His patriotism was of no half- 
 way kind. He wished to exhaust every peaceful 
 measure before subjecting the country to the ter- 
 rible scourge of War, and he had the moral 
 courage to face these denunciations. 
 
 When the news of the attach upon Fort Sumter 
 reached Galena, a meeting of the Republican ad- 
 herents of the Administration and the War Demo- 
 crats was called, to devise measures for aiding 
 the Government in the hour of its extremity. 
 Mr. U. S. Grant, then a simple citizen of the 
 town, presided at this meeting, and Mr. Rawlins 
 was amongst the speakers. He (Rawlins,) took 
 strong ground in favor of coercive measures on 
 the part of the Government, for the purpose of 
 putting down the Rebellion. He declared it no 
 time to stop to consider minor issues. The very 
 existence of the country was at stake, and it was 
 every man's duty to stand by the Union, and to 
 
The JSTew Administration, 85 
 
 support the vjovernment in whatever measures 
 might be found necessary for the accomplishment 
 of the great end in view. He spoke eloquently 
 and forcibly. His hearers were not only de- 
 lighted by his declarations, but were also pro- 
 foundly astonished. They could scarcely believe 
 that this orator whose patriotic appeals now 
 thrilled them so warmly, was the man they had 
 so recently been denouncing as a traitor and 
 rebel sympathizer. 
 
 Mr. Rawlins' speech was the great event of the 
 day, and his bold announcement of his support of 
 the War had great influence in procuring recruits 
 from the Democratic party. No one seemed to 
 think anything of the plain, reticent man who 
 presided over the meeting. He had never been 
 in public life, and his support meant nothing more 
 than one additional volunteer for the army. 
 
 How matters have changed since then I The 
 plain, reticent, unimportant chairman of that War 
 meeting, has carved out a record in history which 
 will live as long as the world endures, and the 
 eloquent orator whose adhesion to his country's 
 cause was the occasion of so much rejoicing at 
 
S6 The JVew Administration, 
 
 that meeting, has risen only to adorn the State 
 which his friend and chief has won for both. 
 
 Having decided on his course, Mr. Rawlins 
 not only gave his whole sympathy to the Union 
 in its hour of trial, but also endeavored to induce 
 others to do likewise. As soon as he heard of 
 the defeat of our arms at Bull Run, he began, in 
 conjunction with John E. Smith, afterwards 
 Brevet Major- General of Volunteers, and J. A. 
 Maltby, afterwards Brigadier-General of Volun- 
 teers, to raise a regiment of troops for the war. 
 While he was engaged in this undertaking, his 
 friend and former client. Grant, who had been 
 made a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, offered 
 him a position on his staff, as Assistant Adjutant- 
 General, and procured for hitn the rank of Cap- 
 tain. Rawlins accepted the appointmenr, but 
 before he could join his commander was called 
 upon to i)erform the saddest duty of his life. 
 
 In June 1856, he had m-rried Miss Emily 
 Smith, of Goshen, New York, who had borne 
 him three children. Her lieahh had been feeble 
 for a year or two, however, tnd at the time of 
 his api.ointmcnt to the staff of Grant, she was ill 
 
The JVew .Administration, 87 
 
 at her father^s home. Mr. Rawlins at once re- 
 paired to Goshen, to make arrangements for her 
 comfort during his absence in the army, and 
 while he was with her she sank rapidly, and died 
 on the 30th of August. Making arrangements 
 for the proper care of his three children, Mr. 
 Eawlins, feeling that it was no time to allow 
 private grief to conflict with one's duty, set out 
 for the army, and on the 15th of September re- 
 ported to General Grant at Cairo, Illinois. He 
 was at once given the post of Assistant Adjutant" 
 General, with the rank of Captain. From that 
 time until the present he has continued on the 
 fetaff of General Grant, where he has rendered 
 yaluable aid to his commander, and taking part 
 in all his campaigns. In the spring of 1862, he 
 was commissioned Major, and Assistant Adjutant- 
 General, to date from the surrender of Fort Don- 
 nelson ; on the 1st of November, 1862, he was 
 promoted to the grade of Lieutenant-Colonel, ad 
 was made Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief 
 of Staff, and the next year was made Brigadier- 
 General of Volunteers, to date from August 11th, 
 1863. On the 24th of February, 1865, he was 
 
88 The JVew Administration. 
 
 made a Brevet Major-General of Yolunteers ; on 
 the Sd of March, 1865, was made Brigadier- 
 General in the regular army, and Chief of Staff 
 to the Lieutenant-General, and now holds the 
 brevet rank of Major-General in the regular 
 army, and was, until his present appointment, 
 Chief of Staff to the General-in-Chief. 
 
 Since their connection began, the relations ex- 
 isting between Generals Grant and Rawlins have 
 been of the most intimate and confidential char- 
 acter. The general's opinion of his chief of staff 
 may be seen irom the following letters urging his 
 various promotions: 
 
 " Headquarters Dept. of the Tennessee, ) 
 YiCKSBURG, Miss., July 27, 1863. i 
 
 (* Brigadier-General S. Thomas, Adjutaiit-Geru 
 
 eral of the Army. 
 
 *' General — I would respectfully recommend 
 for gallant and meritorous service?, and for ex* 
 treme fitness for command corresponding to the 
 increased rank, the following: promotions, to wit: 
 Brigadier-General Greenville M. Dodge, Briga- 
 dier-General Alvin P. llovey, Brigadier-General 
 John E. Smith, Brigadier-General W. S. Smithy 
 to be major-generals of volunteers ; and Colonel 
 
The New Administration, 89 
 
 Charles R. Wood, Seventy-sixth Ohio ; Colonel 
 Alexander Chambers, Sixteenth Iowa ; Lieuten- 
 ant-Colonel John A. Rawlins, assistant adjutant, 
 general ; Colonel Giles A. Smith, Eighth Mis- 
 souri ; Colonel John M. Corse, Sixth Iowa ; 
 Colonel John B. Sanborn, Fourth Minnesota;, 
 Colonel W. Q. Gresham, Fifty-third Indiana ; 
 Colonel M. F. Force, Twentieth Ohio ; Colonel 
 T. Kirby Smith, Fifty-fourth Ohio, to be briga- 
 dier-generals of volunteers. These officers have 
 all uendered valuable services in the field, and 
 will fill the place for which they are recommended 
 well. 
 
 " Lieutenant-Colonel John A. Rawlins has been 
 my assistant adjutant-general from the beginning 
 of the rebellion. No officer has now a more hon- 
 orable reputation than he has ; and I think I can 
 safely say that he would make a good corps com- 
 mander. This promotion I would particularly 
 ask as a reward of merit. 
 ''I am, general 
 
 " Yery respectfully, 
 
 '' Your obedient servant, 
 (Signed) U. S. Gkant, Major-GeneraL 
 
90 The J^ew Administration. 
 
 ** Washington, D. C, ] 
 April 4, 1861. J 
 
 " Hon. H. Wilson. Chairman Com. Military 
 Affairs : 
 
 " Sir — I would most respectfully, but earnestly, 
 ask for the confirmation of Brigadier-General 
 *John A. Rawlins by your honorable body. Gen- 
 eral Rawlins has served with me from the begin- 
 ning of the rebellion. I know he has most richly 
 earned his present position. He comes the nearest 
 being indispensable to me of any oflQcer in the 
 service. But if his confirmation is dependent on 
 his commanding troops, he shall command troops 
 at once. There is no department commander 
 near where he has served, that would not most 
 gladly give him the very largest and most re- 
 sponsible command his rank would entitle him to. 
 
 " Believing a short letter on this subject more 
 acceptable than a long one, I will only add, that 
 it is my earnest desire that General Rawlins 
 should be confirmed : that if he fails, besides the 
 loss it will be to the service and to me personally, 
 I shall feej, that by keeping with me a valuable 
 officer, because he made himself valuable, I have 
 worked him an injury. 
 
 " Withgreatrespcct, your obedient servant, 
 •* (Signed) '' U. S. Grant, 
 
 "Lieutenaut-General U. S. A." 
 
The N&io Administration, 91 
 
 *' Headquarters Armies of the \ 
 
 United States, City Point, Ya., v 
 
 February 23, 1865. ) 
 
 " Dear Washburne — Inclosed I send yon a 
 letter just received from Colonel Duff, late of my 
 staff. I should be delighted if an act should pass 
 Congress giving the commander of the army a 
 chief of staff with the rank of a brigadier-general 
 in the regular army. It is necessary to have such 
 an officer, and I see no reason why the law should 
 not give it. It would also reward an officer who 
 has won more deserved reputation in this war 
 than any other who has acted throughout purely 
 as a staff-officer. 
 
 " I write to you instead of Duff, knowing your 
 present friendship for Rawlins as well as myself^ 
 and because you are in a place to help the thing 
 along, if you think well of it. 
 " (Signed) 
 
 " U. S. Grant, 
 " Lieutenant-General U. S. A." 
 
 It was well understood when Grant came into 
 power as President, that General Rawlins would 
 be made Secretary of War. His nomination 
 would doubtless have been sent to the Senate on 
 the 5th of March, had not his health been too- 
 
■92 The JVew Administration, 
 
 delicate to permit him to enter upon the duties of 
 the office just then. He has been so long and so 
 intimately associated with General Grant, that 
 the latter naturally desires to have the benefit 
 of hia advice and experience until the last 
 moment. 
 
 General Rawlins brings to the discharge of his 
 new duties a vast amount of experience and 
 knowledge of the military affairs, gained by him 
 in the responsible position of Chief-of-Staff to the 
 General of the Army. He possesses the perfect 
 confidence of the President, and will receive the 
 hearty and entire support of the latter in his 
 administration. It is confidently expected that 
 he will continue the beneficent measures of reform 
 begun in his department by Grant himself during 
 his ad interim Secretaryship ; and that he will 
 make a clear-headed, practical and business-like 
 chief of the branch of the Government which has 
 been committed to his charge. 
 
The Jfew Administratwn,, 9^ 
 
 I 
 
 JACOB D. COX, 
 
 Secretary of the Interior. 
 
 Jacob Dolson Cox was born in Montreal, 
 Canada, on the 27th of October, 1828. His fa- 
 ther was a citizen of New- York and a master 
 builder by trade. He had undertaken the con- 
 tract for the carpenter work in the Church of 
 Notre Dame, in Montreal, and was in that city 
 Buperintending the work when the subject of this 
 sketch was born. The next year he returned to 
 New York, where the childhood and yonth of his 
 son were passed. In 1846 he removed to Ohio. 
 In 1851 young Cox graduated at Oberlin Col- 
 lege, the great centre of Western Abolitionism. 
 In 1852 he began the practice of law in the vil- 
 lage of Warren, and about this time married the 
 daughter of the President of the College, at 
 which he had been educated. 
 
 Soon after this he took his first steps in politics, 
 identifyiug himself with the Republicans of the 
 
94 The JVew Administration, 
 
 most ultra school, and in 1859 was elected to the 
 Ohio Senate from the Trumbull and Mahoning 
 district. He at once took a commanding posi- 
 tion in that body, and it soon came to be under- 
 stood that he shared with the present General 
 Garfield the honors of the leadership of the Leg- 
 islature. 
 
 He was still a member of the Senate when the 
 fall of Fort Sumter occasioned the first call to 
 arms in behalf of the Union. Appreciating the 
 magnitude of the occasion, he threw aside all 
 other matters, and devoted himself to the task of 
 filling the quota of troops demanded of Ohio. 
 On the 23d of April, 1861, Governor Dennison 
 commissioned him a Brigadier General of Ohio 
 volunteers, and assigned him to duty with Gener- 
 al McClellan, who at once set him to work, ex- 
 amining the State Arsenal and collecting and or- 
 ganizing volunteers at Camp Jackson. Soon after 
 this he was put in charge of Camp Dennison. 
 Upon the re-enlistment of his troops for three 
 years, he was appointed, by President Lincoln, a 
 Brigadier General of Volunteers, to rank 
 from May loth, 1801. In July, of the same year, 
 
The New Administration, 95 
 
 he was placed in command of the Kanawha Val- 
 ley, in Western Yirginia. His force consisted 
 of a brigade of infantry, a troop of horse, and a 
 battery of artillery. He was ordered by Gener- 
 al McClellan to advance towards Charleston and 
 Gauley Bridge, and occupy those places. His ad- 
 vance was checked, however, by the enemy under 
 Brigadier- General Henry A. Wise, at Scary 
 Creek. In this skirmish Cox's vanguard was 
 worsted. By a bold manoeuvre, he turned the 
 position of the Southern army, and forced Wise 
 back beyond the Gauley, capturing one field piece, 
 sixteen hundred small arms, and a number of 
 prisoners. 
 
 Wise was now re-inforced by Floyd, who as- 
 sumed the command, and moved again towards 
 the Ohio^ Cox's force being inferior to that op- 
 posed to him, he was compelled to retire, which 
 he did, warmly contesting the ground over which 
 he passed. During the summer and fall the ene- 
 my succeeded several times in reaching the Ka- 
 nawha, but were never able to gain a permanent 
 foothold there. Near the close of the fall, Gen- 
 eral Cox was re-inforced by McCook's brigade, 
 
96 The New Administration, 
 
 and with this assistance he compelled the enemy 
 to retreat as far as the Sewell Mountain, Rose- 
 crans now joined him with re-inforcements, and 
 took personal command of the army, but as the 
 season was too far advanced for active operations, 
 nothing of a definite nature was accomplished du- 
 ring the winter. 
 
 In the Spring of 1862, General Fremont, who 
 had superseded Rosecrans in the command of the 
 Mountain Department, under a combined move- 
 ment against the Virginia and Tennessee railroad 
 and South Western Virginia, from which the en- 
 emy drew a large part of their supplies. By this 
 plan, the first column, under his immediate com- 
 mand, was to move against Lynchburg from Be- 
 verley, and at the same time General Cox's col- 
 umn was to advance from the Kanawha, and oc- 
 cupy Newborn, on the Virginia and Tennessee 
 railroad. The two columns moved off at the ap- 
 pointed time, early in May, and Cox's command 
 had gotten as far as Parisbui'g, when the whole 
 plan was suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed 
 by Jackson's victories over Banks in the Shenan- 
 doah Valley. These reverses to our arms com- 
 
The New Administration. 97 
 
 pelled Fremont to march at once to Banks's as- 
 sistance, which he did promptly. He immediate- 
 ly informed General Cox that he must use his 
 own discretion in meeting the superior force of 
 the enemy which was now left free to concen- 
 trate against him. Cox fell hack towards Lew s- 
 burg, foiling several energetic efforts of the ene- 
 my to intercept him, and intrenched himself in a 
 strong position at Flat Top Mountain, which he 
 held for several months. 
 
 About ihe middle of August, 1862, General 
 Cox was ordered to re inforce General Pope's 
 army on the Potomac, with half of his force, and 
 obtained permission from the Yfar Department 
 to accompany the division in person. He at once 
 marched to the head of navigation on the Kana- 
 wha, while his troops were placed on steamers 
 and conveyed to Parkersburg, and transported 
 thence to Wasliington by rail. A part of his 
 force, under Colonel Crook, was hurried forward 
 to Pope at Warrenton Junction, but the remnin- 
 der was cut off ))y the movements of tlie enemy. 
 General McClellan, to whom General Cnx was 
 now directed to report, ordered him to occupy 
 
98 The New Administration. 
 
 the works on Upton's Bill, near Falls Church, 
 which were regarded as the key to the defences 
 of Alexandria. He held these works until 
 Pope's defeated army was safe inside of them. 
 The two regiments of Crook's brigade were now 
 reunited with the division. 
 
 During the march through Maryland against 
 Lee, General Cox commanded his division, which 
 led the advance of the right wing of the Army 
 of the Potomac to South Mountain. He secured 
 the Monocacy bridge and entered Frederick, 
 driving off Stuart's cavalry wliich had been left 
 by Lee to watch General McClellan. On the 
 14th of September, he opened the attack upon the 
 enemy at South Mountain, and participated in 
 the hottest fighting of the day When General 
 Reno was killed early in the fight, the command 
 of the corps passed to General Cox, who handled 
 it in such a manner as to elicit the praise of Mc- 
 Clellan and Burnside. He continued in com- 
 mand of the Ninth Corps during the battle of 
 Antietam, and bore a conspicuous part in Burn- 
 side's famous passage of the >tone Bridge. 
 
 Generals McClellan and Burnside now urged 
 
The New Administration. 99' 
 
 the President to bestow upon the gallant com- 
 mander of the " Kanawha division " a commission 
 as Major-General of Volunteers, which request 
 was complied with, the commission dating from 
 tlie 7th of October, 1862. 
 
 Soon after this he was ordered to West Vir- 
 ginia, and placed in command of that State. 
 The Federal troops had just been driven back 
 from the Kanawha by the enfemy, and Cox at 
 once applied himself to the task of remedying 
 the disaster. By a series of skilful manojuvres, 
 he defeated the enemy in several encounters, 
 drove them back beyond the Alleghanies, and re- 
 established his old lines at Flat Top. After this 
 success, West Virginia was comparatively undis- 
 turbed by the Confederates. 
 
 '* The list of promotions sent in to the Senate 
 at that session of Congress, was held to be in 
 excess of the number allowed by law, and the 
 whole list was returned to the President with 
 the request that he reduce it about one half, to 
 bring it within the limit fixed by statute. Gen- 
 eral Cox with many others, lost his grade at that 
 time by no demerit of his own, but solely owing 
 
100 The New Administration, 
 
 to a misunderstanding between the President 
 and Senate as to the number the former was au- 
 thorized to appoint." 
 
 In the spring of 1863, upon the reorganization: 
 of the Military Departments, General Cox was 
 ordered to report to General Burnside, who put 
 him in command,, of the District of Ohio, with 
 his hcad(]aartcrs at Cincinnati. He held tliis 
 command until December, when, at his own re- 
 quest, he was ordered to the field, and sent to 
 East Tennessee. He reached Knoxville just after 
 the relief of that place by Sherman, and, being 
 the senior officer present, was given the command 
 of the Twcnty-tliird Army Corps. When Gen- 
 eral Scholield was given the Department, Gen- 
 eral Cox acted for a while as his Chief of Staff, 
 and then took command of the Third Division 
 of the Twenty- tliird Corps, which he led gal- 
 lantly through Sherman's campaign against At- 
 lanta. 
 
 The Army of the Ohio mustered thirteen tliou- 
 sand five hundred and fifty-nine men and twenty- 
 eight guns at the (Opening of the canip.iign. It 
 was as fine a body of troops as ever took ih© 
 
The New Administration loi 
 
 €eld, and General Cox was now to have a 
 better opportunity than he had yet enjoyed to 
 show himself wortliy of such high trust. 
 
 On the 9th of May, 1864, the Army of the 
 Ohio broke up its camp and marched towards 
 Dalton to support the movement of General Thom- 
 as, while McPlierson made his flank movement 
 upon Resaca. On the 14th of May, it took part 
 in the desperate battle of Resaca, holding the 
 extreme left of our line. In the turning move- 
 ment by which the Allatoona Pass was flanked, 
 Cox again held our left. At Kenesaw Mountain 
 bis troops took part in the gallant but unsuc- 
 cessful attack on the enemy's works. When 
 it was determined to cross the Chattahoochee, 
 ■and force Johnston back to Atlanta, General 
 Sherman ordered General Schofield to move his 
 army to^ the river near the mouth of Soap's 
 Creek, and effect a lodgement on the east bank. 
 This movement was successfully accomplished on 
 the 7th of July, Cox's division completely sur- 
 prised the guard at the crossing, laid a good pon- 
 toon and a trestle bridge, took up a position on the 
 <€ast bank on high ground, and secured several 
 
102 The New Administration, 
 
 good roads leading to Atlanta. The m^vemen-t 
 was marked by a promptness and skill which 
 drew forth the highest praise from General Sher- 
 man. Indeed, throughout the whole campaign 
 Schofield had been noted especially for the 
 promptness and precision which characterized his 
 operations, and in these movements he was ably 
 sustained by Gen. Cox. In the fierce battle of the 
 22d of July, in which McPherson fell, Schofield 
 was ordered to support the Fifteenth Corps in ita 
 attempt to regain its lost ground. It is almost 
 superfluous to say that the order was obeyed, and 
 the enemy driven back with terrible loss. In the 
 masterly movement by wliich the army was swung 
 around Hood and planted upon the Macon Rail- 
 way, and which compelled the evacuation of 
 Atlanta, Cox assisted in tlie task, covering the 
 movement of the rest of tha army, which he 
 performed with his usual skill. Gen'l. Schofield 
 was temporarily absent from the army during the 
 pursuit of Hood into Alabama, and General Cox 
 commanded the Twenty-third Corps in person 
 throughout these movements. 
 
 Sherman now decided to abandon the pursuit 
 
The New Administration, 103 
 
 of Hood, and enter upon his inarch to the sea. 
 He had already sent General Thomas to Nash- 
 Yille, to collect troops to oppose Hood's pro- 
 gr(}ss north wai'ds ; but it was necessary before 
 returning to Atlanta, to leave a force immedi- 
 ately in Hood's front, in order to meet what- 
 ever movements the Rebel commander might de- 
 termine upon. For this purpose Sherman de- 
 tached from his own army the Fourth and Twen- 
 ty-third corps, Hatch's division, and Croxton's 
 and Capron's brigades of cavalry, and conferred 
 the command of thes(^ troops upon General Scho- 
 ficld, who being in charge of the whole movement 
 confided the command of the Twenty-third Corps 
 to General Cox, to whose skill and energy he 
 knew he could trust the execution of the difficult 
 and dangerous task. 
 
 With the force thus placed at his command,. 
 Schofield was to follow Hood, and attack him if 
 he should attempt to interfere with Sherman's 
 inarch, and in case he should move northward, to 
 impede his progress as much as possible, and aia 
 all the time he could for General Thomas at 
 NashviRe, under whose orders the whole Federal 
 
104 The New Administration, 
 
 force in Tennessee and Alabama was placed. 
 Hood's army lay at Florence, Alabama, and 
 Schofield's at Pulaski, Tennessee. Our force 
 being numerically weaker than that of the enemy, 
 Schofield wisely determined to act upon the de- 
 fensive as far as possible. 
 
 On the 19 th of November, Hood's army crossed 
 the Tennessee, and marched northward. Scho- 
 field had already taken the precautioa to remove 
 all the public property from the places exposed 
 to the enemy, and on the 23d commenced to 
 withdraw the garrisons from Athens, Decatur, 
 and Huntsville, Alabama, sending them towards 
 Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and on the same night' 
 fell back from Pulaski, with his army, to Colum- 
 bia, which he reached on the 24th. The enemy 
 followed him close, and during the 24th and 25th 
 skirmished heavily with Cox's Corps. On tlie 
 2Gth Hood brought up strong bodies of infantry, 
 and during that day and the 27th made such 
 tlireatening demonstrations that Cox, on the 
 night of the 27tli, withdrew across Duck river. 
 
 Dispositions were made to hold the crospings 
 of tiie river against the enemy, but on the after- 
 
The New Administration. 105 
 
 noon of the 29th Hood succeeded in forcing a 
 passage of the stream, and, moving forward ra- 
 pidly, threatened our line of retreat to Franklin. 
 As soon as it was dark Cox withdrew from 
 liis position on the river, and set out for Frank- 
 lin. Both armies were now marching for that 
 place, each striving to reach it in advance of 
 the other. To our army it was a matter of 
 life and death to enter the town before the ene- 
 my, for in doing so they would secure a safe pas- 
 sage of the Harpeth River, and ensure our junc- 
 tion with General Thomas at Nashville ; but 
 should Hood reach the town first he would hold 
 the crossings against us, and cut us off from 
 Nashville, and in such an extremity it was al- 
 most a certainty that our whole force would fall 
 into his hands. Both sides strained every nerve, 
 the troops literally racing over the frozen roads. 
 Fortune favored us, and awarded to Gen. Cox the 
 success he had so nobly won. That night the 
 army marched twenty-five miles, and entered 
 Franklin at day-break on the 30th. Cox had 
 now secured the safe passage of his army across 
 Harpeth river, and Schofield hurrying his trains 
 
106 The New Administration, 
 
 over, sent them as fast as possible towards Nash- 
 ville. 
 
 The enemy had followed close upon us in the 
 retreat from Columbia, and had repeatedly made 
 sharp attacks upon our rear guard, and they wera 
 now so close at hand that it became necessary ta 
 halt and give battle to cover the withdrawal of 
 the trains. Accordingly, as soon as Franklin was 
 reached, the army was put in position on the 
 South side of the town, where a line of intrench- 
 ments was hastily thrown up, covering the bridges 
 over the river. This had scarcely been accom- 
 plished when the enemy appeared in front of our 
 works, and at once began a determined attack 
 upon them. During the day Hood made repeated 
 and desperate assaults, and the battle raged furi- 
 ously until ten o'clock at night, tlie enemy failing 
 to make any impression upon our line. The 
 enemy never fought better than at Franklin, and 
 the victory was the result of the splendid fighting 
 of Schofield's troops. Our loss was two thousand 
 three hundred and twenty-six killed, wounded 
 and missing, of which four wore missing. The 
 losses of the Confederates were frightful. Their 
 
The New Administration, lOT 
 
 killed and wounded amounted to five thousand 
 five hundred and fifty, and in addition to this 
 seven hundred and two prisoners fell into our 
 hands, making their total loss six thousand two 
 hundred and fifty-two. They lost six general offi- 
 cers killed, six wounded, and one captured. Their 
 ablest general, Patrick Cleburne, was killed. 
 
 Genei'al Thomas was unwilling that Schofield 
 should risk a renewal of the battle next day, and 
 as our trains were safely on their way to Nash- 
 Tille, and the object of the battle accomplished, 
 he directed General Schofield to withdraw across 
 the Harpeth, and fall back to Nashville. That 
 retreat began that night, and on the afternoon of 
 the next day, December 1st, our army was in 
 position at Nashville. Gen. Schofield now re- 
 sumed the command of the Corps, and Cox; 
 returned to his division. 
 
 During the siege of Nashville, General Cox, in? 
 accordance with the earnest request of Generals 
 Sherman and Schofield, made soon after the fall 
 of Atlanta; was appointed a Major-General of Vol- 
 unteers, his commission dating from the 7th of 
 December, 1864. In the battle of Nashville, the 
 
108 Tlie. New Administration, 
 
 Third Division greatly distinguished itself. It 
 carried a prominent position of the enemy, and 
 captured eight pieces of Artillery. 
 
 In the final operations before Nashville, Scho- 
 field held the left of our line. In the first day's 
 battle the corps was used by General Thomas 
 chiefly as a reserve, but just about sunset he made 
 a sharp attack on the enemy's right, finishing the 
 work that Smith had begun. The next afternoon 
 when the volleys from the carbines of the cavalry 
 announced that the enemy's rear had been gained, 
 Thomas ordered a direct attack by all his forces, 
 and Cox led his men forward with an im- 
 petuosity that swept everything before them. 
 They swarmed over the enemy's works, drove 
 them out, and pursued tlicm until night made it 
 impossible for him to advance farther. 
 
 This victory completely destroyed the power of 
 the enemy in the West, and enabled the Govern- 
 ment to use the troops of General Thomas for 
 operations elsewhere. It was determined to send 
 General Schofield, with the Twenty-third Corps, 
 to the coast of North Carolina, to co-operate with 
 General Sherman in his march from Savannah to 
 
The New Administration, 109 
 
 Goldsboro. Accordingly Schofield was ordered 
 by General Grant to move with his corps to 
 Annapolis. He Avas at Clifton, on the Tennessee 
 River, when he received this order, on the 14th 
 of January. His troops were at once embarked 
 in steamers, with their artillery and horses, leav- 
 ing behind only their wagons, and convoyed to 
 Cincinnati, whence they were transported by rail- 
 way to Alexandria, Virginia, an order from the 
 headquarters of the army having changed their 
 destination from Annapolis to that point. In 
 spite of the severe weather and the lateness of 
 the season, the whole corps was assembled at 
 Alexandria on the 31st of January, 1865. The 
 Potomac being frozen over the troops were com- 
 pelled to remain at this place until the breaking 
 up of the ice permitted the resumption of naviga- 
 tion- 
 General Schofield, traveling ahead of his corps, 
 went to Fortress Monroe, where he was met by 
 General Grant. The two commanders then went 
 by sea to the mouth of the Cape Fear River, 
 which had just fallen into our possession, and had 
 a long conference with Admiral Porter and 
 
110 The New Administration 
 
 General Terrj, respecting the future operations 
 01 the army and navy in that quarter. From. 
 Fort Fisher they went to Washington, and in ac- 
 cordance with the wishes of General Grant, an 
 order was issued by the War Department creating 
 the Department of North Carolina, and assigning 
 Schofield to the command of it. 
 
 About the 5th or 6th of February, the Poto- 
 mac being open, General Schofield took Cox^s^ 
 division of the 23d Corps, leaving Couch's to 
 lollow as rapidly as possible, and embarked for 
 the mouth of the Cape Fear River, which wa& 
 held by the forces under General Terry, and 
 landed on the beach near Fort Fisher on the 9th 
 of February. 
 
 Our troops under General Terry, aided by the 
 Navy under Admiral Porter, had taken Fort 
 Fisher, which commands tlie entrance to the Cape 
 Fear, but the enemy still held Fort Anderson, oa 
 the opposite side of the river, and from this work 
 they occupied a line of breastworks running back 
 to a swamp about three quarters of a mile dis- 
 tant. On the Fort Fisher side their line ex- 
 tended from the river to Masonboro Sound, 
 
The New Administration, 111 
 
 across the entire peninsula. This line could be 
 held by the enemy against any attack in front, 
 and could only be turned by marching around 
 the swamp whicli protected its right, or by cross- 
 ing Masonboro Sound above its extreme left, both- 
 difficult and hazardous operations.* 
 
 It seemed utterly impossible for Schofield with 
 his small force to accomplish anything against an 
 army so strongly posted, but as Sherman was 
 rapidly approaching through South Carolina, he 
 felt that he cculd not aflbrd to lose the time 
 necessary to bring up re-enforcemcnts, and he de- 
 termined to commence operations at once. Hia 
 first effort was directed against the enemy's left, 
 and on the 11th of February, two days after his 
 arrival, he advanced General Terry's command, 
 supported by Cox's division, towards the enemy's 
 line, and drivii^g in the Rebel pickets, entrenched 
 two of his brigades so close to the hostile works 
 as to compel the enemy to hold them in force. 
 Having occupied the attention of the Confeder- 
 ate commander at this point, Schofield now pre- 
 
 ^ Shermau and his Campaigns. 
 
112 The New Administration, 
 
 pared to turn liis right. He sent a number of 
 boats and pontoons by sea to a point on the beach, 
 above the enemy's right flank, and marched Cox's 
 and Ames' divisions along the beach to the same 
 point. His design was for these troops to haul 
 the boats across tlie land to Masonboro Sound, 
 bridge it, and cross over to the main land, under 
 the cover of the darkness. This would flank a 
 strong column between the enemy's works and 
 Wilmington and compel the oss of one or the 
 otlier, if not of both. 
 
 It was a brilliant plan, but it was not destined 
 to succeed. The night of the 14th of February, 
 which was appointed for the movement, was wild 
 and stormy. A furious gale howled along the 
 coast, and the waves of the ocean came rolling in 
 in huge masses of water which flooded the beach 
 to such an extent that it was almost impossible 
 to drag the pontoons through the Sound. The 
 huge wagons toiled along slowly, and the night 
 was almost gone before half the distance was ac- 
 complished. It was found that it would be im- 
 possible to reach the place at which it was in 
 tended to cross the Sound until afier doylin^ht, 
 
The New Administration, 113 
 
 when the enemy would discover the movcracnt 
 and prevent the passage. In view of tliis, the 
 attempt was abandoned, and the troops were 
 withdj-awn. 
 
 Couch's division ot the 23d Corps had now 
 arrived, and General Schoficld determined to 
 move against the enemy's right flank on the other 
 side of the river. Accordingly, Cox's and Ames^ 
 divisions, and Moore's brigade of Coucli's divi- 
 sion, were ferried over to Smithville. This force 
 was moved up in front of the Confederate works 
 at Fort Anderson, and a line of intrenchments 
 thrown up, as had been done on the other side of 
 the Cape Fear. Two brigades were left to hold 
 this line, and General Cox, with two brigades of 
 liis own and the whole of Ames' division, was or- 
 dered to pass around the swamp which covered 
 the enemy's right flank, and gain tlie Wilmington 
 road in the rear of their line. The distance 
 around the swamp to the point in the enemy's 
 rear which Cox was ordered to gain was fifteen 
 miles, and while our column was on its march 
 the Confederate cavalry detected the movement. 
 Instead of making any attempt to resist the ad- 
 
Ill The New Administration, 
 
 vance of General Cox, however, the Confederate 
 commander, on the night of the 19th of Feb- 
 ruary, evacuated his works on both sides of the 
 Cape Fear, and fell back to a second line^ pro- 
 tected on the east side of the river by marshes, 
 and on the west side by Town Creek. The prin- 
 cipal works which the enemy had erected for the 
 defence of Wilmington and the river were now 
 in the hands of General Schofield, and the fall of 
 the city was reduced almost to a question of 
 time. 
 
 On the 20th, General Terry moved his troops 
 up in front of the enemy's new line on the east 
 side of the river, and General Cox drew up his 
 forces in front of the works behind Town Creek, 
 the only bridge over which had been destroyed 
 by the Confederates. Cox succeeded in finding 
 one flat boat in the stream, and by means of 
 this crossed a part of his infantry over the 
 creek. Then, wading tlirougli the swamps, he 
 attacked the enemy's flank and rear, capturing 
 two cannon and a number of prisoners, and se- 
 curing the site of the bridge, wliicli he rebuilt 
 during tho night. On the 21st he cr>sscd his 
 
The Nenjo Administration, 115 
 
 artillery at the bridge, and pushed on in the 
 direction of Wilmington. Reaching Brunswick 
 River that afternoon, he captured a part of the 
 enemy's pontoon bridge, and crossing his troops to 
 Eagle Island, prepared to pass the Cape Fear 
 above Wilmington. During this time, General 
 Terry, though unable to carry the enemy's line in 
 his front, had kept the Confederate commander 
 BO busy there that he could spare no troops to 
 interrupt Cox's movement. 
 
 The appearance of General Cox's column on 
 Eagle Island satisfied the Confederates of their 
 inability to h^Id the city, and on the night of the 
 21st, they burned their steamers, cotton, stores, 
 and other public property, aud evacuated the 
 place, withdrawing their troops across Northeast 
 River. Early the next morning, the 22d of Feb- 
 ruary, General Terry discovered their with- 
 drawal from his front, and moving forward 
 occupied Wilmington, sending a detachment in 
 pursuit of the enemy as far as Northeast River. 
 
 Schofield's brilliant conceptions were thus 
 crowned with success. The principal sea-port of 
 the Confederates was now in our hands, we had 
 
116 The New Administration, 
 
 secured a firm base on the North Carolina coast, 
 from which to cooperate with Sherman, and had 
 captured fifty-one heavy guns, fifteen field pieces, 
 and a large amount of ammunition, besides in- 
 flicting some loss in men upon the enemy, and we 
 had done all this at a cost of only two hundred 
 men killed and wounded. Both the army and 
 the country might well be proud of the result. 
 
 As soon as Wilmington was occupied, a steam- 
 er was despatched up the Cape Fear with dis- 
 patches for General Sherman, whom it was ex- 
 pected to overtake at Fayetteville, informing him 
 of the success. 
 
 Wilmington having fallen, it now became Scho- 
 field's duty to advance upon Goldsboro, and open 
 the way for Sherman. To do this it would be 
 necessary to march overland from some point on 
 the coast, and the army was almost destitute of 
 wagon transportation. The railroad from Wil- 
 mington could not be used, inasmuch as there was 
 no rolling stock at that point, so that it became 
 necessary to advance upon Goldsboro from New- 
 berne, from which point he could have the use of 
 the railroad. 
 
The Neio Administration, IIT 
 
 On the 26th of February, General Cox was sent 
 to Newberne, in command of three divisions, with 
 orders to move along the railroad towards Golds- 
 boro, repairing the road as he advanced. He 
 reached Newberne on tlie 2d of March, devoted 
 the next day to preparing for his advance, and on 
 the 4th began his march. The enemy endeavored 
 to check his progress by a sharp attack near 
 King\ston, on the 8th, but he drove them ofiT 
 finally, though he at first suffered a repulse of his 
 advance force. On the 10th Bragg renewed the 
 attack with sixteen thousand men, but was re- 
 pulsed with heavy loss, and driven beyond the 
 Neuse River, the passage of which was secured. 
 The next day, General Cox was re-enforced by 
 the Twenty-third Corps, and Kingston was occu- 
 pied. The advance was now continued under 
 General Schotield's immediate direction, and on 
 the 22d of March Goldsboro was occupied. 
 
 On the 27th the command of the Tvventy-tliird 
 Corps was permanently given to General Cox by 
 the War Department. He led his corps in the 
 movement upon Raleigh, and after Johnston's 
 suri'Ciidcr was phiced in command of the Western 
 
118 The New Administration, 
 
 half of the State of North Carolina, where he 
 superintended the paroling of Johnson's army at 
 Oreensboro. 
 
 In July 18G5 he was placed in command of the 
 district of Ohio, with his headquarters at Colum- 
 bus, and was charged with the mustering of the 
 Ohio troops out of the service of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " The military character of General Cox," says 
 the author of Ohio In the War, may be read in 
 the barrenest record of his career. He was not 
 a great general. He was not even a great corps 
 commander. He never seemed brilliant, but he 
 was generally safe. He never displayed the in- 
 spiration of war, but he generally followed sound 
 rules of war. He was too cold to be loved by 
 his troops, but when they had been some time 
 under his command, they never failed to respect 
 him. He was too tame and methodical to be ad- 
 mired by his commanders, but when they came to 
 know him well they never failed to trust and to 
 advance him. And it can be truly said of him — 
 sb correct and prudent was he — that on the day 
 of his muster out he stood higher in the esteem 
 
TJie New Administration, 119 
 
 t)f the Government and the country, than he had 
 on any previous day throughout his military 
 career." 
 
 In the summer of 1865, he was elected Gover- 
 nor of Ohio. During the campaign, in reply to 
 a request on the part of some of his Oberlin 
 friends to know his views in relation to the ques- 
 tion of negro suffrage, he declared himself utter- 
 ly opposed to conferring such rights upon the 
 blacks, and supported himself by some very sound 
 arguments. His letter gave great offence to the 
 extreme Republicans, and caused his vote to fall 
 considerably short of that cast for the general 
 ticket. He resigned his commission in the army 
 to enter upon the Governorship of the State. 
 He discharged his duties faithfully, and was ad- 
 mitted on all sides to have made a model Gover- 
 nor, biH his administration was marked by no 
 event of importance. He gave still further of- 
 fence to the Radical wing of his party by an 
 effort to secure sympathy for President Johnson 
 among the members of the Ohio delegation in 
 Congress. 
 
 He declined to be a candidate for re-election, 
 
120 The New Administration, 
 
 and determined to apply himself to the task of 
 acquirintr a foiiune. Removing to Cincinnati, lie- 
 began the practice of law, and Foon acquired a- 
 large and profitable businoFS, which he declined 
 to relinquish for any political appointment. Presi- 
 dent Johnson offered to make him Commissioner 
 of Internal Revenue but lie declined to accept it, 
 and it is said would have refused to serve as 
 Secietriry of War had the post been offered him, 
 as Grant desired, during the Stanton didieulty. 
 
 General Cox enjoys the entire confidence of 
 the new President, and it is doubtless liis warm 
 fi'icnd>liip for his chief whicli has induced liiin to 
 depart from his resolution to coniine himself to 
 his private business, and accept the Secretar}'- 
 ship to which he has been called. 
 
 '* In jici sonal appearance General Cox is trim, 
 coinpact and elegant. His accomplishments cor- 
 respond to the ideas which his iileas sngge.-ts. 
 * * lie was a well learned lawyer. lie was 
 well versed in belles-lettres lie read French 
 fluently, and was as familiar with Fieneh novels 
 as with Fiench works of tactics. He was learned 
 in niiliiary lileratiire — was, indeed, behu-c tiie 
 
The New Administration. 121 
 
 outbreak of the war, sometliing of a military 
 scholar. He was well read in remoter channels 
 — in history and the philosophy of politics. He 
 wrote with nervous grace and force. His style 
 in extemporaneous debate was a model of con- 
 densed power and skill. On the freer arena of 
 the ' stump,' he acquitted himself creditably. He 
 had a still rarer accomplishment — he fenced 
 well."* 
 
 Says the New York Tribune : " Among all 
 the prominent public men of Ohio there is no 
 one his superior (and not more than one his 
 equal) in classical scholarship, in familiarity with 
 modern literature, and in acquaintance with the 
 latest results of philosophical thinkers on Politi- 
 cal Economy and Finance. He has a methodical, 
 prompt, crisp way of doing business, and is ad- 
 mirably fitted for the executive work of the^ 
 Interior or any of the other Departments." 
 
 o Ohio in the War. 
 
122 The JS'ew Adnmmtration, 
 
 GEORGE S. BOUTWELL, 
 Secretary of the Treasury, 
 
 George S. Boutwell was born at Brookline, 
 Massaclmsctts, ou the 28tli of January, 1818. 
 His parents were persons of moderate means, 
 and he was debarred by this circumstance from 
 acquiring a better education than could be gained 
 by a few years' attendance at the public schools 
 of his neighborhood. AVhen very young he was 
 taken from school, and put to labor on a farm in 
 order that his earnings might contribute to the 
 support of his family. He did not remain long 
 in this position, however, but entered a store in 
 the town of Groton, Massachusetts, as an appren- 
 tice. The next twenty years of his life were 
 passed in this place. He worked hard and faith- 
 fully, and from an apprentice rose to be a clerk, 
 and at length became the proprietor of his own 
 Blore. 
 
The New Administration, 123 
 
 During these twenty years he had been working 
 equally well in another field. Aware of the de* 
 ficiencies in his early education he studied hard 
 to acquire knowledge, and in the time we have 
 mentioned, by dint of his energy and patient in- 
 dustry, went through as full and severe a course 
 of studies as that required of the graduate of 
 any college in the land. He was not satisfied 
 with this, however. Although he was far ad- 
 vanced in his manhood, he devoted himself to the 
 study of the law, and mastered it so determinedly 
 that in a few years he was called to the bar. 
 
 Being determined to rise in his new calling, he 
 abandoned his mercantile pursuits entirely, and 
 devoted himself to his profession with such ardor 
 that he acquired a fair practice from the first, 
 and in a few years won a reputation as a lawyer, 
 which was flattering to say the least. 
 
 He took a deep interest in politics from the 
 first, and identified himself with the Whig party. 
 In 1842 he was elected to the Legislature of 
 Massachusetts, in which he served for seven suc- 
 cessive years. Upon leaving the Legislature, he 
 returned again to private life, but was not des- 
 
124 The J^ew Administration* 
 
 tined to remain long at home. His servicer as a 
 legislator had won him so much credit that his 
 party, in 1851, nominated him for the high office 
 of Governor of the State, and elected him by a 
 handsome majority. His administration was 
 eminently satisfactory to the Whigs, and he was 
 re-elected Governor in 1852, giving equal satis- 
 faction during his second term. In 1853 he was 
 elected a member of the Convention which met 
 for the purpose of revising the Constitution of 
 the State. 
 
 For two years, Mr. Boutwell held the office of 
 Bank Commissioner, for eleven years he was 
 Secretary of the Board of Education, of Massa- 
 chusetts, and for six years one of the Board of 
 Overseers of Harvard College. He discharged 
 the duties of these various positions with great 
 credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of 
 the people. 
 
 In IbGl, he was appointed a m.ember of the 
 Peace Conference, whicii mot in Washington for 
 the purpose of averting the War, but which failed 
 to accomplish its object. The next year he was 
 made by President Lincoln the Commissioner of 
 
The Neu, Administration, 125 
 
 the Internal Revenue, an office which had just 
 been created. He served with credit in this 
 capacity until March, 1863. Having been elected 
 to the House of Representatives, in the Fall of 
 1862, he resigned his position as the head of the 
 Internal Revenue Bureau, and took his seat in 
 Congress. He has been regularly returned ever 
 since. He was a delegate to the National Repub- 
 lican Convention, which met at Baltimore in 1864, 
 and nominated Mr. Lincoln for a second term as 
 President. 
 
 He took a prominent part in the legislation of 
 Congress, and the measures of the Administration 
 for the prosecution of the War received his 
 cordial support. He hailed the emancipation 
 proclamation of Mr. Lincoln with delight, and 
 advocated all the measures connected with or 
 growing out of it. Ho was one of the earliest 
 and staunchest supports of the measures for em- 
 ploying negro troops, and also one of the first, 
 after the War, to advocate negro suffrage. Early 
 in 1865, he said in a speech before the Emancipa- 
 tion League, at a meeting held in Boston, " That 
 he had the fullest faith that the people of this 
 
126 The New Administration 
 
 country will rise to a full comprehension of the 
 great question, and will look for no restoration 
 of these States except on the foundation of jus- 
 tice. He wanted the two districts known as the 
 States of South Carolina and Florida re-organized 
 "bj the next Congress as Territories, and the 
 colored people invited to settle there — not in any 
 way compelled to do so — and build up States of 
 their own, from which they might in a few years 
 send black representatives to Congress." 
 
 Mr. Boutwell is a member of the ultra Radical 
 Wing of the Republican party, and a prominent 
 champion of its most extreme measures. He took 
 an active part in the measures for the impeach- 
 ment of President Johnson. In November, 186Y, 
 he presented to the House the first report advo- 
 cating the impeachment measures, and when that 
 step was finally resolved upon, was appointed, 
 and served as one of the managers on the part of 
 the House. 
 
 His views on financial matters are in harmonv 
 with those of liis pnrty.and are well expressed in 
 tlie lollowing brief summary : 
 
The New Adminutiation. 127 
 
 HIS PLAN FOR PAYING THE DEBT. 
 
 "The question of the runding- of the national 
 debt being before the House July 21, 1868, Mr. 
 Boutwell introduced a substitute for the Senate 
 bill and the bill reported to the House from the 
 Committee of the Whole. The latter provided 
 for the funding of the entire interest-bearing 
 public debt, amounting to $2,150,000,000, all of 
 it payable in coin upon forty years' time, and at 
 three and sixty-five hundredths per cent, rate of 
 interest, Mr. Boutwell said : 
 
 " The amendment to which I wisli to call the 
 attention of the House provides for the funding 
 of $1,200,000,000 of the public debt, $100,000,000 
 payable in fifteen years at five per cent, interest, 
 $11)0,000,000 payable in twenty years at four and 
 a half per cent, interest, and $100,000,000 paya- 
 ble in twenty-five years at three and sixty-five 
 hundredths per cent, interest ; the latter sum of 
 $100,000,000 payable, principal and interest, at 
 the option of the taker, eitlier in the United 
 States or at London, Paris, or Frankfort. 
 
 HE TAKES A HOPEFUL VIEW OF THE DEBT. 
 
 " When we consider the rapid development of 
 the resources of this country, its increase of popu- 
 lation and the augmentation of wealth, there is 
 no hazard in the prediction that our excess of 
 
128 The New Administration, 
 
 revenue to be applied to the liquidation of the 
 public debt will not be less in any future year 
 than it will be in the present year. Now, sir, a 
 nation is distinguished from individuals in its 
 financial affairs in the particular I am now con- 
 sidering. If an individual owes a debt three, five, 
 or ten years hence, and has money which he could 
 now apply to that debt, if it be not in the terras 
 of the contract that he shall pay it immediately, 
 he may use that mor.ey in various other pursuits, 
 in business, in enterprises, or even hazards, and 
 pay his debt when it matures. But a government 
 is differently situated. Unless it be absolute 
 poverty in the national treasury, I know of no 
 condition of things more disadvantageous to pub- 
 lic credit than the possession of large funds in 
 the treasury without any present means of using 
 those funds in a legitimate and proper way. 
 
 THE DEBT A TRIFLING AFFAIR AFTER ALL. 
 
 "Sir, this debt looks pretty large, but it is a 
 small debt for this country, when you consider 
 that we paid $1,000,000,000 in less than three 
 years. What Is to be said of the $2,000,000,000 
 remaining? Why, sir, when the war of 1812 
 closed, our public debt was $127,000,0':^0. That 
 does not look large to us, but it was as heavy a 
 debt for the seven millions of people in the 
 
The New Administration, 129 
 
 United States at that time, considering that a 
 day's labor would not produce more than thirty- 
 three per cent, in gold of what it will produce 
 now, as the $2,000,000,000 of debt is to the people 
 of the country at the present time. 
 
 HIS OPINION ABOUT SELLING TREASURY COLD. 
 
 *' I object to the sale of gold. If we require the 
 Secretary of the Treasury to advertise tliat he 
 will be ready at any time to pay the interest on 
 the debt next to become due, the public creditors 
 abating the interest on the payments which he 
 makes to them, there will be always opportunity 
 for those who own coupons or those who choose 
 to buy coupons to command the gold that is in 
 the treasury ; and at any rate the amount whidi 
 lie advertises that he will pay upon demand, is so 
 much gold upon the markets of the country. The 
 difference between this proposition and the propo- 
 sition to sell gold is, that we pay out gold where 
 it is to be paid, and relieve ourselves of interest 
 becoming due next October, next November, or 
 next January, and also improve the credit of the 
 country. Coupled with that is a provision pro- 
 hibiting all sales of gold by the Secretary of 
 the Treasury. I need not make any suggestions 
 to this House, in the way of reasons or argu- 
 ments in favor of taking from the Secretary a 
 
130 Tlie New Administration, 
 
 power which, if honestly exercised, can never be 
 productive of any good whatsoever. 
 
 WHAT HE THINKS OP PAYING THE FIVE-TWENTIES 
 IN GOLD. 
 
 [Mr. "Randall, of Pennsylvania, asked Mr. Bout- 
 well if he believed the five-twenty bond were 
 payable in gold ?] 
 
 " I will state exactly what is my opinion on 
 that subject. When we issued $500,000,000 of 
 five-twenties, we stipulated to the public creditors 
 that the United States notes, known as green- 
 backs, should never be issued in excess of four 
 hundred millions. That was the first stipulation. 
 The second stipulation was that we would not 
 compel payment under five years, but there was 
 a stipulation over and above the law, inherent in 
 the very nature of society, in the experience and 
 tradition of all mankind, that every nation in its 
 senses, actuated by an honest purpose, if, when 
 struggling with vicissitudes, it was obliged to 
 resort to forced loans, an extraordinary means of 
 raising money, by which ils credit was impaired 
 and its securities are forced below the par value 
 of gold, that such a nation should make every 
 honest effort possible for the resumption of specie 
 payments and the restoration of its public credit. 
 Tiiat obligation rests upon us. Now, if according 
 
The New Administration, 131 
 
 to the terms of the act of 1864 it docs not ap- 
 pear beyond all cavil that we might not pay these 
 bonds in greenbacks, in the same act it does ap- 
 pear that we shall never issue more than $400,- 
 000,000 of greenbacks." 
 
132 The New Administration, 
 
 ADOLPH E. BORIE, 
 
 Secretary of the Navy, 
 
 Adolph E. Borie was born in the City of 
 Philadelphia, in the year 1809, and is now in his 
 sixtieth year. He is a member of one of the 
 oldest and most aristocratic families of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and is a gentleman of great wealth. His 
 ancestors, on his father's side, came from Bor- 
 deaux, and have long been amongst the leading 
 merchants in Philadelphia. His mother was the 
 daughter of a wealthy planter of St. Domingo, 
 who was compelled to leave that island during 
 the frightful negro insurrections of the last cen- 
 tury. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was educated at the 
 University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated 
 at the age of sixteen. Upon reaching his twenty- 
 fourth year he went to Paris to complete his 
 studies. He was possessed of unusual intelligence 
 
TJie New Administration. 133 
 
 and application, and passed successfully through 
 all his examinations. After finishing his educa- 
 tion he traveled for several years in Europe, ac- 
 quiring a personal knowledge of the old world, ^ 
 which was destined to be of great service to him 
 in his after life. 
 
 Returning to Philadelphia, he entered into 
 business there, and soon became a member of the 
 celebrated firm of McKean Borie & Co., of that 
 city. He displayed great ability as a merchant, 
 and it was not long before he became one of the 
 principal importers of the country. His efforts 
 were at an early day given to developing the 
 China trade, which he foresaw would one day be- 
 come one of the most important interests of the 
 country, and he has had the satisfaction of seeing 
 his expectations realized, and his wealth grow with 
 the increase of that trade. He has established a 
 proud name as a merchant and as a man in his 
 native city, and has amassed in his honored call- 
 ing an immense fortune, which he dispenses liberal- 
 ly in support of all objects the wisdom and benefi- 
 cence of which command his approval. 
 
 Though never an active participant in political 
 
134 The New Administration, 
 
 struggles, Mr. Borie has been careful to exercise^ 
 his rights and discharge his duties as a citizen, 
 and has therefore taken a keen interest in the 
 great questions of the day. He was a Whig, at 
 the outset, and during the existence of that party 
 voted for and sustained its men and measures^ 
 Upon the organization of the Republican party, 
 he became a member of it, and has voted regularly 
 with it ever since. He is still a faithful follower 
 of the doctrines of Henry Clay, and an ardent 
 advocate of the principle of " protection to Am- 
 erican industry." He voted for Mr. Lincoln, and 
 contributed as far as lay in his power to the suc- 
 cess of the Republicans in 1860. 
 
 Upon the breaking out of the War, he promptly 
 declared himself in favor of a vigorous and un- 
 compromising prosecution of the struggle. His 
 convictions as to the necessity of preserving the 
 Union, were based upon his great experience and 
 wisdom as a man of business, as well as his devo- 
 tion to the cause of his country. He set a sliining 
 example of liberality and self-sacrifice in the 
 practical aid he extended to tlie Government. 
 He bore the expense of equipping and sending to 
 
The JSfew Administration. 135 
 
 the field several regiments of troops from his own 
 State, and gave his personal attention to the task 
 of getting them off promptly and in good order ; 
 and it is a fact well known in Philadelphia that 
 he was always amongst the first to subscribe 
 liberally to any object calculated to advance the 
 cause of the Union. The amount of money thus 
 contributed by him is not known to us, at present, 
 but there can be no doubt that it was more than 
 the fortune of many a rich man. 
 
 These services and patriotic sacrifices made Mr. 
 Borie a marked man in his native city, and raised 
 him high in the afi"ectionate esteem of the loyal 
 citizens. When the Union League of Philadelphia 
 ■was organized, Mr. Borie was made its Vice- 
 President. Sympathizing fully with the object of 
 the organization he contributed to it a large part 
 of the princely sum by which it was enabled to 
 erect its magnificent club house. 
 
 Soon after the close of the War, General Grant, 
 during a visit to the club house, took occasion to 
 compliment one of the members upon the liberality 
 displayed by the League during the War, and 
 asked where such large sums as had been given 
 
136 The *Pfew Administration. 
 
 were raised. General Meade, hearing the remark, 
 presented Mr. Borie to his commander, and in- 
 formed him that this gentleman was one of the 
 principal contributors to the fund of the organiza- 
 tion. It seems that General Grant and Mr. Borie 
 were favorably impressed with each other from 
 the first and their acquaintance soon ripened into 
 a warm friendship. The result of this intimacy 
 is the bestowal upon Mr. Bcrie of the high office 
 of Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 Mr. Borie is rather below the medium height, 
 and is both handsome and dignified in appearance. 
 His hair and beard are white, and his countenance 
 is grave and thoughtful, yet withal kind and pleas- 
 sant. In manner he is polite to all, and is a fair 
 specimen of the polished gentleman of the old 
 school — a race fast disappearing from our land. 
 He is very popular in his own city with all classes, 
 and is both esteemed and loved by his friends. 
 
 His business connections in Philadelphia are 
 many and extensive. Besides being a member of 
 one of the largest importing houses in the city, 
 he is a director in the National Bank of Com- 
 merce, a member of the Board of Trade, a manager 
 
The JVew Mministr ation. 1ST 
 
 of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society — one of 
 the oldest and best institutions of its kind in tho 
 Union — and is connected with a number of chari- 
 table and benevolent institutions. 
 
 Having taken no active part in politics, he 
 enters upon his new position, free from any party 
 ties or pledges, and will administer its duties 
 faithfully and impartially. His extensive business 
 knowledge, his admitted capacity, and his vast 
 experience, render him a valuable counsellor to 
 the President, and a safe head for the department 
 over which he presides. 
 
138 The N&w Administration, 
 
 JOHN A. J. CRESWELL, 
 
 Post-Master General. 
 
 John A. J. Ckesswell was born on the 8tb 
 of March, 1828. His parents being possessed of 
 abundant means, he was given an excellent edu- 
 cation. He graduated at Dickinson College. 
 Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with the first honors of 
 his class in 1848. He was now a little over 
 twenty years of age, and having decided to adopt 
 the law as his profession, at once entered upon 
 his studies. He was admitted to the bar two 
 years later. He devoted himself with energy to 
 his profession, and in a few years acquired a fair 
 practice, which grew larger year by year, until 
 at the time of his entrance into political life, he 
 was justly regarded as one of the most prominent 
 and successful lawyers in the State. 
 
 His first votes were cast for the Whig party, 
 with which he sympathized and acted until the 
 
The New Administration, 139 
 
 disappearance of that organization from the po- 
 litical arena. His profession claimed his princi- 
 pal attention, however, and he was not disposed 
 to neglect its sure rewards for the uncertainties 
 of party triumphs. 
 
 In 1850, a General Convention was held in the 
 State of Maryland, for the purpose of remodel- 
 ing the Constitution of the Commonwealth. Mr. 
 Cresswell was nominated by the Whigs of Cecil 
 County to represent them in this Convention. 
 His opponent was the late Judge Constable, the 
 Democratic candidate, whose popularity in Cecil 
 County was so great as to ensure the defeat of 
 any one who had the temerity to oppose him 
 The Judge was also a man of great eloquence and 
 profound ability, and one whom very few cared 
 to encounter on the stump. Mr. Cresswell can- 
 vassed the county with him, and, though a young 
 man, won considerable distinction by the able 
 manner in wliich he encountered his veteran an- 
 tagonist. When the election came on, he was 
 defeated by a small majority. 
 
 After this he confined himself to his profession, 
 taking no active part in politics. Upon the de- 
 
140 The JVew Administration* 
 
 mise of the Whig party he voted with the 
 Democracy, and was generally regarded as a 
 member of that organization at the breaking out 
 the rebellion. Finding, however, that the sym- 
 pathies of that party were with the Southern 
 States, and its members were in favor of the se- 
 cession of Maryland from the Union, he with- 
 drew from all connection with them, and declared 
 himself a supporter of the Constitution and laws 
 of his country. Foreseeing the terrible evils 
 which war would bring upon the land, and know- 
 ing that in case of hostilities his own State would 
 be apt to be the battle-ground, he labored earn- 
 estly and actively in behalf of a peaceful settle- 
 ment of our national troubles. His efforts were 
 in vain, however, and finding that war could not 
 be avoided, he declared himself uncompromisingly 
 for the Union. 
 
 In the fall of 1861, he was elected to the Mary- 
 land Legislature from Cecil County. He ren- 
 dered good service in this body in behalf of the 
 Union cause, and his conduct received the hearty 
 endorsement of his constituents. In 1862, he 
 was appointed Adjutant-General of the State, 
 
The New Administration. 141 
 
 and discharged the duties of that office with vigor 
 and ability, exerting himself to the utmost to 
 develop the Union sentiment of Maryland, and 
 procure and send forward recruits for the nation- 
 al army. In the fall of 1862, he was elected to 
 the Thirty-eighth Congress from the Cecil Dis- 
 trict. 
 
 He entered the House of Representatives a 
 comparatively unknown man, and laboring under 
 all the disadvantages peculiar to the position of 
 a new member. His warmest welcome came from 
 his friend, the great Baltimore orator, Winter 
 Davis. Between these men a warm and active 
 friendship had existed for some years, and when 
 the latter was questioned by his friends as to the 
 probable success of his colleague, he did not hesi- 
 tate to speak of Cresswell as a man destined to 
 make a name in the history of the country. 
 
 Mr. Cresswell served during the Thirty-eighth 
 Congress on the Committees on Commerce and 
 Pensions. He made little or no reputation, how- 
 ever, until January, 1865, when the consideration 
 of that portion of the President's message refer- 
 ring to the abolition of slavery drew him out. 
 
142 The J^ew Administration, 
 
 Upon this occasion he more than realized the 
 predictions of his friend Mr. Davis, and delivered 
 one of the most eloquent and powerful speeches 
 of the session. In the course of his remarks, he 
 related the following interesting incident : 
 
 " You will not wonder," said he, * at my con- 
 fidence in the improvement of the negro race when 
 I relate an incident which came under my own 
 observation. Our struggle for emancipation was 
 fierce and closely contested. For a long time the 
 result was in doubt. The soldiers' vote finally 
 settled it in our favor by a majority of less than 
 four hundred ; but the advocates of slavery, un- 
 willing, though fairly beaten, to surrender a field 
 which they had held so long without dispute, did 
 their utmost, after the election, to defeat the voice 
 of the people, by a resort to protests, and injunc- 
 tions, and writs of mandamus, and every other 
 device which the ingenuity of counsel could in- 
 vent. The Governor's proclamation, declaring 
 the triumph of the friends of freedom, in spite of 
 rebel votes and the ' law's delay,' did not reach 
 the southern section of the State until Monday, 
 the 31st Octotier, when a steamer from Baltimore 
 
The New Administration, 143 
 
 brought the official document. A Union meeting 
 was held that day at Cambridge, in Dorchester 
 county, at which it was made known, to the in- 
 finite disgust of every faithful follower of Jeff. 
 Davis, that the next day would see Maryland a 
 free State. I know not how the word passed ; I 
 saw no flashing beacon, nor flaming brand, nor 
 speeding courier ; but as I traveled in open car- 
 riage that night to fill an appointment next day, 
 more than fifty miles away, it seemed as if the 
 very air had borne the glad tidings before me. 
 All Africa was abroad ; some on horseback, some 
 in wagon-s, but nearly all on foot, moving along, 
 singing and joyful. When, later in the night, I 
 was journeying wearily through the sighing pines, 
 my curiosity was excited by the fact that ever 
 and anon a bright light would suddenly burst 
 upon me. Knowing that country people were 
 usually at that hour abed, these lights were a 
 mystery to me. Turning to my companion, I 
 asked an explanation. He replied, ' The lights 
 you see are at the meeting-houses of the negroes, 
 who have met for the purpose of holding watch- 
 meetings to welcome in the 1st of November.' 
 
144 The New Administration, 
 
 The mystery was explained. The negroes had 
 assembled at midnight, in their rude churches, 
 hastily built by the roadside, in the woods, or 
 down at the marshes, to watch for the advent of 
 their day of jubilee, in order that tiiey might re- 
 ceive tht3ir earliest experience of Heaven's price- 
 less gift to man — thrice-blessed liberty — while' 
 on their knees before the Father of all. Surely,, 
 a people who will thus dedicate the first moments 
 of their freedom to God are worthy to be 
 free." 
 
 Says the New York Tribune^ in referring to 
 this speech : 
 
 ^* Davis had been pi-eparing the way for him by 
 assuring his friends tliat Cresswell would yet 
 make his mark. When he rose, therefore, he 
 soon secured the attention of those about him, — 
 an unusual thing for a new member in the House, 
 rising in the midst of a debate, to read a wrii.ten 
 speech. His fine presence and impressive style 
 of reading, however, soon gained him tlie ear of 
 the House ; and wlien he came to eulogize the 
 Proclamation of Emancipation, and to tell how it 
 was received by the poor negroes who at mid- 
 night prayer meetings in the cabins of the Eastern 
 
The J\*ew Administration. 145 
 
 shore, spent the hours snatched from toil in pray- 
 ing God to make tliem worthy of the great gift 
 bestowed upon them, lie rose to a pitch of genuine 
 eloquence that secured undivided attention and 
 unbroken silence. He was most warmly con- 
 gratulated as he took his seat, and the effort was 
 on all hands pronounced one of the most success- 
 ful ever made in that Hall by a new member. 
 From that day he rapidly rose to a commanding 
 position in State and National politics." 
 
 Mr. Cresswell labored hard in behalf of the 
 blacks. His friends wished him to serve in the 
 Constitutional Convention of the State, but, bciner 
 a member of Congress, he declined their request. 
 He had the satisfaction of seeing slavery abolished 
 in his State diking the Fall of 1864. 
 
 He was a member of the National Republican- 
 Convention at Baltimore, which nominated Mr. 
 Lincoln for re-election to the Presidency, and 
 took an active part in the campaign which fol- 
 lowed. He was himself a candidate for re-election 
 to Congress, but was defeated by Mr. Hiram 
 McCullough. He had nothing to regret in this 
 defeat, however. The death of Governor Hicks, 
 in the Spring of 1865, created a vacancy in the 
 
146 The JVeio Administration. 
 
 United States Senate, and in March, of that 
 year, Mr. Cresswell was chosen by the Legisla- 
 ture to serve during the unexpired term of the 
 deceased Senator. 
 
 He entered the Senate in March 1865, and soon 
 took a high position in that body. He served on 
 several important committees, and was intimately 
 connected with the principal legislation of the 
 Thirty-ninth Congress. He was selected by 
 Congress to pronounce a eulogy upon the lite 
 and character of Henry Winter Davis, upon the 
 occasion of the death of his friend, a duty which 
 he discharged with great credit to himself. He 
 was one of the first to take issue with President 
 Johnson in the memorable quarrel between the 
 Executive and Congress, and to the close of his 
 term was one of the most unflinching champions of 
 the cause of Congress. He was not reelected to 
 the Senate at the close of his term, and retired 
 into private life, being regarded, liowever, as the 
 leader of his party in Mai7land. 
 
 In 18G6 he was a delegate to the Southern 
 Loyalist's Convention, held in Philadelphia, in 
 which body he headed the Border State opposi- 
 
The JVew Administration.] 147 
 
 tion to the demand for negro suffrage. He 
 opposed it, not because he was hostile to it, but 
 because he did not believe in the expediency of 
 going into the political campaign of that year 
 with negro suffrage as- an issue. Events justified 
 his prudence. At present he is one of the most 
 ardent advocates of impartial suffrage. 
 
 In the Spring of 18(38, he was a member of the 
 Maryland Delegation to the Chicago Convention, 
 and was declared by his associates to be their 
 first choice for the Vice-Presidency. Mr. Fulton, 
 insisted in the Convention, on placing him in 
 nomination ; but when the vote came to be taken, 
 Mr. Cresswell declared that he was not a candi- 
 date, and did not desire to appear before the Con. 
 vention as such. He then stated that his preference 
 was for Senator Wade, of Ohio, for whom he cast 
 his vote. He engaged actively in the Presidential 
 Campaign, but without success, so far as his own 
 State was concerned. Maryland was carried by 
 the Democrats by a heavy majority, his own dis- 
 trict giving a Democratic majority of over eight 
 thousand. 
 
 When Col. Forney resigned the Secretaryship 
 
148 The New Administ/ration. 
 
 of the Senate, Mr. Cress well's friends urged him 
 to be a candidate for the position. It was univer- 
 sally conceded that his election would be sure, if 
 he would accept the office, but he declined it. 
 
 After the result of the last Presidential elec- 
 tion was known, General Grant was earnestly 
 importuned by many of the leading men of the 
 Republican party, to offer Mr. Cresswell a seat in 
 his Cabinet. " Vice-President Colfax, ex-Vice- 
 President Hamlin, Senator Wade, and a number 
 of other leading Senators," says the Baltimore 
 American^ " took occasion to speak to General 
 Grant in terms of high commendation of his 
 ability and personal character and eminent ser- 
 vices to the Republican cause. The delegations 
 to Congress from Maine, Connecticut, and Michi- 
 gan, and a portion of Pennsylvania also took a 
 deep interest in his accession to the Cabinet, wliile 
 a majority of the Senators and Representatives 
 frv)m the Southern States memorialized the Presi- 
 dent in favor of his selection as the representative 
 of the Southern and Border States. There was 
 also a very kindly feeling expressed among the 
 Republicans generally in his favor." 
 
The New Administration, 149 
 
 Mr. Cresswell was doubtless appointed as the 
 representative of the Republican party in tlie 
 entire South, as he does not in any sense represent 
 the political faith of the people of Maryland, 
 which State is now Democratic by a large ma- 
 jority. He belongs to the extreme Radical wing 
 of the Republican party, and is in favor of " re- 
 constructing " the State of Maryland by the 
 same process that has been applied to the more 
 Southern States. He is an ardent partisan and 
 is prepared to stand by the political organization 
 to which he belongs under any and all circum- 
 stances. He is still a young man, and to his 
 natural abilities adds a large experience, and a 
 vigor and energy, which admirably qualify him 
 for his new position. 
 
150 The JVew Administration. 
 
 EBENEZER R. HOAR, 
 
 Attorney- General, 
 
 Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar was born in Con- 
 cord, Massachusetts, in the year 1816. He is the 
 son of the late Hon. Samuel Hoar of that town. 
 
 Mr. Hoar, Sr., was regarded as the leading 
 lawyer of Middlesex County, and as the peer of 
 any of the great men who have practiced at the 
 Massachusetts bar. He was not an orator, but 
 is said to have possessed an earnestness and 
 power of persuasion which rendered him emi- 
 nently successful in his profession. He served 
 one term in Congress, and about twenty-iive years 
 ago was sent by Massachusetts to Charleston, 
 S. C, to defend the rights of her colored sailors, 
 who were seized by the authorities of South Caro- 
 lina, and imprisoned as soon as they came into 
 the port of that State " as a means of preventing 
 the spread of Abolition doctrines." Mr. Hoar 
 was driven out of the city by a mob, and his 
 
The New Administration, 151 
 
 mission thwarted. He married Sarah Sherman, 
 a daughter of Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, 
 by whom he had several children. He died in 
 1856. 
 
 Young Hoar was carefully educated in the 
 best schools of his State, and in 1835 graduated 
 at Harvard College. He immediately entered 
 upon the study of the law, and passed some time 
 in the office of that eminent jurist, Charles Allen, 
 of Worcester. He entered into public life at an 
 €arly age as a Whig. He was a member of the 
 State Senate about 1846; "at any rate at the 
 time of the controversy between the ' conscience ' 
 and the ' cotton ' whigs, which culminated in the 
 free soil bolt of 1848. These old names are 
 mentioned because the distinction which they 
 imply took its rise in a remark by Mr. Hoar dur- 
 ing a speech in the Senate when he was a mem- 
 ber. He was with Sumner, and Allen, and S. C- 
 Philips, and Wilson and Palfrey in the free soil 
 movement, and especially active in the canvass in 
 Middlesex between Palfrey and his whig oppon- 
 onts, which began with the opposition of the 
 former to Mr. Winthrop's election to the Speaker- 
 
152 The JS'ew Administration, 
 
 ship of the Lower House of Congress in 1848, 
 when Charles Allen and Henry Wilson origin- 
 ated the free soil bolt by denouncing Taylor's 
 nomination in the Philadelphia Convention. Mr. 
 Hoar led off in the new movement. He wrote 
 the circular which called the State Convention 
 in Massachusetts, and which resulted in the for- 
 mation of a party of 36,000 voters, who within 
 three years broke down Mr. Webster and the 
 whig party, elected Charles Sumner to the seat 
 lie now holds, and placed Governor Boutwell ia 
 the gubernatorial chair. The ground on which 
 the opposition was put in this circular was, that 
 •General Taylor was not a whig, and that the 
 whig party had been substantially disbanded by 
 Ms nomination. This was not perhaps creditable 
 to the candor of Mr. Hoar and his brethren, but, 
 considering the overpowering influence of Mr, 
 Webster and the social iind political supremacy 
 of whigism in the State, it was as far as they saw 
 fit to go." 
 
 Soon after this he was appointed a judge of the 
 Court of Common Fleas, but resigned the oftice in a 
 short time to lesume the practice of his profession. 
 
The New Administration, 163 
 
 • 
 He opened an ofiBce in Boston, and soon acquired 
 a large and lucrative practice. While on the 
 bench of the Common Pleas, he distinguished 
 himself by a bold and uncompromising decision 
 against the constitutionality of the fugitive slave 
 law. 
 
 In 1859 he was made a Judge of the Supreme 
 Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which position 
 he held up to the fourth of the present month 
 (March 1869). It was expected when Judge Big- 
 low resigned the office of Chief Justice of the 
 State, Judge Hoar was to be appointed his suc- 
 cessor. Governor Bullock, however, refused to 
 nominate him, in consequence, it is said, of a 
 quarrel with the Judge's brother, Hon. George 
 F. Hoar, of Worcester, the member of Congress 
 from the Eighth District. He nominated Judge 
 Thomas. The friends of Judge Hoar resented 
 this indignity,* and succeeded in defeating the 
 Governor's nomination when it came before the 
 council for confirmation. The result was a com- 
 
 o Judge Hoar being the senior iudge was entitled by custom 
 to the promotion- 
 
154 The New Administratwti 
 
 promise between the Governor and the friends of 
 Judge Hoar, by which Judge Chapman was nom- 
 inated and confirmed. 
 
 Judge Hoar's legal abilities are of the first 
 order. He stands high in a State that has pro- 
 duced many of the most eminent lawyers of the 
 land. He lacks eloquence and enthusiasm as an 
 orator, but he brings to the aid of his vast pro- 
 fessional knowledge a solidity and straightfor- 
 wardness of argument which make him a formid- 
 -able opponent at the bar. As a judge he has no 
 superior. His decisions are irreproachable, and 
 his opinions are quoted and received everywhere 
 with the profoundest respect. In consideration 
 of these qualities it is evident that no better 
 selection for the high position to which he has 
 been called, could have been made. 
 
 Judge Hoar is in the prime of life, and in the 
 full vigor of his intellect. He is fond of social 
 life, and possesses the afi'ectionate regard of a 
 large and influential circle of friends. He is said 
 to be very witty, and to possess a keen relish of 
 liumor in others. Says the New York Herald : 
 
 " He is spoken of as a radical, but this remark 
 
The J^ew Administration. 155 
 
 wrill not applj to him except as an anti-slavery 
 man. His ancestry is federal and conservative 
 and his tastes and habits, especially of late years^ 
 have led him into conservative ways. Upon all 
 topics growing out of the war and the extinction 
 of slavery he would be likely to be radical, for 
 he inherits a hatred of that special form of aris- 
 tocracy which Sumner calls ' an oligarchy of the 
 Bkin/ and has a contempt for all slaveholding 
 pretensions to superior breeding and chivalry 
 He would be much more likely to go with Mr* 
 Dana than General Butler, and if he has anything 
 to do with the distribution of the offices, the 
 peculiar friends of the Essex member will not 
 be likely to have more than an even chance." 
 
 James Kussell Lowell has thus familiarized him 
 to the readers of the Biglow papers, a descrip- 
 tion which many who read these pages will doubt- 
 less recognize : 
 
 " An' I've ben sense a-visitin' the Jedge, 
 Whose garding whispers with the river's edge, 
 Where I've sot mornin's lazy as the bream 
 Whose on'y business is to head up stream, 
 (We call 'em punkin'-seed,) or else in chat, 
 Along 'tJ. the Jedge, who covers with his hat 
 More wit, an' gumption, an' shrewd Yankee sense 
 Than there is mosses on an ole stone fence." 
 
^r H K 
 
 M^w ^ikmhtiintm; 
 
 .CONTAINING 
 
 COMPLETE AND AUTHENTIC 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 OF 
 
 Grant and his Cabinet. 
 
 By EDWARD WINSLOW MARTIN. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 GMTJORG-Ii: S. AVIT^COX. 
 
 i860. 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 GEOEGE S. WILCOX, 
 
 (Successor to Blelock & Co..) 
 
 49 Mercer Street, New York. 
 
 As by Fjre. By Miss Nelly Marshall Handsomely bound 
 in fine English Muslin Beveled board, tine paper. 
 323 pp. Price $1 50 
 
 \\ ^ '^^^y sweet story, beautifully written."— BaWjmore AdvertUer. 
 For a first book, as we lake this to be, it evinces a degree if proficiency 
 in authorcraft that is quite uotewortby."— iV. O. Orescent. 
 
 The House in Balfour Street. By Chas. Dimitry, Esq. 
 Handsomely bound in English Muslin, fine paper. 
 376 pp. Price $1 50 
 
 "This is an En2;lish novel, full of love, mysterj', wickedness and 
 murder, and :ill the strange intermingling <»r human passions, prohabie 
 and improbable scenes, which make up the sensational reading ol this 
 &Se"—I^ovide.nce Evening Pre^s. 
 
 " This is a book which does credit to the talents of the author." 
 
 Ingemlsco. By the author of "Randolph Honoe." 12mo, 
 Fine Cloth, beveled boards. Price $1 50 
 
 De Vane : A Story of Plebian? and Patricians. By Hon. 
 Henby \V. Hilliard. 12mo. Fine French Muslin, 
 2 vols in one, pp Cfi2. Price $1 75 
 
 Ecce Ecclesia. 12mo. Fine Muslin, beveled boards. 
 
 576 pp. Price $1 75 
 
 "The most remarkable proUurtion of the kind which the modern 
 prpss has furnished. Its style is elevated, strong, simple, ar)d captiva- 
 ting. His criticisms of a number of the most "standard " autlior-^— and 
 this will apply about .-is well to all of tliem— are decorous and courteous 
 on the one hand, while, on the oth* r, they are rigid, intensely severe, 
 laconic, and conclusive. The whole work be rs thp mark of ripe and 
 extensive erudition, a familiar acquaintance with Bible History and 
 Philosophy, and, above aJI, of great common sense and deep i)iety. The 
 book can hardly lail to be rei;arded a most valuable addition to the 
 Church literature of the iige. nor soon to find a place in every rpligious 
 library. It will besought lor by ministers, Christians, and families, and 
 will gladden the hearts of thousands." 
 
 Campaigns of a Non-Ccmbatant ! and his R( maunt 
 
 AUKOAD DURING THE WaR. By GeoRGE AlFR>D ToWNSEND. 
 
 r2mo. Muslin Price $150 
 
 -r *D-23 
 
JUVENILE BOOKS. 
 
 The Christmas StockiDg. By Cousin Virginia. Author 
 
 of the "Kettle Club," the " Cricket's Friend,*' etc. Fully illnptra- 
 ted. Finely bound in Cloth. Price $1 Od 
 
 Cousin Jessie's Stories. A chnrminj? Story Book, beauti- 
 fully illustrated and elegantly bound. 220 pp. Price $1 OO 
 
 "Uneurpasged as an interesting juvenile story-book."— Po«/'. 
 
 General Lee and Santa Glaus. By Mrs Louisb Clark, 
 of New Orleans, author of '' Our Refugee Household " Beautifully 
 illustrated by Stevens. Price $Q 75 
 
 SUBSCRIPTION BOOKS. 
 
 The Southern Amaranth, compiled and arranged ly Miss 
 S. A. Brock, of Virginia. The largest and most carefully selected 
 collection of Poems growing out of and in reference to the late War 
 for Southern Independence that has yet been attempted. Svo. 6'0 
 pp. Illustrated title, fine paper, English Muslin, beveled board?, 
 |3 00 ; full gilt, $0 OU ; morocco, full gilt $8 0» 
 
 C«mp&ignB of liieut-Geu, N. B. Fcrrest and of Forrest's 
 Cavalry. Over 7C0 pp. 8vo. ( loth, $3 00 ; half c^lf, 
 Library Edition $4 00 
 
 THREE NEW NOVELS NOW READY. 
 
 As by Fire. By Miss Nelly Marshall. This work is writ- 
 ten in the most vigorous and elegant style of this versatile and 
 popular young author, will undoubtedly win for her a higher and 
 prouder honor than she has yet attaiiied, and entitle her to an 
 enviable rank among the fQw successful writers of fiction . 12mo. , 
 English Muslin, beveled boards, fine paper $1 fiO 
 
 The Bouse in Ba four Street. By ( has. rviMiiRY, isq. 
 
 " This is an English Novel, full of Mystery, Love, "Wickedness, Mur- 
 der and all the strange intermingling of human passions which make 
 up the sensatiofi»l reading of this age:'—Proridence Jovrnal. 
 
 " A story of character, passion, and incident ; this is one to absorb 
 the interest of the reader in no common degree."— 7?<?s/0ft Courier. 
 
 12mo, English Muslin, fine paper , $1 60 
 
 Camors. From the French of Octave FEUiLLiT. (Author of 
 »• The Romance of a Poor Young Man .") 
 "Immoral as the book is, it smacks, nevertheless, if that be any 
 Qualification for it, ol high life immorality, which has the eflect off 
 vindicatins, for fiction as well as veal life, those vices and irregularities 
 ■which would make the lower class execrable." — Bosicn Coviier. 
 "It is a remarkable romance."-- A ew; York Evening Mail. 
 
 12mo., English Muslin, beveled boards $1 75. 
 
 In Fjess : Unforgiven. By Berriedale. A novel. English 
 Muslin, beveled boards, fine paper $1 7& 
 
 GEORGE S. WILCOX, Publisher. 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 GEORGE S. WILCOX, 
 
 (Successor to Elelock & Co.,) 
 
 49 Mercer Street, New York. 
 
 -A Practical HomcEopathIc Treatise on the Diseases of 
 Women and Children, intended for intelligent Heads 
 of Families and Students of Medicine. By Henry Minton, 
 M.D. Koyal Octavo. 
 
 Price, Cloth $3 00 
 
 " Sheep 4 00 
 
 Belle Boyd, in Camp and Prison. Written by herself. 
 With an introduction by George August.v Sala. 12mo. 
 Muslin, pp. 4G4. Price ". $1 50 
 
 " ' Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison ' is one of those books into which 
 the whole soul and spir t of t he writer have evidently passed— which are 
 too earnest foi- artisiic construclion, too real and heartfelt either for 
 self-concealment or gelf-display."-i:ondon Saturday Gazette. 
 
 "South Songs!" from the Lays of Later Days. By T. C. 
 Leon. On tinted piper elegantly bound in fine tnglish 
 Muslin, beveled boards, full gilt. Price $ I 50 
 
 The War -Its Cxisan^yB Conskqubnces. Fy C, S. Farbar, 
 of Bolivar County i' Miss. 12mo. Fine Cloth, 
 pp. 260. Price . .* $1 25 
 
 Confederate Soldier ! A l^Iemorial sketch of George N. and 
 BusiiROD W. Harris, of the Confederate Army. By Kev.. 
 John E. Edward, M.D,, D.D. Price $1 00 
 
 Sheltern ! A Novel. Py Christopher Comxg«by. 12mo, 
 English Muirlin. Price $ I 50 
 
 Camors. English Muslin, beveled boaids, fine paper. 
 
 388 pp. Price $175 
 
 "A masterly translation of thp chcf-tVoeuire of the most brilliant 
 French writer of the day, Oct avk Fku'im-kt. author cf the " Romance 
 of a Poor Young Man,' etc. 'Camors' is a Story of Life in the Second 
 Empire of France." 
 
 "No romance ever npprartd which has so »xcitcd .sciiety and the 
 critics as * Camors.' Its rare beauty as a work of art, 'he wondrous skill 
 with which the author linudles a most delicate subject, and its exquisite 
 grace, have attracted universal Interest." 
 
 ill 
 
\<^^ '^'' \/ *^"« \<^^ '' 
 
 
 ,-4^ 
 
 ^^"-, 
 
 
 
 
 ■p^ .vi';^'. ° 
 
 -^^n^ 
 
 o> •• . . ' ^0 *;& 
 
 
 G ^ 
 
 
 
 S' Vi- 
 
 
 0^ ''-•* O 
 
 
 'vp<;- 
 
 ,^:» '^..^" .* 
 
 

 ^"^^. 
 
 
 
 o, 
 
 .f 
 
 
 
 ^^^ FLA. ^ • ^^^ .'^ * 
 
 V.^^ ;