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1/ 
 
 SEVEN DECADES 
 
 \ 
 
 OF 
 
 THE U :^ I O K 
 
 THE HUMANITIES AND MATERIALISM, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BT 
 
 \ 
 
 A MEMOIR OF JOHN TYLER, 
 
 WITH 
 
 THE TEANSITION STATE OF THIS NATION"— ITS DANGEKS 
 AND THEIE EEMEDY. 
 
 By henry a. wise. 
 
 *' 'lis Liberty, or 'tis Death I' 
 
 Looan: Runnymede, 
 
 "Give me Liberty, or gire me Death!" 
 
 Patrick Henry, 
 at the " Old Raleigh," Williamsburg Va. 
 
 ]. W. RANDOLPH cS: ENGLISH, 
 Richmond, Va. 
 
 1881. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at AYashington, 
 
 JA 4 t^'JB 
 
M 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 To the rector, board o^ visitors, faculty, alumni, and students 
 of the College of William and Marj, I dedicate this memoir of 
 her late rector and chancellor, John Tyler, the tenth President 
 of the United States of America ; prepared for the ax'chives of 
 his Alma Mater, in obedieuce to her resolves and orders, at 
 intervals snatched from professional business, and from house- 
 hold hindrances and cares, since the meeting of the rector, 
 board, and faculty in the year 1868. 
 
 It has been to me a task of tears, dashed with some sacred 
 joy, — a tale of sadness cheered and lightened by some exultant 
 songs of triumphant remmiscence. 
 
 Mr. Tyler's life ran through seven decades, from lt90 to 
 1862 ; it is full of the themes of many and mighty events and 
 thoughts ; it has a divine moral in its teachings, and lessons 
 for the deepest study of mankind. 
 
 Humbled by attempting the performance of this task, I pro- 
 fess only a "joy of grief," — no talents for the volume of its 
 labors. To bring that volume within readable compass, I have 
 sketched a memoir, not altogether a biography, and not at all a 
 history, — an outline not wholly filled up, — a drawing somewhat 
 colored and shaded, but foreshortened to delineate salient points 
 and parts in the important and impressive life and action of a 
 good and great man. 
 
 I glance, first, at the results of history just before his birth, 
 
 (iii) 
 
iv DEDICA TION. 
 
 up to the tiaie when he took part in events ; and then follow 
 them until he finished his course on earth; leaving his country, 
 in the midst of a revolution, the beginning" of which he saw 
 and took part in, but the witnessing of the end of which he was 
 graciously spared. 
 
 I have treated of measures and men mostly affecting him, 
 but have made free to indulge in episodes touching causes and 
 eliecis affecting the nation duVing his time, and describing some 
 of the men who were his cotemporaries. 
 
 I make no apologies to the public for the work. It was 
 written at the request of William and Mary, and has grown 
 into its present proportions and form, to gratify my own affec- 
 tions, and to perform a dut}^ of gratitude to a good, true, and 
 faithful friend, who was much maligned in life, and who is now 
 far above all praise. 
 
 The writing of it has soothed some aching agonies of my 
 own ; and my only wish or prayer about it is, that it may do 
 good to others, and especially aid in reviving the hopes of con- 
 stitutional liberty in a land which is still, thank God, the asy- 
 lum of the free. Its aim is to direct the attention of a republic 
 back to the " Humanities," from the " material and the physi- 
 cal," which now preponderate and prevail too much over the 
 moral elements of government and of society. 
 
 The attempt is itself laudable, whatever may be the failure 
 of the performance. If it is not thought Avell, nor grouped 
 well, nor written well, it may perchance suggest something 
 worth weighing to those who can think and group and write ; 
 and with that I will be content. 
 
 With the highest reverence and respect, I am 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Henry A. Wise. 
 
OOl^TEI^TS. 
 
 CHAPTER T. 
 
 THE FIRST DECABE, FKOlf 1790 TO 1801. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 The American Revolution — The Effect of the Reformation — The First Ad- 
 ministration under the Constitution of the United States, during which 
 Mr. Tyler was born — The Second Administration, and its Revolution of 
 Parties in 1801 — Mr. Tyler's Lineage, a.nd the Peninsula on which he 
 was born and raised . 11 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 THE SECOND DECADE, FROM 1800 TO 1810. 
 
 The Aggressions of England and France ujjon Neutrals, and the Rejection 
 of the American Mission by France — Commencement of the American 
 Navy — The Effect of the Alien and Sedition Laws, causing the Kentucky 
 and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 — The Presidential Election in ISOO, 
 overthrowing the Federal Party, and diyiding the Democratic by the 
 Contest of Burr for the First Place on the Ticket — Peace with the First 
 Consul, and the Acquisition of Louisiana — Disunion Sentiments in the 
 North in 1803, on account of the Treaty with France — The Lewis and 
 Clarke Expedition — The Orders in Council, and the Imperial Decrees — 
 The Attack of the Leopard on the Chesapeake — The Embargo Act — Pre- 
 parations for War — The War turned over to the Madison Term — What 
 Mr. Jefferson did for Science 35 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 THE THIRD DECADE, FROM 1810 TO 1820. 
 
 Tecumseh and Tippecanoe — War with Great Britain ; how the Declaration 
 of it was got at, and Mr. Tyler's part in the War — The Attempt upon 
 Canada — General Scott, another War-made Man — The Navy on the 
 Ocean and the Lakes — Blue-Lights — Cockburn at Hampton — General 
 Taylor, another War-made Jlan — General Jackson — The Course of Con- 
 necticut and Massachusetts during the War— The Hartford Convention 
 
 (V) 
 
Vi CONTENTS. 
 
 PAaa 
 
 called by Massachusetts in tli« midst of the War — Peace saved the United 
 States — After Peace, Imposts for Protection — National Bank in 1817 — 
 The Colonization Society and the Republic of Liberia — The First Term 
 of Mr. Monroe — His Conciliation of Federalism — His Cabinet — J. Q. 
 Adams — W. H. Crawford — John C. Calhoun — Internal Improvements — 
 The Erie Canal by New York — The Seminole War — St. Mark's — Pensa- 
 cola and Fort Barrancas — Cession of Florida — Admission of Missouri — 
 Ocean Steam Navigation, July 20, 1819 62 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FOURTH DECADE, FROM 1820 TO 1830. 
 
 The Second Term of Mr. Monroe — The Debate on the Execution of Arbuth- 
 not and Ambrist-er — The Presidential Election in 1824 — Gemoral Jackson. 72 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FOURTH DECADE, FROM 1820 TO 1830. 
 
 " The Monroe Doctrine" — Northwestern Coast of America — The Tariff of 
 1828 — The Election of General Jackson — An Episode and Anecdote . 90 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FIFTH DECADE, FROM 1830 TO 1840. 
 
 Debates from 1831 to 1832— The Tariff of 1828 for Protection— The Com- 
 promise — Mr. Clay the Great Pacificator — South Carolina Ordinances 
 and Force Bill — Mr. Tyler the real and only Peace-Maker — The Presi- 
 dential Election of 1832 — Democracy divided — Mr. Van Buren the 
 Favorite — The Names of Factions — Mr. Tyler's Error of siding with 
 Nullification — Difference between it and the Virginia Doctrines of Mr. 
 Madison — The Conservative Purpose and End of a Convention of the 
 States for Cases of Last Resort 119 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FIFTH DECADE, FROM 1830 TO 1840. 
 
 Bill to modify and continue the Bank of the United States — Mr. Tyler's 
 Consistency — Mr. Tyler's Re-election to the Senate, to serve from the 
 Fourth of March, 1833 — His Suggestions how to compose the Strife of 
 Nullification — The Removal of the Public Deposits from the Bank of 
 the United States — Censure of President Jackson by the Senate — The 
 President's Protest — Expunction — Mr. Benton's Notice — Mr. Tyler's 
 Report on the Bank and Debate with Benton — His Presidency of the 
 Senate — "Three Millions Bill" — Action of Virginia Legislature on Ex- 
 punction — Mr. B. W. Leigh — Mr. Tyler's Resignation of his Seat in the 
 Senate, and Letter — Mr. Rives elected to fill the Vacancy — Mr. Leigh 
 on the Verb " to Keep" — Scene of Expun<!tion — Election of Mr. Van 
 
CONTENTS. Vii 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Buren — Annexation of Texas — Tho Threat by General Jackson against 
 France — AVharton, Archer, Samuel Houston — How Annexation by Arms 
 was disappointed — The Boundary with Mexico — Jackson and Adams — 
 The Sacrilege of D — ning Grotius, Puffendorf, and Vattel — General 
 Jackson's Unpardonable Sin in the Eyes of Mr. Adams .... 134 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FIFTH DECADE, FROM 1830 TO 1840. 
 
 Intrigues to make Mr. Van Buren the Favorite for the Succession — Judge 
 White — The Effect of the Ambition of the President to elect his Succes- 
 sor — The Election in 1836 — The Union of all Factions in Opposition, 
 forming the Whig Party — The Election of Mr. Rives to the Senate of the 
 United States in the Session of the General Assembly of Virginia of 
 1838-39— Treachery to Mr. Tyler made him Vice-President— Mr. Web- 
 ster's Opposition to the Nomination of Mr. Clay — The Triangular Cor- 
 respondence — Judge White's Warning and Prophecy — Mr. Clay's Pledges 
 and Committals on Practical Points — Judge White instructed out of the 
 Senate by Loeofocoism in the Tennessee Legislature — Scenes with Mr. 
 Clay in 1840 — His Habits up to 1844 — His War with Webster, resulting 
 in the Election of Harrison and Tyler — The total Dismecoberment of the 
 Whig Party before Harrison's Inauguration ...... 153 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE SIXTH DECADE, FROM 1840 TO 1850. 
 
 Campaign of 1840 — Tippecanoe and Tyler too — Personations of the Divi- 
 sions of the Whig Party — Tyler's expressed Opinions during the Can- 
 vass — Dismemberment of the Whig Party before General Harrison's 
 Inauguration — General Harrison's Health and Death — Scenes at Wash- 
 ington City — Harrison's Cabinet — "Tyler too" President — What he had 
 to do — The Harrison Cabinet retained — Mr. Tyler's Speech as Vice- 
 President — His "Address to the People of the United States," and his 
 First Message — Fiscal Bank — Veto — Fiscal Corporation — Ewing's Bill — 
 Mr. Clay's Pledges broken — Why — The Ewing, Sergeant, and Berrien 
 Committee's Interview with Mr. Tyler — Mr. Rives's Plan of evading 
 Constitutional Scruples — Mr. Clay's Object to force a Veto — Veto Second 
 — Mr. Tyler's Integrity assailed — His Firmness — Conditions of Peace 
 tendered to him — Mr. Clay inexorable — Congress implacable — The Har- 
 rison Cabinet dissolved — Mr. Webster remains with his Credentials in 
 Favor of Mr. Tyler — Disposition to deprive Mr. Tyler of a Cabinet by 
 not confirming any of his Nominees — The First Tyler Cabinet. . .174 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SIXTH DECADE, FROM 1840 TO 1850. 
 
 The Cabinet — Mr. Webster; bis Social Conversation — Daniel Wisc^ — Hon. 
 A. P. Upshur— T. R. Joy nes— Trial of the Gibbses- The Figure of Arith- 
 
yjii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAoa 
 metic and of Rhetoric— Mr. J. C. Spencer — Mr. Wickliffe — Mr. Legarg — 
 Error in his Biography— Retirement of Spencer and Webster — Death of 
 Legare — Second Session of the Twenty-seventh Congress — Its Measures 
 — The Bank Bills — The Exchequer — Act for the Distribution of the 
 Sales of the Public Lands, and the Tariff, and their Veto — Report of 
 Mr. Adams's Committee, and the Protest — Mr. Thomas W. Gilmer — Dorr 
 Rebellion — Impeachment — Loss of Mrs. Tyler — Persecution and Compo- 
 sure of Mr. Tyler — The Cabinet renewed 194 
 
 CB.APTER XL 
 
 THE SIXTH DECADE, FROM 1840 TO 1850. 
 
 Vacancy in Supreme Court — The Case of Vidal et aL v«. Girard's Executors 
 — Sergeant, Binney, Webster, Jones — Reason why Sergeant and Binney 
 declined — How Mr. Calhoun was called to the Department of State — A 
 Personal Scene with Mr. Tyler after the Catastrophe of the Princeton — 
 The New Cabinet 215 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 THE SIXTH DECADE, FROM 1840 TO 1850. 
 
 Departure for Brazil — The Calhoun Cabinet — The Last Year of the Admin- 
 istration, and Annexation of Texas — Mr. Spencer retires — Election of 
 1844 — The Triumph of Mr. Tyler's Policy — Comparison with Jefferson's 
 Administration — Mr. Tyler's Second Marriage — A Scene on a James 
 River Steamer — Mr. William L. Marcy ; Anecdotes of him and Robert 
 G. Scott, Esq., of Richmond, Va.— The Sherwood Estate of Mr. Tyler— 
 His Appointment and Services as Overseer of Roads in Charles City 
 County — His Retirement and Private Life — Professor Holmes's Slur 
 upon him in the University Series — What he did in preparing for the 
 Acquisition of California — The Effect of the Gold-Mines — The Revival 
 of the Missouri Compromise Controversy — The South dwarfed in the 
 Union 228 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 THE SEVENTH DECADE, FROM 1850 TO 1860. 
 
 Disparity of the North and South in White Population — General Taylor 
 and the Election of 1848 — Mr. Fillmore — " Free Soil" Usurpation in 
 California — Mr. Clay's Omnibus Bill — Death of General Taylor — Non- 
 intervention — Election of Mr. Pierce in 1852 — Kansas and Nebraska 
 Bills — " Squatter Sovereignty" — The Modern Republican Party — Con- 
 vention of Seven Southern States at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1850^ 
 Secession started — Judicial Blindness of the South — "Immigrant Aid 
 Societies" and "Blue Lodges" — Border War enacted by Congress — - 
 John Brown of Ossawattomie — Know-Nothingism — Election of Mr. 
 Buchanan in 1857 — Dred Scott Case; its Effect — Kansas Troubles — Mr. 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 FAOE 
 
 Buchanan's Failure to keep the Peace — Raid on Harper's Ferry — Elec- 
 tion of 1860 : the Issue — The Plan and Meaning of Fighting in the Union 
 — Mr. Tyler's Part-Peace Convention — Mr. Tyler's Speech at Baltimore 
 in 1855 — Secession Fears of Halters 241 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE SEVENTH DECADE, FROM 1850 TO 18G0. 
 
 The Essential Rights of States — The Original Condition of the several 
 United States — What Change did the Constitution of the United States 
 make in their Sovereign Condition? — The War-Power of the United 
 States — War-Power and the Power to repel Invasion in Constitutional 
 Contrast with the Powers to execute the Laws and to suppress Insurrec- 
 tion — The Prohibitions to the States — The Error of Secession — Instances 
 of Insurrection and Rebellion — A State defined — The Primary and 
 Secondary Elements of a State — The Conflict of States never an Insur- 
 rection : of these States, it is Internal or Civic War, governed by the 
 Law of Internal Sovereignty — The States invaded, and their Duties in 
 the Case — Inimici uon Hostca — Dorr's Rebellion 255 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE SEVENTH DECADE, FROM 1850 TO 1862. 
 
 Peace Convention — Virginia's Attitude — Rapid Rush of Events from the 
 4th of February to the 18th of March, 1861— The Part of Mr. Tyler— 
 His Speech on opening the Peace Convention — Virginia's Delegates 
 disagree among themselves — The Rule in the Case of Ilylton vs. United 
 States, as to Uniformity and Equality of Taxation throughout the United 
 States, contended for by Mr. Tyler — Proclamation of the Federal Execu- 
 tive, and its Effect — The Seizure of Harper's Ferry — Secession declared 
 by Virginia on the 17th of April, 1861 — What Virginia ought to have 
 done — Mr. Tyler elected to the Confederate Congress — His Death — The 
 Obituaries— His Will 271 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 DECADE BEGINNING IN 1861, AND ENDING JANUARY 18, 1862. 
 
 Death of Mr. Tyler — Proceedings of the Legislature of Virginia — Proceed- 
 ings of the Confederate Congress — The Citizens of Richmond did him 
 Homage and Sepulture at Hollywood Cemetery, where his Remains lie; 
 and Honor was done his Memory even in Baltimore at that Hazardous 
 Time- -Item in his Will touching his Burial 283 
 
 Appendix ...» 305 
 
SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FIRST DECADE FROM irOO TO ISOl. 
 
 The American Revolution — The Effect of the Reformation — The First Admih- 
 istration under the Constitution of the United States, during which Mr. 
 Tyler was born — The Second Administration, and its Revolution of Parties 
 in 1801 — Mr. Tyler's Lineage, and the Peninsula on which he was born and 
 raised. 
 
 "The dust on antique time would lie unswept, 
 And mountainous error be too highly heap'd 
 For truth to overpeer," 
 
 bad not Heaven's messengers of the Reformation, in the latter 
 end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth 
 centuries, broken its thick crust of ages. The smouldering fires 
 of accumulated wrongs burst forth in Europe with more than 
 volcanic force, shaking and scorching the Absolutism of the Old 
 World, and setting human intellects free. 
 
 Wickliffe, Calvin, Luther, Melanchthon, Cromwell were not the 
 only ones thinking and daring and doing, but hosts of mightiest 
 minds, in every department of knowledge and of truth, were 
 scattering lights abroad to illumine the darkness. The closets 
 of the Yatican were thrown open ; the secrets of the Schoolmen 
 were revealed ; the stools of Dogmas and the thrones of Despot- 
 ism were thrown down. Powers and Principalities were sub- 
 dued to become the Protestant pupils of a divine faith of 
 "good will to men," and were themselves made to question 
 
 (11) 
 
12 SEVEX DECADES OF THE UNIOX. 
 
 and confront Absolutism defiantly, with the cross of suffering 
 and of martyrdom, for the sake of Truth. 
 
 Tliis shock of old things, thought to be firmly established 
 because simply hoary, and having custom without law, had its 
 ample course. Students of the laws of God and of the rights 
 of man were in the laboratories of the great school of the Hu- 
 manities, and the Humanities were made ready for the occa- 
 sion of their uses. Earth was crying for them, and they went 
 forth to the call. Philolog-y, Grammar, the Hebrew, Latin, and 
 Greek languages, Logic, Poetry, History, Metaphysics, and the 
 Divine Philosophy of Christianity found the Printing-Press 
 ready to give them the wings of the morning, and Columbus 
 had already sailed over the seas and found a ]^ew World for 
 their theater. Here, in North America, they found a huge, rude, 
 barbaric continent, lying prone in a state of nature, ample for 
 the fires and the blasts of all their mighty furnaces, forges, and 
 foundries. 
 
 In the mean time, Bacon had been at his inductions ; Oxford 
 was teaching; the divines were translating and publishing the 
 Bible ; Milton was singing ; and by the time America was 
 ready for her first Revolution Burke had generalized the phi- 
 losophy of human government ; Bourbons and Stuarts of old 
 dynasties had been beheaded ; Hampdeus and Sydneys had 
 asserted rights and been martyred; the Publicists had codi- 
 fied international law, and the convulsions of England had 
 settled some ideas of Magna Charta for domestic govern- 
 ment. The people of England had learned to rehearse the 
 noble Baron's chant of Liberty: 
 
 "Let every Briton, as his mind, be free. 
 Ilis person safe, his property secure; 
 His house as sacred as the fane of heaven; 
 Watching unseen, his ever-open door, 
 Watching the realm, the spirit of the laws; 
 His fate determined by the rules of right; 
 His voice enacted in the common voice, 
 , And general suffrage of the assembled realm. 
 
 No hand invisible to write bis doom ; 
 No demon starting at the midnight hour, 
 
THE FIRST DECADE. 13 
 
 To draw bis curtain, or to drag hira down 
 To mansions of despair. Wide to the world 
 Disclose the secrets of the prison walls, 
 And bid the groaniugs of the dungeon strike 
 The public ear. Inviolable preserve 
 The sacred shield that covers all the land. 
 The Ileaveu-conferrcd palladium of the Isle, 
 To Britain's sons, the judgment of their peers. 
 On these great pillars, freedom of the Mind, 
 Freedom of Speech, and freedom of the Pen, 
 Forever changing, yet forever sure. 
 The base of Britain rests!" 
 
 These were the mig'hty throes making grand preparation for 
 the working of new ideas. 
 
 The American Revolution breaking out in lYGS, and brought 
 to a denouement in '76, germinated thoughts wliich will never 
 cease growing, until thej cover the whole earth with the aegis 
 of laws made for the sake of liberty, not of liberty only to 
 make laivs. 
 
 1st. The right of self-government, in all separate communities 
 defined into distinct peoples, requiring separate and difierent 
 laws, and capable of either separate or confederate Jialionality. 
 
 2dly. Self-government, guarded in law making and in law- 
 adminstering power by limitations of authority in written 
 constitutions of government. 
 
 3dly. IVie demolition of colonial and provincial States de- 
 pendent on central sovereignties. 
 
 4th]y. Freedom, equality, and source of sovereignty in the 
 governed, and responsibility and accountability in the gov- 
 ernors of men. 
 
 5thly. Sovereignty in the constituency or source, and not in 
 the mere viunicipality of government. 
 
 These were the five cardinal points of the North American 
 system of constitutional republicanism. 
 
 The forest-born Demosthenes did not catch songs of liberty 
 from the birds of the trees in the wilderness. Old Logan had 
 written his poem, and Runnymede was read in the forests 
 where Henry hunted ; and it was thus that the orator's thun- 
 
14 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 ders caught the notes of the poet's soul-music; the one singing, 
 " 'Tis Liberty or Death!" and the other singing, "Give me 
 Liberty or give me Death I" 
 
 It was about this period of liberty brooding over States 
 which had just ceased to be colonies of America, and ger- 
 minating these indestructible thoughts in mighty men, that 
 John Tyler was born. It was the age of heroes and of sages, 
 and of battles, too, — battles of which those of the sword were 
 only heroic, while those of the souls and minds of men were 
 spiritual and immortal. It was the age which gave the world 
 a Washington ; and the shrine of Mount Yernon is sacred to all 
 men, next only to the unapproachable shrine of Mount Nebo. 
 The Moses of the New World inducted these new ideas into the 
 government of men. The novelty of this new government was 
 the least difficulty in the wondrous work of -its establishment. 
 Its magnitude was immense, and yet all its parts were aptly 
 fitted together, and appropriate to all its far-reaching ends. 
 The administration of the Father of his Country gave it at the 
 beginning its true form and expression. 
 
 His wisdom settled foreign relations on the surest founda- 
 tions of peace and justice with all nations, and entangling alli- 
 ances with none ; he firmly guarded neutrality ; he organized 
 the executive departments. 
 
 During his term were founded the judiciary, the land ordi- 
 nances, the Indian policy, the laws of immigration and natu- 
 ralization, a navy and military system opposed to standing 
 armies ; and he so ordered the public fisc as to frown down 
 the bad faith of repudiating the public debt, and assumed the 
 States' debts incurred iu the Revolution. He restored the 
 national credit, revived trade, and provided ample revenue; he 
 protected the frontier against Indian depredations. He resisted 
 Jacobinism from abroad, and, above all, taught us the applica- 
 tion of the Constitution and laws to cases of rebellion and 
 treason, using the military force as ancillary only to the civil 
 power. In a word, under the auspices of the administration 
 of the first President, grace, dignity, decorum, order, and power 
 were imparted to the government of the United States; and it 
 
THE FIRST DECADE. 15 
 
 was made to give assurauce to the hope of permanent and per- 
 petual civil liberty, and commanded the highest respect of the 
 nations of the earth. But there was one canker in its bud 
 which needed to be dreaded, and has since proved to be de- 
 structive to its bloom and beauty, — not yet, I hope, to all its 
 fruits. It was the canker of construction. 
 
 All then admitted that all the powers granted in the Consti- 
 tution were guarded by limitations ; but two schools existed as 
 to the extent and application of limitations. Jefferson at the 
 head of one, Hamilton at the head of the other school, both 
 of the first Cabinet, came into serious conflict first upon the 
 construction of the words " necessary and proioer,'''' as to the 
 power of Congress to create a national bank. The strict school 
 contended that the power was not granted, and was, therefore, 
 reserved to the States or the people. 
 
 The school of broader construction resorted to the incidental 
 powers. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton admitted all the granted powers were strictly 
 limited, and that the granted powers only could be exercised ; 
 but that all powers " necessary and proper" to carry the ex- 
 pressed powers into execution were granted and could be ex- 
 ercised; though he admitted that they were restrained and 
 limited in extent and purpose by their relation to the powers 
 expressed. 
 
 Neither contended that either the expressed or the necessary 
 and properly relative or incidental powers were unlimited and 
 unrestrained ; but, as we shall see, this memorable start of con- 
 struction soon passed beyond all bounds of either expressed or 
 necessary and proper incidental powers. 
 
 The history of construction shows that in less than a quarter 
 of a century the incidental powers, restrained at first^by the 
 ends and extent of the expressed powers, were carried far be- 
 yond the expressed powers themselves, which limited and re- 
 strained them. And here commenced the first struggle between 
 what then began to be called the Federal and Democratic 
 Republican parties. 
 
 Well for us all would it be, at this day, if construction had 
 
16 SHVEy DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 not cari-ied incidental power further than it was carried by Mr. 
 Haiiiiltoj, in his masterly argument, which won the mind of 
 Washington on the Bank question. But the Federal party, 
 under his august influence, succeeded in electing his immediate 
 successor ; and the second administration met the portentous 
 obstacle of a threatened war with France. 
 
 The crushing conflicts of England and France for universal 
 supremacy assailed the neutral rights of our country, and a 
 provisional army had to be raised. Genet, the French minister 
 in this country, had outraged our internal sovereignty, and 
 the elder Adams recommended measures which were defended 
 under the pretext of the imminency of war. His party started 
 the doctrine that even thr-eatened war set aside the checks, 
 balances, and limitations of the Constitution, and justified the 
 passage of the acts of the Alien and of the Sedition laws, — the 
 one act to remove aliens suspected of hostility, and the other 
 to punish sedition, in forms violating the freedom of speech 
 and of the press. It was then that the Virginia Legislature 
 resolved: " That the powers not delegated by the Constitution 
 to the United States, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 
 reserved to the States or to the people ; and, therefore, the exer- 
 cise of the powers not enumerated in the grant by the United 
 States, is an usurpation of the authority of the States or of the 
 people." 
 
 This was in turn met by the Federal party assuming that 
 whilst the States and the people of the States were originally 
 the sources of sovereignty, yet they had delegated that sover- 
 eignty to the Federal government of the Union, and that the 
 Congress of the United States had, by the Constitution, become 
 invested with the national sovereignty, and might exercise its 
 powers and dominions over any and every subject of the " gen- 
 eral welfare." 
 
 The Democracy insisted that the national sovereignty could 
 not be delegated, and could not exist in any one or all of the 
 mere municipal departments of government, either executive, 
 judicial, or legislative, — that sovereignty could exist alone in 
 its source, the States, and that the people could act only 
 
THE FIRST DECADE. It 
 
 through the organism of the States ; and that its very nature, 
 under our system of republican constitutional freedom, was 
 conventional, and not municipal; that the mere municipal 
 functionaries of the Federal government were but creatures of 
 sovereignty, and its mere trustees, servants, and agents, to do 
 the biddings of the conventional power of the States and the 
 people as expressed and limited by the Constitution ; that the 
 Constitution itself was but the creature of the sovereignty of 
 the States or the people, and was made by it the guide, and 
 standard, and rule of legislative, executive, and judicial author- 
 ity and functions, and that the Presidency, the Congress, and the 
 Supreme Court each and all were but creatures of the Consti- 
 tution. They were creatures not in the first, but in the second 
 degree from sovereignty, and could pretend neither to be the 
 sovereignty itself nor to have delegated to them its absolute 
 powers, that the conventional powers of the States or their 
 people alone could exercise absolute and unlimited power, and 
 that all questions of doubtful or disputed power by the mere 
 municipal Federal government, and either or all of its depart- 
 ments, had of right to be referred to the conventional power of 
 the States or of the people, in their separate State organiza- 
 tions. Thus began the discord of State rights and of Federal 
 absolutism. The Alien and Sedition laws were passed, the 
 provisional army was provided, a regular army created, Demo- 
 cratic members of the House of Representatives were insulted 
 in the theater for words spoken against standing armies in the 
 House. Mr. Jefferson, then V^ice-President, had to be guarded 
 by his friends from his presiding chair in the Senate to his 
 boarding-house and back ; the judiciary had, both in the case 
 of Jay and of Marshall, become officially conjoined with the 
 executive, mixing the chief justiceship in the same person with 
 the secretaryship of state and the office of a foreign minister; 
 and some of the inferior Federal judges had played the Jeffries- 
 scenes over again so rampant that the whole judiciary was very 
 much lowered in dignity, and finally Chase was impeached. 
 
 The excesses of the second administration became odious to 
 the States and the people, and the Federal party was over- 
 
 2 
 
18 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 thrown iu the memorable political revolution of 1801, when 
 the great apostle of liberty and author of the Declaration of 
 Independence was elected the President. For a study of this 
 era we refer to Wharton's " State Trials," and particularly to 
 his able, philosophical, beautiful, and just preface. 
 
 Besides the canker of construction, other causes showed 
 themselves during the first administration which brooded mis- 
 chief, and from the beginning foreshadowed the danger of disso- 
 lution of the Union, by reason of infractions of the Constitution 
 and of infringement of the rights of the States to domestic and 
 internal self-government. 
 
 On the 12th February, 1790, the first petition was presented 
 to Congress for the emancipation of slaves. It was signed by 
 Dr. Franklin, President of the Society for the Abolition of 
 Slavery. He was a philosopher " wise as a serpent," but not 
 "as harmless as the dove." He had been chiefly instrumental 
 as a pacificator in the convention which framed the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States on the question of the apportionment 
 of representatives between the free and the slave States ; but 
 it seems that he was wily enough to resort to a more effectual 
 mode of assailing the property in slaves and the power of the 
 States which held them in bondage. Whether he foresaw that 
 the dragon's teeth which he was sowing would sprout armed 
 warriors or not, is not for us to say ; but he was either not 
 wise in not foreseeing the consequences of his movement, or 
 he was fanatically heedless of the consequences themselves 
 which followed. It irritated sectional antagonism, aroused I'e- 
 ligious antipathies, fomented jealousies and discord, disturbed 
 the legislation of Congress,, and finally caused civil war. So 
 much for the motives and action of the highest human wisdom. 
 He was doubtless a man of peace, but was blind to the mode 
 of preserving it. 
 
 The Congress of 1790 was wiser than Franklin, more faith- 
 ful to the Constitution of the United States, and resolved : 
 " That Congress have no authority to interfere in the emanci- 
 pation of slaves, or in the treatment of them in any of the 
 States." And the territory south of the Ohio was accepted 
 
THE FIRST DECADE. 19 
 
 without excluding slavery. What a contrast this is with the 
 executive and congressional action in 1862, when civil war was 
 made the pretext for violating the Constitution 1 
 
 Another cloud, not larger at first than the palm of a man's 
 hand, formed another prognostic of coming wars. The terri- 
 tory ceded by North Carolina, out of which the new State was 
 formed, was what is now included in the State of Tennessee. 
 That territory was ceded by North Carolina in a deed executed 
 by her senators under her laws, in December, 1789, and was 
 accepted by act of Congress passed April 2d, 1790, just four- 
 teen days after the birth of John Tyler. The cession was 
 forced upon North Carolina by the acts of rebels to her jurisdic- 
 tion, countenanced by Congress. The history of this territory 
 shows the first and only instance of de facto " squatter sover- 
 eignty" known in the United States prior to the period of the 
 Mormon monstrosities in Utah, and it was the first instance of 
 nullification. 
 
 The settlers in the then State of North Carolina west of the 
 Stone Mountain, complaining that they were not afforded due 
 protection by the parent State, declared their independence, and 
 set up against both State and Federal sovereignty a sovereignty 
 of their own, called " the State of Franklin." They organized 
 a State government, with all the municipal departments. They 
 practically nullified in their limits both the laws of North Caro- 
 lina and of the Federal government. They established a cur- 
 rency of peltry, and the then governor, General Sevier, com- 
 plained that he was cheated grievously in the payment of his 
 salary, by having put upon him opossum-skins with raccoon- 
 tails sewed on to them. 
 
 They contended that his story was absurd, because if they 
 had the raccoon-tails, they would have the raccoon-skins, too ; 
 but he convicted them of using the same tails for numerous dif- 
 ferent payments, and of stealing the tails again for the repay- 
 ments. 
 
 The United States, under Washington's administration, did 
 not deem it a duty or a necessity to use force against this gro- 
 tesque but flagrant rebellion ; but compensated North Carolina 
 
20 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 and pacified the rebels by admitting the Territory or State of 
 Franklin into the Union as the State of Tennessee. But it 
 must not be forgotten that by rebellion that State gained ad- 
 mission instead of losing its place in the Union ; and secession 
 and nullification were both sanctioned by the then Congress of 
 the United States of America. Such, then, was the jealous 
 regard paid by all to the right of independent self-government. 
 And this, too, was a precedent sanctioned by both State and 
 Federal authority, which fixed a habitude of thought and feejing 
 and action on the very first settlers of this country, engrafting 
 in them a ruling sense of the right of self-government against 
 any power which either oppressed or failed to protect them. 
 If it was not taught them by precedent sanctioned by Con- 
 gress, its spirit was caught by them, assuredly, from the colo- 
 nies, especially from Massachusetts and all New England and 
 Virginia. 
 
 It was in this decade, beginning with the first under Wash- 
 ington and ending with the second administration, under the 
 elder Adams, that John Tyler's childhood played. He drew 
 his first breath in the atmosphere of the wisdom of "Washing- 
 ton, and his mind was imbued from his cradle with the spirit of 
 the age of reformation, resulting in the men and the events of 
 the American Revolution. 
 
 ' He was at his grammar-school just at the moment when the 
 doctrines of State and popular sovereignty began to be success- 
 fully taught, and became triumphant for half a century of the 
 future from that time. He was taught and trained in the school 
 of strict construction of the Constitution and of the sovereignty 
 of the States or the people, and in the principles of the school 
 of Democracy, — a school which never sought to lower itself in 
 the mud of manners and morals, and to pull all men down to 
 the depth of vulgar mobocracy ; but one which, like a mighty 
 charity, sought to build up a broad platform high as kings' 
 crowns, to reach down the strong arm of popular sovereignty 
 to raise all men, the lea,st and lowest, up to that exalted level ; 
 ay, as high as possible, near to God ! 
 
 He was thoroughly and fully imbued by birth, by educa- 
 
TEE FIRST DECADE. 21 
 
 tion, by the men and events around him, with the spirit 
 and the truths of times resorting to revolution and reform for 
 liberty. 
 
 His father's residence at the time was at Greenway, near 
 Charles City Court House. His cradle was rocked there, and 
 all his childhood was nurtured at that locality. For his parent- 
 age and family history, we condense a statement prepared by 
 his son, John Tyler, Jr., Esq. He says that he was born at 
 Greenway, on the twenty-ninth day of March, a.d. 1790. In 
 the paternal line he was the fifth in descent from the first in 
 Virginia bearing the same name, who, together with his brother 
 Henry, came at an early period to the colony at Jamestown ; 
 and eventually, in the year 1636, established themselves in the 
 Middle Plantations, intermediate between the settlements at 
 Jamestown and Yorktown, embracing the present city of Wil- 
 liamsburg and its adjacent country. Henry located himself on 
 the spot where Williamsburg was laid out, in 1690 ; and the 
 lands upon which the palace of the royal governor was erected, 
 together with those upon which the college itself was built, 
 were acquired from his estate. 
 
 John located himself four miles from the present site of Wil- 
 liamsburg, where the round brick house constructed for his resi- 
 dence still stands, — now called Warburton's, in the county of 
 James City. 
 
 These brothers, John and Henry Tyler, were younger mem- 
 bers of the ancient Shropshire family, originally from Wales, 
 recently and at present represented in Great Britain, in the 
 elder line, by the late Sir William and the present Sir Charles 
 of the Parliament and the Admiralty. They were of orginal 
 Norman and Welsh extraction. 
 
 Who the first John Tyler of Virginia married, is unknown, 
 the records of James City County having been repeatedly de- 
 stroyed. They were destroyed in Bacon's Rebellion, in 1616. 
 Again when the old capitol was burnt, and again during the 
 late war of secession. What remained at Williamsburg were 
 transferred to Richmond, and they were burnt in the conflagra- 
 tion of that city in 1865 ; and most family records of the penin- 
 
22 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 sula of York and James Rivers were destroyed in the wars of 
 1776, of 1812, and of 1861. 
 
 The son of the first John Tyler was known as John Tyler, 
 Esq. He was a man of note in his day, and married his 
 cousin, Elizabeth Tyler. His son John, the third John Tyler, 
 was, by royal appointment, marshal of the colony. John 
 Tyler, the marshal, married Anne Contesse, the daughter 
 i>f Dr. Lewis Contesse, a French Huguenot of nerve and 
 character. 
 
 He left several daughters, and two sons, John and Lewis. 
 John, the elder, and the father of President Tyler, lived to 
 attain high honors. He was a distinguished Revolutionary 
 patriot, and a zealous leader in the cause of the American 
 colonies. He was an eminent jurist, and as judge of admiralty 
 he decided the first prize case which occurred after independence 
 was declared, holding his court under a large golden willow, 
 which stood in the yard at Greeuway. He was the bosom 
 friend of Thomas Jefferson. After independence was achieved, 
 he was speaker of the House of Burgesses, and was a judge of 
 the State District Court ; was governor of the State from 1808 
 to 1811, and ultimately judge of the United States District 
 Court until he died. 
 
 Many rare and rich anecdotes are told of his life. At the 
 christening of his first-born son, when the name of the child 
 was announced, — "Wat Henry Tyler," — Mr. Henry being pres- 
 ent and somewhat surprised, nervously asked " why that name 
 was selected." The mother replied, "We have so named 
 him, sir, after the two greatest British rebels, Wat Tyler and 
 Patrick Henry." And the watch-seal which he wore when he 
 died was presented to him by Mr. Jefferson, with the initials 
 " T. J." engraved on its face, reading forward " Thomas Jeifer- 
 sou," and backward "John Tyler." 
 
 In Abell's " Life of President Tyler," we have a sweet story 
 of his saving Patrick Henry from an awful repulse by a hostess, 
 who, when told that they were members of the House of Bur- 
 gesses flying before Arnold's invasion, was indignant that they 
 were running away when her husband had just left her to meet 
 
THE FIRST DECADE. 23 
 
 the invader. He had to vouch for Mr. Henry's being: himself; 
 and when convinced of that fact, such was her confidence in 
 him that if he ran away, all was right; it obtained for them 
 shelter and food for the night. 
 
 Another anecdote illustrative of the man, and not yet written, 
 was related by the late General M. Pitts, the father of Judge 
 E. P. Pitts, late of the Norfolk Circuit. He was a student of 
 law in the office of John Wise, on the Eastern Shore of Vir- 
 ginia, and when he was ready to apply for his license, Mr. 
 Wise gave him a letter to Judge Tyler, then of the District 
 Court, residing at Norfolk. He was a young aian of great 
 promise, and afterwards distinguished in his profession, but 
 was exceedingly diffident and awkward. He reached Norfolk, 
 and easily found the judge's office, but the judge was not in. 
 His clerk received young Pitts politely, took his letter of intro- 
 duction, and invited him to await the judge's return, expected 
 every moment. He sat down, anxiously awaiting the awful 
 appearance of the strange judge. Suddenly a fine horse dashed 
 up to the office door, mounted by a grand-looking, erect rider, 
 venerable and commanding in his mien, with powdered hair 
 neatly queued, wearing the shad-cut coat with long-flap waist- 
 coat, shirt ruffled at bosom and wristbands, with shorts and knee- 
 buckles and white topboots. He dismounted abruptly, stalked 
 in, dashed off his buck-skin gauntlets, threw his whip on the 
 table, and began to walk and talk to himself, violently exclaim- 
 ing, " Yes 1 I will teach the upstart what the rights of land 
 proprietors are ! He is so little of a gentleman, and so much 
 of an ignoramus, that he has no idea of land-titles or rights, 
 or the laws which protect them !" 
 
 The truth was he had had a hot collision with the " super- 
 visor" of the streets, who had encroached, as he thought, on his 
 lot, and he had returned to his office before his passion was cool, 
 and neither his clerk nor Pitts knew what the soliloquy was 
 about. He had entered without noticing young Pitts, and con- 
 tinued soliloquizing aloud as he stalked the room, swearing not 
 a little, and commenting in such a mood that the clerk did not 
 venture to present the letter of young Pitts, who sat trembling 
 
24 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 with apprehension. " Was ever judge in such a humor wooed 
 for a law license ?" 
 
 At last the clerk caught a lull in the storm, and handed him 
 the letter. Pitts timidly rose, and the judge, holding the letter, 
 read it, and exclaimed, " Young gentleman, my friend John 
 Wise, Esq., tells me you wish to be a lawyer." 
 
 "Yes, sir," replied Pitts, "if you will be pleased to sign my 
 license ; but — but — I can come at another time, if it please you, 
 sir, better." He hoped to be let off from the hour of wrath and 
 bad omens for lenity in the examination. 
 
 The judge exclaimed, " No, young gentleman ; I can tell now 
 by a single question whether you are fit to be a lawyer or 
 not." Then raising his voice to a higher pitch, he asked, 
 " Can you tell me the meaning of the word 'supervisor V " 
 
 Pitts was overwhelmed: he thought there was a "catch" in 
 the word ; perplexed, he looked down, tasted his lips for a 
 reply, the judge's eye glaring on him bewildered. At last, hesi- 
 tatingly and half choked, he muttered, " Judge, I — I hardly — 
 know — any technical — meaning, — but — suppose — its common 
 meaning is — ' super' — ' over' — and * video' to see — the noun — 
 * overseer !' " 
 
 Eagerly the judge exclaimed, " Yes, young man, you have 
 hit it exactly. He is on the stilts of ' supervisor,'' ]\xs,i as if he 
 was lord of the manors and of all the owners, and all the time 
 he is nothing but ad — d vulgar 'overseer.'' You know the 
 meaning of words, sir, and interpret truly, and are fit to be a 
 lawyer. Give me your license, and I will sign it with pleasure.' 
 
 In a moment he was calm, signed the license, pressed upon 
 young Pitts every kindness, and sent him back home rejoicing ! 
 
 December 11th, 1808, in a note dated at Greenway, he ac- 
 cepted the office of governor of Virginia, and he filled that 
 office with distinguished vigor of intellect and nerve for about 
 three years, resigning to accept the office of judge of the Dis- 
 trict Court of the United States, which office he honored until 
 his death in 1813. 
 
 One has but to read his messages whilst governor to see the 
 intellect, the integrity, the courage, the patriotic fervor, the 
 
THE FIRST DECADE 25 
 
 pure and stern republicanism, and the prophetic power of a 
 watchful, jealous lover of popular liberty. In his message of 
 December 3d, 1810, denouncing the effects of foreign influ- 
 ence and commerce upon our country and its destiny, he 
 said : " It produces also what is called in polite circles citizens 
 of the world, — the worst citizens in the world, who, having no 
 attachments to any country, make to themselves wings to fly 
 awa}^ with from impending dangers." Again, speaking of 
 the Court of Appeals, he denounced its example and habit of 
 relying so much upon British cases as precedents, applying to 
 cases under American institutions. He seems to have bad an 
 instinctive perception of the danger of citing the maxims of 
 British monarchy, and the doctrines and dogmas laid down by 
 Blackstone, and by judges who were keepers of a king's con- 
 science. 
 
 He was afraid of the effect which he foresaw it would have, 
 and has had, in gradually undermining republican ideas and 
 overthrowing the sovereignty of the people. He accused the 
 highest court and the bar of British " case mania," and of sub- 
 serviency to their lordships and barons of British courts. He 
 urged the duty of revising and codifying the common law, se- 
 lecting only such of its maxims and such of its popular princi- 
 ples as suited our system of democracy, taking its maxims 
 without its cases ; proving propositions by the maxims, not 
 proving the maxims by the propositions ; and ends by saying: 
 " Shall we forever administer our free republican government 
 on principles of rigid high-toned monarchy ? I almost blush 
 for my country when I think of these things !" 
 
 January 15th, 1811, he notified the legislature that he had 
 accepted the judgeship of the United States District Court 
 of Yirginia ; and he was succeeded in the office of governor 
 by James Monroe. He was a noble specimen of the "booted 
 and spurred cavalier" of colonial times, — a ruffled gentleman 
 of great learning and mental force, and a man of unspotted 
 name for honor, truth, integrity, and pluck. He was univer- 
 sally known, respected, and loved throughout the State, — so 
 much so that, though in the midst of the war when he died, in 
 
26 SEVEN- DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 1813, the General Assembly paid his remains and memory un- 
 usual honors, such as have never been paid to those of any man, 
 except the Father of his Country, before or since. 
 
 The maternal line of President Tyler was not less distin- 
 guished. His mother was Mary Armistead, of Buck Rowe, in 
 the county of Elizabeth City, on the Back River, looking out 
 upon the Chesapeake Bay, and in sight of now Fortress 
 Alonroe. 
 
 The Armisteads, of Buck Rowe, and those of Hesse, in Mat- 
 thews, formerly a part of Gloucester, in Virginia, sprang from 
 the Hesse Armistead family in Germany. The propositus of 
 this family came from England in the seventeenth century, and 
 fixed his residence at Hesse, in the county of what was then 
 called Gloucester, on the south bank, and near the mouth, of 
 Piankatank River. The daughters of this family have been 
 strikingly remarkable for their strength of character and beauty 
 of person, and the continuous line of male descendants has 
 marked the name of hero after hero on the tablets of their 
 country's history. The " Star- Spangled Banner" is blended 
 with the name of Colonel George Armistead, the defender of 
 Fort McHenry in the war of 1812'. He was fighting the in- 
 vader while Francis Key was writing the anthem, " our flag 
 is still there 1" His brother. General Walker Armistead, won 
 bis laurels and lost an arm in the same brilliant battle. Two 
 other brothers lost their lives in the assault upon Fort Erie, in 
 the war of- 1812; and he who was lately killed at Gettysburg, 
 leading a Confederate division against " certain death," was 
 the son of General Walker Armistead. Armistead T. Mason, 
 senator of the United States, through his mother; and Gary 
 and William Selden, through their mother ; and General Robert 
 E. Lee, through his ancestress, Judith Armistead ; and Presi- 
 dent John Tyler, through his mother, Mary Armistead, all alike 
 in the maternal line sprang from the root of the same family tree. 
 
 But no matter what her blood, or whether she could trace a 
 title from what is now derisivel}'- called the F. F. Y.'s or not, she 
 was Mary Armistead, of Buck Rowe, instinct with life, beauty, 
 and virtue ; and we emphatically pronounce, from all that ia 
 
THE FIRST DECADE. 27 
 
 known and can be gathered from tradition, that one of the pre- 
 vailing causes of the gi-eatness of the men of that period, was 
 the lovely and noble character of the mothers of the men of 
 that day. 
 
 They were eminently strong, and yet pure, refined, chaste, 
 delicate, and modest, given to household cares, frugal, practical, 
 and compelled to be heedful of the life and its events around 
 them, challenging the practice of wisdom and virtue, and de- 
 manding every effort of body and mind. 
 
 Mary Armistead, like most other ladies of her dyy, was, — 
 
 "One 
 Not learned, save in gracious household ways; 
 Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants; 
 No angel, but a dearer being, all dipt 
 In angel instincts, breathing Paradise, 
 Interpreter between the gods and men ; 
 Who looked all native to her place, and yet 
 On tiptoe seemed to touch upon a sphere 
 Too gross to tread, and all male minds perforce 
 Swayed to her from their orbits as they moved. 
 And girdled her with music. Happy he 
 AVith such a mother ! faith in womankind 
 Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high 
 Comes easy to him, and though he trip and fall 
 He shall not blind his soul with clay." 
 
 Woman, as well as man, had her part in the great dramas 
 then acted, and her part required great naturalness as well as 
 romance, and uncommon grace as well as a capacity for great 
 uses, in her acting. The women at that day were principally 
 formed by education at home. There was no meretricious train- 
 ing of misses at the domestic schools where mother was mis- 
 tress. Rarely a few " finished" at some such school as Mrs. 
 Davenport's, at Williamsburg. We remember well the cramped, 
 Italian-like chirography of the last of the pupils of that school. 
 
 These pupils were bland in their tone as the proudest dames 
 of court when the colony had a palace ; and yet they were 
 taught to cut out and cure hams of cherry-red juices sweeter 
 tliau tlie " Be Vau"-raised of Westphalia; they could arrange 
 
28 SEVEN- DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 the warping-bars, turn the spindles, wind the skein, darn the 
 stockings, and, walking over the floors of waxen cleanness, see 
 to pantry and laundry. And oh, what sweet charities their 
 perfumed presence shed around home, husband, and children, 
 guests, servants, the poor, and the church I Physicians and 
 nurses skilled in every balmy herb and soothing salve, at home 
 and in the neighborhood around, blessing and blessed by all, 
 they could not but be fresh and fair, and happy as beautiful. 
 One supreme dutj marked these mothers. All had to work, 
 and the lessons of the children must be gotten, come what 
 would. Even war did not more than stay that duty; and the 
 long winter nights were the happiest hours for the homestead 
 tasks. Feast and frolic made the house warm and bright for 
 children and servants when the tasks were done. Sons and 
 daughters at all odds, even amidst the whirring of spindles and 
 the rumbling of warping-bars for woof and web to clothe fami- 
 lies in domestic fine linen, had to study their lessons until the 
 tasks were relieved by waiters full of nuts and cakes and taffy, 
 brought in as signals of fun and tale-telling, and chitchat bois- 
 terous with glee, until the hour of rest, when all tiptoed to bed. 
 These were no rude scenes of peasantry or yeomanry. Gentle 
 manners, grace, order, and decorum, presided in stately form, 
 but bright and cheerful. The mother of these domestic scenes, 
 when an affair of state came on, was a queenly woman, — high, 
 commanding, stately, whether at the table or in the saloon, at 
 the dinner or in the dance ; she could talk of stately matters 
 with bewitching wisdom, or play her smiling, classic wit or 
 humor like a fairy, and command men to do her homage, due 
 only to dignity, sense, sweetness, and grace. And when the 
 season of chirping spring would come, flowers of sweetness 
 and of taste bloomed around her; midsummer's harvest was 
 made to smile with her bounty, and autumn's fruits were pi*e- 
 served by her, — thoughtful provisions for coming winter. She 
 made home happy and healthful as it was hospitable, without 
 stint, or sham, or seeming. To guest and family alike it was a 
 warm home of unaffected, liberal, wooing welcome. There was 
 no place on earth where the word " domesticity" — sacred to the 
 
THE FIRST DECADE. 29 
 
 household gods — meant more than it did then at such homes 
 as Greenway and Buck Rowe, in the plantations of all the 
 peninsulas of the Chesapeake Bay of Virginia. 
 
 The homes of Greenway and Buck Rowe were made one 
 house by the marriage of John Tyler and Mary Armistead, the 
 father and mother of Jolm Tyler, Jr. And we should omit a 
 pertinent and poetic theme in its story if we did not sketch at 
 least a description of the Peninsula and the population in 
 W'hich these homes flourished and bore such precious fruits in 
 their day and generation. 
 
 Greenway and Warburton are in a section of the Peninsula 
 between the historical, majestic James and the consecrated 
 banks of the York River. They are not far from the old 
 Capitol, and the old Raleigh, and the powder-magazine at 
 Williamsburg, or from the old redoubts at Yorktown ; and 
 the first and last events of the Revolution of '76 have there, 
 at these spots, and all around them, their local habitations and 
 their names ; every turf is a soldier's sepulchre, and every hall 
 was the scene of some sayings or doings of sages and heroes 
 who set the first ball of the Revolution in motion. After it 
 had bowled over the Atlantic slope, — at Lexington and Boston 
 Harbor and Bunker Hill, at Princeton and Trenton and Ger- 
 raantown, at Monmouth Court House and Chadd's Ford and 
 Stony Point and Ticonderoga, at King's Mountain and Guil- 
 ford and Eutaw and Camden and Charleston, at the Great 
 Bridge and Hicksford, — it ricocheted back again, and was spent 
 at Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, within twelve miles 
 of where it started, at the powder-magazine in "Williamsburg. 
 And that powder-magazine is still standing ; and now, — oh, 
 shame to this old city's corporate authorities! — after being used 
 as a temple of the living God, it has been sold by the corpora^ 
 tion of Williamsburg, and converted by the purchaser into a 
 horse-stable, — a monument of the contrast of the present with 
 the past. 
 
 This Peninsula was thus the Alpha and Omega of the scenes 
 of the American Revolution. It is a land of genial climate, of 
 generous soil, of majestic rivers, of fruitful fertility of fields, 
 
30 SEVEN DECADES OF Ini^ UNION. 
 
 and of forests of richest frondage, — above all distinguished for 
 lis men and women. It was settled by a race, or rather stock, 
 of families, the like of which will rarely be seen again, — so 
 manly, so refined, so intelligent, so spirited, proud, self-reliant, 
 independent, strong, so fresh and so free. The family names 
 of this Peninsula known to honor and to fame are countless, — 
 the Armisteads, Boilings, Byrds, Blairs, Burwells, Amblers, 
 Carters, Cloptons, Christians, Carys, Dandridges, Digges, Fon- 
 taines, Gregorys, Harrisons, Coles, Inneses, Mallorys, Nichol- 
 sons and Nicholases, Randolphs, Pages, Nelsons, Kennons, 
 Griffins, Barrons, Sclaters, Shields, Dudleys, Tuckers, Tylers, 
 Tabbs, Tazewells, Wallers, Peachys, Saunders, Wythes, Light- 
 foots, Semples, Bassetts, and others no less known, from whom 
 have sprung names of note in every Southern and Western 
 State, as well as in other parts of Virginia. 
 
 Many heads of these families were themselves educated in 
 the schools of the old country, and they employed tutors in 
 their households, who were scholars of no mean grade, from 
 the Universities of Oxford and Glasgow and Dublin. They 
 lived neighborly in peace and plenty, " guided by law and 
 bound by duty." Owning boundless broad acres, fair and fer- 
 tile, without wants which they could not supply by home-made, 
 of plain habits, genial in intercourse, and profuse in hospitality, 
 every manor was one of gentle graces and of manly bearing. 
 The sons and the Di Vernon daughters had their packs of 
 hounds and bugles for the horn-music of frosty mornings, and 
 duck and plover, bounding deer and wild turkey, partridge and 
 woodcock and snipe, rabbit and coon and opossum, were their 
 game and sport. 
 
 Every boy had his horse, and lived in the saddle: there were 
 riders in those days. Thus minds and bodies of men and 
 women were trained to the nerve-tunes of health and strength 
 and burly freshness ; and manners and morals were brought up 
 in all gentleness and grace to make a glad, social, and glorious 
 political state. The times taught them wisdom, and to prac- 
 tice vigilance, prudence, endurance, industry, self-denial, and 
 patriotic devotion. Masters, tutors, teachers, of the schools of 
 
THE FIRST DECADE. 31 
 
 Europe, were residing' in every neighborhood throughout all the 
 peninsulas of Virginia, and they prepared the knights and 
 ladies at home for graduation at the principal schools of Wil- 
 liam and Mary and of Mrs. Davenport's in Williamsburg. 
 They were all proficients in the Humanities, and trained the 
 generation which immediately succeeded the Fathers of the 
 Revolution, and which was so distinguished in state papers 
 and in the debates on law and politics. 
 
 We once had a conversation with Benjamin Watkins Leigh, 
 at Callaghan's, in the mountains. He was speaking of thorough 
 teaching. 
 
 " Why, sir," said he, " the people nowadays can't spell and 
 can't accentuate. Editors of the newspapers spell 'expense' 
 with a ' c ;' and no one nowadays pronounces ' a-c-c-e-p-t-a-b-1-e' 
 correctly." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Leigh, how do you pronounce it ?" 
 
 " I pronounce it ac'ceptable, of course," said he. 
 
 " But Johnson and Walker pronounce it either ' ac'ceptable' 
 or 'accept'able.' " 
 
 " And who looks to Johnson, or Walker, or any mere lexi- 
 cographer," he replied, " for accent or pronunciation ?" 
 
 " We look to good lexicographers for reputable use." 
 
 " And who cares for ' reputable use' when it is against the 
 laws of grammar ?" said he. 
 
 " And who taught you the laws of grammar ?" 
 
 " I was taught my lessons of the laws of grammar by 
 Needier Robinson, in the parish of Dale, in the county of 
 Chesterfield." 
 
 "And who was Needier Robinson ?" 
 
 He looked at his collocutor with surprise which ' expressed 
 that he must be himself unknown, never to have heard of 
 Needier Robinson. 
 
 "Needier Robinson was a Scotch scholar, the friend of ray 
 father, the parson of the parish, and he was my teacher. It 
 was the joy of my boyhood to sit at Robinson's knee and listen 
 to his conversations with my father and John Randolph's 
 mother, who then lived at Mattoax. The world thought her 
 
32 SEVFJV DECADES OF THE UNION: 
 
 son spake as never man spake, but she could charm a bird out 
 of the tree by the music of her tongue ; and Needier Robinson 
 taught us all, young and old. He taught me the laws of my 
 mother tongue." 
 
 And what Needier Robinson was to Benjamin Watkins 
 Leigh in Chesterfield, a Mr. McMurdo, another Scotchman, 
 was to John Tyler and his schoolmates in Charles City. Both 
 Leigh and Tyler were alumni of William and Mary, and in 
 after-life brought hotoe to their Alma Mater their sheaves of 
 distinction and honors for her training. 
 
 Those old Scotch schoolmasters were awfully severe, and 
 McMurdo's harshness to a certain good-natured Luke Lubin, 
 of his pupils, caused a rebellion in the school to mob the master, 
 in which the boy John Tyler was a rebel leader. 
 
 This was hardly to be expected from his nature. He was a 
 slender child, of silken hair, with a twinkling bright eye, and 
 genial smile ; a singular face, with a very prominent, thin 
 Roman nose, which gave exaggerated expression to his look 
 of comic goodness. 
 
 His face of manhood was not unlike the pictures of Charles 
 the First of England, especially that picture of the monarch 
 when the mob made him drink a cup of wine. His expression 
 was that of playful, soft, bland mildness. He was a delicate 
 boy, no pupil of Zeno, and no Centaur; rather effeminate, imag- 
 inative, flexile, versatile, and mercurial as a girl ; sincere, frank, 
 affectionate, benevolent and generous, gleeful and social, seek- 
 ing innocent sports among the young, but preferring and de- 
 lighting in a reverential companionship with his seniors in age 
 and experience. An eminent trait in his character was rever- 
 ence. His- intercourse with the sages around him always struck 
 him with awe and inspiration, and thus he was teachable more 
 by association with his betters than by much reading of books ; 
 but his ambition was healthful, and kept him posted in letters, 
 and he had quick perception and great power of appropriating 
 what he heard or read. At about the age of thirteen, in the 
 year 1803, he was sent by his father to reside with Judge 
 James Semple, at Williamsburg, and entered the grammar- 
 
THE FIRST DECADE. 33 
 
 school of William and Marj. In a year or two he entered the 
 college, — perhaps in 1804, though his name does not appear 
 in the college-rolls before 1806. He was then in a class with 
 John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, William S. Archer, Linn Banks, 
 William Crump of Powhatan, John P. May, and others after- 
 wards distinguished in life. His room-mate was Judge Briscoe 
 G. Baldwin, of Staunton, whom he loved and honored much, 
 though their names were enrolled in different years in the 
 catalogue. 
 
 He graduated in 1807, at seventeen years of age, showing 
 that his progress was rapid and his development precocious. 
 He was a pet of BigjE^B^SBJisj^^^Sfei^residing, and always 
 spoke of him as Wq fatifter of his inltuoctreta. 
 
 To show how/pe could win men in spite\y)f their prejudices, 
 he was in the c^vention of 1861, which^iaised the ordinances 
 of secession. Coii5niJ>John B. Bald^^te/ the son of Judge 
 Briscoe G. Baldwin/^s a1l/(^)6r? His politics differed widely 
 from Mr. Tyler's. Mr. Tyler from his youth up was a Demo- 
 crat of the order of Jefferson, whilst Judge Baldwin had edu- 
 cated his son in the ultra school of Alexander Hamilton. He 
 abided not any school or schoolmen of Democracy ; was op- 
 posed to secession ; was for peace, or prevention of war, on 
 almost any terms ; made a speech for which he was crowned by 
 a Boston woman with flowery wreaths, as the champion of the 
 "Dnion in the convention; and uttered sentiments and argu- 
 ments which bound him, it was thought, on principle, to unite 
 himself with the Northern cause against his native valley land 
 of Virginia. He especially opposed Mr. Tyler's views on the 
 report of the Commissioners of Virginia respecting the results 
 of the Peace Conference at Washington. His Whig prejudices, 
 indeed, against Mr. Tyler, for long-past bitterness of his party, 
 for reason of his bank vetoes, and other matters of difference, 
 kept him aloof from his society. He had avoided personal con- 
 tact with him. But at last the ladies of the two houses met 
 at the hotel where they messed, and brought them together. 
 Mr. Tyler had observed Colonel Baldwin's avoidance of him, 
 if not his aversion to him ; and one morning he walked up to 
 
 3 
 
34 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 him, and drew a paper from his bosom and asked him to read 
 it. It was a letter to Mr. Tyler from Colonel Baldwin's father, 
 written late in life. It proved that Judge Briscoe G. Baldwin 
 knew, loved, and honored John Tyler, and it subdued the son's 
 aversion, and made him honor and respect the man of whom 
 his honored father was proud to be a friend. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SECOND DECADE, FROM 1800 TO 1810. 
 
 The Aggressions of England and France upon Neutrals, and the Rejection of 
 the American Mission by France — Commencement of the American Navy— 
 The ESect of the Alien and Sedition Laws, causing the Kentucky and Vir- 
 ginia Resolutions of 1798 — The Presidential Election in 1800, overthrowing 
 the Federal Party, and dividing the Democratic by the Contest of Burr for 
 the First Place on the Ticket — Peace with the First Consul, and the Acqui- 
 sition of Louisiana — Disunion Sentiments in the North in 1803, on account 
 of the Treaty with France — The Lewis and Clarke Expedition — The Orders 
 in Council, and the Imperial Decrees — The Attack of the Leopard on the 
 Chesapeake — The Embargo Act — Preparations for War — The War turned 
 over to the Mtidison Term — What Mr. Jefl'erson did for Science. 
 
 The election of Jefferson and Burr in the year 1800 was not 
 more a revolution of parties than of principles and measures of 
 administration. 
 
 The mission of the United States to France, consisting of 
 John Marshall, Elbridge Gerry, and Charles Cotesworth Pinck- 
 ney, was repulsed at court with contumely, and withdrew, 
 Pinckney declaring the noble sentiment which became a motto 
 in the war with France on the ocean, and afterwards in the war 
 with England on sea and land, — " Millions for defense ; not a 
 cent for tribute." 
 
 The first regular navy was begun by building the two illus- 
 trious frigates, in 1198, the "Constitution" and the "United 
 States;" and Decatur in the "Delaware," and Truxton in the 
 " Constellation," and numerous prizes of our privateers, proved 
 that we were more than a match for Frenchmen, and trained 
 our seamen somewhat for meeting. the British navy afterwards 
 on the high seas. 
 
 Before the twelfth amendment of the Constitution, in 1804, 
 the President and Vice-President were voted for indiscriminately 
 
 (35) 
 
36 SEVEN' DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 on the same ticket, and^ Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr re- 
 ceiving an equal number of votes on the same ticket in 1800, 
 the House of Representatives had to choose by ballot which 
 should be President, and which Vice-President, of the United 
 States. To determine the choice there were thirty-six ballots. 
 The Federalists united with a minority of the Democrats upon 
 Burr, and this struggle added much to the acrimony of party 
 spirit at the time. Mr. Jefferson was finally chosen, on the Hth 
 of February, 1801. ' 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, seeing how 
 Canada and all the French possessions in America had been 
 wrested from him by the superior naval and merchant marine of 
 Great Britain, and needing money for the schemes of his bound- 
 less ambition on the continent of Europe, made peace with the 
 United States, and ceded the whole territory of Louisiana to 
 them in April, 1803, for the sum of fifteen millions of dollars. 
 
 This was a bold and immense measure of administration for 
 so young a nation, and changed at once the whole horoscope 
 of its future. It bore immediately, and has ever since contin- 
 uously borne, upon the destiny of the United States with more 
 incalculable effect than any other stroke of policy ever did, or 
 probably ever can. It extended our boundary to the Pacific, 
 and gave to us the whole valley of the Mississippi, and the 
 jurisdiction of its mouth. It was the first acquisition of terri- 
 tory by the Federal Union under the Constitution of 1787, other- 
 wise than by cessions of the States. This territory, ceded bj> 
 France to Spain in 1764, was on the 1st of October, 1800, by 
 the treaty concluded at St. Ildefonso, retroceded to France ; 
 and its boundaries had been determined by the treaty of San 
 Lorenzo between the United States and Spain, made by Thomas 
 Piuckney and the Prince of Peace, on the 27th of October, 1795. 
 It was ceded by France to the United States with the same 
 extent which it had when in the possession of Spain. 
 
 This first and sudden leap of the United States to so vast an 
 empire laid the foundation for a permanent and progressive 
 change of policy and of destiny for the infant giant, — yet an 
 infant nation, made at once a giant by this immense acquisition 
 
THE SECOND DECADE. 37 
 
 of territory, inviting an immense immigration, and rousing 
 the most rankling sectional jealousies and strifes. 
 
 Here was indeed a cause, commencing with the beginning of 
 the first century after the birth of the nation, for a thorough 
 revolution and reformation of policy and of political parties and 
 principles. The Federalists at once attacked the measure, and 
 the northern and non-slaveholding section of the country was 
 startled and alarmed by its adoption. 
 
 The struggle at once commenced as to whether the acquired 
 territory should be " free soil" or not. The Federalists, the 
 most latitudinarian in the construction of the Constitution, — 
 those even who advocated the charter of a national bank, and 
 justified the enactment of the Alien and Sedition laws, — sud- 
 denly became strict constructionists, and assailed the acquisition 
 as unconstitutional. 
 
 And New England was suspicious of Mr. Jefferson's motives, 
 thinking that his aim was to make the measure kick the beam 
 of power in favor of his own slaveholding section. 
 
 The North, having the shipping of the country, and most in- 
 tercourse with and transportation to and from Europe, looked 
 at once to immigration for the control of the settlements of the 
 newly-acquired territory. They ought to have foreseen that it, 
 more than any other cause, would increase their preponderance 
 in the Union ; but they feared its effect upon their relative po- 
 litical strength, and blindly, without cause, manifested a strong 
 disposition and made some concealed movements for a dissolu- 
 tion of the Union and a separation from the Southern States. 
 This, long afterwards, was exposed by Mr. John Q. Adams. 
 and is now being more fully revealed by sundry publications 
 and books of biography reviewed lately by Professor Bledsoe, 
 of the Baltimore Southern Review. 
 
 This suspicion of Mr. Jefferson and jealousy of the South 
 were bo^h unfounded. In the first place, they forgot that he 
 was among the first emancipationists of the country ; that when 
 Virginia ceded her Northwest Territory to the Union, he incor- 
 porated in the deed of cession the inviolable condition that in- 
 voluntary slavery, except for crime, should not be permitted in 
 
38 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 the ceded territory. And in the second place, they ought to 
 have known that all the settlers from immigration, or from 
 their own hive of white and free population, would have more 
 political influence than any number of slaves carried to the 
 new lands could possibly have. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson was fully justified in the measure, as national 
 necessities have since developed. There is nothing in the Con- 
 stitution which forbids the act, and everything in the impor- 
 tance of the territory to demand the acquisition. jS'ew States 
 might be admitted into the Union, and it was absurd to deny 
 that the United States might acquire territory by arms or by 
 purchase, as well as any other external sovereignty on earth. 
 France would never have sold it but for the fear that it would 
 be conquered by Great Britain, as Canada had been, by a supe- 
 rior naval force and power of transporting troops across the 
 ocean ; and the apprehensions of France might well be those of 
 the United States in a greater degree. A European power 
 already held it in perfect obstruction to the march of empire 
 westward, and another was seeking to snatch it from a weaker 
 power who could not hold it, and Louisiana added to Canada 
 would have placed a cincture by land and sea around the 
 boundaries of the United States, which would, in the naval 
 grasp of Great Britain, have been a constrictor about our very 
 life as a nation. We could not have existed, much less have 
 expanded, in such boundaries. The separate States could not 
 acquire the territory, and, if the United States could not, the 
 progress of popular liberty would have been .constrained and 
 stopped, if not destroyed, within our infant dominions. 
 
 The very water-shed of the continent argued the necessity of 
 the case, and flowed to the conclusion of the legitimacy as well 
 as the expediency of the purchase. Every river on the conti- 
 nent, except the New River, the Monongahela, and the Shenan- 
 doah, — all three in Virginia, — flows from north to south. The 
 Mississippi, commencing near the Lake of the Woods and 
 emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, is the great artery of the 
 continent. In the hands of Great Britain, sovereign of 
 Canada, it would have been to that power, in case of war, what 
 
THE SECOND DECADE. 39 
 
 it was to the Northern States in the late war with t^ie Confed- 
 eracy, an anaconda, and the United States would have been 
 what the Confederacy was, a Laocoon 1 
 
 Mr. Jeiferson would have proved himself to be without fore- 
 sight or patriotism not to have made the purchase. The tide 
 of immigration was setting in, and every inch of fertile soil was 
 needed to the Pacific and to the limits of the territory of the 
 Hudson Bay Company to form the requisite asylum for the 
 oppressed of the Old World escaping to the New. There was 
 no limit to the treaty-making power, but the discussion arose 
 upon the question of the power of the House of Representatives 
 to make the appropriation. And there was a problem in this 
 which the war of 1812 was necessary to solve. 
 
 Party spirit never raged more rabid than during the presi- 
 dential terms of the elder Adams and of Mr. Jefferson. The 
 feuds became more complicated during the latter term, owing 
 to the course of Aaron Burr in the election of Mr. Jefferson. 
 Whilst Yice-President during Mr. Jefferson's first term, he was 
 a candidate for the chief magistracy of the State of New York, 
 and was defeated by the partisans of Mr. Hamilton, though 
 they had done their utmost to elect him in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives to the Presidency of the United States over Mr. 
 Jefferson, against the true intent and meaning of the people 
 at the polls. He was good enough for the Presidency whilst 
 used as a treacherous tool with which to defeat Democracy, 
 but then he was thrown aside by the Federalists and denounced 
 as unworthy of trust in the office of governor of a State. 
 
 The history of Mr. Burr is still involved in great mystery, 
 and will never now be fully cleared of all cloud of doubt. He 
 was an eminently able and bad man, brave beyond all question, 
 but ambitious in the extreme, and unscrupulous in the means 
 by which he aimed to climb the ladder of preferment. Yet he 
 had some high qualities, and, doubtless, in some material re- 
 spects was woefully wronged. Hamilton was incomparably 
 his superior in character and intellect ; but we are not convinced 
 that Mr. Hamilton was not the wrong-doer to Burr, and to him- 
 self too, in the affair of their fatal and lamentable duel. 
 
40 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 There were two very remarkable traits in Mr. Burr : first, he 
 was never known to vituperate any rival or opponent in public, 
 either by word spoken or written ; and second, he made it a 
 rule never to resort to the public prints to defend his reputa- 
 tion against any assault, whether true or false. It was not so 
 with General Hamilton. He despised Burr, and openly de- 
 nounced him as a Catiline. Burr actually declined to take 
 any notice of the assault. The assault was not slight, as 
 according to the general belief, but severe, pointed, and personal. 
 Burr's friends demanded that he should notice it, coming, as it 
 did, from authority so high as that of Hamilton. He then 
 acquiesced in his friends' demand so far only as to call for 
 explanations. He received from Mr. Hamilton the explanation 
 that the name of Catiline was applied to him in no other but a 
 political sense, describing the consequences and not the motives 
 or intentions of his (Burr's) political opinions, and not imputing 
 to him any personal, bad, vicious, or unpatriotic motives. This 
 explanation Burr readily accepted as satisfactory, and Mr. 
 Hamilton voluntarily pledged abstinence from all allusion to 
 Mr. Burr again in any offensive and public way. 
 
 In a very short time afterwards, Mr. Hamilton alluded to 
 him again in the same manner, and called him the same offen- 
 sive name. 
 
 Mr. Burr's friends then demanded that he should challenge 
 him. He did so; Hamilton accepted without offering other 
 explanation, and, seemingly conscious of wrong, reserved his 
 fire, exposed his own life, and would not endanger Burr's. 
 
 Of his intention not to aim at Burr's life, the latter was, of 
 course, not informed, and Burr being the challenger, it was 
 necessarily known that he would fire at Mr. Hamilton. By 
 the laws of honor constraining gentlemen at that day, he was 
 bound to challenge Hamilton, and was to be expected to shoot 
 his adversary if he could, and was not bound to wait, in de- 
 livering his fire, until he could see whether his adversary was 
 going to shoot at him or not. He had not time, and the risk 
 was too great. 
 
 They both had been distinguished officers in the army, were 
 
THE SECOND DECADE. 41 
 
 governed by its then code of responsibility to figlit, and neither, 
 it was thought, meant any child's play when they did resort to 
 arms and fought. 
 
 On Burr's trial, no overt act of treason was proved, and it 
 is far from being established that he had any intention of 
 treason to the United States. It was fully declared, in his last 
 moments, that his design was to enter Mexico with a consider- 
 able force of volunteers, and to establish a splendid empire 
 there. And can any friend of civilization say that he would 
 have done harm to humanity? 
 
 Certain it is that Mr. Jefferson was his avowed and active 
 enemy, and all the power of the executive of the United States 
 was brought to aid in the attempt to criminate him. He bore 
 his trial with great coolness and fortitude, and was his own 
 best counsel, though he had a John Wickhara to defend him. 
 He was never a desperate man ; but calm, clear-headed, indif- 
 ferent to all the decrees of fate. He was false to woman 
 and to the Democratic party, wholly unscrupulous in his means 
 and Lucifer-like in his designs, regardless of the judgment of 
 mankind, and defiant of public opinion, put himself on a venture 
 without a conscientious compunction, and was a horrible in- 
 fidel ; but the killing of Alexander Hamilton was according to 
 the code of human honor in his day; and the worst that can be 
 said of him is, that it was the least of his offenses against the 
 laws of God. 
 
 He was not run a second time for the Presidency ; Clinton's 
 was substituted for his name, and Burr was no longer an actor 
 in American affairs. 
 
 The TeiTitory of Louisiana, beyond the Mississippi and to the 
 Pacific, was explored by the expedition of Lewis and Clarke, 
 in the year 1804, and the way was thus pioneered for emigrants. 
 
 And this brings us to another historic event of this decade, 
 from 1800 to 1810, which met John Tyler at home, just as 
 William and Mary gave him his diploma to begin active life, 
 in his seventeenth or eighteenth year of age, — the daring out- 
 rage of the British frigate the Leopard, which pounced upon 
 an American frigate, the Chesapeake, at the Capes of Yir- 
 
42 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 ginia, when unprepared for action. This condition of the 
 Chesapeake was undoubtedly designed by the administration, 
 even at the sacrifice of as noble, brave, and competent a cap- 
 tain as ever was " monarch of the peopled deck" of a man-of- 
 war. Mr. Jefferson's policy was to rouse the nation to a 
 declaration of war, and James Barron of Hampton, as gallant 
 a son of as gallant a sire, and brother of as brave a brother, as 
 ever honored Virginia by his birthright, was cruelly and treach- 
 erously made the victim of that Moloch policy. 
 
 The frigate Chesapeake was at anchor in the harbor of Nor- 
 folk, undergoing repairs, and her officers fitting her for sea; 
 storekeepers, ship - carpenters, riggers, ordnance officers, and 
 shore commanders were at work on her, and superintending 
 her preparations. Her crew was just enlisted, unorganized, 
 strangers, undrilled, and consisted largely of foreigners. Know- 
 ing this, and bent on asserting the right of search for British 
 seamen, under the despotic maxim of Great Britain, " once a 
 citizen always a citizen," the Leopard was lying off and on, 
 just outside the Capes of Virginia, awaiting the sailing of the 
 Chesapeake, to board her, insult her flag, and seize such of her 
 crew as might be claimed as British subjects. The Leopard's 
 commander had insolently warned the Chesapeake that such 
 was her domineering threat. 
 
 This was notorious to all Norfolk, and was communicated 
 officially by Captain Barron to the Navy Department ; but he 
 was not allowed to prepare the ship he was to command. Her 
 crew and munitions and stores were hurried on board, and with 
 cordage and spars lumbering her deck, and guns not mounted, 
 and useless for action, he Avas ordered to take command and 
 put out to sea immediately, in the then condition of the ship. 
 She had not cleared the marine league before the Leopard 
 made good her threat, bore down upon her, demanded the 
 delivery of a part of her crew, and the right of search. All 
 that Barron could do was to refuse the demand, take the de- 
 structive broadside of the Leopard, return her shot, and sur- 
 render the Chesapeake as a prize of war. That was what the 
 administration wished him to do, to rouse the national indigna- 
 
THE SECOND DECADE. 43 
 
 tion ; but they had not sq ordered or informed him, and im- 
 mediately tried him for cowardice and neglect of duty, and 
 suspended him from command. He was banished to Europe 
 by his poverty, and this brought on the duel with Decatur, 
 instigated by others whom Barron could never insult enough 
 afterwards to make them fight. It was a sad thing that the 
 gallant Decatur should have fallen in a combat which he was 
 made to seek with the friend of his father, who led him, a dissi- 
 pated youth of Philadelphia, to the quarter-deck of Barron's 
 sloip, and committed him to his care and training. Barron had 
 treated him like a father, and taught him all he knew of sea- 
 manship ; and yet he was set up by the enemies of both to 
 champion their diabolical design, to put out of the way of their 
 promotion the senior officer of the navy. 
 
 Never, until Barron and Decatur were lying side by side on 
 the gory sod of Bladensburg, did each, shot by the other, know 
 the wanton wickedness of the fomenters of their duel. It was 
 not until Decatur asked, "Now, Barron, tell me why you did not 
 come home during the war," and Barron replied, "Ah, Decatur, 
 why did you not ask me that before ?" and told him the reason, 
 that he knew how he had wronged his father's friend, and hig 
 own patron and benefactor. Then he heaved a broken sigh, 
 dropped a tear, grasped Barron's hand, and bade him farewell, 
 — " God bless you" — for all of this life. 
 
 This episode is due to friends of old Elizabeth City, to that 
 game-cock town of Hampton, which was never known to breed 
 a coward, and to James Barron, who was ever the friend of 
 John Tyler. 
 
 Great Britain and France were struggling for the destruction 
 of each other, and for the mastery of the world, and both had 
 grossly violated the neutral rights of the United States in 
 almost every form of irritating insult and injury. The despotic 
 maxim of " Once a citizen, always a citizen," fixing allegiance 
 forever to the sovereignty of the place of birth, and the doc- 
 trine of " the right of search," dominating all the high seas, 
 asserting that a British-born sulyect, though he had left his 
 birthright, had quitted the limits of his parent country, had 
 
44 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 renounced his allegiance and quit claim to British protection, 
 and had been domiciled and naturalized in another land ; 
 though he had taken the wings of the morning and flown to 
 the uttermost parts of the earth, yet but drew a lengthening 
 chain, and might be seized wherever found, and be impressed 
 into the British service ; and the " right to hail and heave to" a 
 friendly or neutral flag and search all ships on the high seas, to 
 find British subjects, drove the United States to the necessity 
 of asserting the rights of neutrality, that free ships made free 
 goods, and the rights of expatriation and of naturalization. 
 
 The United States first asserted to the world the true policy 
 of peace, and that true allegiance was not a bondage ; that the 
 subjects of any sovereign might elect the place of their alle- 
 giance outside of the limits of the nation of their birth ; that the 
 high seas were free to the trade of every lawful power, and 
 that every neutral flag was sacred, and intact from search. 
 
 After searching our merchant vessels, and filling the Dart- 
 mouth dungeons with sailors seized on board of our ships on 
 the high seas. Great Britain sent her man-of-war the Leopard 
 to the very pillars of Hercules at the Capes of Virginia, and 
 at the front door of our Atlantic coast slapped the sovereignty 
 of the United States in the face by capturing the frigate Chesa- 
 peake, in a helpless state, unprepared for action, and taking from 
 her such of her crew as were arbitrarily claimed to be British- 
 born subjects. 
 
 It was in vain that the United States urged their independ- 
 ence, and that all their population born before 1781 were British- 
 born subjects, and might, under the same pretext, be searched 
 for and seized, and impressed to fight against their own coun- 
 try, to the destruction of the freedom of our flag. This very 
 argument was irritating to the national pride of Great Britain, 
 and aggravated her soreness at our independence, and her jeal- 
 ousy of our rnpidly-growing merchant and naval marine. The 
 action of the State of Virginia against this insolent aggression 
 was grand and glorious. The legislature passed a resolution 
 couched in these burning words : 
 
 "At a moment when the rights of our country have been 
 
THE SECOND DECADE. 45 
 
 assailed by the eiicroachmeuts of foreign nations, whose con- 
 duct towards the United States has been reguhited by no law 
 of nations nor by any principle of justice ; at a moment when 
 our commerce is menaced by the iniquitous edicts of Great 
 Britain and France, our flag insulted, the great highway of 
 nations, which Nature and Nature's God have allotted for the 
 use of all countries, has been actually turnpiked by the tolls 
 and tribute of the British government for the benefit of the 
 British exchequer; at a moment when it becomes every Ameri- 
 can to rally around the measures of his government, to vindi- 
 cate the undoubted rights of his beloved country, and to declare 
 for his country or against his country ; 
 
 "Besolved, That a committee be appointed to prepare an 
 address to the Congress and President of the United States, 
 pledging every nerve and every exertion of this legislature to 
 support the rights of the United States, to endure every priva- 
 tion and pain, and to perish upon the ruins of our country 
 rather than abandon its rights, its honor, and its independence." 
 
 The committee appointed were Pope, Semple, Baker, Robert- 
 son of Amelia, W. Brokeuborough, Preston, E. Watts, Wirt, 
 Archer, Murdaugh, Graham, Peyton, and Strother. 
 
 President Tyler's father accepted the governorship of Vir- 
 ginia on the 11th of December, and this resolution was passed 
 by the legislature on Deceu)ber 13, 1808. Soon after this the 
 committee made their report on the affair of the Leopard and 
 the Chesapeake, and their reported resolutions were adopted 
 unanimously: 
 
 " That it is better for us to cease to exist^s a nation than to 
 exist under dishonor and violated rights. 
 
 " That the aggressions of Great Britain and France have in- 
 fringed our honor ; have violated our rights ; have usurped 
 upon our sovereignty as an independent nation. 
 
 " That we will stand by the government of our country, and 
 that we will support them with the last cent of our treasure and 
 the last drop of our blood, in every measure, either of defense 
 or offense, which they may deem expedient to vindicate our in- 
 jured honor and our violated rights." 
 
46 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 These were finally adopted January 6, 1809 ; and let those 
 of the present times who deny that national honor involves per- 
 sonal honor, and those who affect to deem him a mad martyr 
 who devotes himself and all that he is and all that he has to 
 patriotic sacrifice, read these resolutions, and drink in an inspi- 
 ration which will elevate them to a nobler nature above the 
 sordid selfishness which would price public honor and liberty 
 by the calculations- of a false and fatal expediency, and learn 
 that where honor and freedom are seriously assailed, noble men 
 and patriots count not the costs of contest. 
 
 The measure chiefly resorted to by Mr. Jefferson was the 
 Non-Importation act; he ordered British war-vessels from our 
 harbors, and Congress passed an embargo act forbidding the 
 departure of vessels from American harbors. But these meas- 
 ures were worse than futile, for they only inflamed the com- 
 mercial sections of the country, and formed a pretext for the 
 treasonable resistance which culminated in the Hartford Con- 
 vention. 
 
 The purchase of Louisiana, the admission of Ohio into the 
 Union, the increase of the population to seven millions, and the 
 flood of immigration, showed that the country was multiplying 
 and magnifying into large proportions; and when, in 1807, 
 Fulton applied steam to n >vigation, that mighty motor gave 
 the first physical impulse to causes which have magnified and 
 multiplied the United States into mammoth dimensions. 
 
 The mechanic began his great work of conquering time and 
 space for settlement of virgin lands by one of the most irresist- 
 ible powers of nature, and the age began to be "a fast age," 
 running by the old mile-stones of the past too speedily to read 
 the way-marks and figures inscribed on tin m, from causes grow- 
 ing out of the wars of Napoleon. Up to 1810 he had turned 
 Europe topsy-turvy, not so much by arms as by the arts and 
 physical sciences of the Polytechnics, which his armies and con- 
 quests demanded and developed. Chemistry, natural philosophy, 
 mechanics, applied science, mathematics, and civil engineering 
 advanced rapidly and rose highest in the studies of men ; and 
 
THE SECOND DECADE. 41 
 
 tliey were all called for in turn by the new continent inviting 
 the Old World to its rivers and forests, and craving for its 
 crooked ways to be made straight and its rough places to be 
 made smooth. Mountains had to be leveled, and valleys to be 
 raised. 
 
 The wars of Europe, caused by Napoleon, from 1800 to 1815, 
 had an immense influence upon immigration and settlement in 
 the TJnited States. And Mr. Jefferson, too, was a philosopher 
 and a man of science. Not only was he the chief builder of 
 the University of Yirginia, but he ought to have had it also 
 inscribed upon his tomb that he brought Hassler to the United 
 States to lay the base-line of our surveys and triangulations. 
 Hassler was a master of science, and should not be forgotten in 
 our history. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson brought him to this country, and he repaid him 
 by his weights and measures and his coast survey. He was a 
 wonderful study in himself. An old man when we first knew 
 him, with a head which phrenology would have instanced as a 
 marked one and a sculptor would have chiseled as a model ; 
 an aquiline nose, thin and intellectual, and lips and chin which 
 gave an expression of sweet manliness ; a form erect and en- 
 ergetic ; of an extreme nervousness, which made him unique 
 and often grotesque ; with a deep-set eye, sparkling, bright, 
 and penetrating by a glance, — his appearance was attractively 
 " game ;" and it did not falsify his heart ; he was afraid of 
 nothing ; no intellectual puzzle, no physical obstruction or ob- 
 stacle, no fear of man, could make him hesitate in his pursuit 
 and following straight after the truth. 
 
 We can never forget a scene between him and Mr. AVood- 
 bury, Secretary of the Treasury during Mr. Yan Buren's 
 administration. Whilst the most corrupt extravagance was 
 indulged in for the patronage of partisans, the administration 
 was urgent in recommendations of economy and of reduction 
 of appropriations to the most important branches of the public 
 service. The lighthouses, for example, it was proposed should 
 be reduced in expenditure. This was met by the exclamation 
 of th^e Opposition, in the House of Representatives, in behalf 
 
48 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 of the storm-distressed mariner, that it would be " putting out 
 the eyes of the ocean !" And the Coast Survey it was pro- 
 posed should be reduced. The salary of Mr. Hassler was eight 
 thousand dollars, and that of his son three thousand dollars, 
 per annum, and this was thought too much. The old gentle- 
 man kept, at the expense of government, a singular sort of 
 " Shandradan" vehicle, curiously slung on springs in a way 
 not allowing of the least jar. This was though to be un- 
 necessary, and not in keeping with allowances to other branches 
 of service of higher grade. Mr. Woodbury sent for him to 
 show cause why he should be allowed to keep his coach and 
 pair at public expense. He replied, with eagerness, " Oh, it is 
 necessary for my babies.''^ 
 
 " Your BABIES, Mr. Hassler ? — I did not know that you had 
 any at your time of life !" 
 
 " Yes ; as I get older they increase rapidly and become more 
 and more tender and delicate, and require a carriage." 
 
 " But, Mr. Hassler, if that be so, the government must not 
 pay for riding out your babies." 
 
 "Ah, it must not, say you, when they are the government's 
 babies too ?" 
 
 For the first time the secretary began to see that Hassler 
 was speaking of his fine instruments, his theodolites, etc., used 
 on the Coast Survey. 
 
 " Your instruments, you mean. But you need not ride them 
 out here ; and when you go to the field of your work you can 
 transport them by the railroad-cars better than in a carriage." 
 
 " No ! no ! That jarring concussion makes them nervous, 
 puts them out of order, and unfits them for exact use. They 
 shall not be vexed by the railroad-cars !" 
 
 " Well, then, your salary, Mr. Hassler, and that of your son, 
 — you and he in one family receive eleven thousand dollars, 
 whilst I, the Secretary of the Treasury, get but six thousand 
 dollars for superintending the whole department !" 
 
 " Well, tam it, tat is right ! A President of de United States 
 can make a Secretary of de Treasury, but it took an Almighty 
 God to make a Hassler !" 
 
THE SECOND DECADE. 49 
 
 He was left undisturbed. 
 
 Some ignorant persons in New Jersey once had him im- 
 prisoned for trespassing on the lands, by cutting trees, etc., in 
 the way of his triangulations, and he would make no conces- 
 sions to the prosecution. The government had to relieve him. 
 At one time an eflbrt was made in the House of Represen- 
 tatives to curtail and change his elementary plan of survey, 
 as too tedious and expensive. The substitute proposed was 
 what is called the chronometric plan. It was our pleasure 
 to be on the committee, and, siding with the old hero of science, 
 to enjoy his collisions with some of the members who advo- 
 cated the substitute. One and another annoyed him by repe- 
 tition of the questions, " What was his system ? When would 
 it be completed? When would expenditures cease? Would 
 it ever be completed ?" 
 
 This would be answered by reference to his correspondence 
 with Mr. Jefferson, by exposing what absurd expenditures 
 were made when the work at one time was turned over to the 
 Navy Department, by illustrating the necessity of a base-line 
 and actual triangulation, and by referring to all his reports 
 and manuscripts. He was told in reply that his explanations 
 were unsatisfactory, and a brief expose of the distinctive dif- 
 ference between his plan and the chronometric was required. 
 Then he would turn again to two large baskets full of papers, 
 showing his plan in general and in detail. Worried again and 
 again by these examinations, at last he exclaimed, indignantly, 
 " I am not paid to teach members of Congress mathematics ! — tat 
 is an impossible task ! And this committee would sit too long 
 if it sits so long as it would take to complete tat task." 
 
 He was asked no more such questions, and the Coast Survey 
 on Hassler's base was happily continued. 
 
 Not only the acquisition of territory, the immigration from 
 Europe to settle it, Napoleon's wars and science, the genius of 
 Hassler, and the application of steam, but our own preparations 
 for war with either England or France or with both, gave great 
 prominence and progress to the " physical and material" in the 
 United States. 
 
 4 
 
50 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 The war was not allowed to break out during Mr. Jefferson's 
 administration. Pretexts for it were afforded, and preparations 
 for it were made, but its declaration was withheld, and hostilities 
 were actually restrained. • 
 
 At the time of these events, John Tyler, Jr., had just been 
 graduated, in the eighteenth year of his age, at William and 
 Mary, in the year 1807. His seventeenth birthday was on the 
 29th day of March, 1807, and he took his degrees, it is said, 
 in that year, the commencement occurring after his birthday. 
 He commenced study of the law at once, first in the office of 
 his father, aud afterwards with the illustrious Edmund Ran- 
 dolph, the Attorney-General of the Washington administration, 
 the chief draughtsman of the Constitution of the United States, 
 and one of the ablest lawyers and statesmen of the convention 
 which formed it, Hamilton, Madison, and Pinckney not excepted, 
 and the cabinet officer whose correspondence with Governor 
 Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, in '94, coupled with Hamilton's instruc- 
 tions to General Harry Lee, forms the true code of constitu- 
 tional law governing cases of insurrection and rebellion. He 
 obtained his license to practice his profession in the twentieth 
 year of his age, having obtained a certificate without inquiry as 
 to his age, and was at once engaged in a large and lucrative 
 practice. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson's administration was to terminate in March, 
 1809, and on the 6th of February of that year the Legislature 
 of Virgiuia passed their valedictory address to him, gratefully 
 acknowledging the purity of his republican administration, 
 thanking him for internal taxes abolished, for superfluous officers 
 disbanded, for renouncing the monarchic maxim that "a national 
 debt is a national blessing," for' extinguishing the right of the 
 Indians to one hundred millions of national domain, for the 
 acquisition of Louisiana without guilt or calamity of conquest, 
 for the preservation of peace amidst great and pressing difficul- 
 ties, for cultivating and securing the good will of the aborigines 
 and extending civilization to them, for the lesson taught to the 
 Barbary powers, and for the preservation of the liberty of speech 
 
THE SECOND DECADE. . 51 
 
 and of the press inviolate, without which genius and science 
 are given to man in vain. 
 
 We cite this notation of the virtues and benefits of Mr. Jef- 
 ferson's administration in order to compare what he did with 
 what may proudly be claimed for Mr. Tyler's administration 
 afterwards. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE- THIRD DECADE, FROM ISIO TO 1830. 
 
 Tecumseh and Tippecanoe — War with Great Britain ; how the declaration of it 
 was got at, and Mr. Tyler's part in the War — The Attempt upon Canada — 
 General Scott, another War-made Man — The Navy on the Ocean and the 
 Lakes — Blue-Lights — Cockburn at Hampton ; General Taylor, another War- 
 made Man — General Jackson — The Course of Connecticut and Massachu- 
 setts during the War — The Hartford Convention called by Massachusetts in 
 the midst of the War — Peace saved the United States — After Peace, Im- 
 posts for Protection — National Bank in 1S17 — The Colonization Society and 
 the Republic of Liberia — The First Terra of Mr. Monroe — His Conciliation 
 of Federalism — His Cabinet — J. Q. Adams — W. H. Crawford — John C. Cal- 
 houn — Internal Improvements — The Erie Canal by New York — The Seminole 
 War — St. Mark's — Pensacola and Fort Barrancas — Cession of Florida — Ad- 
 mission of Missouri — Ocean Steam Navigation, July 20, 1819. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson had the sagacity or the timidity, the prudence 
 or the selfishness, to turn the responsibility and the burden of 
 the war with Great Britain over to his successor, Mr. Madison, 
 whom General Jackson pronounced to be a President " not fit 
 for blood and carnage." 
 
 So it was that nearly five years elapsed from the time of the 
 outrage by the Leopard on the Chesapeake, in 1807, before the 
 Democracy ventured to make the declaration of war. Mr. 
 Madison paused and parleyed for over ihree years, and it was 
 not without the most strenuous opposition that tl e war was 
 declared at last. Mr. Tyler often jocularly said that the ques- 
 tion was got at rather by "spittoons^' than by ''national spirit,''^ 
 and told an anecdote showing the spirit of the times in the 
 Congress of the United States. 
 
 Party spirit ran rankling to the most violent extremes. Not 
 only was personal courtesy forgolten in partisan rudeness, but 
 measures were carried o Uelt ated by means ^^ fas aut nefas.''^ 
 (52) 
 
THE THIRD DECADE. 53 
 
 On the question of "war or no war," the House of Representa- 
 tives was kept in session several weeks, day and night, without 
 recess or resi)ite. 
 
 So determined was the Opposition that the Federal leaders, 
 with an organized phalanx of debaters, got the floor, and held it 
 by preconcerted signals, until the patience of their opponents was 
 exhausted. The physical endurance of the Speaker was over- 
 come ; his sleep was not that of " tired Nature's-swcet restorer," 
 — it was not " balmy." An elderly gentleman from New Eng- 
 land, with rather goggle-eyes, took the text of peace, and spun it 
 out exceeding fine and broadly disquisitive, from point to point, 
 each of infinite detail, like Captain Dalgetty's pious tormentor, 
 far beyond " eighteenthly," and never towards " lastly," until 
 Bellona, or some one else, resorted to most startling means of 
 storming the tenure of the floor to get at the " previous ques- 
 tion." The Speaker of the House and most of the members, 
 making a bare quorum, were asleep, and there was nothing to 
 disturb the solemn silence but the Dominie-like drawling of the 
 member on the floor, — didactic, monotonous, and slow; the 
 clerk's head bent low down upon the journal ; when lo ! sudden 
 noises, rattling, dashing, bounding down the aisles, awoke and 
 astonished Speaker's chair and clerk's desk ; spittoons were 
 bounding and leaping in the air, and, falling, reverberating their 
 sounds like thunders among the crags of the Alps. " Order ! 
 order ! order!" was the vociferated cry ; but, in the midst of the 
 slap-banging confusion of the no longer drowsy night, the hum- 
 drum debater who had the floor took his seat from fright, and a 
 belligerent Democrat snatched the pause to move the "previous 
 question," which was seconded, and the declaration of war 
 against Great Britain was thus got at, and carried in the House 
 of Representatives of the Congress of the United States in 
 June, 1812. 
 
 Another of his stories about the times of this Congress, was 
 an odd scene between the gallant Governor Wright, of Mary- 
 land, and Mr. Timothy Pickering. Mr. Randolph — John of 
 Roanoke — had been riding out, and came to the door of the 
 House, whip in hand, where he slopped and stood with a group 
 
54 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 around him, listening to his wizard words, when Governor 
 Wright came passing in with a pile of books under each arm, as 
 many as he could carry, and preventing him from using either 
 hand for salutation. 
 
 " What does this mean, Governor Wright ?" said Mr. Ran- 
 dolph. 
 
 "It means — for Timothy Pickering," replied Governor 
 Wright, — "I will convict him of treason !" 
 
 Governor Wright was one of the warmest for the war, and 
 Mr. Pickering was accused of being what was called a " Blue- 
 Light Federalist," — taking the Anglican side of the question. 
 
 " But, sir," said Mr. Randolph, "you do not mean to attack 
 Mr. Pickering without a notice of your design ?" 
 
 " Do you think etiquette demands that of me ?" asked the 
 governor, for he was the soul of chivalry and honoi". And Mr. 
 Randolph, who opposed the war with Great Britain, said, — 
 
 " I thought you were always for a declaration of war before 
 beginning hostilities." 
 
 "Well, then," said the governor, "he shall have the notice 
 at once." And, stalking down the aisle with his full armament 
 of books under each arm, he went to the seat of Mr. Pickering, 
 who was a gentleman of dignified mien and elegant appearance. 
 Being unable to reach out a hand, the governor " nudged" him 
 with his elbow. 
 
 " Look here," said he ; " do you see that ?" (pointing with the 
 digit of the right hand to the books under the left arm.) 
 
 Mr. Pickering said, "Yes, sir." 
 
 Then, pointing with the digit of the left hand to the books 
 under the right arm, he repeated, — 
 
 " Do you see that ?" 
 
 Mr. Pickering, still wondering what was meant, again said, — 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 And the governor notified him : " With these I mean to give 
 J" 
 
 you 
 
 Such was the spirit of party, and such were the manners of 
 men, in those times of trial in the second war of the United 
 States for independence. 
 
THE THIRD DECADE. 55 
 
 The wrath against British outrages had been pent up for ten 
 years, and it was bursting out at last, and the flame could not 
 be repressed. The very moderation and delay of Mr. Jefferson 
 and Mr. Madison had intensified the heat, and the war was 
 absolutely necessary to the vitality of the Uuited States as a 
 nation. Without it the national character would have been de- 
 based. The country would have returned to a state of pupilage 
 worse than the colonial. Its destinies would have been igno- 
 miniously subordinated to the caprices of Great Britain, without 
 the care or the interest of a mother country to protect her colonial 
 proteges. It was not waged promptly enough, with too little 
 preparation, after the hesitation which rather craveuly dela^^ed 
 its declaration. But, once begun, it was fought gloriously, against 
 immense odds ; and its results were most beneflcial to the United 
 States, and to all the secondary and lesser powers of the globe. 
 
 1st. It established our navy and laid tbe keels of our mer- 
 chant marine on a basis to enfranchise the highway of the 
 ocean and to defend and guard for all future time the freedom 
 of the seas. 
 
 2d. It made eventually a new code of neutrality. It estab- 
 lished the rule of " Free ships, free goods," and lessened the 
 little less than piratical barbarities of " search" and "impress- 
 ment." 
 
 3d. It created anew a national spirit of independence, mani- 
 fested by the motto of "Millions for defense, and not a cent for 
 tribute." 
 
 4 th. It forever annihilated the detestable maxim of tyranny, — 
 " Once a citizen, always a citizen." It maintained the cause of 
 freedom "once begun," without which the Revolution of 1776 
 would have been in vain, — the principle that all governments 
 are intended, in the very nature of the only legitimate purpose of 
 political power, for the good of the governed ; and that when, 
 ever abuses of government become intolerable, the people gov- 
 erned may emigrate and renounce allegiance to tyrants; or 
 the people or provinces governed may throw off the yoke of 
 oppression within their own limits. It went further than the 
 Revolution of '76, which asserted this right for colonies alone : 
 
56 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 it asserted that the individual citizen might at will migrate, 
 renounce allegiance, and choose another sovereignly and be 
 naturalized, as if born its liege subject, and maintained the 
 right of States to judge of remedies. By its other motto of 
 " Free trade and sailors' rights" it meant nothing else than 
 fealty to the freedom of the high seas, and that the poor British 
 sailor, escaped from a press-gang, might be made a new citizen 
 <if a new sovereignty, and be naturalized, or born again from 
 bondage, by a new birth of liberty, and might enlist to fight 
 even the flag under which he was pressed and oppressed. The 
 United States hailed all peoples with the grand hail of freedom, 
 and called to them, saying, " Ho, every one that thirsteth for 
 liberty, come unto us, and we will make you free !" They 
 offered bounties of land, the richest of earth, to all subjects of 
 all nations to renounce their native allegiance and assume a new 
 and voluntary allegiance, which, in turn, might at will be re- 
 nounced. It triumphantly asserted the individual right of man 
 to choose his own sovereign. It set the down-trodden masses 
 of the Old World free to leave " the land of memory" and come 
 to " the land of hope." 
 
 5th. It gave a Christian chapter to the code of international 
 law. 
 
 The second year after Mr. Tyler qualified in his profession, 
 just twenty-one years of age the preceding spring, in Decem- 
 ber, 1811, he took his seat as a mendjer of the House of 
 Delegates of the General Assembly of the State of Yirginia. 
 Inheriting a hatred of British tyranny, he was filled with the 
 " gaudia" of this contest, and urged and sui)ported every meas- 
 ure of the administration to rouse the national spirit, to provide 
 for the contingency of the war, and to maintain its declaration. 
 He himself raised a company to help fight its battles. At the 
 very first session of his service, his sagacity, eloquence, and 
 winning address gave him a very high stand as a leader of the 
 legislature for five successive years ; and in the session of 1811- 
 12 he played a most important part, which ever since has borne 
 testimony to his integrity and consistenc}' in two most essen- 
 tial particulars of his public life. The legislature had instructed 
 
THE THIRD DECADE. 57 
 
 the senators of the State in Conj^ress, Messrs. Giles and Brent, 
 to vote against the charter of a United States Bank. The sena- 
 tors refused to obey the instructions of the legislature. Mr. 
 Tyler moved a resolution of censure in the House, claiming the 
 power and right of the legislature, as representing the con 
 siituency of senators in Congress, to instruct them, and asserting 
 it to be the duty of senators to obey the instructions. He took 
 two positions then from which he never departed afterwards: 
 
 1st. The unconstitutionality of a national bank. 
 
 2d. The right of a legislature to instruct their senators in 
 Congress, and the duty of senators to obey the instructions of 
 the legislature of their State. 
 
 The vicissitudes and changes of all life are strange and 
 strangely contrasted ; but none are so strange and so much in 
 contrast as those of political life. 
 
 In 1811 the attempt was made to charter a Bank of the 
 United States by Congress. Mr. Clay voted against the 
 power as unconstitutional. 
 
 In 1812 Mr. Benjamin Watkins Leigh drew the resolutions 
 of instructions to the senators of Virginia in Congress, requir- 
 ing their obedience to them, to vote against the charter of the 
 Bank of the United States, and Mr. Tyler introduced the reso- 
 lution in 1812 to censure Messrs. Giles and Brent for their 
 disobedience to Mr. Leigh's instructions. 
 
 Afterwards, in 1816, Mr. Clay voted for the charter of a 
 Bank of the United States, notwithstanding his vote on the 
 same subject for the opposite reasons in 1811 ; and in 1836 Mr. 
 Leigh violated his own resolution of 1812 in respect to instruc- 
 tions, and refused to obey the instructions of the legislature to 
 expunge a part of the journal of the Senate. 
 
 The one, Mr. Clay, contradicted himself within four years, 
 in respect to ihe bank ; and the other, Mr. Leigh, contradicted 
 himself in respect to the right of instructing senators in Con- 
 gress, in twenty-four years; whilst Mr. Tyler remained firm 
 and uniform in his course upon both questions for a lifetime ; 
 and yet, afterwards, no two men of either party were so zeal- 
 ous, and strenuous, and bitter, in 1836 and in 1841, in de- 
 
58 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 nouncing Mr. Tyler for inconsistency on the very questions of 
 instructions, of obedience to instructions, and of chartering a 
 Bank of the United States, as were Henry Clay, of Kentucky, 
 and Benjamin Watkins Leigh, of Virginia ! And the sad but 
 ludicrous absurdity of popular credulity, even among men of 
 respectable information, is illustrated by the fact that Messrs. 
 Clay and Leigh were regarded as paragons of uniform con- 
 sistency, whilst Mr. Tyler was denounced as a traitor to his 
 principles and to his party. But the Muse of History is now 
 reviewing the lives of the men of that day, and her truth is 
 slowly but surely lighting up with her torches the wreck of 
 error loug past, and will vindicate herself. 
 
 Mr. Tyler, from the beginning of his public life, was exceed- 
 ingly popular, overwhelming all opponents. He was elected to 
 the legislature five times in succession, first to the session of 
 181 1-12, and last to the session of 1815-16 ; and during that of 
 1815-16, whilst a member of the House of Delegates, he was 
 elected, by a large vote of the two houses, one of the Executive 
 Council in Virginia. He continued to act in the Executive 
 Council until November, 1816, when a vacancy occurred in the 
 representation in Congress from the Richmond district, by the 
 death of the Hon. John Clopton. Mr. Tyler and Andrew 
 Stevenson, then Speaker of the House of Delegates, afterwards 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress and 
 Minister to England, were the candidates ; both belonged to the 
 same political party, the Democratic Republican, both were 
 popular and powerful on the "stump" when the "stump" was 
 a great moral and political monitor of the people and touchstone 
 of candidates, each relied upon his personal influence, and Mr. 
 Tyler, as usual, and as ever before and after, was successful. 
 He had in March, 1816, reached the twenty-sixth year of his age, 
 was elected at the first election after he was eligible, and took 
 his seat in the Congress of the United States at the second ses- 
 sion of the Fourteenth Congress, in December, 1816. His success 
 at the commencement of his career was doubtless owing not 
 only to the great influence of his own family, and especially of 
 his father, and to his own genius and genial manners, but also 
 
THE THIRD DECADE. 59 
 
 to his tappy early marriage, on the anniversary of his birth, the 
 29th of March, 1813, to Letitia Christian, the third daiig-liter of 
 Robert Christian, Esq., of Cedar Grove, in the county of New 
 Kent, Yirgiuia. This marriage united the House of Democracy, 
 in the bridegroom, with the House of Federalism, in the bride. 
 The father of the bridegroom was no less the friend and ad- 
 herent of Thomas Jefferson, than the father of the bride was 
 the friend and adherent of George Washington. Robert 
 Christian was one of the main leaders of the Federal party, 
 and was necessarily so from being the honored head of a 
 name the most numerous on the peninsula of the James and 
 the York. 
 
 During the late Confederate war, we were struck with the 
 singular fact that almost every fifth white man we met in 
 Charles City and New Kent was a Christian, and almost every 
 other colored freeman we met was a Ghai-ity. On one occasion, 
 we told the crowd in one of these counties that they were the 
 most and best Christians and the most and worst Qharities we 
 had ever known ; but that was in the heat of war, when the free 
 colored people were supposed to be our enemies and spies upon 
 our struggle, and the Christians were all our friends and fellow- 
 patriots. 
 
 Robert Christian was a gentleman and patriot, the father of 
 the late Judge John B. Christian, and he and his brother were 
 men of mark and influence. Letitia Christian is enrolled by 
 Mrs. HoUoway among the ladies of the White House as one 
 of the sweetest matrons ever there. She was born in the same 
 year with her husband, he in March, and she on the 12th of 
 November, HOO, and proved, as a true woman can always 
 prove, that a lady need not be so much the junior of her lord to 
 hold his heart by a love-cord strong as life and lasting to the 
 death. We knew her. She was a matron of gentle sweetness, 
 such as could not but grow up lovely from a stock so strong, 
 nurtured by parents so graceful, and cherished by a manly hus- 
 band's love, to whom her love was ever fresh and youthful to 
 the last. Her beauty budded forth in " piety and domestic vir- 
 tues." Mr. Tyler's union with her in holy wedlock made him 
 
60 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNIOX. 
 
 blessed of Heaven, happy in his home, and strong in the favor 
 of men of both political parties. She bore him a houseful of 
 children. His chivalrous homage to woman, and his delicate 
 refinement of attentions to a wife, made her a devotee of home. 
 He w^as extremely affectionate and indulgent to his children. 
 The highest compliment he could pay them was to count upon 
 tiiem, as he did, with implicit confidence, and he gave them 
 every opportunity to acquire all the cultivation necessary to 
 enable them to excel. His daughters were tended and trained 
 by a sweet, tender, mild, pious, discreet mother to all the duties 
 and all the charms of that being described by but one word — 
 lady. Mr. Tyler was proud of his children, and passionately 
 fond of them, but his wife trembled and prayed for them. She 
 was not exalted by her elevation to the White House, and 
 sighed always for her happy home in Gloucester. 
 
 Married at the age of twenty-three, elected to Congress at 
 the first election after he was eligible, his national career com- 
 menced just as Mr. Madison's administration closed and Mr. 
 Monroe's commenced. The middle of this, his third decade in 
 life, was a remarkable epoch in the history of the United States. 
 The scenes of the war had been enacted. Its first baffling and 
 futile measures had been abandoned, after causing what was 
 denounced as treason and rebellion in the New England States. 
 Its feeble negotiations at first had only irritated its causes. The 
 doubtful affair of the Little Belt had occurred. British officers 
 and agents had incited the Indians to war in the Northwest. 
 The league of the Shawnee Prophet and Tecuraseh with the 
 Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws of the South, had been 
 broken by General Harrison at the junction of the Wabash and 
 the Tippecanoe. The insult of the Leopard, five years before, 
 had been repaired, but the orders in council remained, and, 
 when revoked, the right of search and impressment was still 
 claimed and persisted in. 
 
 The war had been at last hesitatingly proclaimed, under 
 protest from the Federal opposition. The attempt to conquer 
 Canada had failed, and our strength had been wasted in the 
 effort. Queenstown Heights had been stormed. The New 
 
THE THIRD DECADE. 61 
 
 Fork militia, in spite of all the brave A^an Rensselaer could do, 
 had refused to cross the Niagara. The only victories on land of 
 the year 1812 had been won at Sackett's Harbor and Ogdens- 
 bnrg, and at the defense of Fort Wayne. 
 
 The massacre of the Pottowatomies had occurred at Fort 
 Dearborn. The Essex had captured the Alert. The frigate 
 Constitution had outmanoeuvred a British squadron, and, in 
 her escape, had captured the Guerriere. The Wasp had cap- 
 tured the Frolic; the United States the Macedonian ; the Con- 
 stitution the Java ; and three hundred prizes, by our men-of- 
 war and privateers, had been taken by the end of the year of 
 the declaration of war. Madison had been re-elected President, 
 and Gerry elected Vice-President in place of Clinton, who had 
 died. The policy of reinvading Canada had been pursued in 
 vain. The defeat of Winchester and the massacre at th? river 
 Raisin had disgraced the British arms. Harrison had been 
 besieged at Fort Meigs by Proctor and Tecumseh. Croghan 
 had gloriously defended Fort Stephenson. Pike had fallen in 
 taking Toronto. Fort George had been stormed. Perry had 
 won his victory on Lake Erie, and reported, " We have met 
 the enemy, and they are ours." Harrison had conquered, and 
 Tecumseh had fallen at the Thames. Fort Niagara and Lewis- 
 town had been sacked. Armstrong had failed egregiously 
 against Montreal ; and the American forces barely saved at 
 Chrysler's Field. Wilkinson had been disgracefully repulsed 
 at La Colle. The Hornet had captured the Peacock. Tlie 
 Shannon had captured the unlucky Chesapeake, and Lawrence 
 had been killed giving his last order, " Don't give up the ship ; 
 fight her till she sinks." The whole of our coasts had been 
 closely blockaded. The Constitution, -the United States, and 
 Macedonian frigates had been shut up in port. Decatur's at- 
 tempt to get to sea had been betrayed by the blue-light signals 
 to the enemy, and this had fixed the name of " Blue-Lights" on 
 the Federalists. Cockburn had ravaged Lewistown, on the 
 Delaware, and Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Frederickton, and 
 Georgetown, at the head of the Chesapeake Bay. General 
 Robert Taylor had successfully and gallantly defended Norfolk, 
 
62 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 at Craney Igland. Cockbiirn had not only ravaged but ravished 
 HaiiiptoQ, and his disgrace had been indelibly branded upon 
 his brow by the pen of Taylor, which was sharp as his sword. 
 The Creek war had burst out in the Southern Territory. The 
 commerce and carrying trade of the United States had been 
 nearly destroyed. Revenue had failed, taxes had been inci'eased 
 to such a burden that the opposition to the war grew so strong 
 as to threaten its abandonment. The defeat of Napoleon, in 
 April, 1814, had let the British forces in Europe loose upon 
 America. Fort Mimms, on the Alabama River, had been cap- 
 tured by the Creek Indians, and the garrison and occupants 
 been massacred. Jackson and Coffee had punished the Indians 
 at Tallaschatche and Talladega, and Floyd had taken vengeance 
 at Autosse. Claiborne had routed Weatherford at Eccamachea, 
 and driven him over the perpendicular bluff into the flood below. 
 Jackson and Coffee had burnt the Indians out at Topeka, or 
 the Horse Shoe of Tallapoosa River. The Creeks had been 
 crushed, and begged for peace. Weathersford had ridden into 
 Jackson's camp and surrendered by a speech the most remark- 
 able of any in the Indian tongues. A peace had been concluded 
 with his nation in August, 1814. In the Northern campaign, 
 on the St. Lawrence frontier, General Brown had crossed the 
 Niagara and taken Fort Erie. General Scott had met Riall at 
 Chippewa, and Riall and Drummond at Lundy's Lane ; and 
 Miller had won the sobriquet of " I'll try, sir." Ripley had 
 repulsed the enemy at Fort Erie. General McComb and Com- 
 modore McDonough had won the victory at Plattsburg. Coch- 
 rane had been ordered to destroy the coast towns and ravage 
 the country of the Chesapeake. Ross had captured the Capitol 
 and ravaged Washington City, and plundered Alexandria, 
 Eastport had been taken, Stonington bombarded, and Bangor 
 plundered. Fort McHenry had defended Baltimore whilst the 
 anthem of the " Star-Spangled Banner" was written. 
 
 The British had supplied the Creek Indians with arms from 
 Pensacola, and Fort Bowyer had been invaded from that point, 
 and the enemy repulsed. General Jackson had captured Pen- 
 sacola, and gained the victory at New Orleans, and paid his 
 
THE THIRD DECADE. 63 
 
 fiuo for contempt of Judge Ilall. Maritime commerce of th^ 
 United States had been almost at an end ; but tlie Essex had 
 swept the ocean for prizes, and had been captured by the 
 Phoebe and Cherub in bad faith. The Peacock had captured 
 the Epervier. The President had been captured by five ships 
 of the British blockading squadron, after crippling the Endy- 
 mion. The Wasp had captured the Reindeer, and had made 
 the Avon surrender. By the intermediation of Pvussia, peace 
 at last was obliged to be made, and left the country exhausted, ' 
 with one hundred millions of debt, and an empty treasury. Vol- 
 unteering had ceased before the peace, and Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut had refused to send their militia to the Northern 
 frontier. The discontent in New England had increased. Mas- 
 sachusetts had called the Hartford Convention, which had 
 clamored for alterations of the Constitution to limit the Federal 
 authority. 
 
 At last the treaty of peace had been ratified, February H, 
 1815, but no concession had been made of the American de- 
 mands in regard to the right of search and impressment. To 
 repair the damages of war, the tariff of duties was raised, pro- 
 tection was sought for the home manufacturers by heavy duties 
 and imposts, and a national bank was established at Philadel- 
 phia the 4th of March, 1817, with the approval of President 
 Madison. The Barbary powers of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli 
 had been subdued. Louisiana and Indiana had been admitted 
 into the Union. The Colonization Society had been formed, to 
 provide a colony of civilized, liberated slaves, after much oppo- 
 sition in Congress, denying the power of the Federal govern- 
 ment to interfere with the subject or to found the present Re- 
 public of Liberia. Mr. Monroe had succeeded Mr. Madison. 
 Such was the course and state of events when Mr. Tyler en- 
 tered Congress. 
 
 There was a pause in party strife, — a calm after the storm. 
 It was ominous, and has never been correctly described. The 
 hackneyed phrase, " We arc all Democrats and all Federalists," 
 does not give the sense or show the color of the times, or paint 
 the era. It demanded a new observation, and required a new 
 
64 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION: 
 
 departure. The thirteen colonies had grown into nineteen free, 
 sovereign, and independent States, and by a severe contest in 
 the second struggle with Great Britain had proved that they 
 could and would fulfill a great and surprising destiny. A new 
 reckoning had to be taken after the storm, and it is wonderful 
 to look back to the logarithms of history and see the complex 
 calculations by which to reckon where the ship of state was, 
 and whither she was tending. Vast exchanges of positions 
 were made by leading men. Intrigues of peace succeeded and 
 supplanted action in war. The results of the war, the admis- 
 sion of six new States, the immense expanse of the eminent 
 domain by the acquisition of Louisiana, and the lull of party 
 strife in the election of Mr. Monroe, inaugurated a new epoch 
 on the 4th of March, 1817. It was the hour of transit from the 
 Humanities to the material and physical. 
 
 Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, the two Democratic leaders of 
 the war party of 1812, changed their positions by becoming the 
 leaders of the Federal party, in respect to the United States 
 Bank charter, in 1816, voted for by Mr. Clay, and the great 
 scheme of internal improvements by the Federal government, 
 projected by the mighty mind of Mr. Calhoun in 1816-1 Y. Here 
 is another popular error to be noted. This generation generally 
 takes it for granted that Mr. Clay was the author of the system 
 of the national internal improvements. Nothing is more in- 
 correct. Mr. Calhoun was its founder, on the broadest views 
 of expediency, and Mr. Clay did not take it up until years after, 
 when he embraced it in his grand policy of what was called his 
 "American System," and then Mr. Calhoun gave up his own 
 bantling, disowned it, changing on the question of the power 
 in the Federal government to make internal improvements, just 
 as Mr. Clay had changed on the question of the power of Con- 
 gress to charter a United States Bank. But Mr. Tyler, as we 
 have said, held steady by the needle of the compass of Democ- 
 racy, pointing to the star of strict construction. 
 
 On the famous Compensation Bill he again manfully main- 
 tained the right of the constituents to instruct their representa- 
 tives, and the duty of the latter either to obey or resign. He 
 
THE THIRD DECADE. 65 
 
 won a victory in debate on tbat question, at his first session of 
 service, against two very able'opponents, Mr. Grosvenor, of New 
 York, and Mr. J. M. Clayton, of Delaware. He stood on the very 
 ground he occupied in 1812, and this must be remembered by 
 those who would censure his course of resigning afterwards, when 
 he was instructed in 1836 to vote for the expunging resolutions 
 of Mr. Benton. 
 
 At the first terra, too, he opposed the bill of Mr. Calhoun to set 
 apart for purposes of internal improvement the bonus and the 
 government share of dividends of the Bank of the United States. 
 
 Unfortunately, the doctrine of strict construction in respect to 
 the powers of the general government to build roads and canals, 
 was opposed to the genius of the continent, and to the irresist- 
 ible force of coming causes, which have operated since with a 
 certainty and rapidity beyond all human calculations. 
 
 The immense enlargement of the eminent domain, the rapid 
 admission of new States, the flood of immigration, the innumer- 
 able wants and necessities of new settlers in the new States and 
 Territories, and the tendency of steam, all demanded the exer- 
 cise of the power to construct the national improvements. Had 
 Mr. Calhoun adhered to his first foundations of the system, 
 resting himself on the necessities and proper wants of bur coun- 
 try's vast new settlements, he would probably have been the 
 most influential public man of his day ; he might have changed 
 the destiny of the Southern section to which he belonged, and 
 have made it keep j^ace with the progress of other sections of 
 the country, which have since dwarfed it in the Union, and he 
 might have preserved the popularity of the Democratic party 
 and been promoted to the Presidency. The war, which he so 
 ably supported, had shown the necessity for means and ways 
 of transportation, and peace was the time to prepare for war. He 
 foresaw much, but neither he nor any one else foresaw what was 
 coming. The vastness of his own conceptions he himself did 
 not seem fully to comprehend. Neither he nor any one else then ' 
 conceived the extent of turnpikes and canals and railroads and 
 steam transportation and telegraph lines that this continent 
 would absolutely require in his day, much less how rapidly they 
 
 5 
 
66 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 would increase after his death. Had they been begun in 1816- 
 17, instead of being vetoed, and 'steadily pursued on a grand 
 and impartial scale, extended equally to all sections, North and 
 South, East and West, in forty years this Union would have 
 been bound together too indlssolubly by homogeneity of inter- 
 est ever to have been threatened and actually marred by the 
 sectional war of 1861. Yes 1- even the mind of Mr. Calhoun 
 erred lamentably in departing from that foundation, and the 
 Democratic party erred in not following his lead on that 
 question, whether he continued to lead or not. The Constitu- 
 tion itself allows the " means necessary and proper," and in- 
 ternal improvements are both " necessary and proper" to this 
 continent, so vast and various in its extent, superficies, topogra- 
 phy, mineralogy, products, and population. Time has proved 
 that the necessity was the true law of that subject, and it was 
 in the letter of the Constitution because it was in the very land 
 of the countty. 
 
 Mr. Clay afterwards took up " the wondrous tale" begun by 
 Calhoun, and broke down the party of his first love by the 
 power of that necessity. Federalism laid hold of that neces- 
 sity, and again the doctrine of the " general welfare" revived, 
 and has increased until all the limitations of the Constitution 
 are broken down, and merely incidental, and necessary and 
 proper powers consistent and congruous with those granted 
 have become primary, discretionary, and optional powers of 
 legislation or congressional expediency. 
 
 But we must mark this period of a pa\ se and change in 
 politics as no negative epoch of individual men and parties. 
 It must be treated in a higher, holier light of Providence and 
 of Philosophy. We have said that at the beginning of the his- 
 tory of the United States the Humanities were called for by the 
 continent of America ; and they came, and did their work well 
 in giving to man the best bills of rights, the best constitutions 
 of government, ever known before ; and they were first needed 
 by the earlier settlers to establish the true, moral, social, and 
 political codes for the government of men. They gave our 
 respective peoples municipalities for protection of their rights. 
 
THE THIRD DECADE. 67 ' 
 
 But the gigantic physique of the country reqiiired the physical 
 sciences and works in turn, after the first works of the Human- 
 ities VA'ere laid to develop the manmioth materialism of this 
 continent. ' Not only had the Reformers been at work, and cen- 
 turies of work been done before the dawn of the Reformation, 
 from the moment when the fountains of life were opened in the 
 Temple by the divine disputation with the doctors ; from the 
 time when persecution made Christianity so strong as that its 
 champions and martyrs proclaimed an emperor over the seven 
 hills of Rome; when it had so governedythe world as to give it 
 the Justinian Code, when it had founded Cambridge and Oxford 
 schools in England, and the University at Glasgow, in Scot- 
 land. Not onh^, we say, had the Humanities been working out 
 their problems since the time of Christ, but the physical sciences, 
 too, had their Columbus, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, 
 Galileo, Newton, Franklin, Arkwright, Fulton, Watt, Ilerschel, 
 La Place, Godfrey, Cartvvright, Whitney, and other hosts of 
 Titans at work ; and then came the wars of Napoleon, ending in 
 1815, mightier than all, to develop the arts and to apply chem- 
 istry and mathematics and civil engineering. 
 
 All the results of physical science thus studied and developed 
 and applied were called for by this continent. It was then a 
 crude world, calling lustily, we say, for the combinations of 
 applied science. We needed mathematics, natural philosophy, 
 chemistry, mechanics, civil engineering, galvanism, and elec- 
 tricity, — and no one knew then that Morse was soon coming 
 after, to course metallic wires with wings of messages swifter 
 than the wings of Pegasus, through the air, and over the land, 
 and under the "deep, deep sea!" 
 
 Physical science was to have its day begin after the close of 
 the epoch of 1815. Thence the Humanities began to be neg- 
 lected, and were left behind as too slow for the locomotion of 
 the age. And therein is the moral of the loss of the reign of j 
 constitutional law, and the ascendency of materialism, and the ■ 
 ready question of the age as to anything, " Will it pay ?" " Will 
 it pay money ?" " What is the per cent, of pecuniary profit ?" 
 
 But we must ever guard against the mistake of placing the 
 
68 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNI OK. 
 
 moral in antagonism with the physical or material construction. 
 That has ever been one of the grossest and most mischievous 
 errors of the world in every period of history. We repeat, that 
 the error of supposed antagonism between the Humanities and 
 the Physiques of earth has led to some of the most wondrous 
 discords of human imperfection. The divines once dreaded 
 the sciences of mineralogy, geology, and astronomy as actual 
 enemies of Revelation. What was material was looked on as 
 the opposite of spiritual. But what a revelation of Nature 
 has since been made, elucidating instead of contradicting the 
 Word by the works of God, and proving that all human knowl- 
 edge, spiritual and physical alike, comes from God's works 
 harmonizing beautifully with God's Word and Spirit ! The 
 one is not more pure and ethereal of its kind than the other. 
 Shakspeare's Ariel amid the flaming shrouds of shipwreck is 
 not a proximate type even of the mysterious monads of matter 
 which Chemistry, with more than magic power, puts in motion 
 in the baking of a loaf of bread for man's wholesome nourish- 
 ment. Behold Gravitation aplunibing his line of central attrac- 
 tion ! Magnetism standing steady, pointing to a single star in 
 the heavens ! Heat and light expanding solids and liquids into 
 vapor and air, with a power to conquer distance and time ! 
 Cold contracting oceans into crystal continents 1 Crystalliza- 
 tion grouping its grotto of mysteries, and Electricity shooting 
 nervous vitality through all agitated space 1 
 
 Matter is not gross ; it is subtle and sublime, and must be so 
 to be the habitation and agent of mind and spirit. Spirit is 
 not defiled by matter, but matter is sublimed by spirit I Events 
 of the world from 1790 to 1815 showed how essential to human 
 power and mental development matter in all its forms and com- 
 binations is. To be without form was to be void. Not only 
 did the wars of Napoleon show this in being everything to the 
 savans of science, but matter and morals were personified in 
 the two Humboldts, Alexander and William. William com- 
 muned with Goethe and Schiller, and drank from the Greek 
 and Roman fountains which he found in Italy; this he did 
 whilst the younger explorer was measuring the dragon-tree at 
 
; THE THIRD DECADE. 69 
 
 Teneriffe, and inscribing his name highest on Chimborazo. 
 Alexander's Cosmos is wonderful ; it has put scores of savans 
 at work upon the filling of its outlines, and they have not yet 
 exhausted his discoveries ; but the " Cosmos" does not exceed, 
 and hardly equals, the spiritual of his brother of the Humani- 
 ties. The two noble brothers illustrate that the spiritual is the 
 life ofthe physical. They show how spirit and matter not 
 only harmonize with each other, but are necessary to each 
 other in God's universe of spiritual and physical ; how they 
 sublimate into each other, and are nearer and nearer together, 
 and become nearer and nearer the same, as they approach 
 nearer and nearer in time and eternity to God, the Maker of 
 both, — of that God who made the revelation of the Divine 
 Nature tangible and comprehensible to the finite mind by 
 making human flesh the temple of clay in which the Spirit of 
 God is revealed ! The spiritual and the physical are both es- 
 sential to the life and well-being of men and of nations. Neither 
 must be allowed to predominate, but each must be harmoniously 
 equipoised by the other. And this is the great first lesson to 
 be taught in the science of human government. Up to 1815 
 the moral and abstract school predominated in the American 
 government, and then began the reign of the physical and con- 
 crete, disregarding too much the Humanities. Each in turn 
 has predominated, and now the beam is kicked in favor of the- 
 physical. The Titanic school is now in vogue, and its first 
 work was the national turnpike from Cumberland to Wheel- 
 ing, with its monument on the wayside to Henry Clay, and 
 now at its climax in California railways, in the Atlantic cable, 
 — all resulting in expedient and practical, — and in the absolute 
 war power of the supreme Congress ! 
 
 We have not yet begun to discern that God's harmonizing 
 government is the adjustment of the two parts of humanity, — 
 the moral and physical, the mental and material. All now is 
 physical force ; and this is the dragon's tooth which sprouted 
 the armed men of civil war, teaching us that the Humanities 
 must be restored ; that something better must be studied than 
 the curriculum of West Point. 
 
70 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 After the war of 1812, the rush of the crowds of emigrants from 
 Europe to this couutry, seeking naturalization in this asylum 
 of liberty, should have been appalling to tyrants only ; but it 
 begat a feeling of opposition from those in this country who 
 dreaded the power of the democratic masses. The land laws 
 came into play with magical effect, building settlements in a 
 day. The navigation acts were reviewed, and commerce un- 
 fettered; " free trade" sprang forth, with no silken sails of Cleo- 
 Itatra, but with a canvas of cotton ; and every day opened a new 
 harvest-field in the Western forests and prairies. Congress had 
 1)ut to say, " Let there be Territories and new States," and 
 there were Territories and new States. The wonder of the 
 world was, not that their creation was so easy, but that they 
 were all so consentaneously assimilated in the assertion of 
 rights, and, above all, the rights of self-government. The " E 
 Pluribus Unum" was a mystery evolved by America for the 
 wonder of the Old World, — " One, as to the world besides ; many 
 among ourselves," — the many growing out of and strengthened 
 by each one, and the one fortified by the many. This was a 
 union never known before, — stronger in its many parts by the 
 parts making all one, by one law for the whole, and by the whole 
 law^s of the many. This was apparently a complete solution 
 for a continent so vast, and the experiment so far seemed to 
 succeed in making our country the theater for a new life and 
 liberty for all mankind. But, alas! the States had hardly mul- 
 tiplied to the number of twenty-four when the canker of con- 
 struction raged red again in the memorable Missouri question 
 of 1820-21. This began a war of sections and of races, which 
 ended in secession and in the sacrifice of civil liberty in men, 
 and of sovereignty in States. 
 
 Mr. Tyler opposed the internal improvement policy of Mr. 
 Calhoun, but ably supported all the great measures necessary 
 to repair the breaches of the war; and in April, 1817, he was 
 re-elected to the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 
 popular majority. From 1817 to 1819 his action on the South 
 American question, the recognition of the de facto independ- 
 ence of the colonies of Spain, upon the renewed question of 
 
THE THIRD DECADE. <^l 
 
 internal improvements by the Federal government, upon the 
 repeal of internal taxes, upon a uniform system of bankruptcy, 
 and especially upon the inquiry whether the Bank of the United 
 States had violated its charter, met with the approbation of 
 Ills constituents, raised his reputation as an able statesman and 
 debater, and proved the consistency of his course in after-life. 
 He was on the committee with Messrs. J. C. Spencer, Lowndes, 
 McLane, and Bur well, to investigate the affairs of the bank, — 
 to determine the question whether its charter was forfeited. 
 This committee acted, and reported during the Fifteenth Con- 
 gress, from 1817 to 1819; and during the debate of that time, 
 on the questions whether the charter had been violated so as to 
 inure a forfeiture, and, if so, whether it was expedient to exact 
 the forfeiture, he declared emphatically and argued strenuously 
 to prove that the creation of the bank " was unconstitutional, 
 and that he could not, without a violation of his oath, hesitate 
 to repair the breach in the Constitution, when an opportunity 
 presented itself of so doing without violating the public faith." 
 
CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE FOURTH DEOADE, FROM 1830 TO 1830, 
 
 The Second Term of Mr. Monroe — The Debate on the Execution of Arbuthno. 
 and Ambrister — The Presidential Election in 1824 — General Jackson. 
 
 In the debate in the House of Representatives during the 
 first term of Mr. Monroe, Mr. Tyler took very strong and de- 
 cided grounds in disapprobation of the proceedings of General 
 Jackson in invading St. Marks and Pensacola and executing 
 Arbuthnot and Ambrister. In after-time it cut him off from 
 the favor of that great and powerful man, though Mr. Tyler 
 supported his election to the Presidency, and mainly his ad- 
 ministration. His speech on the limitation of military authority, 
 involved in the resolution reported by Mr. Nelson, of Virginia, 
 condemning the conduct of General Jackson, was one of the 
 ablest and most eloquent he ever made. One of its passages 
 ought to be repeated at this day, or at any other, when hero- 
 worship becomes a besetting sin of the people. He said, " Your 
 liberties cannot be preserved by the fame of any man. The 
 triumph of the hero may^swell the pride of your country, elevate 
 you in the estimation of foreign nations, give to you a character 
 for chivalry and valor ; but recollect, I beseech you, that the 
 sheet-anchor of our safety is the Constitution of our country. 
 Say that you ornament these walls with the trophies of victory, 
 that the flags of the conquered nations wave over your head, — 
 what avail these symbols of your glory if the Constitution be 
 destroyed? . . . Why do gentlemen point to the services 
 of the hero in former wars ? For his conduct there he has re- 
 ceived a nation's plaudits and a nation's gratitude. We come 
 to other acts. If just, we must look alone to the act, and not 
 to the actor. A republic should act as in the case of the Roman 
 Manlius, and disapprove the conduct of her dearest son, if that 
 (t2) 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. - 73 
 
 son has erred. From what quarter do you expect your liberties 
 to be invaded? Not from the man whom you despise: against 
 him you are always on guard; his example will not be danger- 
 ous. You have more to fear from a nation's favorite ; from him 
 whose path has been a path of glory, who has won your grati- 
 tude and confidence ; against his errors you have to guard, lest 
 they should grow into precedents, and become in the end the 
 law of the land. It is this consideration, and this only, which 
 will induce me to disapprove the conduct of General Jackson." 
 
 But this disapproval, though thus courteously, kindly, and 
 wisely couched. General Jackson remembered afterwards and 
 did not forgive. John Quiucy Adams, in the Cabinet of Monroe, 
 sustained his invasion of Pensacola, and the thanks for his sup- 
 port he received afterwards from General Jackson when the 
 issues of Texas were joined, which we will advert to again. 
 
 Mr, Calhoun's opposition to his proceedings in the Seminole 
 campaign, in the same Cabinet where Adams sustained them, 
 was made the groundwork afterwards of that estrangement be- 
 tween him and General Jackson which caused the great split 
 of the State-Rights from the Loeofoco faction of the Democratic 
 party, and the election of Mr. Van Buren to the Presidency. 
 
 Mr. Tyler was re-elected to a seat in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives of the Congress of the United States in the spring 
 of 1819. Besides having to do with the questions of the tariff, 
 and of protection to domestic manufactures, upon both of which 
 he continued to prove his Democratic Republican orthodoxy of 
 strict construction, he was brought to act on a question, — the 
 admission of the State of Missouri into the Union, witli con- 
 ditions to exclude slavery from the new State, — directly in- 
 volving slavery, containing the seeds of death, which ultimately, 
 forty-one years thereafter, brought civil war and all our woe. 
 The faith of strict construction, and limitation of the powers 
 of the Federal government, had been contending first with 
 " incidental power," then with the doctrine of " general wel- 
 fare," and now was sown the germ of the fatal faith of the 
 "higher law," — that not only the Constitution was general 
 and universal in all its granted and implied and incidental 
 
74 SEVUy DECADES OF THE UNION: 
 
 powers, but its prohibitions were to be disregarded by tlie 
 majority if their religion required them to yield to what their 
 moral sense dictated to be the divine law and will. In a word, 
 the consciences and convictions of a majority of the States, or 
 people, were to be substituted for constitutional rule, and the 
 will of a majority was to be the Providence not of a confederate 
 but of a consolidated nation. 
 
 It is a wonder now that the restriction placed upon the ter- 
 ritory, other than Missouri, north of 36° 30', in 1821, did not 
 then cause a dismemberment of the Union Then forcible re- 
 sistance to the breach of the Federal government would have 
 been effectual. But after destroying the equality of settling 
 Territories and forming new States, after the entire Northwest 
 had been filled with a powerful population, overvvhelniing in 
 the representation in Congress, it was too late to contend for a 
 restoration of the Constitution or a separation of the Union. 
 Slavery was then doomed. It is needless to say that Mr. 
 Tyler had always opposed the latitude of construction by which 
 the Missouri Compromise prevailed, and that he always foresaw 
 and predicted that the prohibition of slavery by Congress in any 
 of the Territories or new States would eventually abolish it in 
 all the States where it existed, by violent revolutionary means. 
 The line of 36° 30' was not a line saying, " Thus far shalt thou 
 go, and no farther," but it was a mark of the doom of slavery 
 on this continent, plainly proclaiming that it should not exist 
 anywhere at all. 
 
 Before the close of this signally fatal Congress be resigned 
 his seat in the House of Representatives, for reason of extreme 
 illness, which for a time threatened his life. He had been in 
 Congress five years, and made his mark firmly as a statesman, 
 as a consistent, strict Democrat of the school of Thomas Jeffer- 
 son, and as a man who, by his talents, integrity, dignity and 
 urbanity, had won a most enviable influence and high reputa- 
 tion. Ten years' service — from his twenty-first to his thirty- 
 first year — had made him known to the nation and beloved by 
 his native State. He soon recovered his health, and in 1823 
 was uru:ed acrain to become a member of the Virginia Legisla- 
 
THE FOTJRTU DECADE. 75 
 
 ture. He served with emiuent usefulness for two years, and in 
 December, 1825, was elected by the General Assembly governor 
 of the State, succeeding his Excellency James Pleasants. 
 
 We have adverted to the common saying that Mr. Monroe's 
 time was a time of truce, if not of peace, between parties. Pity 
 it was seemingly so only. In the delusive, treacherous calm 
 of the times from 1811 to 1825, construction gained its most 
 expansive latitude, rival factions brooded their worst mischiefs, 
 leaders rose from every section, and theories of government 
 began which could not but end in anarchy, or despotism, or 
 war ; and politicians " chassed" into new Protean shapes for 
 the best prospects of pay and promotion in the current revolu- 
 tion. The star of the Great West had risen, the public lands 
 were political prey and prize, and corruption had become a 
 commerce. The Cabinet of Mr. Monroe contained no less than 
 three aspirants for the Presidency, — Mr. Crawford, an invalid, 
 Mr. Adams, a latitudinarian and fanatical statesman of the 
 highest training, learning, industry, and will, and Mr. Calhoun, 
 a giant of intellect, who was a child in party tactics, and a 
 founder of new political theories. The invalid and the man 
 whose mind was like " Michael Angelo's dome in the heavens, 
 without scaffolding of thought," were from the extreme South ; 
 the fanatical scholar-statesman was from the North ; and the 
 Ohio Valley, then the center of the growing West, had two can- 
 didates outside of the Cabinet, who were more formidable than 
 all, — Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, and Henry Clay, of Ken- 
 tucky. Sections, as well as men, were rivals. Such a time of 
 complicated intrigue, still and lying in wait, was not favorable 
 to the truths of the Constitution, and was disastrous to the fed- 
 erative principles of government. They all tended to consolida- 
 tion. With the archbishop in Runnymede, we may say of 
 America as he said of Great Britain : 
 
 " If I judge aright, 
 The voice of freedom is not a still, small voice; 
 'Tis in the fire, the thunder, and the storm 
 The goddess Liberty delights to dwell. 
 If I rightly foresee Britannia's fate, 
 
T6 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 The hour of peril is the halcyon hour ; 
 The shock of parties brings her best repose; 
 Like her wild waves when working in a storm, 
 That foam and war, and mingle earth and heaven. 
 Yet guard the island which they seem to shake." 
 
 The period of Mr. Monroe's administration was an hour of 
 peril. So halcyon that it became stagnant, for want of the 
 storm to purify its atmosphere; and it generated the political 
 animalcula and fetor of bargain and corruption. 
 
 In 1824, the race of the five candidates for the Presidency 
 was about to develop an entirely new state of parties and po- 
 litical relations, and a new influence of sections. The West 
 was then felt distinctly for the first time to be a major estate 
 in the empire. Which of the two old sections of the two old 
 political parties — the New England or the Virginia school, the 
 Federal or the Democratic Republican — was to have the alliance 
 and the combined power of the West ? 
 
 That was the problem to be solved, — the question to be an- 
 swered. 
 
 The old Federal party had two factions, — the one of the anti- 
 war school, called the "Blue-Lights," and the other consisting 
 of such leaders as had strongly advocated the war and all its 
 measures, but agreed with the " Blue-Lights" in the most lati- 
 tudinous construction of the Constitution, claiming the strongest 
 powers for the general government, and that it was national, 
 not federative, — consolidated and sovereign over the States and 
 the people. And this war faction of the Federalists had come 
 out from among the Democracy of the administration of Mr. 
 Madison since his term of office had expired. The coalition of 
 these two factions assumed a new political name, — that of the 
 " National Republicans." Aiming to catch the West, they con- 
 tended for the largest latitude of construction, encouraging in- 
 ternal improvements and fostering immigration upon the most 
 liberal terms to magnify and multiply the settlements of tbe new 
 lands. To retain New England, they adopted the creed of pro- 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. YY 
 
 tection to domestic manufactures, and gave Ashing bounties and 
 passed navigation acts to her content ; and, touching the pocket- 
 nerve of the people everywhere, in every section, they set up 
 public credit upon the Bank of the United States as its pedestal 
 of power. Mr. Clay headed the War and the West faction, and 
 Mr. John Quincy Adams headed the Puritanism of New Eng- 
 land of this coalition. The hobby of this party was, "the 
 American System," which Mr. Adams, during his term, carried 
 as high as " lighthouses in the skies." 
 
 And the Democratic party was likewise divided into factions. 
 Mr. Crawford was the consistent representative man of the 
 Jefferson school of strict construction in its purity. Mr. Cal- 
 houn had belonged to the same school ; but he departed from 
 its tenets as Secretary of War in the Cabinet of Mr. Monroe, 
 and was the author of the system of internal improvement by 
 the general government, but he still adhered to the Democratic 
 party; and General Jackson, who had always been a Demo- 
 crat, represented the "jude-milieu^'' faction between Mr. Craw- 
 ford and Mr. Calhoun, and was justly classed with the Yirginia 
 school of Democracy of the type of the war and of Mr. Madison. 
 
 Perhaps one of the most graphic campaign papers ever pub- 
 lished in this country was written by Thomas H. Fletcher, Esq., 
 of Nashville, Tennessee, during that canvass for the Presi- 
 dency. The title of the essay was " The Political Horse-Race." 
 Each courser was minutely described, and each portrayed as 
 he pranced or quietly walked upon the track. The prognostic 
 of the jockey knowing one was all in favor of " Old Hickory," 
 the most aged steed, who had seen most hard service ; of long 
 body, firm and steady step, clean legs, in hard, low, whip-cord 
 condition, of powerful loin, rather lank in look, but fire in his 
 eye ; high in the withers, above a shoulder set at an angle of 
 forty-five degrees; broad in the stifle, long in the tliigh, with 
 a wide overreach in footprints ; hard hoofs, and cup-footed ; 
 round in the rib-barrel ; deep in the chest, and nostrils like 
 trumpet-DQZzles ; caprioling not at all, but erect and alive the 
 moment mounted ; the daybreak and all the signs were for him ! 
 
 But his rival, Mr. Clay, in the same section of the West, did 
 
•78 SEVE]V DECADES OF THE UXION. 
 
 not so divine. He dreaded most the man with whom he po- 
 litically agreed, Mr. Adams. He relied on the " American 
 System" as strong enough to carry one or the other of its only 
 two candidates, and his aim was to make himself the preferred 
 of the two, Mr. Adams and himself. The celebrated Amos 
 Kendall, who afterwards became his bitterest enemy and the 
 most devoted protege of General Jackson, was then his lead- 
 ing editor in Kentucky. The partisans of Mr. Clay, not as 
 good jockeys as the author of " The Political Horse-Race, "judged 
 that General Jackson had but little chance of election, and that 
 they could well afford to praise him while they detracted from 
 Mr. Adams with every sort of vituperation. They admitted 
 General Jackson's patriotic life and services, acknowledged the 
 national debt of gratitude due to him, but simply set him aside 
 in the estimate of chances as a mere military man, — great as an 
 Indian-fighter, and the most successful "Captain of cotton- 
 bags," but he was a " Hickory," the best for ramrods, but not 
 fit for " cabinet-ware.^'' But as to Mr. Adams, the abler he 
 was as a trained scholar and statesman, the more dangerous he 
 was to the " Great West ;" for they alleged that at Ghent he 
 had offered to barter away the interests of the whole Missis- 
 sippi Valley for the cod-fisheries of the Newfoundland Banks. 
 Mr. Adams had had a long and bitter controversial correspond- 
 ence with Mr. Russell, one of his co-commissioners at Ghent, in 
 which he had been signally victorious, and Mr. C\&j, the other 
 co-commissioner, had been neutral ; but now that this charge 
 was made, openly assailing his course at Ghent, by Mr. Clay's 
 leading journal and editor, on the tenderest point of popularity 
 in the West, he caused Mr. Clay to be drawn out to say whether 
 he indorsed the accusation against him, Mr. Adams, of betray- 
 ing, or offering to betray, the interests of the Mississippi Valley. 
 Mr. Clay did, in effect, indorse the charge under his own signa- 
 ture in the public prints. Mr. Adams met the indorsement 
 with indignant denial, and demanded the proofs. Mr. Clay very 
 wisely declined to have such a controversy as Russell had expe- 
 rienced with so ready a writer and one who always took notes 
 and kept memoranda of every event of his life -vho was a 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 79 
 
 perfect " raf7e-?necum" of facts, and who never failed to use 
 tbem with a precision and pungency fatal to his adversaries, 
 and contented himself with an excuse as to tiie impropriety of 
 such a time as a political canvass for the Presidency to have a 
 controversy with a rival to the damage of both, for the benefit 
 of other aspirants, and he adjourned the question of fact asserted 
 on the one part and denied on the other, to a more auspicious 
 period. Mr. Adams reiterated his denial, and threw the onus of 
 proof upon Mr. Clay until such time as he might deem it neces- 
 sary to redeem his veracity. This is what is called " the ad- 
 journed question of veracity" between these two champions of 
 the same National Republican party and advocates of the same 
 "American System" of politics. 
 
 In this state of quintuple canvass between parties and fac- 
 tions, the election of 1824 was held, and it resulted in General 
 Jackson's receiving a plurality, but not a majority, of electoral 
 votes, and this took the election into the House of Representa- 
 tives. The House had to choose from three persons liaving the 
 highest number of votes ; the votes had to be taken by States, 
 the representation from each State having but one vote, a 
 majority of all the States being necessary to a choice. General 
 Jackson, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Crawford were the three highest 
 on the list of those voted for as President. Here was a strug- 
 gle which gave the arch-enemy of the " federative principle" 
 of the government all the advantages of its federative effect. 
 It was an election by States, not numerically, according to the 
 proportion of electors, but by States in their federative unities 
 and identities. Each of the six New England States counted 
 one for Mr. Adams, and gave him a certain consitleraljle count 
 at the first ballot. He ought to have remembered this forever 
 after, whilst he was laboring a lifetime to show that State 
 separate sovereignty was merged and consolidated into one 
 nationality. 
 
 The events of this period were the first to attract our atten- 
 tion to public affairs and to the study of political life. 
 
 General Jackson, in the fall of 1824, was on his way to 
 attend the Congress which was to decide the issue of his sue- 
 
80 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 cess or defeat in the election of the House of Representatives. 
 He bad come up the Ohio to Wheeling, and there, placing his 
 family in his own private carriage, which he brought up with 
 him, he mounted his saddle-horse and traveled the Cumberland 
 road, via Washington, Pennsylvania, to the metropolis. He 
 reached Washington, Pennsylvania, in the evening, and stopped 
 for the night at the principal hotel. The populace flocked to 
 see the hero, and among the hero-worshipers who crowded 
 around him was the eminent and excellent Andrew Wylie, D.D., 
 president of the college. 
 
 His presence immediately struck us by its majestic, command- 
 ing mien. He was about six feet high, slender in form, long and 
 straight in limb, a little rounded in the shoulders, but stood 
 gracefully erect. His hair, not then white, but venerably gray, 
 stood more erect than his person ; not long, but evenly cut, and 
 each particular hair stood forth for itself a radius from a high and 
 full-orbed head, chiseled with every mark of massive strength ; 
 his brow was deep, but not heavy, and underneath its porch of 
 the cranium were deep-set, cleai', small, blue eyes, which scin- 
 tillated a light of quick perception like lightning, and then 
 there was no fierceness in them. His cheek-bones were strong, 
 and his jaw was rather " lantern ;" the nose was straight, long, 
 and Grecian ; the upper lip the only heavy feature of his face, 
 and his nasal muscle somewhat ghastly and ugly, but his 
 mouth showed rocklike firmness, and his chin was manly as 
 that of Mars. His teeth were long, as if the alveolar process 
 had been absorbed, and were loose, and gave an ugly, ghastly 
 expression to his nasal muscle. His chest was flat and broad. 
 He was very unreserved in conversation, talked volubly and 
 with animation, somewhat vehement and declamatory, though 
 with perfect dignity and self-possession. He evidently wished 
 to impress himself upon his visitors, but without any air of 
 affectation, and his intent n.anner asserted his superiority. He 
 hesitated not to dissent from any remark or opinion which 
 called for contradiction ; but was extremely polite, though posi- 
 tive in the extreme. He knew Dr. Wylie, and had the highest 
 respect for his character and reverence for his religious profes- 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 81 
 
 sion of the Presbyterian faith. "We were not awed by his 
 presence, but intently studied him, and we augured his great- 
 ness from his looks and words, which drew us close up to 
 him. 
 
 Dr. Wylie made the remark to him that he had no apprehension 
 about the certainty of his being chosen by the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, unless Congress was corrupted or beguiled by fac- 
 tious intrigues. 
 
 Immediately General Jackson replied, with flashing spirit, 
 " Sir, no people ever lost their liberties unless they themselves 
 first became corrupt. Our people are not yet, if they ever will 
 be, corrupt ; and the Congress dares not decide this election by 
 the intrigues of corruption, for fear of their sovereigns, the 
 people. The people are the safeguards of their own liberties, 
 and I rely wholly on them to guard themselves. They will 
 correct any outrage upon political purity by Congress; and if 
 they do not, now and ever, then they will become the slaves 
 of Congress and its political corruption." 
 
 This remark struck us then as indicating that he was fit to 
 govern a republic, and it has come back to us a thousand times 
 since with all the weight of truth and prophecy. He was our 
 choice from that moment for the Presidency. 
 
 The next morning a select corps of students obtained leave 
 to join his escort on horseback for miles on his way. He rode 
 a splendid chestnut sorrel, the stock of his old racer, Pacolet, 
 which he bought from William R. Johnson, in Virginia; and 
 we can see him now, a model of grace in the saddle, whilst he 
 chatted at ease as his horse kept the pace of a quick traveling 
 walk. He saluted us with marked valediction when the 
 students in escort drew up to return, and bade us accept his 
 acknowledgment of our courtesy, and the advice from him 
 "to study hard to fit ourselves for the service of our country." 
 
 We thus first knew Andrew Jackson, the greatest man, take 
 him all in all, we have ever known among men. 
 
 The next time we saw him was on his return, by the same 
 route, the next spring. He had been defeated by " bargain and 
 corruption" in Congress. His wrath was tremendous ; but ho 
 
 6 
 
 / 
 
82 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 seemed to be still more inspired by Lis unwavering faith in the 
 people. He talked even more indignantly of the treatment of 
 Mr. Calhoun, the Vice-President, than of that which he had 
 received from Congress. 
 
 Ninian Edwards had charged Mr. Calhoun with corruption 
 in the War Department, and had immediately gone westward 
 to avoid the investigation which Mr. Calhoun had promptly 
 demanded, and the sergeaut-at-arms was in hot pursuit of him. 
 Speaking of his own defeat, he hesitated not to declare his full 
 conviction of the truth of the charge of "bargain and corrup- 
 tion" brought by his friends against Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams. 
 He believed in its truth until the day of his death ; but the 
 version which he had received was not correct. The " old 
 George Kremer" version was the vulgar one. That of Mr. 
 Clay himself, repeatedly told by him, was, doubtless, the true 
 one ; but it did not clear his skirts, and certainly not those of 
 his friends and of Mr. Adams, of guilt. 
 
 When the election came before the House of Representatives, 
 Mr. Crawford could hardly be counted in the contest of the 
 three rivals. His friends had endeavored to seclude him from 
 the observation of visitors. He could with difficulty be seen. 
 Many members preferred him to either General Jackson or Mr. 
 Adams. They were doubtful only of his health, and this de- 
 layed their determination to vote for him. At last it became 
 known that he was a paralytic, and the contest rested then, of 
 course, between General Jackson and Mr. Adams. Mr. Clay, 
 then, and his friends, had to decide between these two. They 
 were in an awkward quandary. Mr. Clay had resolved to vote 
 for Mr. Adams. His reason was avowedly placed on the 
 ground that General Jackson was a mere military man, and 
 one of very arbitrary will, and that he had not the civil training 
 for the Presidency; but the better reason, doubtless, with him 
 was that General Jackson had always belonged to the Demo- 
 cratic school of Mr. Jefferson, whilst Mr. Adams was thoroughly 
 committed to Mr. Clay's American system. He urged his pref- 
 erence upon his friends, especially the members from Kentucky 
 and Ohio. They reminded Mr. Clay of what had been insisted 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. S3 
 
 upon by him and by them during the '^anvass, — that ^[r. Adams 
 had been inimical to the interests of the valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi ; and they could not see how they could reconcile 
 their support of him then with their late denunciations of 
 what they had termed his treachery to their constituents ; 
 their constituents could hardly be expected to understand or 
 tolerate the inconsistency; and it was known that Genei'al 
 Jackson was friendly to their interests ; and, besides, they 
 could not comprehend how Mr. Clay himself could support 
 Mr. Adams while there was "an adjourned question of 
 veracity" between them. 
 
 Mr. Clay admitted the embarrassing category in which he 
 and his friends were placed, but pertinaciously insisted on 
 their union with him in the support of Mr. Adams. At last 
 his frienfls consented to unite with him, provided he would 
 give their constituents a guarantee that Mr. Adan)s would 
 not be inimical to the interest of their section, by Mr. Clay's 
 becoming the premier of the Adams administration. They 
 could then have it to say that the valley of the Mississippi 
 would be represented and guarded if he would accept the 
 place of Secretary of State in Mr. Adams's Cabinet. He 
 earnestly protested against this condition ; urged that it would 
 impair bis prospects for the future, and that his acceptance 
 of office would be ascribed to corrupt motives. But his friends 
 were inexorable; they insisted that if they were to follow 
 him, he should make the sacrifice to guard their course, and 
 they made this condition a sine qua noa. He consented to 
 make the sacrifice. The question then rose, how the matter 
 was to be arranged with Mr. Adams. The mediators wore 
 selected, and they approached Mr. Adams without any further 
 intervention by Mr. Chiy. The negotiations were skillfully con- 
 ducted, and soon reached a successful result. 
 
 Mr. Adams was in effect asked, "Was he then, or ever, really 
 inimical to the interests of the valley of the Mississippi?" The 
 answer was, " Xo, he was not then, and never had been ; the 
 accusation was false ; he had denied it ; had defied the proof 
 of the charge ; bad called for it, and, as was well known, the 
 
84 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 question of veracity was adjourned, and he was still waiting 
 for the proof." 
 
 This seemed sharp upon them and upon Mr. Clay ; neverthe- 
 less, they steadily pursued their suit, and inquired further, 
 " Whether, to manifest his sense of justice to their constituents, 
 he would appoint his Secretary of State from the valley of the 
 Mississippi?" 
 
 He made no objection to select the Secretary of State from 
 a section so important, and abounding, as it did, in men of the 
 first rank of ability and experience. The next inquiry was, 
 " Had he any personal animosity to Mr. Clay, on account of the 
 question of ' adjourned veracity' between them ?" The answer 
 was, "None whatever; he was content to leave Mr. Clay in 
 that matter where he was until he made the proofs which he 
 (Mr. A.) had challenged." 
 
 " Would he, then, appoint Mr. Clay ?" 
 
 He (Mr. Adams) knew of none abler or better qualified for 
 the place in the valley of the Mississippi, and if the repre- 
 sentatives of the valley preferred him, there was " no personal 
 prejudice of his own in the way, and their preferences should 
 prevail." Thus the bargain was made, in consideration of 
 giving the appointment of State to Mr. Clay, against his per- 
 sonal wishes, but to carry out his individual views of policy. 
 Mr. Adams, the minority candidate, was elected President of 
 the United States by the vote of the House of Representatives, 
 voting by States. The charge of bargain and corruption, as it 
 was made, was promptly denied and easily refuted, that he (Mr. 
 Clay) had ever approached Mr. Adams ; but the truth fairly 
 told leaves a case of casuistry still to be determined : Whether 
 Mr. Clay's knowledge of, and consent to, the negotiation and 
 its results was not a case of bargain for, and in consideration 
 of, reciprocal offices, and whether that was or was not a case of 
 corruption. It was certainlj" so thought at the time, and for 
 years afterwards by the people of the United States. 
 
 It had defeated their will, it made General Jackson, the 
 victim in their name, forever afterwards their favorite ; and it 
 embittered the contest of the National Democracy with the 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 85 
 
 National Republicans even more than the past contests had 
 been between the Democratic Republicans and the Federalists. 
 The administration of Mr. Adams proved rampant in pressing 
 latitudiuarianism to its ultimate extremes on the Bank and 
 Manufactures and Public Lands and Foreign Relations, and his 
 measures of internal improvements mounted to " lighthouses 
 in the skies," and of the tariff" of 1828, descended to a " Bill of 
 Abominations," as they were called. 
 
 This united all the friends of Constitutional Limitations against 
 him ; and when he gave his " Ebony and Topaz" toast, which 
 has never been understood to this day, he was set down as a | 
 visionary of some sort not to be trusted on the vital subject of 
 the negro, and he and his party at the next election were 
 crushed, as it was thought, forever. But time has shown that 
 it was not to be so. His latitudinous and multitudinous works 
 were continued by him to the day of his death in harness at 
 'the Capitol, and they now survive him in ascendant terrific form 
 of death to the Constitution and civil liberty. 
 
 Mr. Tyler was engrossed in his office of Governor of Vir- 
 ginia, earnestly endeavoring to promote the prosperity of the 
 State, when he was suddenly called on to do funeral honors to 
 the remains of the immortal Jefferson. The elder Adams 
 and the Great Apostle died on the same day, the 4th of July, 
 1826; and the governor pronounced, on the 11th of the same 
 month, an oration on the life and death of the latter, which will 
 compare favorably with any other composition of his life, and 
 most favorably with the eulogium of General Harry Lee on 
 Washington. 
 
 He was alike distinguished by his messages to the legisla- 
 ture, in the years 1826-27. The second time he was elected 
 Governor of Virginia he was chosen unanimously. And then, 
 the 13th of January, 1827, he was elected by the General As- 
 sembly to a seat in the Senate of the United States, to succeed 
 the illustrious John Randolph of Roanoke. 
 
 This was the first contest of his life which involved any bit- 
 terness of feeling and brought upon him any denunciation or 
 reproach. Mr. Randolph's term was to expire oh the 4th of 
 
86 SEVEy DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 March, 1827, and he was a candidate for re-election. He had 
 become utterly odious to the Adams party, called the National 
 Republicans, and obnoxious especially to the friends of Clay. He 
 had denounced the coalition of 1825 between Adams and Clay 
 as the union of the Puritan of New England and the blackleg 
 of Kentucky, and had met Mr. Clay on the duel-ground. His 
 " Jongo emandacior^^ speech, comparing Jackson and Adams 
 Knowledge and Wisdom, was fully written out by himself, and 
 is one of the most extraordinary productions of genius and elo- 
 quence which ever emanated from the mind of man. No other 
 man upon earth could have uttered it, in the same style and 
 vein of critical comparison. He was suffering very much with 
 sickness, — a chronic disease of the bowels, — and was exceed- 
 ingly irritable and exacerbated ; he was sui generis, because no 
 other man had his inspiration, and no man ever spake as he did. 
 But he was often egregiously misrepresented. For example, he 
 had to drink " toast-and-water," for the charcoal effect on his 
 stomach, and, whilst speaking, often called for it: " Tims, more 
 toast-and-water .'" And this was turned by malignant rei)orters 
 into " Tims,.more porter /" And the rumor in this and innumer- 
 able other instances got out and ran wild that he drank deeply 
 and thus was betrayed into a maudlin invective. So it was 
 that whilst the par-excellence State-Rights faction adhered to 
 him, a large portion of the mass of the Democratic Republican 
 party became restive under what they called his " eccentricity," 
 — a term with which didactic dolts, common enough in mere 
 routine to be justly enough said to have common, but no un- 
 common, sense, detract from their superiors in powers, acqui- 
 sitions, and the gifts of genius. They united with the friends 
 of Adams, Cla}^ and Webster, — the National Republicans of 
 the day, — and elected Mr. Tyler, whilst Governor of Virginia in 
 bis second term, over Mr. Randolph, by a vote of one hundred 
 and fifteen to one hundred and ten, on the 13th of January, 1827. 
 Mr. Tyler did not seek the nomination, and he always declared 
 that he was averse to it, preferring the honor of the office he 
 then held, and really preferring, too, that Mr. Randolph should 
 be chosen. 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE 87 
 
 He declined to say that be would accept the place of senator. 
 This he said to those inclined to support him; and when the 
 peculiar friends of Mr. Randolph requested him "to say ex- 
 plicitly that he would not abandon the chair of state at that 
 time to accept a seat in the Senate," he replied, " That propriety 
 and due regard to consistency of deportment required him to 
 decline an answer then ;" adding, that " should the office, in 
 opposition to his wishes (a result which he could not antici- 
 pate), be conferred upon him, he w^ould then give to the 
 expression of the legislative will such reflection, and pronounce 
 such decision, as his sense of what was due to it might seem 
 to require." 
 
 This was written on the day of the election, and was produced 
 before the General Assembly, and yet he was elected " in oppo- 
 sition to his wishes." Mr. Randolph's friends rather assailed his 
 personal independence before the ballot was brought to an issue, 
 and their vindictiveness for reason of his not positively refusing 
 to allow his name to be used, caused him, doubtless, in part, to 
 accept the senatorship, which he did on the 18th of January, 1827. 
 This lost him the personal and political friendship of all Mr. Ran- 
 dolph's warm friends in his own party, and gained him no ad- 
 herents among the National Republicans, or the partisans of the 
 Adams administration, and was the first impairment of his 
 popularity. The then administration party had no desire to 
 promote Mr. Tyler, but he was the only man with whom they 
 could defeat Mr. Randolph. No two men of deserved eminence 
 and influence could be more unlike than were Mr. Tyler and 
 Mr. Randolph, — the one genial, gentle, and bland, the other 
 acetic and bitter; the one less gifted in genius and acquire- 
 ments, the other less winning and influential and useful ; the 
 one more inspired, more heliocentric in his views, the other 
 more laborious to please, more practical, and always suc- 
 cessful. It was difficult for him, or any man, to bear a contrast 
 with Mr. Randolph as his successor ; and it is the highest 
 encomium upon his abilities to say that he lost nothing by the 
 ordeal to which his defeat of Mr. Randolph exposed him. 
 What he lacked in classic taste and power of utterance and 
 
88 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 wizard-like wisdom, he more than supplied by grace of manners, 
 by sound judgment, and by a glowing goodness of heart. 
 
 Byron s description of Lara might well portray the character « 
 of Randolph : 
 
 " A high demeanor, and a glance that took 
 Their thoughts from others by a single look; 
 And that sarcastic levity of tongue, 
 The stinging of a heart the world hath stung. 
 That darts in seeming playfulness around, 
 And makes those feel that will not own the wound. 
 * « « •» s- « » 
 
 In him inexplicably mixed appeared 
 
 Much to be loved and hated, sought and feared. 
 
 There was in him a vital scorn of all. 
 
 He had (if t'were not nature's boon) an art 
 Of fixing memory on another's heart; 
 It was not love, perchance, nor hate, nor aught 
 That words can image to express the thought; 
 But they who saw him did not see in vain, 
 And once beheld would ask of him again; 
 And those to whom he spake remembered well. 
 And on the words, however light, would dwell : 
 None knew, nor how, nor why, but he entwined 
 Himself perforce around the hearer's mind ; 
 There he was stamped, in liking or in hate. 
 If greeted once; however brief the date. 
 That friendship, pity, or aversion knew. 
 Still there within the inmost thought he grew. 
 You could not penetrate his soul, but found. 
 Despite your wonder, to your own he wound; 
 His presence haunted still; and from the breast 
 He forced an all-unwilling interest ; 
 Vain was the struggle in that mental net, 
 His spirit seemed to dare you to forget." 
 
 Soon after Mr. Tyler's election, he vindicated his course be- 
 fore a large assemblage of the members of the legislature and of 
 citizens at Richmond. He indignantly repelled the charge of 
 a lurking treachery, and called witnesses present to prove that 
 if he had deceived any one, he had deceived some of his nearest 
 'personal friends, who would not have voted against his nomina- 
 
TEE FOURTH DECADE. 8^ 
 
 tiou if they had not been convinced by himself that he did not 
 desire the senatorship. He had bowed simply, as a Democratic 
 • Republican should, to the will of the legislature. His fault, if 
 any, was that ; and he declared, with pointed significance, that, 
 by accepting the appointment, while he interfered with the 
 pretensions of no other citizen, he had acquitted himself of a 
 sacred obligation. He was under no obligations to Mr. Ran- 
 dolph, and was not bound to forego any honor conferred upon 
 him in deference to the wishes of his personal friends against 
 the wishes of a majority of the legislature. He had formed 
 no coalition wiih the party of the administration. On the con- 
 trary, all his hopes in the administration of Mr. Adams were 
 withered by his "splendid message to Congress." He saw in 
 it " an almost total disregard of the federative principle." He 
 iterated his honest convictions that " the preservation of the 
 federative principles of our government were inseparably con- 
 nected with the perpetuation of liberty, and he cared not who 
 should assail it, whether personal friend or personal foe, 
 whether that or any subsequent administration, he would ever 
 be ready to oppose such an attack with feelings of the most 
 determined resistance." And in making these pledges, he com- 
 bined prediction with promise when he uttered the words which 
 he nobly redeemed in his very last days: " TT7«en tlieae handlers 
 which now float above us shall be made to lower on the em- 
 battled field, then I may abandon the doctrines of our fathers 
 and forget my allegiance to the Constitution, but not before.'''' 
 
 How truly and faithfully the burning patriot kept that "oath 
 of the altar" we all know. God be praised ! He loved him too 
 well not to test his faith by seeing his State banners " flung 
 out upon the battle-field," and too well to let him live to see 
 those banners lower 1 He was spared the sight of hauling 
 down the banners of State sovereignty and hoisting over them 
 the ensigns of imperial consolidation! His toast in 1827 was, 
 "The Federative System: in its simplicity there is grandeur; 
 in its preservation, liljerty ; in its destruction, tyranny !" 
 
 What a truth ! What a prophecy ! What a verification 1 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FOURTH DECADE, FROM 1830 TO 1830. 
 
 "The Monroe Doctrine" — Northwestern Coast of America — The Tariff of 1S28— 
 The Election of General Jackson — An Episode and Anecdote. 
 
 The only memorable State measures of Mr. Mouroe's ad- 
 ministratioQ were the organization of the War Department by 
 Mr. Calhoun, the recognition of the South American republics, 
 the assertion of what is called the " Monroe doctrine" of non- 
 interference by European powers with the affairs of North and 
 South America, and conventions with Great Britain and Russia 
 as to the northwestern coasts of America. Each one of these 
 subjects has had great influence in controlling the destiny of 
 the United States. 
 
 In connection with, and in aid of, his gigantic scheme of in- 
 ternal improvements and of the national defense, Mr. Calhoun 
 did all in his power, with the assistance of General Bernard, who 
 had oome from the wars of Napoleon to introduce and apply 
 the polytechnics of France, and to build up the military school 
 of West Point. It has had a disastrous effect upon the system 
 of the republic. It has studied physics altogether, nothing 
 of the Humanities, has been taught servilely to "obey orders 
 and break owners," and has finally crushed eleven sovereign 
 States of the Union, overborne the Federal Constitution, and, 
 for the time, set up the oligarchic supremacy of Congress. First 
 came Hassler to survey the coast with his benign theodolite, 
 and then came Bernard with his polytechnics to set aside the 
 nuixims of Washington, that standing armies are dangerous, 
 and that a well-regulated militia is the safe reliance of a repub- 
 lic, by the swords and bayonets, shot and shell, grades, titles, 
 (90) 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 91 
 
 and high pay of the cadets of West Point. It has proved no 
 Pop Emuious argument to make Presidents: 
 
 " Rumpscj', Dumpsey, 
 Col. Johusou killed Tecumseh." 
 
 It has become the power of Parliament, and if it must and will 
 enthrone a despot, God grant that he may be of the order and 
 temper of Cromwell, — no Stuart, no Bourbon. 
 
 At a Grand Assembly held at James City the 10th of October, 
 1649, the colony of Virginia, by its first act, declared the decapi- 
 tation of Charles the First treason, in denying the divine right 
 of kings, and therefore enacted, that to defend the regicides by 
 reasoning, discourse, or argument was to be accessory after the 
 fact to the death of the king ; that to asperse his memory should 
 be punishable at the discretion of the governor (Sir William 
 Berkeley) and the council ; thot to doubt the right of succession 
 of diaries the Second should be deemed high treason ; and that 
 to propose a change of government should be equally high 
 treason. 
 
 These were bold declarations, adhering bravely to the Second, 
 after the execution of the First, Charles. Yet, notwithstanding 
 this worse than outlawry of the Protector, when he sent com- 
 missioners to take the "surrender of the countrie" in 1651, 
 he set an example by which republicans of the present hour 
 may profit, by learning what the Humanities did at that day in 
 contrast with what the physical force of this day has done to 
 Yirgiuia. 
 
 By " articles at the surrender of the countrie, — Articles agreed 
 on, and concluded at, James Cittie, in Virginia, for the sur- 
 rendering and settling of that plantation under the obedience 
 and government of the Commonwealth of England by the Com- 
 missioners of the Council of State, by authority of the Parlia- 
 ment of England, and by the Grand Assembly of the Governor, 
 Council, and Burgesses of that countrie :" 
 
 First. " It is agreed and consented that the plantation of Vir- 
 ginia, and all the inhabitants thereof, shall be and remaine in 
 due obedience and subjection to the Commonwealth of England, 
 
92 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 according to the lawes there established. And that this sub- 
 mission and subscription be acknowledged a voluntary act, not 
 forced v or constrained hy a conquest upon the countrie ; and 
 that they shall have and enjoy such freedomes and privileges 
 as belong to the free-borne people of England.''^ 
 
 Thirdly. "That there sliall be a full and totale remission and 
 indemnities of all acts, words, or writings done or spoken against 
 the Parliament of England in relation to the same." 
 
 Fourthly. " That Virginia shall have and enjoy the ancient 
 bounds and limits granted by the charters of the former kings." 
 
 Seventhly. Free trade was granted Virginia. 
 
 Eighthly. " That she should be free from all taxes, and none 
 to be imposed on her without consent of her Grand Assem- 
 bly." ■ 
 
 Tenthly. A year to remove, with their effects, out of Vir- 
 ginia was given to all malcontents. 
 
 Eleventhly. The use of the Common Prayer was allowed by 
 Cromwell, "provided that those things which relate to kingshipp 
 or that government be not used publiquely ; and the continuing 
 of ministers in their places, they not misdemeaning themselves." 
 
 These were regularly signed and countersigned, and again 
 other articles were agreed on : 
 
 First. " No oaths or engagements to the committee were 
 required of the governor and council, and neither to be cen- 
 sured for praying for or speaking well of the king." 
 
 Ninthly. " Full indemnity to all persons in as clear terms as 
 the learned in the law of arms can express." 
 
 Tenthly. An act of indemnity and oblivion w.as agreed on 
 and passed. 
 
 How unlike this to the late Fourteenth Amendment, passed 
 by Congress and enforced by West Point ! 
 
 Mr. Monroe declared a doctrine of non-interference by Europe 
 which has proved a "brutum fulmen.^'' Where Europe has not 
 interfered with American governments, the United States have, 
 as with Mexico in the past and with St. Domingo in the pres- 
 ent. And they allowed Europe to send an Austrian prince to 
 be inaugurated Emperor of Mexico, and then to be deserted by 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 93 
 
 Louis IS'apoleon and to be shot like a felon, without a fault ex- 
 cept that of filling a European mission ; and they have allowed 
 Eul-ope to interfere in the affairs of the Isthmus to an extent of 
 partial control. And the United States, barely recognizing the 
 independence of the South American republics, gave them no 
 material aid or guarantees, and again and again countenanced 
 the interference of Europe in American affairs by themselves 
 interfering in the affairs of Europe, as in the case of Greece. 
 And we did not stand up to 54° 40' on the northwest coast. 
 And here it must be noted that not the least cause of magnify- 
 ing the physical and material elements over the Humanities 
 has been and is the gold of California. 
 
 Mr. Tyler took his seat in the Senate of the United States 
 December 3d, 1827, and continued steadfastly in opposition to 
 the coalition of Adams and Clay. He took a conspicuous part 
 in the question of the Panama mission, on the odious tariff of 
 1828, called the " Bill of Abominations," on the Cumberland 
 road bill, and on other minor measures. 
 
 The person/nel of the Opposition was too eminent in ability 
 and power to be resisted. The leaders were men of the highest 
 attainments, and combined all the factions of Democracy, con- 
 sisting of the War party, the State Rights and Strict Construc- 
 tion school, the Free Trade and Valley of the Mississippi 
 interests, and the Southern interests of slavery. 
 
 Party spirit raged with rancor, and the administration was 
 shown no quarter on any subject at issue, and was crushed. 
 General Jackson was elected in 1828 by a mojority so over- 
 whelming and so pointedly in reproof of "bargain and corrup- 
 tion," that it stigmatized Mr. Adams's defeat with ignominy. 
 He and Mr. Clay were indignantly hurled out of office, and 
 their party of National Republicans was so prostrated as never 
 to assume its name again. 
 
 And here the author of these pages must be indulged in an 
 episode which connects himself with the great men of this 
 narrative and with events of importance in aficr-life. In the 
 month of August, 1828, with a law license in hand, we left 
 our native Eastern Shore of Yirginia for Baltimore, on our 
 
94 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 way to Nashville to be married and settled for life. "\Ye stopped 
 at Tangier Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, there to part with 
 kindred and friends who accompanied us to the island, where 
 was held the annual camp-meeting of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. Love and plighted troth urged us to fly with swift 
 wings westward, and the "amor locV^ drew us back to " Home 
 in Old Yirgiuia." 
 
 Tangier is south of Smith's Island and southeast of the mouth 
 of the Potomac. Its southern end was occupied during the war 
 of 1812 by the British fleet, under Cockburn, just fifteen miles 
 from the eastern main at Chesconessex Creek, where our child- 
 hood was spent during the war, and where the morning, noon, 
 and evening guns of the red-coated enemy taught us the signals 
 of horrid war and made us early familiar wiih dangers. Sand 
 redoubts were thrown up on the island, and their faint outlines 
 still remain. L'e.'bre war mide tlie island one of its sites, it 
 had, from the time of Asbury and Coke, and from a memor- 
 able date of persecution of the Methodists on the Eastern 
 Shore, been made a place of refuge for their religious worship 
 on the occasion of their great annual assemblages in camp- 
 meetings. There, upon the bald sands of the beach, ever}' year, 
 have the tents of worship, wooden and sail-cloth, been pitched 
 by piety, for now three-quarters of a century, to watch and 
 pray and preach for weeks at a time, in humiliation and horaoge 
 towards God, in the open air of heaven, by the bright waters 
 of the grsmdest, loveliest bay of old ocean's salt seas. 
 
 Healthful, refreshing, of clean shores, and abounding in fish- 
 eries, the population of cities, towns, and country on both sides 
 of the Chesapeake, from the mouth of the Susquehanna to the 
 Capes, congregate there at the wonted season of August. It 
 is a yearly feast of fruits and fish as well as of "love," and re- 
 vivals of health as well as of " spirit." There collect the great 
 campaigners of the pulpit, some of the greatest divines and 
 elders ; there are fathers and mothers and sons and daughters 
 of the Church ; there collect people of the world of every de- 
 gree and dignity ; there are hucksters and caterers for the 
 " multitude come out to be taught;" there whole families come 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 95 
 
 with household utensils and every appliance which tent can 
 afford to table ; some come iu steamers from Baltimore, Annap 
 olis, and Cambridge, Maryland, and from Norfolk ar.d Fred- 
 ericksburg and other towns in Virginia, and from both sides 
 of the bay ; and from every creek come vessels of all sizes, 
 schooners, sloops, pungies, cats, canoes, and skiffs, loaded with 
 people and provisions, until the island harbors are studded with 
 shipping and a forest of masts, which gives the wharves and 
 island the appearance of some considerable mart of conuuerce. 
 The camp is regularly laid out in large squares, with wide 
 streets ; bowers are erected for the pulpit-stands, and for the 
 " anxious benches," and broad planks are nailed horizontally 
 across the tops of posts for sand whereon to kindle light-wood 
 flambeaux to illumine the scenes at night. A police is care- 
 fully detailed of saintly watchmen, of pious pith and discretion, 
 to keep order and to guard the camp, and the exercises are con- 
 ducted under orders duly proclaimed by authority. No Salis- 
 bury Fair ever exceeded it in variety of strange scenes, grotesque 
 and grave, ludicrous and sad, sacred and sinful, affected and real: 
 here a powerful, learned man of God pouring out the word of 
 truth in great volume of lungs and labor and love ; there his con- 
 trast of a little exhorter; here prayer, and inward groaning of 
 spirit struggling openly with conviction; there a loud-mouth 
 braying of hymns sung by nasal Stentors of psalmody; here a 
 "trance" of mute adoration, and there a cotillon of " chasseing^^ 
 shouters, cutting in and out and grasping of brothers' and sis- 
 ters' hands in a mazy dance of praise ; here one "down" under 
 weight of sin, and there another leaping for "joy" and crying 
 out for " glory ;" here a calm and solemn invocation to prayer, 
 and there a stirring of anxious mourners ; here a crowd of 
 whites worshiping without noise, decently, and there a mass 
 of blacks and whites preaching, praying, exhorting, singing, 
 shouting, bawling, yelling, up and down, whirling around in 
 perfect Bedlam time of " confusion worse confounded ;" here 
 the ministers of the Church winning souls away from Satan, and 
 there the sous and daughters of vanity sipping the siren draught 
 of sensual pleasure in all the ways of wanton delight ; here, at 
 
96 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UXIOX. 
 
 night, the camp at vest, and all its suburbs drinking, fiddling, 
 dancing, and doing worse, uproarious in shameful frolic until 
 morning light. 
 
 The night is far spent, and at early dawn the horn is blown. 
 The tents rise again to repeat the last day's scenes and exercises, 
 and the sinners sink away to sleep until the curtain of the night 
 falls again. Whilst goodness is dealing out "grace" at the table 
 of the "love-feast," huckster and vender are selling chicken-pies, 
 and barbecued, broiled, fried, and boiled fish, ami peaches and 
 melons and cautelopes, cider, crabs, and ginger-cakes, June 
 apples, lemonade, and ice-cream ; and, if you cannot find re- 
 ligion, you may — and if not always on guard, you will — lose 
 your purse, for " camp-meetin' time" is always a time for strip- 
 ping orchards and robbing hen-roosts, wherewith to make a 
 penny to pay for expenses whilst on the lookout for the main 
 chances of picking and stealing in the midst of the crowded 
 camp and its concomitants. 
 
 An old physician complained to a sister who loved the camp- 
 meeting where she had " got glory in her soul," that if he made 
 a feast with every viand to tempt indulgence, he, though tem- 
 perate himself and abstinent, might well be held responsible 
 for all the excesses of his guests. The old lady replied that 
 she was not responsible for the concomitants of sin around the 
 table of the Lord ; that if all even were to go to the " anxious 
 benches" and kneel in sincerity and truth, there especially 
 would the Evil One and Tempter be to beguile souls and take 
 from them their heavenly food. 
 
 "Well, madam,'' he said, "while you were kneeling at the 
 anxious bench, a thief stole my surgical instruments, which had 
 been my companions for life, and with which I saved life and 
 limb." 
 
 "Ah, doctor, where did you have those implements of pain ? 
 Somewhere, perhaps, where they ought not to have been ?" 
 
 " On my honor, madam, — honestly, I was not bush-dodging!" 
 
 There are many salt-water bushes on the higher portions of 
 the island off from the beach. The camp of 1828 was most 
 numerously attended. We had started in a sail-vessel from a 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 97 
 
 beautiful creek late in the evening-, and when within about two 
 miles of the beach the breeze died away, and we were help- 
 lessly becalmed. The sun set clear o'er the bay, smooth, ripplc- 
 less, like a mirror of the Almighty ; in a few moments the island 
 was not to be seen, until the moon effulgent rose o'er the eastern 
 land and lighted up the glassy waters, and she had not risen 
 high when suddenly the light-wood flambeaux of the camp 
 shot forth their beams, and the rows and avenues of hundreds 
 of broad and high blazes were like supernatural lamps of the 
 heavens; and soon the hymns of the multitude came softly 
 stealing by moonlight o'er the mirrored bay, mellowed by dis- 
 tance, as if angel-voices were in choirs of melody coming from 
 an island cloud ! Oh, it was sweet beyond fancy's dreams I 
 
 We could not but exclaim, " That is the anthem of farewell 
 to home and friends! and that is the cloud-music giving wel- 
 come to the West and to active life ! Here is a start with good 
 omens !" Tears both of joy and grief were wept. This is now 
 told in the " sere and yellow leaf," because the memory is still 
 refreshing and helps to renew life. 
 
 In a month or more we were at' Nashville, and married the 
 daughter of the Reverend Dr. 0. Jennings, the Presbyterian 
 pastor of Andrew Jackson, who honored him with tender rever- 
 ence and respect. The general tendered his daughter the hos- 
 pitalities of the Hermitage, and ordered our attendance there, 
 the day after the wedding, to make his house the home of oui 
 honey-moon. The marriage was on the 8th of October, and 
 our whole wedding-party was punctually at the Hermitage on 
 the day appointed. We desired to study General Jackson in 
 his slipsliod ways at home. The weather had been wet, and 
 the roads were exceedingly bad in that soil of unbroken lime- 
 stone. The bridesmaids and groomsmen were on horseback, 
 and the bride and groom rode in a gig which had been driven 
 all the way from Baltimore, in a travel full of incidents, but 
 without a serious accident. Escape from all disasters in a 
 travel of eight hundred and fifty miles had made us too confi- 
 dent for a drive of only twelve miles, the distance to the Her- 
 mitage from Nashville. On the way out we noticed a narrow 
 
 T 
 
98 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 defile of rock and mud-holes on one side, and stumps on the 
 MurfreeFborough road on the other side of the track, which re- 
 quired a nice eye, good light, a steady rein, and a strong horse^ 
 quick to obey every touch of the rein. 
 
 We arrived at the Hermitage to dinner, and were shown to 
 a bridal chamber magnificently furnished with articles which 
 were the rich and costly presents of the city of New Orleans 
 to its noble defender. 
 
 Had we not seen General Jackson before, we would have 
 taken him for a visitor, not the host of the mansion. He 
 greeted us cordially, and bade us feel at home, but gave us dis- 
 tinctly to understand that he took no trouble to look after any 
 but his lady guests ; as for the gentlemen, there were the parlor, 
 thediniug-room, the library, the sideboard and its refreshments ; 
 there were the servants, and, if anything was wanting, all that 
 was necessary was to ring. He was as good as his word. He .- 
 did not sit at the head of his table, but mingled with his guests,-^ 
 and always preferred a seat between two ladies, obviously 
 seeking a chair between different ones at various times. 
 He was very easy and graceful in his attentions ; free, and 
 often playful, but always dignified and earnest, in his con- 
 versation. He was quick to perceive every point of Word or 
 manner, was gracious in approval, but did not hesitate to dis- 
 sent with courtesy when he differed. He obviously bad a 
 hidden vein of humor, loved aphorism, and could politely con- 
 vey a sense of smart travesty. If put upon his mettle, he was* 
 very positive, but gravely respectful. He conversed freely, and 
 seemed to be absorbed in attention to what the ladies were 
 saying; but if a word of note was uttered at any distance from 
 him audibly, he caught it by a quick and pertinent comment, 
 without losing or leaving the subject about which he was talk- 
 ing to another person, — such was his ease of sociability, without 
 levity or lightness of activity, and without being oracular or 
 heavy in his remarks. He had great power of attention and 
 concentration, without being prying, curt, or brusque. Strong 
 good sense and warm kindness of manner put every word of 
 his pleasantly and pointedly in its right place. He conversed 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 99 
 
 wonderfully well, but at times pronounced incorrectly and mis- 
 used words ; and it was remarkable, too, that when he did so 
 it was with emphasis on the error of speech, and he would 
 give it a marked prominence in diction. 
 
 To illustrate him in a scene : The Hermitage house was a 
 solid, plain, substantial, commodious country mansion, built of 
 brick, and two stories high. The front was south. You entered 
 through a porch, a spacious hall, in which the stairs ascended, 
 airy and well lighted. It contained four rooms on the lower 
 floor, each entering the passage and each on either side opening 
 into the.onie adjoining. "The northwest room was the dining- 
 room, the southeast and southwest rooms were sitting-rooms, and 
 the northeast room had a door entering into the garden. The 
 house was full of guests. There were visitors from all parts 
 of the United States, numbering from twenty to fifty a day, 
 constantly coming and going, all made welcome, and all well 
 attended to. 
 
 The cost of the. coming Presidency was even then very great 
 and burdensome ; but the general showed no signs of impa- 
 tience, and was alive and active in his attentions to all comers 
 and goers. He affected no style, and put on no airs of greatness, 
 but was plainly and simply, though impulsively, polite to all. 
 Besides his own family he had his wife's relatives, Mr. Stokely 
 and Andrew J. Donelson, around him every day, and his 
 adopted son, Andrew Jackson, relieved him of all the minuter 
 attentions to guests. 
 
 Henry Lee, of Virginia, was, we may say, resident for the 
 time with him, as he was engaged in writing for his election 
 some of the finest canipj,ign ..pjipers ever penned in this coun- 
 try. One of Lee's fugitive pieces, on the death of an Indian 
 youth, the son of a chief who was killed at the battle of the 
 Horse-Shoe, whom the general had taken as godson, an orphan 
 of one of his victories, is a precious pearl of poetry in prose. 
 
 He was not handsome as his half-brother, General Robert E. 
 Lee, but rather ugly in face, — a mouth without a line of the 
 bow of Diana about it, and nose not cut clean and classic, but 
 rather meaty and, if we may make a word, "blood-beety ;" but 
 
100 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 he was one of the most attractive men in conversation we ever 
 listened to. Alas ! alas ! that such a man, so gifted, should 
 have had to write as he did, long afterwards, from Paris, where 
 he was not allowed to be consul, that "everything had turned 
 to the bitterness of ashes on his taste." He, Harry Lee, who 
 was so severe upon Mr. Jefferson and his writings because 
 of his " Arcana" about his father, Light-Horse Harry Lee of 
 the Revolution, was then, in fact, the entertaining host of the 
 Hermitage, and attracted the crowd of visitors around his glow- 
 ing words of commentary on the election. 
 
 The first or second evening of our stay, Mr. Lee had drawn 
 around him his usual crowd of listeners ; but we were the more 
 special guests of Mrs. Jackson. She was a descendant of Col- 
 onel Charles Stokely, of our native county, Accomack, Virginia, 
 and we had often seen his old mansion, an old Hanoverian hip- 
 roofed house, standing on the seaside, not far above Metompkin ; 
 and she had often heai'd her mother talk of the old Assawaman 
 Church, not very far above Colonel Stokely 's house, pulled down 
 long before our day, endowed with its silver communion-service 
 by our great-grandfather, George Douglas, Esq., of Assawaman. 
 Thus she was not only a good Presbyterian, whose pastor's 
 daughter was the bride, and she a Presbyterian too, but the 
 groom was from the county of her ancestors, in Virginia, and 
 could tell her something about traditions she had heard of the 
 family from which she sprung. With pious devotion to her 
 mother's family, she desired to have a talk with us particularly, 
 and formed a cosy group of quiet chat in the northeast corner 
 room leading to the garden. The room had a north window, 
 diagonal from the door leading to the garden. At this door her 
 group was formed, fronting, in a semicircle, this north window 
 of the room, the garden door on our right. First, on our right, 
 next the window, was old Judge Overton, one of General Jack- 
 son's earliest and best friends. He was a man who had made 
 his mark in law and politics, but was not pious, and was a 
 queer-looking little old man. Small in stature, and cut into 
 sharp angles at every salient point, a round, prominent, gourd- 
 like, bald cranium, a peaked, Roman nose, a prominent, sharp, 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 101 
 
 but manly chin, and he had lost his teeth and swallowed his 
 lips. " There was danger," as Mr. Philip Doddridge once said 
 of his own nose and chin, " of their coming together, for many 
 sharp words had passed between them 1" Next to him, on his 
 left, sat General Jackson, his hair always standing straight up 
 and out, but he in his mildest mood of social suavity ; on his 
 left the Reverend Dr. Jennings, one of the sweetest men in 
 society, very distinguished as a lawyer first, and then as a 
 divine, with a rare sense of humor which even his religious zeal 
 could not always repress, and yet awfully earnest and severe 
 against all levity; on his left was Mrs. Jackson, a lady who, 
 doubtless, was once a form of rotund and rubicund beauty, but 
 now was very plethoric and obese, and seemingly suffered 
 from what was called phthisis, and talked low but quick, with 
 a short and wheezing breath, the very personation of affable 
 kindness and of a welcome as sincere and truthful as it was 
 simple and tender ; on her left was ourself, responding to her 
 every inquiry about things her mother had handed down con- 
 cerning the Stokely family. On our left sat Henry Baldwin, 
 the son of Judge Baldwin, of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, one of the groomsmen, a gentleman of fine culture, good 
 
 sense, and taste ; and on his left was sweet Mary , one 
 
 of the bridesmaids. Thus the dramatis personse sat in the 
 scene. 
 
 Judge Overton had thrown over his head a bandanna hand- 
 kerchief, and sat all the time muttering or "raounching, mounch- 
 ing, mounching" on his toothless gums, looking like the Witch 
 of Endor. His profile, to the eye, cut its outline clear upon 
 the window-pane. He and General Jackson and Dr. Jennings, 
 at first, were talking on the topics of the day. Mr. Baldwin 
 
 was whispering to Mary , and Mrs. Jackson was for an 
 
 hour or two questioning us about her people and their place in 
 Accomack. We had just described to her, as nearly as we could 
 recollect, one of the goblets of the plain plate of Assawamau 
 Church, the only piece of it we had seen, in the house of a 
 maternal great-uncle, when suddenly she seemed satisfied, or 
 the subject was exhausted, and she turned to Dr. Jennings, 
 
102 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION: 
 
 soying, "Doctor, a short time ago I came near sending for you 
 on a very important concern to me." 
 
 "Indeed, madam 1 I should have been pleased to obey your 
 call, and, duty permitting, would have come with pleasure to 
 serve you in any way I could. Pray, what was the occasion ? 
 Perhaps, if permitted, I may still render you a service." 
 
 " Oh, doctor ! at a time lately, but for a moment, I feared the 
 general was giving way to the Swedenborgian doctrines. I 
 wished you to talk to him on the subject and to counsel me." 
 
 We looked at the general and closely watched his expression. 
 His eye was soft whenever he looked at his cherished wife ; and 
 raising himself a little in the attitude of surprise, until he un- 
 derstood her sudden allusion to himself, but calm and composed, 
 be said, — 
 
 " Pooh, pooh, madam 1 your anxiety was vain. I was in no 
 danger of giving way to iho Swedenborgian doctrines; all I 
 said was that some of Swedenborg's conceptions of Deity were 
 the most soo-blime [pronouncing sublime as if spelt " soo,^^ 
 and emphasizing the first syllable] that tapped the drum eccle- 
 siastic." 
 
 "What!" exclaimed the doctor of divinity, "do you pre- 
 tend to compare the crudities of Swedenborg with the divine 
 conceptions of David, or Job, or Isaiah ?" 
 
 " Yes," said the hero, for he had said it, and his whole mien 
 changed to one of pious pugnacity. " Yes, sir, Swedenborg's 
 conceptions, by being among the most sooblime, only prove . 
 that the Almighty Creator has at all times, among all nations, 
 inspired the souls of men with images of Himself, and the 
 original inspirations are in some instances as sooblime as are 
 the revelations of divinity: both come from God." 
 
 His positiveness appeared in his flashing eye, his erect form, 
 his hair standing up and out, in his compressed lips, and in his 
 upraised gesture with hand clinched. There then was a theo- 
 logical fight. It was exactly what we wanted to see : had he 
 logic and metaphysics in him ? The discussion which ensued 
 was rich and rare. It was the scimitar of Saladin against the 
 battle-axe of Coeur de Lion ! The doctor exact, a fencer poised, 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 103 
 
 quick, steady, skilled, with weapons keen enough to cut eider- 
 down ; he would seem to run in the Damascus blade and turn 
 the point coolly to feel for the vital point, but Richard did 
 not fall nor faint, but thrashed about him with his massive 
 axe as a harvest-man would wield the flail ! It was sharp 
 science against a strong arm which wanted not natural 
 '' canning." 
 
 Both forgot the witnesses of the single-handed struggle, and 
 were too busy in the tight try of argument to notice any inter- 
 polations of the listeners and lookers-on. 
 
 The Witch of Endor was not silent in the fray : "mumble, 
 mumble, mumble" went his chin and nose, and, catching his 
 own argument between two fingers and his thumb, he would 
 try to push it in, but it always failed to enter the list, and. 
 stuck in the palm of his hand, he each time starting to say with 
 a vim, " By G — d !" but turning that insult to the divine pres- 
 ent into the words, "By G — Jupiter!" It was ludicrous, and 
 we nearly clapped our hands with the " gaudia certaminis,^' 
 when suddenly Mrs. Jackson reached across our knees, and 
 touched Mr. Baldwin, saying, "Mr. Baldwin, dear, you are 
 sleepy!" The startled groomsman, broken down by his wait- 
 ing on matrimony for two or three nights, suddenly opened his 
 eyes from a nod, and rubbing them with his knuckles, protested 
 that he was not at all sleepy, but wide awake and enjoying the 
 discussion 1 His protestations were all in vain. Up Mrs. 
 Jackson would rise and ring the bell for servant and candle to 
 light the dear child to bed ! This broke the discussion and 
 separated the coterie for the night. As we rose to leave the 
 room, Dr. Jennings touched me and said, sotto voce, " Henry,' 
 did you hear that poor old sinner turn ' By God' into 'By 
 Jupiter'?" "Yes, and it touched me as it did you, doctor; 
 not only to shock my piety, but to shake my risibles." 
 , After several days of delightful delay, we moved to leave the 
 Hermitage, but day after day were detained by the entreaty 
 of General Jackson and his lady. At last we were resolved 
 positively to start; still, we were not allowed to leave until 
 after dinner, and the hour for dining was as late as 4 P.-'^i. 
 
104 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 We apprehended anxiously the danger of the defile of stumps 
 and mud-holes on the Murfreesborough road, on the way back 
 to Nashville. The road then was not paved, and it would cer- 
 tainly be dark when we arrived at the point of danger. We 
 urged this necessity for early departure, but in vain. After 
 dinner the general insisted it was too late, but ordered the 
 horses, and whilst awaiting their being brought to the door, he 
 took his pipe, sat on the sill of the front door, and with a group 
 in the porch around him, consisting of several of the family and ■' 
 guests, repeatedly warned us that it would be dark before we 
 could travel half the way, that the road was unsafe, and that 
 we would certainly meet with disaster. This led to tales by 
 one and another of the group of "hairbreadth 'scapes." In 
 every instance narrated of disaster we noticed that he point- 
 edly and oracularly said, "Ah ! young man, you did not trust 
 in Providence." This was repeatedly said, adding, "Never 
 encounter danger if you can avoid it : if inevitable, meet it 
 more than half-way ; but whether to avoid or encounter it, trust 
 altogether iu Providence." We were struck by his repeated 
 remarks of this sort, so much so that we could not but think, 
 " Is this real faith, or is it not like an affected Napoleonic 
 belief and trust in Fate ?" 
 
 The gig came up to the door. He rose to wait on the bride ; 
 and in banding her up the step, he said to her, " I have tried 
 my best to protect you, madam, but your chosen one seems too 
 self-reliant to heed your safety or my admonitions ; I fear he 
 don't trust in Providence, and will meet with disaster on the 
 way. I shall be anxious until I meet you at church, safe in 
 Nashville, Sabbath next. Trust in Providence, and you will' 
 not be hurt; and you have a goodly escort to help you in time 
 of need. May Providence protect you 1 — it seems your husband 
 thinks he can protect himself." 
 
 We drove off, and hurried on faster than the saddle-horses 
 traveled, in order to reach the " stumps and holes" before dark; 
 but darkness overtook us ; and, on approaching the place, the 
 road was scrutinized ; we drove slowly and steadily, but vision 
 was perfectly deceived. The wagon-wheels, daubed with the 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 105 
 
 mortar of stiff clay, had to pass so close to an inclined stump 
 that the dripping mud had fallen on the stump and colored it 
 precisely lilie the bed of the road and the offal of the stump on 
 the opposite side of the road looked black, and was taken for the 
 stump itself; and this led the left wheel directly up and over it, 
 overturning the gig to the right in the mortar of clay in the road. 
 The horse was a generous lion of draught, and, though spirited, 
 perfectly broken. The right shaft was broken, and the fragments 
 pricked his right hind leg and made him restive ; but we re- 
 mained perfectly still, steadily grasping the reins until the bride 
 could creep out into the road, and then, gradually relaxing the 
 rein, we too crawled into the mud. The breeching and traces 
 were immediately undone and slipped out, and we found a dry 
 spot of leaves on the roadside to stand on. So far was the bride 
 from being put out or frightened, that she joined in the propo- 
 sition to tie the horse in the woods and bide ourselves behind 
 a large tree until the cavalcade escort should come up. In a 
 short time they arrived at the spot, and, finding the gig upset 
 and broken in the road, and no sign of the horse, or harness, or 
 ourselves, they set up a wail of agony most distressing. Dr. 
 Thomas R. Jennings was so shocked that we could conceal 
 ourselves no longer, but ran out and relieved the party. For- 
 tunately a four-horse wagon soon drove up, and the driver 
 having an axe and other tools with which to cut a pole and 
 straps to lash on the broken shaft, it. was repaired, and we 
 reached Nashville safe, but very muddy, in the wedding fine 
 clothes. 
 
 The next Sabbath General Jackson and his lady came into 
 Mr. John C. McLemore's, and, calling at the house of Dr. 
 Jennings, at once inquired for our safety ; when told of our 
 "escape" from hurt, again he repeated, "Ah 1 young man, you 
 did not trust in Providence 1 You would not be advised to 
 avoid danger when you could. But for your trusting wife, it 
 would have been worse for both." 
 
 We then began to perceive what he meant by trusting in 
 Providence. It was no inactive belief, no blind faith ; but 
 it was to do what was prudent, careful, and obviously most 
 
106 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 safe, and leave the " whole care" of the result to God. It was 
 to do every little thing necessary to be observed by human 
 foresight and precaution, however inapt, apparently, to the 
 end, as the mother of Moses did with the preparation of bul- 
 rushes and slime and pitch, and then put the basket on the 
 waters, however much exposed to the crocodile and the Nile, and 
 leave the whole care for conjunction of causes and effects to the 
 goodness and wisdom of God ! Contrary to the general opinion 
 of strangers concerning him, Jackson was an abundantly cautious 
 man, and yet his exquisite tact often imposed upon the world 
 by what he called "the policy of rashness," — of doing what 
 would be least expected of him under the circumstances by his 
 enemies, — violating general rules to obtain the advantage of 
 surprise. That, as well, was the very cunning of caution. 
 
 We heard numberless anecdotes of him illustrating the same . 
 characteristic of consummate tact. He knew that the world, 
 or those who knew him least, counted him of a temperament 
 weak, impassioned, impulsive, and inconsiderate in action; and 
 he often turned this mistake as to his character into a large 
 capital of advantage. He was a consummate actor, never / 
 stepped without knowing and marking his ground, but knew / 
 that most men thought he was not a man of calculations. This 
 enabled him to blind them by his affectation of passion and im- 
 pulse, and neither Talma, nor Garrick, nor Kemble, nor Kean 
 could excel him in the " histrionics." Frequently, when strangers 
 thought he was in a towering passion, his whole excitement was 
 deliberately simulated for effect. For example, when bank com- 
 mittees would come from Philadelphia or elsewhere to over- 
 whelm him with memorials upon the removal of the deposits, 
 and to represent the crash of commercial credit by his anti-bank 
 policy, he was fixed in his plans, and knew that they could not 
 change his purpose, and that he could argue and remonstrate with 
 them only in vain ; and he would lay down his pipe, rise to his 
 full height of stature and voice, and seem to foam at the mouth 
 whilst declaiming vehemently against the dangers of a money 
 monopoly : " Yes, he had rather be in the desert of Sahara, 
 dying of thirst, than drink from such a fountain of corruption 1" 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 107 
 
 The committees would retire iu disgust, thinkiug they were 
 leaving a madman, and as soon as they were gone he would 
 resume his pipe, and, chuckling, say, " Tliey thought I was 
 mad !" and coolly comment on the policy of " never compro- 
 mising a vital issue; one alwa^'S lost friends and never ap- 
 peased enemies." He was often derided for want of learning. 
 He had read very few books, and he made his supposed igno- 
 rance an instrument of policy. To illustrate this: General Call 
 and the Honorable Joseph L. White were rivals from Florida 
 for his favor. White wanted a foreign mission. Call was one 
 of the " braves" of the general's campaigns, and White was an 
 accomplished scholar, lawyer, and courtier, but not of that tone 
 which stamped a man with General Jackson. White was far the 
 fitter of the two for diplomatic life ; but General Jackson pre- 
 ferred sturdier stuff than mere manners and cultivation. He 
 wished not to oifend White, but was in favor of a pet comrade 
 in arms, whose sense and courage he had tried. The delay of 
 preference between them was long. At last an incident occurred 
 which assured White that the beam Avould kick in his favor. 
 The true boundary between Florida and Louisiana had long 
 been hidden iu a secret treaty between France and Spain. 
 Both territories had been ceded to the United States, but the 
 limits had not been accurately defined, and were so uncertain 
 that numerous disputes as to land-titles had arisen on the bor- 
 ders of the State and Territory. To settle the line, and ascer- 
 tain precisely where the French and where the Spanish laws 
 furnished the rule of land-titles, a large fee was raised by the 
 proprietors and claimants to send Mr. White to Europe to 
 obtain the clause relating to boundary embraced in the secret 
 treaty. The fee was deposited with Barings, at London, to be 
 paid to Mr. White whenever he presented the copy of the clause 
 of the secret treaty as to the boundary. Mr. White made due 
 preparation, and among other credentials took letters to Lord 
 Palmerston. He was received kindly by him, and told him his 
 mission. He desired a favorable presentation to Prince Talley- 
 rand, then envoy from France at the Court of St. James. Lord 
 Palmerston told him that the most he could do was to give him 
 
108 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 opportunity with the prince. He would give a dinner, and 
 place Mr. White's seat next to that of Prince Talleyrand, and he 
 must then watch his chances and make his own approaches. 
 There was no telling what tact to observe or what artifice to 
 employ to obtain the patronage of Prince Talleyrand. The 
 dinner-hour came, and White found his card on the plate next 
 to that of the prince at table. During the dinner the prince 
 questioned minutely on many American matters, and White was 
 so obliging and satisfactory that the prince was caught in the 
 humor to admit the opening of his budget. 
 
 " Yes, the boundaries between the French and Spanish terri- 
 tories had been fixed by a certain treaty which was secret ; but 
 that clause was no secret, and could be had at his order, and 
 he would write for it to be copied in form, with a voucher to 
 its being all cognate to the boundary." 
 
 Thus in a few days it was obtained under the proper seals 
 and vouchers, and being placed in White's hands by Talleyrand, 
 it was presented to the Barings, and White's fee for obtaining 
 it was cashed by them. He immediately prepared for a conti- 
 nental tour. He purchased a rich English equipage, a "little 
 moving England" of a coach, and a traveling " turn-out" of 
 " bloods" for the route from Paris to Rome and Naples. He 
 was " passported" and " couriered" as " the Hon. Jos. L, 
 White, a Delegate in the House of Representatives, of the Con- 
 gress of the United States of America, from Florida," and pro- 
 gressed in state grandly until he came into some one of the 
 little states of Italy, when and where he was suddenly sum- 
 moned to appear before his Highness the Prince. Aba! what 
 had he done, omitted, said ? Why summoned ? Had he 
 uttered aught against the Pope ? Was he suspected ? Of 
 what ? 
 
 Obeying the summons thus in doubt and distrust, what was 
 his relief when he found himself received most graciously 1 He 
 was " the Hon. Jos. L. White, a Delegate, etc. etc. etc., was 
 he?" "Yes." Well, the duties of the Italian state had lately 
 been changed so favorably to the commerce of the United 
 States, and the port regulations so mitigated, that the prince 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 109 
 
 was anxious to communicate intelligence thereof to the Presi- 
 dent of the United States, but he regretted that his Highness 
 had no diplomatic correspondence or intercourse with Washing- 
 ton, and would the Hon. White, thus opportunely passing 
 through his dominions, take dispatches to his Excellency 
 General Jackson, the President of the United States? 
 
 Certainly, the Hon. Mr. White would do himself that honor, 
 and wait on the prince at his pleasure. A messenger was 
 called, and took memoranda of orders for the proper dispatches. 
 He retired, when the prince seized his silver bell, and ringing 
 to recall the messenger, said to the Hon. Mr. White, " We have 
 not inquii'ed in what language the dispatches shall be written. 
 Which language, the Italian or French, does the President read 
 or understand best ?" 
 
 The President read or understood neither ; and with true 
 diplomatic tact, White replied, " The one as well as the other, 
 your Highness." The dispatches were then made out and 
 given with many gracious thanks to the bearer, Mr. White. 
 Mr. White was still more thankful for them. He was then, by 
 accident, a diplomatic bearer of good news to General Jackson, 
 and had beaten a Caulaiucourt by his ready safeguard of Gen- 
 eral Jackson as a linguist. 
 
 If Jackson was a Napoleon, he would be made an envoy for 
 that smart. Machiavellian answer. 
 
 He guarded the dispatches of the prince with the tenderest 
 care, and when he got to Washington City, put on his best 
 European costume, and waited on Old Hickory. He told his 
 story of the travel and summons and alarm and relief, and all 
 went smoothly until he came to what he imagined would be 
 *' la creine de la creme^' of the adventure for the general. 
 Without lying, he had not admitted that the President did not 
 understand any but his own mother tongue of English, and had 
 truthfully conveyed the meaning that as to the French or Italian 
 he understood "the one as well as the other!" 
 
 The moment this was uttered, the general rose in his wrath, 
 and let the Honorable Mr. White know " that he did not 
 thank him for any such liberty with his name ; he had sup- 
 
110 SEV£X JjECADES OF TUB UN I OX. 
 
 pressed the truth, and he would let him know and feel that he 
 / estimated himself as highly as if he read and spoke all the 
 I barbarous tongues. His name and character needed no such 
 bolster of deception !" 
 
 This was what the court" circle, who saw him only super- 
 ficially, supposed was the weakness of pride and vanity and 
 ignorance. Not so : he was going to prefer Call, and this was 
 an opportunity to make a pretext for cutting White. It was 
 cunning, not weakness; and, after White left, he laughed at the 
 opportunity to make him quit courting for a diplomatic place. 
 White thought it was weakness. 
 
 But, on another occasion, his ignorance of language did en- 
 tangle him in a ridiculous mistake, and almost in a scrape. 
 During his administration, whilst Mr. Louis McLane, of Dela- 
 ware, was Secretary of State, France sent a certain dashing 
 minister to Washington, a young man just elevated above the 
 grade of charge, whose passion was display. His outfit of 
 equipage, grooms, postilions, and gold lace was magnificent. 
 He called on the Secretary of State to appoint an audience 
 with the President ; and Mr. McLane, an accomplished, easy 
 gentleman, begged him to call the next morning at ten o'clock 
 at the State office, and he would accompany and present him 
 to the President. 
 
 Monsieur le Miuistre mistook as to the place of calling. He 
 thought he was to call at the President's mansion at ten o'clock 
 A.M. Accordingly, in full panoply of costume, in coach and- 
 four, with attendants, grooms, postilions, outriders, and foot- 
 men, at the hour appointed he drove up to the front door of the 
 White House, instead of to the State Department, where Mr. 
 McLane was awaiting his arrival. 
 
 At that time the President was served by a French cook, 
 and the celebrated Irishman, Jemmy O'Neal, was General 
 Jackson's petted major-domo. The hour was about the time 
 of General Jackson's finishing puff of the pipe after breakfast, 
 and he smoked, as he did everything else, with all his might ! 
 His mode was no Latakia curl, no dreamy, thready line, 
 from barely-opened lips ; but a full drawing and expanding 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. HI 
 
 volume of white cloud, rising up whiff after whiff, puff after 
 puff, and bowl and stem and pipe all smoked as hard and fast 
 as they could, and the fire was red and the ashes hot, and 
 the whole room was so obfuscated that one could hardly breathe 
 its atmosphere or see. His usual mode of sitting while smok- 
 ing was with his left leg thrown across the right, and the left 
 toe brought behind the right tendo-Achillis, and the long pipe- 
 stem resting in the fork or crotch of the two knees, and reach- 
 ing nearly to the floor. He smoked the old Powhatan bowl, 
 with reed stem very long. In this attitude he was sitting 
 and smoking, whilst Mr. McLane was waiting at the State 
 office for Mr. Minister, and whilst Mr. Minister was riding up 
 to the presidential mansion. He arrived, — the French cook in 
 the kitchen. Jemmy O'Neal about his business, and General 
 Jackson alone iu his office. A bustle was made, bells began to 
 ring. Jemmy was summoned to the door, and there presented 
 itself all this parade. The divil a word could Jemmy under- 
 stand, , and the best he could do was to run up-stairs to the 
 general and announce somebody very grand ; but Jemmy 
 winked that all didn't seem right, as there seemed too much 
 fuss for that soon in the morning, and it might be, after all, 
 an imposition : — " Och, there was no telling about the thing, 
 it was so unusual !" It might turn out what afterwards oc- 
 curred, — a LaAvrence affair! The general quietly replied, " Oh, 
 Jemmy, show the stranger up, — we will see who it is." Jemmy 
 ran, and Jackson sat smoking, when presently the room-door 
 was thrown wide open, and a manikin of gold-lace entered, 
 cocked hat, with -bullion and white feather, flourished in hand, 
 making a salaam to the right and a salaam to the left with 
 tremendous sweeps, whizzing and whirring French with vehe- 
 ment gesture, and approaching nearer and nearer ; it seemed 
 threatening in the extreme ! 
 
 The Presidenit quit smoking, beat the bowl of his pipe in his 
 hand, rose quickly, took hold of the back of his chair, and 
 exclaimed, with strong voice, " By the eternal gods. Jemmy 
 O'Neal, who is this ?" 
 
 Jemmy, with eyes and ears open, and hands ready, was 
 
112 SEVEX DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 amazedly looking on, when, fortunately, he bethought him of 
 the French cook, and ran for him. There was no time tc be 
 lost : so the French cook, with his shirt-sleeves rolled up to 
 his shoulders, and just as he was, besprinkled white with flour, 
 ran up with Jemmy, arriving just in time to save Mr. Minister's 
 pate from being smashed by the chair in General Jackson's hands. 
 "]Mon Dieu !" exclaimed the cook: "it is the grand minister 
 of Louis Philippe I" 
 
 * " Oh !" said the general : "walk in, sir; there is no ceremony 
 here!" And he was about taking the minister by both hands 
 just as Mr. McLane entered to see the mistake, to witness the 
 prevention of the catastrophe, and to enjoy the joke, which made 
 him a thousand times afterwards "shake" with jollity "like a 
 bowlful of jelly." 
 
 But we are anticipating events by painting, perhaps out of 
 place, the private characteristics and traits of a very gi'eat man, 
 whose name belongs only incidentally to this memoir of one of 
 his successors. General Jackson was elected President in the 
 fall of 1828. His domestic life had been scanned and scourged, 
 and his beloved and honored wife had been most malignantly 
 reviled and tortured, by the forked tongues of his political oppo- 
 nents. She was happy in his love, and never aspired to the 
 splendor of his fortune in life. ~ She had fled to his manhood for 
 protection and peace, and had been sheltered and saved by his 
 gallant championship of the cause of woman. He, and he alone, 
 was her all, and of him it may be truly said that, in respect to 
 " wassail, wine, and woman," he was one of the purest men of 
 his day, and that, too, in an age of rude habits and vulgar dis- 
 sipation among the rough settlers of the West. He was tem- 
 perate in drink, abstemious in diet, simple in tastes, polished in 
 manners, except when roused, and always preferred the society 
 of ladies, with the most romantic, pure, and poetic devotion. 
 He was never accused of indulging in any of the grosser vices, 
 except that in early life he swore, horse-raced, and attended 
 cock-fights. As for the wife of his bosom, she was a woman of 
 spotless character, and an unassuming, consistent Christian : 
 yet political rancor bitterly assailed her, and, not content with 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 113 
 
 defamation, endeavored to belittle her hj the contemptuous 
 appellation of " Aunt Rachel," and held her up to ridicule for 
 "smoking a corn-cob pipe." She did prefer that form, not for 
 the pleasure of smoking, but because a pipe was prescril)ed by 
 her physician for her phthisis ; and she often rose in the night 
 to smoke for relief. In a night of December, 1828, she rose to 
 smoke, and caught cold whilst sitting in her nightclothes ; and 
 the story is that her system had been shocked by her over- 
 hearing reproaches of herself whilst waiting in a parlor at the 
 Nashville Inn. She had said to a friend, upon the election of 
 her husband, "For Mr. Jackson's sake, I am glad ; for my own 
 part, I never wished it. I assure you I had rather be a door- 
 keeper in the house of my God than to live in that palace in 
 Washington." She was not allowed to live "in that palace 
 in Washington." Before the day of her husband's inauguration 
 at the White House she was taken by her God to that " house 
 not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
 
 The 23d of December was the anniversary of General Jack- 
 son's greatest strategy in war. He had without means made 
 preparations for the defense of New Orleans. He had arrested 
 suspected persons by a strong arm ; he had roused the populace 
 of the city, of all races and colors, to seize arms for defense ; 
 he had seized cotton bales to make him a line of impenetrable 
 ramparts from river to lagoon for miles; he had manned gun- 
 boats to co-operate with the land forces ; he had done wonder's 
 in making strongholds out of nothing for the last ditches of 
 defense ; but the coup de viain was, after making his last 
 hold as strong as he could, in leaving his intrenchments to 
 attack the invading foe in full force at night, with a handful of 
 men, under Coffee and Carroll, on the night of the 23d of De- 
 cember, and striking the enemy so hard a blow full in the face that 
 he was staggered and made to hesitate and pause, giving Jack- 
 son sixteen days' time to recruit his forces and strengthen still 
 more his defenses. Had the enemy marched directly upon 
 New Orleans on the 2.3d or 24th of December, the " beauty 
 and booty" of the city would have fallen a pre}'- to his lust 
 and rapine. But Jackson pursued his "policy of rashness," 
 
 8 
 
lU SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 struck unexpected and unseen, saved the city, and won im« 
 mortal laurels. 
 
 This, tlie 23d of December, 1814, not the 8th of January, 
 1815, he counted his day of victory. Strategy was the success- 
 ful forerunner of courage and force. 
 
 Preparations were being made in Nashville to give him and 
 his lady a grand reception and celebration of the anniversary 
 of this his lucky day, and all eyes were bent towards the Her- 
 mitage to see the conquering hero, the then President, come, 
 with his cherished wife at his side, when, lo ! a messenger on 
 " tlie White Horse" was seen, riding fast, to announce that his 
 partner was — dead. She was no longer the afflicted, deserted 
 one, whom he had championed and married and lived with in 
 holy and lawful wedlock. She was no longer his angel bosom 
 partner ; she was no longer a target for this world's fiery darts 
 of detraction, — she was a saint. The day's gladness was turned 
 to earthly mourning, and the day of the. funeral came instead 
 of the day of feasting. 
 
 Dr. Heiskel, of Winchester, Virginia, was just starting as a 
 young physician in the neighborhood of the Hermitage, and 
 was the first to minister to her relief, and attended until two 
 eminent physicians were called in from Nashville. From him 
 we learned that she had caught cold, and pleuritic symptoms 
 supervened upon her constitutional nervous affections. She 
 was sitting smoking her corn-cob pipe when she caught her 
 last malady. 
 
 The day of burial came, and we witnessed the solemn scene. 
 This we can confidently testify, that more sincere homage was 
 done to her dead than was ever done to any woman in our day 
 and country living. Thousands from the city and from all 
 the country around flocked to her funeral. The poor white 
 people, the slaves of the Hermitage and adjoining plantations, 
 and the neighbors, crowded off the gentry of town and coun- 
 try, and filled the large garden in which the interment touk 
 place. /She had been a Hannah and Dorcas to every needy 
 household. She had been more than mistress, a mother to her 
 servants and dependents ; and the richest and best were proud 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. 115 
 
 of the privilege of her sincere and simple friendship. She was, 
 without question, loved and honored by hig-h and low, white and 
 black, bond and free, rich and poor, and that love was so unaflfect- 
 edlj expressed by a wail so loud and long that there was no 
 mistaking its grief for the loss, not of the departed one, but of 
 the living left behind her. From that same door of the northeast 
 room of the house near which the happy bridal party sat but 
 a few months before, her coffin was borne to the grave dug in 
 the garden for her remains. 
 
 Following the pall-bearers came General Jackson, with his 
 left hand in the arm of General Carroll, holding his cane in his 
 right hand, not grasping it with the hand over the head, nor 
 with the thumb up, but with the back of the hand up and hold- 
 ing the point of the cane forward as he would have held a 
 sword, and where he stopped at the pile of clay its point rested 
 on the clods. Weeping and mourning were heard on every 
 side ; but at that moment of his coming up to that clod portal 
 of clay a favorite old servant of Mrs. Jackson burst through 
 the group around the pit and tried to get into the grave with 
 the coffin. She was about sixty years of age, but robust and 
 strong, and, falling near the brink, got both feet over the edge 
 of the grave, when the sexton and others took hold of her and 
 prevented her descending, and were trying to raise her up and 
 remove her. Her cries were agonizing: "My mistress, my 
 best friend, ray love, my life, is gone, — I will go with her!" 
 
 This was but a moment; but, close to General Jackson, we 
 watched him intently. Every muscle of his face was unmoved ; 
 steady as a rock, without a teardrop in his eye or a quaver 
 in his voice, he quickly raised the point of his cane and 
 said, " Let that faithful servant weep for her best friend and 
 loved mistress ; she has the right and cause to mourn for her 
 loss, and her grief is sweet to me." The persons who had hold 
 of her immediately released her, and left her sitting over the fresh 
 clods, weeping ; and there she remained, hindering the burial, 
 until after awhile some of her friends persuaded her to leave 
 the side of the grave and let the ceremony go on. The body 
 was let down, " dust to dust" was said, the grave was filled up 
 
116 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 and shaped into the common mound which covers poor mor- 
 tality, and General Jackson was led away by General Car- 
 roll back to the northeast room. The crowd followed, and we 
 got in near to the chief mourner. Arriving fairly into the room, 
 and pausing a few moments, he looked around him, and, raising 
 his voice, said, — 
 
 " Friends and neighbors, I thank you for the honor you have 
 done to the sainted one whose remains now repose in yonder 
 grave. She is now in the bliss of heaven, and I know that she 
 can suffer here no more on earth. That is enough for my con- 
 solation ; my loss is her gain. But I am left without her to 
 encounter the trials of life alone. I am now the President elect 
 of the United States, and in a short time must take my way to 
 the metropolis of my country; and, if it had been God's will, I 
 would have been grateful for the privilege of taking her to my 
 post of honor and seating her by my side; but Providence kaew 
 what was best for her. For myself, I bow to God's will, and 
 go alone to the place of new and arduous duties, and I shall 
 not go without friends to reward, and I pray God that I may 
 not be allowed to have enemies to punish. I can forgive all 
 who have wronged me, but will have fervently to pray that I 
 may have grace to enable me to forget or forgive any enemy 
 who has ever maligned that blessed one who is now safe from 
 all suflering and sorrow, whom they tried to put to shame for 
 my sake ! " 
 
 This was uttered calmly, firmly, mournfully, and in such 
 deep silence of the crowd that it was audible and distinct to 
 every one in the room. We can never forget it. Could he ? 
 The answer to the question illustrates his leading trait of the 
 policy of pugnacity. 
 
 In due time he went to Washington City, and was inau- 
 gurated President of the United States. He took up his abode 
 in the White House. His bed was placed in the appropriate 
 chamber. Prominent on the walls of that chamber, right 
 opposite the pillow of the bed, was hung a picture of his wife, — 
 placed there, as he himself said, so that it might be the first 
 object to meet his eye when his lids opened in the morning, 
 
THE FOURTH DECADE. IH 
 
 and the last for bis gaze to leave when they closed in sleep at 
 night. 
 
 And yet, soon after he was a lodger there, that room was 
 the scene of his private conferences at night, in which Amos 
 Kendall was his chief scribe and amanuensis, to write the broad- 
 side editorials of the Globe under his dictation and instruction, 
 but not with his diction. He was a better thinker than his 
 scribe, his scribe a better writer than he. He would lie down 
 and smoke and dictate his ideas as well as he could express 
 them, and Amos Kendall would write a paragraph and read it. 
 That was not the thing; many times the scribe would write 
 and rewrite again and again, and fail to " fetch a compass" of 
 the meaning. At last, by alteration and correction, getting 
 nearer and nearer to it, he would see it, and be himself aston- 
 ished at its masterly power. General Jackson needed such an 
 amanuensis, intelligent, learned, industrious as Mr. Kendall 
 was. He could think, but could not write ; he knew what 
 nerve to touch, but he was no surgeon skilled in the instrument 
 of dissection. Kendall was. But how came Amos Kendall 
 there, in General Jackson's sanctum, where his saint's picture 
 hung ! She had been most maligned by Amos Kendall, the 
 editor of Clay's leading journal in Kentucky, during the can- 
 vass. Kendall had called her "Aunt Rachel with the corn-cob 
 pipe," and had exaggerated Robard's wrongs and Rachel's 
 failings in every term of reproach and ridicule. There was the 
 chief enemy who had maligned her, there hung the picture of 
 the wounded saint, and there was the husband avenger who 
 volunteered a vow at her grave! This was mighty strange I 
 Not so, however, to those who knew General Jackson well. No 
 man was cooler in his calculations than he was. He would 
 sometimes seem to fight most rashly, but no one ever knew him 
 to fight at all unless there was a stake up worth fighting for. 
 
 Kendall had been a poor Yankee schoolmaster, and was a 
 protege of Mr. Clay. He had been but a hireling, and was but 
 a pen for the political malice of Mr. Clay's party. 
 
 What had he (President Jackson) to gain by fighting the 
 pen, the mere amanuensis, when his aim was to slay the 
 
lis SEVE.V DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 prompter of all his wrongs ? Kendall, for cause, left the fallen 
 
 house of Clay, and fled to the rock of power and strength. He 
 
 knew much, could reveal much, could deliver up all the enemy's 
 
 / armory.^ He was indefatigable, unscrupulous, and able. He was 
 
 I the very weapon for a pugnacious patron to use, and could surest 
 
 I strike the arch-enemy, — be had been the arch enemy's own. 
 
 General Jackson then could throw away prejudice, passion, 
 vengeance itself, and vows, and coolly take Amos to that cham- 
 ber, in presence of that picture, though he had applied the 
 "scavenger's daughter" of torture to "Aunt Rachel!" Amos 
 Kendall was his man, and he could and did use him with tre- 
 mendous effect to destroy his first patron, Mr. Clay. 
 
 Such was General Jackson, the man with whom Mr. Tyler 
 and his compeers had to deal at the beginning of Mr. Tyler's 
 career in the Senate of the United States. No two men were 
 ever more unlike than Mr. Tyler and General Jackson. They 
 were bred in totally difierent scenes and schools in life : the 
 one a child of gentle people and brought up in ease, the other 
 a poor boy of humble Irish extraction, orphaned and exiled by 
 war and poverty to build his own fortunes in the western wilds 
 of Tennessee ; the one taught and trained by the best of teachers 
 and books, the other a Hercules of action, without learning, ex- 
 cept that which was self-taught ; the one winning the stakes of 
 life by gentleness and grace, the other taking them by main 
 force and commanding success by seizing the prize he sought ; 
 the one a civilian and orator, the other a warrior always in the 
 camp of life, a leader of men, and in every sense a tremendous 
 actor. Mr. Tyler had touched him sorely in the tender point 
 of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, and he remembered what he 
 deemed an unkindness, and he showed no good opinion of, or 
 favor to, any one who had censured his course in that affair. 
 Finding that Mr. Calhoun had censured him in the Cabinet of 
 Mr. Monroe, he separated from him, though they were elected 
 on the same ticket in 1828. Thus Mr. Calhoun's friends, among 
 whom was Mr. Tyler, were soon made to stand aloof from Gen- 
 eral Jackson; though in the main, as on the Maysville road 
 bill, the States Rights party still maintained some of the lead- 
 ing; measures of the administration. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FIFTH DECADE, FROM 1830 TO 1840. 
 
 Debates from 1831 to 1832— The Tariff of 1828 for Protection— The Compro- 
 mise — Mr. Clay the Great Pacificator — South Carolina Ordinances and Force 
 Bill — Mr. Tyler the real and only Peace- Maker — The Presidential Election 
 of 1832 — Democracy divided — Mr. Van Buren the Favorite — The Names of 
 Factions — Mr. Tyler's Error of siding with Nullification — Difference between 
 it and the Virginia Doctrines of Mr. Madison — The Conservative purpose 
 and end of a Convention of the States for Cases of last Resort: 
 
 We left Nashville and returned to Yirginia in the fall of 
 1830, and began to take more note of public affairs, and more 
 interest in public men. We had seen and scanned the Man of 
 Iron Will, but, as yet, had never formed the personal acquaint- 
 ance of Mr. Tyler. In 1831-32, he was e.'^pecially able on the 
 Turkish mission in reply to Mr. Livingston. But the great 
 question of that session of the Senate was upon the doctrine of 
 Protection, raised by a resolution of Mr. Clay. 
 
 The contest of parties upon what was called the " Bill of 
 Abominations" of 1828, renewed and continued in 1832, arrayed 
 section against section in the interminable strife between Free 
 Trade and Protection. 
 
 The North, with Webster in the lead, was at first for Free 
 Trade ; Boston was opposed to the Protection policy. But in 
 a short time the New England and other Northern States in- 
 vested in manufactures, and their " sweet voices" for Free 
 Trade were suddenly changed. The Southern States were the 
 raw producers of the main staples for export, and their theory 
 was that the consumers of imports paid the bounties of Pro- 
 tection. 
 
 After the contest had become embittered, and whilst sore and 
 festering, Mr. Clay came forward with his resolutions distin- 
 
 (119) 
 
120 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 guishing between articles manufactured within and those man- 
 ufactured without the limits of the United States. Articles not 
 manufactured in the United States, except silks and wines, were 
 to be duty-free, and this, of course, increased the duties upon 
 articles in the country to the point of protection, and in many 
 cases to the point of prohibition. The North had all the ship- 
 ping, all the profits on ship-building, rigging, and victualing, 
 and all the profits of freights and bottomry. This, in effect, 
 was indirectly a tax upon exports and upon producers of exports 
 in the South ; and now it was proposed to compel that section 
 to use inferior domestic manufactures, and at the same time to 
 pay the equivalent of heav}^ imposts on their consumption to 
 this monopoly of home manufactures. 
 
 Mr. Tyler met this issue with marked ability ; his effort was 
 more than argument, it was prophecy, and an eloquence which 
 implored like the warnings of a seer against the sowing of this 
 dragon's tooth, to sprout armed warriors against the peace, 
 union, and liberties of the country. It was a dragon's tooth, 
 which caused the South Carolina Ordinances of Nullification, 
 which called for the Proclamation of Force. In 1832 the dan- 
 ger was imminent of armed resistance, when Congress put into 
 General Jackson's hands the power of military coercion. It 
 was then that Mr. Clay assumed the attitude of the Great Pa- 
 cificator. After doing more than any other man to raise the 
 storm, and hazarding civil war for Protection as a part, and 
 major part, of his American system, he had the Machiavelian 
 tact to claim the blessing and the praises due to the peace- 
 maker. Mr. Tyler alone had the honor of voting against the 
 Force Bill, while Mr. Clay, who raised the demon, got the credit 
 of exorcising him. He would have pressed Protection to a 
 conflict of arms, but that he knew that Jackson, his worst enemv, 
 would win all the popularity of preserving peace. He there- 
 fore made peace by a compromise of legislation, graduating a 
 reduction of duties by a fixed scale, and a set time, and by 
 classifying the articles subject to impost. 
 
 The presidential election of 1832 came in the wake of Nul- 
 lification and the Force Bill. And by this time, the begin- 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 121 
 
 ning of the second term of General Jackson's administration, 
 the Democratic party had split into factious, and was divided 
 against itself. Mr. Yan Bureu had won the favor of the hero, ( 
 just as the jackal wins the good will of the lion. He was 
 called the "Mistletoe politician, nourished by the sap of the 
 hickory-tree." He had bred strife between General Jackson 
 and Mr. Calhoun, who was Vice-President during the first term 
 of the administration. He had wielded the influence of what was 
 called the " Kitchen Cabinet" and the " Petticoat Pet," and 
 was nominated fur the Vice-Presidency in 1832 by the National 
 Convention, though the Democracy of Virginia voted for Philip 
 P. Barbour. 
 
 At this time the Democracy became divided into — first, 
 the Van Buren faction, called the " Locofoco" party, whose 
 motto was, " To the victors belong the spoils ;" secondly, the 
 Calhoun faction, the NuUifiers; and thirdly, a portion of the 
 old Madisonian Democracy, who opposed both Locofocoism 
 and Nullification ; and the opposition to the second term of 
 Jackson's administration soon consisted of — first, the National 
 Republicans of the Clay and Adams party; secondly, the Nul- 
 lifiers ; and thirdly, that portion of the Democracy called the 
 "Awkward Squad," which was opposed to Nullification, but 
 which opposed Locofocoism also, and was disaffected to the 
 administration by the removal of the public deposits from the 
 Bank of the United States. 
 
 It was out of these elements that the " Whig party" was 
 formed in 1839-40. They could not unite in 1836. 
 
 But the issues raised by South Carolina on the tariff of 1828 
 and her position in 1832 presented the dangers of civil war in 
 the conflict of Nullification and the Force Bill. 
 
 Mr. Tyler sided with Nullification, and voted alone against 
 the Force Bill, whilst Virginia opposed both. That issue brought 
 us into Congress in 1833. Then, for the first time, we formed 
 the personal acquaintance of Mr. Tyler. 
 
 On the doctrine of Nullification we dilTered. We considered 
 it a gross departure from the true faith of State Rights, and as 
 tending to crush them and to bring strict construction of the 
 
122 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 Constitution into discredit. We lived in the same congTessional 
 district, and we found him and Upshur, Parker and Colie, and 
 every leading politician on both shores of the Chesapeake, es- 
 pousing the new faith. We were thrown into the breach and 
 elected to Congress. 
 
 Taking sides with Nullification was the leading error of Mr. 
 Tyler's life. In this he departed from the true State Rights 
 faith of Virginia, of which Mr. Madison was the exponent, 
 not in going towards the extremes of Federalism, but in fol- 
 lowing the lead of the South Carolina school of State Rights 
 and remedies, on the opposite extreme, equally destructive of 
 all rights and all remedies. 
 
 Nullification, as promulged and attempted to be enforced 
 by South Carolina, is a very different doctrine or faith from 
 that taught by Mr. Madison and the Virginia Legislature from 
 1798 to the triumph of the principles of Virginia in 1801. 
 
 In the first place, the category of cases in which Mr. Madison 
 applied the doctrine of State Rights and remedies was far differ- 
 ent from the class of cases involving any question like that of 
 a protective tariff". He applied it to such cases as those of the 
 Alien and Sedition laws, involving fundamental principles of 
 republican freedom, — the primary and essential natural rights 
 of man, such as the right of residence and freedom of speech 
 and of the press. The ordinances of Nullification were applied 
 to questions of mere political expediency. Whether a denizen 
 might reside unmolested in the country as long as he observed 
 the laws, or a citizen might write or speak and publish freely, 
 without incurring the penalties of sedition, were very different 
 subjects of legislation from that of whether, under the general 
 power to regulate commerce between the several States and 
 with foreign nations, Congress might lay a tariff of duties, 
 excises, and imposts in such a way as to yield protection as 
 well as revenue. It is the plain distinction between cases in- 
 volving rights which are inviolable, inalienable, and universal, 
 and those which, in the sense of expediency, may exist or not, 
 or vary or not, according to policy, or compact, or convention. 
 Mr. Madison applied it in cases of last resorl for the conserva- 
 
TUE FIFTH DECADE. 123 
 
 tion of inalienable rights, and Mr. Calhoun applied it in cases 
 of governmental policy and expediency. 
 
 But, as applicable to any class of cases, Mr. Calhoun, in fact, 
 changed, and, as we think, essentially perverted, the true doc- 
 trine, and this caused it to be misunderstood and misapplied, 
 until it was brought into disrepute and was finally overthrown, 
 if not forever destroyed. 
 
 I. 
 
 The leading fact, not theory, on which State Rights are 
 founded is this: That the States, by the Revolution of '7G, 
 became free, sovereign, separate, and independent States. 
 
 II. 
 
 That the Articles of Confederation did not in any degree or 
 respect change or la the least impair this individuality and 
 sovereignty of the States. 
 
 III. 
 
 That the Constitution of the United States, to which the 
 States were parties and of which they were the creators, did 
 not impair the original and separate sovereignty and independ- 
 ence of the States. It formed only "a more perfect Union" of 
 individual States, but preserved their separate identity. The 
 Union was a union of individuals, and the individuals were 
 States, assuming the plural, not singular, name of the United 
 States, — united to act, to certain ends and for defined purposes, 
 by common means of nationality, but not merged in that na- 
 tionality ; united, but not consolidated, within the bounds of 
 defined limitations of power. And while sovereignty was 
 original in the States, whatever power was allowed to be 
 exercised by the Federal government was derivative only, — 
 derived from the States, delegated by them and to be exercised 
 for them equally, according to their joint will as expressed in 
 their written Constitution of the United States. State power 
 is not Federal poiver at all; but all Federal power is State 
 
124 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 power, delegated by them and for them as theii" joint power, 
 but still their power, to be used for their union. 
 
 ly. 
 
 That the Constitution or covenant of Union was federative, 
 founded on a fcedus of faith to and with States, the mutual 
 contractors to act, each for itself, as to all State affairs, and to 
 act in union with each other as to all sioecified and delegated 
 cases, and reserving all powers not granted; each State being 
 still sovereign, exercising all powers not granted themselves, 
 and all granted powers by a common government of their own 
 creation. 
 
 V. 
 
 That the Federal government was to be confined in its opera- 
 tions to the powers granted by the States, as its creators, and 
 to be limited hy special prohibitions, and by the general rule 
 that powers not granted were withheld from the general govern- 
 ment, because reserved to the States. 
 
 VI. 
 
 That in deciding all issues, whether the limitations of the 
 grants of power were violated either by the common Federal 
 government of the Union, or by the individual States, there 
 was and could be but one common arbiter ; that the Federal 
 government could not decide, in cases of last resort, either for 
 itself or for the States, and much less could any department 
 of that government so decide. The only arbiter was a conven- 
 tion of the States. If that was not allowed peacefully to ad- 
 just dissensions, then the only rule was the ultima ratio of 
 sovereigns. Thus far, Nullification concurred in the tenets of 
 Mr. Madison. But in the next and main principle of State 
 Kights it diverged fatally from the true faith. It made the 
 States irresponsible, instead of being judges for themselves on 
 their individual State responsibility to each other. Thus : 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 125 
 
 yii. 
 
 That in the hist resort "each State for itself was the judge 
 of the infraction as well as the mode and measure of redress." 
 
 Here the departure from the true faith of State Rights be- 
 gan. Mr. Madison laid down the rule as relative only, whilst 
 Nullification contended that it was absolute. Mr. Madison an- 
 nounced the position that each might judge for itself, but not 
 without responsibility to each and all of the other States; that 
 each might judge for itself of the infraction, but that resistance to 
 a law passed within the constitutional limitations was as much 
 an infraction as was the passage by Congress of an unconstitu- 
 tional law, and that each might judge for itself of the mode 
 and measure of redress ; but if one might judge that resistance 
 to the law was her mode and measure of redress, another might 
 judge that enforcement of the law was her mode and measure 
 of redressing the infraction of, or punishing resistance to, the 
 law. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The laws passed in pursuance of, or in accordance with, the 
 Constitution were undoubtedly the supreme laws ; but whether 
 passed in pursuance or in violation of the Constitution was a 
 question admitting of different tribunals for decision, according 
 to the nature of the question and characters of the parties. 
 
 In cases within the jurisdiction of the courts of the United 
 States, between citizens and persons, or States and States, in- 
 volving personal or corporate municipal rights, the Supreme 
 Court of the United States was confessedly the tribunal of 
 last resort as to parties to the suits in court. 
 
 Until the decision was made in such cases, between such par- 
 ties, to suits within the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, all 
 parties had to receive and act upon and abide by the Acts of 
 Congress as valid ; but the Supreme Court might, in such cases, 
 between such parties, decide that they were invalid, unconstitu- 
 tional, and void. These decisions operated civilly in personam 
 and in rem, but not on political issues. 
 
126 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 But b\' far the most importaut cases at issue were political 
 cases, and not cases either of law or in equity for the courts. 
 The Supreme Court itself had at the very beginning eschewed 
 the power of deciding who politically was right or wrong. At 
 the very beginning of the nineteenth century, and before the 
 Supreme Court had taken this judicial ground for the sake of 
 the Judicial Department, it left the political jurisdiction to the 
 Legislative and Executive Departments, according to its assign- 
 ment and distribution by the Constitution, to be controlled 
 finally by the elections of the people, or by the conventional 
 powers of the States. And this was salutary and safe, and 
 practically wise and good, so far as pertained to mere municipal 
 questions affecting persons and corporations as such. But it 
 was inadequate and without power either in the case where the 
 sovereign bodies politic, the States, interposed and contested the 
 constitutionality of laws affecting their political rights, or where 
 they contested the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court as to the 
 political issues between the sovereign parties to the Federal 
 compact, affecting the compact itself. When they did interpose, 
 a mere municipal department of the Federal government, the 
 Judiciary, could no more conclude them by decision than Con- 
 gress, another mere municipal department, could conclude to 
 bind them by legislation. This would have been to set up mere 
 municipalities, the Judicial and Legislative Departments of the 
 Federal government, over their sovereigns and creators the 
 States or the people, the sources of all power. 
 
 The clause which declares that the Constitution of the United 
 States, and the treaties and laws of the United States made in 
 pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law, could not justly be 
 interpreted to have any other than a municipal, not a sovereign, 
 sense or meaning: that they were to be supreme within the 
 limitations of the Constitution was to be decided only by the 
 conventional powers of the States. It would have been absurd 
 for the Constitution to forbid the Federal government, or either 
 or all of its departments, to violate it, and then to give to the 
 Federal government or either of its departments the power to 
 decide whether it had violated the Constitution or not, for that 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 12T 
 
 would be to give the power to declare its violations supreme, 
 and to enforce them on States as well as on persons and prop- 
 erty, without regard to constitutional limitations. So long as 
 the cases were ordinary cases, of no vital and fundamental 
 political importance, involving only municipal rights of persons 
 or property, the laws of Congress were to be deemed valid, 
 until decided otherwise by the Supreme Court, or when de- 
 cided by that court to be valid, and in either case were supreme. 
 But in plain, palpable cases, involving gross infractions of the 
 Constitution, and sovereign issues, and the political powers of 
 government or its departments, State or Federal, in cases w4iere 
 the States were in conflict, the only tribunal was that of a con- 
 vention of the States. 
 
 This doctrine was most conservative and peaceful. Nothing 
 else could or can preserve and perpetuate constitutional fed- 
 eral republicanism. And nothing can better illustrate this than 
 the late Confederate war with the United States. Could it, 
 would it, ever have begun, and raged on as it did for four 
 years, had this theory of political philosophy prevailed and 
 been pursued? If, when the conflict became imminent, Con- 
 gress, instead of assuming to decide political and fundamental 
 and sovereign questions, and to clothe the Executive with the 
 power of proclaiming war, and using force to coerce States and 
 their people to submission, had construed the Constitution as 
 obliging them, mere fiduciaries, to call together the sovereign 
 States in convention, does any reflecting man suppose that 
 there could or would have been a war at all ? 
 
 If a convention of the States had been obliged to be called 
 before Congress could have passed another Force Bill, and before 
 a President could have proclaimed its execution by arms, the 
 States would have obeyed the dictates of patriotism, peace, and 
 humanity in readjusting dissensions, and reuniting in harmony 
 of action, just as, amidst the same sort of dissensions, they 
 were at first united by the wisdom of such men as Wash- 
 ington, Madison, Edmund Randolph, Alexander Hamilton, 
 Charles Coteswortb PinckiKy, Franklin, and ihcir con peers, 
 in 1787-89. 
 
128 SFVFN DECADES OF THE UNIOlSr. 
 
 Assembling together, delay and deliberation, debate and per- 
 sonal attachment and private influences, postponement of un- 
 necessary issues, and compromise and concession, would have 
 infallibly kept the peace, and saved the blood and the treasure, 
 the honor and the liberty, of the Union ! 
 
 But the theory of consolidation made the Federal govern- 
 ment supreme, without and above the conventional power of 
 the States ; substituted Federal for State sovereignt}" ; converted 
 the two words ''United States^' into the one word "Congress," 
 and the plural word States into the word Nation; repelled the 
 idea of the Union of States, and acted upon the forbidden idea 
 of a numerical majority of the people. Already inflamed by the 
 violent interest to set up an unwritten higher law above the 
 limitations of the Constitution ; with the powers of mischief 
 already in hand ; with but a fragment of State and popular 
 representation seated in the Houses of Congress ; acting ex 
 parte, and a part for the whole ; seizing arms, Congress and 
 the Executive rushed into the war suddenly, without delay, 
 without convention, without giving the people time to delib- 
 erate, against the protestation of some of the original thirteen 
 States, and ravaged the country by war, revolutionized the 
 whole theory of republican constitutional freedom, and changed 
 the government into a national, congressional oligarchy and 
 military imperialism. 
 
 But the chief safeguard of the Madisonian doctrine of State 
 sovereignty, and State Rights and remedies, under our system 
 of State and Federal governments, called " compositive," with 
 very little meaning, by Mr. Wheatou, Avas the protection it 
 afforded and insured to the persons and individual citizens of 
 the people against the despotic dogmas of treason, forfeiture, 
 confiscation, and military commissions, accoi'ding to the com- 
 mon law ideas. 
 
 In case a convention of States was called, as a political tri- 
 bunal of last peaceable resort, to determine questions as to the 
 compact, and failed to compose the conflicts of States about 
 what the Constitution was or should be made, then each State 
 had the right to judge for herself of the infraction, and of 
 
THE HF7H DECADE. 129 
 
 the mode and measure of redress, and whether she would re- 
 main in the Union as made or construed by the majority of 
 States, or secede from the Union and resume her separate 
 independence. It was not pretended by the Virginia school, as 
 we have said, that this right was absolute, but only that it was 
 relative. 
 
 Thus, to take a case where the weaker States insisted upon 
 the execution of a law passed by Congress, as the Act of 1793, 
 to enforce the provision of the Constitution requiring the rendi- 
 tion of all fugitives from lal)or from one State to another. The 
 same rule would favor Virginia or South Carolina in recovering 
 a slave, in that case, as would favor the New England States or 
 Pennsylvania in enforcing a tariff for protection. Resistance 
 to a constitutional law by a State was as much an infraction of 
 the Constitution as the passage of an unconstitutional act by 
 Congress. The Act of 1793 was decided to be constitutional, 
 and universally acquiesced in by every State o-f the Union for 
 forty years, and had been solemnly asserted as valid and 
 binding by the Constitution, and adjudicated upon by the judi- 
 ciaries of the States, as well as by the Federal courts and 
 judges. At last, several of the States, Pennsylvania among 
 others, attempted to prevent or obstruct its execution within 
 their limits. Good faith required that there should be such a 
 law ; it was plainly valid ; but some States declared that there 
 was a higher law which forbade them to aid in its enforcement. 
 They went further, and not only forbade assistance by their 
 citizens or officers to its execution, but declared certain acts of 
 slave-owners in pursuit of their rights under that law to be 
 feloniously criminal, and bound their authorities to arrest, 
 prosecute, and punish them for attempting to take their fugi- 
 tive slaves under the Act of Congress. They left the United 
 States officers and agents, judges and marshals, alone, without 
 a posse to execute the Act of Congress. A slave-owner pur- 
 suing his fugitive was liable to illegal arrest, trial, and infa- 
 mous punishment for doing what was lawful under the Consti- 
 tution and laws of the United States. Instead of having his 
 lawful property restored to him, he was liable to be imprisoned 
 
 9 
 
130 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UXIOX. 
 
 in a penitentiary. This was nullification, remaining in the 
 Union and nullifying its laws. The Southern States contended 
 that the Northern States could not nullify the laws of the Union ; 
 that if Pennsylvania, for example, judged the Act of Con- 
 gress for recovering of fugitives from labor unconstitutional, 
 and passed ordinances forbidding its execution within her 
 limits, she might so judge and act, but not without just re- 
 sponsibility. Her judgment and action alike related to sister 
 States as well as to herself If she might judge the law 
 unconstitutional, the sister States, each for itself, might judge 
 it constitutional ; if she might judge the act to be an infrac- 
 tion, they, under the same rule, might judge her resistance to 
 it, or nullification of it, to be an infraction ; and if she might 
 judge her mode and measure of redress to be by nullification 
 of the act, they, in like manner, might judge their mode and 
 measure of redress to be by enforcement of the act. 
 
 And this mode of enforcement would be by using the powers 
 and means of the common government to act on persons resist- 
 ing the execution of the law. If the slaveholder, pursuing 
 his fugitive slave, had been seized and imprisoned under the 
 State law, he would have applied to the State judges for a writ 
 of habeas corpus ; and if they were sworn, as in South Carolina, 
 by a test oath not to execute or enforce the law of Congress, 
 he would have applied for the writ to a Federal judge, whose dutv 
 it was to issue it to the Federal marshal ; and if the sheriff, or 
 the executive and militia of the State, had opposed his authority, 
 and he could not execute the law, he would so have certified to 
 the Federal judge, and he in turn would so have certified to the 
 President of the United States, who, under his oath to see that 
 the laws were faithfully executed, would have been bound to 
 call out the army or have a body of militia to execute the laws, 
 but as auxiliary only to the civil authority of the Federal 
 courts, not as an act of war. And the same rule applied, 
 e converso, against South Carolina resisting a tariff, as it did 
 against Pennsylvania resisting the fugitive slave laws of the 
 Union. Thus the rule was relative, and not absolute ; and 
 under a relative rule South Carolina essaved to nullifv laws 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. I3i 
 
 absolutely within her limits, without responsibility to her co- 
 States. It was vain, and exposed those of her citizens, who 
 obeyed her ordinances and came in collision with Federal au- 
 thority, to the pains and penalties of treason. But Mr. Madison 
 avoided that error of construing the rule of State Rights. He 
 pointed to the remedy of secession from the Union. If violations 
 of the Constitution were palpable and gross, if oppression and 
 inequality were avowed and practiced, if good faith and justice 
 were set at naught by even a convention of the States, each 
 State might judge for lierself whether she would abide in the 
 Union or resume her separate condition as a State. In that atti- 
 tude of State sovereignty, if assailed she would be " a belliger- 
 ent," not a " rebel ;" her citizens would be "inimici non hostes,^^ 
 not " hostes non inimici ;'''' the case would be governed by the 
 "jus belli,^' absolute, if you please, but the citizens would be 
 saved from the treatment of traitors ; the laws of war only, and 
 not of treason, would apply. The act of the State would be 
 revolutionary, but the revolution would be one of a conflict of 
 States, not a conflict of citizens or subjects with government. 
 The State would be responsible to the States remaining in the 
 Union, but the mere municipal Federal government would be 
 no longer the common agent, and she would be free from its 
 authority, and would be amenable only to a convention of the 
 States, though a convention of the States might act through 
 the Federal government. In no case would the State be irre- 
 sponsible, but she would be responsible to the convention of 
 States, not to the Federal Congress, or Executive, or Judiciary, 
 or all combined. 
 
 The State could not be prosecuted for treason, nor could her 
 citizens ; she could only be forced by the other States to submit 
 to their equal right to judge of infractions and of the mode and 
 measure of redress, and her citizens would be covered by her 
 shield of sovereignty. 
 
 This, we repeat, called forth most wisely the conventional 
 power of States, — first, to judge of the infraction and of the mode 
 and measure of redress ; and, second, and at last, to judge as to 
 the propriety of the enforcement or repeal of the act resisted or 
 
132 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 of the question of peace or war — of winning back the seceding 
 State with amity or driving her into submission by subjugation. 
 The true theory was that the Federal government, in such a case, 
 could interpose no further than to call a convention of States, 
 and that for it to interpose as judge and executioner of a State 
 would be to assume at once and forever powers wholly incon- 
 sistent with the limitations of the Constitution and with public 
 law and liberty. These were our views in 1832-33, and we 
 regret that they were not those of Mr. Tyler. He sided with 
 Nullification. The members of the Senate in opposition to 
 the Force Bill, all but him, left their seats when the question 
 was taken on its passage, and he, therefore, voted alone against 
 it. Though in error as to the theory, be was right as to the 
 policy of not voting for that act ; and of no vote of his was he 
 so proud as of that vote, to the last hour of his life. 
 
 Thus Nullification, with its untenable position of an absolute 
 rule of State Rights, afforded General Jackson the opportunity 
 of establishing the maxim, " The Union must and shall be pre- 
 served," and of appealing to Congress for the law of force to 
 be executed by the Federal Executive to coerce a State into 
 submission to the acts of Congress for the mere collection of 
 duties and the regulation of commerce. He had always been a 
 Democrat of the Strict Construction school. His model of a 
 statesman, senator, debater, and politician had always been 
 the celebrated William B. Giles, of Yirginia, whose political 
 faith and practice would have guided him to the measure of a 
 Force Bill by Congress, without an appeal first to a convention 
 of all the States ; and he had countenanced Georgia in her 
 barbarous nullification of the treaties and laws of the United 
 States, in the cruel execution of the Indian, Tassels, against 
 the notice of the Attorney-General (Mr. Wirt) and the orders 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States, and in her lottery 
 laws, by which the lands of the Cherokees, then a Christianized 
 tribe, which had always been a faithful ally of the United 
 States, were gambled away amidst horrid scenes of rapine and 
 blood ; but, then, his favorite, Mr. Forsyth, of Georgia, was 
 his Secretary of State ; and, in the case of South Carolina, the 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 133 
 
 opponent of his invasion of Florida whilst it was a Spanish 
 colony, and of his hanging Arbuthnot and Ambrister, Mr. 
 Calhoun, was to be punished and crushed. This was the prece- 
 dent, sanctioned by his example and by his immense popularity, 
 which overthrew the maxim of Madison, that neither the Fed- 
 eral government nor any of its departments was or could be 
 umpire between the States, and established the supremacy of 
 the Federal Congress, and the Executive, From that time forth 
 the State Rights doctrine, first perverted and misapplied by 
 Mr. Calhoun, and then directly assailed by General Jackson, 
 began to decline and seem impracticable. Congress passed its 
 Force Bill against persons resisting the execution of the laws 
 of the collection of duties, and President Jackson ordered the 
 commander-in-chief of the standing army. General Scott, to en- 
 force their execution. He obeyed the order with alacrity and 
 effect. 
 
 Nothing then prevented a conflict by arms but the " Com- 
 promise Bill" of the tariff of 1832-33. This example and 
 precedent bore heavily upon the after-issues of 1860-61, as 
 we shall hereafter see, and as we have grievously felt. 
 
CHAPTER YI I. 
 
 THE FIFTH DECADE, FROM 1830 TO 1840. 
 
 Bill to modify and continue the Bank of the United States — Mr. Tyler's Con- 
 sistency — Mr. Tyler's Re-election to the Senate, to serve from the Fourth of 
 March, 1833 — His Suggestions how to compose the strife of Nullification — 
 The Removal of the Public Deposits from the Bank of the United States — 
 Censure of President Jackson by the Senate — The President's Protest — Ex- 
 punction — Mr. Benton's Notice — Mr. Tyler's Report on the Bank and Debate 
 with Benton — His Presidency of the Senate — "Three Millions Bill" — Action 
 of Virginia Legislature on Expunction — Mr. B. W. Leigh — Mr. Tyler's Resig- 
 nation of his Seat in the Senate, and Letter — Mr. Rives elected to fill the 
 Vacancy — Mr. Leigh on the Verb "to keep" — Scene of Expunction — Election 
 of Mr. Van Buren — Annexation of Texas — The Threat by GeneraJ Jackson 
 against France — Wharton, Archer, Samuel Houston — How Annexation by 
 Arms was disappointed — The Boundary with Mexico — Jackson and Adams 
 — The Sacrilege of D — ning Grotius, Puffendorf, and Vattel — General Jack- 
 son's Unpardonable Sin in the Eyes of Mr. Adams. 
 
 The measure which commanded the attention and drew 
 forth the abilities of Mr. Tyler in the Congress of 1831-82, 
 besides the Force Bill, was the bill to modify and continue the 
 act incorporating the Bank of the United States. In every 
 form he voted for amendments, offered by various senators, to 
 weaken and restrict the powers of the Bank, as to its cur- 
 rency; as to the power of Congress to alter or modify its 
 charter; as to the rate of interest on its loans and discounts; 
 as to the amount of bonus to be paid; as to the right of the 
 States to tax its branches ; as to indefinite postponement ; and, 
 finally, he voted against the bill, on its engrossment and on its 
 passage. 
 
 When one reflects upon his course, in 1812, censuring Messrs. 
 Giles and Brent for disobeying the instructions of the legis- 
 lature bv voting for the United States Bank charter at that 
 ( 134 ) 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. I35 
 
 earh' day, and vvlien one sees him repeating his opposition to 
 the power of Congress to eharter a Bank of the United States 
 in 1819, and finds him again, in 1832, opposing a recliarter in 
 every part and in the whole, in detail and on the final vote ; 
 and when one looks to his after-course, his votes and speeches 
 in Congress in persistent and uniform opposition to the con- 
 stitutionality of a Bank charter by Congress, the wonder is, 
 not that he vetoed the Bank charters submitted to his approval 
 as President, in 1841, but that anyone ever should imagine he 
 would or could sign and approve a charter for a Bank of the 
 United States, and that any one should have assailed his con- 
 sistency on account of his vetoes. In no matter of his public 
 life was he so consistent as in his course on the subject of 
 chartering a Bank of the United States. 
 
 The bill of 1832 was vetoed by General Jackson, and his 
 veto of the Bank endeared him to the Democracy, and drew to 
 him nearer than ever the advocates of State Rights and Strict 
 Construction. Mr. Tyler was among the most zealous sup- 
 porters of the Bank veto of General Jackson, though his vote 
 on the Force Bill, afterwards, separated him forever from the 
 then administra.tion. 
 
 Mr. Tyler was re-elected by the legislator*; of "Virginia to 
 the Senate of the United States, to serve from the 4th of March, 
 1833. He had sustained General Jackson in vetoing the United 
 States Bank charter, and he had in his speech on the Force Bill 
 suggested the mode of compromising the conflict of Nullification 
 with the tariff for protection, and, of course, sustained Mr. Clay 
 in his great measures of pacification, the Compromise Bill of 
 1832-33. This again put him farther apart from the adminis- 
 tration, for General Jackson avowedly desired the opportunity 
 and pretext to crush South Carolina, and to hang Mr. Cal- 
 houn and his comrades for resistance to the tariff. The com- 
 promise measures prevented civil war and withheld the arm 
 of force 
 
 But General Jackson was not contented with vetoing a bill 
 for chartering the United States Bank anew: he was determined 
 to wage war upon the then existing Bank. Between the ad 
 
136 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 journnieut of Congress in March and its meeting in December, 
 1833, he determined upon removing the moneys of the United 
 States from the keeping of the Bank. 
 
 Mr. Duane, his Secretary of the Treasury, declined to obey 
 the orders of the chief Executive to remove the public deposits. 
 General Jackson dismissed him at once from the Cabinet, and 
 appointed in his stead Mr. Taney, who did believe that the 
 interest of the United States required that the public moneys 
 should be withdrawn from the Bank, and, consequently, with- 
 drew them. The question of power was raised in the Senate, 
 whether the Executive, in this mode, could assume control 
 over the custody of the public treasure, and whether the Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury was an officer of the executive or the legis- 
 lative department of government, subject to the power of the 
 President or of Congress. 
 
 The Senate, by a decisive vote, censured the President as 
 "assuming to himself power and authority not conferred by the 
 Constitution and the laws, and in derogation of both," and con- 
 demning the reasons assigned by Mr. Taney for the removal of 
 the deposits. Mr. Tyler voted for this resolution of censure, not 
 as on a question of "bank or no bank," but upon the ground 
 that the Executive had no power to assume the custody and 
 control of the Treasury of the United States without authority 
 of an act of Congress, and without reason of probable danger 
 or loss of the public moneys. On presenting a memorial against 
 the removal of the deposits from the people of the city of Rich- 
 mond, he said, " The memorialists look to Congress for relief. 
 They ask not for a renewal of the Bank charter, but for the 
 introduction of some Bidihle financial system; not one depend- 
 ing on eccentric will ; not a treasury resting on agents appointed 
 by the President, liable to be displaced at his pleasure, holding 
 their existence but as the breath of his nostrils ; fleeting and 
 ephemeral as whim or caprice, passion or political motives, 
 might make them ; but resting on law, not to be changed but 
 for high reasons of state policy, approved by the wisdom and 
 sanctioned by the experience of Congress." 
 
 This position took no departure whatever from his constant 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 137 
 
 and uniform opposition to the charter of the United States 
 Bank. 
 
 As to the removal of the deposits, the only question with 
 him before the country was, " Whether Congress or the Presi- 
 dent was charged with the keeping of the treasury." 
 
 This resolution of censure was passed by the Senate, and 
 General Jackson immediately hurled back defiance by sending 
 his memorable protest, which the Senate declared to be a 
 breach of its privileges, and refused to place upon the journal. 
 
 At once the work of expunction began which hurled senators 
 from their seats in order to fill them with the pliant and supple 
 tools of executive power to draw black lines on that journal 
 around that resolution which dared to censure President Jack- 
 son 1 Mr. Benton gave notice immediately of a Hanuibal-like 
 vow never to cease in his eS'orts, so long as he had a seat in 
 the Senate, until the resolutions of censure were stricken from 
 the journal. He fulfilled the vow most fatally by expelling such 
 men as John Tyler and Benjamin Watkins Leigh, of Virginia, 
 and Hugh Lawson White, of Tennessee, and introducing ex- 
 punction partisans in their places, until the indelible black lines 
 were drawn 1 
 
 Mr. Tyler especially became obnoxious to Mr Benton. The 
 Committee of Finance of the Senate had been ordered to inquire 
 into the affairs and condition of the United States Bank, and 
 Mr. Tyler had made a full and able report from that committee, 
 which was attacked by Mr. Benton in his characteristic vein of 
 "Big Bully Bottom." 
 
 Mr. Tyler killed his assault by dignity, decorum, and courtly 
 contradiction. In reply to the charge that he was a partisan 
 of the Bank, and that the report of the committee was "an elab- 
 orate defense of the Bank," he said, " I am opposed, and have 
 always been opposed, to the Bank. Inils creation I regard the 
 Constitution as having been violated, and I desire to see it ex- 
 pire ; but I should regard myself as the basest of mankind 
 were I to charge it falsely." 
 
 He was at this session elected president pro tempore of the 
 Senate ; and one of his last acts was to vote against the amend- 
 
138 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNIO/V 
 
 meut made bj the House of Representatives to the Fortification 
 Bill, placing three millions of dollars at the discretion of the 
 President to provide for anticipated difficulties with France on 
 account of her debt of only five millions due the United States. 
 The failure of this bill vva-s afterwards made one of the pretexts 
 for which Judge White was instructed out of his seat in the 
 Senate by the legislature of Tennessee. But Mr. Tyler's seat 
 was the first to be vacated by instructions to vote for Mr. Ben- 
 ton's expunging resolution. (_ North Carolina's legislature had 
 first instructed her senator, Mr. Mangum; but he had refused 
 to obey or to resign ; and in February, 1836, the legislature of 
 Yirgiuia was induced to instruct her senators to expunge the 
 resolution of the Senate of March 28, 1834. The then gov- 
 ernor, Mr. Tazewell, declined to transmit the instructions of 
 the legislature to the senators of Virginia in Congress. They 
 were sent by the presiding officers of the two houses of the 
 General Assembly. The General Assembly of Yirginia had 
 at previous sessions condemned the expunging resolutions, 
 and the presentation of the resolution of the legislature to the 
 Senate of the United States had caused Mr. William C. Rives, 
 then the colleague of Mr. Tyler, to resign bis seat in the Senate, 
 and Mr. Leigh had been elected in his place, as if expressly by 
 command of the legislature to oppose expunctiou. When in- 
 structed in turn by the legislature to vote for the expunging 
 resolutions of Mr. Benton, Mr. Leigh wielded the fact of his 
 previous instructions and his election to fill the vacancy caused 
 by the resignation of Mr. Rives, with great eflect. He refused 
 to obey or to resign, and wrote a very able letter justifying his 
 course and reconciling his previous authorship of the doctrine 
 of instructions with his then determination to resist to the 
 uttermost an extreme, plain, and palpable violation of the Consti- 
 tution. Mr. Tyler took a different course. He consulted with 
 his friends, and he announced that he had always held and 
 maintained the right a,nd power of the legislature to instruct, 
 and the duty and obligation of the senator or representative to 
 obey or to resign, to be absolute and imperative; and his 
 friends, particularly Judge White, advised him that he had no 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 139 
 
 election, and it was most politic to resign. lie was very reluc- 
 tant to separate in his course from Mr. Leigh. We were re- 
 quested to confer with the latter, and did so, and we regret to 
 say that but one member of the Virginia delegation in Con- 
 gress, within our knowledge, did him the justice and kindness 
 10 confer with him. He was ready for the interview. He had 
 already written his letter of response to the legislature, and 
 was, as he always was, fully prepared. He read it to us, and 
 made it the text of hours of commentary. It confirmed our 
 opinion of him, that he was one of the greatest and noblest of 
 the men of his day. 
 
 If Virginia could have been embodied and impersonated, 
 and placed where she could have heard and seen him, her in- 
 structions to him to vote for the expunction would have been 
 torn into tatters and scattered to the four winds of heaven. 
 
 A man of striking manly beauty, with hair of silky, soft, 
 chestnut brown, floating in curls imperial as those of Jove 
 when Olympus shook with his nod ; a strong gray eye, which 
 glowed as he breathed forth his inspiration of intellect and 
 heart ; a finely-chiseled mouth, expressing the most delicate 
 taste and sweet benevolence; and a nose < and chin of manly 
 fortitude : — one could but inwardly exclaim, when looking at 
 him and listening to him, " Os homini sublime dedit.^' 
 
 His comments were sad and sweet in the extreme. His 
 hymn of love to Virginia was exquisitely tender: — his mother, 
 how high and holy in his reverence of her no tongue could 
 tell ; and bow exalted he held her dignity. He could not see 
 her defiled, and would not aid in degrading her at the foot- 
 stool of tyranny, even though a tyrant demanded her prostra- 
 tion, and much less would he give way to the prostitution 
 of her to the uses of mere minions who a>!pii'ed to promotion 
 by superservility to power, even if the President did not de- 
 sire or demand the sacrifice of her self-respect. But he knew 
 it was in vain. He foresaw and predicted the issue. The 
 Congress would bow basely before a strong and popular Execu- 
 tive, and the moment a Jackson was gone from place, would 
 itself become the tyrant oligarchy of the country. The Con- 
 
140 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION: 
 
 stitution would not protect against executive popularity, nor 
 against congressional servility or tyranny. He counted the 
 recreancy of the Senate then as the culminating-point of the 
 reign of the Constitution, and almost portrayed the very course 
 of events which have followed. But he was still urged to resign, 
 and his severance from Mr. Tyler was deprecated ; he regretted 
 this too, and insisted that he had an understanding with Mr. 
 Tyler to act in concert, and disclosed a personal motive control- 
 ling his own course, — that when North Carolina had instructed 
 Mr. Mangum, her senator, to vote for expunction, he (Mr. 
 Leigh) had counseled him to neither obey nor resign; and hav- 
 ing given that advice to his friend, he could not in honor fail 
 to pursue the same course himself. When reminded that Mr. 
 Tyler had given no such counsel, and he could not expect him 
 to obey it, he then said they would have to take different 
 courses. With this he was never content. He always — very 
 unjustly (we think) — complained that Mr. Tyler did not sustain 
 him, forgetting that Mr. Tyler was free from any such obliga- 
 tion as that of Mr. Leigh to Mr. Mangum, and that Mr. Leigh 
 was as much pledged to go along with Mr. Tyler as the latter 
 was pledged to go along with him, Mr. Leigh. So it was, they 
 were obliged to separate. Mr. Tyler could not, and would not, 
 obey the instructions, and, in accordance with the consistency 
 of his whole life upon the doctrine of instructions and obedi- 
 ence or resignation, he resigned his seat in the Senate of the 
 United States on the 20th of February, 1836, and on the 29th 
 of the same month addressed to the Speaker and members of 
 the General Assembly of Virginia a letter of great dignity and 
 strength, giving his reasons for not obeying their instructions, 
 and for resigning his trust into their hands. 
 
 This sent him back to private life, but not to obscurity; nor 
 did it diminish his usefulness or prominence for promotion. A 
 singular revolution of events and parties soon brought him 
 again conspicuous for the highest trusts. He had served three 
 years of his term from the 4th of March, 1833, and Mr. Rives 
 was elected to fill his unexpired term until March 4th, 1839. 
 
 This brought Mr. Rives and Mr. Leigh into contrast in the 
 
THE FIFTU DECADE. 141 
 
 Senate. The contrast was one of high lights and deep shades. 
 The subject was one involving constitutional law, a history of 
 parliament, the limitations of executive power, the guards of 
 legislative power, the freedom of debate, the independence of the 
 separate departments of government, the dignity and duty of 
 the Senate in respect to its proceedings and records, and the 
 learning of philology. As a constitutional and civil lawyer, 
 as a historian, as a logician, as a patriot, jealous of power and 
 sensitive to any encroachment upon limitations guarding the 
 rights of legislation and the freedom of resolutions and laws, 
 as well as of debate, and as a scholar and rhetorician, no man 
 compared with Mr. Leigh in the argument on the topic of ex- 
 punction. He was a purist in his Anglo-Saxon, and his speech 
 was, in its style, equal to that of the Elizabethan age of Eng- 
 lish literature, not surpassed by the " well of English" of Dean 
 Swift. His figure of the silkworm spinning its cocoon from 
 its own bowels, as applied in this debate, is a fine specimen of 
 the use of rhetoric's tools, and his illustrations of the verb "to 
 keep," of its meaning in continuando, " to keep a journal," show 
 how necessary is the knowledge of the meaning of words to a 
 knowledge of laws and to the preservation of liberties. From 
 every source of written language he proved the power of that 
 verb. He went to the Ten Commandments, to the Old and 
 the New Testament, to standard profane writers, to prose and 
 poetry, to prove that it had a peculiar strength of meaning, 
 always conveying the same idea of preservation — preservation as 
 the thing was — and continual preservation ; and in winding up 
 a paragraph of citations of its use, he said, " And, Mr. President, 
 in that catechism which I learned at my mother's knee, I was 
 taught ' to keep — to keep — to keep' my hands from picking and 
 stealing, and my tongue from evil speaking !" 
 
 He was not a vehement orator in tone, but was most earnest 
 in utterance and manner. He had a soft, clear, flutelike voice, 
 but it was not loud. He carried no audience by vociferation or 
 violent action ; but he trickled, as it were, gently upon his 
 hearers, and they were held in mute attention by a murmuring 
 music, his eye looking more than he said, and his speech and 
 
142 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 bearing glowing with a genial integrity of thought which put 
 opposition to blush, it was so clear, so simple, so pure, so gener- 
 ous, so just, and so warm with manlj honor and feeling. Every 
 word was right in the right place, his accent and pronunciation 
 were precisely correct, and the modulation of his voice was 
 natural and sweetly touching. 
 
 He was a small man, yet in speaking seemed large, so 
 elevated was he by his theme, and so gallant and game was his 
 mien. He was lame, one leg shortened, and wore a cork sole 
 on one of his boots. When about to be emphatic, he; usually 
 caught his left wrist in his right hand and sank back on his 
 lame leg, pausing to poise himself, and, as he rose to the climax 
 of what he was about to utter, would bear upon his sound leg 
 and rise on it with his hands free. This attitude was not 
 always graceful, but always excited sympathy in his hearer for 
 his infirmity. It was thus he uttered the sentence about "keep- 
 ing his hands from picking and stealing, and his tongue from evil 
 speaking." He dropped back on his lame leg, his left wrist in 
 his right hand, paused and settled himself, — in that pause fixed 
 his eyes on Thomas H. Benton with an intense gaze, — began 
 low, uttered softly as far as the words " my mother's knee," 
 raised his voice at the words " I learned," and, pronouncing 
 the words " to keep" three times, each time louder and louder, 
 he rose upon his sound leg, loosed his wrist, and putting 
 forward both his hands, exclaimed, " My hands from picking 
 and stealing, and my tongue from evil speaking !''^ 
 
 A pin might have been heard to drop on the floor of the 
 Senate ; ther6 sat Mr. Benton, swinging back in his chuiir, his 
 eyes looking up to the wall, patting his foot, and Mr. Leigh's 
 eyes fixed on him for some seconds, which seemed hours. 
 Breaths were drawn when those eyes were taken off of him. 
 It was the touch of Ithuriel's spear, and the cravat of Chapel 
 Hill was revealed as plainly as the " toad squat" was shown to 
 be Lucifer himself. 
 
 Mr. Leigh was a debater of the senatorial order. Had he 
 been earlier in the Senate, as long as Clay, Webster, or Cal- 
 houn, he would have been tht master there, with all three 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. I43 
 
 present. The longer he wore it the brighter and higher-mettled 
 was his steel. He was an "intellectual bully," but never meant 
 to be personal in debate. Every one thought that, in the in- 
 stance just related, he meant to be personal to Mr. Benton ; 
 but he did not so mean. 
 
 This was proved afterwards. We were present at the draw- 
 ing of the black lines. The clerk of the Senate, Asbury Dickens, 
 rose to go after the journal to bring it in to do execution upon. 
 It was brought and laid upon the desk before him; and just at 
 that moment every senator opposed to expunction, except Judge 
 White, rose from his seat and began to move out, Mr. Ben- 
 ton making the most derisive and scornful exclamations as 
 they made their exit. A man in the .gallery cried aloud some 
 disorderly response, when Mr. Benton exclaimed, " Bank ruf- 
 fians! bank ruffians! Seize them, sergeant-at-arms!" The man 
 was immediately arrested, and brought before the Senate. As 
 soon as this disorder was quieted, the clerk opened the journal 
 at the page of the resolution of censure; it seemed to resist 
 the opening, the back was stiff, and it shut together again, 
 until pressed open wide, and the page so held as to lay upon 
 it the rule by the straight edge of which the black lines were 
 to be drawn. We could not but imagine the book of the journal 
 as resisting the violation. It seemed like a living victim on 
 the altar of sacrifice, and the scratch of the pen alone was heard 
 in the awful silence which prevailed when the gall of party 
 bitterness drew its lines in the blackness of darkness around 
 the freedom and independence of the Senate. The moment 
 was one of intense interest, and was disturbed by Mr. Benton 
 rising from his seat, and ostentatiously congratulating persons 
 in the lower gallery on the triumph of his resolutions of sub- 
 serviency to the worship of a man who despised and denounced 
 him. He was boisterously moving from man to man, reaching 
 out his hand, until he came to the Hon. Baillie Peyton, of Ten- 
 nessee, who waited his expected offer of a touch with such a 
 countenance of contempt and detestation that he shrunk back, 
 desisted from his gasconading, and resumed his seat. Peyton 
 was just about to denounce him as a Chapel Hill thief, un- 
 
144 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION: 
 
 worthy to denounce strangers as bank ruffians, when, fortunately 
 for himself, he turned away. 
 
 The next morning Mr. Webster requested us, as a witness 
 of the scene, to prepare a description of it, which was done ; 
 and, after the adjournment of that session of Congress, we por- 
 trayed it at a dinner in Norfolk, in a speech which was published 
 in full in the Richmond Whig of the time. In order to describe 
 the apparent effect of Mr. Leigh's eye upon Mr. Benton when 
 quoting the catechism taught him at his mother's knee about 
 " picking and stealing," we said that a short time before we had 
 visited the exhibition of the French painting of Adam and Eve ; 
 that we thought we had found it obnoxious to a severely just 
 criticism ; that Adam was reclining on the soft sward of Para- 
 dise, and whilst Eve was resting by his side, whispering tempta- 
 tion in his ear, the serpent coiled around the tree of Life was 
 breathing the visible influence of evil upon the golden ringlets 
 of her hair. The influence was painted : it was visible and 
 tangible. This, we thought, was not the work or design of a 
 master. It was French exaggeration ; the French had never 
 been poets or painters ; none but a French artist, we thought, 
 would be so poor in invention as to attempt to paint an influ- 
 ence. It was not so much exaggeration as the poverty of art. 
 But we admitted, afterwards, that the scene of Leigh looking 
 at Benton, when illustrating the duty "to keep" a journal con- 
 tinually as it was, as the catechism teaches " to keep our hands 
 from picking and stealing," corrected and contradicted our criti- 
 cism on the painting of Adam and Eve. An influence could be 
 seen and touched. "We had seen it, and it had touched Thomas 
 H. Benton. We had seen the look of Mr. Leigh upon him 
 when he quoted the catechism. The bright strong eye lighted 
 a flame ; that flame went forth like a sword to the man at whom 
 it pointed, and pierced him to the dividing asunder of the joints 
 and the marrow, — it was visible and tangible and could be 
 painted ; and if the sword or spear of the angel might be seen 
 to touch the toad, so artistic license allowed the mist or miasm 
 of evil to be seen, felt, and painted. Mr. Leigh, on reading the 
 speech, of bis own motion addressed a card to the Richmond 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 145 
 
 press, saying that, whatever might have been the inference of 
 his audience, he did not think of any personality to Mr. Benton 
 at the time, and that if he had so meant he would have ex- 
 pressed the meaning, as his wont was never to insult any one 
 but in unmistakable and direct terras. The flrst time we met 
 him afterwards we told him that the inference was so strong 
 that he alluded to Chapel Hill, when looking at Benton, whilst 
 making this quotation, that it seemed impossible he could mean 
 otherwise. He was hurt, and again protested that he meant 
 nothing personally offensive whatever. 
 
 At all events, he totally overthrew every champion in the 
 debate, and Mr. Rives was not even straw on the horns of an 
 ox in comparison with him. He was an Ajax Telamon any- 
 where in debate, but too honest, mentally and morally, for 
 political life. We shall always regret that he did not follow the 
 example of Mr. Tyler and resign. 
 
 It is nicessary here to pause upon some points in General 
 Jackson's administration during the last years of his two terms. 
 The two major topics with him in the latter part of his reign 
 were the election of his successor and the annexation of Texas. 
 »0n the question of demanding the five millions from France, 
 he had been peremptory in his tone, and no council of Cabinet 
 or friend could mitigate or temper his demand. 
 
 On that subject he had himself dictated the very language he 
 would employ in uttering a threat direct to Louis Philippe. 
 The Cabinet consulted to change the phraseology. Mr. Forsyth, 
 then Secretary of State, was adroit in language, and wisely, he 
 thought, changed the paragraph which the President had dic- 
 tated. The change in words was but a shade different in 
 meaning ; but he sought to make the message more diplomatic 
 in terms and more conformable, of course, to peaceful and cour- 
 teous national intercourse. It was in vain. When Mr. An- 
 drew J. Donelson, the President's private secretary, brought to 
 him the proof-sheets of the message, Mr. John C Rives, of the 
 Globe, was present. 
 
 Mr. Donelson read, whilst the general walked the room, pipe 
 in his mouth, smoking, and the printer the only attendant. All 
 
 10 
 
146 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UXIO.Y. 
 
 was quietly listened to until the reader came to the passage 
 relating to the five millions debt due b}" France. Mr. Donelson 
 was evidently desirous so to read the paragraph on that subject 
 as to avoid notice of the change in words which had been made. 
 General Jackson at once paused in his walk, stopped, and 
 said, " Read that again, sir." Mr. Donelson then read the 
 passage distinctly, and General Jackson was instantly roused, 
 saying, "That, sir, is not my language; it has been changed, 
 and I will have no other expression of my own meaning than 
 my own words." 
 
 He immediately and vehemently had the change erased, and 
 his own language, even more strongly importing a threat, in- 
 serted, heard the message read through, and then placed it in 
 the hands of Mr. Rives, forbidding him to let it be seen in his 
 hands, or to let it pass out of his hands, until after it was 
 printed as corrected and until permission was granted by him, 
 " at his peril." 
 
 Thus the message was made what it was, which literally 
 wrung the five millions from France. 
 
 He was wiser than his Cabinet. His absolute dictation 
 won at once what their diplomacy would have been years in 
 obtaining. 
 
 But he was not always absolute in his dictation. He was 
 not so in respect to the annexation of Texas. That darling 
 project of his policy conflicted with another more darling, the 
 election of his successor. 
 
 When we went to Tennessee in 1828, we found Texas an en- 
 grossing subject of interest to the Southwestern mind. Archer 
 and Austin were forerunners there, and had made contracts of 
 settlements with Mexico, which, drawing a population from the 
 United States, were rapidly filling Texas up with democratic 
 settlers, and Mexico became alarmed. She began to apprehend 
 exactly what soon afterwards happened, a war with Texas and 
 its subsequent annexation to the United States. 
 
 This caused her to commence a series of acts arbitrarily re- 
 scinding the contracts of Austin and others, seizing their acqui- 
 sit'ons, and persecuting and oppressing the settlers from the 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 14Y 
 
 Uuited States, who had, without their fault, been tempted by 
 Mexico to seek homes in Texas. This aroused the friends and 
 kindred of former fellow-citizens of these settlers in all the 
 Southwest. " Off to Texas !" was the cry, — to assert the right 
 of settlement there by contract, to protect the pioneers there 
 already, and to take that fertile province from a despotic and 
 semi-barbarous power, degraded by a mixture of races, white, 
 black, and copper-colored, of whom it was said, " They are a 
 nation whose men are all bandits, and whose women are all 
 harlots !" 
 
 At the first commencement of the Nashville University, which 
 occurred after our arrival there, a youth, William Wharton, 
 whose father was a Virginian, was graduated, and delivered an 
 oration which marked him as a man of great promise. He 
 was the pride of the Rev. Dr. Lindsley, who then presided over 
 that Alma Mater of many another distinguished alumnus of the 
 West. 
 
 Wharton delivered his salutatory, and immediately went off 
 to Texas to join Dr. Archer, also from Virginia, the first military 
 leader of the Texas Revolution, and became, as was predicted 
 for him, a distinguished soldier and legislator, and finally was 
 made legate of the revolution to the United States. He died 
 young, but lived long enough to accomplish his first purpose in 
 life, and to fulfill a most urgent promise he made when beg- 
 ging us to join our fortunes with his own, to tear Texas from 
 despotism, in order to annex her to the United States. 
 
 An older but not a better man than Wharton was soon obliged 
 to leave his adopted State for her good. Samuel Houston was 
 then the governor of the State of Tennessee. He had been a 
 popular pet, but his life was one of most dissolute habits. He 
 became a candidate for re-election to the office he held, but 
 General William Carroll, one of the heroes of Jackson's cam- 
 paigns, the comrade of General Coffee on the night of the 22d 
 of December in front of New Orleans, was his competitor. 
 
 The contest, it was thought by Houston and his friends, 
 would be very doubtful at least. It would certainly have 
 been bitter, for General Carroll denounced Houston in unmeas- 
 
148 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 ured terms. He said on the streets of Nashville that Houston 
 was a coward, that at the battle of the Horse Shoe he — then a 
 private in the ranks — was struck by a ball in the arm, and " blul> 
 bered so that General Jackson ordered the calf to be sent to 
 the rear ;" and he spoke without reserve of his habits unfitting 
 him for his place. Houston, then advanced in life, spent in 
 dissipation, and still suffering from a seton in that wounded arm, 
 sought to strengthen himself and insure his election by an alli- 
 ance in marriage with one of the most popular and influential 
 families in Middle Tennessee, residing near Gallatin. A sweet 
 and artless daughter of that family was, in her flyflap bonnet, 
 at a village school. She was captivating, and her heart had 
 already caught the flame of the love of a suitor whose youth 
 was suitable to her own. In that coy state of young girl's first 
 love, the eye of the ogre fell upon her. 
 
 Her family was sought by Samuel Houston from which to 
 select a victim, not of his love, but his selfish electioneering for 
 influence to save him in office. Poor, innocent, injured victim 1 
 — the family were flattered by the governor, and she was torn 
 from her youth and her pure, natural, maiden love to become 
 the victim of his jealousy and his heartless, selfish ambition I 
 The connection was so unnatural and so repugnant to public 
 sentiment that it brought down upon the monster a chivalry 
 which drove him from the seat of power which he defiled. Her 
 champions placarded him on the public square of Nashville for 
 every crime in the calendar which could deprive him of any pre- 
 tension to be above a brute. General Jackson's gallantry alone 
 aided him. He had been one of his soldiers, and was one of his 
 political adherents, and Jackson was never known to desert a 
 friend ! — he had to be servile to him, but he would serve him ; 
 but he did not excuse his conduct, and advised him to resign his 
 office and leave Tennessee, to join the revolution in Texas, giving 
 him, doubtless, instructions then as to the conduct of the revo- 
 lution. He was to be made its leader, n^ith the influence of 
 General Jackson, then President elect of the United States, 
 to back him. Houston at first affected a mind diseased, and 
 put on the white-tanned skin of a pied heifer, and actually 
 
TUE FIFTH DECADE. 149 
 
 wore it on the streets of Nashville until he left the State 
 forever. 
 
 General Jackson was a deep and far-seeing politician. He 
 made especial use of Houston. The revolution in Texas went 
 on, doubtfully enough, until it reached the critical point when 
 President Jackson was to interpose the sword of tbe United 
 States. How was that to be done ? None other than General 
 Jackson in the Presidency would have thought of his way of 
 violating the laws of neutrality. He suddenly declared that 
 the boundary usually known to geography and to treaty as the 
 line between the United States and Mexico was not the true 
 line, and, by his organ, the Globe, stated that Mr. John Quincy 
 Adams, being Secretary of State at the time the boundary with 
 Mexico was fixed, had, out of his old grudge to the interests 
 of the valley of the Mississippi, betrayed the United States, 
 and agreed to a boundary too far east by several leagues of ter- 
 ritory ; that the river Sabine was not the true boundary, but 
 that the Nueces was the true boundary. In protecting the border 
 of the United States against aggressions from belligerents on 
 either side of the civil war in Mexico, he would order General 
 Gaines to array his army for border protection with its front on 
 the western line, which he avowed he knew to be the true line 
 of neutrality. This is necessary to be known to save Hous- 
 ton's reputation from the reproach of cowardice at the battle of 
 San Jacinto. He was instructed by Jackson not to fight Santa 
 Anna a decisive battle until he reached the front of Gaines on 
 his pretended line, but to retreat across it, and then, if Santa 
 Anna should pass it, Gaines was ordered to repel him by the 
 arms of the United States. Houston was retreating under 
 this secret understanding with General Jackson. His officers 
 and men were anxious to fight, conscious that they were able 
 to conquer, and were indignant when Houston, at San Jaointo, 
 still ordered retreat. Two by two and ten by ten, they refused 
 to retreat, and, against orders, turned to fight, Houston's mo- 
 tives being misunderstood. They fought and whipped the 
 enemy, and Houston, it is said, was wounded in the tendo- 
 Achillis by his own men. He did not order the battle, and 
 
150 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 was wounded by them under a mistake of his motives and 
 in ignorance of his instructions. This prevented the success of 
 deep-laid strategy. 
 
 In the House of Representatives, in the Congress of the 
 United States, there was a vigilant observer of the contest. John 
 Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, had watched the contest in 
 Texas and the pretext for the new boundary. As soon as General 
 Jackson assailed him, he was prepared to meet the assault. He 
 gave a bunch of keys to a colleague in the House, and told the 
 House that when he was Secretary of State, under Mr. Monroe, 
 he had to fix the boundary of Mexico ; that he had called to his 
 assistance General Andrew Jackson, who advised him that the 
 true boundary was the river Sabine, and that he had caused 
 him, Mr. Adams, to adopt that line ; that there was a note or 
 memorandum of that interview between him, Mr. Adams, and 
 Andrew Jackson, made at the time, in his escritoire at Brain- 
 tree, Massachusetts, describing it particularly ; that it was in a 
 certain bundle of papers, labeled as described by him on the 
 floor of the House of Representatives ; that he had given the 
 keys of that escritoire to a colleague to be forwarded to a 
 responsible gentleman in Boston, who was requested to examine 
 the escritoire at Braiutree for the paper ; that its contents would 
 show on its face that, on a certain day, he, Mr. Adams, had 
 consulted with General Jackson as to the true bouudar}^ of 
 Mexico, and that General Jackson's own advice had been noted, 
 and was one of the vouchers for his, Mr. Adams's, conclusion 
 as to the selection of the Sabine. He said that if there was 
 no such paper found as described, or that, if found, it did 
 not sustain his statement, he would consent to submit to the 
 reproach cast upon him in respect to the Mexican boundary ; 
 but if such a paper was found, with the contents as stated, he 
 would submit it as evidence that the accusation against him 
 was false. 
 
 ' In due time the return to this search arrived in Washington, 
 and fully sustained the statement of Mr. Adams. It showed 
 his extraordinary memory and great care of memoranda. It 
 sustained his statement beyond all ordinary tests of evidence, 
 
THE FiFTII DECADE. 151 
 
 and he made a most triumphant speech in the House of Repre- 
 seutatives, showing his fidelity to his country in the discharge 
 of this duty. He had just taken his seat, when we happened 
 to be passing it. At that time we were, personally, very friendly, 
 and he even showed to us occasionally that we were a favorite. 
 As we were passing, he called out, as Frederick the Great did 
 to some distinguished general, " Come, sit by my side ; I had 
 rather have you on my side than opposed to me." 
 
 The seat which adjoined that of Mr. Adams being for the 
 moment vacant, we took it ; and then perhaps occurred what 
 will better illustrate the characteristic differences, or rather 
 contrasts, of Adams and Jackson than any labored description 
 could possibly do. Mr. Adams said, "Andrew Jackson is a bad 
 man, and so are you !" 
 
 " I am sure, Mr. Adams, that you do not call me to your side 
 to insult or reproach me, but rather to give me instruction. 
 What do you mean ?" 
 
 "I mean," he said, "that you have some bad principles, — as 
 that one man may hold another in bondage. You are bad so 
 far as your principles are bad. But I especially mean to say 
 that Andrew Jackson is a bad man because he has no princi- 
 ples at all, and is therefore worse than a man with bad princi- 
 ples." He then went on to say, "When I was Secretary of 
 State, under Mr. Monroe, Andrew Jackson invaded Florida, 
 and hung Arbuthnot and Ambrister. He was arraigned for that 
 conduct before the Cabinet of Mr. Monroe. I alone defended 
 his course, and put him on the high ground of international 
 law, as expounded by Grotius, Pufifendorf, and Vattel, and his 
 conduct was justified by Mr. Monroe and by Congress. He 
 was justified in doing right by the highest authorities on the 
 laws of nations. On the contrary, he preferred to plead orders 
 to do wrong, rather than rely on the authorities of the law for 
 doing right. He published a certificate from that old dotard, 
 Johnny Ray (of Tennessee), that he had seen and read an order 
 from President Monroe to him, General Jackson, to invade 
 Florida, which certificate James Monroe, on his death-bed, pro- 
 nounced to be a forgery. He chose rather to rely on a forged 
 
152 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 order to do wrong than on the laws of nations to dv. /ight. He 
 said, 'D — n Grotius! d — n Puffendorf! d — n Yattel! — this is a 
 mere matter between Jim Monroe and myself!'" 
 
 Jackson was the very man to d — n Grotius, Puffendorf, and 
 Vattel ; and Adams was the very man to condemn him for that 
 above all other things as a great malefactor. Jackson cared 
 only for his justification ; but Adams was horrified at its mode. 
 Jackson made law, Adams quoted it. 
 
 Thus it was that General Jackson aimed to annex Texas ; 
 but the unexpected victory of the Texans at San Jacinto dis- 
 arranged his plan of doing so. 
 
 Houston's orders were to retreat; but Archer, Felix Hous- 
 ton, Rusk, and Wharton turned and fought, and captured Santa 
 Anna before he reached the lines where Gaines was instructed 
 to repel his advance upon the territory of the United States. 
 
 Annexation was thus balked by an accident of arms, and 
 policy forbade annexation by negotiation : the chances of the 
 successor, Mr. Van Buren, might, and probably would, thereby 
 be defeated. Jackson could not, in the face of the presidential 
 election, risk the effect of that question on the North. 
 
 Mr. Yan Buren had to be non-committal in order to make his 
 election hopeful. 
 
 Thus annexation Vv^as postponed for the time. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FIFTH DECADE, FROM 1830 TO 1840. 
 
 Intrigues to make Mr. Van Buren the Favorite for the Succession — Judge White— 
 The Effect of the Ambition of the President to elect his Successor — The Elec- 
 tion in 1836 — The Union of all Factions in Opposition, forming the Whig 
 Party — The Election of Mr. Rives to the Senate of the United States in the 
 Session of the General Assembly of Virginia of 1838-39 — Treachery to Mr. 
 Tyler made him Vice-President — Mr. Webster's Opposition to the Nomina- 
 tion of Mr. Clay — The Triangular Correspondence — Judge White's Warning 
 and Prophecy — Mr. Clay's Pledges and Committals on Practical Points — 
 Judge White instructed out of the Senate by Locofocoism in the Tennessee 
 Legislature — Scenes with Mr. Clay in 1840 — His Habits up to 1844 — His War 
 with Webster, resulting in the Election of Harrison and Tyler — The total 
 Dismemberment of the Whig Party before Harrison's Inauguration. . 
 
 Every intrigue was resorted to for the promotion of Mr. 
 Yan Buren's prospects for tlie succession. 
 
 The Kitchen Cabinet, as it was called, had gossiped Mr. 
 Calhoun out of favor and out of the vice-presidential chair ; 
 and the last years of General Jackson's administration were 
 devoted to the great end of electing his successor. All the 
 personal influence of the President, and all the magnetic influ- 
 ence of his patronage, were brought to bear on that one leading 
 object. This dominant passion seemed to pervert his will and 
 change his professions of policy and principles, and exposed 
 his administration to every approach and reproach of venality 
 and corruption, and the country to all their dangers. The evil 
 was manifest at once to all his patriotic friends, who before had 
 been his main pillars of strength. 
 
 The name highest on the list of Andrew Jackson's friends, 
 which vouched for his ability and fidelity and for his wisdom 
 and virtue, was that of Hugh Lawson White, the Nestor of his 
 day in the Senate, and the Cato of bis country. He had been 
 
 (153) 
 
154 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 the dignified, reserved, seuatorial counselor of his neighbor and 
 early friend, and had declined every tender of office — promotion 
 could not be conferred on him — after that old friend, under a 
 debt of deep gratitude to him, was placed in power. Hugh L. 
 White, the Senator from Tennessee, was, in fact, more than any 
 other man responsible for General Jackson's " good behavior" 
 in the Presidency. He was sincerely a true and devoted friend 
 of General Jackson, and writhed, as a guardian over the errors 
 of a ward, when he saw him, misled by mercenaries and aspirants, 
 prostitute his power to his passions to defeat his political oppo- 
 nents, and allow his patronage to become the plunder of corrup- 
 tion. No honest guardian of his good faith, no honest partisan 
 of his past policy and profession of patriotic principles, could 
 stand this violation of pledges to integrity of administration. 
 No man had ever been elected so distinctly on a single stand- 
 point of preference as General Jackson had been elected against 
 the evil example of " bargain and corruption." For him in 
 turn to pursue his ambition to elect his successor by permitting 
 corrupt appliances of power and patronage, was especially an 
 unpardonable error. Every friend who loved " Rome more 
 than Caesar" was obliged by a duty to the country to oppose 
 bis designs and the means by which he was promoting them. 
 
 His cruel, harsh, and unjust policy of removing the Indians 
 of Georgia west of the Mississippi, in violation of the most 
 solemn treaties as well as of the most sacred rights of humanity ; 
 his mercenary policy of administering the public land system ; 
 his removal of the public money from the custody of the law, in 
 favor of a combination of State pet banks ; his countenance of 
 the use of the money-power of those banks to influence the State 
 elections, as evidenced by the " wool-clip letters" of Reuben M. 
 Whitney, the agent of the Treasury Department ; his violent 
 disruption of the pet bank system, to be displaced by the Sub- 
 treasury scheme to subject all revenue, all fiscal control, all 
 currency, all circulating medium, all exchange, and all public 
 and private credit to executive dictation, were exertions of 
 power and evidences of purpose but too obviously intended to 
 elect his own successor, and were not to be countenanced or 
 
THE FIFTH DFCADE. 155 
 
 tolerated by honest, earnest patriots, however closely they had 
 been allied to him as his partisans in former contests. This 
 threw off from him all men of the type and tone of Hugh 
 Lawson White, though it bought him " spoilers" enough to 
 more than make up in numbers at the elections for all the 
 honest supporters he lost. He tried all his most winning 
 arts to retain Judge White ; but the latter could not be pre- 
 vailed on either to take Van Buren as a choice for the Presi- 
 dency, or to countenance the example of a President electing 
 his successor. He could not but see that the example was 
 immoral and vicious in itself, and tended to destroy the in- 
 tegrity of government and the liberties of the people ; that 
 it was debasing to the public administration, and so defiled 
 all popular elections as to destroy their freedom. The country 
 could not be safe with such a popular idol in the presidential 
 chair. It was threatening enough, and more than dangerous 
 enough, in the hands of the lion ; but how low and how mean 
 would it become in the hands of jackals succeeding ! The lion 
 would never prefer a lion, — he always preferred the lower 
 brute for a favorite ; and the lower brute was not Gt to be 
 king. If a Jackson might elect his successor, the successor 
 was sure not to be a lion, — he was naturally obliged to be a 
 brute of a less noble nature. The election of a successor 
 made everything bend to its baneful purpose, and all the 
 executive departments became hideously corrupt, disordered, 
 and dangerous. Good men of all sections began to abandon the 
 administration and look out for some man on whom to unite 
 in opposition to succession by dictation and corruption. 
 
 Unfortunately, they could not then combine on any one man. 
 Judge White could not be flattered to support Mr. Yan Buren, 
 and then threats and open denunciations were resorted to, to 
 prevent him from allowing his name to be used as that of a 
 candidate in opposition to Mr. Yan Buren. His great virtues 
 had called attention to him as the proper candidate, for the sake 
 of the public good ; but there were aspirants everywhere, and 
 their partisans could not or would not unite. Judge White 
 was no aspirant, but when threats were used to intimidate him. 
 
156 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 his self-respect, pride, pluck, and patriotism, all combined to 
 make him accept a norainatiou by his native State, Tennessee, 
 in the month of October, 1835. Mr. Tyler's name was placed 
 upon the White ticket for the Y ice- Presidency in 1836 ; and the 
 ticket of White and Tyler carried the State of Tennessee by ten 
 thousand votes in that year, against the mace of Jackson and 
 the strength of Locofocoism. 
 
 Mr. Yan Bureu was elected, but the glory of the Jackson 
 Democratic Republican party had departed, and the party 
 whose motto was, " To the victors belong the spoils," rose, to 
 reign but one term in the Presidency. 
 
 The opposition to the succession could not be organized in 
 1886 ; but the moment Mr. Yan Buren was elected, the elements 
 opposed to him came together, casting aside all past political 
 differences, in order to reprove corruption and reform the admin- 
 istration of the Federal government. Bank and anti-bank men, 
 tariff and anti-tariff men, internal improvement and anti-internal 
 improvement men, annexation of Texas and anti-annexation of 
 Texas men, pro-slavery and anti-slavery men, men of all parties 
 and political creeds, saw the necessity of combining simply upon 
 a pure and patriotic administration of the government, which 
 would guard the public liberties and the laws. The friends of 
 Judge White were the last of the original friends of General 
 Jackson of 1824 and 1828 who came out from the Jackson 
 party ; but they were still Democratic Republicans in both the 
 popular and the State Rights sense of that term, as they had 
 been when General Jackson was first elected. The question 
 was, whether they — anti-bank and anti-protective tariff, anti- 
 internal improvement by the Federal government, pro-annexa- 
 tion of Texas, pro-slavery, anti-Federal and anti-latitudinarian, 
 pro-strict construction of the Constitution, and pro-State Rights 
 Democrats of the Madisonian school — could unite with old 
 Federalists, and all their extreme opposites in political faith, 
 in order to crush the Van Buren party of " spoils and corrup- 
 tion." 
 
 The first two years of maladministration by Mr. Yan Buren, 
 from March, 1837, to March, 1839, determined the question of 
 
THE FIFTH D EG ABE. 157 
 
 uuion or division among men of all political creeds, however 
 variant and dissentient in their principles. They were obliged 
 cither to take sides with open corruption, and shamelessly seek a 
 share of the spoils, or else to compromise honest differences of 
 opiuiou in law and politics, and combine to save the country 
 from the worst dangers of maladministration, the effects of 
 corruption and decay. 
 
 The first two years of the Van Buren term were occupied 
 in bringing the odds and ends of old parties into one combined 
 opposition to the "spoils party." It was a new monster, with- 
 out any principles, and of the worst practices, equally odious 
 to all old parties, however they may have been opposed to one 
 another or divided among themselves. This effort at entire 
 reorganization and combination of old parties and factious made 
 the years 1838 and 1839 notable in political history. The new 
 name of Whigs, a generic name, was then for the first time 
 adopted for the opposition. 
 
 Mr. Tyler had, in 1836, retired to private life, and dutifully 
 labored at the bar for the support of a large family; but his 
 fellow-citizens of Williamsburg and James City, where his resi- 
 dence then was, would not permit him to remain in private life. 
 In 1838 he was again returned a delegate to the legislature, 
 and was a member of the House of Delegates when the elec- 
 tion of a State senator in Congress recurred in the session of 
 1838-39. 
 
 Mr. William C. Rives had been elected for the unexpired 
 portion of Mr. Tyler's term when, in 1836, Mr. Tyler resigned 
 his seat in the United States Senate. The re-election of Mr. 
 Rives in opposition to Mr. Tyler now came up. There was the 
 second to Mr. Benton, one of the most obnoxious instruments 
 of expunction, arrayed against the victim of expunction, before 
 a legislature in which Mr. Tyler's immediate friends had the 
 balance of power, though they had not the power of election. 
 
 The Yan Buren faction centered on Mr. Rives, and, to the 
 surprise of Mr. Tyler, a portion of the Whigs were found 
 to back his opponents. The contest continued for days of 
 stubborn struggle and doubt. The wonder was why, after 
 
15S SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 thirty-eight ballotings, neither could be elected, and the won- 
 der still greater was, why Whigs should vote for Mr. Rives! 
 It was solved at Washington City, among the politicians there. 
 The Whig leaders there, Mr. Clay at their head, had coldly 
 calculated that by re-electing Mr. Rives to the Senate, even 
 over Mr. Tyler, they could make him their own, and that by 
 his strength, added to that of the Whig party in Virginia, they 
 could carry that State. 
 
 Emissaries were sent to Richmond by the Whig leaders at 
 Washington, to carry out their scheme of treachery to Mr. 
 Tyler. He was then in opposition to Mr. Yan Bureu ; as an 
 opponent of the spoils party, he had been instructed out of his 
 seat in the Senate of the United States, because of his refusal 
 to vote to desecrate the journal of the Senate ; Mr. Rives had 
 been found willing to do that deed, and did it ; and yet two years 
 afterwards the Whigs were found striving to re-elect Mr. Rives 
 over Mr. Tyler, — the instrument of expunction over its victim ! 
 
 Mr. Tyler was often afterwards denounced by the Whigs for 
 various acts of treachery, but no one act with which his ene- 
 mies charged him would have equaled, had the charge been true, 
 this treacherous tergiversation of their own. They were fairly 
 caught in the act, and in their confusion of shame at the detec- 
 tion, they agreed that if Mr. Tyler^s friends, who withheld 3Ir. 
 Bives^s election by the legislature, would yield his re-election, 
 Mr. Tyler should he nominated on the Whig ticket for the Vice- 
 Presidency. That was the secret of his nomination for that 
 office. It was agreed upon as early as 1838-39. 
 
 Mr. Tyler's friends, who had thus far defeated Mr. Rives, 
 would not consent to vote for him, but they left their seats at 
 last, and lessened the number of votes, so that a majority for him 
 was obtained. 
 
 Thus was Mr. Rives re-elected to the Senate after expunc- 
 tion, and thus was Mr. Tyler's nomination to the Vice-Presidency 
 secured, during the session of the Virginia legislature, before 
 the nomination of President and Vice-President, at Harrisburg, 
 in 1839. The particulars of that intrigue were never alluded 
 to at the time, and have never before been made public. 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 159 
 
 It silently worked out its object of defeating Mr. Tyler, but it 
 failed to effect its purpose of electing Mr. Rives to the Senate, 
 and was likely to damage the hopes of the Opposition. During 
 the ballotings the friends of Mr. Tyler discovered the design, 
 and were indignant at the attempt. Judge John B. Christian, 
 the brother-in-law of Mr. Tyler, becoming aware of the Whig 
 game, wrote to a friend in Congress, inquiring whether it could 
 be possibly true that the Whig leaders had sent their emis- 
 saries to effect such a purpose. The friend immediately ad- 
 dressed himself in person to Mr. Clay. He informed him of the 
 letter' and of the inquiry. At first he declined to answer, deny- 
 ing his responsibility for what any one was doing at Richmond 
 in the matter of the election of senator from Virginia. The 
 friend in turn declined to be put off in that way. He told him 
 he knew that the report had already reached the authors of the 
 scheme ; that a certain influence had balked its success ; that 
 that influence would continue to do so until it should be finally 
 defeated ; that the design to defeat Mr. Tyler by the election of 
 Mr. Rives, was regarded by the friends of the former as the 
 grossest ingratitude to one who had made the sacrifice of his 
 seat in the Senate for the good of the Opposition ; that the 
 attempt to elect Mr. Rives over Mr. Tyler, in view of the 
 iniquity of expunction, perpetrated by the one and opposed by 
 the other, of which the one was the instrument and the other 
 the victim, was a breach of good faith, an instance of corrup- 
 tion ; that, if it should be effected, it would be at the expense 
 of the Whig party, and very damaging to Mr. Clay's prospects 
 for the Presidency ; that if the party gained any friends in 
 consideration of Mr. Rives's election, it would lose more in 
 consideration of Mr. Tyler's defeat; and if he, Mr. Clay, could 
 not explain his complicity in the intrigue, Mr. Tyler's friends 
 should be informed that their apprehensions were well founded 
 and they would act accordingly. He at last consented to enter 
 into explanations. He admitted that he was aware of the 
 attempt to elect Mr. Rives ; that he had been consulted as to 
 the policy of so doing ; that he had said that he preferred Mr. 
 Tyler's election, if it could be effected, but that, if the party 
 
160 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 could not elect him, it would be politic, under the circumstances, 
 to do the best the party could, to take Mr. Rives, or any other 
 weapon with which to bruise the head of the serpent of Van 
 Burenism. 
 
 The friend replied that the attempt to elect Mr. Rives on this 
 recommendation had alone defeated the election of Mr. Tyler ; 
 that it would cause his friends to unite against the nomination 
 of him, Mr. Clay, to the Presidency. Mr. Clay said that it was 
 his chief desire to carry Virginia for the Opposition, and that he, 
 for his part, would prefer to be defeated for the Presidency with 
 the vote of his mother State in his favor, to success with her 
 vote against him ; and he had advised the election of Mr. Rives 
 only in the event that it would be most conducive to carrying 
 the State of Virginia for the Whig party ; and if Mr. Tyler could 
 be elected, and it was best for the party, he preferred him to 
 Mr. Rives. 
 
 This was noted immediately in his presence, the friend com- 
 mencing the reply to Judge Christian whilst sitting by Mr. 
 Clay's side, and writing at his dictation. When the letter was 
 finished it was read to him, and he approved of it, and from his 
 desk it was taken to the mail. On leaving his seat the friend 
 said to him, " Remember, Mr. Clay, this is your statement, not 
 mine, and I send it to Judge Christian with the sole motive of 
 saving you from the consequences of any suspicion that you are 
 disposed to betray Mr, Tyler." 
 
 He expressed an earnest desire that the harmony of the party 
 should not be disturbed, but he was told that he would be held 
 responsible for its breach. The contest still went on at Rich- 
 mond, and a second and a third time the friend of Mr. Tyler, at 
 Washington, was approached with the request to advise the 
 election of Mr. Rives. 
 
 He declined again and again, on the ground that the sin of 
 expunction was unpardonable ; that Mr. Rives had allowed 
 himself to be its tool, and had driven Mr. Tyler from his 
 seat in order to take the opportunity of perpetrating a gross 
 and degrading violation of the Constitution, in subserviency to 
 the man-worship of Jackson and the bullying of Benton. At 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 161 
 
 last Mr. Clay and others appealed in such urgent terms that 
 they were told, " The friends of Mr. Tyler will never consent to 
 the re-eleetiou of Mr. Rives, the tool of expuuction, over Mr. 
 Tyler, its victim, until the party of the Opposition consents 
 to place Mr. Tyler in nomination for the Vice-Presidency, so 
 that he may, if elected, preside over his expunging opponent in 
 the Senate." 
 
 To this arrangement Mr. Clay pledged all his influence and 
 exertion, and immediately the friends of Mr. Tyler, at Rich- 
 mond, were advised to stand out of the way of Mr. Rives, which 
 they did. They could not be induced to vote for him, but, on 
 the calling of the ballot which elected him, they retired from 
 their seats, and were not counted on the ballot, and he was thus 
 allowed to be elected by a bare majority. 
 
 Mr. Clay was warned at the time that he was agreeing to an 
 arrangement which might throw him out of the nomination for 
 the Presidency, for the President would hardly be nominated 
 from Kentucky if the Yice-President were chosen from Yirginia ; 
 but at that time he was not so sanguine of the party's uniting 
 on his name, and if it did so unite, he knew that the lesser 
 would certainly be made subordinate to the greater nomina- 
 tion, — the Vice-Presidency to the Presidency. But Mr. Tyler's 
 friends took the chances, knowing the influences at work against 
 Mr. Clay himself. Those influences developed themselves po- 
 tentially in the succeeding session of Congress, in 1838-39. 
 
 Mr. Webster was undoubtedly opposed to the nomination of 
 Mr. Clay, and his influence was more powerful in New York 
 than it was in New England. Clay's reliance was on the West 
 and Northwest, and he counted for success upon obtaining the 
 influence of Judge White's friends in Tennessee and Virginia. 
 But Judge White himself might still be a candidate. He had 
 been run for the Presidency, in 1836, against his wish ; but, 
 having been defeated then, he might deem it his due to be run 
 again when there was a chance of success. Mr. John Bell, the 
 leader of the White and Tyler nomination in 1836, seeing that 
 there was no probability of the nomination of Judge White, was 
 anxious to have him decline in order to make way for his support 
 
 11 
 
162 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 of Mr. Clay. No one knew what Judge White would do as to a 
 nomination, whether he desired or would decline it; or, if he 
 declined or did not obtain it, whether he would support Mr. 
 Clay. We were at the time living at the same house with Judge 
 White, and proud of his intimacy and confidence. He was one 
 of the best judges of men and things we have ever known, and 
 one of the purest and most exalted patriots who ever served his 
 country, always unselfishly, with a stern virtue and the strongest 
 sense of duty, uninfluenced by fear or favor, but ever touched 
 by the tenderest devotion and affection. He was grave, taciturn, 
 and laborious, always conscientiously exact, strict, and precise, 
 and abhorred every form of deceit, injustice, or want of ingenu- 
 ousness. He committed himself rarely and slowly, but once 
 committed he was immovable as a rock unless convinced of a 
 wrong, and was wholly inapproachable by any indirection or 
 circumvention. His knowledge of the intrigues going on around 
 him was inexplicable, and the thoughtfulness by which he dis- 
 cerned and resolved them almost awed one as by the presence 
 of a seer whose prophecies were certain to be realized. He 
 was very thin, tall, and ghostly in appearance, but was physi- 
 cally very sinewy and strong, and had immense capacity for 
 labor. His eyes were a clear blue, but small, and so deep- 
 set that when he drew his brows over them in thought or con- 
 versation they looked like black diamonds, scintillating various 
 sparkling lights ; and his lips were so compressed that he wore 
 an appearance not only of firmness but also of constant restraint 
 and self-command. He was always terribly in earnest, yet at 
 times enjoyed humor, such as that of the inimitable Baillie 
 Peyton, and when be did smile, which was seldom, it was the 
 sweetest smile we ever caught from lip or cheek of man. He 
 was a great and good man, without fear and without reproach. 
 One evening in the session of 1838-39 Mr. Clay and Mr. 
 Bell called upon us at our room and at once opened upon their 
 desire and purpose to ascertain w^hether Judge White expected 
 to be nominated again for the Presidency, and if not, whether 
 he would support Mr. Cla}', or whom he would support. They 
 eaid they came to us because we had better access to him on 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 163 
 
 that subject than any of his colleagues, who desired not to seem 
 as presuming even that he would not permit his name again to 
 be used. They all loved him, preferred him to any other living 
 m.an, but knew he could not be nominated, and therefore they 
 felt great delicacy in approaching him on the subject. Mr. Clay 
 desired to know his views, and, above all, desired to have his 
 influence. We told him that there was but one way proper in 
 which to approach Judge White. It was usele-ss to attempt it 
 by indirection, or by any circumlocution or circumvention. He 
 bad to be approached with the naivete of a little child: one 
 would have to go, as it were, to his knee, look up in his ven- 
 erable face, with truth and innocence on one's brow, and say, 
 " Judge White, Mr. Chiy and Mr. Bell requested me to ask, 
 Will you please stand out of Mr. Clay's way and give him your 
 influence for the Presidency ?" 
 
 Mr. Clay laughed heartily, and said that he believed honesty 
 was the best policy with Judge White, and he left it to us to 
 take our own way ; he was certain it would not be like that of 
 any one else. He was reminded that Judge White was not to 
 be treated like any other man ; that if diplomacy was attempted 
 with him, he was so godlike in wisdom and so instinct with virtue 
 that he would divine one's own thoughts before fully fit for his 
 inspection ; and that if any arts of address were used with him, 
 he would give a look which no one would wish to meet, but not 
 a word would be got from him. We would see him at their 
 instance, and report in due time. 
 
 After tea one evening succeeding this interview. Judge White 
 had retired to his room ; we tapped at his door, and were at 
 once admitted. He was at his table, as usual, arranging his 
 papers for the night's labors, but laid everything aside upon 
 our entrance, and, without equivoque or reserve, we told him 
 at once the object of our visit. His face had at times very 
 singular expressions. Whenever his attention was suddenly 
 arrested by some important matter new to him, presenting new 
 aspects, or revealing fully some suspected facts or truths, 
 there would be, involuntarily as it were, a slow contraction 
 of his brow, a close compression of his lips, and a rapid work- 
 
164 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION: 
 
 ing of his nasal muscles and nostrils, with a hard and audible 
 rapid breathing. He heard us through, as he always did every- 
 body, and quickly this singular expression came over his coun- 
 tenance, and he sat breathing and musing in silence. We rose 
 after a few moments, saying that, having discharged our mis- 
 sion, we would retire. He immediately arose, took us by the 
 hand, and said, warmly, that we could not have done him a 
 greater political favor ; and Mrs. White, his good, kind wife, 
 remarkable for her discernment, dignity, and good sense, stepped 
 to the door and added her especial thanks. 
 
 We left him to his own reflections, confident that they would 
 be wise and prudent ; and in a few days our confidence in him 
 was confirmed. He came, after taking his own time, to our 
 room, and there and then explained his past course and mo- 
 tives, reviewed the then current political events, disclosed his 
 own purposes and resolutions, discussed the politics and pros- 
 pects of every probable candidate for the Presidency, and 
 opened a vista of prophecy for twenty-five years of the future of 
 the United States, which has since been so surprisingly fulfilled 
 that we never think of him and of that conference without 
 wonder. He reminded us how he had been compelled, by the 
 dictation of General Jackson as to his successor, to allow his 
 name to be used for the presidential nomination in the year 
 1836. He had never desired the nomination, but had been 
 obliged to accept it, in order to resist dictation and to meet the 
 charge that he was misrepresenting his State and her people in 
 opposing Mr. Yan Buren. 
 
 He had run, in fact, for Tennessee alone, and Tennessee had 
 amply vindicated his course against every appeal and appliance 
 of Andrew Jackson himself. That was sufficient for him, and he 
 claimed no more. He said that he knew too well the aspirations 
 and machinations of men and parties and factions at Washing- 
 ton, and the probability of events, not to know that he had no 
 chance for another nomination, but that even if the chances for 
 it were good, or the best, he had no desire for the Presidency. 
 That he was then an aged man, had lost many of the most 
 precious objects of life, was trying to make his latter days like> 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 165 
 
 those of a Christian about to depart to a better world, had no 
 longer any aspirations in this world but to see his country re- 
 main free and prosperous, preferred retirement, and was pre- 
 paring to die in peace, and he must not be deemed or suspected 
 as in the way of any aspirant. That was the solution of the 
 first problem, — he would not again accept a nomination for the 
 Presidency. As to whom he preferred and would give his in- 
 fluence to, that was another question. His own political opinions 
 were well known to all; they were those of a long lifetime, uni- 
 formly held and carried into practice in conspicuous places, 
 State and Federal, of a protracted public service. They were 
 consistently and persistently Democratic Republican, of the 
 Jefferson and Madison school ; State Rights and the Constitu- 
 tion strictly construed, limited Federal powers for the common 
 purposes of the Union, prohibitions of certain powers to be sternly 
 observed, and popular sovereignty guarded by constitutional laws 
 were cardinal points of faith with him ; and the good of the whole 
 country was or should be the chief end of every patriot. Party 
 ends were chief ends of mere partisans. He was no partisan. 
 There was no man likely to get the nomination of the Opposi- 
 tion with whom he agreed in political opinions. He named 
 several spoken of, and said there were several for whom he 
 might be compelled to vote, as opposed to Mr. Yan Buren. 
 He abhorred him above all pretenders, who based his claim 
 upon the spoils of party, victory, and patronage, upon ap- 
 pointments to office, and upon jobs to favorites. He named 
 Mr Webster, and regretted the jealousies rankling between 
 him and Mr. Clay ; then Mr. Clay, General Scott, and General 
 Harrison ; saying that the latter would get the nomination, 
 and proceeding to state his reasons for the prediction. 
 
 He first disclosed to us what was afterwards called the 
 " Triangular Correspondence." New York would control the 
 nomination, and the cards in that State were already stocked. 
 
 C , residing in Rochester, S , residing in Utica, and 
 
 T , residing in the city of New York, were to write to one 
 
 another from the three great sections of the State during the 
 preliminary and primary State nominations. C. to S. and T. : — 
 
166 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 " Do all you can for Mr. Clay in your district, for I am sorry to 
 say that he has no strength in this ;" S. to C. and T., the same ; 
 T. to C. and S., the same ; each a professed friend of Mr. Clay, 
 and each to be sorry for his having no chance in his district. 
 
 District A was for Clay, but the letters from B and C would 
 show he had no chance in them. District B was for Clay, but 
 the letters from A and C would show he had no chance in 
 them. District C was for Clay, but the letters from A and B 
 would show he had no chance in them. A then would say, 
 " It is useless for us to send delegates favorable to Mr. Clay, 
 for he has no strength in B and C." B would say the same, 
 "for he has no strength in A and C." C would say the same, 
 "for he has no strength in A and B." 
 
 Thus districts or sections all favorable to Mr. Clay were 
 made to elect delegates who were opposed to his nomination. 
 By this contrivance Mr. Webster's friends were to obtain dele- 
 gates in favor of General Scott, who was to be made the cat's- 
 paw to defeat Mr. Clay. But Judge White further predicted 
 that this, whilst it would defeat Mr. Clay's nomination, would 
 also defeat General Scott's. Scott in this way would get the 
 votes of the New York delegation, and this M^ould bring down 
 upon him the indignation of the friends of Clay. 
 
 Thus Clay and Scott would both be defeated, and a tertium 
 quid, General Harrison, would probably be the nominee, and 
 be elected. Judge White begged us to make Mr. Clay understand 
 and guard against this ingenious machination. He warned him 
 also through us to do all in his power to checkmate this plot 
 of the New York cabal, by having the primary nominations 
 made early in the summer of 1838, as the Triangular Corre- 
 spondence needed time, and would therefore urge an excuse for 
 postponement until after the Pennsylvania elections in the fall 
 of that year. But he said the warning would be idle, for the 
 arrangements of Mr. Clay were already intrusted to parties who 
 were co-operating with the plans of his enemies, and of this he 
 could not be warned, because he could not be made to distrust 
 certain of his professed friends. The primary nominations would 
 be postponed, and his nomination would therefore be defeated. 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. 161 
 
 He regretted this, because be preferred Mr. Clay to any of the 
 others named, yet he could not commit himself to his support, so 
 wide apart were they in politics, unless Mr. Clay would consent 
 to a practical concurrence with him on certain cardinal points in 
 opposition to his heresies of theory. He said the word " Whig" 
 was a generic term, that it was adopted expressly to embrace men 
 of all political opinions, — Democrats and Federalists, National 
 Republicans and old Jackson men of 1824 and 1828, bank men 
 and anti-bank men, protective and anti-protective tariff men, 
 pro- and anti-internal improvement men, pro- and anti-distribu- 
 tion of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, i)ro- and 
 anti-annexation of Texas, pro- and anti-slavery men. If Mr. Clay, 
 whatever might be liis abstract opinions as to the powers of Con- 
 gress on these cardinal points, would agree to a practical course 
 upon them, he could and would support him ; otherwise he 
 would not, unless compelled by the necessity of a choice of 
 evils. At all events, whether he (Judge White) could support 
 him or not at the election, he would give him his influence for 
 the AVhig nomination over any of his known and probable 
 rivals. He illustrated his meaning of practical concurrence on 
 various subjects of theoretical differences between them. A 
 United States Bank to be chartered by Congress, he said, was 
 a settled question. Practically it should be considered defunct 
 until the changes of time or of popular opinion should demand 
 a recharter. That the government was obliged to have a fiscal 
 agent was true, but it was not obliged to have this form of 
 agency. The Treasury Department could itself be organized 
 to perform its own functions of fisc, and currency could be 
 regulated by laws, indisputable in respect to gold and silver 
 and their representatives of private and public credit, and the 
 relations of local State banks could be so modified as to sub- 
 serve exchange. A national bank in any form was necessarily 
 either a danger of great magnitude or a useless contrivance, 
 a King Stork or a King Log. It would naturally and there- 
 after forever be either a pet power or an ally of an Executive, 
 and a great curse united with a popular and unscrupulous 
 President ; or it would be an antagonist of the Executive and 
 
168 SEVEN DECADES OF TUE UNION. 
 
 have to be so cautious of a conflict as to be wholly ineflBcient, 
 Credit, private or public, was a sensitive hot-house plant which 
 could not sustain the storms of party and political strife, and 
 ought never to be exposed to them if it was possible to avoid 
 its exposure. It ought to be organized independent of party 
 politics and their conflicts. For the Whigs to recharter the 
 then late United States Bank would be to bring it directly 
 into the whirlpool of party conflict. If united with the new 
 Executive, it would be corrupting and dangerous, and if 
 Executive power were arrayed against it, it would be made 
 useless, as the then late conflict of Jackson with the bank 
 had proved. True wisdom, then, as well as party policy, 
 required that the Whigs should treat the bank issue as dead, 
 at all events for the next presidential term, and for the future 
 it should be " left to the arbitrament of enlightened public 
 opinion." 
 
 On the subject of the tariff, he said that the only pledge he 
 required of Mr. Clay was to adhere to his own plan of the 
 Compromise Bill of 1832-33, to gradually reduce the duties on 
 protected articles, and to approach as near as practicable to 
 a revenue standard, by laying the duties on the unprotected 
 articles. 
 
 On the subject of internal improvements by the general govern- 
 ment, he demanded that appropriations should cease. The friends 
 in Congress of internal improvements had urged appropriations 
 for them originally, — first, to aid the Temtories; secondly, 
 to stimulate the States to construct their own public works. 
 There was no dissension as to the power of aiding the Territo- 
 ries, and the States had been so stimulated to construct their re- 
 spective works, that they had run into two hundred millions of 
 State debts. Policy required a pause until a future time, when 
 the national and State debts should be largely reduced, if not 
 extinguished. 
 
 He utterly repudiated the distribution of the proceeds of the 
 sales of the public lands. They should be made the safety fund 
 to keep the army and navy in continual preparation against 
 foreign war or domestic insurrection and rebellion, and to leave 
 
THE FIFTU DECADE. 169 
 
 no pretext for rate of duties and imposts which would be be- 
 yond any legitimate purposes of revenue. 
 
 The annexation of Texas had been avoided during the ad- 
 ministration of Mr. Van Buren, and Mr. Clay had already 
 declared against the acquisition of any more territory. Judge 
 White required a pledge on that subject, with a view to preserve 
 the balance of power in the Union between the North and the 
 South in respect to slavery. 
 
 As tb slavery, he trusted to Mr. Clay's known views and his 
 being a senator of a slave State. He knew he would oppose 
 the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and would 
 do his utmost to pacify the agitation of the whole subject of 
 abolition. He required pledges on five cardinal points only, 
 and said that though Mr. Clay was a latitudiuarian and the 
 great leader of the American system, yet, if he would commit 
 himself to a practical course on the subjects named, he would 
 give him his influence for the nomination and for his election. 
 
 This conference was fully and faithfully reported by us to Mr. 
 Clay, and he did distinctly make the pledges required of him by 
 Judge White. He emphatically indorsed his views in respect 
 to the recharter of the United States Bank, the tariff for protec- 
 tion, and the subject of internal improvements. 
 
 This, in turn, was reported to Judge White, and he then 
 urged the importance of having a Democratic Republican and 
 Strict Construction candidate put upon the ticket of the Yice- 
 Presideucy, as the Vice-President might have the casting vote 
 of the Senate. John Tyler was the man he preferred ; he had 
 been consistent throughout his whole life ; had been nominated 
 on the ticket with him in 18-36; had been expunged from the 
 Senate ; and the pledge had already been made to place his 
 name on the ticket for the Vice-Presidency in order to elect Mr. 
 Rives to the Senate in 1838. 
 
 Alas ! already the same fate was ordained for Judge White 
 himself. He had offered his resignation to the Governor of 
 Tennessee in the fall of 1838 on account of bad health, but it 
 was refused. The legislature of Tennessee became Locofoco 
 in the winter of 1839, and at once set about instructing Judge 
 
170 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 White out of his seat in the Senate. They passed certain in- 
 structions to him, and among others was one to vote in favor 
 of the " Sub-Treasury." At once he responded in a letter, of 
 September 5, 1839, characterized by his purity and wisdom, 
 and causing them to immolate him on. the altar of party sacri- 
 fice. On the 13th of January, 1840, the Sub-Treasury bill was 
 called up in the Senate, when Judge White addressed the Senate 
 in his own vindication and read his letter of reply to the legis- 
 lature of Tennessee. It is a master-piece of calm logic, and 
 honest, proud defense ; and when its reading was finished he 
 bade the Senate a feeling and dignified farewell. He followed 
 Mr. Tyler's example ; he could not obey, but recognized the 
 right of instruction, and resigned. Thus the nation lost its 
 highest exemplar of wisdom, honesty, and purity in public 
 service; and on the Hth of January, 1840, a large concourse 
 of senators, representatives, and private citizens manifested 
 their sense of his worth and of the Senate's loss by a dinner 
 given him in Washington City as a last mark of affectionate 
 respect. 
 
 In his speech at that dinner he confirmed what we have here 
 related. His predictions had been fulfilled. The Triangular 
 Correspondence had been successful: the convention to nominate 
 a President and Vice-President had been postponed until after 
 the Pennsylvania elections ; the friends of Mr. Webster had 
 used General Scott's name to defeat the nomination of Mr. 
 Clay, and General Scott's nomination was defeated in turn by 
 that of General Harrison, in the fall of 1839. Mr. Clay had 
 been fully warned of the machinations to defeat him, and would 
 not give credence to the friendly caution. He would hardly 
 credit the device and its success to the last. In the very hour 
 of his defeat he was sitting in a room at Brown's Hotel, anx- 
 iously waiting to hear of his nomination. He made most singu- 
 lar exhibitions of himself in that moment of ardent expectancy. 
 
 He was open and exceedingly profane in his denunciations of 
 the intriguers against his nomination. We had taken two Whig 
 friends of our district to see him ; and after they had sat some 
 time listening to him, in utter surprise at his remarks, full of 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. HI 
 
 tlie most impudent, coarse crimination of others, in words be- 
 fitting- only a bar-room* in vulgar broil, of a sudden he stopped, 
 and turning to the two gentlemen, who were dressed in black 
 and both strangers to him, he said, " But, gentlemen, for aught 
 I know, from your cloth you may be parsons, and shocked at 
 my words. Let us take a glass of wine." And, rising from his 
 seat, he walked to a well-loaded sideboard, at which, evidently, 
 he had been imbibing deeply before we entered. 
 
 Thereupon we bowed and took leave. One of the gentlemen, 
 after retiring, remarked, " That man can never be my political 
 idol again;" and from that time to this he has ceased to admire 
 him. In a short time after that he (Mr. Clay) went across the 
 Avenue to the parlor of his boarding-house, where he awaited 
 the arrival of two of his personal friends, on the night of the 
 nomination at Harrisburg, to bring him the news of the final 
 proceedings and choice of the Whig Convention. 
 
 We went to the depot and got the intelligence of the nomina- 
 tion of General Harrison and Mr. Tyler, and hastened back to 
 him with the news. Such an exhibition we never witnessed 
 before, and we pray never again to witness such an ebullition 
 of passion, such a storm of desperation and curses. He rose from 
 his chair, and, walking backwards and forwards rapidly, lifting 
 his feet like a horse string-halted in both legs, stamped his steps 
 upon the floor, exclaiming, " My friends are not worth the 
 powder and shot it would take to kill them 1" He mentioned 
 the names of several, invoking upon them the most horrid im- 
 precations, and then, turninu' to us, approached rapidly, and 
 stopping before us, with violent gesture and 1 ud voice, said, 
 " If there were two Henry Clays, one of them would make the 
 other President of the United States !" 
 
 Trying to bring him to his senses, we replied, "If there were 
 two Henry Clays, the continent would not be large enough to 
 hold them, and they would not leave a morsel of each other ; 
 they would mutually destroy themselv'S. You were warned 
 by Judge White of this result, when it mi ht have been pre- 
 vented, but you would not ta e heed!" 
 
 " Ah, yes," said he ; " you and my old fi end Judge White 
 
172 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 are like the old lad j ' who knew the cow would eat up the 
 grindstone.' It is a diabolical intrigue, I now know, which has 
 betrayed me. I am the most unfortunate man in the history of 
 parties: always run by my friends when sure to be defeated, 
 and now betrayed for a nomination when I, or any one, would 
 be sure of an election." 
 
 From that time forward, through the sessions of '39, '40, '41, 
 '42, '43, '44, as long as we remained in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, up to February, 1844, Mr. Clay was excessively in- 
 temperate in his habits, and more intemperate in exacerbation 
 of temper and in his political conduct. His scene with General 
 Scott at a whist-table in Boulanger's restaurant, and with Mr. 
 Choate in the Senate-chamber, were but instances of his des- 
 peration and of his spite towards those who had defeated his 
 nomination. He at times was inapproachable by his friends, 
 and his foes chuckled at his self-immolation. At once there 
 arose an implacable war, open and declared, between him and 
 Mr. Webster. That enmity divided the Whig party into two 
 factions, on no difference of opinion or principles at all, but 
 purely on personal preferences and partisan predilections. Mr. 
 Webster, it was thought by Mr. Clay's friends, was paving his 
 way for the succession to General Harrison, and it was obvious 
 that Mr. Webster was to have the control of General Harrison's 
 administration. 
 
 The defeat of Mr. Clay and the nomination of General Har- 
 rison by Mr. Webster's friends, at Harrisburg, determined that 
 programme of the Whig party, even before the election in the 
 fall of 1840, and certainly before the inauguration of the Presi- 
 dent elect in the spring of 1841. 
 
 We must not forget the two great strides of the physical in 
 this marked decade, from 1830 to 1840, — the Telegraph of 
 Morse, and the "Marine Catapulta" of Commodore James 
 Barron, in 1836, from the model of which the idea of the 
 " beaked iron-clad Virginia" was derived. 
 
 We presided over the Committee of Naval Affairs in the 
 room at the Capitol, in which Morse had his battery and his 
 isolated wire to demonstrate his discovery, and where Barron 
 
THE FIFTH DECADE. \1Z 
 
 exhibited his model of the CatapuUa. From that model we, 
 in 1861, from " Rolliston," in the county of Princess Anne, Vir- 
 ginia, suggested to General Lee, by letter, the plan of an invul- 
 nerable floating battery, from which the Merrimack was con- 
 verted into the Virginia. They both have proved how mind 
 can make one material monster overcome and destroy another 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE SIXTH DECADE, FROM 18-4:0 TO 18SO. 
 
 Campaign of 1840 — Tippecanoe and Tyler too — Personations of the Divisions 
 of the Whig Party — Tyler's expressed Opinions during the Canvass — Dis- 
 memberment of the Whig Party before General Harrison's Inauguration — 
 General Harrison's Health and Death — Scenes at Washington City — Harri- 
 son's Cabinet — " Tyler too" President — What he had to do — The Harrison 
 Cabinet retained — Mr. Tyler's Speech as Vice-President — His "Address to 
 the People of the United States," and his First Message — Fiscal Bank — Veto 
 — Fiscal Corporation — Ewing's Bill — Mr. Clay's Pledges broken — AVhy — 
 The Ewing, Sergeant, and Berrien Committee's Interview with Mr. Tyler — 
 Mr. Rives's Plan of evading Constitutional Scruples — Mr. Clay's Object to 
 force a Veto — Veto Second — Mr. Tyler's Integrity assailed — His Firmness — 
 Conditions of Peace tendered to him — Mr. Clay inexorable — Congress im- 
 placable — The Harrison Cabinet dissolved — Mr. Webster remains with his 
 Credentials in Favor of Mr. Tyler — Disposition to deprive Mr. Tyler of a 
 Cabinet by not confirming any of his Nominees — The First Tyler Cabinet. 
 
 The political campaign of 1840 was in all respects the most 
 memorabU' ever known to party annals in this country. The 
 eclat of General Jackson's name made Mr. Van Buren's elec- 
 tion, but could not maintain his administration ; it was crushed 
 by its corruption, and the commingling of all elements of the 
 Opposition. Democratic and National Republicans, Federalists 
 and State Rights partisans, strict constructionists and latitudi- 
 narians, Jackson nien and Adams men, Clay men and Calhoun 
 men, — all, in a word, united under the motto of " The union of 
 the Whigs for the sake of the Union," and made, in the language 
 of the celebrated orator of Baltimore, John V. li. McMahon, a 
 perfect "avalanche af the people." 
 
 The enthusiasm attending the reception of Lafayette in Balti- 
 more in 1824 was not greater than that attending the Conven- 
 tion in 1840 of that city to ratify the nomination of " Tippecanoe 
 (174) 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. l\h 
 
 and Tyler too." Raccoon-skins, and log cabins with the latch- 
 strings out, were carried in procession through the land, and 
 General Harrison was elected overwhelmingly by a feu de joief 
 But Mr. Clay, like Achilles, retired to his tent. He chafed under 
 the preference over him of a military chieftain. It was not a 
 military chieftain W'ho was preferred, but Mr. Webster's will 
 had prevailed against him. But the feeling and causes which 
 operated in 1840 were not like those which had operated pre- 
 viously in making Richard M. Johnson Vice-President; it was 
 uot a Pop Emmons argument of — 
 
 "Rumpsey, Dumpsey, 
 Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh." 
 
 The feeling was of a sound moral tone, and the leading men 
 of all sects and sections, and the intelligence of the country, 
 united to reform abuses of government and to crush corruption. 
 The motto for every flag was, — 
 
 " Tippecanoe ! 
 And Tyler too !" 
 
 And in this there was a pointed meaning, intended and ex- 
 pressed. General Harrison was denounced by some as a Fed- 
 eralist, who favored broad and unlimited powers in the Federal 
 government, and for the preference of partisans of that faith he 
 was proposed ; but John Tyler was known to be a Democrat 
 and Strict Constructionist of the straitest' sect, and to men of 
 that faith he was proposed. In other words, the ticket was 
 expressly intended for 
 
 "National Republicans in Tippecanoe, 
 And Democratic Republicans in Tyler too." 
 
 This was known to all well-informed politicians. 
 
 Mr. Tyler was put into the Yice-Presidency by the friends 
 of State Rights and strict construction, avowedly for the 
 purpose of casting any tie vote in the Senate of the United 
 States in their favor. During the canvass of 1840 his op- 
 ponents in the North, hoping to injure his ticket in Pennsyl- 
 
176 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 vania, addressed to him calls for bis avowals, and he made them 
 without reserve when he could do so with proper self-respect ; 
 and if any of his opinions were withheld from the public they 
 were not withheld by himself, but by the leading counselors 
 of the Whig party at Washington City, and they withheld 
 them on the ground that his opinions were universally known 
 to the party and the country to be Democratic Republican and 
 that the calls for them were in bad faith, not to found con- 
 clusions upon, but to array votes against him. His opinions 
 were fully known at the Harrisburg Convention, by men who 
 were acquainted with the whole course and tenor of his long 
 political career. He did not commit himself to a Federal 
 party or Federal opinions by accepting the nomination, but 
 the Whig party committed itself to Democratic principles and 
 selected a Democrat to guard them. Even General Harrison 
 had denied the charge of Federalism brought against himself, 
 and pledged himself to strict construction, especially on the 
 Bank question.* 
 
 In 1822 and in 1836, General Harrison, in his speeches in 
 the Cincinnati district, in a letter to Judge Berrien, and in a 
 speech at Vincennes, had fully expressed his political opinions ; 
 and during the canvass of 1840, his speech at Dayton and his 
 letter to Sherrod Williams committed him to Deniocratic meas- 
 ures and to strict construction of the Constitution as to the 
 bank, a protective tariff, the expediency of internal improve- 
 ments by the' Federal government, and the veto. As to Mr. 
 Tyler's part, he was too thoroughly committed by the whole of 
 his political course to be doubted ; but he was interrogated with 
 scrutinizing opposition, and in every possible form referred to 
 his votes from 1812 to 1813, and from 1832 to 1840, on the 
 right of instruction and the duty of obedience, on the bank and 
 veto, on his casting vote in the Senate upon the latter question, 
 on a protective tariff, internal improvement, and abolition of 
 slavery in the District of Columbia. In his reply to certain 
 citizens of Henrico County, Virginia, Tilmon E. Jeter, Philip 
 
 * See chapter viii. of his Life, by Abell. 
 
THE SLXTH DECADE. 17^ 
 
 Mayo, and others, dated October 16, 1840, he was explicit in 
 adhering to his past course of opposition to those measures by 
 the Federal government. These answers were repeated in his 
 published letter of the 5th of October, 1840, saying in relation 
 to the bank, " My opinion of the power of Congress to charter a 
 bank remains unchanged" (from opinions acted upon by him in 
 1819 and in 1832). Again, in a letter to Democratic citizens 
 of Pittsburg, he reiterated his unyielding opposition to the re- 
 cliarter of the bank. He wrote, during the session of 1839-40, 
 from Williamsburg, saying that a meeting of the Democrats of 
 Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, had demanded of him whether he 
 would in any event sanction the incorporation of a United 
 States Bank. He inclosed their proceedings and resolutions, 
 and also his reply, to Washington City, with instructions to 
 submit his reply to the leading members of the Whig party, for 
 them to determine whether it should be forwarded and published 
 or not. After examining the right of all citizens to call for his 
 sentiments on public questions, and claiming that the object of 
 such calls should always be to cause the electors to cast their 
 votes intelligently, by enlightening them as to the true opinions 
 of candidates, he expressed the opinion which he ever enter- 
 tained, "that a Bank of the United States was unconstitutional," 
 and declared that he would not sanction the incorporation of one 
 without an alteration of the Constitution. He .then emphatically 
 asked whether, if these were their own sentiments, they would 
 maintain them by voting for him at the polls, or whether it was 
 their object to divide the Whig party by publishing them to the 
 country. 
 
 This reply was submitted to the leading Whigs in Congress, 
 and they decided that it would be impolitic to publish it ; that 
 Mr. Tyler's opinions were already too well known, through his 
 speeches and votes, to need a response, and that it would be un- 
 wise to array them directly against the opinions of many Whigs, 
 perhaps a majority of the party, who were in favor of a bank. 
 
 Thus the leaders of the Whig party confessed their scien- 
 ter of what his course would be, and decided that his opinions 
 were too well known to leave a pretext for the charge that 
 
 12 
 
178 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 he had practiced any concealment or deception. This was after 
 the nomination and before the election. The Whig leaders all 
 knew what he would do. But a large portion of the Whig 
 party, especially the Whig State Convention in Virginia, pro- 
 claimed, in their address at Richmond, the exact opinions of 
 Democracy, — State Rights, strict construction, anti-bank and 
 anti-internal improvement and anti-protective tariff, and out-and- 
 out the Democratic Republican tenets, — and pledged General 
 Harrison as well as Mr. Tyler to their profession of political faith. 
 Mr. James Lyons, an eminent lawyer, and a visitor of William 
 and Mary, now living, was the author of the address of the 
 Whig Convention of 1840 ; and that address speaks for itself. 
 
 Thus the opinions of Mr. Tyler were well and fully known to 
 be those of his whole past life, and the Whig party, so far as he 
 was concerned, indorsed them by the Whig Convention and by 
 the election in 1840. There was no rational pretext, no moral 
 excuse whatever, for accusing him afterwards of treachery to 
 the party in being true to himself and his ever-cherished Demo- 
 cratic principles. The party, on the contrary, was treacherous 
 to him, but, instead of crushing him, became divided against 
 itself, and fell/<yZo de se. 
 
 The election of 1840, we repeat, was decisive; it overwhelmed 
 Van Burenism and the spoils ; but then immediately the vic- 
 torious party became dismembered. It had in itself the seeds 
 of destruction. It was composed, as we have seen, originally of 
 men of every shade of political opinion, and the old Federal 
 element of National Republicanism, the Adams and Clay Whigs, 
 being in the majority, thought it had the right to dictate and 
 prescribe the principles and policy of the administration. But 
 the men who composed that element were divided into the Clay 
 and Webster factions. Mr. Webster was willing to abide by the 
 status of the Opposition before the nomination and election, but 
 Mr. Clay was bent on pressing upon him the extreme measures 
 of the National Republican school, — bank, tariff, and all. This 
 was the motive of the war at first : it was aimed at Mr. Webster 
 rather than at Mr. Tyler. As Mr. Clay was not nominated, he 
 seemed to consider himself absolved from all the committals he 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 179 
 
 had made to Judge White ; and whether he so considered him- 
 self or not, or was so absolved or not, he certainly violated all 
 committals he had made practically to adhere to the Democratic 
 policy and principles. Judge White's speech at the dinner given 
 him, on his retirement from the Senate, at Washington, January 
 1*1, 1840, alluded to these pledges of Mr. Clay in a way which 
 he and we understood perfectly well. Judge White then said, 
 " Since the respective parties have agreed upon their candidates 
 (Van Buren and General Harrison), I have, among you, said 
 nothing as to whom I should prefer. Upon this subject I do 
 not wish to be non-committal. Neither of the gentlemen named 
 would have been my choice. I would greatly have preferred the 
 distinguished gentleman from Kentucky now near me." (Mr. 
 Clay bowed ; the whole company arose as by one impulse, and 
 gave three deafening cheers. Judge White proceeded: "Upon 
 some sul)jects he and I did not agree ; but upon some points I 
 disagree with the present chief magistrate also. Most of these 
 points have now ceased to be practical. Upon the great subjects 
 now practical I coincide heartily with that gentleman (Mr. Clay), 
 and disagree with the present incumbent. Had he continued a 
 candidate, I would have given him a cordial support." 
 
 Mr. Clay himself knew to what Judge White alluded in these 
 remarks, and so did we, as has already been explained. He had 
 committed himself in limine to the principles proclaimed in the 
 Whig address of Virginia, drafted by Mr. Lyons. Practically, 
 he himself, if he had been nominated, was to have been " anti- 
 bank" and Democratic. But, defeated for the nomination, he 
 thought himself again free to press upon his adversaries imprac- 
 ticable issues, and the blows which he aimed at Mr. Webster 
 were caught on the bosses of the buckler of John Tyler. 
 
 After the election in 1840, the disjecta membra of the Whig 
 party rushed pell-mell to Washington, every man with a rac- 
 coon's tail in his hat, and tugged at the string of the latch, out 
 at the White House door, as if sure enough it was a log cabin. 
 
 General Harrison himself got to the capital some months 
 before his inauguration, and it cost him his life. He was very 
 infirm, and the excitement was too great for him. He yielded 
 
180 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 to the " vulgar crowd," was elated by their pressure upon him, 
 and literally sank under a total derangement of his nervous 
 system. 
 
 Mr. Tazewell, of Norfolk, had predicted the event of his death, 
 playfully commenting upon the unparalleled luck of Mr. Tyler ; 
 but sadly he might have foreseen the speedy fulfillment of his 
 prophecy if he had been in Washington a week after General 
 Harrison's arrival there. He would have seen him in a high 
 state of exaltation, and agitated to a degree which could not 
 but break him down physically and mentally. We witnessed 
 scenes at and before the inauguration of 1841 which it is to be\ 
 hoped will never be described by either biography or history. 
 
 The mode of forming the Cabinet made some shocking reve- 
 lations, and, in one of the scenes which brought us into imme- 
 diate contact with General Harrison and the delegations in 
 Congress from the Southeastern States, it was our duty to keep 
 a diary and make a report, which shall never be published, 
 touching the appointments in General Harrison's Cabinet. 
 
 The signs of the dismemberment of the Whig party were 
 apparent, and ought to have warned it not to ride like a beggar 
 who had just got a horse to ride. We urged the party watch- 
 word of the "Union of the Whigs for the sake of the Union." 
 But no; they were then in power by a hurrah of the people; 
 they, the old-line Whigs or National Republicans of Adams 
 and Clay, had a majority of the party, ruled the caucus, the 
 caucus should rule the party, and the party should rule the 
 country! This rallied the State Rights men and Democrats of 
 the party, of whom Mr. Tyler was one, and we prepared to 
 resist the rush of the host of Federalism which we saw 
 thronging around the new President. Heaven saved him 
 from the fate of ActiBon ; for, had he lived until Congress 
 met, he would have been devoured by the divided pack of his 
 own dogs. 
 
 He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1841, and one 
 month thereafter, on the 4th of April, he was a corpse, dying 
 "full of years and full of honors." The Tippecanoe part was 
 gone, but the " Tyler too" part of the Whig party was, by the act 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 181 
 
 of God, left iu power. The party was pledged to " Tyler too," but 
 time showed how its leaders kept their faith to him and made 
 good their professions before the election. They scouted their 
 own proclamations and programm.es ; the majority of the {tarty 
 turned to the Federalism of National Republicanism, and de- 
 manded that Mr. Tyler should desert his lifelong faith of De- 
 mocracy and strict construction, and sanction both a national 
 bank and a protective tariS", and a wilder system of internal 
 improvements than had ever before been dreamed of, until the 
 Northwest got so strong that no party could offer resistance to 
 its demoralizing clamor for appropriations of the public lands. 
 Traitorous to their own nomination, traitorous to Mr. Tyler, with 
 a full scienter of what he was pledged to do both before and after 
 his nomination for the Yice-Presidency, the very moment that 
 he became President they forced upon him measures which they 
 knew he could not conscientiously or consistently sanction, and 
 then cried out, " Traitor ! traitor!" But we are anticipating. 
 
 Immediately after the inauguration of General Harrison we 
 bad gone home to the Eastern Shore of Yirginia. At the 
 Northampton Circuit Court we heard of the death of General 
 Harrison, and immediately hurried to Washington. 
 
 Mr. Tyler needed counsel as to the dangers which environed 
 him. The most momentous questions of public policy were 
 coming upon the administration ; the Cabinet had not been 
 appointed by himself, was not intimate with his own political or 
 personal views, and was divided against itself. The great North- 
 eastern question threatened our relations with Great Britain ; 
 the question of annexing Texas was fast approaching; the ques- 
 tion of land distribution was up for. consideration ; fiscal relations 
 had to be newly formed ; daily the subject of abolition became 
 more and more threatening; and not only was the Cabinet 
 divided between the Webster and the Clay faction, but it was 
 too clear not to be guarded against that Mr. Tyler's Democratic 
 Republican sentiments were necessarily to be brought into col- 
 lision with the Federalism of the majority of the Whig party. 
 He was advised at once to form a new Cabinet, to hasten a set- 
 tlement with Great Britain, and, with that view, to retain Mr. 
 
182 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 "Webster at the bead of the new Cabinet, to annex Texas as soou 
 as possible, to veto any recharter of a United States Bank, any 
 tariff" for protection, and any bill for the distribution of the pro- 
 ceeds of the sale of the public lands. He concurred in every 
 proposition except that of dismissing the then existing Cabinet. 
 He was told that he would be obliged to do it at last, and that 
 it would be most peaceful and politic to do it at once. But his 
 disposition was always for conciliation, and he dreaded to offend 
 any one as much as Uncle Toby did to hurt a fly. He endeav- 
 ored to win the Cabinet by giving its members his confidence, 
 forgetting that one half of it, for Mr. Clay, was watching the 
 other half, for Mr. Webster. The Cabinet could not have been 
 kept together in harmony under General Harrison had he lived. 
 But it was retained by Mr. Tyler, and the apprehended conse- 
 quences followed. 
 
 On the 17th of March, 1841, General Harrison had issued a 
 proclamation convening Congress on the 31st of the following 
 May, to consider sundry weighty and important matters, "prin- 
 cipally growing out of the condition of the revenue and finances 
 of the country." 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1841, Mr. Tyler, as Vice-President, 
 appeared, qualified, and took his seat as President of the Senate, 
 and in the address which he uttered was heard distinct and 
 clear the ring of the old Democratic faith which he and his father 
 before him had ever cherished. His definition of the true con- 
 servatorial character of the Senate, and of the duties devolving 
 upon it under the Constitution, as the representative of States, 
 to carry out their sovereign will by which the Federal govern- 
 ment had been spoken into existence, — the equality of States in 
 this Confederacy, "guardians of the institutions established by 
 the fathers against popular impulse or executive encroachments, 
 holding the balance in which are weighed the powers conceded 
 to the Federal government and the rights reserved to the States 
 and the people," — bis prophecy that if ever faction should 
 seize the Senate, and it should forget its duties, " then would 
 our political institutions be made to topple to their foundations," 
 — and his appeal for " liberty intrenched in safety behind the 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 183 
 
 sacred ramparts of the Constitution," — all showed to which part 
 of the Whig' party he belonged, and that in becoming- a Whig' 
 in opposition to Van Burenism he had not ceased to be what he 
 had ever been, a Democratic, Strict Construction, State Rights, 
 Constitution-loving Republican. His very first effort was an 
 appeal against Federalism and for a faithful adherence to the 
 Constitution, and he had repeatedly spoken and voted against 
 violating the Constitution by chartering a J3ank of the United 
 States. Thus he was committed from first to last in his 
 political course, when, by the act of God, he was called to 
 take the Presidency. And thus committed to principles, and 
 placed in power, he met the Congress. Before the Congress 
 assembled, lie had published an "Address to the People of the 
 United States." He appealed to them to sustain the "wisdom 
 and sufficiency of our institutions under the new test" of 
 the office of President for the first time devolved upon a Vice 
 President. 
 
 It was an opportunity for faction to operate and effect great 
 mischief, and he pledged himself to the people "understandingly 
 to carry out the principles of that Constitution which he had 
 sworn to protect, preserve, and defend. " He would guard against 
 the concentration of power in his hands, and preserve a " com- 
 plete separation between the sword and the purse" of the nation. 
 He deprecated the patronage of office to control and keep the 
 public moneys in the hands of the Executive. He deprecated 
 also a public debt in time of peace, and urged economy in the 
 public expenditure, with a view to the smallest revenue to be 
 exacted by taxation only for objects of absolute usefulness and 
 necessity. He urged that all war between the government and 
 the currency of the country should cease. He declared his 
 opposition to the then existing measures of finance, the Sub- 
 Treasury, and recommended their repeal. He promised his 
 sanction to "any constitutional measure which, originating in 
 Congress, should have for its object the restoration of a sound 
 circulating medium," but suggested no measure of his own, 
 because he thought financial and fiscal measures should origi- 
 nate in the Congress. At the same time, he expressly warned 
 
184 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 the people and the Congress that "in deciding upon the adap- 
 tation of any such measure to the end proposed, as well as its 
 conformity to the Constitution, he would resort to the fathers 
 of the grPMt Republican school for advice and instruction to be 
 drawn from their sage views of our system of government and 
 the light of their ever-glorious example." 
 
 This was directly saying that he would not sanction a bank 
 charter. 
 
 Every one knew what were the doctrines of "the fathers of 
 the great Republican school," what he had said and voted 
 during a long congressional and legislative career, and what 
 he had published and repressed before and during the canvass 
 for the Presidency To demand of him to sign a United States 
 Bank charter was to ask him to sacrifice the symmetrical coa- 
 sistency of his wliole public life, violate every pledge which 
 he had made to the people, and break the oath which he had 
 taken to " protect, preserve, and defend" the Constitution of 
 the United States. Yet the Whig leaders, knowing all this, 
 did make that demand upon his conscience and self-respect, 
 and cried out, " Traitor ! traitor !" upon him, because he would 
 not consent to be forsworn ! 
 
 Not only did his address to the Senate and his address 
 to the people of the United States indicate a veto of any 
 United States Bank charter, but his first message to Congress, 
 June 1, 1841, disclosed expressly his antagonism to a United 
 States Bank, to the State banks, and to the Sub-Treasury, 
 each and all, as fiscal agents of the government. As to the 
 first, he distinctly informed Congress that be regarded the people 
 as having sustained the veto ; as to the second, it had signally 
 failed; and as to the third, the very last election by the people 
 had decided that it should be overthrown and something better 
 than either system be substituted by Congress. What that 
 substitute should be, must be left to Congress, as belonging to 
 the legislative province. 
 
 He promised to concur in such a system as Congress might 
 propose, "expressly reserving to himself, however, the ultimate 
 power of rejecting any measure ivhich might, in his view of it, 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 185 
 
 conflict loith the Constitution, or otherwise jeopard tlie pros- 
 perity of the country; a power wliich he could not part with 
 even if he would, but which he would not believe any act of 
 Congress would call into requisition." 
 
 Thus warned, and thus appealed to, not to press any measure 
 upon his power to veto, the Congress held the cup of a " fiscal 
 bank" to his lips, and endeavored to make him drink its very 
 dregs, and, failing in that, made him endure all the bitterness 
 of unjust and uimiitigated abuse for exercising a virtuous con- 
 stancy with a Roman firmness, which should have excited naught 
 but respect and admiration. 
 
 But there was a double mistake made in respect to the char- 
 acter of the man. One faction of his enemies, really desiring a 
 bank charter, supposed he was wanting in nerve, and that he 
 would be afraid to meet the odium of those of his party who 
 clamored for a bank ; and the other faction, Mr. Clay at its head, 
 fearing that he might succeed in having submitted to him a 
 constitutional measure to manage the fisc, the currency, and the 
 revenue better than any system yet tried, and that he might 
 be a favorite in the election of 1844, were determined to extort 
 from him a veto of a United States Bank charter, in order to 
 make him odious to a majority of the Whigs. And if they did 
 not fear the rivalry of Mr. Tyler, they did fear that of the chief of 
 his Cabinet, Mr. Webster. They were afraid of one or both ; and 
 therefore Mr. Clay chose to forget his pledge to Judge White, 
 to " abide by the arbitrament of an enlightened public opinion," 
 which had signally sustained General Jackson's veto of a United 
 States Bank charter. 
 
 Mr. Tyler had submitted the measure to Congress, and the 
 Senate called upon Mr. Ewing, the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 to present a plan by means of which the fiscal concerns of gov- 
 ernment might be managed and the currency of the country 
 regulated. Mr. Tyler had submitted no plan of his own to Con- 
 gress, for the reasons already stated, but formed a general out- 
 line of a measure which, while restricted to the special purposes 
 of the fisc, would, without being a bank with power of discount, 
 regulate the exchange, check the over-issuing of the State bank- 
 
186 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 iug system, regulate currency, and protect the public credit and 
 finances and revenue against the dreaded fluctuations and 
 shocks of the money-market and of commerce ; and this plan 
 was within the powers expressly granted of coining money and 
 regulating the value thereof, and of regulating commerce be- 
 tween tl]e United States and foreign nations, and between the 
 several States. In a word, his idea was that of an exchequer, of 
 purely governmental use and purpose of the fisc and of revenue, 
 incidentally only regulating the standard of value for private 
 and individual trade and commerce. These views he presented 
 to Mr. Ewing, who faithfully consulted the President, the Cabi- 
 net, and the best minds in the Congress and in the country. 
 He presented his plan, which, however it may have been objec- 
 tionable to Mr. Tyler, was never fairly considered. It was 
 smothered in a committee, and a charter for a national bank, 
 under the name and style of a " Federal Bank," was passed, and 
 vetoed by the President. The veto treated the measure as one 
 proposing the recharter of the United States Bank. Mr. Clay 
 had obtained the desired veto, and sought to adjourn and make 
 up the issue of bank or no bank ; but the devotees of the re- 
 charter of the bank resisted his movements, and endeavored to 
 circumvent the President's objections by another mode of dis- 
 guising theii* favorite measure. 
 
 Tljey called the thing by another name, that of "Fiscal Cor- 
 poration," and affected to make it conform to an exchequer, — to 
 something created by government for its own uses alone, those 
 of finance and revenue. Every attempt was made to persuade 
 and drive Mr. Tyler into the sanction of this modification. They 
 rated his intellect so low as to suppose that the name "bank'''' 
 was his dread, and that his scruples might be overcome by adopt- 
 ing the term "corporation" — not regarding the distinction as a 
 weight against their wishes. The power of incorporation was 
 the very power which he denied. The government might act 
 by officers, appointed or elected, or by agents already created or 
 existing, or might exercise its legitimate, granted powers by 
 them; but could it create agencies to combine political powers 
 and uses with individual and private powers and uses? That 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 18T 
 
 was what, from the first Cabinet of Washington, had been de- 
 bated between statesmen, down to the year 1841. 
 
 Thus, relying upon Mr. Tyler's supposed softness and pliancy, 
 tL^ name of '' Fiscal Corporation" was adopted by the friends 
 of the bank in this last effort to obtain a charter. So far as 
 constitutional principles were concerned, there was, in fact, no 
 difference between the two measures. A caucus committee 
 of several eminent men, among whom were Mr. Jolin Sergeant, 
 of the House of Representatives, and Mr. Berrien, of the Senate, 
 was appointed to confer with Mr. Evving, the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, and with the President, on this measure. 
 
 In the mean time Mr. Rives, who had sustained Mr. Tyler's 
 first veto, brought his influence to bear upon the consideration 
 of the second or Fiscal Corporation bill. Mr. Rives had formed 
 a theory of creating a bank for the District of Columbia, under 
 the local power of Congress over the district, making it the 
 central and controlling depository of the public money, and 
 enabling it to exercise all the influence of the other i)lans upon 
 exchange and currency, on the principle settled in the case of 
 the Bank of Augusta (Ga.) against Earle. 
 
 His arguments and persuasions for awhile staggered Mr. 
 Tyler, so far as to cause the President to call some select friends 
 to meet Mr. Rives in conference with him as to Mr. Rives's plan 
 of gratifying the Whigs by a measure reconcilable with consti- 
 tutional requirements. 
 
 Mr. Rives was exceedingly cautious in opening his views at 
 this conference, but at last gradually explained them fully before 
 any remark was made or any objection was urged against them. 
 Mr. Tyler was strongly impressed by the ingenious plan of Mr. 
 Rives ; and this occurring at the time when Mr. Ewing, Mr. 
 Sergeant, and Mr. Berrien were waiting upon the President to 
 ascertain how, if at all, the first bill might be remodeled and 
 modified into a second which would obtain his sanction, the 
 J'resident did attempt to reconcile the plan of Mr. Rives with 
 that of the Secretary of the Treasury as changed by Mr. Ser- 
 geant. It was at this precise juncture that the misunder- 
 standing occurred between Mr. Tyler on the one part, and Mr. 
 
ISS SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 Ewing, Mr. Sergeant, and Mr. Bei-rien on the other part, as to 
 what modifications would meet the President's approval. This 
 result was apprehended, from what was known of the bill drafted 
 by Mr. Sergeant and of the plan of Mr. Rives. We knew that 
 the President would submit for consideration bj the Whig com- 
 mittee the compromising modifications suggested by Mr. Rives, 
 and that they could not be reconciled with scruples as to the 
 power of Congress to incorporate a bank. It was not a question 
 of mere " discount and deposit," but one of constitutional power 
 of incorporation ; and a " fiscal corporation" was a very different 
 thing from a local bank of the District of Columbia, with the 
 resulting power of exchange. As soon as the committee left, 
 Mr. Tyler communicated to us the result of his interview with 
 them, — Messrs. Ewing, Sergeant, and Berrien. He informed 
 us that he had submitted to them certain modifications, founded 
 on the suggestions of Mr. Rives, and that they were to draw a 
 bill in conformity thereto, and to submit the draft to him, as a 
 plan of compromise. We assured him that such was not the 
 understanding of Mr. Sergeant ; his idea was that the Presi- 
 dent would be content with much less modification than that 
 which he really intended. Mr. Sergeant, who had charge of 
 the second bill, would insist on the power of incorporating 
 banking privileges coextensive with the United States ; and 
 with that as a foundation principle, he, the President, notwith- 
 standing the details of modifications, would at last be callp'^l 
 on to yield his scruples as to the constitutional power of Cou» 
 gress to create a bank. The President was surprised that any 
 one who had conferred with him could mistake his views or re- 
 solves in respect to the question of power. We assured him 
 that the Whig leaders were determined to have the power con- 
 ceded by him, or to force upon him the odium of a veto ; that 
 Mr. Clay desired the latter, in order to remove both him and 
 Mr. Webster from all rivalry for the next presidential term, 
 and that his leading friends, Mr. Sergeant especially, cared 
 more for the concession of power to create a United States 
 Bank than they did even for the success of their favorite 
 3audidate for the Presidency, Mr. Clay ; that Mr. Sergeant 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 189 
 
 would insist on the concession of power to have the bill ap- 
 proved, whilst Mr. Clay would insist upon it to have the bill 
 vetoed ; that to incorporate a bank would be to violate the 
 pledges and committals of the Whig party and of himself for 
 his lifetime ; but, if he had modified or changed his views, we 
 urged upon him in that case to follow the example of Mr. 
 Madison, in 1816, — to waive all constitutional scruples and to 
 sign an efficient charter ; that it was not less impolitic than 
 inconsistent to approve of any " mongrel scheme" like that 
 even of Mr. Rives, and the " Fiscal Corporation" bill was 
 nothing but a United States Bank in disguise, as to every con- 
 stitutional objection to it, whilst it was encumbered by pro- 
 visions seemingly only to avoid the question of constitutionality, 
 which would make it inefficient ; that if he would sign an act 
 of incorporation at all, he would do himself most justice by 
 signing an efficient charter which would be most useful both to 
 the government and to the country. He concurred fully in these 
 views, and I'equested us to see Mr. Sergeant at once and to say 
 to him he wished him explicitly to understand that he would 
 sign no bill which conceded the power in Congress to create a 
 national bank in any form, — that he would accede to any plan 
 which might be agreed upon within the pale of the Constitu- 
 tion, but that he would not be held committed to the bill of 
 the " Fiscal Corporation" unless it was modified so as to re- 
 move the constitutional objections. This was on the day before 
 the bill was submitted to the House of Representatives, and 
 on that day the message of the President was delivered to Mr. 
 Sergeant. He was informed fully of the President's views, and 
 they were explained to him distinctly, — that he did not wish to 
 be considered as committed to the bill which Mr. Sergeant had 
 in charge, and, if he was so understood, he desired the mistake 
 to be corrected before it was reported ; that he could not con- 
 sent to sign the bill in the form in which it was last presented 
 to him. Mr. Sergeant received the message without uttering a 
 word of comment; he simply acknowledged its receipt, made 
 no inquiries, bowed, and went to his committee. 
 The next morning the " Fiscal Corporation" bill was reported 
 
190 SEVEy DECADES OF THE UNIOy. 
 
 by bim to the House, and was immediately acted upon without 
 debate. He himself was not allowed to explain fully the 
 reasons for changing the title of the bill* from " Fiscal Bank" 
 to " Fiscal Corporation" before the hammer of the Speaker fell 
 upon the debate, and the bill was rushed through both Houses. 
 Then the war upon Mr. Tyler became appalling : he was dared, 
 as it were, not only to withstand the clamoi's of the Federal 
 Whigs for the United States Bank, but to go counter to the 
 understanding he had had, as was alleged, with Messrs. Ewing, 
 Sergeant, and Berrien. John Tyler's intelligence and integrity 
 were then tried to the uttermost, and he proved himself firm as 
 truth itself to the Constitution, looking fully in the face dangers 
 enough to appall any man not fortified by virtue, as he was, 
 and which assailed his personal honor and veracity as a man, as 
 well as blasted every political hope he may have had in the 
 party which elected him. The bill was passed on the 4th of 
 September, 1841, and on the 9th of the same month he re- 
 turned it with his second veto. 
 
 He paused for consultation, but had no Cabinet advisers who 
 concurred with him. He had to confer with friends outside of 
 his Cabinet, and, after a final conference, instructed a friend, who 
 was familiar with all his views and all the facts as to the prep- 
 aration of the second bill, to prepare his second veto, which was 
 done in his presence, and which, with but few modifications by 
 himself, is that now among the public archives. The veto thus 
 prepared was then submitted to the Cabinet. He expressed the 
 most anxious solicitude to meet the wishes of Congress, avoid- 
 ing all constitutional objections ; he deplored the want of time 
 to submit a definite recommendation of his own, and had occupied 
 his mind in the most anxious attempt to conform his action to the 
 legislative will ; and he most respectfully submitted, in a spirit of 
 harmony, that the measure should not at that time be pressed 
 upon him, but that the whole subject should be po.stponed to a 
 more auspicious period for deliberation. While this veto mes- 
 sage was being considered, he received an intimation from the 
 Whig leaders that if he would not disturb any member of his 
 Cabinet, the bill might be postponed to the regular session of 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 191 
 
 Congress. One member of the Cabinet who retired, did not desire 
 to do so, and complained that he was forced to retire by the 
 personal demands and influence of Mr. Clay. At a meeting of 
 the members of the Cabinet, all except Mr. Webster, to deter- 
 mine upon their course, Mr. Clay was present, and demanded of 
 them to resign. The matter was seriously debated ; Mr. Bell, of 
 Tennessee, was opposed to the retirement, and desired that the 
 subject of the bank might be postponed, on condition that in 
 the mean time no hostile movements should be made on the 
 Cabinet; and Mr. Crittenden himself, supposed to be most 
 under the influence of Mr. Clay, playfully inquired whether he 
 might not in honor remain until the stock of wines he had laid 
 in was consumed ; but Mr. Clay was inexorable. And while 
 the second veto was pending before the Cabinet, the President 
 submitted to them that he should announce to Congress his 
 abnegation of all pretensions to, or aspirations for, the succes- 
 sion, and his resolve to retire at the expiration of his term, 
 and every member present protested against any such announce- 
 ment ; yet he added to the veto this memorable paragraph : " I 
 will take this occasion to declare that the conclusions to which 
 I have brought myself are those of a settled conviction, founded, 
 in my opinion, on a just view of the Constitution ; that, in 
 arriving at it, I have been actuated by no other motive or de- 
 sire than to uphold the institutions of the country as they have 
 come down to us from the hands of our godlike ancestors; and 
 that I shall esteem my efforts to sustain them, even though I 
 perish, more honorable than to ivin the applause of men by a 
 sacrifice of my duty and of my conscience^ 
 
 The Congress was implacable: the Whig leaders "held the 
 second cup of bank or no bank" to the President's lips; he 
 would make no compromise of his principles, would sacrifice 
 neither his duty nor his conscience, would make no bargain in 
 respect to retaining his Cabinet, but fearlessly vindicated him- 
 self from the aspersion that he was governed by ambitious mo- 
 tives, or that he was -false and treacherous, and put "the 
 applause of men" behind him in his defense of his "settled 
 convictions, founded," in his opinion, "on a just view of the 
 
192 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 Constitution ;" and in twenty-four days from the 1st, he sent to 
 Clay, " with a Senate at his heels," and to King Caucus, with 
 Congress under his reign, his second veto ! 
 
 This proved potentially that he was no "nose of wax," but 
 a firm, immovable lover of the Constitution, a fearless patriot, 
 a wise and sagacious statesman, and an honest man. The 
 Harrison-appointed Cabinet at once, under the force of Mr. 
 Clay, dissolved. From all this intrigue, Daniel Webster alone 
 kept himself grandly aloof; he had naught to do with Mr. 
 Clay's cabal ; his own opinions were unmoved as to the power 
 to create a bank, but, knowing Mr. Tyler's convictions and scru- 
 ples to be as unmoved, he could not, with proper respect to 
 Mr. Tyler or himself, advise him to violate the consistency of 
 his whole life by approving a bill which deceitfully and cun- 
 ningly professed only to evade constitutional objections and 
 conscientious scruples. He knew that the blows were intended 
 by Mr. Clay and his friends for him as well as for Mr. Tyler, 
 and they had won the mutual confidence and admiration of 
 each other ; and he kept the bickerings of cabal and caucus and 
 the clamors of party factions away from him, knowing that the 
 country had great affairs to be administered, and he calmly and 
 dignifiedly attended, among other great measures, to the settle- 
 ment of the Northeastern Boundary question with Great Britain. 
 The rest of the Cabinet retired, knowing full well that if they 
 had not bowed themselves out they would have been shown 
 the door. It was a mutual separation between them and Mr. 
 Tyler. It was a cordial union between him and Mr. Webster ; 
 that itself is the highest credential .of Mr. Tyler's integrity 
 against all contradiction. Webster manfully remained by an 
 honest President, and sustained him by his example against 
 all aspersion and persecution. It was one of the sublimest 
 actions of his great life. He, too, made a sacrifice in remaining 
 despite the clamor of the major faction of those who concurred 
 with him in opinion upon a bank against Mr. Tyler. The 
 policy of Mr. Clay was to separate both Mr. Tyler and Mr. 
 Webster from the great body of the Whig party, and the 
 expectation was that the two standing alone could not make 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 193 
 
 up another Cabinet, and that both would have to retire from 
 the task of carrying on the government. How he " reckoned 
 without his host" events immediately showed. There were 
 ready at hand new men, unhackneyed politicians of the best 
 caliber, far superior in qualifications to those who had retired. 
 Webster himself remained the same Daniel Webster; Abel P. 
 Upshur, John C. Spencer, Robert Wickliffe, Hugh L. Legare, 
 and Walter Forward (?) were called, as it were, from their homes 
 in the country. Not one of them was blaae with Washington 
 City politics, parties, factions, or feuds. Such a Cabinet before 
 or since has never been formed in the United States, for either 
 natural powers or cultivation in law and letters, and for ex- 
 perience in the applied science of government. Each was 
 mighty, and it is hard to say which was mightiest ; each was 
 a full peer of Webster, and we would like to know another 
 Cabinet of which that can be said. • 
 
 13 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SIXTH DECADE, FROM 1840 TO 1850. 
 
 The Cabinet — Mr. Webster; his Social Conversation — Daniel Wise — Hon. A. P. 
 Upshur — T. R. Joynes — Trial of the Gibbses — The Figure of Arithmetic and 
 of Rhetoric — Mr. J. C. Spencer — Mr. Wickliffe — Mr. Legare — Error in his 
 Biography — Retirement of Spencer and Webster — Death of Legare — Second 
 Session of the Twenty-seventh Congress — Its Measures — The Bank Bills — 
 The Exchequer — Act for the Distribution of the Sales of the Public Lands, 
 and the Tariff, and their Veto — Report of Mr. Adams's Committee, and the 
 Protest — Mr. Thomas W. Gilmer — Dorr Rebellion — Impeachment — Loss of 
 Mrs. Tyler — Persecution and Composure of Mr. Tyler — The Cabinet renewed. 
 
 Op Mr. Webster's public life nothing need here be said. His 
 private intercourse was even more attractive than his position 
 as a statesman was commanding. He was, when in the right 
 mood, the most genial of companions, and his conversation was 
 more delightful and instructive than his speeches or orations. 
 On one occasion we went into the Senate-chamber, and were 
 standing alone in the lobby, listening to some dull debate ; he 
 was sitting in his usual place, not occupied, and hardly attend- 
 ing to what was going on, but thoughtful, and, as was his habit 
 when musing, pulling one of his ears. It was a singular idiosyn- 
 crasy ; and we often asked ourself, Is there any sympathy be- 
 tween his ear and his brain ? Does the friction of the one excite 
 the other ? If so, what an electric ear his must have been 1 
 
 As we were looking at him, he caught our eye, rose imme- 
 diately from his seat, came to where we were, and took us by the 
 arm, saving, " Come here." There was a map of the United 
 States hanging behind the Vice-President's chair, to which he led 
 us and inquired, " Where do you live ? Show me the spot." We 
 pointed to the spot of the Eastern Shore, on the Yirginia coast, 
 (194) 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 195 
 
 opposite the Metompkin Inlet. " Well," said he, " do you 
 ever shoot curlews and will — will — willets ?" We replied, 
 "Yes." He then descanted on the habits of those birds, and 
 the times of their migration. He said that, at the proper 
 season, his custom was to shoot them, ofiFNahant, perhaps, and 
 that, according to his calculation of climate and distance, about 
 two or three weeks after he began shooting them there they 
 migrated to the Virginia coast. "Now," he said, "remember, 
 that if you see any crippled ones down your way after about 
 that time, they are my birds." This was said with a magic 
 geniality, and, without waiting for our reply, he asked, " Where 
 did your ancestors come from ?" We told him that our blood 
 was half English and half Scotch, — all our paternal ancestors 
 came from the North of England, and most of the preepositi 
 had been clergymen ; that the only marked man among them 
 we had heard of was Sir William Wise, distinguished for his 
 wit, whom Henry the Eighth had knighted for gratifying his 
 spleen against the French by saying, when asked what the 
 phrase fleur-de-lis meant, " It means French lice, sire." He 
 laughed, and then gravely told us his reason for asking who 
 our ancestors were. Near his father's residence, along the 
 New Hampshire coast, dwelt an English pensioner, an old 
 ex-warrant officer of the British navy, a bachelor, alone in a 
 small fisherman's cot, named Daniel Wise. That his name 
 was no lucus a non lucendo, for he was a very Daniel, judge 
 indeed of most things, and especially of men, and was exceed- 
 ingly good and wise by nature as well as by name ; and was 
 the best master of a boat, the most cunning in Ashing craft and 
 tackle, and the most inveterate fisherman he ever heard or read 
 of, Izaak Walton not excepted. Mr. Webster, when a boy, 
 was devoted to fishing, and thus won the heart of " Uncle 
 Daniel Wise," who taught him to fix his hook and line and 
 bait, and always fondly took him with him in his boat, when- 
 ever he was allowed by his mother to venture out upon the 
 water. That it was in this fishing companionship with this 
 naval pensioner of England, who had, of course, sailed around 
 the world and seen all parts and all people, he had first learned 
 
196 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 the love of geography and navigation, and the knowledge of the 
 manners and customs and costumes of the different countries and 
 people of the world. " Uncle Daniel" was a great observer, 
 thoroughly informed of everything he had seen wherever he had 
 roamed, and was well read in geography and history, and instead 
 oi " >s{)inning mere sailor's yarns," told him sober tales, curious 
 and wonderful, but never shocking truth, or decency, or common 
 sense. His own private history he would never give him, but 
 never tired in narrating the stories of his travels. This first 
 excited his fervor ariimi for knowledge, and drew him by a 
 pleasant attraction to seek her treasures. He regarded this old 
 man, thus communed with alone, as the Nestor of his youth, 
 and described him with childlike affection. 
 
 " Did you ever know him, or have you ever heard of such a 
 man of that name ?" His description made us know, and want 
 to know more of him at once, but we regretted that we had 
 never known or heard of him before, and that we could not 
 claim a kinship with such a character. He was dead many 
 years before, it seemed, and we could never compare genealo- 
 gies with him. This little incident first drew us near to Mr. 
 Webster, socially, and we were grateful afterwards for any 
 opportunity to hear him talk in the same strain, when he was in 
 the mood to do it, with his heart as well as with his tongue. At 
 such times we preferred listening to his narrations to reading 
 Scott's best novels ; so simple, pure, and touching was his 
 genial pathos ; his eyes were " great, pathetic eyes," oxlike, 
 beaming generous, genial thoughts, gracious and great. Clay 
 in comparison with him, socially, was what Tom Marshall 
 called him, " a subHme blackguard." 
 
 Abel P. Upshur was born on that peninsula land of Virginia, 
 the Eastern Shore, — " the land of the pine and the myrtle." 
 He was in his youth the leader of the great rebellion at Prince- 
 ton College. His mother was a sister of Colonel Thomas 
 Parker, called " Hangman Tom" by the Tories of the Revolu- 
 tion, who was captured at the battle of Germantown, in 
 Mathew's regiment; and when Earl Harcourt rode along the 
 line of rebel prisoners, ragged and worn and drooping, asking 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 197 
 
 each wliat bis occupation bad beea, Lieutenant Tbonias Parker 
 stood erect, and, wben bis turn came to tell wbo and what be 
 was, replied to tbe question of tbe Earl, saying, " I am as 
 my father before me was, a gentleman, and be d — d to you 1 
 Wbo are you ?" The Upsburs were of a similar stock of "loyal 
 gentlemen." 
 
 Old Dr. Smith, to tbe day of bis death, we are told, never 
 failed to speak of Upshur's defense of himself and bis comrades 
 for their rebellion at Princeton as one of the finest displays of 
 argument and eloquence he bad ever heard. 
 
 After his college career Upshur studied law in tbe office of 
 William Wirt, and became imbued with his manners and learn- 
 ing. He first settled in Richmond and practiced his profession 
 there ; but, with a view to obtaining a seat in Congress, he moved 
 to Northampton, on the Eastern Shore, his native county, and, 
 failing to be returned to tbe House of Representatives, in Con- 
 gress, being beaten by Mr. Bassett, be was afterwards elected to 
 tbe House of Delegates of tbe legislature of Virginia. There bp 
 became highly distinguished as a debater and orator of tbe first 
 water. His speech upon what was called tbe " Marriage Bill," 
 to repeal tbe laws prohibiting a man from marrying the sister 
 of bis deceased wife, was a signal effort of art and learning in 
 debate; and during its heat, wben the celebrated General 
 Blackburn, of Bath, rather indecorously and sardonically hinted 
 that "our AbeV had interested motives in tbe repeal, because 
 the Eastern Shore people, isolated as they were, bad been 
 obliged to intermarry among themselves, and that some of 
 his own kindred probably required tbe legalization of their 
 marriages, Upshur was aroused, and there are persons now 
 alive who speak of bis reply as one of the loftiest tone of elo- 
 quent invective, — pointed, clear, cutting, and yet in perfect 
 ornate order. His retort was painfully polite, but went through 
 and through his adversary, and, as be left him prostrate on tbe 
 plain, be rose above him to a height inaccessible to most men. 
 
 His forensic displays in encounters with his great rival, 
 Thomas R. Joynes, the father of tbe present distinguished 
 Judge Joynes, of the Court of Appeals, were splendid. T. R. 
 
198 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 Joyneri was a master in his way, and Upshur was greater 
 only in oratory. Joynes was a mathematician, quick, power- 
 ful, always to the point, reticent, cautious, and over-laborious. 
 He could almost multiply nine figures by nine figures in 
 his head, and as quick as thought could give a true state- 
 ment of any proportion in the relation of numbers, and, always 
 practical, addressed himself to common sense. Upshur was 
 more highly cultivated, more ornate and graceful, a metaphysi- 
 cian, scholar, logician, and rhetorician. It was a treat to see 
 them fence on any subject, great or small. A scene of more 
 than common moment occurred between them in the trial of 
 the Gibbs brothers for maiming one Hargis. The case was a 
 romantic one, and is well remembered on the Eastern Shore, 
 having the most peculiar state of facts, which were all fully 
 developed on the trial, — a mistress and family of children, a 
 marriage in respectable life among strangers in another State, 
 the bringing home of the lady-wife, the first visit to church of 
 the couple after marriage, a scene there of the mistress breaking 
 upon the new-married couple in the procession of church-going 
 people and tearing the lace shawl from the shoulders of the bride,, 
 that followed by the two youngest brothers of the groom, of eigh- 
 teen and twenty years, severely switching the woman for her 
 audacious assault, that followed by her brother's attempted 
 vengeance upon the youths, and their stabbing and cutting the 
 man nearly to death and inflicting permanent wounds, bringing 
 them within the statute of mayhem. For this a prosecution 
 was instituted against the two youthful Gibbses. Paramour and 
 mistress, husband and wife, brothers and sister thus commin- 
 gled in a strange confusion of crime, were all in the survey and 
 scenery of the case, and the defense gave Upshur full scope for 
 all his powers. 
 
 Joynes prosecuted with all his keen precision, presenting 
 everything in perfect array for the Commonwealth, summing 
 up, first, the whipping of the Magdalen, and contrasting her 
 affront to the bride with the brothers' wrong to her, and her 
 brother's attempted vengeance upon them with their ven- 
 geance on his sister, defiled by their brother, leaving their 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 199 
 
 crime against him naked and without excuse, their youth only 
 excusing the cowardice as well as guilt of the two stabbing the 
 one. The prosecution was thought unanswerable. But by the 
 time Upshur rose to the height of his argument there was a 
 whirlwind revolution in the minds of the audience and jury. 
 Patrick Henry never carried with him the passions of the people 
 with more irresistible force. He had made the marriage relation 
 his study in discussing the Marriage Bill before the legislature, 
 — its holiness, its mystery, its refinement, its purity, its purpose, 
 its delicacy of trust, its exalting and cleansing effect, and its 
 sacred inviolability in the sight of God. And this he put before 
 the jury with a power and rapture of thoughts and figures 
 which made them feel as they had never felt before towards 
 holy wedlock. Then upon the crime which assailed and shamed 
 holy wedlock, in a crowd, at a church-door, he poured out such 
 wrath as carried away every father and brother. The paramour 
 himself had not been attacked, but the blameless bride. The 
 youths had been merciful ; they had only switched the bold, 
 bad harlot, and only stabbed, instead of killing, her avenger, 
 who was seeking vengeance for the mere switching of a sister, 
 when he had never sought vengeance for her defilement. The 
 whole feeling was carried back against the prosecutor, Hargis ; 
 and the two Gibbses were acquitted with acclamations. 
 
 After a short practice at the bar he went upon the bench, 
 proving himself not a " Nisi Prius" prig, but a large, comprehen- 
 sively-profound jurist. He was a member of the State Conven- 
 tion of 1829-30 to amend the Virginia Constitution of 17T6. He 
 advocated, most erroneously, the mixed basis of representation, 
 population and property combined, and lived to confess his error. 
 Leigh was the Ajax of that heresy, guided by that miser of 
 aristocracy, John Randolph of Roanoke, but Upshur was the 
 author of the one surpassing speech which carried the question. 
 His law rival, T. R. Joynes, was also a member; and of the 
 two Mr. Randolph said, " I had expected the ancient rights 
 and charters of Virginia to have been defended by the Taze- 
 wells and Trezvants of the south side of the James ; but, 
 whilst they have been supine and silent, the fishermen of the 
 
200 SEV.b:N DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 Eastern Shore have proved to be the champions of all that is 
 sacred to this Ancient Dominion. Our defense has fallen upon 
 that ' figure of arithmetic' of Accomack (Jojnes), and that 
 'figure of rhetoric' (Upshur) of Northampton." 
 
 Upshur's review of Judge Story's theory of constitutional 
 law fixed his fame. He was no longer an asteroid, but a planet. 
 He was in full vigor and known to honor and to fame when 
 persuaded to take the place of Secretary of the Navy in the 
 first Cabinet appointed by Mr. Tyler. His messages are model& 
 of state papers, and beautiful blocks in the monument of his 
 • fame. The morning after his first report was sent in, Hugh S. 
 Legare stopped us to inquire why that gentleman, Mr. Upshur, 
 had not been sent up before by Virginia to magnify her rightful 
 claim to a race of pre-eminent men. When told that the reason 
 was that the mother State of the greatest men had so many like 
 him she could not send all her jewels at once, he said that he 
 had read his report once, and that it was so pure in its style, 
 so perfect a model of what a message ought to be, that he had 
 read it twice before rising from its perusal. 
 
 He was killed at the catastrophe of the Princeton, in 1844, 
 while Secretary of State. Had he ever been sent to the Senate 
 of the United States, he would have been universally known 
 and appreciated at his full worth. Had he been in the place of 
 Robert Y. Hayne, in the debate on Foote's Resolution, it is 
 doubtful whether Daniel Webster ever would have been called 
 the " Great Defender of the Constitution." He was a finer 
 rhetorician and orator than Webster, and a closer logician, — his 
 style purer and his power of expression clearer. He had all 
 of his momentum and more activity. Mr. Tyler's administration 
 brought his abilities into view, and that itself is no little praise. 
 
 Of Mr. Spencer's private life we know but little. He had 
 been known and distinguished in the public councils. He had 
 served with Mr. Tyler in Congress, and he knew his worth. 
 He was a man of quick and active mind, penetrating and prac- 
 tical. He knew well all the politics of New York, and was 
 an adept in the ways of Wall Street. He was Secretary of 
 War, but was best qual Ted to manage the finances. 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 201 
 
 Upju the retii-einent of the Harrison Cabinet, Mr. Webster 
 retained liis place us Secretary of State; and Mr. Forward, of 
 Pennsylvania, for the Treasury, Mr. John McLean, of Ohio, for 
 the War, Mr. Upsliur, of Virginia, for the Navy, -Mr. WiclvliCfe, of 
 Kentucky, for the Postmaster-Generalship, and Mr. Legare, of 
 South Carolina, for the Attorney-Generalship, were nominated 
 and appointed in September, 1841. Mr. McLean declining to re- 
 sign his seat on the Supreme Bench, Mr. Spencer was nominated 
 and appointed in his place in the War Department in October, 
 1841, and from the War he was changed to the Treasury 
 Department in March, 1843 ; which place he resigned, owing to 
 a difference with the administration on the policy of annexing 
 Texas. He was succeeded in the Treasury by Mr. George M. 
 Bibb, of Kentucky, in 1844. 
 
 Mr. Wickliffe was a man of great Western reputation, distin- 
 guished alike for his legal learning and his fine, manly judgment 
 in all matters of politics and government. He remained in his 
 place until the end of the administration. 
 
 As for Mr. Legare, he had not his equal for the Attorney- 
 Generalship in the United States. His life was one of study 
 in the best schools at home and on the Continent of Europe. 
 He was diplomat at Brussels long enough to enable him to dive 
 deep into the civil law, and had at home been a reviewer of the 
 highest order. He was grandly classic, and equal to the orig- 
 inals of his studies. He was a Greek article in language, and 
 a votary of the masters in literature. He had been rudiment- 
 ally taught, and had followed his rudiments down to supreme 
 practice. His Life has lately been published by his estimable 
 sister, with all a sister's partiality, but truly, according to his 
 real merit and worth. We regret only a passage in the review 
 of his biography by the " Southern Review," vol. vii., number 
 13, of the date of January, 1810. It says, "All who have 
 studied our history must remember how unpopular was the 
 administration of Mr. Tyler. It seemed to have a upas power 
 of blighting every reputation which approached its shadow. 
 Legare alone lost nothing by his association with it. On the con- 
 trary, his fame steadily increased. The President, in the midst 
 
202 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 of his distracting cares, learned to relj upon his Attorney- 
 General for counsel and assistance. These were always frankly 
 given, and thus a friendship was gradually established between 
 them. Upon the withdrawal of Webster from the Cabinet, the 
 duties of the State Department were confided to Legare ad 
 interim. He showed his diplomatic skill by conducting to a 
 successful conclusion the Ashburton Treaty, or at least that por- 
 tion of it relating to the long-vexed and dangerous question of 
 the right of search." 
 
 Mr. Tyler's administration was unpopular for a time. The 
 party which elected him was false to its professed principles, 
 and tried to cover their own treachery by clamoring treason 
 against him ; and the party which he had aided in crushing came 
 not, of course, to his assistance, but chuckled that their oppo- 
 nents were guilty of suicide, by ostracizing for the time their 
 best men and by preventing the best of measures, the credit of 
 which they might have secured. Every question that the ad- 
 ministration disposed of was of the highest importance, and 
 was managed with the utmost ability, yielding the richest frui- 
 tion. The administration added to the reputation of every 
 member of its counsels. Did not Webster and Upshur and 
 Spencer and Wicklifife gain reputation as well as Legare ? 
 What reputation was ever blighted by the shadow of an ad- 
 ministration which wisely and well settled the Northeastern 
 Boundary question, the Caroline question, the Bank and Tariff 
 questions, the Southwestern Texas question? — which over- 
 threw its revilers and revived Democracy, crushing both old 
 Federalism and Locofocoism ? 
 
 As contrasted with any administration since, M'ho would ndt 
 have it installed again, with all its purity, independence, integ- 
 rity, and intellect ? It had, it is true, no aspirant of its own 
 for the succession, and had no candidate in the field for the 
 Presidency, but it utterly demolished both of the corrupt par- 
 ties which endeavored to sully its fame and to obstruct its 
 honest efforts to maintain the best measures for the good of the 
 country. The clamor raised against it was but for a day, and 
 is a part of history only. 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 203 
 
 Every reputation which it is said to have blighted now 
 looms high above the cloud of dust from the dirty arena of 
 Whigs divided against themselves, or of Locofocoism taking 
 vengeance at the time. The parties and factions of the hour 
 Mr. Tyler put behind him as our Saviour did Satan. There 
 were others more distinguished than Mr. Legare, though as a 
 lawyer he was entitled to be ranked with William Pinkney him- 
 self He was worthy of Mr. Tyler's administration, and it was 
 worthy of him; but it was not he who conducted the Ash- 
 burton Treaty to a successful conclusion, for that work especially 
 belonged to Mr. Tyler himself and to Mr. Webster, who did not 
 retire from the Cabinet until it was essentially concluded; Mr. 
 Legare took upon him ad interim the mere winding up of what 
 was already concluded, and Mr. Upshur actually finished it. 
 This is said not in order to detract from Legare, but to prevent 
 an undue compliment to him at the expense of the reputation 
 of others. His reputation needs no such compliment, and were 
 he alive we are sure he would decline it. 
 
 Mr. Webster, as we have just remarked, retired from the 
 Cabinet only when the work of the Ashburton Treaty was 
 concluded. That was a question which it was due to the 
 Northeast, his section, that his master-mind should manage ; 
 and when he saw clearly the end of it, he magnanimously retired 
 to make way for a Southern statesman, when the time came to 
 
 take up the next most important matter of foreign relations, 
 
 Texas. 
 
 This Cabinet proper of Mr. Tyler's administration was first 
 disturbed by the retirement of Mr. Spencer ; then by the retire- 
 m'ent of Mr. Webster, and afterwards by the death of the 
 lamented Legare. He accompanied the President to Boston, to 
 attend the Bunker Hill celebration, and disease fatally seized 
 upon the sigmoid of his viscera. He died at the residence of 
 Professor George Ticknor, of Harvard University, in Boston, 
 June 20, 1813. His death was a national loss; but he had 
 comrades in the Cabinet who were his equals, and such as he 
 would have considered fully competent to take the Attorney- 
 Generalship or the Department of State. Mr. Upshur took 
 
204 SEVEA"- DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 the place of Mr. Webster, and Mr. Nelson the place of Mr. 
 Legare. 
 
 The second session of the Twenty-seventh Congress, the 
 session of 1841-42, was marked by measures alike violent and 
 disgraceful, and by the most acrimonious and unscrupulous fac- 
 tious proceedings of the Opposition. The interval between 
 this session and the called session of the summer of 1841, instead 
 of softening the asperities excited by the vetoes, only heaped 
 up fuel for ihe flames of the regular session. The message was 
 calm, temperate, uncomplaining, unreproachful, and wisely ad- 
 dressed itself to the highly important public business then 
 calling for harmonious action, and requiring great care and skill 
 in the conduct of the country's afi'airs at home and abroad. 
 Some matters of state were even threatening to the national 
 peace, yet Congress converted itself into a committee of the 
 whole to consider nothing else but " how," in the language of 
 the ogre of Whig politics, "to head John Tyler." 
 
 The message brought to the consideration of Congress the 
 very critical questions between the United States and Great 
 Britain, growing out of the affair of the seizure of the steamer 
 Caroline in 1837, the case of McLeod, the forcible seizure of 
 Grogan, the protection of the territory of the United States 
 against invasion at all hazards, the protection of the flag of the 
 United States in the African seas, and the Northeastern boun- 
 dary between the United States and Canada. The boundary 
 and relations with Texas were also presented ; the Indian war 
 in Florida; the finances; moderate counsels were recommended 
 in revising the tarifl" of duties, and the expediency of laying 
 duties solely in reference to the wants of the treasury for 
 revenue was suggested ; the proceeds of the sale of public lands 
 to be applied to diminishing the duties on imports ; and the 
 currency and exchange and the fisc to be provided for by the 
 system of an exchequer. 
 
 The message fully redeemed the President's pledge to propose 
 a plan for the regulation of the currency, exchange, and the fisc 
 by the proposal of an exchequer. 
 
 It was thoroughly elaborated by Mr. Gushing in his very able 
 
TRE SIXTH DECADE. 205 
 
 report of that session, showing its merits as compared with a 
 Bank of the United States, or with the State banli system, or 
 with the " Sub-Treasury;" that it possessed the qualities of: 
 
 1st. A safe and convenient agency for tlie custody and man- 
 agement of the public funds. 
 
 2d. A useful agency of exchanges and collections. 
 
 3d. A national paper currency. 
 
 4th. For the regulation of the bank paper currency of the 
 States, by receiving it in payment of public dues, and present- 
 ing it for redemption at short intervals of time. 
 
 5th. The utilization of the public deposits, and of the specific 
 funds of individuals, by rendering them the basis of a national 
 paper circulation. 
 
 6th. The bestowment, incidentally, of the business of the 
 treasury, and within the letter of the Constitution, of benefits 
 on the people of the United States. 
 
 Tth. Not intrusting the control of the public funds, or of the 
 currency, to an irresponsible private corporation. 
 
 8th. Not loaning out the public money to private individuals. 
 
 9th. Not making, and being incapable of making, any excess- 
 ive issue, and incapable of suspending cash payments. 
 
 10th Conducting the business of the treasury without the 
 necessity of aid from the creatures of the legislation of the 
 States. 
 
 11th. Maintaining the legal money-standard by the use of 
 either coin only, or of paper always equivalent to coin. 
 
 12th. Being always within the control of Congress to repeal 
 or amend it at pleasure. 
 
 This plan of a fiscal system is the very foundation of the 
 present prevailing system, without which the United States 
 could not have been carried through its late civil war. Derided 
 and denounced by the Congress of 1841-42, it was laid on the 
 table, and was not allowed a consideration until its necessity and 
 expediency were developed by tlie extreme exigencies of the 
 Union. The reasons were obvious at the time, and too plain to 
 be misunderstood. One branch of the Whigs were determined to 
 have a national bank or nothing; the other branch had obtained 
 
2u6 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 the veto, and desired to subject the President to the odium of 
 deranging the currency and embarrassing the treasury; and the 
 opponents of the Whigs, the spoils partisans of Mr. Van Buren, 
 sought vengeance, and promoted the confusion of the party which 
 had broken them down. Thus the exchequer was smothered 
 for the time, and the President was left only what Mr. Clay 
 called " a corporal's guard," — but six members in the House of 
 Representatives, and not a supporter in the Senate, except Mr. 
 Rives. 
 
 We had the honor to be captain of that distinguished guard, 
 and have reason now to glory in its eminent triumph ; it defeated 
 the bank and crushed both factions of the Opposition. The 
 very next election restored the Jackson Democracy to its pris- 
 tine purity and power. Thus ended the savage struggle for a 
 national bank. The President's firmness prevailed as to his 
 policy and principles, and he outlived every assault of his 
 enemies, and saw them overthrown by the power of truth. His 
 reputation was not blighted any more than that of Mr. Legare ; 
 both were canonized by their wisdom, moral courage, and in- 
 tegrity. 
 
 Other measures during this memorable session excited more 
 vetoes of the President and more venom of party. An act of 
 September, 1841, had been passed, and very improperly ap- 
 proved by the President, to distribute the proceeds of the 
 sales of the public lands among the States. It was carried by 
 State clamor, over the Constitution ; the President ever after 
 regretted his approval of it ; but it contained a limitation that it 
 should cease in time of war, or whenever the exigencies of the 
 treasury might demand duties for revenue exceeding twenty 
 per cent, ad valorem. 
 
 In the year 1842 it was found that government would have 
 to exceed twenty per cent, of imposts, or resort again to the pro- 
 ceeds of the sales of the public lands, and the President sent 
 bis message to Congress dated March 25, 1842. He called 
 attention to the finances, showed a deficiency of means from or- 
 dinary sources, and urged retrenchment of expenditures, and in 
 preference to laying duties higher than the compromise of the 
 
THE SIA'TH DECADE. 207 
 
 Tariff question permitted, he recommended the most effectual 
 method of supporting the credit of the States, as well as of the 
 Federal government, by applying the proceeds of the sales of 
 the public lands again to the public expenditures and debt. 
 This was maintained by the clearest reasons of economy and 
 good faith, enforced by causes of no ordinary character, de- 
 ranging the currency and credit of the States. In the face of 
 this message, Congress passed what was called the "Little 
 Tariff Bill," which not only violated the Compromise act of 
 1833, but the Distribution act of 1841. This brought down 
 upon this bill another veto, in his message of June 29, 1842. 
 
 Congress immediately prepared another bill, revising the 
 whole tariff. The very necessity for the bill proved that the 
 time had arrived to suspend the distribution of the proceeds of 
 the sales of the public lands, as provided in the act of 1841. 
 The effort was to distribute the proceeds of the sales of the 
 public lands with one hand, whilst high protective duties, far 
 above twenty per cent., were laid with the other, at a time when 
 the treasury was seriously embarrassed. There could be no 
 expectation that the President would countenance such profli- 
 gacy of expenditure in order to give opportunity for sectional 
 or selfish legislation, or such mala fides in executing the tariff 
 compromise. But it was an object then to make the veto odious, 
 and the Whig leaders drove the President to the extreme of 
 another tariff veto. 
 
 The bill was passed, and on the 9th of August he returned 
 it with his veto. The message was a very able one, and sent 
 in without consultation with his Cabinet. This message was 
 made the pretext of most unauthorized, unprecedented, factious, 
 and false proceedings on the part of Congress. The Constitu- 
 tion provides the manner of proceeding upon the veto. This 
 was meant not only to provide the mode of proceeding, but to 
 prevent the imprudence, indecencies, and intemperance of heated 
 action. All decorum was abandoned, the rule of the Consti- 
 tution was unheeded, and the most intemperate action was 
 taken. 
 
 No consideration of the bill was had by the House of Repre- 
 
208 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 sentatives, but a committee of thirteen was appointed, at the 
 head of which was placed Mr. John Q. Adams, the ex-Presi- 
 dent, advocate of " light-houses in the skies," the fanatic of 
 abolition, the leading champion of the Massachusetts school of 
 protective duties, and the man most vindictive against the South 
 for its combined opposition to his minority election to the Pres- 
 idency in 1824, for and iu consideration of his "bargain and 
 corruption." The committee was not wholly servile to this 
 illicit action. It made three reports, one by Mr. Adams, full of 
 vituperation, one by Messrs. Charles J. Ingersoll and Mr. Rose- 
 velt, and one by Mr. Thomas W. Gilmer, of Virginia. The 
 reports speak for themselves. Mr. Adams's report was a com- 
 plaint against the veto, — protesting against the action of Con- 
 gress being " strangled by the five times repeated stricture of the 
 Executive cord." It recommended a change of the Constitution, 
 allowing a majority of Congress to pass a bill into a law over 
 the veto. Mr. Gilmer's report was a very able one. He was, in 
 early life, a rival and compeer of Mr. Rives, of the State Rights 
 and Strict Construction school, an able and an honest man, 
 firm, laborious, and prudent, whilst bold and generous in chiv- 
 alric action. He was born and educated a gentleman, had been 
 Governor of Yirginia, and whilst in that ofBce was highly dis- 
 tinguished in his correspondence with Mr. Seward on a ques- 
 tion of the extradition of a fugitive slave. He was able to stand 
 alone on any committee when his conception of his duty called 
 him to be bold and to act in defense of the right. 
 
 The report of Messrs. Ingersoll and Rosevelt sustained him, 
 and, though the majority of ten to three was great, the Presi- 
 dent triumphed. The Revenue bill was passed without the 
 distribution clause. But the Executive office and its defense 
 as well as his own required of Mr. Tyler decisive remonstrance, 
 and on the 20th of August, 1842, he sent in to the House of 
 Representatives his solemn protest, marked by self-respecting 
 defense and sound reproof. This action, these reports, and this 
 protest have but to be read to place Mr. Tyler above the re- 
 proach of all his revilers. 
 
 At this session, too, in spite of all malignity, his administra- 
 
THE SIXTH DEC.iDE. 209 
 
 tion concluded a treaty with England settling the questions of 
 the Northeastern boundary and the right of search. It also 
 concluded the Florida war, and passed an act authorizing armed 
 occupation of that Territory. It settled the disturbances in 
 Rhode Island, and maintained the established law, which ought 
 to have been a precedent for establishing the position that the 
 States were not to be questioned by the Federal authorities as 
 to the supremacy of their established State governments. 
 
 It held tlie true doctrine that the Federal Executive "could 
 not look into real or supposed defects of the existing State 
 government, in order to ascertain whether other plan of govern- 
 ment proposed for adoption was better suited to the wants and 
 more in accordance with the wishes of any portion of her citi- 
 zens." 
 
 And it would have been well if Congress had heeded this 
 admonition when it undertook by legislative power to over- 
 throw eleven State governments, and to revolutionize them by 
 congressional restraint and reconstruction. 
 
 The action of President Tyler in the case of the Dorr rebel- 
 lion is a model of what Federal Executive action should be in 
 a case where a State Constitution is disturbed ; and reconstruc- 
 tion of late is its contrast in the extremest degree. The govern- 
 ment of Rhode Island was established by royal prerogative, by 
 a charter of a Stuart king, aristocratic in every feature, and a 
 large majority of the citizens subject to its anti-republican feat- 
 ures endeavored to hold an election and to establish such a re- 
 publican form of government as the Constitution of the United 
 States guarantees. But Mr. Tyler adhered to the maxim that 
 he was bound " to respect the requisitions of that government 
 which has been recognized as the existing government of the 
 State through all time past until he was advised, in regular 
 manner, that it has been altered and abolished, and another 
 substituted in its pZace by legal and peaceable proceedings, 
 adopted and ratified by the authorities and people of the State." 
 
 How dififerent this from the treatment of Virginia by Con- 
 gress and a Black Crook Convention 1 
 
 Mr. Tyler's letter to Governor King, of Rhode Island, of the 
 
 U 
 
210 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 date of April 11, 1842, is a fine specimen of the teaching of 
 the old regime of Presidents in comparison with this age of 
 congressional usurpation and of Executive proclamations. No- 
 thing could show more fearfully the rapid tendency to the 
 concentration of all power in the hands of Congress and of the 
 Federal Executive. 
 
 Yirginia had a Constitution, the first formed in 1776 by the 
 fathers who had overthrown kings, which established the first 
 written bill of the rights of man, and which lasted for fifty-four 
 years an accepted plan of republican government; in 1829-30 
 it was made, if possible, more republican and democratic, and 
 twenty years after, in 1850-51, was still further liberalized by 
 amendment. When the late civil war broke out, there was no 
 question but that she had a republican form of government, 
 and there was no human authority legally empowered to change 
 it but her own people assembled in convention within her own 
 defined territory. A majority of the people of Rhode Island were 
 not permitted to change her charter of Charles the Second, for 
 want of conventional power and form ; and yet, since the sur- 
 render at Appomattox, a military despotism, exerted by the 
 Federal Executive and a congressional usurpation in time of 
 peace, has assailed and annihilated no less than three Constitu- 
 tions of the people of Yirginia, that of 1776, that of 1829-30, 
 and that of 1850-51, which had all been recognized and received 
 by the nation as de jure and republican for the whole time of the 
 existence of the Federal government. Rhode Island's kingly 
 or ro3'al charter of limited suffrage could stand and must stand, 
 but Virginia's conventional power of her people was torn away, 
 persons not citizens were given elective franchise, and the 
 franchises secured by her organic law were destroyed by the 
 highest pretension of human power, more than kingly or impe- 
 rial, a power of reconstruction ! It will be well for those who 
 are and would remain free to note these high lights and shadows 
 of human history. We have marked them by points firmer than 
 those of pen or pencil, and so will the nation yet, unless given 
 over to judicial blindness, ere they are established canons of 
 despotism. 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 211 
 
 There was an evident design on the part of the Clay faction 
 of Whigs to lay a foundation for proceedings of impeachment. 
 Every effort was made, by measures to extort vetoes, by speeches 
 and reports in both Houses of Congress, and by the vilest vitu- 
 peration of the press, to create such a prejudice against the 
 President as would tolerate impeachment and try him by the 
 animosities of both parties. 
 
 This was impossible; his conduct was above impeachment, 
 and his administration such a rock of integrity and intelligence 
 that the waves of partisan proceedings broke against it into mere 
 spray, and the leaders, too wily to risk reputation upon the 
 issue, shrank back from their own designs, made to recoil by 
 the firmness and virtue of a man who feared not and failed not 
 to do his whole duty to the country. The administration was 
 merely dashed by the spray. Providence made the factious 
 Opposition convict itself of its own fatal folly. The Whigs of 
 Mr. Clay's faction had an incorrigible zealot among them who 
 brought impeachment into perfect travesty of itself. The coarse 
 creature could not be restrained by his betters in the party, 
 and he vowed that " he would head John Tyler or die." He 
 gathered together all the garbage of abuse against the Presi- 
 dent, and heaped it into resolutions of impeachment ; but, when 
 stated, when summed up into its worst form, it was so foul, so 
 false, so pointless, so offensive to every sense of good morals 
 and good taste, so utterly bad and badly put, that it completely 
 demolished the impudent and imprudent author himself, and 
 disgusted, especially, the enemies of the President, who desired 
 not to see him so "praised by faint damns" instead of being 
 " damned by faint praise." 
 
 In the midst of his conflicts with Congress, and oppressed 
 already, as he was, by his public cares, the heaviest grief came 
 upon him, — the loss of the wife of his youth, who had been the 
 angel of his career for twenty-nine years, who had given him 
 a large family of children, who had graced and crowned his 
 home-life with every blandishment and bliss. She died at the 
 Executive Mansion, on the 10th of September, 1842, beloved 
 by all who knew her sweet, still, silent, unobtrusive worth, and 
 
212 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 mourned not alone by a husband who devotedly cherished and 
 loved her, and by children who felt her affection like a balm at 
 every breath, but by the friendless, the poor, and the distressed, 
 whom she always turned to relieve, and never foi'got amid the 
 splendors of a court and the gilded attractions of her position in 
 high places. The bitterest political opponents of the President, 
 the Intelligencer and the Glohe presses, praised her in obituaries 
 which were not cold or formal, but warm with " the love and 
 esteem of all." Happily, in Mrs. Semple, in Mrs. Robert Tyler, 
 and in Mrs. Waller she left behind her sweet bouquets for the 
 White House, and the President was not desolate in his bereave- 
 ment. He was pi-epared for the departure of Mrs. Tyler, as she 
 bad, previously to her last illness, been touched by that cold 
 hand which sometimes gently warns of " the last call." Death 
 in any form is terrible, but to the gentle, sweetened by grace, 
 even death is often tender. She was a Christian, ready and 
 assured, and did not suffer, physically, much pain. All the pain 
 her honored husband, her sons and daughters, her friends and 
 neighbors, and the beneficiaries of her bounties, felt, and felt 
 deeply. How worthy she was, how loving and loved, and how 
 I j honored in life and death, Mrs. Halloway has told in her " Ladies 
 ' of the White House." 
 
 But family afflictions mitigated not the persecutions of the 
 President by the party which elected him to power, violated 
 its own pledges when accusing him of treachery and tergiver- 
 sation, and the sessions of 1842-43 and 1843-44 but continued 
 the vengeful spirit which scrupled not to assail and oppose 
 every measure he proposed for the public good : it was enough 
 for him to propose, for them to oppose and upbraid. The 
 patience, equanimity, and smiling consciousness of rectitude 
 which composed him all the time of his darkest trials, and kept 
 him firm in the righteousness of his course, were more than any 
 ordinary human virtue. He was calm, cautious, forbearing, 
 forgiving, hopeful, and cheerful all the time, and no bitterness 
 disturbed his placid contemplation of his exact situation and 
 duty. His only weakness was that he could hardly say " no" 
 to a friend, and was ever ready to try to appease a foe. He 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 213 
 
 was unlimited iu his confidence to the one, and ever charitable 
 and gracious to the other. He never spoke harshly of his 
 revilers, and often provoked his friends by oiferiug' excuses and 
 apologies for them ; yet his enemies not only drove him to 
 vetoes, tried to force him to resign, endeavored to deprive him 
 of a Cabinet, and rejected his nominations to places entitled 
 to his Executive confidence in the Cabinet and foreign missions, 
 but actually withheld from him the ordinary appropriations for 
 the expenses of the Executive office. 
 
 His private secretary has published to the world that " such 
 was the bitterness of party feeling" — he ought to have said, 
 " such was the bitterness of party leaders" — that " no appropria- 
 tion was made by Congress either for furnishing the White 
 House or for the office of private secretary, or for the inci- 
 dental expenses of fuel, lights, doorkeepers," etc. Yet he kept 
 the even tenor of his way, or mildly stood a steady target for 
 every missile of rancor, meanness, and malice. They passed 
 his great soul, his firm virtue, harmless to him, but destructive, 
 deadly destructive, in reaction against the fiendish foes who had 
 no scruples and no shame. 
 
 Mr. Tyler's first Cabinet was nominated and confirmed oa 
 the 13th of September, 1841. 
 
 In March, 1843, Mr. Forward, Secretary of the Treasury, re- 
 signed, and Mr. Spencer was transferred from the War Depart- 
 ment to that of the Treasury, Mr. Cushing, of Massachusetts, 
 having been first nominated and rejected by the Senate. Mr. 
 Webster, having accomplished his great work of the North- 
 eastern boundary, the settlement of the Caroline and McLeod 
 affairs, and the right of search with Great Britain, resigned 
 the office of Secretary of State in May, 1843. Mr. Legare was 
 appointed to act ad interim in his place, and died June 20, 
 1843. In July, 1843, the Cabinet was reorganized, three vacan- 
 cies existing in it at the time, those of State, War, and the At- 
 torney-Generalship. Abel P. Upshur was then made Secretary 
 of State; John C. Spencer was continued Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury; James M. Porter, of Pennsylvania, was made Secretary 
 of War; David Henshaw, of Massachusetts, was made Secre- 
 
2U SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 tary of the Navj ; John Nelson, of Maryland, Attorney-Gen- 
 eral, and Charles Wicklifife continued Postmaster-General. At 
 the next session of the Senate, the nominations of Messrs. 
 Porter and Henshaw were rejected, and William Wilkins, of 
 Pennsylvania, was made Secretary of War, and Thomas W. 
 Gilmer, of Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, both of whom were 
 confirmed February 15, 1814. Thus the Cabinet stood: Up- 
 shur, of State ; Spencer, of the Treasury ; Wilkins, of War ; 
 Gilmer, of the Navy ; Nelson, Attorney-General ; Wickliffe, 
 Postmaster-General, — when the awful catastrophe of the " de- 
 structive Peacemaker," on board the steam frigate Princeton, 
 occurred on the Potomac River, the 28th of February, 1844. 
 And here we must indulge in an episode. 
 
y 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE SIXTH DECADE, FROM 1840 TO 1S50. 
 
 Vacancy in the Supreme Court-The Case of Vidal et al. vs. Girard's Executors- 
 Sergeant, Binney, Webster, Jones— Reason why Sergeant and Binney de- 
 clined—How Mr. Calhoun was called to the Department of State— A Per- 
 sonal Scene with Mr. Tyler after the Catastrophe of the Princeton-The 
 New Cabinet. 
 
 On the 8th of February, 1844, having been nominated and 
 confirmed as Minister Plenipotentiary to the empire of Brazil, 
 we resigned our seat in the House of Representatives of the 
 Congress of the United States. Previous to that time there 
 was\ vacancy in the Supreme Court caused by the death of 
 that eminent jurist and patriot, Judge Henry Baldwin. Mr. 
 Tyler requested the place to be tendered in his name to Mr. 
 John Sergeant, of Philadelphia. There was a delicacy and 
 embarrassment in obeying the request, and so the President 
 
 was informed. 
 
 We had some apprehension that the tender would be repulsed, 
 coming from Mr. Tyler, whose course Mr. Sergeant had con- 
 demned, through one who had vindicated that course and the 
 good faith of the President. Mr. Sergeant was stern and proud 
 in his integrity, and extremely jealous on the point of honor. 
 Mr. Tyler said Mr. Sergeant was a man of the highest probity 
 and the most distinguished ability; that his condemnation of 
 his course respecting the fiscal corporation arose entirely from 
 misapprehension and misunderstanding, and he honored him 
 the more for acting on an honest conviction, .though that con- 
 viction was founded on mistake, and was unjust to himself; he 
 knew he was honest and able far above most men, and the 
 countrv and Supreme Court should not be deprived of his name 
 
 (215) 
 
216 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 and services for any personal misjudgment of himself or his 
 course. He insisted on tendering hira the place. At the time 
 the tender was made, the great case of Vidal et al. vs. Girard's 
 executors was before the Supreme Court. 
 
 Originally Mr. Sergeant was the counsel of the city of Phila- 
 delphia in that case, and he had at the previous term of the court 
 ably argued, and, in fact, won the case, — mainly on the ground of 
 the decisions of the Pennsylvania courts on the doctrine of chari- 
 table uses. But anxiety was felt concerning the issue by the city, 
 and the decision was deferred, at the instance of Mr. Sergeant 
 in part, in order that Mr. Binney might add his great weight 
 of argument and authority to his own. Thus time was gained 
 for the deliberate preparation of great minds for the final 
 struggle on the important doctrine involved in the law. Mr. 
 Binney went to England and conferred with Lord Campbell, in 
 order that he might study and scan the rolls on the doctrine of 
 charitable uses. He came back thoroughly armed, bringing 
 new armor from the unpublished rolls on that doctrine. His 
 aim was to subvert the doctrines laid down by Judge Marshall 
 and Judge Tucker in the cases which had gone up previously 
 from Virginia. Daniel Webster and Walter Jones were arrayed 
 against Sergeant and Binney. It was the heaviest of forensic 
 artillery duels. Sergeant had made his arguments most over- 
 whelming on the grounds of Pennsylvania decisions, regardless 
 of the doctrines maintained in cases coming from Virginia. 
 Binney was now prepared to show not only that the doctrines 
 of charitable uses, insisted on by the city of Philadelphia, were 
 those of the State from Avhich the case came, but that they 
 were the true doctrines of the common law and of the State of 
 Virginia, and ought to prevail in every State and everywhere. 
 This was his burden to show, and his work was not supererog- 
 atory or vain, — useless to win the G:rard case, but invaluable 
 in teaching the sound law of charitable uses. The case was 
 doubly won, first by Sergeant on the American law, and then 
 by Binney on the English law. The forensic display in the case 
 was grand on both sides. 
 
 Mr. Jones's three points in the case were : 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 217 
 
 1. The bequest of the College fuud was void by reason of the 
 uucei'tainty of the cestui que trust. 
 
 2. The corporation of Philadelphia was not authorized by it8 
 charter to administer the trusts of the legacy, and no other 
 trustee could be substituted without defeating the intentions of 
 the testator. 
 
 3. Even if otherwise capable of taking effect, the trust would 
 be void, because the plan of education proposed was anti-Chris- 
 tian, and therefore repugnant to the law of Pennsylvania. (See 
 Tidal and others vs. Girard Ex'rs, 2d Howard, 143, January 
 Term, 1844.) 
 
 Mr. Jones said, " A part of this devise would make it a curse 
 to any civilized land. It is a cruel experiment upon poor 
 orphan boys to shut them up and make them the victims of a 
 philosophical speculation," etc. 
 
 In his quiet, insinuating, lispiug tones, he said, " Mr. Girard 
 had devised mere nourishment for the mind, without care of 
 moral instruction, and the Trustees had expended an immense 
 sum in erecting a temple of marble to the 'unknown God.' 
 The testator had not meant to make the College religiously free, 
 but to make it free of all religion. The orphans needed a fish, 
 and they were given a serpent ; bread, and they had gotten a 
 stone 1" 
 
 All this was taken to be personal to Mr. Sergeant, who was 
 one of the chief counselors of the city of Philadelphia in admin- 
 istering the charity ; and the point of Mr. Jones was a poniard 
 to him, — the more so, because he had always admired and 
 respected Mr. Jones as one of the first forensic men of his day. 
 Jones did not seem to be conscious of where or whom his point 
 touched, but whilst he was speaking in front of the judge's 
 seat, Mr. Sergeant was boiling with indignation and wrath in 
 the court lobby, and the moment Mr. Jones was done he took 
 him to the lobby and called him to severe account. Jones 
 was astonished, disclaimed all personality, and calmly remon- 
 strated against Mr. Sergeant's wrath ; but the latter was not 
 appeased, and it was feared that some one would have to 
 interpose to prevent serious collision between these two, giants 
 
218 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 of intellect and champions of argument, but both small in 
 stature. They were finally reconciled, however, though the one 
 was sore under the figure of speech, and the other was sore from 
 the scolding he had got for it. It was rich to see such a scene 
 between two such men. 
 
 Again, there was another scene. When Mr. Binney rose to 
 deliver his argument, Mr. Webster, having the conclusion, was 
 obliged, by rule, to furnish him with all his points and all his 
 authorities. This he did with great urbanity, just as Mr. Bin- 
 ney was about to open his address to the court. Jones had 
 been heard. Sergeant had closed, and Mr. Binney had taken a 
 moment to retire to the anteroom of the court, to adjust his 
 personal attire and presence. He was particular about that, 
 and came into the court refreshed by water aud smooth from 
 the comb and brush. He was always very serene in his aspect, 
 and, without a forward look, expressed a composed self-reliance. 
 He had just begun, when Mr. Webster rose and apologized for 
 not having obeyed the rule before, and then cited his points and 
 references. Mr. Binney paused to hear him, with his arms 
 folded, and when he was done smiled a sweet smile of indiffer- 
 ence, and gently said, with a slight wave of his hand, that he 
 " fully excused his learned brother for his delay of citation, for 
 he would have no occasion to touch a single point, or any- 
 thing cited by him," and then unfolded that masterly treatise 
 on charitable uses, which his great argument deserves to be 
 called, — a standard of authority now on the doctrines then in 
 debate. ' 
 
 Mr. Webster was taken aback, and staggered. 
 
 Mr. Binney was no better lawyer than Mr. Sergeant, but was 
 a far better speaker, and his style was as rich and pure as that 
 of any other orator or writer of English in his day. His eulogy 
 on his professional brother and rival and friend, Mr. Sergeant, is 
 a gem of encomiastic composition. His forte was lucid order, 
 perfectly expressed by the clearest logic and the richest but most 
 severely chaste figure. 
 
 Mr. Sergeant's forte was solid terseness, direct to the truth, 
 but didactically dry. Neither was superior to Mr. Jones as a 
 
THE SIXTU DECADE. 219 
 
 forensic debater, aud all three were lawyers of the highest de- 
 gree, either superior to Webster in the court, but uot iu the 
 Senate. 
 
 The evening after Mr. Binney concluded his great argument, 
 in January, 1844, Mr. Sergeant was visited by us, at his hotel, 
 to deliver the message of Mr. Tyler. Mr. Binney was in the 
 next room. Mr. Sergeant received the compliment with gra- 
 ciousness aud evident pleasure ; but he hesitated not to decline 
 the tender of a place on the Supreme Bench. Before he assigned 
 his reason he enjoined secrecy during his life, and especially 
 it was not to be disclosed to Mr. Binney. It was that he was 
 past sixty years of age, and that he ought not to accept ; but 
 he regarded Mr. Binney as being much more robust than him- 
 self, considered that Mr. Binney might accept, and did not wish 
 him to know that he had declined because he considered him- 
 self too old, and requested that the President would make the 
 tender of the place to him. It was tendered to Mr. Binney at 
 once, and, behold, he declined it for the same reason, but begged 
 that Mr. Sergeant should not be informed of his reason, and 
 that the place might be tendered to him. 
 
 Neither, we believe, ever knew the reason of the other for 
 declining. 
 
 Mr. Binney said he had once, in the vigor of his manhood, 
 aspired to judicial position, — to a seat on the Supreme Bench 
 of Pennsylvania; but Mr. Justice Gibson of that State had 
 been preferred to him, and that cured his ambition, and he had 
 never since aspired to the bench. 
 
 No better instance than this could \^e given of Mr. Tyler's 
 magnanimity. He knew that neither of these gentlemen ap- 
 proved of his course as President, and that both condemned 
 him personally on the Bank question ; but he knew that they 
 were good and great men, and he forgot his own grievances, 
 personally, for the sake of the public good. He was remark- 
 able for his faculty of selecting the right men for the right 
 places, and hardly ever allowed a personal predilection to 
 prevail. 
 
 Mr. Binney was among the warmest admirers of Judge 
 
220 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 Marshall. He was his critic of the " Life of Washington." 
 The evening he declined a place on the Supreme Bench he 
 naturally conversed on the Girard case and the doctrines it 
 involved. He said that Judge Marshall's decisions on the 
 cases from Virginia were the only authorities he had reason to 
 dread in the case, but that charitable uses were exactly the 
 sort of subject on which Judge Marshall could err ; that they 
 were purely arbitrary and artificial doctrines, and required great 
 learning and research, which Judge Marshall had not bestowed, 
 and, great as he was, incalculable as was the good he had 
 done on the bench, he doubted very much whether that good 
 was not largely counterbalanced by his great error, for the 
 want of learning, on the subject of charitable uses. 
 
 To return to the catastrophe of the Princeton. We were a 
 few evenings after sitting again with Mr. Sergeant in his room 
 at Gadsby's Hotel, conversing at ease, when the notable waiter 
 on his room, John Sable, black, with moonshine eyes, always 
 smiling and showing his teeth in white contrast with his ebony, 
 entered, smiling as ever, and bowing complacently to Mr. Ser- 
 geant and his guests. Mr. Sergeant saluted him, saying, 
 " Well, John, what is the news to-day ?" John smiled more 
 wiuningly still, and bowed lower, replying, " Well, sir, none but 
 very sad, just come this moment, — the Peacemaker is busted, 
 and it is said Mr. Upshur and others are killed and wounded, — 
 the hack is just from the wharf with the news." This was the 
 first announcement to us of the sad event, and was the more 
 shocking from its contrast with John's smiling and bowing. 
 We immediately sprang down the stairway to the street front 
 door. There was a large crowd already gathered, each inquir- 
 ing of the hacks just driven up, "Who was killed, — who 
 injured ?" In the crowd, at the right, we saw the figure of 
 young Abel Upshur, the brother of Mrs. Upshur (she was a 
 Miss Upshur), and as soon as one of the hack-drivers answered 
 that Mr. Upshur, Mr. Gilmer, and others were killed, he burst 
 from the crowd and ran for Mrs. Upshur's residence. To pre- 
 vent the shock of his sudden announcement, we pursued him 
 in a hack, but he outran the hack, and had already when we 
 
THE SIXTH DECADK. 221 
 
 arrived stunned Mrs. Upshur, her daughter, and sister. "We 
 never saw such dumb and dismal grief. Mrs. Upshur sat tear- 
 less, with eyes staring and fixed on vacancy, alternately raising 
 her hands and letting them fall on her lap, repeating incessantly, 
 " It can't be so ! it can't be so !" And the daughter, afterwards 
 Mrs. Ringgold, one of the softest, sweetest images of her father, 
 sank in the most piteous moaning for her father, who had cher- 
 ished her with the fondest devotion and tenderness. We gave 
 to them, and after them to Mrs. Gilmer, all the consolation in our 
 power, took their requests to proceed the next morning to the 
 steamer, there to see the bodies, and retired late at night to reflect 
 on what the administration was to do in filling the vacancies in 
 the Cabinet. We came at once to our conclusions. Mr. Web- 
 ster remained in the Cabinet until the Northeastern question 
 was settled, and as long as Upshur or Legar^ was alive, the 
 Southwestern question was in safe Southern hands ; but now 
 that they were both taken away, there was one man left who was 
 necessary above all others to the South in settling and obtaining 
 the annexation of Texas. We need hardly say that man was 
 John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. But we knew that, for 
 some reason of which we were never informed, the President was 
 opposed to calling him to his Cabinet. It is vain to conjecture 
 the reason, and we are utterly unable to account for the fact, but 
 the fact was known, and that caused us to be guilty of assuming 
 an authority and taking a liberty with the President which few 
 men would have excused and few would have taken. We 
 thought of Mr. McDuffie, then in the Senate, and determined 
 to act through him. The President, in 1843, at the instance of 
 the Hon. Baillie Peyton, had sent our name to the Senate for 
 the mission to Prance, and the nomination was rejected at a 
 moment when it was the rule of party not to allow him to have 
 any of his own friends in appointments when the Opposition 
 could prevent. Thus, Mr. Cushing, for the Treasury, Mr. Porter, 
 of Pennsylvania, for the War, and Mr. Henshaw, of Massachu- 
 setts, for the Navy, were all rejected ; and when our name for 
 France was before the Senate, and the doctrine was openly 
 avowed that the President should not be allowed to have his 
 
222 SEVEX DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 own friends in place, Mr. McDuffie bad met the dogma as it 
 deserved, and denounced it with great cogency and spirit. Our 
 nomination hardly deserved the defense he made, but its natural 
 effect was to draw us to him in personal gratitude for the vindi- 
 cation which it caused in 1843-44 by the confirmation of our 
 mission to Brazil. "We determined, through him, to act on Mr, 
 Calhoun, whilst we took unprecedented license with Mr. Tyler. 
 Before breakfast, by sunrise the next morning, the 29th of 
 February, 1844, we visited Mr. McDuffie's parlor. He was not 
 dressed, but came down in his slippers and robe-de-chambre. 
 We excused our calling so early by the exigency arising from 
 the catastrophe on board the Princeton, and immediately in- 
 quired whether Mr. Calhoun, in his opinion, could be prevailed 
 on to accept the State Department with a view to the vital 
 question of annexation. He admitted the magnitude of the 
 interest involved, and how desirable it was to have it negotiated 
 by Mr. Calhoun, but feared that he would not accept. We 
 then urged him to write to Mr. Calhoun immediately, saying 
 that his name would, in all probability, be sent to the Senate 
 at once, and begging him not to decline the office if his nomi- 
 nation should be made and confirmed. Mr. McDuffie's delicacy 
 towards us doubtless prevented him from inquiring whether we 
 spoke by Mr. Tyler's authority or not, and we made no state- 
 ment to him pro or con. on that point, but presume he must 
 have supposed that we were authorized to make the request, 
 for he promised to write to Mr. Calhoun at once. 
 
 On parting from him we went directly to the presidential 
 mansion to breakfast. At the gate of the White House grounds 
 Ave met Judge John B. Christian, of Virginia, the brother-in- 
 law of Mr. Tjier, and, when we reached the house, found Mr. 
 Tyler and Dr. Miller, another brother-in-law of his, in the 
 breakfast-room. Mr. Tyler was standing with his right elbow 
 resting on the mantel of the fireplace, and held a morning paper 
 in his left hand, containing an account of the awful catastrophe 
 of the day before. As soon as he saw us he accosted us wiih 
 tremulous emotion, saying how humbled he was by his provi- 
 dential escape whilst such invaluable friends had fallen from 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 223 
 
 around him, and he turned his face to the wall in a flood of 
 tears. We came to his relief at once by saying that it was 
 no time for mourning or wasting himself in grief, — that the 
 moment called for prompt action and attention to duty, and 
 that his work was pressing and heavy. It was an auspicious 
 time, at least, to nominate for the vacancies in his Cabinet, when 
 the dignity and solemnity of public grief for so great a calamity 
 would shame and hush all factious opposition, and human sym- 
 pathy alone at such a moment would confirm the nominations 
 he would then make to the Senate. There were too many 
 important affairs to be disposed of in this last year of his term 
 of office to admit of delay. He must subdue his grief and find 
 relief, the best relief, in turning to his tasks. He asked at 
 once, " What is to be done ?" The answer was ready : " Your 
 most important work is the annexation of Texas, and the man 
 for that work is Mr. Calhoun. Send for him at once." 
 
 His air changed at once, and he quickly and firmly said, 
 " No : Texas is important, but Mr. Calhoun is not the man of 
 my choice." 
 
 Aided by Judge Christian and Dr. Miller, we reasoned with 
 him, though in vain, until the bell rang for breakfast. At the 
 table the conversation turned on the calamity of the previous 
 day ; and the President gave a minute description of the 
 manner in which by the most trivial circumstance he had been 
 detained in the cabin at the table with the ladies, whilst Stock- 
 ton, Upshur, Gilmer, Kennon, Maxcy, Gardner, and Benton all 
 went up on deck to witness the trial of the Peacemaker! 
 During the whole breakfast we were exceedingly uneasy, think- 
 ing how we should prevail upon him to nominate Mr. Calhoun 
 and justify us to Mr. McDuffie. Of this we were assured, that 
 if Mr. McDuffie's letter reached Mr. Calhoun before a nomina- 
 tion was made, he, Mr. Calhoun, would decline the nomination, 
 and thus waive our committal to Mr. McDuffie ; but if Mr. 
 Tyler should nominate before Mr. Calhoun replied, declining, 
 then we would be in an awkward position, as having made an 
 implied committal to his nomination. But " the policy of 
 rashness" saved us, as it had often done before and has often 
 
224 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 done since, and sent in Mr. Calhoun's nomination. As soon 
 as breakfast was over, we rose, hat in hand, to depart, went 
 with some impressiveness of manner directly up to Mr. Tyler, 
 and said, " Sir, in saying good-morning' to you now, I may be 
 taking a lasting farewell. I have unselfishly tried to be your 
 friend and to aid your administration of public affairs, and have, 
 doubtless, your kind feelings and confidence ; but I fear I have 
 done that which will forfeit your confidence and cause us to be 
 friends no longer. You say that you will not nominate Mr. 
 Calhoun as your Secretary of State. If so, then I have done 
 both you and him a great wrong, and must go immediately to 
 Mr. McDuflSe to apologize for causing him to commit himself, 
 and you too, by an unauthorized act of mine." 
 
 " What do you mean ?" exclaimed the President, evidently 
 disturbed. 
 
 " I mean that this morning, before coming here, uninvited, 
 to breakfast, I went to Mr. McDuffie and prevailed on him 
 to write to Mr. Calhoun and ask him to accept the place of 
 Secretary of State at your hands." 
 
 " Did you say you went at my instance to make that request ?" 
 
 " No, I did hot in words, but my act, as your known friend, 
 implied as much, and Mr. McDuffie was too much of a gentle- 
 man to ask me whether I had authority express from you. I 
 went to him without your authority, for the very reason that I 
 knew I could not obtain it ; and I did not tell Mr. McDuffie that 
 I had not your authority, for I knew he would not in that case 
 have written to Mr. Calhoun as I had requested. And now, 
 if you do not sanction what I have done, you will place me 
 where you would be loath to place a foe, much less a friend. I 
 can hardly be your friend any longer unless you sanction my 
 unauthorized act for your own sake, not my own." 
 
 He looked at us in utter surprise for some minutes, and then, 
 lifting both hands, said, " Well, you are the most extraordinary 
 man I ever saw ! — the most willful and wayward, the most 
 incorrigible ! and therefore there is no help for it. No one 
 else would have done it in this way but you, and you are the 
 only man who could have done it with me. Take the office 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 225 
 
 and tender it to Mr. Calhoun ; I doubtless am wrong in re- 
 fusing the services of such a man. You may write to him 
 yourself at once." 
 
 We answered that we would do no such thing, for if Mr. 
 Calhoun was given time to do so he would decline ; and we 
 therefore asked that his name should be sent to the Senate at 
 once, when it would be confirmed, and then he could not de- 
 cline. This was done ; Mr. Calhoun's nomination was sent in 
 and confirmed even before Mr. McDufBe's letter reached him. 
 Thus was that great and good man secured to the state, and 
 we had the honor and satisfaction of serving under his wise 
 iastructions in the first year of our mission. lie was the 
 ablest executive man of his day ; his forte was in the Cabi- 
 net, not in the Senate. He was pure and simple in heart as a 
 child, and had no equal in mental abstraction. Mr. Tyler never 
 had reason to repent our wayward procurement of Mr. Cal- 
 houn's nomination ; and neither Mr. Calhoun nor Mr. McDuffie 
 ever knew, so far as we are informed, how it was procured. 
 The honor to Mr. Calhoun was that of having his name sent 
 to the Senate without his knowledge or consent, and of having 
 it confirmed without being informed even that it had been sent 
 in. No Senate would have dared to reject his nomination. 
 
 From the White House that morning we went to the steamer 
 Princeton, then lying down the river a little below Alexandria. 
 Our first care was to wait upon Commodore Stockton. He was 
 lying in his state-room, scorched and burnt almost blind; but 
 he was a hero, and could bear physical suffering without a 
 groan, — a generous and noble hero, who felt most the mental 
 agony of having been, though innocently, the instrument of the 
 visitation of Providence. We offered him the solace coming 
 from two of the afflicted families that amidst their own grief 
 they sympathized with him. They and all knew how devotedly 
 he had labored to give to the navy a model ship, the Princeton, 
 armed with the " Peacemaker,'''' and how far removed from all 
 blame or reproach his motives were in having on board such an 
 assemblage of dignitaries to witness the trial of his gun, thought 
 to be an assured success, having been thoroughly tested. His 
 
 15 
 
226 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 eyes were bandaged ; but we could perceive the explosion of his 
 feelings, and his bosom heaved as if it, too, would burst. He 
 reached out his hand, which we grasped in friendship for life ; 
 and we have now hanging before us a picture of the Princeton, 
 painted for him in New York at considerable cost, and which 
 Avas very fine until captured and injured in the late civil war. 
 
 The " Peacemaker" was placed on the bow of the vessel. 
 The commodore had a splendid collation in the cabin, and, be- 
 fore the gun was fired, had invited all his guests below to par- 
 take of his generous hospitality. The ladies and the President 
 were first shown to the table, and the former, being afraid of 
 the gun, kept below and detained the President with them. 
 Those who went up to witness the firing had just partaken of 
 the wine, and parted from the ladies and the President with 
 toasts to the " Commodore and his Peacemaker." The awful 
 scene, as it occurred on deck, was fully described by officers 
 and men of the ship. It seems that there had been a foreboding 
 with some, openly expressed before the accident, that it or 
 something like it would happen. One of the seamen, an "old 
 salt," told us that Secretary Upshur distrusted the gun, and, 
 just before the moment of firing, desired him to place him at a 
 point of safety. The gun was, as we have said, on the bow; 
 the seaman placed the Secretary a little aport, with the fore- 
 mast directly between him and the breech of the gun. Alas! 
 how singular that, though the " salt's" experience put the 
 Secretary at the very point where injury was least to have been 
 expected, he was struck by two fragments of the torn cast-iron, 
 — by one immediately over the right brow, cutting to the bone 
 parallel with the brow its whole length, so that it fell like a flap 
 over the eye, and by the other on the watch-fob of his panta- 
 loons, breaking his watch-crystal and instantly stopping the 
 hands of the watch. We carefully bore the watch, as it was 
 taken from his person, home to his family, and requested 
 them to mark the time it told, as his pulse had ceased with 
 the tick of the watch when its hands were stopped. His noble 
 head — a finer structure than that of Webster — was crushed by 
 the blow on the brow, and the concussion on his side must have 
 
THE SIXTU DECADE. 227 
 
 taken away bis breath instantly. Stockton, who never knew 
 fear, and who was more than sanguine of the success of his 
 experiment, stood on the port side of the gun, immediately 
 beside or opposite the touch-hole, with Mr. Gilmer, Secretary of 
 the Navy, to his right. Commodore Kennon, Mr. Gardner, and 
 Mr. Maxcy were standing between Mr. Upshur and the port 
 gunwale, Kennon a little aft. On the starboard side Mr. Benton 
 had his hand resting on the bow carronade, and a colored man- 
 servant was leaning his breast on the same carronade. The 
 gun was fired, and tlie havoc was shocking. Stockton was 
 struck down blind ; Gilmer's body, broken and crushed in every 
 part, was driven to the port gunwale on the deck, looking like 
 a wad of blue cloth, he having on a full circle Spanish cloak; 
 two fragments struck the deck between the foremast and the 
 gunwale, and, ricocheting, made an angle around the foremast 
 and struck Upshur as we have described ; Gardner and Maxcy 
 were struck directly by the powder-blast and killed outright; 
 Kennon instantly fell, but rose to his elbow, and breathed a 
 few moments in the arms of a sailor ; and the breech-pin of the 
 gun, blown obliquely starboard, struck the bow carronade, and 
 the concussion knocked Mr. Benton senseless and killed the ser- 
 vant. The story was that General Jackson always doubted 
 whether Benton had his right mind afterwards. 
 
 By the time we reached the ship, the gallant and gentlemanly 
 officers had performed their sad offices well; the dead bodies 
 were bound up with that neatness which characterizes sailors' 
 work, and decently laid out in their clothes, and were ready to 
 be placed in charge of friends. We took the bodies of Upshur 
 and Gilmer in our charge, and saw to them until the last sad 
 rites were performed. 
 
 This catastrophe imposed upon Mr. Tyler the necessity of 
 forming his Cabinet anew. He appointed John C. Calhoun, of 
 South Carolina, Secretary of State ; John C. Spencer, of New 
 York, Secretary of the Treasury ; William Wilkins, of Pennsyl- 
 vania, Secretary of War ; John Y. Mason, of Virginia, Secre- 
 tary of the Navy ; John Nelson, of Maryland, Attorney-Gen- 
 eral ; and Robert Wickliffe, of Kentucky, Postmaster-General. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ' THE SIXTH DECADE, FROM 1840 TO 1850. 
 
 Departure for Brazil — The Calhoun Cabinet — The Last Year of the Administra- 
 tion, and the Annexation of Texas — Mr. Spencer retires — Election of 1844 — 
 The Triumph of Mr. Tyler's Policy — Comparison with Jefferson's Adminis- 
 tration — Mr. Tyler's Second Marriage — A Scene on a James River Steamer 
 — Mr. William L. Marcy ; Anecdotes of him and Robert G. Scott, Esq., of 
 Richmond, Va. — The Sherwood Estate of Mr. Tyler — His Appointment and 
 Services as Overseer of Roads in Charles City County — His Retirement and 
 Private Life — Professor Holmes's Slur upon him in the University Series — 
 What he did in preparing for the Acquisition of California — The Effect of 
 the Gold-Mines — The Revival of the Missouri Compromise Controversy — The 
 South dwarfed in the Union. 
 
 We departed for Brazil in March, 1844, leaving the President 
 with his new Cabinet of able ministers ; and it is enough to say 
 •of them that they were the equals of the first Cabinet appointed 
 by Mr. Tyler himself. 
 
 Calhoun was the compeer of Webster ; Spencer himself wns 
 in better position ; Wilkins was the equal of Forward ; Mason 
 and Nelson were worthy successors of Upshur and Legar6 ; 
 and Wicklifife remained the same efficient master of his place. 
 
 The last year of Mr. Tyler's administration was chiefly em- 
 ployed in negotiations for the annexation of Texas. The Maine 
 boundary had been settled by Mr. Webster, and this last task 
 was appropriately a work for Mr. Calhoun. Spain had regained 
 her possession of Texas in 1692. A part of it, as far west as the 
 Colorado, had been claimed by the United States as a part of 
 Louisiana, in 1818, but by the treaty which ceded Florida to the 
 United States, in 1819, the boundary of the United States had 
 been fixed at the river Sabine. By the battles of Gonzalez, the 
 Alamo, Goliad, and San Jacinto, Texas gained her independence, 
 (228^ 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 229 
 
 and in 1837 she sought admission into the Union. Her tender 
 of annexation was rejected by Mr. Van Buren, though his Sec- 
 retary of State, Mr. Forsyth, was a Georgian. 
 
 Northern jealousy of any more acquisition of territory in the 
 South prevented the Locofoco dynasty from venturing to do 
 what the people of the United States, in fact, demanded. Before 
 he was killed, Mr. Upshur had nearly, if not quite, concluded 
 negotiations with Yan Zandt and Henderson, the Texas Com- 
 missioners, under the auspices of Mr. Tyler; and when Mr. Cal- 
 houn came in, he found Upshur's work entirely worthy of his 
 approval and co-operation, and it took only from February 28 
 to April 12, 1844, for him to finish what Upshur had left to be 
 concluded. 
 
 On the 12th of April, 1844, Mr. Tyler negotiated the treaty 
 of annexation, and it was rejected by the Senate on the 8th 
 of June following. In less than two months this great acquisi 
 tion was refused by a partisan Senate, 16 ayes to 35 nays, 
 such was the unreasoning malice of a Federal Whig majority 
 with Northern proclivities against a measure so vital to the 
 nation, because it was that of a man whom they were trying to 
 balk in every effort to serve his country. But the wisdom of 
 the President was not to be defeated by so stark mad an oppo- 
 sition. The palm of winning the prize, worth the work of a 
 presidential term, was not to be lost to a watchful President, 
 guarded remarkably by Divine Providence. Notwithstanding 
 Mr. Clay and Mr. Yan Buren, on the same day in April, 1844, 
 the one in the National Intelligencer, and the other in the 
 Globe, both published letters against the annexation of Texas, 
 as "compromising," in the language of Mr. Clay, "the national 
 charactei', and dangerous to the integrity of the Union ;" yet 
 the administration did not expire before, on the 1st of March, 
 1845, a joint resolution was adopted annexing Texas, and giving 
 to an honest President the only triumph he sought, — that of 
 wisdom and virtue. Mr. John C. Spencer, not concurring in the 
 treaty for annexation, had, in May, 1844, resigned his place in 
 the Treasury, and George M. Bibb, of Kentucky, was nominated 
 and confirmed in his place. 
 
230 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 The question of the annexation of Texas controlled the presi- 
 dential election. 
 
 In May, 1844, the party national conventions were held. 
 The Whigs nominated Clay and Frelinghuysen, opposed to an- 
 nexation ; and the Democrats nominated Polk and Dallas, in 
 favor of annexation; the election took place in the fall of that 
 year, and tlie people sustained the administration of Mr. Tyler 
 by an overwhelming majority for the annexation ticket. Thus 
 the nation itself at last carried the question for Mr. Tyler, over- 
 throwing Mr. Clay " with a Senate at his heels." Such a victory 
 was never obtained by a President without a party. This 
 ended his administration and crushed all his enemies, — the Fed- 
 eral Whigs and the Locofoco Democrats, — the Clays and Yan 
 Burens of his opponents and revilers. Victory after victory, 
 success after success, he won, and boon after boon, with count- 
 less blessings, he bestowed on his country, with only a corpo- 
 ral's guard at his command, against hosts of numbers and hells 
 of hate. This did not look like a upas-tree which blasted all in 
 its shade ! Let us compare his administration with that of the 
 Father of Democracy. 
 
 On the 6th of February, 1809, when Mr. Jefferson was ap- 
 proaching the close of his administration of public affairs, and 
 was about to end his public career, the Virginia legislature 
 passed resolutions of eulogy on his course, which showed that 
 he was a favorite son of his mother State ; and the best that 
 could be said in his approval, what was said in love and affec- 
 tion for him, could have been said as truly in justice to, if not 
 in favor of, Mr. Tyler. 
 
 First. Mr. Jefferson's administration was praised for its 
 pure Republicanism. It was Republican when there was a 
 Republican party, with power to enforce Republican policy. Mr. 
 Tyler's was Republican when there were none so poor as to do 
 Republicanism reverence. It was purely Republican, for it was 
 so from choice and not from any prospects or hope of reward. 
 It was pure as martyrdom is always pure, in contrast with 
 petted power. 
 
 Secondly. Mr. Jefferson's administration was praised for 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 231 
 
 putting aside and behind it all "pomp and state." If Mr. 
 Tyler was ambitious for either, Congress withheld from him 
 all support of either, and he smiled with a relish for the plain 
 fare which was appropriated for his self-denial, not for his in- 
 dulgence. 
 
 Thirdly. The Jefferson dynasty was praised for "patronage 
 discarded." Mr. Tyler was denied in many instances the as- 
 sistance even of his friends in office. 
 
 Fourthly. Mr. Jeflferson was praised for abolishing internal 
 taxes. Mr. Tyler deserved praise for diminishing external 
 taxes of the tariff, by forcing the application of the proceeds of 
 the sale of the public lands to the payment of the public debt 
 and the current expenses of the government. 
 
 Fifthly. Mr. Jefferson was praised for disbanding superfluous 
 officers. Mr. Tyler was rot allowed a number sufficient for 
 either convenienoe or economy of the public service. 
 
 Sixthly. Mr. Jefferson was praised for renouncing the mo- 
 narchical maxim "that a national debt is a national blessing." 
 Mr. Tyler threw himself into the breach against the distribution 
 of the proceeds of the sale of the public lands whilst the govern- 
 ment needed revenue, and whilst the party who elected him 
 clamored for protective duties on importations. 
 
 Seventhly. Mr. Jefferson was praised for extinguishing the 
 natives' right to one hundred millions of the national domain. 
 Mr. Tyler extinguished even more of Indian titles. 
 
 Eighthly. Mr. Jefferson was praised for acquiring, without 
 guilt or calamity of conquest, the Territory of Louisiana. With- 
 out guilt or calamity of conquest, Mr. Tyler acquired the whole 
 of Texas, which the administration of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madi- 
 son, and Mr. Monroe had not only failed to acquire, but had 
 yielded by treaty, and thus he laid the level foundation for the 
 acquisition of the whole of New Mexico and California to the 
 Pacific by necessary and just conquest. 
 
 Ninthly. Mr. Jefferson was praised for preserving our peace 
 amidst great and pressing difficulties. He only deferred the 
 war of free trade and sailors' rights to his successor. Mr. Tyler 
 settled every controversy with Great Britain in spite of actual 
 
232 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 border hostilities, including the Boundary question and the right 
 of search. 
 
 Tenthly. Mr. Jefferson was praised for cultivating the good 
 will of the aborigines and for extending civilization to them. 
 Mr. Tyler closed the bloodhound war of Florida and brought 
 that Territory a sovereign State into the Union. 
 
 Eleventhly. Mr. Jefferson was praised for teaching lessons to 
 Barbary. Mr. Tyler's method was higher, in teaching lessons 
 to Christian powers in respect to neutral and maritime rights. 
 
 Twelfthly. Mr. Jefferson was praised for preserving inviolate 
 the liberty of speech and of the press, " without which genius 
 and science are given to man in vain." Mr. Tyler lived to 
 better purpose, in showing how a pure patriot could steadfastly 
 do his duty to his country and its Constitution and laws and 
 liberty, whilst the freedom of speech and of the press ran riot in 
 abuse of him and of his measures. And he lived to outlive the 
 falsehood of defamation, and the weakness as well as the wick- 
 edness of personal and party abuse. His noble triumph was 
 the public good, and his only failure was to aspire to office and 
 to succeed to a succession. 
 
 It is pleasing to add that the turmoils and troubles of his 
 public life did not ruffle his temper or wean his affections from 
 the best things in life, the wooing and winning of another pearl 
 of the partnership of love — a good and precious wife. Just 
 before we parted with him for years, in the month of March, 
 1844, he called for us in his plain coach to ride with him on the 
 Callorama Hills around Washington. We had not driven far 
 before we discovered that his brow was knit into no knots of 
 carking cares of state. He turned aside all allusions to politics, 
 and showed signs of secrets more sacred and tender. His 
 friend Mr. Gardner, of Brooklyn, New York, who was so sud- 
 denly killed by the Peacemaker, had, shortly before his death, 
 returned from a tour in Europe, with two beautiful, bright 
 daughters, and they were, and had been for some time, in 
 Washington, young, fresh, and fashioned in all the gossamer 
 wings of the foreign costume of the day. We had always 
 heai'd that " an old fool is the worst of fools in love-sickness," 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 233 
 
 and lie showed the usual signs of its contortions into ludicrous 
 shapes of seeming. He got it out at last that he thought of 
 marriage, and wanted to know our opinion on the subject, 
 
 " Well, of course, you have sought and found out some 
 honored dame of dignit}', who can bring grace to the White 
 House, and add to your domestic comfort ?" 
 
 "Oh, no dame, but a sweet damsel!" 
 
 " Who, pray, of damsel degree, could or should an old Presi- 
 dent win ?" 
 
 He told us; and we uttered our astonishment, by asking, 
 " Have you really won her ?" 
 
 He replied, "Yes; and why should I not?" 
 
 We answered, that " he was too far advanced in life to be 
 imprudent in a love-scrape." 
 
 " How imprudent ?" he asked. 
 
 "Easily: you are not only past the middle age" (he was 
 then tifty-four years of age), " but you are President of the 
 United States, and that is a dazzling dignity which may charm 
 a damsel more than the man she marries." 
 
 " Pooh !" he cried, chuckling. " Why, my dear sir, I am just 
 full in my prime 1" 
 
 "Ah, but has John Y. Mason never told you about an old 
 friend of his, on the south side of the James, rich and full of 
 acres, calling his African waiter, Toney, into council, upon the 
 tender topic of his marrying a miss in her teens? Toney shook 
 his head, and said, ' Massa, you think you can stand dat V 
 ' Yes, Toney ; why not ? She is so sweet, so beautiful, that she 
 could make me rise from a bed of illness and weakness to woo 
 her for a bride ; but I am yet strong, and I can now, as well as 
 ever I could, make her happy!' 'Yes ; but, massa,' said Toney, 
 ' you is now in yow prime, dat's true ; but when she is in her 
 prime, where den, massa, will your prime be?' " 
 
 He laughed heartily at Toney's philosophical observation, 
 but afterwards in seriousness said that he longed for the re- 
 newal of his domestic life, and had been fairly caught by the 
 flame of Miss Gardner. We remonstrated that his life was 
 renewed in his children ; that he had daughters, lovely daugh- 
 
234 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 ters, full of grace, fit to do the honors of the White House, and 
 some of them were the elders of his intended. What if family 
 dissent should make domestic jars and his latter days be 
 troubled ? 
 
 He had alwa3'S been too tender to the pledges of his first love 
 for them ever to withhold from him their filial confidence, or 
 deny to him his parental authority to judge and act for his 
 own happiness ! 
 
 We saw the game was up, and then said, " We see you are 
 bent upon your last love, with or without counsel, and you have 
 ever been too lucky for us now to doubt or distrust your fate. 
 You are going to marry the damsel, and we are not foolish 
 enough to make two enemies by opposing the passion of the 
 wooer and the won." 
 
 Thus we parted for four years ; and on the 26th day of June, 
 1844, at the church of the Ascension, in New York City, he 
 was married to Miss Julia Gardner, whilst we were running 
 with the trade-winds between Madeira and Teneriffe. Had we 
 known Julia Gardner's virtues, truth, and wisdom, as well as 
 we knew the beauty of her form, when her intended consort 
 gave us his confidence, we should have taken him by the hand 
 and encouraged his steps to her side. She did the honors of 
 the White House, with bright tact and grace, for eight months, 
 and then retired with him to his country home, at Sherwood 
 Forest, in Charles City, doing domestic duty, of wife and 
 mother of many children, for seventeen years, until his death 
 left her a widow ; and she is still mourning for his loss. She 
 has returned lately from Staten Island, to live at last where 
 she ever most enjoyed life and love. 
 
 Years after, when we returned from Brazil, in the fall of 
 1847, we crossed the Chesapeake to Norfolk, on our way to 
 Richmond. At breakfast, in the National Hotel, whom should 
 we find at the table but Mr. Tyler and Governor Marcy, of 
 New York, hurrying their meal to take the same boat up the 
 James? We greeted each other most cordially, and never in 
 life did we enjoy a day's travel more than we did that day 
 with the two to Wilson's Landing, where Mr. Tyler stopped, 
 
TEE SIXTH DECADE. 235 
 
 and with Mr. Marcy to Richmond. Mr. Marcy was one of the 
 most rem ar liable men we ever knew. We had known him well 
 during Mr. Tyler's troubles. He was the special intimate of 
 Mr. Gilmer, as Mr. Buchanan was ours, through whom we 
 worked in Congress, with Democracy, for all the measures of 
 the administration. He had a strongly-marked face, with very 
 shaggy eyebrows, which he seemed to train downwards pur- 
 posely over his eyes, which were very keen, piercing, and ob- 
 servant. His brows seemed to sift his vision, which came 
 into his look like spraying beams of light through meshes of 
 hair. Thus his expression was cunningly concealed whilst he 
 penetrated your thoughts and feelings. He did never exactly 
 smile or laugh, but his humor was rare and dry, and, when 
 he was pleased, the light of his eye scintillated more sparkling 
 through his brow-meshes, and, like Kriss Kringle, he " shook 
 like a bowlful of jelly." To look at him in such a mood was 
 itself humor. 
 
 We rose when we reached Wilson's Landing, to see Mr. 
 Tyler off; and whilst his baggage was being removed to the 
 wharf, we observed that he had a double-seated, four-wheeled 
 wicker carriage for small children ; it would carry two, and had 
 a tongue for extra draft. "Aha!" said we, "it has come to 
 that, has it ?" 
 
 Mr. Tyler chuckled, and vauntingly exclaimed, "Yes, you 
 see now how right I was ; it was no vain boast when I told 
 you I was in my prime : I have a houseful of goodly babies 
 budding around me, and if you auxl Marcy will only get off and 
 go up with me to Sherwood, I will show you how bountifully 
 and rapidly I have been blessed. They are all so near in age 
 that they are like stair-steps, and the two youngest are so much 
 babies alike that each requires the nurse's coach, and we have 
 to have one with two seats !" 
 
 Mr. Marcy's eyes sparkled through the brows, and he looked 
 for explanation. We gave it, and told an anecdote to account 
 for the ex-President's fruitful paternity, and Mr. Tyler went off 
 in the highest spirits, shaking his finger at our raillery, and 
 leaving Marcy shaking the jelly of his humor. 
 
236 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 Once afterwards, during the term of Mr. Polk, we had 
 another scene with Mr. Marcy, which showed his curious bent 
 at times. An old friend, Robert Gr. Scott, of Richmond, a 
 burly, genial, good-natured man, of tender heart and able mind, 
 and a powerful criminal lawyer of his day, with a brusque 
 manner and the voice of a Stentor, was an applicant for the 
 consulship of Rio de Janeiro, whilst Mr. Marcy was Secretary 
 of State. We had advocated the appointment of Mr. Scott, and 
 got the promise of the place for him ; but the nomination was 
 delayed until Mr. Scott's patience was exhausted. He had a 
 large practice, and the delay embarrassed him with the doubt 
 of taking new cases. He went on to Washington, and we, 
 happening to be there, went to see Mr. Marcy with him to get 
 some definite recognition of his appointment. Mr. Marcy gave 
 us audience, and Mr. Scott opened the object of his visit, and 
 firmly announced that he was tired at the delay and embarrassed 
 by the uncertainty. Mr. Marcy sedately heard him through, 
 without a remark ; but we saw the twinkle in his eye through 
 the brow-sieve, and when the reply to Mr. Scott came it was 
 as we expected, — gruff, dry, hard, and sharp. He said, — 
 
 " Mr. Scott, for every bough of the top of the tree of appoint- 
 ments — for the missions plenipotentiary, for example — there 
 are about one hundred applicants ; for the middle boughs of 
 the chargeships, there are about three hundred applicants ; 
 and for the lower limbs of the consulships, there are about one 
 thousand applicants. Those who are tired of holding on to the 
 upper boughs of expectancy hope to catch upon the places of 
 the chargeships, if they fail to get the highest; and those dis- 
 appointed in obtaining the chargeships hope to catch on the 
 limbs below them. This will enable you to calculate your 
 chances for a «onsulship. For the plenipotentiary place but 
 one can be appointed, and the ninety and nine fall upon the 
 chargeships, and thus the applicants for them become multiplied 
 into 399 ; and for the chargeship but one can be appointed, and 
 thus 398 have to fall upon the consulships, increasing the 
 number of applicants for them by 398, and making the chance 
 of a consulship about as 1398 to 1 1" 
 
THE SIXTH DECADE. 237 
 
 There he paused and shot his glance at poor Mr. Scott, who, 
 after the first moment, raised both hands, slapped them on his 
 knees, and exclaimed, " Good God, sir I then I may as well go 
 home to my clients, and quit the business of office-begging 1" 
 And be was about to rise and bid the Secretary adieu, when 
 Mr. Marcy raised his finger, and said, " But, Mr. Scott, I have 
 advised the President, and I hope the suggestion will be fol- 
 lowed, that in my humble opinion the failure to obtain the 
 higher- offices shall not be deemed a lien on the lower : thus 
 your chance will remain as one to a thousand only for a con- 
 sulship I" 
 
 " Well, well," said Scott, " that chance is not worth waiting 
 for, and I'll go home." 
 
 " When you do," said Mr. Marcy, " go to prepare for your 
 passage to Rio, for your appointment is already determined 
 upon." And, as usual, after scanning Scott's joyful surprise, 
 he again shook the jelly of his humor. All this was done 
 gravely, seriously, without a smile, and completely deceived 
 Mr. Scott, who was appointed, and served with honor in the 
 office for several years ; and his worthy son succeeded him with 
 like credit. 
 
 Mr. Tyler had acquired a very valuable tract of land in Ken- 
 tucky before he was President, which, in the latter part of his 
 term, he sold for a considerable sum of money, and this enabled 
 him to purchase " Sherwood" estate, on James River ; and 
 a summer residence, near Hampton, was purchased out of 
 means of Mrs. Tyler, and he was thus made comfortable for 
 the rest of his life. He laid up nothing from his public life, and 
 but for this sale of land in Kentucky he would have been obliged 
 to return to the practice of his profession after his presidential 
 term expired. His purity was above all suspicion of venality 
 or corruption, and his poverty was proof that he retired from 
 office without a flaw in his integrity, whatever was said of his 
 political course. 
 
 Almost all of his leading friends and constituents in Charles 
 City had been decided Whigs, and some of the most influential 
 were bitter against him ; but in a very short time he won them 
 
238 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 all back to their former fondness for him. As if to mock his 
 retirement from the Presidency, and to express contempt for 
 his course, he was appointed overseer of one of the worst roads 
 in lowland Virginia. 
 
 Instead of resenting the indignity, intended to belittle him, 
 he was tickled with the appointment, took it cheerfully, ordered 
 out the hands, very much against the wishes of proprietors, who 
 had, all their lives, lazily verified Tom Moore's lampoon upon 
 old Virginia roads, — 
 
 "Ruts and ridges, 
 And bridges 
 Made of planks, 
 In open ranks. 
 Like old women's teeth !" — 
 
 and so sturdily set to rights the mortar of clay and the jack- 
 straws of corduroy that the whole country around rode unjolted 
 in praise of his industry and skill. But he worked the roads so 
 well and so often that he turned the joke upon the jokers, and 
 convinced bis neighbors that he was fit at least for the high- 
 way, if not for the high place of the Presidency. By usefulness, 
 kindness, utter abnegation of himself, attention to every want 
 apd feeling around him, and cheerfulness, he won all hearts, 
 and made a social circle in his neighborhood worthy of his 
 retirement and tender to him and to his memory. 
 
 From 1845 to 1855 his life was perfectly private, confined to 
 his home and his county ; but he kept his eye on the prog- 
 nostics of coming events, and was most solicitous ever about 
 results which he could not fail to foresee. 
 
 Here we cannot but notice what is said of President Tyler 
 by Professor George F. Holmes, LL.D., in a school "History 
 of the United States," University Series. He says of him : 
 
 " His experience of public life, ' which public manner breeds,' 
 was limited, but sufficient when he found himself accidentally 
 at the head of the government, and of a party from which he 
 difi"ered on the cardinal questions of the Bank, the Tariff, and 
 State Rights." 
 
TUB SIXTH DECADE. 239 
 
 We do not know what Professor Holmes calls "experience," 
 if the time and the part taken up by Mr. Tyler ift " public life" 
 did not make him experienced, from the bar to the House of 
 Delegates, from the House of Delegates to the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, from Congress back to the General Assembly, from 
 the General Assembly to the Council-chamber, from the Council- 
 chamber to the gubernatorial chair of Virginia, from the State 
 Executive to the Senate of the United States, from the seat 
 there to the Presidency of the Senate, from the Senate-chamber 
 back to the General Assembly, from the General Assembly 
 to the Vice-Presidential chair of the United States, and from 
 nineteen years of age to the day of his death ! But Pro- 
 fessor Hohncs speaks of some sort of " experience" which 
 " public manner breeds ;" and we do not know what he means 
 by this, unless to say that Mr. Tyler's experience in "public 
 life" was not bred by "public manner." He was always in 
 " public life," and in the highest places where " public manner 
 breeds," and if he had not the largest experience, much less 
 such as was only " sufiBcient," it must have been because he 
 was inapt to learn ; yet Professor Holmes says he was a man 
 of " considerable talents." Yes, of " considerable talents," and 
 a tact hardly equaled by any man of his day, and a judgment 
 so true and successful that John Tyler's luck was proverbial. 
 Public manner added full fifty years' experience to his tact, and 
 made him the President of the United States whose adminis- 
 tration compares well with any other, from that of Washington 
 to that of Grant. This slurring notice of such a man looks like 
 gome prejudice of the partisan, and not like the discriminating 
 teaching of a professor of history. 
 
 Mr. Tyler had during his term appointed Captain Fremont 
 to explore the region of the California Territory, and he claimed 
 the discovery of the " South Pass." He had also sent Captain 
 Ap Catesby Jones to the coast of the Pacific to watch events 
 and operations there. Mr. Polk, his successor, elected as a 
 Democrat and as an annexationist, was met at once by the 
 Mexican war, a natural consequence of the annexation of Texas. 
 General Zachary Taylor was commissioned with the defense of 
 
240 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 the frontier of Texas, Commodore Conner was sent to the har- 
 bor of Vera Cruz with a squadron, and Commodore Sloat had 
 orders to seize California as soon as hostilities began. Mexico 
 declared war in 1846, and the war opened the ball of revolution 
 in America. Its tendency and effect was to change the genius 
 of the United States. The war was prosecuted with enthusi- 
 asm and success, and resulted in the acquisition of Texas, New 
 Mexico, and Upper California. This vast domain, and the gold- 
 mines of the Sacramento, changed the whole destiny of the 
 United States by the signature of the treaty of Guadalupe 
 Hidalgo, on the 2d of February, 1848, and peace was pro- 
 claimed on the 4th of July, 1848. But the golden fruit was 
 guarded by the dragon ; and the immense immigration to 
 America, and the enormous addition of wealth to the treasures 
 of the world by the California mines, revived the Missouri 
 Compromise contention. A Wilmot proviso was introduced, 
 and, though it failed, it commenced the struggle which ended 
 in civil war. Two more free States were admitted, Iowa and 
 Wisconsin, and the beam of the balance of the Union was 
 kicked against the South. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE SEVENTH DECADE, FROM 1850 TO I860. 
 
 Disparity of the North and South in White Population — General Taylor and 
 the Election of 1848 — Mr. Fillmore — " Free Soil" Usurpation in California — 
 Mr. Clay's Omnibus Bill — Death of General Taylor — Non-intervention — 
 Election of Mr. Pierce in 1852 — Kansas and Nebraska Bills — " Squatter 
 Sovcreiguty" — The Modern Republican Party — Convention of Seven South- 
 ern States at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1850 — Secession started — Judicial 
 Blindness of the South — " Emigrant Aid Societies" and "Blue Lodges" — 
 Border AVar enacted by Congress — John Brown of Ossawattomie — Know- 
 Nothingism — Election of Mr. Buchanan in 1857 — Dred Scott Case : its Effect 
 — Kansas Troubles — Mr. Buchanan's Failure to keep the Peace — Raid on 
 Harper's Ferry — Election of 1860 : the Issue — The Plan and Meaning of 
 Fighting in the Union — Mr. Tyler's Part-Peace Convention — Mr. Tyler's 
 Speech at Baltimore in 1856 — Secession Fears of Halters. 
 
 When Mr. Polk left the Chief Magistrate's chair, in March, 
 1849, the population of the United States numbered over 
 twenty-three millions, the South having about four millions 
 only of whites. 
 
 At the presidential election in 1848 the Democratic party 
 was broken by the nomination of Mr. Cass, and the Mexican 
 war brought upon the nation the chronic curse of a military 
 leader for the highest civil office 
 
 General Taylor, the hero of Buena Yista, was elected ; Mr. 
 Fillmore was chosen as Vice-President. The President elect 
 was a great " rough and ready" in the field, but ignorant of 
 law and politics, and unfitted for the administration of civil 
 atfairs. The conquest of Mexico and territorial acquisitions em- 
 broiled the nation in a strife for sectional ascendency, and the 
 crisis demanded extraordinary experience, judgment, foresight, 
 sagacity, and moral courage. Mr. Fillmore had some experience 
 
 16 (241) 
 
242 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 in Congress, was conscientious and • laborious, but a man of 
 mediocre talents and timid, and for " Free Soil." Free Soil 
 became ilie watchword and reply of the Northern masses, and 
 coupled with the maxim of a " majority to rule," began to grow 
 into huge proportions, threatening not only slavery but all con- 
 stitutional guarantees and limitations. A large portion of Cali- 
 fornia lay south of the compromise line, and yet the adminis- 
 tration countenanced the military usurpation, by General Riley, 
 of dictating a " free soil" constitution, and that State was ad- 
 mitted into the Union excluding slavery. Free Soil had pre- 
 sented its first candidate to sow dragon's teeth, and Mr. Clay 
 turned pacificator again, to the detriment of the South, as he 
 had done before in 1819. By his "Omnibus Bill," hashed up 
 into separate measures, in 1^50, the military usui-pation in 
 California was sanctioned, and that State was admitted as a 
 free State ; Utah and New Mexico were made Territories with- 
 out provision as to slavery ; Texas was given ten millions of 
 dollars, and might be made into four States, with or without 
 slavery ; the slave-trade in the District of Columbia was abol- 
 ished; and a law was passed to recover fugitive slaves, and 
 that law was nullified everywhere in the Free Soil States 
 with impunity and without redress. In the midst o this 
 state of things General Taylor died, and the I xecutive office 
 devolved on Mr. Fillmore. He was a 1 ederal Whig; tried to 
 carry out the compromise measures of Mr. Clay, but they had 
 engrafted in them a gross error and wrong, the doctrine of 
 Non-Intervention, as it was called by the friends of its author, 
 Stephen A. Douglas, and it was impossible for any President 
 to control or check the excesses of conflict which grew out of 
 them in the Territories. 
 
 That doctrine or feature drew the competing settlers together, 
 aspirants against each other's efforts to gain the dominion of 
 the Territories, and disorder and danger were the inevitable 
 consequences. 
 
 At the same time the spirit of acquisition of more domain 
 raged ; Cuba was invaded by Lopez, and Walker attempted to 
 seize Lower California and Sonora and Nicaragua. The nation 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 243 
 
 in every form began to grow fat and kick. Its materialism 
 became monstrous. The spirit of the times was unbridled and 
 Gerce, and excited apprehensions for the public peace. Those 
 apprehensions elected Mr. Pierce in the succeeding campaign, 
 in 1852, over General Scott, of the Whigs, and Mr. Hale, of the 
 Free Soil party. 
 
 The Democratic party came again into power, and, amidst 
 every difiBculty at home and abroad, for a time, at least, pre- 
 served the public peace. It settled all difSculties with Mexico, 
 with Austria, with Great Britain, and Avith Spain, and made 
 the Gadsden treaty. But domestic troubles increased. Mr. 
 Douglas consummated the causes of territorial disorder and 
 of national discord by his Kansas and Nebraska bill, declaring 
 non-intervention by Congress or the United States, leaving the 
 settlers to accept or reject slavery, and abrogating the Missouri 
 Compromise. This was called " Squatter Sovereignty," and 
 it had its Jack Cades without number. This caused the fixed 
 forma4;ion of what is called the Republican party. 
 
 The first threatening movement was that of the assembling of 
 delegates from seven Southern States, at Nashville, in the year 
 1850, which sat from June to November. This convention 
 failed to do anything but to start the remedy of secession. 
 
 In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed, and it hastened 
 the conflict. 
 
 The government was made, by the principle of non-interven- 
 tion, to renounce its functions of protection to persons and 
 property in the Territories ; they were left to the stronger 
 hands of border struggles for a majority, and to all the fraud 
 and force of unprincipled and unpatriotic adventurers on both 
 sides. With a judicial blindness unparalleled in human history, 
 the South was induced by Mr. Douglas to back this bantling of 
 his, worthy only of a demagogue, who concealed his real desire 
 for Free Soil by fathering a measure seemingly intended to defeat 
 it. The South was first duped and then subdued by it ; but the 
 Republicans, led by men of the sagacity of Thayer and other 
 leaders like him, took " non-intervention" at its word, and made 
 it work out the destruction of slavery and the loss of erery 
 
244 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 Territory to the South. Both sections were arrayed, and tried 
 to obtain the first ground of occupation ; the question was, 
 "Which squatter shall be sovereign?" — and the first battle- 
 ground was Kansas. The slave State of Missouri, contiguous 
 with that Territory, was a first advantage for the South ; but the 
 Free-Soilers were well ordered in their action, operated in solid 
 concert, with vastly greater wealth and the largest population ; 
 they formed immigrant aid societies, and rapidly hastened for- 
 Avard squatters furnished not only for settlement but for aggres- 
 sion or defense by arms. The "Blue Lodges," on the other side, 
 were zealous in the use of opposing means to the designs of the 
 immigrant aid societies, aud thus a border war was actually 
 enacted by Congress to carry on a fi'ce sectional fight, and it 
 raged for the time with all the rancor and venom which ought 
 to have been foreseen by men of wisdom, or divined by men 
 of good moral instincts. Fraud, force, ruffianism, cruelty, arsons, 
 murders, corruption of elections, reigned unbridled, broke up 
 settlements and plundered or destroyed villages, and unregu- 
 lated warfare skirmished and marauded, seized and captured, ad 
 libitum, whilst "non-intervention" caused the strong sovereignty 
 of the United States to stand by and look on without raising an 
 arm to protect the weak or shield' the right. 
 
 This ravishment of the frontier spawned that fanatic, as 
 much sinned against as sinning, John Brown of Ossawattomie, 
 who was the special protege of Gerrit Smith, and the forerunner 
 of civil war. 
 
 Whilst Governor of the State of Virginia, we foresaw what 
 would be the result of these orgies of misrule, and tried to avert 
 it. One legislature in Kansas, in July, 1855, passed very strong 
 laws for the maintenance of slavery, and the Free-Soilers, in 
 October of the same year, at Topeka, formed a Constitution 
 excluding slavery. 
 
 The administration of General Pierce used military force, and 
 this roused the non-interventionists to excessive resistance, 
 until the Topeka legislature was dispersed by military force, 
 in 1851. And out of these border troubles the tickets for the next 
 ensuing presidential election, in 1856, were formed: the Demo- 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 245 
 
 crats ran as their candidates Buchanan and Breckinridge, the 
 Whigs and "Know-Nothings," combined, ran Mr. Fillmore as 
 their candidate, and the Free-Soilers, John C. Fremont. 
 
 In 1854-55, this new organization of Know-Nothings had 
 overrun the Northern States, and was arrested only in Virginia. 
 It was the most impious and unprincipled affiliation by bad 
 means, for bad ends, which ever seized upon large masses of 
 men of every opinion and party, and swayed them for a brief 
 period blindly, as if by a Yehmgerichte ! At the foundation 
 of it were the plans of Exeter Hall, in Old England, acting 
 on Williams Hall, in New England, for a hierarchical proscrip- 
 tion of religious, for the demolition of some of the clearest 
 standards of American liberty, and for a fanatical and sectional 
 demolition of slavery. Federalism, in the form of Whiggery, 
 seized upon it unscrupulously, as an instrument with which 
 to bruise the head of Democracy ; but in all its forms it was 
 hideous and revolting, and had only to be exposed to shock 
 the moral sense of every sound patriot. The task of exposing 
 it fell to our lot, and we spent a year in its destruction. But 
 the snake was "scotched, not killed." Our effort was to revive 
 the popular and Democratic party, and it was successful for the 
 time in electing James Buchanan President of the United States, 
 in ISSt, and in postponing civil war for four years. 
 
 Mr. Buchanan came into office in 185Y, with great difficulties 
 of administration to be encountered ; but still, if they had been 
 met with nerve, and stern reliance upon the love of peace, 
 order, and right, they would have been subdued. It was not 
 too late to save the Union as formed by the Constitution, and 
 the country from the blood-guiltiness of civil war, which broke 
 down all the barriers against unlimited power, and all the 
 guarantees of civil liberty. He ought to have seen that slavery 
 was no longer the question ; the real question was, " Shall the 
 Constitution of the United States survive, or shall non-inter- 
 vention leave it exposed to the wrong and violence of the brute 
 force of a majority on the border?" 
 
 He ought to have seen that this applied not only to the Ter- 
 ritories, but also to the States ; not only to the slavery of the 
 
246 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 colored race, but also to the constitutional freedom of the white 
 race ; that it was not a sectional question as to which side of 
 Mason and Dixon's line should jjrevail in the new settlements, 
 but whether the States themselves should continue to exist 
 as united under the Constitution, or whether the war-power, 
 necessarily forced into action by non-intervention, should be 
 allowed to supersede the civil laws and institutions. Federal 
 and State, of the Union. In a word, he should have intervened 
 to "keep the peace." But he was hesitating and timid, and an 
 event which occurred upon the very first day after his inaugura- 
 tion alarmed him out of his propriety. The Supreme Court of 
 the United States, on the 6th of March, 1857, decided the "Dred 
 Scott case," that a negro was not a citizen of the United States, 
 and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. This 
 added fuel to the flames of excitement, and opened all the ter- 
 ritory south of 36° 30' to the immigrant aid societies to increase 
 the Free-Soil States, and this especially caused Mr. Buchanan 
 to be too cautious and temporizing in his policy. The Kansas 
 troubles descended to his administration, and he was not coura- 
 geous enough to meet them manfully. The Topeka Constitution 
 was rejected by Congress and the administration ; in fact, Mr. 
 Buchanan himself gave countenance to the iniquities of the pro- 
 slavery Constitution of Lecompton, in November, 1857. That 
 Constitution was a fraud, gross, palpable, and tyrannical, and 
 the Southern settlers were as guilty in this attempt at usurpa- 
 tion as the Free-Soilers were in the Topeka attempt. Having 
 been active and efficient in the nomination and election of Mr. 
 Buchanan, we urged upon him most earnestly the justice and 
 policy of setting that Lecompton outrage aside, and of protect- 
 ing the purity and freedom of the territorial elections ; but in 
 vain. He could not be prevailed upon to interpose for the right, 
 and allowed the struggle to go on, until the people of Kansas, 
 after rejecting the Lecompton fraud, finally adopted their Con- 
 stitution of Wyandott, in July, 1859, and were admitted into 
 the Union, January, 1861. It was about this period of the 
 .highest inflammation of the cancer of Kansas that the raid of 
 John Brown upon Harper's Ferry took place, in 1859. He had 
 
TEE SEVENTH DECADE. 247 
 
 been outraged in Kansas, his home had twice been invaded, 
 one of his sons had been driven to madness by cruelty, and his 
 youngest son hr.d been butchered; and he became frenzied to 
 the extreme recklessness of the raid, which capped the climax 
 of aggression, and let slip the dogs of war for the time, and 
 blew a bugle-blast from a gallows platform of convicts, which 
 resounded from one end of the continent to the other, and 
 roused every evil passion for the conflict at the next presidential 
 election. It is due to ourself to say here that we did our full 
 duty in that trouble. We had prepared beforehand for the 
 worst, and hesitated not a moment to call out the militia to 
 enforce the laws and to preserve the peace. A portion of the 
 militia had anticipated our action, and kept the marauders 
 hemmed in until the regular forces captured them. The Presi- 
 dent, fearing that our action would be too decisive if allowed to 
 reach the scene in time, hastened Colonel Lee (Robert E.) for- 
 ward with a squad of marines, and he gallantly captured Brown, 
 and a worse man, Mitchell, killing twelve, including one of 
 Brown's sons, with the loss of one marine. We should have 
 reached Harper's Ferry from Richmond with several volunteer 
 companies before him, but were stopped purposely, it was 
 thought, at Washington City, in order to give Lee time to do 
 the service by the United States troops, without the interpo- 
 sition of the State authorities. This was Mr. Buchanan's only 
 act of intervention, and it was a false step, vain and too late. 
 We had urged him to interpose in time to prevent the extension 
 of the trouble beyond the Territories ; we had spent months 
 of labor in endeavoring to expose the destructiveness of the 
 Douglas doctrine to the South, in a treatise upon State and 
 Federal Relations, addressed to a friend in Alabama, and pub- 
 lished it at considerable expense in Richmond ; the lamented 
 O. Jennings Wise had, by his pen, in the Richmond Enquirer 
 and by pamphlet publications, endeavored to convince the South 
 of the Lecompton fraud and non-intervention error, and of the 
 apprehended consequences of both; and every effort was made 
 to prompt Mr. Buchanan to perform his duty of protection to 
 the whole nation. But he failed to do aught but capture John 
 
248 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 Brown, aud that only applied the fuse to the bomb-shell of civil 
 war. He and Mr. Douglas split the Democratic party ; the 
 Whigs were demoralized by the Know-Nothiugs, and the Re- 
 publican party was aggrandized in numbers from all factions 
 in the North ; it had already the pulpit and press and public 
 schools and the chief wealth of parties in the North ; and it is 
 rather a wonder that Abraham Lincoln was not elected by a 
 larger vote than that of 180 out of 303 electoral votes in the 
 contest of 1860. 
 
 Three Free-Soil States had been added — Kansas, Oregon, 
 and Minnesota — during the administration of Mr. Buchanan ; 
 the population of the United States had increased to thirty-one 
 and a half millions, and the white population of the States 
 which seceded was about five millions only. A majority of 
 fifty-seven electoral votes was small in proportion to this state 
 of things, and the presidential canvass convulsed the whole 
 nation. The election itself was not the cause of the convulsion 
 or of the revolution. The causes had accumulated from 1819. 
 The Southern States felt compelled to secede from a sense of 
 safety. Slave property was not all that was involved; it was, 
 indeed, as nothing when compared with what was involved in 
 the issue of that election. The whole theory of the govern- 
 ment was involved in that fatal word coyistruction, which the 
 South foresaw would gain a prefix which would make it " recon- 
 struction.^^ The Constitution had already constructed a govern- 
 ment, which government had construed it into " construction 
 construed," and every man of sagacity saw that this was what 
 we now endure — "reconstruction." Physics prevailed over 
 metaphysics. The progress of the country had been so rapid 
 and immense as to change the entire character of our population. 
 Moral philosophy and constitutional law had fallen before steam 
 and telegraphs and railroads and territorial acquisitions and 
 unprecedented immigration. Free Soil was a majority, and a 
 majority brooked no limitations to its will. Nothing would be 
 any safer than slavery would be. Slavery of the colored race 
 would be destroyed, and the freedom of the white race would 
 lose all its guarantees against the abuses of a majority. 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 249 
 
 Such was the course of events which rushed us into civil 
 war. The South itself was not united upon secession. A 
 large portion of our people desired total separation ; but a num- 
 ber of respectable and experienced thinkers deprecated secession, 
 saw no necessity for it, but instead much weakness in it, and 
 counseled to " fight in the Union." And this brings us to scan 
 the part which Mr. Tyler, then in his retirement, took in the 
 contest. 
 
 We looked to his opinions with great hopefulness, knowing his 
 remarkable tact and talent for a suggestive policy. His counsel 
 was that of forbearance and peace. He was a sincere lover of 
 the Union, but devoted to the States and their rights. He relied 
 with great faith on the wisdom and strength of the constitu- 
 tional provisions for the common protection, and trusted in the 
 patriotic motives and common sense of the popular mind for 
 our escape from impending dangers. He urged a " Peace Con- 
 vention," and, we believe, was mainly instrumental in getting 
 up that which afterwards met at Washington. He was active 
 in urging the legislature and Governor of Virginia to call upon 
 the States to assemble in order to avert the present dangers, 
 and to amend the Constitution of the United States so as to 
 prevent like crises in the future. 
 
 Virginia made the appeal for peace in vain. Her call was 
 not met by all the States, and its failure emboldened the North- 
 ern majority to insist upon their extreme measures. The fact 
 was, the time was already lost for preventing war. The exodus 
 had come. There was no compromising the question of slavery, 
 and its violent abolition would necessarily destroy all the con- 
 stitutional moorings of the country. Thousands in the slave- 
 holding States would never have risked one drop of blood for 
 the inglorious privilege of being masters of slaves ; but they 
 dreaded the thought of being dwarfed in the Union, and being 
 made slaves themselves by a host of new-comers to the conti- 
 nent, who were not imbued by the spirit of our fathers, or the 
 spirit and understanding of our institutions. The fate of the 
 slavery of the colored race was sealed, and it could not secure 
 any guarantees for the future ; and if the Constitution could be 
 
250 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 set aside and violated in respect to the rigbt of slave property, 
 it could be as to any right or possession whatever. The Federal 
 Congress and Executive and Judiciary were combined against 
 slavery, and of course would unite on all the means to abolish 
 it, however much they invaded the sovereignty and equality 
 of the States in the minority of the Union. And the Free-Soil 
 States themselves had already defiantly broken the faith of the 
 Federal compact. We were willing that Mr. Tyler and others 
 should make the overture and attempt at peace, but from the 
 moment of the Lecompton fraud, and the Kansas wars, and the 
 John Brown raid, we began to prepare for the worst. We 
 looked carefully to the State Armory ; and whilst we had the 
 selection of the State quota of arms, we were particular to take 
 field ordnance instead of altered muskets ; and when we left the 
 gubernatorial chair there were in the State Armory, at Rich- 
 mond, 85,000 stand of infantry arms and 130 field-pieces of artil- 
 lery, besides $30,000 worth of new revolving arms, purchased 
 from Colt. 
 
 Our decided opinion was, that a preparation of the Southern 
 States in full panoply of arms, and prompt action, would have 
 prevented civil war. The story is told, and still believed by 
 some, that Mr. Floyd, whilst Secretary of War under Mr. 
 Buchanan, distributed a large supply of arms to the Southern 
 States. The story is a doubtful one ; but, if true, it is certain 
 that none of the arms were supplied to Virginia ; and the mis- 
 fortune of this State was, that her whole militia system had 
 been destroyed by an unprecedented dereliction of duty and by 
 the folly of her legislature. A prompt, bold, defiant, armed 
 attitude would have prevented war, we repeat; but the peace 
 policy prevailed in Virginia ; whilst the Cotton States were bent 
 on what they insanely imagined would be peaceful secession, — 
 mistaking Cotton for King, or for even money or credit! 
 
 In a lecture delivered before the Maryland Institute for the 
 Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, on the 20th March, 1855, at 
 Baltimore, Mr. Tyler, in speaking of the pacification by which 
 the Force Bill of General Jackson's administration had been 
 rendered harmless, said, " At another day that same flag [the 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 251 
 
 Palraetto, of South Carolina], as it waved in full glory over 
 the plains of Mexico, caught the gaze of an admiring world, 
 and impressed, as I trust, upon the heart and mind of America 
 the principle that, in differences of opinion that may and will 
 spring up between the States, the last counselor should be the 
 pride of power, and the last mediator should be force." And 
 he concluded that lecture by saying, " Rome, in her day of 
 power, claimed to be the mistress of the world, and Alex- 
 ander wept that he had no more worlds to conquer ; and yet 
 neither the one nor the other looked down from their height of 
 power upon possessions more extensive or more fertile than 
 those which we enjoy. I mention these things not in a spirit 
 of vain boasting, but for a far different and more interesting 
 purpose : it is to induce a still deeper impression of love and 
 veneration for our political institutions, by exhibiting our coun- 
 try as it was, and is, — and will be, if we are true to the great 
 trust committed to our hands. I listen to no raven-like croak- 
 ings foretelling ' disastrous twilight' to this confederacy. I 
 will give no audience to those dark prophets who profess to 
 foretell a dissolution of the Union. I would bid them back to 
 their gloomy cells, to await until the day shall come, which, I 
 trust, will assuredly come, when this great republic shall have 
 reached the fullness of its glory. I will not adopt the belief 
 that a people so favored by Heaven will most wickedly and 
 foolishly throw away ' a pearl richer than all their tribe.' No ! 
 when I open the book of the Sibyls, there is unfolded to my 
 sight, in characters bright and resplendent and glorious and 
 vivifying, the American confederacy in the distant future, 
 shining with increased splendor, — the paragon of governments, 
 the exemplar of the world. If I misinterpret the prophecies, 
 let me live and die in my error. Let it rather be thus than 
 awaken me to an opposite reality, full of the horrid specters of 
 strong governments, sustained by bristling fortifications, large 
 standing armies, heavy burdens on the shoulders of industry, 
 the sword never at I'est in its scabbard, and the ear deafened 
 ever by the roar of cannon. No ! leave me for the remnant of 
 my days the belief that the government and institutions handed 
 
252 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 down to us by our fathers are to be the rich legacy of our chil- 
 dren and our children's children to the latest generation. If 
 this be a delusion, let me still embrace it as a reality. Keep at 
 a distance from me that gaunt and horrible form which is en- 
 gendered in folly and nurtured in faction, and which slakes its 
 thirst in the tears of the broken hearts and appeases its appe- 
 tite on the blasted hopes of mankind." 
 
 Alas ! he did misinterpret the prophecies ; the gods loved 
 him too well not to grant his prayer, and did not let him live 
 to see "the specters of strong governments." He was taken 
 away from the touch of subjugation, — he never tasted the bitter- 
 ness of its ashes. His heart was not broken ; he died in hope, 
 and was never forced to see the " gaunt and horrible form" of 
 that despotism of Congress which has destroyed the Constitu- 
 tion, States, laws, and liberties of the people of the United 
 States. He was too much for forbearance, peace, and com- 
 promise ; and that state of mind of most leading men in Vir- 
 ginia caused us to be found unprepared for inevitable' war. Yet 
 these same men, when forced to resort to an ultimate mode of 
 preventing coming calamities and redressing past or preventing 
 future wrongs, were those who betook themselves to secession 
 rather than to the wiser remedy of "fighting in the Union." 
 They did not and could not foresee in time that they " must 
 fight," and blindly persisted in believing that " secession might 
 and would be peaceful." It was a delusion causing war, and 
 war unprepared for. If they had seen that the war was inevi- 
 table, they would have prepared for it; and if at the very be- 
 ginning they had been prepared for it, and had first " drawn the 
 ' sword instead of blowing the horn," there would have been no 
 ■ war. That was the first advantage in the idea of " fighting in 
 the Union." The prompt, prepared attitude of war would 
 have brought about a peaceable adjustment, which would have 
 sheathed the drawn sword in the interest of the Union, without 
 a drop of blood. This was the only hope of peace, and this 
 would have made peace, unless war, in the eye of Omniscience, 
 was the only means of abolishing the slavery of the colored 
 race in the country. And if it was the only providential means 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 253 
 
 of God to compel the exodus of the negro race from bondage, 
 yet, if we had been ready and prepared for it, we might have 
 enforced terms which, while they yielded the emancipation of 
 bondmen, might have saved freemen of the white race from 
 chains, and might have preserved the Constitution of the 
 United States, the rights of the States, and the liberties of all 
 the people. 
 
 But with them, Mr. Tyler among the rest, unfortunately, 
 to " fight in the Union" was to fight with halters around their 
 necks, — was treason. This was the great error of the Southern 
 leaders. It did not proceed from cowardly or selfish motives. 
 They thought themselves morally bound to assume the attitude 
 which would most effectually preserve their constituents from 
 the personal consequences of penalties, forfeitures, seizures, and 
 confiscations. Their error was in supposing that to fight in the 
 Union would be rebellious, and that to secede would make the 
 war iutergential. In the first case, they conceived, we would 
 be rebels, — hostes ; in the last we would be enemies, — inimici 
 non hostes. This, we repeat, was a great error, both of judg- 
 ment and of law. 
 
 In point of judgment, their declaring themselves absolved 
 from the obligations of the Union would not make them so. 
 Success alone in arms could do that; and if their enemies suc- 
 ceeded in arms, the conquerors would not fail to treat them 
 either as enemies or as rebels, or as both, as they might elect. 
 But they thought themselves safer from the halters of treason 
 by seceding, in case their enemies should succeed. It was in 
 vain urged that there was a greater danger threatening them 
 than that of halters, — the danger of the application of the abso- 
 lute rules of the jus belli, — of confiscation of the property of 
 persons, and of the annihilation of States, and the other opera- 
 tions inter gentes " vi concitate belli ;^^ that the jus belli was an 
 absolute rule under the laws of nations, and knew no limitations ; 
 whilst the rule of Confederate or United States in conflict, with- 
 out a separation or secession, would be governed by the law of 
 internal sovereignty, the Constitution of the United States, with 
 all its guarantees, limitations, prohibitions, and restrictions. 
 
254 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 Blockade and non-intercourse, for example, would be a very 
 different thing under the law of external sovereignty, the law of 
 nations, from what it would be under the law of internal sover- 
 eignty, the Constitution of the United States; and we could 
 claim all the benefits of existing organization in the post-ofBce, 
 in the custom-house, in treaties with foreign powers, and in 
 the eminent domain. This was urged in vain, and could not 
 be understood. The halter of treason hung before their eyes 
 and turned them away from their true policy. 
 
 In point of law we urged the true views of our composi- 
 tive system of government, a constitutional Union of separate 
 and independent States, before and since the war, in vain. 
 The courts of "Virginia and the United States, since the sur- 
 render, have been as wild in their decisions respecting our 
 political law as were the Confederate leaders before the war 
 began. They have made the late conflict of the States of the 
 Union a perfect nondescript revolution, — internal, external, in- 
 tergential, civil ; having fixed rules and exceptional ; absolute 
 and relative ; international and intra-territorial ; under munici- 
 pal and prize ; under the constitutional law and under the inter- 
 national law ; mixed, confused, arbitrary, and whatever dicta- 
 tion on the one side and servile fear on the other may prescribe 
 or accept. 
 
 We often conferred with Mr. Tyler, especially upon what that 
 law was. He always admitted the truth of our views, yet, like 
 others, would not agree to their adoption and application. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE SEVENTH DECADE, FROM 1S50 TO I860. 
 
 The Essential Rights of States — The Original Condition of the several United 
 States — What Change did the Constitution of the United States make in 
 their Sovereign Condition? — The War-Power of the United States — War- 
 Power and the Power to Repel Invasion in Constitutional Contrast with the 
 Powers to execute the Laws and to suppress Insurrection — The Prohibitions 
 to the States — The Error of Secession — Instances of Insurrection and Rebel- 
 lion — A State defined — The Primary and Secondary Elements of a State — 
 The Conflict of States never an Insurrection: of these States, it is Internal 
 or Civic AVar, governed by the Law of Internal Sovereignty — The States in- 
 vaded, and their Duties in the Case — Liimici non Hoatea — Dorr's Rebellion. 
 
 Or all the absolute and eonditioual rights of States, the most 
 essential and important, and the first, is the right of self-pres- 
 ervation. This is not only a right with respect to other States, 
 but a duty with respect to its own members. It necessarily in- 
 volves all other incidental rights which are essential as means 
 to give eifect to the principal end. Among these is the right to 
 require the military services of all its people ; to levy troops ; 
 to maintain a naval force ; to build fortifications, and to enforce 
 and collect taxes for all these purposes of self-defense. And the 
 exercise of these absolute sovereign rights can be controlled 
 only by the equal, correspondent rights of other States, or by 
 special compacts, freely entered into with others, to modify the 
 exercise of these rights. Such is the received law, as laid down 
 by the best modern authority, the "American Elements," I may 
 say, of Wheaton. 
 
 To these preliminary principles the fact must be added that, 
 prior to the formation of the Constitution of the United States, 
 such were the rights of each and every State of this Union, 
 among other independent, sovereign States of Christendom. Vir- 
 
 ( 255 ) 
 
256 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 ginia, for example, undoubtedly had the right of self-preserva- 
 tion and of self-defense, with all the incidental means ; and it is 
 also equally true that she as a State prompted and promoted 
 the formation of the Constitution of the United States expressly 
 to create " a more perfect Union," for the very purpose of en- 
 abling her more effectually to protect and defend herself, and to 
 protect and defend each and all of the States, and to preserve 
 the rights and liberties of all. 
 
 Then the question arose. How far did the formation of the 
 Constitution of the United States modify or restrain this abso- 
 lute sovereign right of self-defense and self-preservation in the 
 several States of the Union ? 
 
 The Constitution gave charge of the " common defense" to 
 Congress. 
 
 To Congress was granted the power to declare war, grant 
 letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning cap- 
 tures on laud and on water ; to raise and support armies, and to 
 provide and maintain a navy ; to make rules for the government 
 and regulation of the land and naval forces, and to provide for 
 the calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, 
 suppress insurrection, and repel invasion, and for organizing, 
 arming, and disciplining the militia, and governing such part of 
 them as may be employed in the service of the United States ; 
 but the States were to appoint the officers, and to train them 
 according to discipline prescribed by Congress. 
 
 Now, it is palpable that such of these provisions as relate 
 to war and its means and incidents, and to "repelling inva- 
 sion," apply only to " foreign war," or war inter gentes. And 
 it is equally plain that whatever force of armies or navies, or 
 "captures on land and on water," or "calling forth the militia" 
 against our own citizens it authorizes, are not for the purposes 
 or ends or uses of war, but were authorized for two purposes 
 alone, and those domestic and internal only, — first, to " execute 
 the laivs ;^^ second, "to suppress insurrection." 
 
 War, to make it valid, must be declared. No ivar could be 
 declared against the States of the Union or against their citi- 
 zens by the Congress of the United States. 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 257 
 
 It was folly to imagine that Congress would be so unwise 
 and artless as to declare war against secession. It would have 
 been at once to acknowledge the fact of a separation and the 
 right to secede. It was obvious that Congress would proclaim 
 an insurrection to be suppressed, and would call forth forces to 
 execute the laws ; that it would declare no war ; and that it 
 would in any event, with or without secession, operate on 
 individual citizens in personam, and hold them accountable for 
 treason and amenable to its penalties. There could be nothing 
 gained to the citizens, then, by secession, and the whole prestige 
 of the Union would be lost to the popularity and probable suc- 
 cess of the Confederacy. The Constitution and Union were 
 the best and only guardians of the people against the dangers 
 and trials and halters for treason. 
 
 By the Constitution, Congress had no power to declare war 
 against any State or States of the Union, but, on the contrary, 
 was rather restrained from so doing. The militia, or military 
 or naval forces, could be called forth for no domestic or home 
 purpose except either " to execute the laws" or " to suppress 
 insurrection ;" and there were restraints upon that power even, 
 since the States alone could appoint militia officers and train the 
 militia. Foreign war and the repulsion of invasion stand in 
 the Constitution in pointed contrast with "the execution of the 
 laws'''' and " the suppression of insurrection." "War and inva- 
 sion apply to the territory and rights of the nation as against 
 foreign powers only. The execution of the laws and the sup- 
 pression of insurrection apply to the internal sovereignty and its 
 powers respecting its own citizens and States. No government 
 has the power of making war upon or invading its own territory 
 or people. It is absurd even to suppose that the States in 
 forming the Constitution ever meant to give, or ever did give, 
 the power to Congress to make war upon and invade them. 
 Congress was given the power to wage war and to repel in- 
 vasion, to protect the States and their people against foreign 
 powers ; and it was given the power to execute the laws of 
 the Union and the States, and to suppress insurrection against 
 the authorities of either the States or the Union. 
 
 n 
 
258 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 The Congress could not make war upon the States or their 
 people, or invade them ; but yet internal and intra-territorial 
 war is expressly provided for in the tenth section, third para- 
 graph, of the first article of the Constitution, which provides, 
 " No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any 
 duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, 
 enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or 
 with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, 
 or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay." 
 
 This conditional and limited, or contingent, prohibition to 
 the States proves that, without its inhibition, each State would 
 have retained all these powers unlimited ; and it shows that 
 the States may now exercise them all " in time of war," and 
 that it leaves in each State still the power to lay tonnage 
 duties, to keep troops or ships of war in time of war, to enter 
 into any agreement or compact with another State, or with a 
 foreign power, or to engage in loar, when actually invaded, or 
 when in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 
 Thus, on the contingencies named, each State had reserved the 
 power of war, internal or external, against any State or States 
 in the family of nations at home or abroad. Each State, in 
 given exigencies of invasion or imminent danger, had retained 
 her power of self-defense and of war, not only as against for- 
 eign states, but as against sister States or their common agent, 
 the Federal government. 
 
 And the very object of this reservation is so plain that the 
 effect of its omission would have been to expose a State to the 
 necessity of passive submission to wrongs and inequalities in the 
 Union, and her citizens to the dreaded danger of halters for 
 treason. Her reserved right to declare war, at home or abroad, 
 when invaded or in imminent peril, retained to her as a State the 
 sovereign right of self-protection, and to her citizens as a people 
 the shield of her sovereignty against treason, its infamy, and 
 its penalties. Each State, as one of the principals to the com- 
 pact of the Constitution, might well be expected to retain such a 
 power ; but she could not rationally be supposed to have ever 
 given the power to her own creature in part, the Congress, to 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 259 
 
 declare war upon her and to wrong and invade her without the 
 rig-ht of redress. Thus, there was a power of internal war, but 
 that power was not in Congress ; it was in the States, and retained 
 bj them. And this right of the States, to protect themselves 
 against actual invasion and from imminent danger not admit- 
 ting of delay, necessarily made each State the judge of actual 
 invasion or of the imminent danger, without delaying for the 
 consent of Congress, on her responsibility as a State to her 
 co-States and to the Union. It was the right of the conflict of 
 States, for cause, with each other or with Congress, in cases 
 of actual invasion or of imminent danger not admitting of 
 delay. It was the right of civil war between States, with 
 each other, or with the Congress or Federal Executive, to re- 
 dress wrongs in the cases named, as well as with foreign 
 powers or with the Indian tribes. It was a right under the 
 Constitution, and there was no necessity to secede in order to 
 save citizens from halters. The error of secession was, as has 
 since been proved, that it could not save the citizens from the 
 accusation of treason, and that it gave a pretext for applying the 
 absolute rule of the jus belli against the States in respect to 
 personal rights and to property. It could not insure the safety 
 of the citizen, and would annihilate the State rights by the 
 rule of war inter gentes, and it has annihilated them. To 
 avoid the halter of treason it ran the State into the vortex of 
 the jus belli. If each Confederate State had remained in 
 the Union, and declared war for actual invasion and for immi- 
 nent danger not admitting of delay, her individual citizens, 
 who took up arms under her laws for her defense, could not 
 have been made to answer for her acts, except as enemies in 
 war, not as hostes chargeable with treason and felony. The 
 States in the conflict of revolution were responsible to one 
 another, and their rights were relative only, not absolute, in 
 the Union ; but the individual persons who were their subjects 
 and citizens could not be made responsible either in person 
 or in property for the acts of their States. They could be held 
 responsible only for their individual acts in violation of the 
 rules of war. If not enlisted in the war, they, still in the 
 
260 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 TJnion, were under the protection of the Constitution ; and if 
 in the army or navy or civil service of the resisting or revolu- 
 tionary State, they would have been entitled to the character 
 of inimici non hostes, and could not have been punished as 
 felons and traitors. Otherwise, the compositive system of 
 government of the United States would be the most dangerous 
 and oppressive in the world. The citizen, however innocent 
 and bona fide his acts, for or against his State, would be be- 
 tween Scylla and Charybdis, and liable to be punished for 
 treason whether he sided with his State or against her. No 
 construction could permit such perversion of every idea of alle- 
 giance and protection. Where States are in conflict with one 
 another, their citizens on the high seas are not pirates, and on 
 land are not felons. They are then simply and technically 
 "enemies." " States^^ only are responsible in the conflict of 
 States, either at home or abroad ; and, if the general govern- 
 ment had the power to call on the citizens of the revolutionary 
 State to execute its laws against her and to suppress insurrec- 
 tion, and the State also had the right of war to repel actual 
 invasion and to call on her own citizens to defend her against 
 imminent danger not admitting of delay, then no sane person 
 could risk a residence in the country, the moment a civil war 
 began, because he would be exposed to the penalties of treason, 
 take whatever part he might, either by force or choice. The 
 truth is, the conflict of States can never, in any form, be called 
 or treated as " insurrection." Without the conflict of States, 
 there never can be such a thing as war, either external or in- 
 ternal; and where there is war between States, the persons 
 of their citizens or subjects are treated always as inimici 
 non hostes. 
 
 Where subjects and citizens unorganized as a State rise up 
 against the sovereignty under which they are protected, and to 
 wliich they owe allegiance, then and then only can they be law- 
 fully treated as hostes non inimici. Belligerency, in its largest 
 sense, means any organized conflict of people in arms in consid- 
 erable numbers sufiicient to exceed mere riot, rout, and unlaw- 
 ful assemblage, in which they have not the sanction or authority 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 261 
 
 of a State either de facto or de jure. But mere conflict in arms, 
 bj people who have no sanction or authority of a body politic 
 called a State, is not war. If it is carried on at sea, it is piracy; 
 if on land, it is felony and treason ; but no acts of war between 
 States are either piracy or treason. Their citizens, bound by 
 force as well as by law to obey the commands of the sovereign 
 of their domiciles, cannot be deemed traitors; and the Stales 
 themselves in conflict cannot be punished for treason. A State 
 cannot commit such a crime. 
 
 The instances of insurrection and rebellion involving treason, 
 in this country, are numerous enough to illustrate every shade 
 of difference between them and the war between States in 
 which no treason can be committed. There are the instances 
 of Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts; of the Whisky Insurrec- 
 tion in Pennsylvania ; of the State of Franklin in the Territory — 
 now the State — of Tennessee ; of the Hartford Convention iu 
 Massachusetts ; of Georgia in the Tassels and Cherokee dis- 
 turbance ; and of the more modern and striking case of the 
 Dorr Revolution in Rhode Island. In every instance, the case 
 was where mere citizens and subjects, or individual persons, 
 numerous and having organization, but wanting the sanction 
 and authority and orders or form of a State, rose in resistance 
 against their governments, State and Federal ; they were in- 
 surgents, rebels, traitors, what law defines to be "/losfes," as 
 contradistinguished from " enemies," because there was no ^^ 
 
 war. Dorr, for example, had full and complete organization ; ^ 
 he had, it was supposed, a majority of the numerical, though 
 not of the conventional, people to back his truly republican claim 
 of political rights against an oligarchic King Charles charter, 
 odious to the ideas of American liberty ; and he was, to a great \n 
 
 extent, quietly permitted to bring his organization to the point ^ 
 
 of popular revolution against the State. But neither his 
 nor any other insurrection in our history had the forms and 
 authority of a State. In no case was there a conflict of States 
 with one another. A State consists of certain primary and sec- 
 ondary elements of construction and organization, which neces- 
 sarily give it the power of making war ; but no mere associa- 
 
 X 
 
 V 
 
 <N 
 
262 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 tion of persons, without the attributes of a State, can make war. 
 If they take up arms against their own governments, or against 
 foreign powers or people even, thej are alike hostes non 
 inimici. But a State cannot be a traitor, or guilty of treason, 
 nor can her citizens be traitors for obeying her mandates. Any 
 organization to be a State must have, — 
 
 1st. A territory with defined and acknowledged boundaries. 
 
 2d. A people, defined by citizenship. 
 
 3d. A people, defined by franchise. The one is the numerical 
 people, and the other is the conventional and constitution- 
 making people of a republican State. 
 
 4th. Her conventional people, or voters, are the source of her 
 laws, organic and statute, and they alone possess her conven- 
 tional power. 
 
 5th. Her constitution of government founded and resting 
 alone on her conventional power. 
 
 Of these five cardinal and primary elements, the existence 
 and essence of a republican State consist, and on these they 
 depend. They are fundamental and organic, conventional and 
 constitutional. The constitution depends on the convention, 
 and the convention on the fi-anchise, and the franchise on the 
 citizenship, and the citizenship on the defined place and the 
 time of residence. But, in addition to these primary elements, 
 the body politic, called a State, must necessarily have certain 
 secondary attributes, which may be styled most properly " mu- 
 nicipal :" 
 
 1st. A legislative power, to pass statute laws in conformity 
 with her constitution. 
 
 2d. An executive power, to execute her constitutional statutes. 
 
 3d. A judicial power, to construe and ever vigilantly to guard 
 her constitution, and to decide upon public and private rights 
 and wrongs, according to known and established rules and pre- 
 cedents in cases of judicial cognizance. 
 
 These three attributes constitute municipal government. By 
 these a State exerts her powers and acts, but the life of the State 
 and her being are in the primary elements; and these organic and 
 municipal elements combine to form the government of a republi- 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 263 
 
 can State. Her government is distinct from her sovereignty ; 
 the former rests upon her constitution, and her constitution rests 
 upon her sovereignty, which consists in her conventional power. 
 Her municipal government may be driven away from its seat 
 of power, but her constitution and her sovereignty, or conven- 
 tional power, still remain. Rebellion, insurrection, has nothing 
 but a numerical people, has but mere numbers of persons ; it 
 has no territory, no franchise, no conventional power, no con- 
 stitution, no municipal government of a State. But each and 
 every State of the eleven States in the civil war of the late 
 revolutionary conflict of States in this Union had all the primary 
 and secondary elements of sovereignty, — territory, citizens, 
 voters, conventional power to frame a constitution of govern- 
 ment, a constitution of government formed and guaranteed by 
 the United States to be republican, and a municipal government 
 giving laws over an immense space to millions of population, 
 deciding upon laws and rights and wrongs under them, and 
 executing them, and with the reserved power of peace and war, 
 in the categories and contingencies above described. 
 
 The plain distinction between the cases of States in conflict 
 with one another or with the Federal government, and the cases 
 of individual persons in conflict with either, was blindly over- 
 looked at the very beginning of the war, and since has been 
 broken down, and despotically on the one side, or timidly on the 
 other, disregarded. It has been so confused by error and igno- 
 rance and by usurpation since the war, that our sense has been 
 astounded by the terms " rebel enemies" applied by judges of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States I In other words, or 
 rather to explain the practical and intended meaning of this 
 solecism in terms, they have declared citizens rebels and States 
 enemies, to hang the former as traitors, and to annihilate the 
 rights of the latter by reconstruction, as enemies subject to the 
 arbitrary and absolute rule of the jus belli. They would not 
 observe the rule of law in the case even of the lowest corpora- 
 tion, — that where the stockholders constitute the company, and 
 the managers and officers are their agents, necessary for the 
 conduct and management of the aflairs of the company, but not 
 
264 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 essential to its existence as such, nor forming an integral part, 
 the corporation exists per se, so far as is requisite to the mainte- 
 nance of perpetual succession, and holding its franchises, the 
 non-existence of the managers not implying the non-existence 
 of the corporation. The corporate functions may be suspended 
 for want of the means of action, but the capacity to restore its 
 functionaries, by means of election, remains. So a State may, 
 by internal war, by epidemic, or otherwise, lose its governor, 
 the members of its legislature, the members of its judiciary, 
 and all the chief officers or functionaries of its several municipal 
 departments of government, but still the body politic remains, 
 consisting of the five primary elements of a State, and its capa- 
 city to restore its functionaries, its mere municipal officers, by 
 means of election, remains. Ay, and if there be not function- 
 aries sufficient to call forth the conventional people to the polls, 
 then the Constitution of the United States guarantees that each 
 State of the Union shall have a republican form of government, 
 and it becomes the duty of the Congress of the United States — 
 not to assume to make the Constitution for the State, for she 
 has one already ; nor to dictate who shall be her voters or con- 
 ventional people, for they are already defined by the State Con- 
 stitution ; but — simply to call forth her voters, already consti- 
 tuted by an existing State Constitution, either to hold a conven- 
 tion of their own, or to elect the functionaries necessary to 
 carry on the municipal government according to the State 
 laws. All this beauty and harmony and symmetry of our com- 
 positive system has been destroyed by the timidity which, be. 
 fore the war, to escape halters plunged into the jus belli ; and 
 by the tyranny which, during and since the war, has, to suit its 
 ends as occasion required, used and applied all the laws of 
 treason, insurrection, rebellion, and war in confusion wosre 
 confounded. 
 
 The late civil revolution of States, or conflict of States in 
 civil war, was governed by a very different rule from that which 
 governs either rebellion or insurrection at home, or even a war 
 iyiter gentes. And here the wisdom and beauty of the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States, harmonizing State and Federal relor- 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 265 
 
 tions, and the relations of citizens to the States and the Union, 
 rise up to the admiration of all who understand its provisions, 
 and who are just and republican enough to execute them faith- 
 fully. States, as we have defined, indestructible in their pri- 
 mary elements, however liable to accident or casualty in their 
 municipal functionaries, having the corporate immortality of 
 succession in their cardinal and vital being ; States, as we have 
 seen, which existed before the Constitution of the United States 
 was formed ; States, which framed the Constitution of the United 
 States, had the power of war and peace, of making-treaties and 
 repelling invasion, before the Union and the Congress existed. 
 And we have seen that their existence and their power of war 
 for self-preservation were not merged in the Union, or in the 
 metropolitan, government which makes or executes the laws 
 of the Union; the Constitution, on the contrary, created a 
 " union of States," called the United States. The Union was 
 iiiade by the States, and the States were ^ not unmade by the 
 Union. There could be no union of States where no States 
 were left to be united. They existed de jure before they made 
 the Union, and in making it they expressly excluded the con- 
 clusion, that thereby their own existence and powers were ex- 
 cluded, or even merged, in the formation of the Union. The 
 Constitution itself — every declaration, grant, limitation, prohibi- 
 tion, or reservation of it — proves this. They each and all still 
 retained every primary and secondary element of States, — their 
 distinct boundaries, population, citizenship, conventional power 
 and franchise, and their Constitutions, as also their municipal 
 departments of government, legislative, executive, and judicial ; 
 as well as all their powers " not delegated," and their powers 
 "reserved," — especially their power of war in cases of actual 
 invasion or of imminent danger " not admitting of delay." 
 
 It was under these independent, ungranted, reserved, and 
 constitutional powers of States that certain States, resolved on 
 resistance, should have declared themselves actually invaded, 
 and that they were in imminent danger not admitting of delay. 
 They could not wait to obtain the consent of Congress, because 
 their invasion was commenced by the Federal Executive, san'c- 
 
2C6 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 tioned by Congress. For this they should have engaged in war, 
 the war of States with the Federal government and with the op- 
 posing co-States in the Union. This they had the right to do, 
 under the third paragraph of the thirteenth section of the first 
 article of the Constitution which they had themselves prescribed. 
 This would have been constitutional war, war between States 
 and governments, and this, under our compositive system, made 
 citizens of the States involved in the war inimici non hostes. 
 They could not have been held individually responsible for the 
 war, and the government. State or Federal, involved in the 
 war could not have operated upon them in person, except to 
 treat them as lawful belligerents. This would have been ample 
 protection to them against all prosecutions for treason. It 
 was war, but not war inter gentes, in which international law 
 is the law of sovereignty. It would have been a civil, in- 
 ternal, and intra-territorial war, and not subject to the absolute 
 rule of the jus belli of the international law. In this only 
 would the war have been peculiar, that in our Union of States 
 — called by Wheaton a Bundesstaat, a bundle or baud of States, 
 or a compositive system of States — the sovereignty was divided 
 into external and internal. The external sovereignty was 
 merged in the Union, and the supreme law of that sovereignty 
 was the international law ; but the internal sovereignty was 
 distributed between the Union and the States; its principles 
 and component parts could be governed only by the law of in- 
 ternal sovereignty — the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 This civil, internal war, governed by the Constitution of the 
 United States, the law of internal sovereignty, might have its 
 external cases, such as those of blockade, inter gentes ; but the 
 general law of the war would be the law of internal sover- 
 eignty. 
 
 This view has since been sustained by Vice-Chancellor Wood 
 in the case of the United States vs. Prioleau, etc., 1 Jurist, etc. 
 The States, as contradistinguished from the Confederacy, were 
 not and could not be made the subjects of conquest by their 
 own governments under their own law of internal sovereignty, 
 the Constitution of the United States. The United States might 
 
TEE SEVENTH' DECADE. 267 
 
 claim Confederate property, but could not claim State property, 
 for the latter would be governed not by the international law, 
 but by the Constitution of the United States, as the law of 
 internal sovereignty. This war had, — 
 
 First, its internal cases, involving rights of States and of citi- 
 zens and their property, such as arrests and seizures on land, 
 and proceedings operating both in personam and in rem, gov- 
 erned by the Constitution of the United States ; and, second, 
 its external cases, such as the prize cases, cases of " prize or no 
 prize," necessarily cases inter gentes, involving neutrals abroad 
 as well as belligerents at home. Tliese external cases were 
 governed, of course, by the absolute rule of the jus belli. No 
 other cases of the war were so governed. There were, third, a 
 mixed class of cases, contraband in their nature, in which rights 
 were sus2Dended only by the war. And internal war could not 
 set aside or destroy the Constitution of the United States or its 
 limitations. The internal cases could not be governed by the 
 jus belli. 
 
 The supreme law of these cases could only be the constitu- 
 tional provisions — first, of common defense and self-protection, 
 or the national power to preserve and defend its own authority, 
 to keep the peace and restore order ; second, to execute the laws; 
 and, third, to suppress force by arms. 
 
 This civil war could be proclaimed and prosecuted by the 
 Union internally only to maintain and support the Constitution 
 of the United States. The Federal government was bound to 
 assert and exert its authority for that purpose, and to execute 
 such laws as were made in pursuance of the Constitution. 
 Whatever was necessary and proper to be done by armed 
 force to maintain the Union and to execute its constitutional 
 laws might be done, but no more. No force for conquest, or 
 for any purpose of mere warlike penalty, no power for subjuga- 
 tion, could be exerted ; and the moment that the laws could be 
 executed and the authority of the Federal government was 
 established, the powers of war ceased, and civil process and 
 jurisdiction resumed their reign and sway under the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States. This had been too fullj discussed 
 
268 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 and settled by Hamilton, Edmund Randolph, and Governor 
 Mifflin, during the Wliiskj Insurrection in Pennsylvania, to 
 be misunderstood. Every case, internal and intra-territorial, 
 had to be governed by the supreme law of internal sovereignty, 
 the Constitution of the United States, and the laws made in 
 conformity therewith. The war-power, or military and militia 
 power, of the Union was but auxiliary to the Constitution and 
 laws of the Union. The only limited jus belli was the power 
 to execute the laws. There could be no other constitutional or 
 legitimate purpose of the war but to enforce the Constitution 
 and laws of the Union. 
 
 Thus the wisdom of our Federal Constitution was exhibited 
 beyond that of any other federation of history. 
 
 1st. It left a war-power in the States which shielded their 
 citizens from the crime or penalties of treason. 
 
 2d. It saved alike the States and their rights, and the rights 
 of the persons and property of their citizens, in the conflict of 
 States, from the arbitrary and extreme application of the abso- 
 lute rule of the Jus belli of international law. 
 
 And is it any argument against this clear exposition of our 
 compositive system, to say that it leaves internal war by the 
 States, either as to States or persons, without its penalties ? 
 
 The reply is, that war of that kind has no penalties but those 
 of war, — its battles, its death, its wounds, its captives, and cap- 
 tures in war. This wise result was intended expressly by the 
 framers of the Constitution — by the States themselves. They 
 wisely foresaw that a minority of States might be wronged by a 
 majority ; and the dread of war alone, which could win nothing 
 by conquest and impose no ultimate penalties beyond the effect 
 of arms, might deter a majority from violating the Constitution. 
 If it did not, then the Constitution, propria vigore, would pro- 
 tect the States and their people in fighting for their rights and 
 for its guarantees. 
 
 But these views, just and clearly sustained as they are by the 
 laws of nations and by the Constitution of the Union, and ably 
 expounded as they have been by Hamilton and Edmund Ran- 
 dolph, early in our history, and afterwards by Wheaton in his 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 269 
 
 "Elements," and since the war by Judge Treat, in the Missouri 
 cases, were all scouted. And so distinctly have they been set at 
 naught since the war, in contrast with the precedents before, 
 that whilst Congress claims that persons attached to the Con- 
 federacy were traitors, it at the same time claims that by the 
 rights of war between States it could dictate franchise and citi- 
 zenship and constitutions of government to States having con- 
 stitutions already defining citizenship and franchise, in defi- 
 ance of the law of internal sovereignty, the Constitution of the 
 United States. In the Rhode Island case, the Federal govern- 
 ment deemed itself incompetent to interpose for the people, to 
 afford them the opportunity of changing the king's charter into 
 a Constitution, even under the constitutional clause making it 
 imperative on the United States to guarantee to each State a 
 republican form of government. So sacred was the principle 
 then held, that neither the Federal Executive nor the Con- 
 gress dared to interfere with a State Constitution, to modify, 
 change, or destroy it, or even to assist the State's own people 
 to change it for a better. But now, it has been seen that by 
 act of Congress no less than eleven of the State Constitutions 
 already existing, and not destroyed by the war or in the least 
 impaired by it, have been set aside and annulled by statutory 
 reconstruction, founded solely on the rights of war and the force 
 of the jus belli. The conflict of States has been made, by Con- 
 gress, internal rebellion, to hang citizens; and external and 
 intergential war between States, in order to strip States by the 
 JUS belli of the right of self-government. 
 
 Some few of us foresaw this, but we were unheeded ; and 
 when the conflict came, Mr. Tyler, after attending the Peace 
 Convention and presiding over it in vain, for war was then in- 
 evitable, unfortunately sided with secession as the mode and 
 measure of redress, instead of '^fighting in the Union for the 
 Union !" 
 
 Alas ! few at that time could see the great truth, the most 
 conservative and beautiful in our compositive system, that the 
 conflict of States in our Union is neither insurrection nor rebel- 
 lion, but is civil and internal war; and being internal and 
 
270 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 civil, it is not governed by the law of external sovereignty, the 
 jus gentium, with its absolute rule of the jus belli, but by the 
 law of internal sovereignty, the Constitution of the United 
 States; the domestic sovereignty of the States saving indi- 
 vidual citizens from the halters of treason ; and the law of 
 inteinal sovereignty, the Constitution of the United States, 
 saving both States and their citizens from the penalties of the 
 jus belli. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE SEVENTH DECADE, PROM 1850 TO 18G3. 
 
 Peace CDnvention— Virginia's Attitude— Rapid Rush of Events from the 4th of 
 February to the 18th of March, 1861— The Part of Mr. Tyler— His Speech 
 on opening the Peace Convention — Virginia's Delegates disagree among 
 themselves — The Rule in the Case of Hylton vs. United States, as to Uni- 
 formitij and Equality of Taxation throughout the United States, contended 
 for by Mr. Tyler — Proclamation of the Federal Executive, and its Effect— 
 The Seizure of Harper's Ferry — Secession declared by Virginia on the 17th 
 • of April, 1861— What Virginia ought to have done — Mr. Tyler elected to the 
 Confederate Congress — His Death — The Obituaries — His Will. 
 
 The Peace Convention was called by Virginia. She had not 
 as yet assumed the attitude of the Confederate States already 
 seceded, or of the Federal government, or of neutrality. Her 
 first movement was that of a peace-maker. There stood the 
 colossal power of the Union, north, and there the States com- 
 bined in secession, south; and here was Virginia, the mother 
 of States and of statesmen, midway between the bristling 
 bayonets of the belligerents, her territory and people easily 
 accessible to invasion from either north or south, and she was 
 physically compelled to look to her safety, and morally bound 
 to take which ever side her judgment pronounced to be that 
 of justice, law, and right. She was sure to be "actually in- 
 vaded," and was already in " such imminent danger as not to 
 admit of delay." Whatever may have been the position of 
 other States, her prompt and decisive action was impelled by 
 necessity and force. She was obliged to take up arms, but 
 did not do so hastily, nor until after she had exhausted her 
 efforts at conciliation. This call for a Peace Convention was 
 mainly the work of Mr. Tyler. He, with Mr. Rives and Mr. 
 Summers, was sent to the convention on the 4th of February, 
 and on the 6th of February, 1861, it met at Washington and 
 
 (271) 
 
272 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 was organized. On the 4th of February, 1861, the Confederate 
 Congress met at Montgomery, Alabama. The Conveution of 
 Virginia met at Richmond on the 13th of February, 1861. The 
 Confederate Constitution was adopted at Montgomery, and 
 President Davis was inaugurated, on the 18th of February, 
 1861. And the Peace Commissioners appointed by Virginia 
 reported back to the governor and legislature on the 18th of 
 March, 1861. Thus, in about forty days and forty nights, this 
 deluge, like the flood which destroyed the world, gathered, and 
 there was no Noah and no Ark to save us ! 
 
 The part which Mr. Tyler took in the Peace Convention, and 
 in respect to its results, was the most glorious of his life. It alone 
 is a monument worthy of any name. He acted the part not only 
 of a Father of his State, but of his whole country. An Ex-Presi- 
 dent of the United States, he was made president of the con- 
 vention called by his State to preserve the peace of the United 
 States, and it was the hope of many at the time that the peace 
 would be preserved. But the convention was too late. If it 
 bad been called a year before, or if Virginia had drawn her sword 
 for self-defense at once, instead of delaying or dallying for com- 
 promises, war might have been averted. But the State had not 
 drawn her sword, and the Peace Convention sat almost after 
 the clash of arms had begun. From the National Intelligencer 
 of Wednesday, February 6, 1861, we extract an account of 
 some of the proceedings of the convention, and the speech of 
 the President elect: 
 
 "THE COMMISSIONERS' CONVENTION 
 
 " The convention of delegates from the several States co- 
 operating with Virginia in the work of national preservation 
 was yesterday organized by the unanimous election of the Hon. 
 John Tyler as its permanent President, and of the Hon. J. C. 
 Wright, of Ohio, as Secretary. 
 
 " In selecting by acclamation for their presiding officer the 
 distinguished Ex-President of the United States, the members 
 of this dignified body have conferred an honor which will 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 273 
 
 be as worthily worn as it was gracefully proffered, and the ap- 
 propriateness of whose bestowal will be recognized by their 
 countrymen throughout the whole land. It was fitting that one 
 who had swayed the destinies of this great people as the 
 Chief Magistrate of the Union should preside over deliberations 
 which have for their object to preserve that Union which our 
 fathers created. 
 
 " And as affording gratifying evidence of the patriotic inspira- 
 tions under which, as its President conceives, this convention 
 of delegates from so many States is called to labor for the pres- 
 ervation of the government, we take pleasure in giving to our 
 readers the subjoined authentic report of the eloquent and ap- 
 propriate address delivered by Mr. Tyler on taking the chair : 
 
 " ' Gentlemen, — I fear you have committed a great error in 
 appointing me to the honorable position you have assigned uie. 
 A long separation from all deliberative bodies has rendered the 
 rules of their proceedings unfamiliar to me ; while I should find 
 in my own state of health, variable and fickle as it is, sufficient 
 reason to decline the honor of being your presiding officer. But, 
 in times like these, one has little option left him. Personal 
 considerations should weigh but lightly in the balance. The 
 country is in danger: it is enough, — one must take the place 
 assigned him in the great work of reconciliation and adjust- 
 ment. 
 
 " ' The voice of Virginia has invited her co-States to meet 
 her in council. In the initiation of this government that same 
 voice was heard and complied with, and the results of seventy 
 odd years have fully attested the wisdom of the decisions then 
 adopted. Is the urgency of her call now less great than it was 
 then ? Our godlike fathers created ; we have to preserve. 
 They built up, through their wisdom and patriotism, monuments 
 which have eternized their names. You have before you, gen- 
 tlemen, a task equally grand, equally sublime, quite as full of 
 glory and immortality. You have to snatch from ruin a great 
 and glorious confederation, to preserve the government, and to 
 renew and invigorate the Constitution. If you reach the height 
 
 18 
 
2U SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 of this great occasion, your children's children will rise up and 
 call you blessed. I confess myself to be ambitious of sharing in 
 the glory of accomplishing this grand and magnificent result. To 
 have our names enrolled in the Capitol, to be repeated by future 
 generations with grateful applause, — this is an honor higher 
 than the mountains, more enduring than monumental alabaster. 
 
 " ' Yes, Yirginia's voice, as in the olden time, has been heard. 
 Her sister States meet her at the council-board. Vermont is 
 here, bringing with her the memories of the past, and reviving 
 in the recollection of all her Ethan Allen, and his demand for 
 the surrender of Ticonderoga in the name of the Great Jehovah 
 and of the American Congress. New Hampshire is here, her 
 fame illustrated by memorable annals, and still more lately as the 
 birthplace of him who won for himself the name of Defender of 
 the Constitution, and who wrote that letter to John Taylor 
 which has been enshrined in the hearts of his countrymen. 
 
 "'Massachusetts is not here.' (Some member said, 'She is 
 coming.') 'I hope so,' said Mr. Tyler, ' and that she will bring 
 her daughter, Maine. I did not believe it could well be that 
 the voice which, in other times, was so familiar to her ears, had 
 been addressed to her in vain. Connecticut is here; and she 
 comes, I doubt not, in the spirit of Roger Sherman, whose 
 name with our very children has become a household word, and 
 who was in life the embodiment of that sound practical sense 
 which befits the great lawgiver and constructor of governments. 
 Rhode Island, the land of Roger Williams, is here, one of the two 
 last States, in her jealousy of the public liberty, to give in her 
 adhesion to the Constitution, and among the earliest to hasten 
 to its rescue. The great Empire State of New York, repre- 
 sented thus far by but one delegate, is expected daily in fuller 
 force, to join in the great work of healing the discontents of the 
 time and restoring fraternal feeling. 
 
 '"New Jersey is also here, with the memories of the past cov- 
 ering her all over. Trenton and Princeton live immortal in story, 
 the plains of the last encrimsoned with the heart's blood of Yir- 
 ginia's sons. A mong her delegation I rejoice to recognize a gallant 
 son of a signer of the immortal Declaration which announced 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 275 
 
 to the world that thirteen Provinces had become thirteen inde- 
 pendent and sovereign States. 
 
 " 'And here, too, is Delaware, the land of the Bayards and 
 the Rodneys, whose suil at Brandywine was moistened by the 
 blood of Yirginia's youthful Monroe. 
 
 '" Here is Maryland, whose massive columns moved into line 
 with those of Virginia in the contest for glory, and whose State- 
 house at Annapolis was the theater of the spectacle of a suc- 
 cessful commander who, after liberating his country, gladly 
 ungirthed his sword and laid it down upon the altar of that 
 country. 
 
 "'Then comes Pennsylvania, rich in Revolutionary lore, 
 bringing with her the deathless names of Franklin and Morris, 
 and, I trust, ready to renew from the belfry of Independence 
 Hall the chimes of the old bell which announced freedom and 
 independence in former days. 
 
 " 'AH hail to North Carolina, with her Mecklenburg Declara- 
 tion in her hand, standing erect on the ground of her own 
 probity and firmness in the cause of the public liberty, and repre- 
 sented in her attributes by her Macon, and in this assembly by 
 her distinguished son, at no great distance from me. 
 
 " ' Four daughters of Virginia also cluster around the council- 
 board on the invitation of their ancient mother. The eldest, 
 Kentucky, whose sons, under that intrepid warrior, Anthony 
 Wayne, gave freedom of settlement to the territory of her sister 
 Ohio. She extends her hand daily and hourly across " la belle 
 riviere,'''' to grasp the hand of some one of kindred blood of the 
 noble States of Indiana and Illinois and Ohio, who have grown 
 up into powerful States already, grand, potent, and almost im- 
 perial. 
 
 " ' Tennessee is not here, but is coming, — prevented from being 
 here only by the floods which have swollen her rivers. When 
 she arrives, she will wear the badges on her warrior crest of 
 victories won, in company with the Great West, on many an 
 ensanguined plain, and standards torn from the hands of the 
 conquerors at Waterloo. 
 
 " ' Missouri and Iowa, and Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minne- 
 
276 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 sota, still linger behind ; but it may be hoped that their hearts 
 are with us in the great work we have to do. 
 
 " ' Gentlemen, the eyes of the whole country are turned to this 
 assembly in expectation and hope. I trust that you may prove 
 yourselves worthy of the great occasion. Our ancestors proba- 
 bly committed a blunder in not having fixed upon any fifth 
 decade for a call of a general convention to amend and reform the 
 Constitution. On the contrary, they have made the difficulties 
 next to insurmountable to accomplish amendments to an instru- 
 ment which was perfect for five millions of people, but not 
 wholly so as to thirty millions. Your patriotism will surmount 
 the difficulties, however great, if you will but accomplish but 
 one triumph in advance, and that is, a triumph over party. 
 And what is party, when compared to the task of rescuing our 
 country from danger ? Do that, and one long, loud shout of 
 joy and gladness will resound throughout the land !' 
 
 " The choice made by the convention in the selection of its 
 secretary will be recognized, by all who know Mr. Wright, as 
 an appointment eminently fit to be made ; and, this patriotic 
 council having thus auspiciously initiated its deliberations, we 
 may be permitted to hope that its results will not disappoint 
 the just expectations of the American people." 
 
 The convention failed. The Virginia delegates did not them- 
 selves agree as to the conditions of peace. Mr. Tyler differed 
 widely from his colleagues. Rives and Summers. Mr. Summers 
 contended for extreme concessions, and he and Mr. Rives both 
 blundered egregiously in thinking that the slave States would 
 gain much by accepting a proposition that the Territories should 
 not tax slaves in their limits otherwise than as they should or 
 might tax all other persons. Mr. Tyler showed them that already, 
 by the rules of uniformity of taxation in respect of duties, excises, 
 and imposts, and by the rule of equality as to direct taxes, consist- 
 ing only of tax on land and the poll tax, the Constitution itself 
 protected the people of all the States and Territories against 
 Federal taxes which were either wanting in uniformity or in 
 equality, as shown by one of the earliest cases decided by the 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 27t 
 
 Supreme Court of the United States, the case of Ilylton vs. the 
 United States. And to take sucli a condition as something new 
 for a compromise was to concede that it was not already pro- 
 vided for and guaranteed. In the debate with Mr. Summers 
 before the Virginia State Convention, in March, 1861, on their 
 different reports, Mr. Rives being present as a spectator, Mr. 
 Tyler was very able, though in feeble health. That was, 
 perhaps, the last long effort of his mind on any important 
 and exciting topic, and, though feeble in body, he sustained 
 himself admirably. He was no longer hopeful of peace, and 
 the Federal Executive's proclamation against rebellion and 
 insurrection compelled him to give his voice for secession at 
 once. 
 
 The Convention of Virginia had appointed a committee of 
 twenty-one members to deliberate upon the proper action of the 
 convention. Sixteen out of the twenty-one of this committee 
 had at first been opposed to secession, were warmly for the 
 Union, and but five were for resistance by arms in self-defense. 
 The Union majority on this committee was for delay, for com- 
 promise, for anything rather than war. They held back their 
 report to the very last, and some of them held conferences with 
 Secretary Seward himself at Washington for some mode of 
 conciliation. "We happened to be one of the minority of five, 
 though not favoring secession, but preferring to fight in the 
 Union ; and when the committee was compelled to report it was 
 very much divided. It split into thi-ee divisions : the majority 
 report eschewed disunion and war; a minority report favored 
 remaining in the Union, but advised armed resistance within its 
 pale, in case of invasion and war, in self-defense, and the forming 
 of a provisional league with the revolutionary States without 
 forming a new and separate government from that of the United 
 States; and then a third division of the committee voted against 
 both the majority and minority reports, and were for immediate 
 secession and junction with the Confederate States government at 
 Montgomery. Just as these reports were made, the proclamation 
 of the President of the United States was hurled like a bolt of 
 war into our midst: instantly all differences ceased, and the 
 
278 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 resolution of secession was adopted at once, with but few dis- 
 sentients, who retired from the body. 
 
 The eflfect of the proclamation was to cause this not well- 
 considered action. But for it, it is thought that a better course 
 than that of secession would have been taken. But, besides 
 the Executive proclamation, there was another cause of rather 
 too hasty action. During the early and latter part of the ses- 
 sion of the convention the secessionists were accused of getting 
 up sensational reports and rumors. It was known that the 
 government at Washington had ordered and commenced the 
 preparation of Fortress Monroe, at Old Point Comfort, for the 
 purpose of invasion, and there were daily rumors of other 
 preparations of the President and Congress for aggression. 
 These rumors were sneered at and slighted by those opposed to 
 secession, as Democratic telegrams, until, at last, the announce- 
 ment was made to the convention that a portion of the citizens 
 of the Valley of Virginia were marching in force upon Harper's 
 Ferry to capture the arsenal and arms of the United States at 
 that place. The secret history of that important event has 
 never yet been divulged, and may never be until this genera- 
 tion, at least, shall be laid in the dust, but the materials are 
 well preserved. The event was electric in its effect of fusing 
 the Virginia Convention into one mass of secession. The procla- 
 mation at Washington and this event at Harper's Ferry found 
 their denouement in the Declaration of Secession by Virginia 
 on the nth March, 1861. Then was the time for a mediatorial 
 armed neutrality on the part of this State, to say to the North, 
 "Hold back!" and to the South, "Give up" their slaves in 
 order that their masters may remain free ! — then was the time, 
 if Congress would proceed to force submission, to have formed a 
 provisional government merely, with an alliance or compact of 
 States, for defense within the pale of the Constitution and the 
 Union. But the rush of Virginia to secession from the Union, 
 and to a junction with the revolutionary States into a separate 
 Confederacy, with a President and Congress, under a perma- 
 nent, fixed form of government, accelerated by the proclamation 
 and by the seizure of Harper's Ferry, had begun, and there was 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 279 
 
 no stopping it short of the extreme to which it went, of dis- 
 union and of war. The Harper's Ferry seizure and the affair 
 of the Gosport Navy- Yard were nearly cotemporaneous, and 
 then the war commenced in deadly earnest. 
 
 After the Declaration of Secession by the convention, Mr, 
 Tyler went home to his constituents, in the Charles City dis- 
 trict, and declared himself a candidate for a seat in the House 
 of Representatives of the Confederate Congress, and was elected 
 by a large majority over two formidable opponents. He came 
 to his work with a zeal, life, and energy hardly to be expected 
 at his period of life, being then seventy-one years of age. In 
 1861 he had overreached his threescore years and ten; yet his 
 intellect was as bright as it had ever beamed on deliberative 
 assemblies. He served actively and with the admiration of 
 his compeers, a Nestor in their counsels, beloved and heeded 
 by all, until he was stricken down in his harness of civil ser- 
 vice, hopeful and hard-working to the last, — a lover of the 
 Union until he found it was to be the instrument of destruction 
 to State Rights and civil liberty, and then its enemy only in 
 the sense of defense against the aggression in its name upon 
 those for whom it was intended to be a shield and buckler. 
 
 We have purposely, and for good reasons, omitted at this op- 
 portunity to publish the history of the seizure of Harper's Ferry 
 and of the powder-magazine at Norfolk ; but there is one inci- 
 dent which occurred early in 1861 which we may relate without 
 danger to any person, and the truth of which is due to a dead 
 patriot, whose name we have already tried to do justice to, and 
 due to the art of naval war, which he eminently contributed to 
 promote. James Barron was not only the inventor of the 
 metallic blocks and the ship ventilator of our navy, and the 
 best instructor upon the time and mode of cutting and preserv- 
 ing ship timber, but his genius caused the construction of the 
 iron-clad steamer, the Virginia, for the Confederate defense. 
 He was dead long before the Confederate war, and his idea of 
 the marine catapuUa lived after him. 
 
 For the several years between 1833 and 1844, when we 
 served on the Committee of Naval Affairs of the House of 
 
280 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION 
 
 Representatives in Congress, James Barron was continuously 
 urging upon that committee his invention of an impregnable 
 steam propeller armed with a pyramidal beak on the water-line. 
 He could never obtain an appropriation for the experiment. It 
 was deemed visionary. He offered \o place his model under 
 the guns of Fortress Monroe, and to perish with it if it could 
 be penetrated and sunk. He had nicely tried the maximum 
 penetration of coast and ship guns of all calibers, and then cal- 
 culated the thickness gained by an inclined plane, with a view 
 not only to impenetrability, but to the angle of ricocheting shot. 
 Four feet thickness, perpendicular, for example, when inclined, 
 became six or eight or ten feet, according to the angle of in- 
 clination towards the horizontal. The form of the model, then, 
 from stem to stern, and from side to side, above water, would be 
 a terrapin-back at a very acute angle of incidence to a shot fired 
 from a ship's gun deck; so acute that the shot would, especially 
 by solid oak, be deflected upwards, and could never perforate 
 the sides or upper works. He proposed to carry one heavy 
 stern and one bow gun, and four starboard and four port guns, 
 all in iron casemate port-holes. But his most offensive armor 
 was the pyramidal beak. The ship, braced and samsoned 
 abow by all possible inner appliances, was given a cut- water 
 of the greatest strength, sheathed with iron, and the beak was 
 made solid to it, and bearing not on the ribs of the bow, but 
 impinging altogether upon the keelson, continuous as possible 
 with it. The upper side of the beak was made to commence 
 on the water-line, and descended in several steps, so that the 
 end would be under water just deep enough to strike upon the 
 counter of the enemy's ship, and the lower side of the beak 
 was nearly horizontal. The object of the pyramid was strength, 
 to impinge under the water-line, and, above all, when the beak 
 penetrated, to prevent the enemy's ship from hanging on it and 
 carrying the bow of the propeller down with her in sinking. 
 He calculated exactly the momentum of his model at any given 
 rate of speed, showing that no kind of ship then known could 
 bear the concussion of his beak at even three miles an hour rate 
 of speed. He was a master-mechanic and draughtsman, and 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 281 
 
 presented his memorial and model in the most demonstrated 
 formula. Being the only one on the committee, we believe, who 
 gave him an ear of attention, he presented us with his model, 
 and we had it at our residence when secession was declared by 
 Virginia. 
 
 We signed the ordinance of secession, and returned to the 
 county of Princess Anne, ill, before the convention adjourned, 
 and witnessed the vandal and cowardly destruction of the navy- 
 yard at Gosport. The Pennsylvania ship of the line had fired 
 the morning, noon, and evening guns in the harbor for years, 
 and her broadside was pointed upon the town, shotted ; and a 
 merciful Providence alone prevented her balls from riddling 
 that portion of Norfolk where the laboring and poor people 
 chiefly resided. The fire from the sail-lofts fortunately fell 
 upon the middle of her decks and burnt them through, so as to 
 lower the breeches and elevate the muzzles of the guns before 
 they became so hot as to explode, and thus the broadside of 
 shot passed over the town, doing no damage. The guns boomed 
 with a muffled sound, as if smothered partially by the water in 
 the sinking ship. It was ominous ; it was the knell of either 
 the Union or of liberty, and can never be forgotten by those 
 who heard it with enough of divine grace to hope to forgive 
 the craven incendiaries who lighted the torches of the glaring 
 conflagration ! The burning of the Gosport Navy-Yard and 
 its abandonment was the most dastard and disgraceful devasta- 
 tion of the war. They were frightened by a ruse of Mahone, 
 rattling his empty cars up and down the railroad and alarming 
 the cowards with the apprehension of the rapid movement of 
 considerable bodies of troops. They were not self-possessed 
 enough to distinguish the sound of empty cars from that of 
 loaded cars. But the result of their fears caused every thought 
 and sense, as well as every feeling, of the Confederates to be 
 aroused. Our wits went to work at once, and the model of 
 Barron came to our mind. We immediately, by letter, described 
 it to General Lee, and the tender was made of six hundred 
 acres of pine and oak, in four miles, by water, of the Gosport 
 Navy- Yard, with a steam saw-mill already cutting timber at 
 
282 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 the spot. He was informed that Barron especially recom- 
 mended that the draft of the steamer should not exceed ten or 
 twelve feet of water. General Lee was then in State com- 
 mand, and had State means only ; but, through him, doubtless, 
 the Merrimack was raised and converted into the Virginia iron- 
 clad. Commodore Barron's ideas were not carried out in her 
 construction. The naval architect did not calculate accurately 
 the weight of masts, spars, rigging, and upper works taken off, 
 compared with the weight of iron sheathing put on, and the 
 consequence was that when launched the hulk stood out of 
 water several feet higher than the sheathing reached down the 
 sides. This was remedied by ballast, which made the vessel 
 draw eighteen feet of water, in order to dip the sheathing below 
 the water-line. Then, too, the beak, instead of being pyramidal 
 or inclining on the upper surface, was made horizontal on the 
 upper and inclined upwards on the lower side. This caused it 
 to break in sinking the Congress and Cumberland frigates. We 
 have a cane made of its live-oak wood, and were told it was 
 perhaps as large a solid piece of it as was left unfrasseled by 
 the concussions. We witnessed the fight with the Monitor 
 and Merrimack, and the great fault of the Yirginia was that 
 she drew too much water and was an unwieldy " icave-wal- 
 lower.''^ But it was a grave error ever to have blown her up. 
 There was no necessity for it, and the pilots agreed in that 
 opinion. Enough ballast could have been thrown out to gain 
 five or six feet in her draft, and she might have been taken to 
 the mouth of the Chickahominy, and would have prevented all 
 approach from below, and all crossing of the James at Harri- 
 son's Landing. 
 
CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 DECADE BEGINNING IN 1861 AND ENDING JANUARY 18 1863 
 
 Death of Mr. Tyler — Proceedings of the Legislature of Virginia — Pri *eedings 
 of the Confederate Congress — The Citizens of Richmond did him Homage 
 and Sepulture at Hollywood Cemetery, where his Remains lie; an J Honor 
 •was done his Memory even in Baltimore at that Hazardous Time — Item in 
 his Will touching his Burial. 
 
 At the time of his demise Mr. Tyler was a member of the 
 provisional, and member elect of the permanent, Confederate 
 Congress. 
 
 On the 18th day of January, a.d. 1862, at the city of Rich- 
 mond, after a short illness, in the full possession of his mental 
 faculties, conscious that death was near, calm and collected, he 
 bade this world farewell, and departed this life with dignity and 
 without fear, perfectly composed, a firm believer in the atone- 
 ment of the Son of God, and in the efficacy of his blood to wash 
 away every stain of mortal sin. 
 
 He was by faith and by heirship a member of the Episcopal 
 Church of Christ, and never doubted Divine Revelation. He 
 was an honest, affectionate, benevolent, loving man, who had 
 fought the battles of this life bravely and truly, doing his 
 whole great duty without fear, though not without much unjust 
 reproach ; with a genial soul, glowing with good will to man, 
 and reverence to God, and so righteous that his worst enemy 
 on earth might well pray, " Oh that my latter end be like his !" 
 
 He had forgiven all his foes long before he died, and did them 
 more than justice whenever he spoke of their despiteful usage 
 to him. In the last scenes of our intercourse with him in the 
 convention which declared secession, he passed in that body a 
 eulogy on Henry Clay, so undeserved from him upon one who 
 
 (283) 
 
284 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 had, in the Senate of the United States, so fiercely denounced 
 him, that we could not refrain from reproaching him privately 
 for uttering even what was truthful in the encomium. But for 
 this charity and this forgiving temper and disposition he was 
 richly and rarely rewarded. No man in all history ever so out- 
 lived calumny and all enmity of others as he did. When he left 
 his fellow-men he left nothing in their hearts and memories but 
 admiration and veneration of his character, and the remem- 
 brance of the good deeds he had done. And his good deeds 
 were not "interred with his bones." They are now living in 
 the policy his Presidency pursued. 
 
 Immediately on the day of his death, the General Assembly 
 of the State of Virginia took obituary action. 
 
 SENATE. 
 "DEATH OF PKESIDENT TYLEE. 
 
 " The President laid before the Senate the following communi- 
 cation from the Executive : 
 
 " Executive Department, January 18, 1862. 
 
 "Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Delegates, — 
 John Tyler departed this life at his lodgings, in this city, after 
 a brief illness, at twelve o'clock last night. Mr. Tyler has 
 served the people of Yirginia with ability and distinction, in 
 various public positions, for almost half a century. He has served 
 in the General Assembly, on the Executive Council, in the House 
 of Representatives of the United States, as Governor of the 
 State, Senator in Congress, Vice-President and President of the 
 United States, member of the State Convention of 1829-30 
 and the Convention of 1861, and at the time of his death was 
 a member of the Provisional Congress, and a member elect of 
 the Permanent Congress, of the Confederate States. His ser- 
 vices have been important and valuable ; and in all of these posi- 
 tions he has fully met the public expectations. The loss of such 
 a man, at a time when his talents and experience are so greatly 
 needed in the public councils, is a calamity greatly to be de- 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 285 
 
 plored. Well may the people of Virginia and the Southern 
 Confederacy mourn for the loss of one not less distinguished 
 for his manly virtues than his brilliant career as a statesman. , 
 
 " Respectfully, 
 
 " John Letcher. 
 
 " On motion of Mr. Dickinson, of Prince Edward, the commu- 
 nication was laid on the table and ordered to be printed. 
 
 "A message was received from the House of Delegates, com- 
 municating resolutions commemorating the death of Hon. John 
 Tyler. The preamble and resolutions were read by the clerk 
 of the Senate, as follows : 
 
 " The mournful intelligence of the decease of John Tyler, after 
 a brief illness, has cast a gloom over this General Assembly. 
 The sad news will spread throughout his native State with 
 painful effect. It will be heard throughout the Southern Con- 
 federacy with deep and abiding sorrow. He has filled a large 
 space in the history of his country. Heaven has blessed him 
 with length of days, and his country with all her honors. He 
 has secured, we believe, a blissful immortality. 
 
 " For the page of history his fame is destined to occupy, it is 
 proper briefly to recount the many offices he has filled. From 
 3'outhful manhood to green old age, he has served his country 
 faithfully, as a member of the House of Delegates, where his 
 ripening intellect displayed the promise of usefulness, and 
 attracted attention ; as a member of the Executive Council, 
 where his wholesome advice lent wisdom to authority ; as the 
 Governor of this Commonwealth, where his administrative 
 powers gave efficacy to law, and his execution of the will of 
 the people, expressed by their representatives, was rendered 
 pleasant by kindness and courtesy ; as a member of the first 
 convention called to amend the State Constitution, in which 
 body his ripened experience gave his counsel the force of wis- 
 dom and prudence ; as a member of the House of Representa- 
 tives of the United States, standing firm amid the rage of party 
 spirit and remaining true to principle and to right ; as a Senator 
 representing this State in the Senate of the United States, in 
 
286 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 which he shone conspicuous for his strict adherence to constitu- 
 tional obligation and for his manly defense of ihe rights of the 
 States and the honor of the country ; as Vice-President of the 
 United States, presiding over the deliberations of the Senate 
 with dignity and impartiality, preserving the decorum of a body 
 that then was a model for legislative assemblies; as President 
 of the United States, when the national honor and reputation 
 were acknowledged unimpeached and unimpaired in every land, 
 and the powers of the earth looked up to the new government 
 as an exemplar of morals and of power worthy of respect and 
 imitation. He thus, step by step, ascended to the eminence 
 from which he surveyed his country, peaceful and glorious, and 
 calmly retired in dignity to a private station, happy in the con- 
 templation of a bright career, happy in a refined and prosperous 
 home, happy in the circle of family and friends. 
 
 " His State called him again into her service. She was to be 
 assembled in convention to resist oppression, and to withstand 
 a galling tyranny against which her best men chafed. His ser- 
 vices were invoked to aid in maintaining the high position she 
 had heretofore occupied. He came from his retirement. He ad- 
 vised separation in peace, or war to vindicate her honor. He 
 was again selected a commissioner to tender to the govern- 
 ment at Washington the ter^ns upon which Virginia would 
 remain united with her former sisters. He was honored with 
 the presidency of that Peace Conference. His manly appeals 
 for justice were uttered and unheeded. He returned, and 
 recommended separation and independence. His advice was 
 taken. It became necessary to form and establish another 
 government for the new Confederacy. He was appointed by 
 the Sovereign Convention of Virginia a member of the Provis- 
 ional Congress. While occupying a conspicuous place in the 
 eyes of the Confederacy, and the new government was as- 
 suming its permanent basis, he was elected by the people 
 a member to the first House of Representatives of the Con- 
 federate States, with a fair promise still of usefulness, to stamp 
 his wisdom upon the enduring monuments of a new national 
 existence. 
 
THE SEVENTn DECADE. 287 
 
 "But it pleased the Almighty to check his career, and take 
 him to Himself. 
 
 " Such is the brief outline of the career of John Tyler. la 
 private he was the perfect gentleman, the warm-hearted, affec- 
 tionate, social, and delightful companion ; it may be said of him, 
 his kind hand ministered to the wants of the distressed. 
 
 "Besolved, By the General Assembly, as a testimonial of a 
 nation's sorrow for the death of a great and good man, that a 
 joint committee of the Senate and House of Delegates be ap- 
 pointed to confer with a committee of the Congress of the Con- 
 federate States, to make arrangements for his funeral and burial. 
 " Besolved, That, with the consent of his family, his remains 
 be deposited in Hollywood Cemetery, in the city of Richmond, 
 near the remains of James Monroe, and that the Governor of 
 this State be authorized to cause a suitable monument to be 
 erected to his memory. 
 
 " Besolved, That these resolutions be forthwith communicated 
 by the Speaker of the House of Delegates to the Congress of the 
 Confederate States, with a request that they concur therein. 
 
 " Mr. Branch, of Williamsburg, said that as he had the honor 
 to represent a part of the district in which the deceased had 
 lived during a long life of public service, he moved the unani- 
 mous adoption of the preamble and resolutions which had come 
 from the House. 
 
 "Mr, Robertson, of the city of Richmond. — ' I cannot permit 
 the occasion to pass without saying a few words to express my 
 sense of the merits and virtues of a deceased friend. On my 
 way to the Capitol this morning, I learned that John Tyler, 
 late President of the United States, had paid that debt which, 
 sooner or later, must be exacted of us all. It was my good 
 fortune to be acquainted with him, I may say intimately, from 
 early life, dating from my college days. I have known him in 
 all the walks and through all the relations of life. It were need- 
 less for me to recount the attributes of his character, his integ- 
 rity, his high attainments, his devotion to his country. I am 
 not accustomed to the language of eulogy. Fortunately for me, 
 and fortunately for my friend, he needs none. The high places 
 
288 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 of trust which he has received through his whole life, commend 
 him to the hearts of all. 
 
 " ' Sir, if there was any one trait that marked his character 
 more than another, it was his firm devotion to those principles 
 which carried the American people through the war of the 
 Revolution, and to the same principles which, I hope, will before 
 long carry us through the struggle in which we are engaged. 
 I need not speak more fully of the many high offices which he 
 has filled. They are too well known to be repeated. His acts 
 and his character are identified with the history of our State 
 and country, and are known in Europe. I am confident that no 
 dissenting voice will be heard upon the passage of these resolu- 
 tions. It is in consequence of my representing this district that 
 I felt it incumbent on me to make these few remarks.' 
 
 "Mr. Dickinson, of Prince Edward, had not intended to have 
 uttered one word on this mournful occasion. He had not even 
 heard of the illness of Mr. Tyler till he was startled, (while on 
 his way to this chamber) with the sad announcement which 
 filled him with sorrow and surprise. 'Deeply sympathizing in 
 the just tribute to his memory, which these resolutions so appro- 
 priately propose, I should be untrue to the promptings of my 
 own heart, and unfaithful in reflecting the high appreciation in 
 which he was held, by those whom I represent on this floor, if 
 I failed to unite in expressing my own grief and theirs. Unlike 
 the venerable senators who have preceded me, I am too young 
 to have been admitted to the relations of personal intimacy with 
 the distinguished and lamented dead, which they enjoyed. And 
 yet from my boyhood it was my privilege to know and regard 
 him as a friend and political guide. As a public man, I have 
 been accustomed to look to the principles which governed his 
 career with more than ordinary respect. 
 
 " 'I am untaught, sir, in the language of eulogy ; my heart is 
 too full to attempt it on this sad occasion. Nor is it necessary 
 that I should. Our illustrious friend, by a long life of useful- 
 ness in the public service, extending through a period of half a 
 century, in every dignified position, from a seat in this Assem- 
 bly to the Presidential chair, wrote his own eulogy in his 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE, 289 
 
 country's history. By his talents and attainments, his nnyield- 
 ing integrity and elevated devotion to principles, his lofty and 
 ardent patriotism, happily blended with those high qualities of 
 public and personal purity, which dignified and adorned his 
 character, he has erected in the hearts of a grateful people a 
 monument which will long be cherished as a national treasure. 
 
 " ' Identified with the history of the country through a long 
 and eventful life, mingling as he had done in the stirring scenes 
 of party strife, it was his happiness to outjive the animosities 
 and heart-burnings which they engendered, and to be univer- 
 sally regarded in the calm eve of his life as a patriot statesman. 
 Thus favored, he has gone to his last account. A patriot and a 
 statesman has fallen, and a nation mourns his loss. He fell 
 where he ever stood, foremost in the ranks, battling for the best 
 interests of the country which he loved with the affection of a 
 pious son. These tidings will thrill with painful interest 
 throughout this young republic, in whose service he has fallen 
 at the post of duty. 
 
 " ' But, sir, there is another, a narrower and a holier circle, 
 within which this afflictive stroke will fall with peculiar heavi- 
 ness — where those gentle and endearing traits of private virtue 
 which so eminently adorned his character, shone with unusual 
 luster. I would not intrude too soon upon the sanctity of 
 domestic grief to mingle ray tears with theirs ; yet I cannot fail 
 to remember that their grief, though more poignant than ours, 
 is yet common to us all. Like them, we too will cherish his 
 memory with all that warm affection which his life inspired. 
 
 " ' I trust, and feel assured, that these resolutions will com- 
 mand the unanimous assent of the Senate.' 
 
 " Mr. Collier, of Petersburg, and Mr. Isbell, of Jefferson, also 
 spoke. We regret that we have not space to add to the above 
 even the substance of their feeling and eloquent remarks upon 
 the character and services of the subject of the resolutions. It 
 was evident that, in the tributes that were thus paid, it was the 
 aim of the several speakers to rest the merits of the distinguished 
 statesman upon the single and appropriate language of justice 
 and truth. 
 
 19 
 
290 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION: 
 
 " The committee nominated on the part of the Senate to meet 
 the committee on the part of the House, to carry out the object 
 designated in the resolutions, consisted of Messrs. Branch, 
 Robertson, Collier, Isbell, Newman, Johnson, and Wiley. 
 
 " After the announcement of the committee as above, the 
 Senate adjourned. 
 
 HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 
 
 " The House met at 12 o'clock, Mr. Collier in the Chair. 
 Prayer by Rev. Dr. Moore. 
 
 " The Speaker pro tern, presented to the House the follow- 
 ing communication from the Governor : 
 
 " Executive Department, January 18, 1862. 
 
 " Gentlemen op the Senate and House of Delegates, — 
 John Tyler departed this life at his lodgings, in this city, 
 after a brief illness, at twelve o'clock last night. Mr. Tyler 
 has served the people of Virginia with ability and distinction, in 
 various public positions, for almost half a century. He has served 
 in the General Assembly, on the Executive Council, in the House 
 of Representatives of the United States, as Governor of the 
 State, Senator in Congress, Vice-President and President of the 
 United States, member of the State Convention of 1829-30 
 and the Conventiod of 1861, and at the time of his death was a 
 member of the Provisional Congress, and a member elect to the 
 Permanent Congress, of the Confederate States. His services 
 have been important and valuable; and in all of these positions 
 he has fully met the public expectations. The loss of such a 
 man, at a time when his talents and experience are so greatly 
 needed in the public councils, is a calamity greatly to be de- 
 plored. Well may the people of Virginia and the Southern 
 Confederacy mourn for the loss of one not less distinguished for 
 his manly virtues than his brilliant career as a statesman. 
 
 " Respectfully, 
 
 " John Letcher. 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 291 
 
 " Mr. Barbour arose, and said tliat tlie mournful fact communi- 
 cated in that message marked one of the events in our national 
 history. It would be unjust for him to enter into a eulogy 
 upon the deceased statesman. That man was the last great 
 link that connected the generation that made the first immortal 
 revolution with the generation that made the present one. 
 Through all that lapse of time John Tyler stood high in the 
 honor and confidence of the people of Virginia. His name has 
 become historic. 
 
 " In conclusion, Mr. Barbour presented a series of joint resolu- 
 tions in reference to Mr. Tyler's death, which were unanimously 
 adopted. (The resolutions will be found in our Senate report.) 
 
 " Mr. Newton, of Westmoreland, said that, unprepared as we 
 all are by this event, he still felt that he must offer his tribute 
 to a dear friend and an illustrious statesman. John Tyler was 
 no ordinary man. He was truly a great and illustrious one. 
 It might be said of him, as was said of another illustrious man, 
 ' He has sounded all the depths and shoals of honor.' There 
 was no office that he had not filled with honor. Though he 
 (Mr. Newton) had been sometimes alienated from him in the 
 turmoil of political life, he had ever been ready to testify to his 
 worth and purity of purpose. Mr. Newton adverted to memo- 
 ries which such an occasion as this, in this hall, brought flock- 
 ing to his mind. When he first entered here, John Tyler was 
 Governor of the Commonwealth. He looked around in vain for 
 those who then filled these seats. They were all gone. He 
 looked towards the seat where the Chatham of Virginia was 
 wont to sit muffled in his flannels, or leaning on his crutch 
 (William B. Giles), and he could imagine he almost saw him 
 now, hurling his thunders at wrong and oppression. 
 
 " Mr. Newton called over other names of departed Virginians 
 who distinguished this room when he first came here. Their 
 absence brought up mournful feelings, and served to teach us 
 the shortness of life. 
 
 " Mr. Robertson, of Richmond, said that he was impelled by 
 feelings he could not repress, and would not repress if he could, 
 to offer a few words. But he felt deeply pained to know that, 
 
292 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 SO suddenly called on, the tribute must be imperfect and utterly 
 inadequate to the occasion. It was but a few minutes only 
 since information had reached him of the death of Mr. Tyler, 
 and in that brief period it was impossible for the mind even to 
 have reviewed the many and illustrious series of his services, 
 or to have catalogued the multitude of his virtues. He would 
 not attempt the hopeless task. But he might be permitted to 
 signalize the rare benignity of his nature, that embraced all in 
 the folds of his love, and in time attracted the love of all with 
 whom he came in contact ; for it mattered not how far men dif- 
 fered from him in opinion, or blamed or approved his cour-se, 
 still there was that in him which attracted all who approached 
 him. He thought he had never known a man so universally 
 attractive and winning as John Tyler, nor one whose heart was 
 more open to every genial and kindly affection. 
 
 " As a statesman, his career had been eminently distinguished. 
 In that highest part of it, as President of the United States, he 
 administered our affairs with great ability. In that part of it, in 
 particular, which concerned our foreign relations, and to which 
 other nations mainly look for an estimate of a public man, his 
 administration was a brilliant success. It may compare for 
 wisdom, energy, and an enlightened perception of our foreign 
 policy, with any, even the most brilliant, of the administrations 
 that preceded it. I rejoiced, therefore, that he still lived to shed 
 in the eyes of the world that just weight and dignity to the 
 cause of the South, reflected on them by his participation in 
 our councils. I had even looked to his carrying into a yet 
 higher sphere than that to which he had already been called, the 
 advantages of that trail of glory as a statesman which, seen afar 
 off by the nations, could not but reflect a certain luster on the 
 new government now undergoing those heavy trials which every 
 people must meet in asserting their independence. But the hope 
 and all of that future connected with Mr. Tyler's name, on earth, 
 is past. Mr. R. would not pursue his remarks further. He was 
 too sensible how far they fell short of what his wishes or the 
 merits of the subject demanded. 
 
 " Mr. Anderson, of Botetourt, added his tribute to the exalted 
 
THE SEVEiYTR DECADE. 293 
 
 worth of the great man who had just left us. It had been his 
 pleasure to have had a long acquaintance with John Tyler. He 
 had entered public life when Mr. Tyler was a prominent states- 
 man before the country. When he was but a youth, he had 
 first formed an intimacy with him ; and neve:- liad an acquaint- 
 anceship been more delightful. He had never met a man of 
 more winning manners. He united all the highest social quali- 
 ties. No statesman had been called to higher stations. No 
 one had spent so much of his life in the service of his country. 
 His career is an example for our young men. Notwithstanding 
 the infirmities of age, he put on his armor and stood forth iu 
 the front ranks of the defenders battling for their country's 
 rights. He did not doubt that the news of his death would 
 sink deep in the hearts of the people throughout the length and 
 breadth of the Confederacy. He hoped and believed that he 
 was now in a more blissful world. 
 
 " Mr. Laidley could not let the occasion pass without respond- 
 ing for the younger members of the House. On their part he 
 would say that John Tyler's life would serve them as an ex- 
 ample worthy of emulation, and that the story of his virtues 
 should be handed down to their children's children. 
 
 "Mr. Jones, of Gloucester, said that he came from the same 
 section that gave John Tyler to Virginia. He had known him 
 in childhood ; indeed, he might say he had been raised with his 
 children, and in his intercourse with him he almost looked up to 
 him as a father. In his college days he had received the same 
 fatherly encouragement and assistance. He felt, therefore, that 
 he knew him well enough to say that in every community 
 in which he lived he was without an enemy. All loved him 
 as a friend. In his social relations he was no less esteemed. 
 He would not speak of his career as a statesman. As time 
 advances, his name shall grow brighter, until time shall be no 
 more. 
 
 " The Speaker appointed the following committee under the 
 resolutions : 
 
 " Messrs. Barbour, Robertson of Richmond, Hunter, Blue, 
 Jones of Grloucester, Mallory, Sanders, Newton, Anderson of 
 
294 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 Botetourt, Sheffey, McCamaut, Rives, and Grattan. He also 
 appointed Mr. Barboui' to report the resolutions to the Senate. 
 " The House then adjourned." 
 
 On the Monday following, the 20th of the month, the Con- 
 federate Congress took action. 
 
 ^''THE LATE EX-PEESIDENT TYLEE. 
 
 "PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS. 
 
 "Xt the close of the very appropriate tribute by Mr. Macfar- 
 land, published in the Whig of yesterday, Mr. Hunter, of Vir- 
 ginia, rose, and said: 
 
 ' — " ''1 rise to offer my tribute of respect to the memory of the 
 deceased. 
 
 " 'As has been well said, the name of John Tyler, now passed 
 into the possession of history, has an order of its own in that 
 great sanctuary. Its sojourn is over. Nothing can now dim 
 its luster as it passes down the tide of time. 
 
 " * It is said, sir, there is something in the story of the hum- 
 blest life, which, if rightly told, will afford food for profitable 
 study. With how much of interest, then, do we turn to the 
 contemplation of the lives of those who have been martyrs of 
 their kind, who have left examples for the imitation of posterity; 
 of those whose voices have been the most persuasive and con- 
 vincing in council, and whose shout, like that of the king, has 
 been most potent in marshaling the hosts 1 
 
 "* Among the public men of our day, John Tyler has been 
 one of the most marked and distinguished. With him disap- 
 pears the last, save one who now sits in this chamber, of those 
 great men who adorned the Senate of the United States when 
 I first entered upon public life with him. We shall bury the 
 last of the line, the illustrious line of Southern Presidents 
 whose names have connected us with the highest honors of the 
 Union from which we have just parted. Does not this deepen 
 the sense of our separation as we see one by one pass away, 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 205 
 
 not only the material links, but the ties of personal association 
 which bound us to those whom we have lately left? 
 
 " ' No man, Mr. President, has more fully completed the circle 
 of honors which were opened to the aspirations of our public 
 men than John Tyler. Scarcely had he attained his majority 
 when he was sent to the House of Delegates in Virginia. After 
 a service of a few years there, he was successively elected a 
 member of the Executive Council, a member of the House of 
 Representatives of the United States, Governor of the State 
 of Virginia, Senator of the United States, Vice-President of 
 the United States, from which, by the death of General Harri- 
 son, and through the operation of the Constitution, he was 
 elevated to the Chief Magistracy of the land. Noi', sir, did his 
 career end even there. When secession began and presaged 
 the storm which is now sweeping over the land, he was sent to 
 the Convention of Virginia, and by that body to the Peace Con- 
 gress, over the deliberations of which he presided ; thence to 
 this Congress, and afterwards was elected by his constituents 
 to the House of Representatives of the Confederate Congress, 
 soon to assemble in this place. 
 
 '" But, full as was his life of honors, it was not more distin- 
 guished by them than by its achievements. From the com- 
 mencement of his public career, he distinguished himself in 
 whatever body he was serving, and by his eloquence and 
 ability won an honorable place in the estimation of all with 
 whom he associated. An advocate of the doctrines of the 
 State Rights school of Virginia, he for the most part adhered 
 to those doctrines with consistency throughout a long and ardu- 
 ous career. Few men exerted themselves more to preserve the 
 Constitution of the United States. He was among the first of 
 our public men who, with the great Calhoun, declared that "the 
 Constitution and the union of the States was one and insepara- 
 ble." From the period of the Nullification controversy, from 
 the time when he gave his solitary vote against the Force Bill 
 in the Congress of the United States, to his last appearance in 
 Washington at the Peace Conference, he declared the Union 
 and the Constitution must live or perish together. 
 
296 SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION: 
 
 " ' He exerted his utmost powers to preserve the Constitution 
 and the administration of the executive affairs of the United 
 States. Forced to choose between the desire to gratify the 
 wishes of his personal friends, who had elevated him to the 
 office, on the one hand, and a sense of constitutional obligation 
 on the other, he determined finally to sacrifice the friends with 
 whom he had been associated. From that time forward it was 
 his lot to administer the affairs of the nation, over which he 
 presided in the midst of the severest party struggles the coun- 
 try had ever known, without the cordial support of either 
 great political division by which the people were then divided ; 
 and he had to discharge his high duties in the face of such 
 difficulties as had never been encountered by any of his pre- 
 decessors. But, in despite of that spiint, he called around him 
 some of the ablest intellects of the land, — Webster, Upshur, 
 Legare, Calhoun, — who aided him in one of the most success- 
 ful administrations which appears in the annals of American 
 affairs. 
 
 " ' It was this administration that added Texas, an empire, to 
 the Confederacy ; and it was this administration that success- 
 fully accomplished the Ashburton treaty between Great Britain 
 and the United States. It was in this administration that Mr. 
 Calhoun, in his celebrated letter to Mr. King, for the first time 
 made a public demonstration in favor of the right of the slave- 
 holding States to respect and protection ; and it was this admin- 
 istration which gave a final and fatal blow to the United States 
 Bank. But prominent, sir, as was this administration, it was, 
 perhaps, not so distinguished as his closing career. He had 
 already reached the year of threescore and ten, when he was 
 called from his retirement to aid in making up that great issue 
 of human destiny which is now being submitted to the arbitra- 
 ment of trial, as it is said, between nearly a million of armed men. 
 True to the life-long professions of the past, his first effort was 
 to preserve the Constitution, and, if possible, to save the Union 
 with it; but, when disappointed in that hope, none was more 
 determined than he to cut loose his native State from its peril- 
 ous connection with enemies in disguise — none more resolved 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 291 
 
 to make common cause with the South and take whatever might 
 be the consequence of the act. 
 
 " 'We all know he threw himself into the cause with his whole 
 soul. Gentlemen here present will testify to the truth of what 
 I say when I affirm that to the last he devoted himself to it 
 with a courage that did not quail, with a hope that did not 
 falter, and with a purpose that held out to tlie last extremity 
 and relaxed not to the end. 
 
 " 'Mr. President, it may truly be said that with John Tyler 
 there has fallen a great man. I know, sir, that the death of 
 any good man is the cause of grief to the friendly survivors ; 
 and yet I feel I do not err when I say that my deceased col- 
 league was as fortunate in his death as in his life. As a soldier 
 on the field of battle falls, he fell at the post of duty. A life, 
 when it was full of years and honors, passed away. He left us 
 before age had bowed his form or dimmed the luster of his in- 
 tellect ; when the future course of his life was about to promise 
 him more of pleasure than grief. To-morrow we shall deposit 
 him beneath the sod of that soil which he loved so well — on 
 the beautiful banks of the James, where his slumbers will be 
 soothed by the sound of its falling waters. Day after day, in 
 the years yet to come, the morning and evening shadows shall 
 lend a silent and varied charm to the scene ; and when her hour 
 of struggle is over, Virginia, as she leans upon her bloody spear 
 to contemplate the past, and beholding the rising glories of her 
 day, will lift her gauntleted hand to brush away the tear for the 
 loss of him who, in the decline of life, exhausted his dying 
 energies in her behalf, and staked his life, his fortune, his repu- 
 tation upon the result, which will bring her safety and honor. 
 Sir, she will embalm his memory in her best affections, and 
 hand it down to her generations yet to come ; and their chil- 
 dren's children will transmit his honored name as an inheritance 
 of princely value — an heirloom which has already run through 
 more than two generations of distinguished men. 
 
 " ' But it is not my purpose, sir, to draw a portrait of this 
 great man. His is a character which men will choose to study 
 themselves ; and they will seek it in the monuments of his own 
 
29S SEVEN DECADES OF THE UNION. 
 
 creation rather than in the testimonials of his friends ; but per- 
 haps, sir, it will not be deemed as usurping the historian's place, 
 were I to say of him, he was kind and genial in all the relations 
 of private life, and that he used the gift of the eloquence with 
 which he was so highly endowed, in the public service, and not 
 fur selfish purposes; that his faculties for usefulness seemed 
 always to rise to the level of the demand upon them ; that he 
 was most able to discharge his duty under the most difficult 
 circumstances, and that he served his native State with a love 
 and fidelity which are beyond all praise. 
 
 " 'Mr. President, is there no useful lesson which we ourselves 
 may draw from this occasion ? Is there nothing in it that will 
 deepen our sense of the uncertainty of human life and the in- 
 stability of human affairs ? Within how short a period has 
 death sent its summons in our very midst ? Does not this im- 
 press us with the utter worthlessness of the span of life allotted 
 to any one of us, unless we use it for the purpose of preparing 
 for another and better and more enduring state ? Do not the 
 scenes passing before us impress on us still more forcibly the 
 sublime truth, " The duties of life are to be preferred to life 
 itself" V 
 
 7 
 
 "Mr. Rives, of Virginia, then spoke as follows: 
 " ' I should be wanting, Mr. President, to my own feelings, if 
 not to the memory of our departed friend, were I not to claim 
 the privilege of an older and longer acquaintance with him, 
 perhaps, than any other member on this floor possessed, to add 
 a few words to what has been already so appropriately and 
 eloquently said by my honorable colleagues. It is now some- 
 what more than half a century since, a school-boy in the ancient 
 city of Williamsburg, I first made the acquaintance of Mr. Tyler, 
 then a law student of our common Alma Mater, preparing to 
 enter upon the career of active life. It was thus given me to 
 observe the whole progress of his orb in the heavens, from its 
 first appearance above the horizon, through its meridian bright- 
 ness and splendor, to its final and serene setting in the western 
 sky, which we are met this day to commemorate. 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 299 
 
 " ' As a youu^ man, when I first saw Mr. Tyler, he was dis- 
 tinj^-uirihed by the same blandness and courtesy of manners, the 
 prepossessing address, and the graceful and captivating elocution, 
 which we have all seen displayed by him in this hall. These 
 qualities, the sure passport, in a government like ours, to popu- 
 lar favor and public distinction, bore him through a succession 
 of public employments. As soon as he was of age, he was 
 elected by his native county of Charles City to the House of 
 Delegates of Virginia. His first session in that body was, if 
 I mistake not, in the memorable year of 1811-12, which wit- 
 nessed the bold measure of the declaration of war made by the 
 United States against Great Britain ; and the young legislator 
 became thus closely identified with that high-spirited generation 
 of American statesmen, who, succeeding immediately to the 
 great men of the Revolution — the conscript fathers of the Re- 
 public—continued, for thirty or forty years after them, to con- 
 duct the affairs of the Union with a patriotism, ability, and suc- 
 cess worthy of their noble sires. 
 
 "'In the different representative assemblies of which Mr. 
 Tyler was successively a member, he was brought into contact 
 with the highest intellects of the age. In the legislature of 
 Yirginia, he was a member of the House of Delegates with 
 Littleton Waller Tazewell, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, Charles 
 Teuton Mercer, Robert Stanard, Philip Doddridge, General 
 Blackburn, and many others of the most gifted spirits of this 
 ancient commonwealth. In the House of Representatives of the 
 United States, he was contemporary with Henry Clay, William 
 Lowndes, John Randolph, Henry St. George Tucker, John 
 Forsyth, Louis McLane, and a host of other distinguished men 
 who then illustrated the national forum. Being generally the 
 youngest member of the body to which he belonged, and emu- 
 lous of distinction, he was stimulated to the highest exertion 
 of his powers by the living models of excellence with which he 
 was surrounded, and his mind was thus kept in a perpetual pro- 
 gress of development and expansion. 
 
 " ' Trained and formed under these auspices, he proved him- 
 self equal to all the various and arduous posts of public duty 
 
300 SEVEN DEGADES OF THE UNION: 
 
 to which he was called by the favor and confidence of his coun- 
 trymen. In the highest of them all, he gave an honorable proof 
 of the elevation and magnanimity of his character, bringing into 
 the leading Executive Departments the most towering talents 
 of the country, to aid him in the administration of the govern- 
 ment. The selection of such men as Webster, Calhoun, Legare, 
 Upshur, and Spencer proved how far he was above the opera- 
 tion of any unworthy sentiment of jealousy, or fear of being 
 overshadowed in the public estimation by his official advisers ; 
 while his personal management of several of the most delicate 
 questions of his administration — I refer more particularly to his 
 broad and comprehensive treatment of the question of the 
 annexation of Texas, and the firmness with which he upheld the 
 cause of constitutional republican government in Rhode Island 
 against the outbreak of an unlicensed democracy — attested the 
 large and matured statesmanship he had himself acquired in 
 the schools of practical instruction in which he was bred. 
 
 " ' But this is neither the time nor the place to enter upon a 
 discussion of the merits of Mr. Tyler's administration of the 
 Federal government, when, by a sudden and unexpected dis- 
 pensation of Providence, he was placed at the head of it. No 
 one would more earnestly have deprecated the revival of for- 
 gotten controversies than himself. Among the qualities which 
 most eminently and honorably distinguished him was an habitual 
 kindliness of disposition, and a generous appreciation of others, 
 even of those who were his political enemies and opponents, 
 It was about two years ago, in this city, on a public and mem- 
 orable occasion, he did himself the highest honor by a warm, 
 spontaneous, and manly tribute to the character of a great man 
 and deceased patriot, who had stood toward him in the attitude 
 of a powerful and declared opponent. 
 
 " ' In reviewing the eventful life of Mr. Tyler, we are led, 
 almost irresistibly, to apply to him a descriptive epithet by 
 which the Romans were accustomed to express a quality that 
 ever inspired their confidence and admiration. By that epithet 
 — felix — they did not mean to designate a person who was 
 merely fortunatei but one who, by a happy combination of well- 
 
THE SEVENTH DECADE. 301 
 
 tempered attributes, knew, in a measure, how to command or 
 propitiate fortune. This sentiment was embodied by them in a 
 maxim, tersely expressed by their great satirist — nullum numen 
 abest, si sit prudentia. Thus it was with Mr. Tyler. By a 
 rare union of prudence, good sense, and good temper, set off by 
 the natural gifts of oratory and a persuasive address, he won 
 the hearts of the people and commanded the favors of fortune ; 
 and success waited upon him in every step of his public career. 
 
 " ' Delegate in the legislature of his State, representative in 
 Congress, Governor, Senator, Vice-President, President — he 
 "sounded all the depths and shoals of honor;" and in every 
 trust he acquitted himself to the satisfaction of his constituents. 
 After having filled with honor the highest offices of the govern- 
 ment of the Union — which sank, at length, under the degen- 
 eracy and corruption of the times — he lived to take a leading 
 part in the establishment of a new Confederacy for the South, 
 which had all his affections and all- his hopes ; and as a member 
 of this House, he gave his anxious labors to the great cause of 
 securing and perpetuating the structure. 
 
 " ' His duties as a member of this body engaged his deepest 
 solicitude. Unwilling to withdraw himself from them for a 
 single day without the proper and formal sanction of the House, 
 he said to me, the day before the fatal termination of his disease, 
 that, if he should be compelled to go home to recruit his health, 
 as he should probably find it necessary to do, he wished me to 
 apply to the House for leave of absence for him. A far higher 
 authority, the great Governor of the Universe, has granted him 
 that leave of absence — not from this hall merely, but from all 
 sublunary concerns henceforward forever. He now rests from 
 his labors ; but he has bequeathed to us the rich inheritance of 
 his patriotic example and of his counsels. 
 
 " ' This second admonition of the transitory tenure of human 
 existence, with which, after so short an interval, we have been 
 visited in this hall, reminds us most impressively that "the 
 paths of glory lead but to the grave." But still it is not per- 
 mitted to us to repine. "One generation passeth away, and 
 another cometh ; but the earth abideth forever." Here, while 
 
302 SEVEN DECADES OF TEE UNION. 
 
 we continue, we have our allotted work ; and as those who 
 have gone before us have labored and toiled, so must we, in our 
 turn, toil and labor, to carry forward the great schemes of 
 Divine Providence in the moral government of the world ; and 
 if we do so in humble submission to the will of Him who 
 ruleth the destinies of men and nations, we, too, shall have our 
 reward.'" 
 
 The citizens of Richmond did honor to his remains in more 
 than usual form of respect and reverence; and, in those dan- 
 gerous times, when men in Baltimore dared hardly whisper in 
 bated breath the name of a rebel with respect, there even tears 
 were not suppressed, and his praise and the grief of mourners 
 were spoken and sobbed out aloud over his departure. 
 
 His will had been written more than two years before he 
 died ; and several of its passages are so remarkably character- 
 istic of the man that they are inserted : 
 
 " My Will. 1. In the name of God. Amen. This is my 
 last will and testament, written wholly with my own hand, 
 with my name subscribed thereto, this 10th day of October, in 
 the year of our Lord and Saviour 1859, whereby I revoke and 
 annul all other wills and testaments heretofore made by me. 
 
 " II. In the first place, I empower my dear wife to make out 
 of my estate suitable provision for my burial, which I wish to 
 be accompanied with no unnecessary expense. Let the people 
 of this county [Charles City], whose fathers helped me on 
 in my battles of life with a zeal and constancy rarely ever 
 equaled and never surpassed, be invited to attend my funeral 
 obsequies ; and let my body be consigned to the tomb in the 
 earth of the county wherein I was born, there to repose until 
 the day of resurrection. My wife will select the spot on 
 'Sherwood Forest' [his residence], and mark it by an un- 
 costly monument of granite or marble. I desire also that she 
 will cause a suitable memorial to be erected over the remains 
 of my father and mother, at ' Greenway,' should it not be 
 done in my lifetime ; inscriptions both for my own and theirs 
 will be found in the paper inclosing this." 
 
THE SEVEXTH DECADE. 303 
 
 In the sixth item he provides, " I desire also that my wife 
 will take good care of my faithful servants, William Short and 
 Fanny Hall, so that their old aye can be rendered comfortable." 
 
 A question was raised whether he was born at Greenway, 
 in the county of Charles City, or at Warburton, in the county 
 of James City. His will settled that doubt; Greenway was 
 undoubtedly the residence of his parents, and there, too, was 
 the birthplace and home of his nativity. There was the cradle 
 and nursery of his infancy, the play-ground of his childhood, 
 and there were the scenes which caught the first observations 
 and experiences of which he was capable. 
 
 In these touching clauses of his will he shows that beautiful 
 amor loci which is the foundation of the amor j^o-triae, the 
 ruling passion of his life, the warm, natural poetry of his com- 
 position — that poetry which Campbell so sweetly sung : 
 
 "There is a land, of every land the pride, 
 Beloved by Heaven o'er every land beside. 
 There is a spot of earth supremely blest, 
 A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest." 
 
 His land was his country, his State was Yirginia, and in 
 death he clung to "the earth of the county wherein he was 
 born," — his "dear wife" to "select the spot," dearer, sweeter 
 than all the rest, on " Sherwood Forest," and to mark it by an 
 uncostly monument of granite or marble. 
 
 As yet his body is interred at Hollywood Cemetery, near the 
 remains of Mr. Monroe. It is due that the State of Virginia 
 shall erect his monument. He belongs to the State. But let 
 the people of Charles City not forget that they were affection- 
 ately invited to his "funeral obsequies," and that they will 
 but elevate and ennoble themselves by coming up every anni- 
 versary of his birth to pluck out every weed which may intrude 
 near his grave, and to wreathe his tomb with "immortelles." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY. 
 
 It remains only to narrate Mr. Tyler's connection with the 
 College of William and Mary, and to express the interest he 
 took in her welfare. 
 
 His Alma Mater is " full of years and full of honors," and 
 has been the mother of instruction to pupils who have given 
 birth to events of the greatest magnitude on this continent. 
 
 For an epitome of her history we proudly refer to the " Sketch," 
 prepared by the lamented Professor Morrison, prefixed to the 
 latest published catalogue, entitled " College of William and 
 Mary, 1693 to 1870." But in that epitome there is an important 
 error. Why say from 1693? The college had its foundation 
 before that year. As stated by the professor, in 1619 a large 
 appropriation of land was made to endow a university to 
 be established at Henrico for the colonists and Indians ; and 
 it is also true that about the same time contributions were 
 made through the bishops of London to endow a college in 
 Virginia for the Indians, and in 1621 a subscription was made 
 to endow the East India School at Charles City, and land and 
 servants were allotted to it, and that this was all preparatory 
 to the university at Henrico, and that Mr. George Thorpe, a 
 gentleman of His Majesty's privy chamber, came over to be 
 superintendent of the university, and was in 1622, with three 
 hundred and forty of the colonists, including a number of the 
 college tenants, killed by the Indians, But an important error 
 was committed by the professor when he added, "This dis- 
 
 20 ( 305 ) 
 
306 APPENDIX. 
 
 aster, followed bj the troubles in the mother country (the 
 revolution of 1642), and, at a later period, by the discontent 
 and disorders in the colony, which were produced mainly by 
 the arbitrary rule of Sir William Berkeley, the royal governor, 
 and which culminated in Bacon's rebellion, prevented any re- 
 newal of the attempt to establish a college in the Colony of 
 Virginia till the revolution of 1688, which seated William 
 and 3Iary on the English throne,'''' etc. 
 
 Now, neither the massacre in 1622, nor the revolution of 
 1642, nor the discontent and disorders in the colony, nor the 
 arbitrary rule of Sir William Berkeley, nor Bacon's rebellion, 
 nor any other cause, prevented attempts to establish a college 
 in the Colony of Virginia till the revolution in 1688. Nearly 
 thirty years before that revolution in England, the " Grand 
 Assembly," held at James City, March 23, 1660-1, passed 
 Act twentieth, entitled " Provision for a College," in these 
 words: "Whereas the want of able and faithful ministers in 
 this country deprives us of these great blessings and mercies 
 that alhvais attend upon the service of God ; which want, by 
 reason of our great distance from our native country, cannot in 
 probability be alwais supplyed from thence ; Be it enacted, that 
 for the advance of learning, education of youth, supply of the 
 ministry and promotion of piety, there be land taken upon pur- 
 chases foracoliedge and free-schoole, and that there be, with as 
 much speede as may be convenient, houseing erected thereon 
 for entertainment of students and schollers." This act was 
 passed in the 13th Charles II. See II. vol. Hening's "Statutes 
 at Large," p. 25. 
 
 Again : at the same session of the Grand Assembly, Oc- 
 tober, 1660-1, 13th Charles II., " Act 35th" was passed, entitled 
 " A Petition in behalf of the Church." " Be it enacted that 
 there be a petition drawn up by this Grand Assembly to the 
 King's Most Excellent Majestic for his letters pattents to collect 
 and gather the charity of well-disposed people in England, for 
 the erecting of colledges and schooles in this countrye, and 
 also for his Majestie's letters to both Universities of Oxford and 
 Cambridge to furnish the Church here with ministers for the 
 
APPENDIX. 307 
 
 present and this petition to be recommended to the Right 
 Honorable Governor Sir "William Berkeley." See Id., pp. 30-1. 
 
 Again " Att a Grand Assembly held att James Cittie, in 
 "Virginia, 23d March, 1660-1, the following order was made in 
 the Government of the Right Honorable Sir William Berkeley, 
 bis ]\Iajestie's Governor, Mr. Henry Soanes, Speaker : 
 
 "Whereas, for the advancement of learning, promoting piety, 
 and provision of an able and successive ministry in this coun- 
 trie, it hath been thought fit that a colledge of students of the 
 liberal arts and sciences be erected and maintayned, in pursu- 
 ance whereof his Majestie's Governor, Council of State, and 
 burgesses of the present Grand Assembly have severally sub- 
 scribed several considerable sums of money and quantities of 
 tobacco {out of their charity and devotion) to be paid to the 
 Sonorable Grand Assembly or such treasurer or treasurers 
 as they shall now, or their successors hereafter at any time, 
 appoint, upon demand, after a place is provided and built upon 
 for that intent and purpose: It is ordered that the commis- 
 sioners of the severall county courts do, at the next folio winge 
 court in their several countys, subscribe such sums of money 
 and tobacco towards the furthering- and promoteing the said 
 persons and necessary worke to be paid by them or their heirs, 
 as they shall think fitt, and that they also take the subscriptions 
 of such other persons at their said courts who shall be willing 
 to contribute towards the same. And that after such subscrip- 
 tions taken they send orders to the vestrys of the severall 
 parishes in their severall countys for the subscriptions of such 
 inhabitants and others who have not already subscribed, and 
 that the same be returned to Francis Morrison, Esqr." See Id., 
 p. 37. 
 
 Again: "At a Grand Assembly held at James City, March 
 23rd, 1661-2, Anoq. Regni Rs. Carol. SCDI 14, Act 18th 
 March, 1661-2, 14th Charles II., was passed to make 'Pro- 
 vision for a College ' " 
 
 Act 18th, the same as the act before mentioned, passed in 
 1660-1. 
 
 These were the acts of the Grand Assembly, and the orders 
 
308 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the Governor and Council of the Colony of Yirginia, which 
 founded the College of William and Marj. 
 
 We see — 1st, that it was founded for the service of God. 
 
 2d. For the supply of the ministry of the Established Church 
 of England, and that it has always, from the beginning, been 
 made the handmaid of the holy religion of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 3d. That it was begun and established for the advance of 
 learning. 
 
 4th. For the education of youth ; and 
 
 5th. For the promotion of piety. 
 
 We have no doubt that it was founded by the bishops of Lon- 
 don, and was called " The College." It was appropriated for 
 by the Grand Assembly in lands, subscribed for by the govern- 
 ment. Council, burgesses, and contributed to by the Crown, sub- 
 scribed to by the county courts and parish vestries, and by 
 private individuals largely, and doubtless, under the regular 
 clergy of the Church of England, was the only college where 
 any regular, liberal teaching was had for those of the colonists 
 who could not send their sons to the schools of the mother 
 country. It had no name but "Tlie Gollege,^^ and could not have 
 had the name of William and Mary until after the revolution 
 of 1688. Its charter and regular endowments were obstructed 
 by the revolutionary and disturbing events both in England and 
 in the Colony ; and it had no charter until the General Assembly 
 begun at James City, the tenth day of October, in the fifth 
 year of the reign of William and Mary ; but it had endowments 
 and was begun as early as 1660-1. 
 
 That the college existed prior to 1693 is clearly implied by 
 
 " Act III. October, 1693— 5th" William and Mary, 
 
 which was an act ascertaining merely " the place" for erecting 
 the College of William and Mary, in Virginia. The preamble 
 of that act recites the charter: — That their Majesties had most 
 graciously pleased, upon the humble supplication of the General 
 Assembly, by their charter, being dated the eighth day of 
 February, in the fourth year of their reign, to grant their royal 
 
APPENDIX. 309 
 
 license to certain trustees, to lualce, found, erect, and establish 
 a college, named the College of William and Mary, iu Vir- 
 ginia, at a certain place within their government, known by 
 the name of Townsend's Land, and theretofore appointed by 
 the General Assembly. And Townsend's Land, pr-eviously 
 appointed as the place, was substituted, by the Middle Plan- 
 tation, as tlie place for erecting the college to be at that place 
 erected, and built as near the church, then standing in Middle 
 Plantation Old Fields, as convenience would permit. (See 3d 
 H. Stats, at Large, p. 122.) That place is now the spot of 
 " William and Mary." 
 
 The Grand Assembly in 1660-1 had enacted "that land be 
 taken upon purchases for a College and Free Schoole, and that 
 there be, with as much speede as convenient, houseing erected 
 thereon," etc. And at the same session of October, 1661, a 
 petition was enacted by the Grand Assembly to the King for 
 bis "letters patients to collect the charity of well-disposed 
 people in England for the erecting of colleges and schooles." 
 And the orders made at the session of the Grand Assembly, at 
 James Cittie, the twenty-third March, 1661, by the Right Hon. 
 Sir William Berkeley, show that the Governor, the Council of 
 State, and the burgesses of that Assembly had subscribed con- 
 siderable sums of money and quantities of tobacco ; to be paid 
 out of their charity and devotion to the Grand Assembly, or such 
 treasurer as they should then, or thereafter, appoint, upon de- 
 mand, etc.; and the commissioners of the county courts were, 
 at their next following courts, to subscribe sums of money and 
 tobacco to be paid by them or their heirs,— and their subscrip- 
 tions, and those of private persons and of the vestries, were to be 
 returned to Francis Morrison, who was made custodian of the 
 funds. Again, the act of 1660-1 was repeated in the act of 
 1661-2. Now, is it likely that, under these acts and orders of 
 the colonial government, Governor, Council, and burgesses, 
 especially urging " speede," and prompted by the bishops 
 and clergy, both in the colony and in England, no college, or 
 school, was provided without a charter? The act of 1193 
 attests that Townsend's Land had previously been selected for 
 
310 APPENDIX. 
 
 the site of .the college, which, as yet, had no name. The seat 
 of the government was at James Cittie, and Townsend's Land 
 was on, or near, York River ; and could it be there was no 
 school called "The College" at or near the capital of the colony, 
 at James Cittie, from 1660-1 to 1693 ? Townsend's was changed 
 to Middle Plantation, and Sir William Berkeley had contributed 
 to the college, notwithstanding his answer to the inquiries sub- 
 mitted to him by the Lords Commissioners of Foreign Planta- 
 tions, in the book of Escheats of the General Courts, etc., 1665 to 
 1676. The changes in 1693 were merely from private contribu- 
 tion and subscription to a public corporation, and from a custo- 
 dian for the colonial government to regularly constituted trus- 
 tees. The Grand Assembly and the council had commended 
 the plan of the college "to Sir William Berkeley, the royal gov- 
 ernor," and he had favored the order and promoted the subscrip- 
 tions, notwithstanding his prejudices against free schools and 
 printing. 
 
 The twenty-third inquiry submitted by the Lords Commis- 
 sioners of Foreign Plantations to Sir William Berkeley, governor, 
 in 1670, and answered in 1671, was, "What course is taken 
 about instructing the people within your government in the 
 Christian religion ? and what provision is there made for the 
 paying of your ministry ?" 
 
 Answer: " The same course that is taken in England out of 
 towns ; every man according to his ability instructing his 
 children. We have forty-eight parishes, and our ministry are 
 well paid, and by my consent should be better if they would 
 pray oftener and preach less. But of all other commodities, so 
 of this, the worst are sent us, and we had few that we could 
 boast of, since the persecution in Cromwell's tyranny drove 
 divers worthy men hither. But I thank God there are no free 
 schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hun- 
 dred years ; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy 
 and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and 
 libels against the best government. God keep us from both !" 
 (33 2d Hening's Stats, at Large, p. 517.) 
 
 This shows how aristocratic was the prejudice of the royal 
 
APPENDIX. • 311 
 
 governor against popular instruction, and how anxious he must 
 have been to establish "a college of liberal arts and sciences" — 
 liberal to the gentlemen and very illiberal to the people. His 
 ideas of '■^ free schools" and "learning" and "printing" must 
 have been a forecast of Bacon's rebellion, which ffve years 
 later drove him from James Cittie, across the Chesapeake, to 
 Old Plantation on the peninsula of Northampton. Here, too, 
 we have the true idea of the modern meaning in America of 
 the words " the best government." Mr. Hening, in a note with 
 an index, says, " Nothing can dis{)lay in stronger colors the 
 execrable policy of the British government in relation to the 
 colonies, than the sentiments uttered by Sir William Berkeley in 
 his answer to the last interrogatory. These were doubtless his 
 genuine sentiments, which recommended him so highly to the 
 favor of the crown that he continued Governor of Virginia 
 from 1641 to 1677, a period of thirty-six years, if we except 
 the short interval of the Commonwealth and a few occasional 
 times of absence from his government on visits to England. 
 The more profoundly ignorant the colonists could be kept, the 
 better subjects they were for slavery. None but tyrants dread 
 the diffusion of knowledge and the liberty of the press." — Idem, 
 p. 517. 
 
 There was no charter, doubtless, until the 8th day of Febru- 
 ary, in the fourth year of the reign of William and Mary ; but 
 we are authorized, we think, in claiming that " The College" was 
 in existence from 1660-61. The charter constituted trustees of 
 a corporation, but the public and private charity existed in the 
 Grand Assembly, holding by the hands of its treasurer for the 
 time being, and by Mr. Morrison, its custodian. The transfer 
 of the charter of William and Mary by the trustees to the 
 president and masters or professors was signed and sealed by 
 James Blair and Stephen Fouace in the second year of the 
 reign of George the Second, the said Blair and Fouace being 
 the only surviving trustees, and was attested by several of the 
 newly-appointed tru.stees, among the rest by William Gooch, 
 Esqr., his Majesty the Lieutenant-Governor and Commander- 
 in-Chief of the Colony, and Alexander Spottswood, then late 
 
312 • APPENDIX 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony. And this transfer shows 
 that the " messuage" transferred was commonly called " The 
 College,''^ that it was situated in the parish of Bruton, in the 
 county of James City, near the city of Williamsburg. 
 
 William and Mary, thus consecrated by time, is made illus- 
 trious in its patrons, officers, chancellors, rectors, visitors, presi- 
 dents, professors, and alumni. Dr. James Blair, of Scotland, 
 an Episcopal clergyman, was the first president, and, as Mr. 
 Morrison informs us, he was appointed commissary or repre- 
 sentative of the Bishop of London in the colony in 1689. At 
 the instance of the bishop, he came as a missionary to Vir- 
 ginia in 1685. He was appointed president of the college by 
 its charter, and deserves the honor, if not of founder, of placing 
 the institution of learning on a permanent and eminent estab- 
 lishment. His family are still numerous in Virginia, and its 
 members well worthy of the first president of William and 
 Mary. He was a good, great, and eminent man, who had the 
 grace of God and the good of men so strongly in his heart and 
 head, that he was enabled to contend with "powers" combined 
 against his work and to baffle them all. He built up the col- 
 lege from its first regular foundation, and deserves first to be 
 remembered among the first of its patrons, under the authority 
 and control of the bishops of London. 
 
 The first chancellors, until 1764, were the bishops of London. 
 In 1764 the Earl of Hardwicke was chancellor. From 1764 to 1776 
 the bishops of London resumed that office. From 1788 to 1799 
 George Washington was chancellor. The college held the office 
 of Surveyor-General of the colony, and among those appointed 
 by it to that office were George Washington, Zachary Taylor, 
 the grandfather of President Zachary Taylor, and Thomas Jef- 
 ferson. No chancellor seems to have been appointed from the 
 death of George Washington until 1859, when Ex-President 
 John Tyler, of Charles City, was appointed ; and to the day of 
 his death he felt as honored in succeeding George Washington 
 in that office, as he did in the Presidency of the United States. 
 The visitors named in the charter were gentlemen of the highest 
 rank of seventeen counties and of the capital in the colony, and 
 
APPENDIX. 313 
 
 two of them in London. Those of 1T23 were such as Alexan- 
 der Spottswood, Governor of the Colony, and Robert Carter, 
 of Corotoman, Secretary of the Council and their peers. Those 
 of 1758, such as the Hon. John Blair, President of the Council, 
 Hon. William Nelson, and Hon. Thomas Nelson, also Presi- 
 dents of the Council, the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, 
 Peyton Randolph, Gent., of Williamsburg, Richard Bland, 
 Treasurer and Speaker of the House of Burgesses. From 1761 
 to 1763, such as Hon. Francis Fauquier; Governor William 
 Robinson, Commissary; Robert Carter Nicholas, Treasurer of 
 the Colony ; and George Wythe, of Williamsburg. Visitors 
 elected after 1763, such as Right Hon. N. Berkeley, Governor of 
 the Colony; Edward Page, Jr., of Rose well. Governor of Yir- 
 ginia; Right Hon. John, Earl of Dunmore, Governor of the 
 Colony ; Benjamin Berkeley Harrison, of Berkeley, signer of the 
 Declaration of Independence, father of President William H. 
 Harrison; Edmund Randolph; General Thomas Nelson, Gov- 
 ernor of "Virginia ; Thomas Jefferson, President of the United 
 States; James Madison, President of the United States; John 
 Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States ; Henry Lee, 
 of Westmoreland ; Littleton Waller Tazewell, Wilson Miles 
 Cary, John Tyler, Senior; William Wirt; John Tyler, Junior, 
 President of the United States ; Right Rev. J. S. Ravens- 
 croft ; Robert Stanard, Senior ; James M. Garnett, Robert B. 
 Taylor, Edmund Ruffin, Abel P. Upshur, George Loyall, Wil- 
 liam C. Goode, John S. Millson, James Lyons, Right Rev. 
 William Meade, William Crump, Tazewell Taylor, Right Rev. 
 John Johns, Hugh Blair Grigsby. 
 
 In 1859, Ex-President John Tyler was chancellor and rector; 
 and in July, 1871, the Hon. Hugh Blair Grigsby, the gentleman, 
 scholar, and eloquent writer and orator, of the blood of James 
 Blair, the first president of the college, was elected unanimously 
 chancellor, and the Hon. James Lyons, the eminent lawyer and 
 citizen of Richmond, was elected unanimously rector of the 
 college, to succeed another eminent rector, the Hon. William 
 H. McFarland, who had removed out of the comuionwealth. 
 The very bursars of the college have ever been gentlemen of 
 
314 APPENDIX. 
 
 the most favorable standiDg, and her president and professors 
 such men as James Blair, D.D., William Stith, the historian, 
 Right Rev. James Madison, Dr. John Augustine Smith, Rev. 
 William H. Wilmer, D.D., Rev. Adam P. Empie, D.D., Thomas 
 R. Dew, Esqr., Robert Saunders, Right Rev. John Johns, and 
 Benjamin S. Evvell, George Wythe, one of the signers of the 
 Declaration of Independence, St. George Tucker, Judge James 
 Seniple, Judge N. Beverly Tucker, Judge George P. Scarburgh, 
 Rev. Charles Minnegerode, William B. Rogers, and Dr. John 
 Millington. 
 
 And a college thus organized and instructed by such men 
 could not but yield the rarest riches of alumni. Before the 
 Revolution there was a long succession of the most eminent 
 colonial men who were proud to be called her sons ; and since 
 her brood has been multiplied fourfold without loss of grade. 
 About four hundred different names on her rolls have been put 
 upon the rolls of distinction, and many on the heights of emi- 
 nence, by her teaching and training. Not only was her teaching 
 after the Oxford order of the Humanities, but her training was 
 that of the most refined and urbane manners. 
 
 Williamsburg was the site of the vice-royal palace, and her 
 court was far more moral than that of Charles II , and quite 
 as ornate in manners. The breeding and cultivation were of 
 the old regime of knights, under the guidance of the Episcopal 
 clergy ; and to this day there is a marked superiority of address 
 among the old families and old servants even of Williamsburg 
 over any other people, of town or country, in Virginia. She is 
 so retired and ancient that " Young America" and modern 
 manners have not yet fully abashed her gentle, soft, and pol- 
 ished politeness, as elsewhere — almost everywhere in the land. 
 It is and ever was one of the chief attractions of the sons of 
 gentlemen to her halls of learning and houses of hospitality. 
 No man of his day more kept up that " ancien regime'''' than 
 John Tyler: plain, genial, polished, kind, gentle, affable, — 
 young men were his proteges and pets, and he was one of 
 their best n.odels. 
 
 A part of the great good he did for his Alma Mater was to 
 
APPENDIX. 315 
 
 protect her corporate franchise. When there was a strong 
 spirit predominant, and justly so, to break down and annihilate 
 everything like a church establishment, beginning with Patrick 
 Henry's fight against the parsons, running through the latter 
 end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
 turies, wringing from Episcopacy the Act of Religious Freedom, 
 and abolishing the glebes and vestries, and making horse- 
 troughs of the baptismal fonts of the Anglican Church, many 
 erroneously urged that William and Mary was part of the 
 establishment, — yea, was the very "red shawl of the Babylon- 
 ish woman," — and were for depriving her of her charter, claiming 
 that she was a State or public political institution, and might 
 be abolished. Mr. Tyler nobly stood, among others, by her 
 side, and maintained that, though she bad a burgess in the 
 Grand Assembly, and was represented as a municipal corpora- 
 tion in the convention even which formed the State Constitu- 
 tion, which excluded her, for the first time, from representation 
 in the legislature, yet she was founded on private subscription 
 mainly, and stood safely on the ground taken by Mr. Webster 
 in the case of Dartmouth College. There she has stood, and 
 still stands, unassailable ; and it would be sacrilege to question 
 her corporate rights now, after giving twenty-seven of her 
 students to the achievement of American Independence, among 
 whom were a Boiling, a Burwell, a Byrd, two Carters, a Clai- 
 borne, a Cooke, a Cocke, a Dade, a Digges, an Eggleston, an 
 Evans, a Harrison, a Mercer, a Monroe, a Nelson, a Nicholson, 
 two Pages, four Randolphs, a Roberts, a Saunders, G. Smith, 
 and Dr. James Lyons (father of James Lyons), names forever 
 to be cherished. Besides her long roll of most eminent divines, 
 lawyers, and physicians in private life, she has given to the 
 country two eminent attorney-generals of the United States, to 
 the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United 
 States nearly twenty members, and to the Senate of the United 
 States fifteen senators, to Virginia and other States seventeen 
 governors, to the country one historian and numberless eminent 
 writers, to the State and the United States thirty-seven judges, 
 to the Revolution twenty-seven of her sons, to the army of the 
 
316 APPENDIX. 
 
 United States a lieutenant-general and a score of principal and 
 subordinate officers, to the United States navy a list of paladins 
 of the sea, headed by Warrington and Thomas Ap Catesby 
 Jones, to the colleges and University twelve professors, to the 
 nation three Presidents, — Jefferson, Monroe, and John Tyler, — to 
 Independence four signers of its Declaration, to the first Ameri- 
 can Congress its President, to the Federal judiciary the most 
 eminent chief justice, John Marshall, to the Federal Executive 
 seven Cabinet officers, and to the Convention vt^hich framed the 
 Constitution of the United States Edmund Randolph, its chief 
 author and draftsman. In all, she has given to her country more 
 than two hundred heroes and sages who have been pre-eminently 
 distinguished in public service and place. These are wonderful 
 facts, and their number and value, compared with the number 
 of alumni, show her to be first in fruits, if not first in time, 
 compared with any other college in America. Counting her 
 time from 1693 to the present day, the period of her existence 
 is one hundred and seventy-eight years; from 1661, two hun- 
 dred and ten years ; in a word, for about two hundred years 
 she has for and during the period of her existence yielded 
 to her State and country, to mankind and the world, more 
 than one jewel of the first water per annum, of inestimable 
 value. Who would see that fountain of truth, of light, of 
 honor, of law, and liberty fail ? 
 
 John Tyler, Ex-President of the United States, was devoted 
 to the task of keeping her full up to the mark of her memories 
 of the past, and of her high calling for the future ; and the Con- 
 gress of the United States will, doubtless, at its next session, 
 repair liberally all the damages done by civil war to her vener- 
 able walls and to her precious paraphernalia and archives. To 
 use the eloquent eulogium of John Tyler himself, " Like an 
 aged Nestor, this institution has stood amidst civil convulsions 
 which have shaken continents. At the time of its erection it 
 looked upon a country in the early infancy of settlement, con- 
 taining a population in all the English colonies which was 
 not greater than that which at this day is found in the smallest 
 State of the Union. It beheld that population expanding over 
 
APPENDIX. 817 
 
 regions bounded by the two great oceans, to oe counted by 
 millions in place of the scattered thousands of that early day. 
 It has seen the Colonies shake off the badges of puberty and 
 put on the toga virilis. It saw the Congress before and after 
 it had assembled under the Articles of Confederation, and 
 those Articles substituted by the Constitution under which it 
 is now our happiness to live. It re-echoed the words of the 
 forest-born Demosthenes in 1765, asserting the rights of Amer- 
 ica to be ' natural, constitutional, and chartered,' and in thunder- 
 tones, in after-days, its walls resounded to the words ' Liberty 
 or Death' uttered by the same eloquent lips. Itself an offspring 
 of the revolution of 1688, its sons were the warm and enthu- 
 siastic advocates of that of 1T76. 
 
 "Under the influence of its teachings, its students threw aside, 
 for a season, their volumes, and girded on the sword to do battle 
 in the great cause of liberty. 
 
 " The calm and silver-toned voice of Philosophy, heard within 
 its walls, has been ofttimes hushed by the clangor of drums and 
 trumpets. 
 
 " At one time it gave reluctant shelter to the British troops as 
 they passed to Yorktown ; and soon after its gates were opened 
 wide to give willing and exultant reception to the troops, with 
 their tattered banners, which followed Cornwallis to his last 
 retreat. 
 
 " Its walls were alternately shaken by the thunder of the 
 cannon at Yorktown, and by the triumphant shouts of the 
 noble bands who had fought and conquered in the name of 
 American Independence. 
 
 " The boy had gone forth with the surveyor's staff, which it had 
 placed in his hands, into the wilderness of the West, and now 
 returned the hero and the conqueror, and once more stood within 
 its walls, surrounded by the chivalry of France and America, 
 wearing on his brow imperishable laurels, and making the name 
 of Washington famous on the rolls of fame. 
 
 " If her catalogue closed with the names of those who belong 
 to the dead generations, might not ' William and Mary' take 
 her place among her sister universities, proudly and rightfully ? 
 
318 APPENDIX. 
 
 But it bears the names of raea of living generations, who add 
 to her renown. In the various pursuits of life they perform 
 their several parts. The pulpit, from which are uttered those 
 great truths essential for time and eternity, resounds with their 
 eloquence ; while on the bench of justice, at the legal forum, in 
 the State legislatures, in the national councils, in the active marts 
 of commerce, in the pursuits of agriculture, in the tented camps, 
 their names are honored, their attainments respected, and their 
 opinions and examples quoted and followed." 
 
 And now the question suggests itself. What has made this 
 mother of minds, not so very prolific in the numbers of her sons, 
 so rich and hardly equaled in the quality of their lives and per- 
 formances? Our answer is, that she has ever followed the 
 system of the Oxford instead of the Cambridge class of schools. 
 She has ever taught the Humanities rather than Physics ; the 
 abstract, not rather than, but as the foundation of, the concrete 
 and practical. She has taught the divinity of Christ, and moral 
 philosophy, and metaphysics, as based upon that divinity ; the 
 ancient languages more than the modern ; history, rhetoric, 
 logic ; the laws of right rather than those of matter ; and yet has 
 never neglected mathematics and natural philosophy, chemistry 
 and astronomy, and other sciences. She has especially trained 
 a school of natural rights, and of constitutional law and its 
 limitations ; and therefore has given to the world a man, 
 whether Democratic or Federal in politics, the best to draft a 
 constitution, as Edmund Randolph ; or to interpret it, as John 
 Marshall ; the best to draw a declaration of independence or 
 an act of religious freedom, as Thomas Jefferson ; the best to 
 speak his mother tongue, as John Randolph ; or to write it 
 purest, as Benjamin Watkins Leigh ; and the best to contend in 
 the Supreme Court of the United States with William Piuk- 
 ney, as Littleton Waller Tazewell ; the best to administer 
 affairs of state, as Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John 
 Tyler. 
 
 Let William and Mary, then, adhere firmly and persistently 
 to the Humanities. Mammon, the sacra fames auri, has har- 
 nessed the physical sciences to its car, and is running over and 
 
APPENDIX. 319 
 
 crushing the moral and the abstract. We think it was Robert 
 
 Letcher, of Kentucky, who said, " Virginia will die of abstrac- 
 tions." His prophecy has been nearly verified by the moral and 
 abstract dying of the practical and expedient of the age. It is 
 not Virginia which is dying, but the vital being which Virginia 
 gave to the social and political forms of America, which is 
 dying for the neglect and want of the Humanities which her ear- 
 liest and best schools taught to the State and the nation. 
 
 It is a false philosophy, and diabolical, Machiavelian, and 
 mischievous in the extreme, which teaches that anything is eX' 
 pedicnt which is not true in the abstract, a priori. Laws, and 
 the principles of laws, and rules, and reasons, studied theoreti- 
 cally and applied knowingly by experience, can alone test what 
 in the end is practical and expedient. Every neglect of those 
 laws and principles must inevitably threaten any system, politi- 
 cal, moral, or physical. It may seemingly succeed, temporarily, 
 and pay best for the occasion, but in the end it invariably tends 
 to derangement and destruction. We have written this memoir 
 of men and events for seventy -two years, in vain, if we have not 
 illustrated this truth, best promulged by Paley. If we would 
 be truly practical and do what is ever expedient, we must be 
 true in theory and definite in the abstract. The spirit of this 
 age is to throw aside theory and the abstract, and to apply only 
 what will pay for the time ; and if the free system of govern- 
 ment which the sons of William and Mary mainly in part 
 handed down to this generation, is to be restored and perpetu- 
 ated, it must be by and through the schools and the pulpits, and 
 they will add unto themselves the power of the press. The very 
 doing of truth cometh to the light; and the Humanities alone 
 can teach our children what truth is. 
 
 Families, fathers, and mothers must carefully nurture the ele- 
 mentary and academic schools, and the schools must foster the 
 colleges, and the colleges must build up the University. We 
 commend, then, to William and Mary a course and curriculum 
 which we think will make her more than ever a nursing mother 
 of our children and of our country and its institutions of free- 
 dom. The fear of God and the love of man alone can maintain 
 
 UL^ 
 
320 APPENDIX. 
 
 a republic of equal rights, of law, of order, of peace, and of 
 power. What William Penn said of government is true : " The 
 best system in the hands of bad men is no better than the 
 worst ; and the worst system in the hands of good men is as 
 good as the best." Liberty lives not in the system of govern- 
 ment, but in the wisdom and virtue of those who administer it 
 and those who are governed by it. A vicious and corrupt people 
 will not have wise and virtuous governors to administer their 
 laws, — will not tolerate wholesome laws, and will not be gov- 
 erned by them. The governors and governed must alike be 
 trained to wisdom, virtue, and knowledge. The Avhole or a 
 major part of the people of a republic must be leavened with 
 these essential elements of its life, or it cannot live. And if 
 we would restore the life of this constitutional republic, we 
 must return as quickly as possible to the Humanities, and di» 
 seminate them by all means throughout America. 
 
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