e'at ebS ,«vooQ 11 rAO^OO AO ^YJV11«*^ / /''^a^r^^^'-^ ^ ^ ^^^^T^^C^. > C-^:^. ^y^. € . / '^^^ '^^^. ^ ^t/1:^^ •O WILLIAM McKEE DUNN BRIGADIER-GENERAL, U. S. A. a flDemoIr WILLIAM WESLEY WOOLLEN WITH EXTRACTS FROM HIS SPEECHES, DECISIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE (ffoc private Circulation) .T. a Printed and Bound by ■Cbc Ivnicftcrliocftet prcS0, Wcw ^orh ti. F*. Putnam's Sons 3g^vc> vjifeaCKS CONTENTS. Memoir ..,......! Family Trkk 87 "The Loyal Family of Dunns." (Letter from General Dunn to Robert Cravens) ... 88 Speeches : On ihe Conkiscation ok the Property of Rebels 104 On the Bill Providing for the Enlistment of Negroes in the United States Military Service 124 Speech Delivered hekorethe Ladies' National League of St. Louis 137 After-Dinner Speech Delivered ap St. Louis, at a Dinner Given to General Grant . 143 Minority Repoki- on the (^imcstion of the Exten- sion OF Slavery 147 Resolutions of Condolence of Official Bodies of which General Dunn was a Member . .152 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. William McKee Dunn, late Judge- Advocate-General of the United States Army, was of pure Scotch-Irish descent, and had most of the characteristics of that noted people. Patriotism, integrity, persistency, moral and physical courage, came to him by inheritance. The family on the father's side came originally from County Down, Ireland, where James Dunn, the great-grandfather of the subject of this biography, was born and reared. In early life he married Martha Long, and soon afterward the young couple emigrated to America, bringing with them their son Samuel, William McKee's grandfather. The family settled first in Pennsylvania, and removed afterward to Virginia, where Samuel grew to manhood. In 1774 Lord 2 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. Dunmore raised an army in Virginia for the purpose of chastising the western Indians, who had been committing numer- ous depredations upon the settlers west of the Alleghanies. In this army Samuel Dunn was a soldier. Dunmore separated his army into two divisions, assigning General Lewis to the command of one division and himself retaining command of the other. Lewis was to cross the mountains and march down the Kanawha to its mouth, and there await the arrival of Dunmore, who was to come by way of Pittsburgh and of the Ohio River. But, on reaching Pittsburgh, Dunmore changed his plans and moved his division to the Indian towns on the Scioto, leav- ing Lewis to cope, single-handed, with the formidable chief Cornstalk and his follow- ers. On the loth of October, 1 774, he was attacked by this renowned chieftain, and the bloody battle of Point Pleasant was fought. In this engagement Samuel Dunn carried a musket and acquitted himself as one fit to be an ancestor of the subject of this biography. A MEMOIR. 3 After the close of Dunmore's campaign, Samuel Dunn returned to his home. In the next year, 1775, he married Eleanor Brew- ster, daughter of James Brewster, of Rock- ingham County, Virginia. Her mother's maiden name was Eleanor Williamson, hence that family name. Samuel Dunn's name was enrolled in the Virginia Colonial Line, and, on the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, he enlisted for active service. Soon after the war had ended, he emiofrated with his wife and his two children to what is now the State of Kentucky, and took up his abode where now stands the town of Danville. Here, on the 25th of December, 1781, Wil- liamson Dunn, the father of William McKee Dunn, was born. He grew to manhood amid the dangers of the fron- tier, and became well fitted by education and associations for the part he was destined to play in the battle of life. He was strong and vigorous in body, cour- ageous in action, fearing only God. On the 25th of September, 1806, he mar- ried Miriam Wilson. The ceremony took 4 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. place at the home of Mrs. Dunn's grand- father, Colonel William McKee, in Gar- rard County, Kentucky. Colonel McKee had commanded a company in that battle of Point Pleasant in which Samuel Dunn had fought, and was, like the Dunns, of Scotch-Irish descent. Mrs. Dunn's grandfather, Wilson, and two of his sons, were Presbyterian ministers. Her father- died when she was a child. They, too, were all of sturdy Scotch - Irish stock. In 1809, Williamson Dunn, with his young wife and two infant children, emi- grated to Indiana Territory, and fixed their abode where the town of Hanover now stands. He built a cabin and opened up a farm, but, being endowed with an active public spirit, he was often called from home to help put in motion the ma- chinery of a new government. He served as a judge of the Circuit Court and of the Court of Common Pleas, and when there was a call for men to repress In- dian hostilities, he unsheathed his sword and, at the head of a company of rangers, A MEMOIR. 5 hastened in quest of the foe. It is not our purpose, however, to follow William- son Dunn in his career as a soldier, nor to refer to his services to the Territory and the State, further than to draw atten- tion to the influences which surrounded his son, the subject of this biography. That career and those services are part of the history of Indiana, and therein can be distinctly traced. On the 1 2th of December, 1814, there was born to Williamson Dunn and his wife a fifth child, a son, christened Wil- liam McKee, after his mother's maternal grandfather. The men who formed the community at Hanover were mostly Scotch-Irish Pres- byterians. The church and the school- house were therefore soon erected. A school was established, in which Latin, as well as mathematics and the English branches, was taught, and to this school William McKee was sent as soon as he was large enough to be enrolled as a pupil. In an address delivered at Hanover in 1883 he has so graphically described the 6 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. place where his studies began that we quote his own words : " Thus, now, my mental vision rests upon the school-house where I commenced the struggle with all the mysteries of Webster's Spelling-book. It stood on the ground where Dr. Spear afterwards built his residence, on the edge of the village. A strip of woods inter- vened between it and my father's residence, and the great poplar trees, in the springtime, used to drop their sweet bloom on the pathway of the children as they wended their way to school. The house was built of split logs put up edgewise ; the floor was of puncheons. The windows were made by cutting out parts of two logs next to and parallel to each other, and instead of glass, greased paper was used. There was a large chimney at each end of the house, built of stones, sticks, and clay. Long, inclined boards along the side and end of the school-house were made for those who were worrying with pothooks and other exercises in writing. There were no metallic pens in those days, and the making and mending of quill pens and setting copies occupied much of the time of the teachers in and out of school. All the benches were nar- row, hard, and without backs, and those for little children, as I well remember, were a A MEMOIR. 7 weariness to the flesh. Nevertheless, the schol- ars generally were ruddy and happy, and, I suppose, were well instructed. The masters usually were Scotch or Irish, who believed in doing a good day's work every day themselves, and required the children to do the same. Good beech switches were always on hand, back of the teacher's chair, ready for use, and I can bear testimony that they zuere used. The excitement of the day commenced toward the close of school in the afternoon, when all the recitations were over except the spelling les- sons, and the children were told to learn them. These lessons we were permitted to learn aloud, and then Babel was turned loose. Every scholar, with his spelling-book in hand, spelled, or pretended to spell, the words at the very top of his voice. We almost made the clapboards on the roof rattle. Sometimes in the evening the older boys would have exercises in dia- logues and declamations. I can now almost see the tallow-dips and the lard, Aladdin-shaped, lamps that used dimly to illuminate the school- house on such occasions. But boys and girls were being educated in that school-house who have since appeared where the gaslight burned brightly." It w^as in such houses as this and amid such surroundings that most of the chil- 8 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. dren of the Western pioneers obtained their education. Few of them, however, received the advantages of the sons of WilHamson Dunn, who, from his high estimate of the value of learning, were all liberally taught, even when measured by the educational standards of the present day. In May, 1820, Judge Dunn received the appointment of Register of the Land Of- fice at Terre Haute ; but, though he ac- cepted the appointment, he did not remove his family to that place. In March, 1823, Congress having made a large addition to the land district, the land office was re- moved to Crawfordsville. Here, in the fall of the same year, he came with his family, again taking up his abode in the wilderness. Soon the church and the school-house appeared. Chester Hol- brook, who had taught Judge Dunn's chil- dren in the Hanover school, was persuaded to remove to Crawfordsville and resume his instructions there. Of the school which Mr. Holbrook established, Judge Dunn was a liberal supporter, sending to A MEMOIR. 9 it six of his children, and aiding it with his influence in every way he could. Wil- liam McKee was a student in the school and many years afterward said of his teacher : " Mr. Holbrook was unsur- passed as a faithful and efficient teacher." The instructor boarded with Judge Dunn. In May, 1826, the subject of this biog- raphy entered the State Seminary at Bloomington as a student. His elder brothers, James, Samuel, and John, were already students there. The father was a member of the first board of trustees, con- tinued on the board during all the time the seminary existed, and served on the board of trustees after it had been turned into a college. To no person are Hano- ver College, at Hanover, and Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, so much in- debted for their existence ; and the State University, at Bloomington, had in him a zealous patron and friend. No man did more to establish educational institutions in Indiana than Williamson Dunn. In an address delivered at Bloominof- ton, in June, 1876, General Dunn gives lO WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. this beautiful and vivid account of his journey to Bloomington, and of his ca- reer as a student at the seminary and college : "A few days before the opening of the ses- sion, May 1st, 1826, if you had been here to look, you might have seen emerging from the green woods north of Bloomington, * a man on horseback,' and, as his horse veered from one side of the road to another to avoid a stump or mud hole, you might have seen that there was riding behind the man on the same horse a little speck of a boy about eleven years of age. They were father and son, but the son was so small that it was considered a useless waste of horse power to furnish him individu- ally with a horse for this journay. They had thus ridden all the way from Crawfordsville, then a two days' journey on horseback. Be- tween Crawfordsville and Greencastle it was then an almost unbroken wilderness, and these travellers had made part of their way through the woods along an Indian trace. The boy enjoyed the ride, for sweet was the breath of spring in the green wild-woods, the aroma of the spice bush perfumed the air, and the bloom of the dogwood and the redbud with blended beauty adorned the green-leafed forest. These were forests indeed — not thickets, but open parks A MEMOIR. II of grenadier trees, great poplars and tulip-trees, black walnuts, shell-bark hickory, oak, and sugar-trees, giants of their kind. Underneath their high spreading branches men could ride on horseback, and, indeed, these travellers more than once in their journey saw parties of land hunters riding about through the woods, exam- ining the surveyors' marks on the trees and making selections of public lands for entry at the Crawfordsville Land Office. These land- hunters generally travelled in parties for mutual protection. They carried with them their rifles — old-fashioned flint-lock rifles — with a leather cover over the lock to protect the prim- ing from getting wet. Greencastle was at that time an insignificant place, and there were no houses between it and the falls of Eel River, a distance of ten miles. This side of Eel River, and particularly this side of White River, the country was more settled, and the neighbor- hood of Bloomington was comparatively an old settled country — that is, it had been settled some eight or ten years. " As the travellers rode into Bloomington, the eyes of the boy rested with wondering ad- miration upon the court-house. He had never before seen so grand an edifice. It was won- derful in his eyes, and the fish for a vane was another marvel. He had never before seen what appeared to be a fish of gold, nor a fish 12 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. SO high in the air, nor a fish with an iron rod through it. In the midst of the boy's excited interest in that fish, the journey was ended at the door of his uncle, Dr. David H. Maxwell. The father swung the little fellow down off the horse, and father and son were soon most affec- tionately welcomed in that hospitable home. " That little boy was my father — in the sense of the saying, ' The boy is the father of the man.' " In a few days he (I) was admitted as a student in the State Seminary, then regarded as the highest and best school in the State ; was introduced to Ross* Latin Grammar, and was soon nearly worrying the life out of poor * Stella, a star,' in putting her through the cases of the first declension. " According to my recollection, there were but nine students at the seminary that session, of whom I was the smallest, but Dr. Darwin Maxwell was the youngest. Perhaps I might as well say now that I was a student here in the seminary and in the college six and a half years, and was the first graduate of Indiana College who commenced, continued, and com- pleted his entire preparatory and collegiate course in this institution. At the first organi- zation of the students into regular college clas- ses, I constituted the sophomore class, and for an entire session I had a bench all to myself A MEMOIR. 13 at college prayers, by virtue of my being all the sophomores. " The building in which I took my course of instruction here was torn down long ago, and when I return and look in vain for that dear old house, my feelings are, I imagine, some- thing like those of the bee, which, after being absent a long while in search of honey, on its return finds the hive and all gone. " There I enjoyed the blessing of good and faithful instruction, first under Professor Hall ; alone later I enjoyed the additional instruction of Professor Harney ; and later still that of President Wylie. They have all passed away, but their memories will always be cherished with tender and grateful affection by all who sat under their instruction. " In that old house, too, I formed friendships wnth classmates and fellow-students which have lasted through this half century. "There, too, fifty years ago, was held the first exhibition given by the students of the seminary — declamations of selected pieces — nothing original was attempted. " Never did a drill-sergeant put raw recruits through a severer drill than Professor Hall put us through, in preparation for that first exhi- bition. My eldest brother, whose name with the fatal prefix of a star, stands first on the catalogue of the graduates of this college, de- 14 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. claimed a selection on astronomy. I can see him now, as he stood on the stage then. He had a form of manly grace, and a soft, impres- sive voice. His speech closed with the em- phatic exclamation, ' An undevout astronomer is mad!' Through this long half-century I have scarcely ever surveyed the heavens, the moon and the stars, which our Creator ordained, but I have seemed to hear that voice and ex- clamation, ' An undevout astronomer is mad ! ' It has come to me in mid-ocean, when walking the deck alone at night, with * water, water everywhere ' around, and the starry heavens above, myself but a speck, on a speck of a ship, on a speck of a world: 'An undevout astron- omer is mad ! ' Looking up into the starry firmament, I have repeated it over and over, adding this verse, committed to memory to recite at a Sabbath-school kept in that same old house: ' Thy throne eternal ages stood, Ere seas or stars were made ; Thou art the ever-living God Were all the nations dead ! ' " In that old house, too, was the hall of the literary society, beloved of my soul, ' quorum pars fui' A well conducted literary society in a college is a most important, if not indis- pensable, supplement to the collegiate course of study. I have certainly felt, ever since I A MEMOIR. 15 left college, the benefits of the friendly criti- cisms, rivalries, and encouragements of my brothers beloved of the Philomathean Society. Nor have I forgotten how our ambition was stimulated, and with what earnest efforts we strove to carry off the palm of victory in our contests with our worthy rival, the Athenian Society. But the old Philomathean Hall is torn down, and all the records of the period of my membership are burned up, so that I feel as though I had neither place nor name in the Society, to promote whose interests I gave my best efforts while I was a student of this col- lege." While McKee (in the family he was called by that name) v;^as a student at Bloomington, a great sorrow befell him — one that saddened him to the end of his life. It was the death of his mother, which occurred at Crawfordsville, October 20th, 1827. Among his papers, found after his death, is one written while he was a student at Yale, giving an account of his last parting from his mother, and of his return home after she had died : " The last day " (he writes) " of that time by students esteemed so precious — the college va- cation — was now pa§t, and I retired to my bed 1 6 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. weeping that on the morrow I must bid my home farewell for another long term. After a night of unrefreshing sleep and troubled dreams, I awoke and found all things ready for my departure. I had been from home before ; but never did I leave with such overpowering feelings of sorrow. Oh ! how hard it is to give the parting hand to parents, brothers, and sis- ters, all that we hold most dear, and go solitary and alone to the land of strangers ! I was young — but thirteen — yet I was ashamed to exhibit so much feeling as I did on this occasion. A stranger might have denominated my over- powering sorrow as silly babyishness. I could summon no stoicism to my assistance ; it had all vanished, and when, last of all, I clasped the hand of my dear, dear mother, the fountains of my heart were all broken open. The presenti- ment flashed upon my mind with all the vivid- ness of reality, that her hand I should never again press, that my eyes were resting for the last time upon her beloved face, and that upon those lips of affection I should never again im- print a meeting kiss. As I tore myself from her embrace, interrupted by her feelings, she softly whispered, "My son, remember thy Cre- ator in the days of thy youth." Oh ! I shall never, never forget the look of love and the tone of kindness in which that last, that part- ing admonition was delivered. No, sainted A MEMOIR. 17 spirit of my departed mother, I can never for- get thee ; thy image and thy farewell admo- nition are engraved upon my heart as indelibly as lines traced with the diamond's point upon a plate of adamant. " The term (at college) had nearly expired when I was confined to my room a few days with an attack of quinsy, but was looking for- ward with joyous anticipations to my speedy recovery and return to my beloved home. I was lying upon my bed looking out of my win- dow one cold, rainy evening, when a traveller rode up to my boarding-house, inquired forme, and handed my roommate a letter directed to me. At a glance I recognized the superscrip- tion to be in the handwriting of my father. What pleasure it affords an absent child to receive a letter from home! I tore open my father's letter in a transport of joy. But, oh ! how suddenly was my joy turned to bitterness and lamentation when my eyes at the first glance rested upon these words : ' My son, hasten, hasten home. Your dear mother is dangerously ill.' I would have started immediately in the night and rain, indisposed as I was, but kind friends prevented me. My grief, to which I could set no bounds, was too much for my feeble state of health to bear, and I fell into a slow fever that for three days prevented my departure. Kind Heaven, in mercy spare me the 1 8 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. experience of three such days again. Oh ! the agony of uncertainty, the contests between hope and fear that agitated my bosom. My mother, my dying mother was constantly before me! Oh! how vividly did I then recollect her every look and word of affection, and in what bitter review did pass before my eyes every act of disobedi- ence and unkindness that I had been guilty of towards her! 'T is true, I could accuse myself of no gross act of unkindness towards her, and she had often, kissing me, said that I was very good to her ; but I recollected a thousand little things in which I had not pleased her, and as many opportunities of gratifying her that I had allowed to pass unimproved. These neglects my feelings magnified into crimes huge as mountains, and I prayed to Heaven that her life might be spared, that I might claim her forgiveness, and by a life of devotion prove how much I prized her love, and how great the obligations of gratitude I considered myself under to her. " On the morning of the fourth day I set out for home in company with a friend. We had travelled about twenty miles and were riding at a pretty fast rate along the bank of a beauti- ful river, when, at a sudden turn of the road, we met a traveller on horseback. His coun- tenance I thought familiar to me, and, turning around after he had passed, his face was full A MEMOIR. 19 upon me and I recognized in him an uncle, whom I had not seen for several years, who was now returning from a visit to my father's. He knew me at first sight, but, seeing that he was not recollected, had intended to pass me that he might be spared the of^ce of com- municating to me the painful intelligence of my mother's death. And, indeed, he was spared the pain of doing so orally. The broad scarf upon his hat told me in language that could not be misunderstood that his sister — my mother — was no more. The strongest cord that bound me to earth was now severed. "At my request my friend turned back, and I was left to pursue the remaining part of my journey alone. Oh ! the luxury of soli- tude ! If there be in grief a solace it is the opportunity of venting our sorrow where there is none to observe or chide — to pour out our sorrows where there is none but the ear of God to hear. My journey lay through a country yet but partially reclaimed from the wilderness. The echo of the distant axe falling occasionally upon the ear told that the hand of industry was busy, and that soon the forest should ' bud and blossom as the rose.' " The next day the first glimpse of my home fell upon my eyes. As I drew near, no brother, or sister, no mother, came with joyous counte- 20 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. nance to meet her returning son. The doors of my paternal home were all closed. Softly I opened the door of my mother's room. There was her chair, her Bible, her sewing-table, everything to remind me of her. I looked upon the scene before me for a moment, a dizziness seized my brain, and I fainted away. When I recovered, my father, my brothers, and my sisters were all around me, not with coun- tenances beaming with joy at my return, but suffused with tears, for my arrival and affliction had caused the fountains of their sorrow to gush forth afresh. " The sun had now declined beneath the western horizon, and the pale moon had taken up its watch in the eastern sky, when, with an older brother, I went to visit the spot hallowed by my mother's remains. We entered a dark and gloomy grove. A few moonbeams piercing through the thick veil formed by the inter locking branches of the oak and the poplar, re- vealed the place where were buried the few who had fallen in this new, and yet but thinly settled, country. No sculptured monuments rose to designate the different spots where those few were buried. No ; it was unnecessary. A death was not an every-day occurrence, and therefore when it did occur, the whole com- munity felt the loss and mingled their tears with the bereaved. They cherished the virtues A MEMOIR. 21 of the deceased. The wild grass which grew over the grave was watered by their tears, and therefore no tombstone was necessary to mark the place. My brother pointed in silence to the grave, which, from its recent and yellow earth, I knew to be my mother's. I threw my- self upon it and poured forth floods of grief from my streaming eyes. Willingly — nay, gladly — would I have pillowed my head upon the cold bosom of my mother and been forever enclosed in the damp grave to which she was committed. What to me was life but the prison which confined me from the society of my mother. What was death but the gate by which I might enter into a union with her, to which there should be no termination. "As I lay overpowered by grief, there arose from that grave again the admonition, ' My son, remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth.' " I have wandered far from the land of my nativity, from the spot consecrated by the re- mains of her who deserved and who possessed the most ardent and devoted attachments of my heart ; but still that parting exhortation has been a talisman to protect me in every danger. I have looked out upon the sea of pleasure ; the gay barks that danced upon its bosom have delighted my vision, and I have resolved to commit myself to its waves. But 22 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. the warning voice, * My son,' broke my purpose and rescued me from ruin. In my bosom has glowed the fire of ambition ; my heart has thrilled at the praises of the great and the powerful ; I have bowed down at the shrine of worldly honor, — but the recollection of my mother and her last advice has directed my devotions to another deity." In all his after life he never referred to his mother but in words expressive of the most tender love and veneration. When McKee became a student of the State Seminary, Rev. Baynard R. Hall was its sole teacher. The State Seminary became a college in 1828, its faculty being Prof. Hall, Prof. John H. Harney (afterwards so well known as editor of the Louisville Demo- crat), and Dr. Andrew Wylle. Dr. Wylie was president of the college, and held the place many years, both to its honor and his own. For six years McKee Dunn was a student here, taking his degree In 1832, and being the first graduate who had gone through all the college classes. He was then less than eighteen years of A MEMOIR. 23 age ; but, young as he was, Dr. Wylie desired that he should become a professor in the college. About the time of his graduation. Dr. Wylie wrote to Judge Dunn, asking that McKee should remain at Bloomington during the summer vaca- tion and pursue certain studies with a view of fitting him for a place in the faculty, it being understood that Prof. Hall would resign. Judge Dunn sent the letter to his son, and allowed him to use his own judgment in regard to accepting the pro- posal. There were feuds, unhappily, in the college at the time, in which he did not care to become involved, so that, declining the proposal, he soon, after obtaining his degree, returned to his father's home in Hanover. To be offered a professorship in the leading educational institution of the State was a great com- pliment for one so young ; and had he accepted it, he would no doubt have done credit to the position, as he did to every other position assigned to him during his long and active career. Hanover College was chartered by the 24 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. Legislature of Indiana, January i, 1833, and the college classes were organized the following May. Mr. Dunn was chosen to be principal of the preparatory depart- ment, and, entering upon his duties at the commencement of the first session of the college, served in that position for the ensuing two years. Many of his pupils were older than himself ; but he had their respect and confidence in an unusual degree. So successful, indeed, was he as an instructor that the board of trustees of the college, at the end of two years, elected him Professor of Mathematics, and gave him a year's leave of absence. He was anxious to equip himself in the best manner that he could for whatever duties might devolve upon him, and em- braced the time which had thus been given him to take a post-graduate course at Yale College. He was still a minor, but was already a graduate of a leading Western college and a professor-elect of another. Probably no young man ever entered Yale under more flattering condi- tions ; and that he was well received and A MEMOIR. 25 treated with the consideration which his talents and acquirements deserved, will be apparent to those who further pursue this biography. On the 2ist of April, 1S35, M^- Dunn left Hanover for New Haven. He pur- sued his journey very leisurely, visiting the various cities of interest, and reached his destination May i8th. He had been in New Haven but a very brief time when he was visited by Mr. Moses Hoge Hunter, whom he had known in the West. Between these grentlemen there grew up an intimacy and friendship which ended only at General Dunn's death. Mr. Dunn took with him to New Haven a letter to President Day, of Yale, from the Faculty of Hanover College. He also bore letters of introduction to other prominent persons in New Haven, among which was one from Senator William Hendricks, of Indiana, to Senator Smith, of Connecticut. Mr. Dunn went much into society at New Haven. He had access to the best homes in the city, and formed many inti- 26 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. mate friendships. He was of fine person, of courtly manners, and unexceptionable habits. He was punctual in his recita- tions and thorough in his studies. He was always present at the exercises in the lecture-room and in the church, and in all respects demeaned himself as became a student and a gentleman. He was laying a foundation upon which he builded well — the establishment of a reputation which stood conspicuous among the great of the land. On the 24th of August, Mr. Dunn left New Haven for Boston, arriving there the same day. He bore with him letters of introduction to several Boston people, among them Justice Story and Daniel Webster. While in Boston, he viewed all the places of note in that city. Faneuil Hall, Bunker Hill and Boston Common were visited, and his reflections upon them are duly recorded in his journal. Mr Dunn was now near to his majority. On the I ith of December he writes thus : "Farewell to my minority— this day is the last of it. Oh, that I enjoyed the conscious- A MEMOIR. 27 ness of having spent my boyhood and my youth in a proper manner." The next day he made this entry : " Hail to the day that gave me birth ! To the day that entitles me to the name and the priv- ileges of an American citizen — Hail ! Now I have entered upon my majority — upon the privileges, the responsibilities, and the account- abilities of a man. Oh, that it were only upon the opportunities, the indulgences, and the admonitions of my teens ! " In the spring of 1836 Mr. Dunn re- ceived from Yale College a diploma as a post-graduate, and soon afterward returned to Hanover. In a public address, delivered many years afterward, he speaks thus of his return to Hanover : "When I returned, I entered upon the duties of Professor of Mathematics. Prof. Harney, who had previously filled that posi- tion, had, at his own request, been transferred to the chair of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, etc. Although my duties as Professor of Mathematics were far easier than those I had discharged as Principal of the Preparatory Department, the pay was much better — eight 28 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. hundred dollars per annum. I have found, through the experience of a long life, that usually the higher the position, and the better the pay, the less is the drudgery to be per- formed." In July, 1837, a tornado did great dam- age to the college building at Hanover. The institution was thus placed in such straitened circumstances that Mr. Dunn at the end of the session, resigned his place in the faculty. In referring to this event, he says, in the address previously named : " I severed my relations with the faculty and students with great regret, the most cor- dial good-will having always existed between us." He now determined to be a lawyer, and entered upon his legal studies under the tuition of Honorable Miles C. Eggleston, of Madison, then, and for many years before and afterward, a dis- tinguished circuit judge. In due time he was licensed to practise, and soon afterward opened an ofifice in New Albany, Indiana. He had now fairly entered A MEMOIR. 29 upon the theatre of Hfe, and was master of a profession which insured him a sup- port. His affections were already en- gaged, and on the nth of March, 1841, he married Ehzabeth Frances Lanier, eldest daughter of James F. D. Lanier. He took his wife to New Albany, but soon afterward, having formed a partnership with Stephen C. Stevens, an ex-judge of the Indiana Supreme Court, returned to Madison, where he resided until he en- tered the army. The firm of Stevens & Dunn having been dissolved, Mr. Dunn became the partner of Michael G. Bright. When Mr. Bright, having been elected Agent of State, retired from the practice, Mr. Dunn associated himself with Mr. John A. Markley ; and when Mr. Markley, in 1847, enlisted in the army, Abram W. Hendricks became his partner, and the two remained together until the breaking out of the Civil war. The firm of Dunn & Hendricks had a large and lucrative practice, and in repu- tation ranked with the best firms in the State. 30 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. During the time that Mr. Dunn prac- tised law at Madison, he was a leader in every movement having for its object the increase of the prosperity of the city. He served also as President of the Madi- son Branch of the Bank of the State of Indiana, and for several years as School Examiner. In politics, Mr. Dunn was first a Whig, and after that party had ceased to exist he became a Republican. In 1848 the Whigs nominated him for the Legis- lature, and in August he was elected, lead- ing his ticket, as he did always in Jefferson County when a candidate. The Legislature of 1848-9 was com- posed of men exceptionally strong, and among these Mr. Dunn stood in the fore- most rank. He was appointed a member of the Judiciary Committee, and, after the committees had been announced, was added by a vote of the House to the Committee on Education. This was no ordinary tribute, for among the really important questions that were to engage attention stood conspicuous that of com- mon schools, the voters of the State having A MEMOIR. 31 already decided at the late election in favor of a tax to establish and support free schools. The Committee on Educa- tion, early in the session, reported a bill " to increase and extend the benefits of common schools." Mr. Dunn championed it, and gave it his most strenuous support. It levied a tax of ten cents on each one hundred dollars' valuation of the property of the State, and provided for the neces- sary machinery to put the schools in mo- tion. The enemies of the bill endeavored to destroy it by amendments, but its friends successfully resisted this form of attack, and passed the measure as it came from the Committee. In a speech delivered in the House, Mr. Dunn declared himself in favor of free schools, and said he was " proud to say that the county of Jefferson [the county he represented] had given a ma- jority of more than three to one in their favor. All that the people of that county ask, is a fair, equal, economical, and effi- cient system, and such a system the Com- mittee on Education had endeavored to 32 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. present." The people of Indiana are to be congratulated that so earnest and able an advocate of free schools appeared on the theatre of action at this critical period in the legislation of the State. It was by this Legislature also that an act was passed to take the sense of the people upon calling a convention to revise and amend the constitution of the State. Mr. Dunn warmly favored the measure. Early in the session a resolution having been introduced into the House relating to the extension of slavery, it was referred to a special committee of which Mr. Dunn was a member. The Committee could not agree, and majority and minority reports were presented. The report of the minority was presented by Mr. Dunn, and signed by him and two other members. He rep- resented a border county — a constituency that largely sympathized with slavery, — and his home was in sight of a slave State. But his father had left his birthplace and the State in which he had grown to man- hood, and cast his lot among pioneers of the wilderness, in order that he and his A MEMOIR, 33 children might breathe the air of freedom. All his sons had inherited his liberty-lov- ing principles, and none to a greater de- gree than William McKee. He not only signed the minority report, but addressed the House in favor of its adoption. During this session of the Legislature, Hon. Samuel Goodenow, who represented Jefferson County in the Senate, having died, obituary resolutions passed the Sen- ate and were transmitted to the House. Mr. Dunn advocated their adoption by an appreciative and beautiful speech, which so won the favor of the House that it directed it to be spread upon the journal, — a very unusual if not an unprecedented proceeding. Mr. Dunn's career in the Legrislature gave him great prominence in the State, and caused his party friends in the district in which he resided to look to him as the natural leader of their forces. Accord- ingly, when the district convention was held in Charlesto'wn, in the spring of 1849, h^ was unanimously nominated for Congress. He accepted the honor, and 34 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. made a careful canvass of the district, speaking in most of the townships. His opponent was Cyrus L. Dunham, who was elected ; but Mr. Dunn's vote was greater than that of any other candidate on his party's ticket. The canvass which he made enabled him to make an acquaint- ance which was of advantage to him in his profession, and added to his reputation as an effective and able public speaker. The Legislature of Indiana at its ses- sion of 1849-50 passed a law providing for a convention " to alter, amend, or re- vise the constitution of the State." The time was auspicious for the work, as there has never been an era in the history of the country when party spirit was at a lower ebb. The leading parties were the Whig and Democratic, and the lines be- tween them were but faintly drawn. Ex- cept upon the subject of slavery, which at that time was distracting the country, there was little division among the people on political questions. For this reason, when they came to select the delegates to the convention, political considerations A MEMOIR. 35 were but slightly regarded. In the Whig county of Jefferson, William McKee Dunn and Milton Gregg, Whigs, and Michael Graham Bright, Democrat, were chosen delegates, — Mr. Dunn, as usual, receiving more votes than any of his com- petitors. Mr. Gregg was an oil manufac- turer of Madison, and was both a speaker and writer of note. Mr. Bright was an eminent lawyer. The three were able men, and deeply impressed themselves upon the convention. The good-sense of the people of Indiana, in holding party spirit in abeyance while they were electing their delegates, bore the best of fruit. Men were chosen who, for character and ability, formed a body equal to any that has ever been chosen to perform a similar duty. Of the members of the convention, Schuyler Colfax and Thomas A. Hen- dricks afterward became Vice-Presidents of the United States ; two became United States Senators — John Pettit and Thomas A. Hendricks ; eleven — Schuyler Colfax, Robert Dale Owen, David Kilgore, James 36 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. Lockhart, Smith Miller, Thomas Smith, William S. Holman, Thomas A. Hen- dricks, William McKee Dunn, James B. Foley, and Alvin P. Hovey were elected Representatives in Congress. Mr. Col- fax, one of them, was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives for several terms. David Wallace, an ex-Governor of In- diana, was a member of the convention, as was also Samuel Hall, an ex-Lieutenant- Governor. Thomas A. Hendricks and Alvin P. Hovey were afterwards Governors of the State. Horace P. Biddle, John Pet- tit, and Alvin P. Hovey became Supreme Judges of the State, and James Borden, Robert Dale Owen, and Alvin P. Hovey were sent abroad to represent their coun- try at foreign courts. The secretary of the convention was William H. English, afterwards a member of Congress, and in 1880 his party's candidate for Vice-Presi- dent of the United States. Surely it was no small honor to be a member of this august body, and a fellow-member with these distinguished men. A MEMOIR. 37 In the orofanization of the constitu- tional convention of 1850, party lines were set at naught, and in its proceedings the least inclination to partisan action was promptly suppressed. No member was more in accord with this action than Mr. Dunn. In discussing the subject of banks, he said that for himself he " would just as soon think of carrying a political party question into the sacred pulpit, as of introducing such a question upon the floor of the convention." "So long," he affirmed, "as I may be called to remain in my place in this convention, I shall be very careful not to utter one word which may indicate even the existence of two such parties in this country as the Whig and Democratic parties." The record of the convention bears witness that he kept within the lines he had marked out, and that he had great influence upon the con- duct of others. A leading member of the convention declared in debate that " so little of party feeling had been manifested that he had almost forgotten he was a Whig." 38 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. The debates of the convention com- prise two large volumes, and to refer in detail to the important questions dis- cussed by Mr. Dunn would require one to prepare an epitome of its work. We shall name but a few. Mr. Dunn had faith in the intelligence and virtue of the people. He was willing to trust them to make laws for their own government, and had well-defined opinions as to their rights. In one of his speeches he declared : " I am clearly of opinion that the convention should impose as few restrictions as possible upon the legis- lative department, and those only which are clearly and absolutely necessary." This speech was made early in the session, and no doubt had great influence in de- termining the final action of the conven- tion in reference to legislative restriction. He advocated the principle of allowing the people to enact such laws as they de- sired, and near the close of the session combated a proposition to take from the Legislature certain of its formerly well recognized powers. A MEMOIR. 39 " My greatest fear," said he, " is that our new constitution will contain too many restric- tions upon the will of the people. It is far better to err in the exercise of a too generous confidence in the wisdom of future legislatures than to assume that the safety of the people is wholly dependent upon the su- perior wisdom and foresight of this honorable body." The constitution of 1816 permitted the enactment of laws authorizing imprison- ment for debt. The sentiment of the people, when the constitution of 1850 was being considered, was nearly uni- versal asfainst such laws. Mr. Dunn dis- cussed the question, and declared himself in favor of a constitutional provision prohibiting imprisonment for debt, but against allowing its provisions to extend to fraudulent debtors. Strictly honest himself, he had but little charity for dis- honesty in others. He declared he "had no patience with the rascal who obtained property never intending to pay for it." " I am in favor," he said, '' of imprisoning all the fraudulent scoundrels in the State." This sentiment was characteristic of the 40 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. Speaker and of the family from which he sprung. The most elaborate speech made by Mr. Dunn in the convention was upon the subject of banks. He discussed the question in its various aspects, and the convention wisely adopted provisions in accordance with his views. It is impossible to measure correctly the influence which Mr. Dunn exerted in the convention. How much he did to banish passion and party feeling from its deliberations cannot be ascertained with mathematical exactness, but it was un- questionably great. He and his com- peers made a constitution which was approved by the people and under which they have lived, from 185 1, with but little change, to the present day. From the termination of Mr. Dunn's service in the constitutional convention of 1850 until the summer of 1858 he de- voted himself to the practice of his profes- sion ; yet, maintaining always an interest in public affairs, he often addressed the people upon public questions. He was A MEMO//?. 41 indignant at the repeal of the Missouri Compromise ; warmly antagonized the Dred Scott decision : and often gave ex- pression to his feelings in public addresses to his fellow-citizens. So active was he in criticising Congress and the Supreme Court upon these subjects that he placed himself at the head of those who made up the opposition in his district to the administration of Mr. Buchanan. As a natural consequence, in the summer of 1858 he was nominated by his party to represent the district in Congress. Two years before that time, in the same dis- trict, the Hon. James Hughes, Democrat, had won the election over John A. Hen- dricks, Republican, by a large majority. Judge Hughes was an adherent of the policy of Mr. Buchanan upon the slavery question, but there were many Democrats in the district who were opposed to this policy and supported the views of Mr. Douglas, in favor of what was known as " popular sovereignty." These persons, in convention at Seymour, nominated George W. Carr for Congress on the same day 42 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. that Judge Hughes was nominated for re- election by the administration wing of the party. This condition of affairs natu- rally resulted in the election of Mr. Dunn, who received 9,363 votes, Judge Hughes' vote being 8,385, and Mr. Carr's, 1432. It was during this canvass for Congress in 1858 that an amusing incident occurred which Mr. Dunn often told with zest. After one of his debates with Judge Hughes, he overheard two countrymen discussing the speeches and the speakers. " Hughes is the best logicianist, but Dunn is the best Scriptorian," said one of the sovereigns ; to which the other, although of different politics, did not express dis- sent. The countryman was right as to Mr. Dunn's knowledge of the Holy Scrip- tures. Well-worn copies of the Bible, Shakespeare, and Milton's Paradise Lost were ever kept on a table in his library, and their appearance testified that they were not there for ornament, but for use. When Congress met in December, 1859, ^ struggle began for the election of Speaker of the House, which will A MEMOIR. 43 ever be memorable in the history of the country. The members were divided into four parties — Democratic, Republican, anti-Lecompton Democrats, and Ameri- can ; and, as twenty-three of the Ameri- cans were from the Southern States, they were humorously called " South Ameri- cans." None of these parties contained a majority of the members. Mr. John Sher- man was the candidate of the Republi- cans, and Mr. Dunn gave him a warm and earnest support. The contest con- tinued until the first of the following February, when, on the forty-fourth ballot, Mr. Pennington, of New Jersey, was elected, Mr. Dunn voting for him. Mr. Pennington was a Republican, serving his first term. This long contest for Speaker was accompanied by acrimonious debates, which may with truth be said to have been a harbinger of our Civil war. Mr. Dunn was serving his first term in Congress, and usually members do not step to the front during their first session. But the times demanded brave men and plain speech, and as Mr. Dunn was a brave man and 44 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. spoke as he thought, he soon became one of the most conspicuous members of the RepubHcan side of the House. For years he had opposed the extension of slavery by vote and speech, and now he was brouo^ht face to face with arrogfant men from the South, who claimed that the Constitution protected slavery everywhere in the country, and who demanded that the accursed institution should be planted in the Territories and fastened upon an unwilling people. The votes of the twenty- three " South Americans " added to the Democratic vote were a few less than a majority, and an effort was made to ob- tain from the anti-Lecompton Democrats votes enough to elect a Speaker who would be satisfactory to the allied forces. While the Democrats and " South Ameri- cans " were substantially in accord upon the slavery question, they were unable to agree upon a candidate, and the calling of the anti-Lecompton men into their coun- cils made the selection still more difficult. On the 28th of December Mr. Rust, of Arkansas, delivered a speech, in which he A MEMOIR. 45 denounced both Mr. Sherman, the can- didate of the RepubHcans, and his sup- porters. Near the close of his speech he declared the Republican party to be " treasonable, incendiary, and revolution- ary." This denunciation of a party he loved was too much for the Scotch-Irish blood of Mr. Dunn, and he at once called Mr. Rust to order, saying : " The gentle- man violates all propriety in applying the term ' treasonable ' to the party of which I am a member. We have listened to this kind of talk long enough." Mr. Rust replied : " I have said nothing that I do not believe to be true, and I will not retract it " ; and then continued until he finished his speech. Mr. Rust was a typical Southern fire- eater, a believer in " the code," a man who had practised its teachings. To most of the members it seemed that Mr. Dunn had shown little prudence in calling the Arkansas member to order, for it was al- most certain that the controversy would not end in the House. But a new char- acter had appeared in Congress from the 46 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. free States — one who had the courage to challenge the words of the Southern mem- bers, and to fight them with their own weapons. He measured the cost, and bravely met the issue. He saw that the time had arrived for a display, if neces- sary, of physical courage, if Northern men were to sit in the House as peers of those from the South. When Mr. Rust, there- fore, sent to Mr. Dunn a note by a friend, calling upon him to retract what he had said in the House, or else give him the *' satisfaction one gentleman owes an- other," Mr. Dunn referred the note to his friend Cassius M. Clay, and at once went to Silver Springs, the country home of the late Francis P. Blair, about seven miles from Washington, and not unknown as a duelling ground. As soon as it became known that Mr. Dunn's honor had been committed to Mr. Clay's keeping, Mr. Rust and his friends were satisfied that it would not be compromised in an effort to avoid danger. It was also learned that Mr. Dunn was practising with the rifle at Silver Springs, A MEMOIR. 47 and that he had proved himself an excel- lent marksman. It was therefore not diffi- cult for Mr. Clay to satisfy the friend of Mr. Rust that for Mr. Dunn to repeat in the House what he had said in debate and Mr. Rust had refused to receive in satisfaction, that " he had no personal im- putations to make as to the truth or honor of the gentleman from Arkansas," should be a sufficient salve to heal the wounded honor of the challenger. The settlement was made upon this basis, and a friend of Mr. Dunn was commissioned by Mr. Clay to drive to Silver Springs and inform the latter of the terms of the accommodation. Mr. Dunn received the news, as this friend relates, with no marked expression of pleasure, for he had felt no alarm. How- ever willing he may have been to afford Mr. Rust the satisfaction he had de- manded, he was opposed to personal com- bat, and consented to engage in it only because he believed his country required it of him. He often said afterward that had a duel been fought and Mr. Rust fallen, he should have had the same feelings 48 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. as if he had killed him on the field of battle. In speaking of Mr. Dunn's stay at Sil- ver Springs while the trouble with him and Mr. Rust was being considered by their friends, Mr. Blair once said : " The day he came to my house he practised with the rifle, which weapon he had chosen for the duel. At night he went to bed at the usual hour and rested well until morning. After breakfast the next day I asked, ' What is your religion, Mr. Dunn?' He answered: 'Old- school Presbyterian, sir; I believe in the de- crees of God.' " It was his firm belief in this religion that enabled him to remain so placid amid his dangerous surroundings. In speaking of the nerve and courage displayed by Mr. Dunn in this case, Mr. Blair said that they were remarkable, that he had never seen them equalled, and that on the night be- fore the duel was to take place Mr. Dunn retired to his bed at the usual time, and slept as placidly as a child. Mr. Dunn's course in the 36th Congress met the entire approbation of his party A MEMOIR. 49 friends in his district, and, in the summer of i860, he was nominated for re-election. His opponent was the Rev. WilHam M. Daily, D.D., a Methodist clergyman. In the convention that nominated Dr. Daily, a delegate arose when the nomination was announced, and proposed three cheers for McKee Dunn, pledging him 1,500 major- ity in Jefferson County. The result made good the delegate's pledge, for Mr. Dunn's majority in Jefferson over Dr. Daily was 1,566. The usual Republican majority was about 500 ; so he received more than 500 Democratic votes. On the 16th of April, 1861, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling the 37th Congress to meet in extraordinary session, on the ensuing 4th of July, "to consider and determine such measures as the public safety and interest may seem to demand." It was indeed an "extraordi- nary" meeting of Congress, for ways and means were to be provided for carrying on what proved to be a gigantic war. The members were loaded with a responsibility greater than ever before rested upon Con- 50 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. gressional shoulders. Failures to dis- charge these duties with wisdom and alac- rity meant disaster to the army and destruction to the Union. To have be- come prominent in the councils of the government at such a time was no small honor, but it was one which Mr. Dunn attained. While Thaddeus Stevens was unquestionably the leader of the House, such men as Francis P. Blair, Junior, and William McKee Dunn were his able lieu- tenants. The latter was made chairman of the Committee on Patents and was as- signed to the Committee on Militia, but, as neither of these committees had any work referred to them during the special session, Mr. Dunn's labors in the commit- tee-room during that session were as noth- ing. By a resolution introduced by Mr. Holman, the business of the session was " confined to a consideration of matters concerning the military and naval opera- tions of the government, and the finan- cial affairs therewith connected " ; so, gen- eral legislation was not considered. During this session Mr. Dunn was one A MEMO//!. 51 of the most conservative members on the RepubHcan side of the House. He favored a war for the restoration of the Union, and for that only. He had all his life been an opponent of slavery extension, and now, if slavery went down with the rebellion, so much the better for the country, but he was op- posed to making war on it per se. Hold- ing these views he did not always act with his party friends, but in a few instances voted in opposition to his Republican col- leagues from his own State. He opposed a resolution introduced by Mr. Lovejoy to repeal the fugitive-slave law, and he voted against the confiscation law which passed at this session. He believed there was a dormant Union sentiment in the South, kept down by the Southern leaders, and he opposed laying a heavy hand on men who, he believed, were not in sym- pathy with the rebellion, but desired its suppression. He opposed laying a direct tax upon the people, and advocated the " issuing of Treasury notes at such rate of interest as will cause them to be taken 52 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. and held by the people as a popular loan." His speech on the bill reported by the Ways and Means Committee to raise money to prosecute the war, wherein he advocated the issuance of Treasury notes as stated above, was the first suggestion of such a policy in Congress, and it is therefore particularly worthy of note. The House bill went to the Senate, and after- ward to a conference committee of the two houses, which reported a substitute, and although the substitute provided for the laying of a direct tax upon the States, Mr. Dunn voted for it, and it became a law. When Congress convened in December, 1 86 1, there was a vacancy in the Com- mittee on Military Affairs, and Mr. Dunn was chosen to fill it. Francis P. Blair was chairman of this committee, but from the number of reports made from the commit, tee by Mr. Dunn, it is apparent that he shared with the distinguished Missourian the labors and responsibilities of this im- portant place. He took charge usually of the military bills after they had been re- ported to the House, and the intelligence A MEMOIR. 53 with which he discussed them showed his knowledge of, and familiarity with, mili- tary affairs. He showed great industry in his investigations of matters pertaining to his committee duties, and the conclusions and recommendations of the Military Committee were nearly always approved by the House. Arduous as were his duties on the Military Committee, he con- tinued to serve as chairman of the Com- mittee on Patents, shirking no labor that was put upon him. During the extraordinary session of this Congress the House adopted what were known as the Crittenden resolutions, declaring the objects for which the war should be prosecuted. At the commence- ment of the second session of the same Congress, Mr. Holman introduced a sim- ilar resolution, which was laid upon the table, in opposition to the vote of Mr. Dunn. On the 2d day of December, 1 86 1, Mr. Elliott introduced a resolution on the conduct of the war. It declared, among other things, that the President of the United States, as Commander-in-Chief 54 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. of the Army, had the right to emancipate all persons held as slaves in any military district in a state of insurrection. Mr. Dunn moved to lay the resolution on the table, but his motion failed. Subse- quently he voted to lay on the table Mr. Lovejoy's resolution condemning General Halleck's order prohibiting negroes from coming within the lines of his army. Mr. Dunn favored the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, but declared in a speech upon the subject that he preferred a gradual, rather than an immediate emancipation. He favored, also, compensating owners for the slaves emancipated. His views were nearly identical with those enunciated by Mr. Lincoln in his message to Congress ap- proving the bill, wherein he said : " I am gratified that the two principles of com- pensation and colonization are both recog- nized and practically applied in the act." On the 4th of December, 1861, Mr. Dunn introduced a resolution looking to the colonization of "free persons of African descent." Up to this time, A MEMOIR. 55 as afterward, the policies of Mr. Lin- coln and Mr. Dunn were alike, Mr. Dunn beingf an able advocate of the measures recommended by the Presi- dent. But the madness of the South- ern people in continuing the rebellion caused the Executive to resort to extreme measures — measures to which he had hitherto been adverse. And so with Mr. Dunn. His heart and soul were in the war for the Union, and when he decided that it could be more successfully prose- cuted by the adoption of measures which he had hitherto opposed, he did not hesi- tate as to his duty. As the war pro- gressed there was a change of opinion on the part of many besides Mr. Dunn who had been conservative at its beginning. A state of war, and more particularly of civil war, is not conducive to conservatism. Durinof the summer and fall of 1862 it became apparent that if the government would succeed in putting down the rebel- lion it must use all the means at its com- mand. When Congress met in December, Mr. Dunn threw off his conservatism, and. 56 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. during the remainder of his Congressional life, advocated what were termed extreme measures to destroy the Southern armies and bring the people of the rebellious States into subjection to the laws of the nation. He favored a rigid execution of the confiscation laws, and introduced into the House a resolution askinof the author- ities if the law had been enforced in the District of Columbia. He also advocated the bill to enlist negroes into the Union army. In advocating this measure he said : " I cannot see any reason why any man, of any color, who is able to raise his arm in defence of our nationality should not be per- mitted to do so. I do not see any reason why persons who are considered property by men in rebellion against the government should not be brought, in some way, into active co-opera- tion with the government in its efforts to sus- tain its authority, if they are willing at this time to take their places on the side of the government." The last speech made by Mr. Dunn in Congress was delivered February 24th, 1863, only a few days before the close of A MEMOIR. 57 his term. It was on the conscription bill — a most important measure. He favored the bill, and declared himself willing to give the President the most extraordinary power to impress men into the army, in order that the rebellion might be put down and the Union saved. He would "use all the means God had given the country to put down the wicked rebellion and restore the authority of the govern- ment from the Lakes to the Gulf." This speech, coming as it did from one who had been noted for his conservatism, had great influence both upon the House and the country. In 1862 Mr. Dunn was nominated for re-election to Congress, but was beaten at the polls by Henry W. Harrington. This defeat may be attributed to several causes : The Union army had suffered dis- aster during the year, and many of Mr. Dunn's most influential and active friends were in the army. He had indorsed the President's emancipation proclamation and favored the conscription act, both of which were in southern Indiana at that 58 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. time unpopular. It was, indeed, a dis- astrous year to the Union cause and to the supporters of Mr. Lincoln's adminis- tration, and Mr. Dunn shared merely the fate of others who acted with him in Congress. But defeat did not dampen his ardor nor weaken his arm in the cause of the Union ; and in another place he rendered service as valuable to the government as he had rendered in the hall of the national House of Representatives. Mr. Dunn's Congressional life ended March 4th, 1863. He did not long remain out of public service, for on the last day of that month he was appointed Judge- Advocate of Volunteers for the Department of Missouri, with the rank and pay of major. He accepted the office, as it was in the line of his profession, and because he had confidence in his ability to discharge its duties satisfactorily to the country. In 1 86 1, Mr. Dunn was offered by Gov- ernor Morton the colonelcy of an Indiana regiment of volunteers, but he declined A MEMOIR. 59 the appointment because he modestly believed that he did not possess the mili- tary knowledge which he esteemed neces- sary for an effective officer in the field, and for the further reason that, the people having elected him to Congress, he re- garded it his duty to serve them until his term expired. For the same reasons he would not allow his friends to ask Presi- dent Lincoln to appoint him a brigadier- general, although he had assurances that, if asked for, the appointment would be made. As soon as Mr. Dunn received his appointment as Judge- Advocate for the Department of Missouri he reported for duty at St. Louis. His services were required in many cases, for at that time Missouri was in a most distracted condi- tion. The people were divided upon the great question of the day, and it was necessary to the maintenance of Federal rule that vigorous and decisive measures should be applied and condign punish- ment inflicted upon those who were de- nominated guerillas. It was Major Dunn's 6o WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. duty to prosecute many of these persons to conviction, a duty from which he did not shrink, but one which was exceedingly unpleasant to a man of his kindly nature. He once told the writer of this biography that the most displeasing part of his offi- cial life was the time he spent in prose- cuting Missouri guerillas. Major Dunn's talents and abilities as a public speaker were well known to the people of St. Louis when he reported there for duty in the spring of 1863, and he was soon called upon to display them. On the 2d of May the loyal women of that city, to the number of two thousand, met to organize a Ladies' National League. Major Dunn made the principal speech of the meeting — a speech that was received with acclamations of delight. In January, 1864, while Major Dunn was on duty at St. Louis, General Grant visited that city and was given a grand dinner by the people. Besides the great chieftain, there were present at the dinner Generals Rosecrans, Schofield, Osterhous, and numerous other officers of lesser rank A MEMOIR. 6 1 and distinction. Judge Treat presided at the table, and Major Dunn was compli- mented by being called upon to respond to the first toast, " The President of the United States." In the spring of 1864, Major Dunn was nominated for Congress by his political friends in his old Congressional district, but, not wishing to re-enter that body, the nomination was declined. Major Dunn discharged his duties as Judge- Advocate for the Department of Missouri with such acceptability to the country that his friends determined that he should be furnished a broader field for the exercise of his unquestioned ability. With this object in view, a bill was intro- duced into Congress for the creation of the of^ce of Judge-Advocate-General of the Army, the incumbent to rank as a brigadier-general. The purpose of the originators of the measure, as is shown by letters of Mr. Schuyler Colfax and others, was to secure for Major Dunn the appointment. Mr. Colfax was then Speaker of the House, and, possessing 62 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. much influence with the administration, he hoped without difficulty to secure the object desired. He vigorously pressed the application, but President Lincoln's deep sense of the services rendered on a critical occasion by the Hon. Joseph Holt, impelled him to confer upon Mr. Holt the appointment, reserving for Mr. Dunn the appointment of Assistant Judge-Advo- cate-General, with the rank and pay of colonel, as was provided by the terms of the law. Judge Holt and Major Dunn received the first appointments to these new positions, and thus became associated in organizing the Department of Military Justice. In March, 1865, Colonel Dunn was brevetted a brigadier-general " for faith- ful, meritorious, and distinguished ser- vice. While General Dunn was Assistant Judge- Advocate-General, he was assigned to duty in several parts of the South ; and at Atlanta, Georgia, was engaged in one of the most important cases growing out of the war. In an interview of the author A MEMOIR. 63 with Senator Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia, Senator Brown remarked in relation to this trial and General Dunn's connection with it : " In 1868 General Dunn was at Atlanta as Assistant Judge-Advocate-General, General Pope, who had been in command of the De- partment, had been superseded by General Meade previous to the time of which I speak. One Ashburn, a Southerner by birth (a white man), had been killed at Columbus, Georgia, by a mob. Ashburn's offence was his living with a negro woman and associating and afifiliating with negroes. He was a bad and dangerous man. He had been a member of the constitu- tional convention of Georgia in 1868, and had been active in organizing the negro vote. General Meade determined that such outrages as the killing of men by mobs should be stopped, and ordered the arrest of some fifteen men suspected of having taken part in Ash- burn's murder. Some of the men arrested were of good character ; others were dis- reputable. Rufus Bullock had been elected Governor of Georgia, but had not been inaugu- rated ; so it was a question whether or not the State had a civil government. The arrests of these men caused intense excitement. Some 64 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. six or seven of the leading lawyers of the State — including Alexander H. Stephens — vol- unteered to defend the prisoners. General Dunn, as Judge-Advocate, was charged with their prosecution. General Meade sent for me, and in General Dunn's presence asked me to as- sist in the prosecution. I told him I had doubts of the legality of the arrests, and would not go into the case without his promise that the pris- oners, if convicted, should not be executed — that no blood should be shed. This promise he gave, and I took the employment. General Dunn also had doubts of the legality of the trial, the question in doubt being whether civil gov- ernment existed in Georgia ; but he said it was his duty to obey orders, and that he should do so. " He entered into the trial with zeal, and led the prosecution with great tact and ability. He was fair and courteous in the discharge of his duties, but he was persistent and deter- mined in their execution. After we had been in the trial two weeks or more. Governor Bul- lock was inaugurated ; and General Meade, on General Dunn's advice, turned the prisoners over to the civil authorities. They were never tried, as in the then state of public opinion in Georgia their conviction by the civil authori- ties was impossible. " None of the other Federal officers at Atlanta were so popular as General Dunn. He always A MEMOIR. 65 treated the people with courtesy and affability ; he commanded their respect by his ability and his fairness; his departure was regretted by all classes. He was of great service to both Generals Pope and Meade. While he was firm in the performance of his duties, he was always just and fair. Afterward I saw much of him, and greatly liked him. He was my friend, and I his." This statement of General Dunn's popu- larity at Atlanta is substantiated by no- tices in the Atlanta press at the time of his departure, and by letters received by him afterward from friends he made while there. Considering the unsettled condition of the country, and the fact that he held a commission from a government against which they had rebelled, the respect and affection shown him by the people of Georgia were indeed remarkable. General Dunn's career in Georgia was such as to draw to him, not only Union men, but also leadlno- Confederates. Major Smyth, who was an assistant In General Dunn's office while he was In Atlanta, in a recent letter, says : 66 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. " When it was known that General Meade would remove Governor Jenkins, the constitu- tional convention, then in session in Atlanta, passed a resolution favoring the appointment of R. B. Bullock (afterward elected Governor) to his place. The minority of the convention, who opposed this appointment, applied to General Meade to have an officer of the army- selected, instead of a civilian from either side of the two wings into which the convention had become divided. The gentlemen who waited upon the General to accomplish this end were Dr. H. V. M. Miller, shortly after elected United States Senator ; A. T. Akerman, sub- sequently Attorney-General of the United States ; and N, L. Angier, who was elected State Treasurer. Mr. Akerman and Mr. Angier are both dead. Dr. Miller says that he does not recollect that they suggested the name of any particular officer, but knows that General Dunn was the one whom they were all in favor of, not only from his wide experience in civil affairs, but also for the kindly sympathy he had shown for the people of the South during the reconstruction period. 1 have no doubt that these wishes, while not formally stated, were conveyed to General Meade by the other members of the committee, and that they were expressed to General Dunn." A MEMOIR. 6'J Another person, who was in a position to know, says that General Howell Cobb and Alexander H. Stephens urged Gen- eral Meade to have General Dunn ap- pointed Military Governor ; and received for answer that he could not be spared from the office he held of Assistant Judge- Advocate-General of the Army. While General Dunn was at Atlanta, he formed friendships which lasted while he lived. Judge Erskine, who was on the Federal bench in Georgia during recon- struction times, thus speaks of General Dunn : " For General William McKee Dunn, U. S. A., I have the highest respect and esteem. He was an honorable, wise, prudent, brave, determined, firm, and noble man." Major Smyth, from whom we have already quoted, in speaking of General Dunn, says : " The unaffected interest he always mani- fested in young men made him a welcome com- panion. His extensive attainments, ripe expe- rience, and his broad and just views upon all subjects were an inspiration and daily instruc- 68 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. tion to all who were so fortunate as to be asso- ciated with him." Nowhere had General Dunn warmer or truer friends than at Atlanta. In an interview which* the author had with Judge Joseph Holt, that gentleman said : " I was always glad to see General Dunn. He brought sunshine into my office whenever he entered it. I always felt stronger from his visits. His intense loyalty and great concern for the government strengthened and upheld me in the trying ordeal through which I had to pass. When asked by the author what he con- sidered General Dunn's leading charac- teristic, he replied : " Loyalty to his coun- try." On being asked if he was not as loyal in all the relations in life — to his God, his family, and to his neighbor — as he was to his country, Judge Holt replied : *' He may have been, but it was in relation to his duties to the government that I knew most of him. He was my prop and support at a time when I greatly needed a helping hand." A MEMOIR. 69 December ist, 1875, Judge-Advocate- General Holt, at his own request, was re- tired from office, and President Grant at once appointed General Dunn to succeed him. In a letter which has been published, General Dunn says that the President gave him the office without solicitation from any one. Indeed, he could hardly have acted otherwise, for General Dunn had so ably discharged the duties of assistant as to be entitled to the appointment. While Judge-Advocate-General, Gen- eral Dunn gave an opinion adverse to the power of the army to try civilian employes by military law. He said they could not be tried by court-martial ; thus recogniz- ing the superiority of the civil over the military authority in time of peace. When General Dunn retired from the office of Judge-Advocate-General, the New York Tribune spoke thus of him : " Twenty years ago McKee Dunn was one of the ablest and most prominent men in Congress. He gave his own son to the war and his own patriotic work in Congress until his fine legal abilities and his long service on the Military 70 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. Committee combined to make him the most suitable assistant to Judge Holt in the Judge- Advocate-General's office. When Judge Holt retired, no man in the army or out of it doubted that General Dunn was his natural and neces- sary successor. Now that he in his turn goes upon the retired list there will still be none who do not regret the necessity and wish the retiring officer the most peaceful and honored old age." At his retirement on the 2 2d of January, 1 88 1, from the office of Judge- Advocate- General, General Dunn was in the full vigor of his faculties. He had from boy- hood led an active and industrious life, and he could not in his riper years be happy without employment. And now, beinor free from the cares and labors of official life, he devoted himself to the con- genial work of helping others. He took much interest in the cause of education, and was an active worker in many chari- table enterprises. He might have passed the remainder of his life solely in the en- joyment of ease and elegance, for he had abundant means ; but he preferred work. He did not live merely for himself and fam- A MEMOIR. 71 ily, and hence he was an active worker wher- ever there was something to do for his fel- low-man. He was a thoroughly unselfish man, and it is not strange therefore that his latter years were full of activity for others. He had confidence in the future prosper- ity of the beautiful city in which he lived, and dealt somewhat extensively in Wash- ington city property. The income which he derived therefrom, as well as that re- ceived from the government, as a retired army officer, was largely applied to hu- mane and charitable purposes. He made no ostentatious display of his benevolence ; and information of his generous deeds came from other lips than his. He prac- tised no discrimination in his charitable gifts on account of religion. A " Little Sister of the Poor" once said : " Mr. Corcoran and General Dunn make the largest contributions to our society that we receive. They are Protestants, but they are CathoHc in heart ; they are generous to all." General Dunn's benevolent character was well known in Washington, and de- 72 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. mand was made upon him for activity in many charitable works. He was a mem- ber of the board of trustees of the Wash- ington Monument Society, a director of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, and a trustee of the Columbia University. He was also energetic in religious and church affairs, there probably being no other man in Washington more interested in doing good to others. His last years were crowned with good deeds, and his active benevolence ended only with his life. Not indifferent to the pleasures which affluence gave to him, this was not neces- sary to his happiness. He liked honest and good people in whatever station he found them. He was a lover of nature, and when he put aside the cares of ofificial life his natural tastes drew him to the country. H is summer home — Maplewood — was in Fairfax County, Virginia, and there he spent the summer months of his later years. He loved the green fields and the running brooks about him, and took delight in making the acquaintance A MEMOIR. 73 of his neighbors, soon identifying his in- terests with theirs. Their affection for him was unusual, and when he died none mourned him more sincerely. Some of the most touching and beautiful letters of condolence received by his family after his death were from his neighbors of Fairfax. General Dunn visited Europe twice ; and while there, in 1872, he wrote a letter to his old friend, David C. Branham, which is a gem in its way. He had heard of the nomination of Horace Greeley as the Democratic candidate for the Presidency. This nomination struck him, as it did a great many others, with amazement, and made him more forcibly realize than ever the old adage that " politics makes strange bed-fellows." He considered the nomina- tion in a humorous aspect, and indulged his fancy in writing the very amusing letter. In his correspondence he had the happy faculty of expressing himself in an easy and conversational style, rendering his letters so charming that no one can tire of reading them. 74 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. In October, 1885, General Dunn at- tended a meeting of the surviving mem- bers of the Indiana Constitutional Con- vention of 1850, at which he made a lengthy address. Of the 150 members who composed the convention, thirty-five only survived, and he feelingly alluded to the fact. He knew that the time of the remaining members was short, and that they all would soon be called to join those who had gone before. All his life he had been controlled by principle, and it was evident from his speech that it was not without pleasure that he looked back and reviewed his public acts. His earnest efforts to master the questions that came before him and his good judgment and strict integrity had contributed to make his public life more than usually exempt from faults and blunders. After the lapse of thirty-five years he could review and survey with pleasure his course in the convention, for time had vindicated its wisdom. He was gratified especially that an enlightened public opinion had ap- proved of his opposition to the thirteenth A MEMO/11. 75 article of the State constitution by abolish- ing that article. He had opposed it in the convention, and it having been sepa- rately submitted to the people, he had voted against it. It ordained that no negro or mulatto should come into, or settle in, the State after its adoption, and also provided for severe penalties against all persons who employed the prohibited negroes or mulattoes or encouraged them to remain within the State. The article became a part of the constitution by an immense popular majority. In 1881, it had, by a like majority, been stricken out. Mr. Dunn's vote on the article in ques- tion was given at a time when there were few who were willing that the negro should have a home in the State ; and, representing, as he did, a county lying on the southern boundary of the State, and in sentiment deeply impregnated with the views of slave-holders, this fact proves, if there were need of proof, that his course in the premises was dictated by conscien- tious principles and sacred regard to duty. In the speech of General Dunn at the 76 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. reunion, he referred to other questions which had been discussed in the conven- tion. During the debates charges were made against the management of the State Bank, which he had declared to be untrue. Time had proven their untruthfulness, and had vindicated the management of the bank, which had paid all its debts and turned over a munificent sum to the State for the benefit of its common schools. It was with great pleasure that he called the attention of the survivors of the convention of 1850 to these facts and reminded them of his course on the question of banks in the convention. There have lived few men who could derive more satisfaction from a review of their lives than General Dunn. He had been true and loyal in all the relations of life to his family, his fellow-men, his country, and his God. It is to be regret- ted that he has not given us more glimpses of the life which, commencing as a spark- ling stream in the wilderness of Indiana, gathered in volume and force until it reached the great ocean of eternity. A MEMOIR. yy In his latter years General Dunn's eye- sight was so much impaired that he was unable to read with any degree of ease. His eyes had been operated upon by a dis- tinguished oculist, but his vision remained impaired. A daughter of his old friend, Judge Courtland Gushing, acted as his private secretary, and aided him in his work. She read to him, wrote at his dic- tation, and was of great assistance to him in many ways. Diabetes had been afflict- ing him for years and was undermining his constitution and energies. He would ask Miss Gushing to get pen and paper to write, but would soon tire of the work, saying he was fatigued and the writing must be put off to a future day. Early in the summer of 1887 his throat having be- come diseased, he asked Miss Gushing to read from an encyclopedia a description of Bright's disease, and when she had ended, putting his hand to his throat, he said, " This is the beginning of the end." A few days before his death he visited Washington on business, and, as the weather was intensely hot, his malady in- 78 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. creased in virulence. On his return to Maplewood a physician was called, who pronounced his condition critical. He suffered little pain and everything was done to make him comfortable which a loving wife and a devoted family could do. Alas ! they could not prolong the life so dear to them ; and here, in his beautiful home, surrounded by those whom he loved best, on Sunday morning, July 24, 1887, the good man breathed his last. His wife and all his living children, ex- cept Mrs. McKee, who was in Europe, were with him when " the lamp went out, the golden bowl was broken." Had General Dunn been permitted to choose the time and manner of his death, he would doubtless have selected the quiet hours of a summer Sunday morning, an emblem of the blessed eternal day upon which his eyes were to be opened, never to close again. As soon as intelligence of his death was received in Washington a large number of his friends hastened to Maplewood to do honor to the distinguished dead and A MEMOIR. 79 sympathize with his family. On the Tues- day following his death, his remains were borne by special train to Washington. The funeral services took place at five o'clock of the afternoon of that day in the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, of which he had long been an active and influential member. Dr. Bartlett, the pas- tor of the church, being absent from the city, the Scripture lesson was read by Dr. Griffin and the funeral address delivered by Dr. Hamlin. Eight soldiers, detailed from Washington barracks, conveyed the body to the hearse. Justice Harlan, Judge Drake, Admiral Rodgers, Generals Benet, Meigs, and Macfeely, Dr. Toner, and Mr. W. M. Gait, representing the Supreme Court, the Army, the Navy, the Washing- ton Monument Society, and the Presbyte- rian Church, acted as pall-bearers. These gentlemen, with the family, and a large number of distinguished men and women, followed the remains to Oak Hill Cemetery, West Washington, where they were placed in the tomb. Here, beside the grave of his daughter — Mrs Mary Louise Mor- 80 WILLIAM MCKEE DUNN. rison, — all that was mortal of William McKee Dunn, gentleman, lawyer, states- man, patriot, and Christian, was laid at rest. The intelligence of General Dunn's death was received with profound sorrow throughout the country. His manners had been so kind, his charities so large, his ben- evolence so extensive, and his good works so many, that his friendships had widened with each year he lived. It is not neces- sary at the close of this biography to sum up the leading traits in General Dunn's character, they having been given as the narrative progressed. He was exceeding- ly kind to young men. He took pains to acquaint himself with the habits and prin- ciples of those about him, and such as were worthy had in him a true and stead- fast friend. Men now prominent in busi- ness, at the bar, and in public affairs owe much to him. Fidelity to all the obliga- tions of life was a leading characteristic. He never faltered when honor and duty pointed the way. He was often tried as with fire, but he passed the ordeal un- scathed. He was ever equal to the occasion, A MEMOIR. 8 1 and succeeded when others more brilliant than he, but with talents less symmetrical, would have failed. The estimation in which he was held by his neighbors, in the church and in benevolent work, is evidenced by many kindly things spoken of him at the time of his death. A farm- er near Maplewood said : " General Dunn will be missed more than anybody can tell ; he was a good man in every way, but the poor folks especially have sus- tained a loss that cannot be made good." What a benefactor General Dunn was to the people and to the church near his country home is so well told in an article published after his death and written by Rev. J. E. Nourse that we give it in full : " ANOTHER GOOD MAN CALLED UP HIGHER. " When a feeble church and a region of country much needing help in temporal things as well as spiritual suddenly loses a benefactor, it is to all an afflictive dispensation. Such has recently been the experience of the Presbyte- rian Church of Lewinsville and the precinct of the county of Fairfax in which it stands. Gen- eral William McKee Dunn, a member of the New 82 WILLIAM McKEE DUNN. York Avenue Church, Washington, residing at his country seat, was called on the 24th ult. to his rest, from the most loving as well as generous participation in the welfare, not only of the church named, but of every true interest of the community around him. With a heart and a liberal hand ready for all such true interests, General Dunn sealed the sincerity of his sym- pathies and his gifts by the example of a lovely Christian character, firm and decided, but sim- ple, sincere, and gentle as a child. Rarely, if ever, has the writer looked down from the pul- pit on a face more lovely in Christian expression — a countenance which told to all what the inner man was by his communion with God. " The honored military record of the Gen- eral has been given by his comrades in the ser- vice, up to the date of his retirement. But the secular press has not noticed the qualities of character so commendable, but so seldom, it is to be feared, possessed in the service. To lay this humble fliower upon this Christian hero's tomb in Oak Hill is felt by the writer to be a sweet privilege: for, additionally to all his past experiences of Christian intercourse, the mem- ory of our last interview remains fresh from the deep, impression then again received of that loving Christian countenance. The tribute of- fered in a letter lately written by a friend is in every point true : ' General Dunn was as near- A MEMOIR. 83 ly perfect as man can be ; the best type I have ever known. I knew he was waiting for the tide, but am shocked to hear he has crossed the river. He has carried with him the admi- ration and esteem of all who knew him. ' " Entered into rest, Forever with the Lord." We shall meet thee again, Brother ; Christians never bid farewell.' " APPENDIX. 85 FAMILY TREE. James Dunn, of County Down, Ireland, married Martha Long. Samuel Dunn, son of James Dunn and Martha Long Dunn, born in County Down, Ireland, emigrated with his father to the United States when twelve years old ; married Eleanor Brew- ster in 1775, and died in Mercer County, Ken- tucky, August 17, 1802. Williamson Dunn, son of Samuel Dunn and Eleanor Brewster Dunn, born in Mercer County, Kentucky, December 25, 1781 ; married Miriam Wilson, September 25, 1806 ; emigrated to Indiana Territory in 1809. Mrs. Miriam Dunn died at Crawfordsville, Indiana, October 20, 1827. Williamson Dunn died at Hanover, Indiana, No- vember II, 1854. William McKee Dunn, son of Williamson Dunn and Miriam Wilson Dunn, born in Jefferson County, Indiana Territory, December 12, 1814 ; married Elizabeth Frances Lanier, March 11, 1841; died at Maplewood, Fairfax County, Virginia, July 24, 1887. Children of William McKee Dunn and Elizabeth Frances Lanier Dunn : 87 88 APPENDIX. James Lanier Dunn ; died in infancy, William McKee Dunn, Jr.; married May E. Morrill, October 22, 1868. Charles Norwood Dunn ; died in infancy. Frances Elizabeth Dunn ; married to David Ritchie McKee, May 11, 187 1. Lanier Dunn ; married Harriet Hildreth Heard, September 27, 1882. Mary Louise Dunn ; married to Charles Clif- ford Morrison, United States Army, April 30, 1879 ; died February 7, 1885. George Marshall Dunn. ''THE LOYAL FAMILY OF DUNNS." (letter from general DUNN TO ROBERT CRAVENS, ESQ.) Washington, D. C, August 31, 1878. Dear Robert : I have just read an article in the Louisville Courier -yoiirnal headed "The Loyal Family of Dunns." It seems to be from a Madison correspond- ent. If you know him, or can find him out, tell him he has not told the half about this family of " Treasury leeches." There was Captain Williamson Dunn, one of the pioneers of Jefferson County, better known as Judge Dunn. He commenced on the Treasury in the war of 181 2, as a captain of United States Ran- gers. He raised his company in Jefferson County, and APPENDIX. 89 in order to get as much government money into the family as possible, persuaded two of his brothers and ttvo brothers-in-law to enlist in his company, and each of these privates was paid eight dollars per month, out of which exorbitant pay he was permitted to provide for himself, and furnish and provide for his horse. If the correspondent aforesaid wishes to learn how luxuriously those Rangers fared as they scouted through the wilderness of Indiana Terri- tory, from the Ohio to the Wabash, to protect the scattered settlers from the tomahawks and scalping knives of the merciless Indians, let him inquire of old Judge Wise, 'Squire Hankins, or of any other soldiers of Captain Dunn's company who may yet survive. When the Mexican war broke out, two of Judge Dunn's boys, true to the family instinct " for making money out of this government," volunteered to draw their pay as soldiers, and did so on the blood- stained fields of Mexico. When the war of the rebellion burst forth, these same men, grown much older then, made for the Treasury again, and were chosen by their fellow-soldiers,— Thomas, who is now a major in the regular army, to be captain of his company ; and David, who is the United States Consul referred to, to be lieutenant-colonel of the 9th Regiment Indiana Volunteers. Thomas was appointed captain in the regular army in May, 186 r. He was in such battles as Fredericksburg, the second Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg ; 90 APPENDIX. was wounded in the battle of the Wilderness, and was twice brevetted for his good conduct as a soldier. David commanded the 29th Indiana Volunteers at the battle of Shiloh, and distinguished himself by his courage and good judgment in hand- ling his men in one of the hottest places in the fight on Monday. He commanded the same regiment in the battle of Stone River, where he was so un- fortunate as to be captured and carried to Libby Prison. For several months he enjoyed the some- what celebrated luxuries of that delectable abode, and when he was expelled therefrom did not fail to draw his pay as if he had been enduring the hard- ships of active service all the time of his delightful imprisonment. Williamson McKee, son of my brother Samuel Dunn, of Franklin, a dashing cavalry man, and generous-hearted fellow, had his name suddenly stricken from the pay-roll of his country by a bullet, as he was on the march to the battle of Stone River. Palmer Dunn, son of my brother James Dunn, deceased, late of Logansport, was in the senior class of Oxford College when the rebels fired on Sumter. He promptly volunteered, and continued in the service until, by his own merits, he rose by regular promotions to a captaincy, and fell while cheering on his company in the red havoc of the battle of Chickamauga. His name never after- wards appeared on the pay-rolls of his company, but may now be seen in a cemetery in Logansport, APPENDIX. 91 on a beautiful monument erected to his memory by his comrades in arms, who inscribed in marble their testimony to his worth as a man and his honor and bravery as a soldier. I felt then that in his death the Dunn family had lost the most promising of its young men. His brother Williamson entered the Naval Academy, in i860 ; was, with his class- mates, ordered into active service in 1863 ; served through the war as acting ensign, and resigned in 1866. The father of these young men, when over sixty years of age, went out as lieutenant-colonel of a regiment on short service. Edward, son of my brother John Dunn, of Han- over, was wounded in the battle of the Wilderness. His arm had to be taken off at the shoulder. An artery under his shoulder was badly torn, and could not be reached to be tied up in the field, and for days Edward's life was kept in his body by soldiers in turn pressing their thumbs on the artery. Thus he was borne to a hospital in Wash- ington, where by skilful appliances the artery was supposed to be securely closed ; but suddenly in the night it burst open, the young soldier's life blood spurted out, and another of " The loyal fam- ily of Dunns " was no more. His only brother, Williamson, enlisted at Frankfort, Indiana, in the Fortieth Regiment, and was discharged at the close of the war with the rank of captain. My brother. Dr. Williamson P. Dunn, of Frank- fort, went out as a surgeon of a regiment in which his son was a private soldier. James W. Spear, 92 APPENDIX. only son of Dr. Spear and my sister Mary, of Hanover, bore his musket and endured the priva- tions of a soldier, but fortunately did not have his pay stopped by a bullet. My nephew, Thomas Hynes, son of the Rev. Thomas W. Hynes, of Illinois, with his two brothers, volunteered in an Illinois regiment, and was mortally wounded in the advance on Vicksburg. His eldest brother, William D. Hynes, was captured in the battle at Franklin, Tennessee, carried to Anderson- ville Prison, where he remained until the close of the war. He returned home, broken down in health by the horrid privations and cruelties to which he had been subjected in that prison, doomed for its inhumanities to immortal infamy. Being, by the barbarities of his prison life, rendered incapable of hard labor or sedentary pursuits, the member of Congress from his district in Illinois procured for him a mail route agency ; where I hope the malice of my enemies may not reach him. All my nephews except two enlisted in the army as volunteers in the late war, and I do not have to apologize for those two not having volun- teered, as neither of them was ten years old at the commencement of the war ; and the fathers of each of them went into the service. Tell that Madison correspondent when next he begins an article about " The Loyal Family of Dunns," and undertakes to figure up how much money they have received from the government, to dip his pen in patriotic blood, and remember APPENDIX. 93 the Dunns were not soldiers in peace and citizens in war. When the war began, I had no son qualified by age, size, or health to be a soldier; but, when the guns fired on Sumter reverberated in the hills around Madison, and General Crittenden, unfurling the Stars and Stripes, called for volunteers to uphold that flag, my then stripling of a boy, who bears and honors my name, came to me with face all aglow, and said with eager emphasis : " Father, I want to enlist." My answer was: "Then enlist," and off he shot to enroll his name as a volunteer in his country's service. The man grown from that boy is now a captain, and major by brevet, in the U. S. Army, and it is of him this Madison cor- respondent sends defamatory statements through the columns of a widely disseminated journal. By way of answer to this correspondent, I refer you to Grant and His Campaig?is, a book published in 1866, and quote from page 463, under the title of "The Lieutenant-General's Military Household": " Captain William McKee Dunn, Jr., United States Volunteers, is from Indiana. He entered the service in April, 1861, in the eighteenth year of his age, as a private in the Sixth Regiment In- diana Infantry Volunteers, served his three months, and re-enlisted August 9, 1862, in the Sixty-seventh Regiment Indiana Infantry Volunteers, and served as a non-commissioned officer until October 19, 1863, when he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Eighty-third Regiment Infantry Volunteers 94 APPENDIX. from the same State, and was with it in Sherman's first assault on Vicksburg, and in the battle of Arkansas Post, and until March, 1863, when he was appointed an aide-de-camp to General Sulli- van. During the siege of Vicksburg he was on duty at General Grant's headquarters, where he showed such bravery and cheerfulness in the dis- charge of his duties — in fact, ever seeking to be on missions of hardship and danger, that General Grant had him assigned to duty, in October, 1863, as acting aide-de-camp on his staff, where he con- tinued to serve through all the General's battles and campaigns to the surrender of Lee at Appo- mattox Court House. For his gallantry and effi- ciency he was made a captain and assistant ad- jutant-general, to date from that surrender." I had no acquaintance with General Grant until my son had been on his staff many months. After the war, in speaking to me once of "Will," the General said : " He is as brave as Julius Caesar. Had I ordered him to a place where it was certain death to go, I do not believe he would have hesi- tated a moment to obey the order." I replied that the son had not as much prudence as his father. I think I may be pardoned for feeling proud of the military record of my soldier boy, and indig- nant that any one, particularly a resident of his native place, should be so mean as to try to rob him of his well earned honors. My father had surviving him during the war seven sons with families, and the families of three APPENDIX. 95 daughters, and not one of his male descendants, within the years of military duty, failed to take part, on the right side, in the war of the rebellion. His father, as a soldier of the colony of Virginia, was in the battle with the Indians at the mouth of the Big Kanawha River, and it was one of the bloodiest battles ever fought with Indians. That battle occurred before the Revolutionary War, and from that time to this, the name of " Dunn " has never been found want- ing when our country called to arms, and I trust, so long as a drop of the blood remains, whenever there is a roll call of our country's defenders, there may be one at least of " The Loyal Family of Dunns " to answer, ** Here." When I read the communication in the Courier- 'yotirjial referred to, I wondered whether it were possible the author thereof had never read in Rev- elation of the lake, not of water, in which it is declared "all liars shall have their part." Take, for example, the following extract : " They tell me that Lon Sexton has nothing to do with any of the appointments of this district, but that McKee Dunn, the Judge-Advocate-General, does just as suits his family interests best, for you must understand that Dunn uses the power of old J. F. D. I.anier, the head of the famous New York banking house of Winslow, Lanier & Co., and the old man Lanier has always seen where to put his money where it would do the most good. He gave Grant $10,000 to buy his home with — that is, he was one of the subscribers. "The appointment of Tilton is an insult to all right and justice ; it reminds me of the manner in which Ireland is 96 APPENDIX. governed — by a party of nobility who live in London and distribute the patronage of Ireland among their friends and relatives, regardless of their claims, worth, or ability. Just so has McKee Dunn been doing for twenty years with the patronage of this district, all through the power of his father- in-law, Lanier, the New York banker." And again, in speaking of me the correspondent says : " He never served as a soldier but as a volunteer aid to generals. Then he was appointed through the influence of his father-in-law, J. F. D. Lanier, the New York banker, to be Assistant Judge-Advocate-General. On Joe Holt's death he was made Judge-Advocate-General." I do not remember a single instance in which I have interfered with any of the appointments of Gov. Sexton's district since his election to repre- sent it. I could not have had anything to do with the appointment of Colonel McClure as mail route agent on the steamboat mail line between Cincin- nati and Louisville, because I did not know of the restoration of that agency until I heard of Colonel McClure's appointment. The appointment of Mr. Tilton to a small clerk- ship in the Pension Bureau here was not such an interference. Mr. Tilton's record as a pension agent was so exceptionally good, and his knowledge of the mode of transacting pension business, ob- tained by his long experience as a pension agent, was so valuable that the Pension Bureau here was glad to secure his services. No other man in Gov- ernor Sexton's district could at once or for a long APPENDIX. 97 time be so valuable to the bureau as Mr. Tilton. Soon after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration Mr. Tilton was appointed pension agent at Madison, at my instance, the income from the office then being about two hundred and fifty dollars a year. Neither he nor I had any idea that the office would after- wards become so valuable. He was enabled to hold the office so long as he did because he performed the duties thereof with honesty, promptness, and accuracy. It would be well for the civil service of our country if there were many thousands of such men as Mark Tilton in office. I have no apology to make for having used my best efforts to keep Mr. Tilton in the pension agency against all comers. He is a good man, a good citizen, and was an officer of unsurpassed excellence, and although he was not a soldier him- self, he sheltered under his roof those who had been stricken by the carnage of war. There his sister, Mrs. Berryhill, and her family, widow and children of Major Berryhill, who was killed at the battle of Perryville, found a home ; and there, too, his widowed sister, Mrs. Sheets, mother of the brave boy-lieutenant who was killed at Chicka- mauga, found sympathy and kindness in her great grief. Poor Frank Sheets, cruelly slain in the comeliness and promise of his youth ! He had been reared as their son by Mr. and Mrs. Tilton, was the playmate and companion of my children, and as I write these lines his warm young blood seems almost to spurt upon my hand. 98 APPENDIX. I have been consulted here sometimes as to ap- pointments in it, when my old district was repre- sented by a Democrat. Dr. Schussler was, on my recommendation, appointed examining surgeon of the Madison district, and my recollection is that when he resigned I procured the appointment of Dr. Collins. I am quite sure that, when Dr. Col- lins had some difficulty with the Pension Bureau here, I, at his and Mr. Tilton's request, put myself to a good deal of trouble in trying to have the matter adjusted according to the Doctor's wishes. I did have some agency in the appointment of Mr. Cofifin as postmaster at Madison, but that was done with the concurrence of General Hunter, who then represented the district. I said a kind word for Colonel Garber, but he did not need my assist- ance in procuring his appointment. The mean insinuation that Mr. Lanier contrib- uted to the purchase of a house for General Grant from selfish motives could have emanated only from one who reasoned from his inner conscious- ness, and who was incapable of understanding that a good act might proceed from a good motive only. Mr. Lanier's contribution to the " Grant Fund " was one thousand instead of ten thousand dollars, and was made one or two years after I was ap- pointed Assistant Judge-Advocate-General, and, moreover, I was appointed to that office by Presi- dent Lincoln. General Holt, who still lives, was, December i, 1875, at his own request, retired from the office of Judge-Advocate-General, and there- APPENDIX. 99 upon President Grant immediately appointed me to that office without being requested to do so by anybody. What a lying ass that correspondent is ! I am under many and great obligations to my father-in-law, Mr. Lanier, for his kindness to my- self and my family, but I am under no obligations to him even for assistance in procuring any office I ever held. My stalwart friend, William Phibbs, who used to stand all election day at the court- house window to prevent illegal votes against me from being put into the ballot-box, was of far more use to me politically than ever Mr. Lanier was. Indeed, it used to be to me a matter of painful surprise that Mr. Lanier did not manifest more interest in my political aspirations. For the office I now hold, and all I have ever held, and for whatever of political influence I have ever possessed, I am mainly indebted to the good opinion and confidence of the people of Jefferson County and of the old Third Congressional District of Indiana. I prize their good opinion, and would be distressed by the loss of their confidence. The influence with which they clothed me has not been employed selfishly in the interests of my family. My brother, who is a consul, was indebted for the appointment to his fellow-townsman and warm personal and political friend, the late Senator Pratt. The correspondent " who loveth and maketh a lie " states that I have a nephew a lieutenant in the navy, at a salary of two thousand dollars a year. I never had but one nephew or kinsman an officer in LOFC 100 APPENDIX. the navy, and he was the ensign above referred to, who resigned twelve years ago much to my regret, as he was a very promising young ofificer. He re- ceived his appointment as a cadet midshipman from Schuyler Colfax, without my request or knowledge. As he passed through Madison, on his way to the academy, he was joined by " Will Webb," the boy to whom I had given a like appointment from my Congressional district, and who is now a lieutenant in the navy, and a good officer. Other boys have been sent from the old Third Congressional District to the Naval Academy and to the Military Academy by my appointment or procurement, but none of them were of my family or of my family connec- tions. The aforesaid correspondent, had he taken pains to procure truthful information in regard to myself and brothers, might, perhaps, have learned that they recognized my obligations to the people of my Congressional district, and did not ask me to assist them or their sons to procure official posi- tion to the detriment of my constituents. The correspondent stumbled upon the truth once, if by his statement that I never served as a soldier, he meant that I never served in the field. When the war commenced I was too old to do service as a private soldier, and I was not qualified, either by education or experience, for command. Therefore, when Governor Morton offered me the colonelcy of the regiment which was afterwards commanded by General Sullivan, 1 promptly declined to take the responsibility. That was in the summer of i86r. APPENDIX. lOI I am satisfied that, shortly afterwards, I could have had the appointment of brigadier-general from President Lincoln, if I had allowed friends to ask for it ; but I would not, for the reason above given for declining a colonelcy, and for the further reason, which, indeed, had its influence in both cases, that I was then a member of Congress. I should say that brigadier-generalships, about that time, could be procured by very incompetent men. When my service in Congress expired, I was appointed Judge- Advocate of the Department of Missouri, with the pay of a major. This office I accepted, because, as it was in the line of my profession, I thought that I was, or could soon make myself, competent to discharge its duties. I have since been promoted to be Assistant and then Judge-Advocate-General, as above stated. My office has a military title, as has that of the Surgeon- General or of the Paymaster-General, but my duties are entirely of a legal and judicial nature. This letter has grown almost to a book of chroni- cles. When I commenced writing I did so for the purpose of giving you some facts that might enable you, in the course of conversation with friends, to answer the false and malicious statements contained in the communication to the Louisville Courier- Journal. This has led me to speak of many things of a personal and family nature which I have never before thought much about. That correspondence in the Courier- Journal was not pleasant reading to me. I was sorry to find that I had an enemy so 102 APPENDIX. bitter as to blacken his tongue with lies in the hope of doing me an injury. Moreover, it was not pleas- ant to know that a defamatory publication in regard to myself and those bound to me by the strong ties of affection and blood had been spread throughout the country, to be read in thousands of private fam- ilies, in shops and stores, at hotels, and on railroads and steamboats, leaving some injurious lodgment in the mind of every reader. But the press is " free," and there seems no way of resisting its abuse of its freedom but by the freedom of the club, or by other violence. I cannot, however, seek redress in that way. I have to submit to whatever injury has been done to myself and others by the, to me, unknown correspondent, who made the lies he loved and loves the lies he made. My good old father became a citizen of Jefferson County seventy years ago. There he reared a large family of children devoted in their affection to their parents and to each other. We are now scat- tered from the British Provinces in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, one only remaining at the old '' homestead." In the ordinary course of events this sole representative of our family in the county with which we have been so long and closely identified will have passed away and our family will have neither place nor name in Jefferson County any longer, except in the graveyards and on the tomb- stones. Therefore it is that, as I am concluding this long letter, I feel that I would like to have it recorded in the Madison Courier as a history of APPENDIX. 103 one of the pioneer families of the county, to be read by my old friends at home, and to be of easy refer- ence hereafter, should some weak and willing in- strument, instigated by the father of lies, undertake to disparage and defame " The Loyal Family of Dunns." You will therefore request the publish- ers of the Courier to give this letter a place in the columns of their valuable paper. I have been in the habit, in my letters to you, of subscribing myself " Your Uncle," as I am, by brevet ; but for fear of doing you an injury by asserting such a relationship, I subscribe myself simply, Yours truly, Wm. McKEE DUNN. SPEECHES. CONFISCATION OF THE PROPERTY OF REBELS. REMARKS OF HON. W. McKEE DUNN, OF INDIANA. DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 23, 1862. The House having under consideration the bill (H. R., No. 106) to confiscate the property and free the slaves of rebels, Mr. Dunn said : Mr. Speaker, I believe the gentleman from New York [Mr. Olin] moved to refer the whole subject of confiscation to a special committee. Mr. Olin — My motion is to refer the whole sub- ject to a special committee to be appointed by the chair. Mr. Dunn — I was much gratified to hear the motion of the gentleman from New York. Ques- tions respecting the confiscation of the property of rebels, and the policy to be pursued towards the States in rebellion, are the most difficult we have before Congress, and upon their proper decision may depend the great question, whether or not this government is to be restored to its former state of peace and prosperity. I confess, sir, that I have been greatly grieved at the haste which has been 104 APPENDIX. 105 manifested by the House to dispose of matters of such grave importance, and I congratulate the House and the country that we have just now laid upon the table a bill, the enactment of which into a law would have disgraced the civilization of the age. If the vote had been taken on this bill before our adjournment yesterday, as its friends endeavored to have done, I believe it would have passed. A night's reflection has brought the House to a wise conclusion. I am in favor of the motion of the gentleman from New York to refer the whole matter of confiscation to a select committee. Let this subject have the deliberate consideration its importance demands. Our action upon it may involve the life of the nation. If I represented a Latin state, I would say in medio ibis tutissimus ; but as I am a representative of a people who speak plain English, and fight in plain English, I will say the true policy of our nation is to adopt moderate counsels and pursue them steadfastly. It is not good policy either for an individual or for a nation to insist on extreme rights or extreme measures. We should deliberately consider and wisely adopt those untried measures which the exigencies of the country may make it necessary for us to adopt. But those who bring forward such measures for our action seem dis- posed to crowd them through under the stringent rules of the House, without fair opportunity for debate or amendment. It is but a few days since we passed the bill for the immediate emancipation I06 APPENDIX. of the slaves in this district. I struggled, but in vain, to secure for that important measure the de- liberate action of this House. I voted for it not- withstanding its imperfections. The President, in returning the bill with his approval, administered to us not an unmerited rebuke for the inadequacy of its provisions. Now, sir, what is the bill which we have just laid on the table ? It is bill No. 107, introduced by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Bingham]. " Be it enacted^ ^c, That if any person or persons, within any State or Territory of the United States, shall wilfully, after the taking effect of this act, en- gage in armed rebellion against the Government of the United States, or shall wilfully aid or abet such rebellion, all the property, moneys, stocks, credits, and effects of such person or persons are hereby declared lawful subjects of prize and cap- ture, wherever found, for the indemnity of the United States against the expenses of suppressing such rebellion ; and it is hereby made the duty of the President of the United States to cause all such property, wherever found, to be seized, to the end that the same may be confiscated and condemned, as hereafter provided, for the use of the United States. " Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all prop- erty so captured or seized shall be condemned in the district courts of the United States, and that the proceedings of condemnation shall be in rem, and shall be instituted and prosecuted in the name APPENDIX. 107 of the United States, in any district court of the United States, or the district court for the District of Columbia, within any district in which the same may be seized or situate, or into which the same may be taken and proceedings first instituted, and which proceedings shall conform as nearly as may be to proceedings in prize cases, or to cases of for- feiture arising under the revenue laws ; and in all cases the property so seized and condemned, wheth- er real or personal, shall be sold pursuant to such rules as the Secretary of the Treasury may pre- scribe, and the proceeds deposited in the Treasury of the United States for the sole use of the United States. " Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the At- torney General or any district attorney of the United States of any district in which the said property and effects may at the time be, or into which the same may be taken, shall institute the proceedings of condemnation as hereinbefore pro- vided." I will briefly discuss the merits of this bill, al- though it is defeated, because it is but one of a dozen or more of like character that are ready to rise up out of its ruins, and which may be put un- der the previous question, and thus prevent either debate or amendment. It makes no discrimination between the leaders of this rebellion and its vic- tims. It gives no day for repentance. The infor- mation of the probable passage of the act could not reach those to be most affected thereby, as all I08 APPENDIX. the usual means of transmitting intelligence to the rebel regions are suspended. It is a Draconian law, and the President is ordered to execute it. It matters not how ignorant the soldier in arms against his government may be, or under what de- lusions and prejudices he may have become in- volved in this insurrection ; it matters not that the country has been unable to protect him if loyal ; it matters not that he may have volunteered to serve in the rebel army to avoid being impressed by the " shoulder tappers," acting under the authori- ty of a military despotism ; — in his absence, without his knowledge, with no opportunity to lay down his arms to escape the penalties of the law, all his property is to be " seized," and his wife and his children, his father and his mother, all who may be dependent upon his property for subsistence, are to be turned out into the world paupers. All his property is to be seized and sold. Not only, if he has them, his houses and his lands, his cotton and his tobacco, his wheat and his corn, his sugar and his rice, his cattle, his swine, his beasts and imple- ments of husbandry, but his household furniture and the very bed on which his wife and children sleep. This bill would take from the family of the soldier the cow that gave them milk, the meal from their tray, and the meat from their barrel. It would seize and sell the bed on which dependent, trembling age rests itself, and the covering that keeps warm the infant sleeping in its cradle. The widow dependent upon a rebel son, the orphan APPENDIX. 109 sister dependent upon a rebel brother, the aged and the young, the rich and the poor, the sick, the halt, the lame, the lunatic, the imbecile — all ages, sexes, and conditions are to be involved in this common ruin. We would strip the rebels and their families of all their property, deprive them of food, and turn them out naked into the world, a nation of paupers ; and we profess to be a Christian nation, and ours claims to be a parental government, and this is our grand scheme of pacification ! Was ever such a proposition made before in the councils of a civilized nation ? In the name of our com- mon humanity, which it should be our effort to elevate and bind together by kindliest sympathies ; in the naine of my country, whose fair record is darkened by no such statute, and in the name of Christianity, which teaches us to forgive as we hope to be forgiven, I thank Him who tempers justice with mercy, that this House has defeated a bill so cruel and disgraceful in its provisions. Sir, I am for punishing with red-hot vengeance the authors, promoters, and leaders of this wicked and unprovoked rebellion. I would " smite them hip and thigh," in the name of the Lord. They have lifted their parricidal hands against a just and beneficent government. They have deceived, misled, intimidated, and forced the people of the South into rebellion. They have filled all parts of our once happy country with lamentation and mourning. The desolate homes, the widows and orphans, made so by these wicked conspirators. 1 10 APPENDIX. and the memory of my many friends slaughtered in nobly defending their country, so fill my heart that I cannot now consider our vast public debt and increasing expenditures as among the calami- ties of the war. The men who brought these calamities upon our country must not escape punish- ment. Theirs is a crime not only against their country, but against humanity. Grievous is their crime, and grievously let it be punished. But, sir, I want a discrimination to be made in our legis- lation between the men who have brought about this rebellion and the masses of the people who have been involved in it. Seize, if you can, the perjured traitors who sat in the Cabinet councils of the late Administration while secretly plotting the overthrow of the government they were under oath to support. Seize those senators who, in the other end of this Capitol, took counsel together how they might promote rebellion, and lingered in their seats only that they might prevent all legislation needful to aid the then incoming administration to suppress the rebellion. Seize those who sat with us in this hall in the last Congress, and here boldly threatened treason — not only in our presence, but in the presence of an applauding auditory crowd- ing these galleries. By their speeches in this hall, they filled the Southern mind with falsehoods, educated it to treason, and fired it to rebellion. Seize the late officers of our army and navy, who, educated and sustained by the liberality of our government, in the hour of its need, turned their APPENDIX. 1 1 1 ungrateful and treacherous hands against it. Seize all who have ever taken an official oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and who are now in rebellion against it. Seize all who have sat in their State secession conventions and legislative bodies. Seize the members of their pretended congress. Seize the great pretender himself, Jeffer- son Davis, and all who hold military or civil authority under his usurpation. Seize the rich who have given the aid and influence of their wealth to this rebellion. Seize the leaders and pro- moters of a disloyal public sentiment at the South, whether in the Church or the State, and punish them and all the classes I have named — so that this rebellion shall stand alone in history, no one ever daring to enter upon an imitation of so base and hazardous an experiment. But, sir, I draw a broad distinction between the guilt of those who have dragged the people of the South into this rebellion, and the people who, to a great extent, have been the victims of misrepresen- tation, fraud, and violence. And this House should draw that distinction broadly in its legislation for the punishment of rebels. I was pleased with that feature of the amendment proposed yesterday by my colleague [Mr. Porter]. He very truly re- marked that such a discrimination would tend to divide Southern counsels and distract their army. Let us show to the rebels with muskets on their shoulders that a way of reconciliation is open to them. Let them understand that they can have 112 APPENDIX. peace if they will lay down their arms of rebellion, and they will soon understand that their military and civil leaders are carrying on the war on private account. When this becomes generally understood among the private soldiers, we may expect to see the Southern army melting like snow in the summer heat. But, sir, the classification in the amendment of my colleague [Mr. Porter] does not embrace all the classes of men of leading position and influence who should be held to a higher responsibility for their pernicious influence in bringing on and sus- taining this rebellion. I would further designate as worthy subjects of distinguished punishment the editors of newspapers, who daily or weekly have been issuing their sheets filled with falsehoods to prejudice the minds and mislead the judgments of their readers. And I would still further desig- nate the preachers of the Gospel who have prosti- tuted their high positions to deceive and mislead a confiding people. There are hundreds of such cases. One such occurs to me now, and as an example of the pernicious teachings of one of these apostles of treason, I send to the clerk's desk to be read an extract from a fast-day sermon, preached in Richmond, Virginia, in January last, by Rev. Thomas V. Moore, D.D., a pastor of one of the Presbyterian churches in that city. The Doctor declares : " Never since the terrible scenes of La Vendee, under the ravaging hordes of republican France, has the old heathen war cry, V(z victis ! (woe to APPENDIX. 113 the conquered !) been more unmistakably sounded by an army of invaders. Let this tremendous cru- sade become successful, either by mismanagement in the army, or cowardice and greediness at home, and history furnishes no page so dark and bloody as that which would record the result. Our best and bravest men would be slaughtered like bullocks in the shambles ; our wives and daughters dishonored before our eyes ; our cities sacked, our fields laid waste, our homes pillaged and burned, our property, which we are perhaps selfishly hoarding, wrested from us by fines and confiscations, our grand old Commonwealth degraded from her proud historic place of ancient dominion, to be the vassal prov- ince of a huge central despotism, which, having wasted her with fire and sword, would compel her by military force to pay the enormous expense of her own subjugation, or, in default of this, par- cel out her broad lands to insulting emigrants as a feudal reward for the rapine and murder of this new Norman Conquest, while the owners of these lands must either remain as cowering factors for insolent conquerors and oppressive lords, or wan- der as penniless and hopeless fugitives in a land of strangers." This is a rehash of Beauregard's infamous " Beau- ty and Booty " proclamation. Here is a beloved pastor standing before a con- fiding people, and telling them that " history fur- nishes no page so dark and bloody as that which would record the result " if our arms were success- 114 APPENDIX. ful in subduing the South ; that their '* best and bravest men would be slaughtered like bullocks in the shambles ; their wives and daughters dishon- ored before their eyes ; their cities sacked ; their fields laid waste ; their homes pillaged and burned," etc. Now, if the men in his congregation believed what their beloved and eloquent pastor told them, they were cowards and poltroons if they did not rush to arms. And why should they not believe him ? Dr. Moore is a Northern man by birth, a native of Pennsylvania, educated in his collegiate and theological course at the North, married to his first wife at the North, settled as a pastor of a church at the North, until his eminent talents caused him to be invited to the rich and cultivated city of Richmond to take pastoral charge of one of its largest and most influential congregations. Why should not those men of the South believe this Northern man, this preacher of the Gospel, when from the sacred desk he told them that the North- ern people were barbarians. And yet he, under the provisions of the bill under consideration, is only to suffer a common fate with, it may be, the young men who, believing his statements and fired by his eloquence, have taken up arms against their government, supposing they were in the noble line of patriotic duty. I knew Dr. Moore well when he was a student at a college in Indiana, and I loved him much, and still love him so much that I hope he may soon find a place in Fort Warren, where he APPENDIX. 1 1 5 will be preserved from further danger for a while at least. But, sir, how nobly have our gallant soldiers vin- dicated themselves from the charges of Rev. Dr. Moore. Was there ever a war in which private property was better protected by an invading army, or non-combatants in an enemy's country subjected to less annoyance ? Our government has endeav- ored to conduct this war on the established princi- ples of civilized warfare, and to prevent it from degenerating into a system of guerrilla strife and robbery, which appears to be a favorite system with the Southern chivalry. I have sometimes thought, Mr. Speaker, that some of the measures introduced and advocated here indicated that their advocates did not desire to see us again a united people. I know that when this rebellion broke out, some persons in the country, of great influence over public opinion, advised that we should " let the South go " and ac- knowledge the independence of the Southern con- federacy. A just public sentiment compelled them to cease publicly to advocate the "let them go" policy, but I sometimes think the same persons are endeavoring to accomplish the same purpose by urging Congress to adopt a policy that will render a reunion impossible. At any rate, many of the bills presented here would, if enacted, make a reunion extremely difficult. But, say gentlemen, the secessionists have stripped Union men of their property, and why shall we not Il6 APPENDIX, deprive them of theirs ? We shall soon arrive at a very low state of morals if we set out to retaliate in kind all the practices of the secessionists. Shall we perjure ourselves because nearly all the rebel leaders have notoriously violated their solemn oaths ? They have treated our prisoners with bar- barity, scalped our wounded, mutilated our dead, buried them with indignity, made drinking-cups of the skulls of our hero martyrs, and pipes and trinkets of their bones. Shall we imitate their savage examples ? If we do like the rebels we will be base like them. Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and the Pharisees, wherein are you better than they ? I would not propose the example of the usurper Davis or any of his associates as worthy of imita- tion by any honest or honorable man. When I seek for examples worthy of my imitation, or that of others, I will seek for them in the annals of the good, the patriotic, the great ; or 1 will turn to that Book of Books, which is ever " a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path." What a noble instance of forbearance to a prostrate foe is given us by David, when Saul lay asleep at his feet, in the cave in the wilderness of Engedi. Did he slay him ? No ; he spared him. And when Saul was told by David how he had spared his life, " he lifted up his voice and wept," and said to David : " Thou art more righteous than I ; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil." That was a revenge worthy of the chosen king of Israel, APPENDIX. 1 1 7 and such an example of that forbearance which is often far better than severity, as is worthy of imita- tion by a Christian people. This war is upsetting a good many old ideas, and is establishing some new ones. An old idea it has effectually demol- ished is that of Southern chivalry, and one that it has established is that of the superior civilization of the free States. My colleague [Mr. Colfax] has suggested that, under the provisions of this bill, slaves may be seized and sold as other property, and of course the price of their blood brought into the treasury of the nation. Mr. Bingham — With the gentleman's permission I will ask him a question. I want to know whether the word property is not used in the Constitution as it is used in this bill ? Is it not so used in the forfeiture statute touching the revenue laws ? Is it not so used in the prize laws ? Any court of the United States, under those laws, authorizes the forfeiture and sale of property. Mr. Dunn — I believe the Supreme Court has decided something of that kind ; but as I am not upon the Judiciary Committee I will not undertake to say how that is. Mr. Colfax — My colleague did not exactly state my position. I stated that by the first section we for- feited all their property ; that by the second section we declared the proceedings to be in the United States courts, and that under their orders the property might be sold. I stated that the courts Il8 APPENDIX. might, though I do not believe they would, decide that slaves are property ; that they decided very much in that way in the Dred Scott case ; and not being willing to entrust them with that decision, and fearing that they might decide so, I was not willing to put myself in the position of being arraigned for voting for a bill having such an effect. Mr. Bingham — I ask the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Dunn] to answer himself the question, whether that which is property under the Constitution can- not be held everywhere in every State under the Federal law, in spite of every State constitution ? Mr. Dunn — I think the House will agree that the Supreme Court has decided this question, and decided it very much as stated. If the question were decided as indicated in the Dred Scott case, it would be decided that slaves were property, and men, women, and children might be sold and bought under processes of the court and the provisions of this bill. I do not believe that decision was right. Mr. Bingham — I supposed not. Mr. Dunn — I am not willing to trust the court in relation to this question of slavery, because very much of the trouble in which we are now involved may be attributed to the fact that we had a pro- slavery judiciary. The Supreme Court of the United States, in giving the intimations they did in the Dred Scott case, brought the great weight of their authority to bear upon public opinion, on the side of slavery. The weight of that authority was APPENDIX. 1 19 at the time very great, though subsequently it was not so great. If they had not brought the force of that authority to bear upon public sentiment we might not have had the trouble we have to-day. They informed the people of the South that the North was endeavoring to invade their rights ; and we in Indiana had to strike for the rights of free labor and free soil through the shield of the Su- preme Court, and we struck manfully and struck to the death. Mr. Cox — I desire to say that it has been decided by the Supreme Court that execution goes out of United States courts against property which the laws of the State regard as property. Mr. Dunn — We are wandering from the subject before the House. Mr. Mallory — I desire to state to my friend that in the State of Kentucky, under process of United States courts, slaves have been sold to satisfy claims of the United States in that State, and that the money was put into the United States Treasury. Mr. Bingham — Will my friend be good enough to tell me where that decision is ? Mr. Mallory — I did not refer to a decision ; I referred to facts which have occurred in the history of the United States more than once. Mr. Dunn — I cannot consent to have this cross- discussion during my remarks. What I desire is this : I want to call this House to a halt upon this great measure. I want consideration ; I want deliberation ; I want discussion. I am opposed 120 APPENDIX. to bringing in a bill of so much importance and pressing it straight through. Gentlemen may say that we have had an opportunity to examine this bill. That may be so ; but we have so much other business that we cannot always examine bills when we would like to. I like many of the features of the bill introduced into the Senate by the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Sherman]. I like the discrimi- nation he makes between the deluded people and those who deluded them. I want the men who wear stars and eagles and shoulder-straps, men who are called honorable in their sham confederacy, and every man that has sworn to support the constitution of their usurpation, to be put beyond the pale of repentance and mercy — I will not say repentance, but mercy. Mr. Lovejoy — I want to say to the gentleman that it is hardly in accordance with Scripture to put a man beyond the pale of repentance. [Laugh- ter.] Mr. Dunn — I have already so qualified my too hasty remark, and I will qualify it still further by saying for them what I would say for the worst criminal, that I do not want them put beyond the pale of mercy, but I want them to have to look to the next world for it. The bill introduced into the Senate by the dis- tinguished Senator from Vermont [Mr. Collamer] has much in it worthy of the favorable considera- tion of this House. If time and deliberation are given to this matter, some measure that will be APPENDIX. 121 proper and useful can certainly be devised, some measure that will not strengthen, unite, and con- solidate the rebellion by declaring in advance to the masses of the people involved in it that the triumph of our arms will be their certain, hopeless, and irretrievable ruin. Ever since the unhappy controversy commenced that now distracts our country, and has arrayed its sections into hostile armies, I have made it my purpose " to follow after the things that make for peace." Peace could not be secured by compro- mise, because the rebels wanted no compromise. They wanted an independent government. They might possibly have been satisfied by the abject submission of the North to their will and policy. This, of course, could not be granted. Now we are at war, and there is no way left but to fight it out. On with the armies, then, and let might and the God of battles settle the right. I have no doubts about the result. The rebels will be van- quished, will be subjugated to the just authority of their government. It will be time enough for us then to lay upon their shoulders the weightiest share possible of the heavy burdens their iniqui- tous rebellion has caused. Let us avail ourselves of the usual rights of war, and, if thought best by the President, subsist our armies in the rebel States on the rebel property. In the meantime let us not, by any too violent legislation, throw diffi- culties in the way of securing peace. My heart's desire is to see our people reunited in fraternal 122 APPENDIX. bonds as they were in the days of our fathers, and the great energies of this nation, now devoted to mutual destruction, restored to those peaceful pur- suits in which our conquests were rapidly making us the greatest power on the globe. Sir, do we fully realize our high responsibilities ? We are the representatives of more than thirty millions of people, and the legislators for a country capable of supporting a greater population than has ever before been under one government. I shall never forget the impression of the greatness of my country made on my mind, the first day I took my seat in this House, as I listened to the roll- call of the States and Territories. Commencing in Maine, first answered the Representatives of the people of New England, so distinguished for their education, their enterprise, their commerce, and their manufactures ; next answered New York, an empire herself, through her thirty-three Represen- tatives ; and then Pennsylvania, the keystone of the Federal arch ; and then, sweeping down the Atlantic coast, came the answers from that land of sunshine and flowers, where the cotton-bloom whitens their broad acres, and where grow the sugar-cane and rice. Then came the roll-call up the great valley of the Mississippi, and from that valley and the valleys of all its tributaries, extend- ing from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northern lakes, were heard the responses of the Representatives of the people of great States and Territories ; but still the roll-call proceeded, and bounding over the APPENDIX. 123 Rocky Mountains, called upon the States on the Pacific coast, and they answered through the Rep- resentatives of California and Oregon. Again there was a call, and the delegate from far-off Washington Territory answered the summons. Around me sat the Representatives of all the great material inter- ests of our country ; of the hardy seamen who spread their sails on every ocean, of the cotton and woollen manufacturers, of the cunning workmen in brass and iron, of the great railroad interests, of the agricultural products, of the cattle on a thou- sand hills, and of the mines of iron, gold, and silver in our mountains. On my right sat a Rep- resentative who, in his home at midsummer, was chilled by the cold winds of the North, and on my left, one around whose Southern home the flowers bloomed throughout the year. Here sat another, from our farthest Eastern coast, who looked upon the sun as he rose fresh from the Atlantic to run his daily course, and there another who looked upon that sun as, his daily journey run, he gathered the robes of evening around him, and sunk to rest in the bosom of the Pacific. What a country. How great in extent. How vast in resources. What a variety of soil, climate, and production. This was my country ; this is my country, and if any poor efforts or sacrifices of mine can secure so great a blessing, this, undiminished of its territory or power, shall be my country, and the country of my children, and of my children's children to re- motest generations. SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 29, 1863. ON THE BILL PROVIDING FOR THE ENLISTMENT OF NEGROES IN THE UNITED STATES MILITARY SERVICE. Mr. Dunn addressed the House as follows : Mr. Speaker, I wish to say but a few words in regard to this bill. Deeming it to be one of very great importance, I voted yesterday to give the bill the usual course — to refer it to the Military Committee ; but as the House did not see proper so to refer it, I am very glad that we have now an opportunity of giving a kind, candid, and thought- ful consideration to the measure. I am entirely favorable to the object of this bill. I cannot see any reason why any man, of any color, who is able to raise his arm in defence of our nationality should not be permitted to do so. I do not see any reason why persons who are considered property by men in rebellion against the government should not be brought in some way into active co-operation with the government in its efforts to sustain its authority, if they are willing at this time to take their places on the side of the government. At the same time, I am deeply impressed with the suggestions which 124 APPENDIX. 125 have been made by the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Maynard]. We have not only to consider exactly what is right and proper in itself, but in all measures of this character we must pay due deference to public sentiment, and to public preju- dice, if you please. We all know that the public mind is deeply imbued with a prejudice against white men and black men being brought into any terms of association which shall put them upon a basis of equality. I shall not go back to discuss the right of every man to himself. I endorse the doctrine of the Declaration of Independence to its fullest extent. And while I do not believe that the provisions of this bill as it is now presented will be abused, while I do not believe the President of the United States will ever permit a black man to command white men, while I have no idea that he is so ignorant of popular feeling and prejudice as to do so foolish a thing, yet I do see how, unless we throw some restriction upon the bill as it now stands, the men who wish to excite, to strengthen, and to disseminate this popular feeling against association with Africans will seize upon every point they can possibly lay their hands upon to accomplish that purpose. Mr. Mallory — Let me ask my friend from Indi- ana if he does not see that the President himself has not the power, under the provisions of this law, or of the existing law, to prevent this state of the case from occurring ? The gentleman from Pennsylvania, in this bill, puts white and black 126 APPENDIX. soldiers upon an equality, because they are both subject to the rules and regulations of the army and to the Articles of War. Now, I ask him, if in battle there happens to be a colored colonel com- manding a regiment in a brigade, and the general of that brigade is killed, and the colored colonel comes to be the ranking ofificer in that brigade, would he not necessarily take command in that battle ? Mr. Porter — I ask my colleague to allow me to have read a proviso which I propose to offer to the bill, and which will obviate the objection made to it. Mr. Dunn — I will yield to hear it read. The Clerk read as follows : " But no person of African descent shall be admitted as a private or officer of any regiment in which white men are in the ranks, nor shall any person of African descent, in any case, be placed in command of white soldiers." Mr. Dunn — Mr. Speaker, I entirely accord with the object of that amendment ; I do not wish black men to be enlisted as soldiers in the ranks with white men, or put in command of white soldiers. I have no idea that the Secretary of War, to whom the authorship of the bill has been ascribed — whether rightly or not I do not know — or the Presi- dent, or any man on this floor, or any sensible man in the nation, wishes to place a black man in com- mand of white men, but I want that prohibition in- serted in the bill, so as to keep cavillers and ob- jectors from raising any such clamor against it. APPENDIX, 127 Mr. Cox — Will the gentleman from Indiana per- mit me to say a word ? Mr. Dunn — Certainly. Mr. Cox — I call the attention of the gentleman from Indiana and of the House to a section of another act passed at last session of Congress, which seems to give the fullest discretion to the President to use the black man in any way he may deem proper, either to put him above white officers or above white men in the ranks. Therefore, I think that if this bill is to become a law, it should be referred to the Committee on Military Affairs, or somewhere else, that it may be licked into shape. I will now read, for the information of the House and of my friend from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens] the eleventh section of the act which I refer to : " That the President of the United States is authorized to employ as many persons of African descent as he may deem necessary and proper for the suppression of this rebellion ; and for that purpose he may organize them and use them in such a manner as he may judge best for the public welfare." There is no limitation. There is the fullest dis- cretion given. The President can do just what he pleases, concerning the black man, in this insurrec- tion. He may commission him as a colonel, a brigadier, or a major-general ; anything, anywhere. I therefore ask the gentleman from Pennsylvania now, with this new light, what is the use of this legislation ? I ask the gentleman from Indiana 128 APPENDIX. whether this is not all superfluous, a ridiculous excess of legislation ? Why should we go into this matter now, when there is such full discretion allowed by the existing law ? Mr. Dunn — I will give to the gentleman a reason. I do not say that, under the statutes as they are, the President of the United States cannot organize persons of African descent, and receive them into the military service of the United States. I believe that authority does exist under the present statutes. But that very limitation suggested by my colleague [Mr. Porter] is not in the statutes, and I think it worth while to put it in. That is one reason. Mr. Diven — Must not the colored regiments authorized last year be officered by white men ? Did not the law make that requisite ? Mr. Dunn — I do not recollect that it did. It left the matter, to a great extent, to the discretion of the President of the United States. I have no idea that he would have commissioned any but white men, except under extraordinary circum- stances. If a company is wholly composed of negroes, I do not see why it should not have negro officers, including the captain, if he is qualified to command. But I do not wish colored men to be put into regiments with white men. I want to keep them as distinct as possible. And we have got to do it, out of just regard to the feelings of the soldier in the field, and out of just regard to the public sentiment of the nation. And if we do not do it, this measure, which is in itself beneficial APPENDIX. 1 29 and proper, will be subjected to an odium that will cause it to be repealed. The proviso having been struck from this bill relieves it from what was an insuperable objection, in my mind, but I wish it further amended, so as not to permit the recruiting of any colored troops in the loyal slave States. Mr. Wickliffe then obtained the floor and ad- dressed the House for an hour. Mr. Lovejoy followed him, and in the course of his remarks yielded the floor to Mr. Dunn for ten minutes, who, in answer to Mr. Wickliffe, spoke as follows : Mr. Dunn — I am very glad the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Wickliffe] has had full freedom of debate upon this occasion. He seems to be a lingering relic of that dynasty which for so long a period tyrannized over this country. The gentleman ascribes to me a sentiment which I never entertained and never expressed. He states that I have abandoned my faith in the ability of the white men of the North to crush out this rebellion. Mr. Wickliffe — Will the gentleman allow me to correct him ? Mr. Dunn — I cannot yield. Mr. Wickliffe — I claim the right to correct the gentleman. Mr. Dunn — The gentleman refused to yield to me, and I must decline to yield now. Mr. Wickliffe — The gentleman misrepresents what I said, and I claim the right under the rules to correct him, 9 130 APPENDIX. The Speaker — The gentleman has not the right under the rules to make a correction without the consent of the gentleman who holds the floor. Mr. Dunn — When this rebellion broke out there was no man in this House more averse than I was to the employment of negroes in this war. I thought there was a loyal sentiment in the hearts of the white people at the South, which would de- velop itself during the progress of this war, and make itself efficient in sustaining the power of this government in every State of the Union. In this I have been disappointed as to the white men. But I find that there is in all those rebellious States a large population which, although their skins may be dark, yet have hearts in sympathy with my gov- ernment in this struggle. And if they are willing to brave the perils of war in defence of the nation, if they are willing to risk their lives in this war, in which they have so deep an interest, I see no reason why they should not take part with us in carrying it on. The gentleman puts a case, and I wish to call the attention of the House to it. The gentleman said that if a black captain should be taken prisoner we would wish to exchange him for a white rebel cap- tain ; and he speaks as if that would be a great outrage upon the rights of the white population. Sir, I believe that a black man, private or officer, who fights for my country, is better than a traitor to my country, though the traitor's Anglo-Saxon skin may be so white and so thin that you may see APPENDIX. 131 through it the veins of his face. I see no reason why we may not place the man who fights for the country, not only upon the same platform, and claim for him a position as the equal, but as the superior of the man who fights against my coun- try. It is better to have a black skin than a black heart. I would suppose, from the remarks of the gen- tleman from Kentucky, that he would deem it an especial misfortune if a rebel should be shot by a black man. I should think, from his argument, that if his own son were fighting in this war, he would rather he should be shot down by a white traitor than for his life to be saved by a black man. Now, Mr. Speaker, I have a son in this war ; he is fighting on the right side, sir ; and I would rather his life should be saved by a true and loyal black man than that he should go down to the grave beneath the stroke of a white traitor. The gentleman, as I understood him, proposed to introduce a resolution to inquire into the con- duct of General Butler at New Orleans. I hope when he does that he will also extend his inquiry into the conduct of General Jackson at New Or- leans. Did he not lead black men there, and did he not, by their assistance, win a victory which has made his name immortal, and did he not thank them in his public orders for their excellent con- duct on that occasion ? Sir, when you attack the conduct of General Butler as to organizing and 132 APPENDIX. arming negro troops, you must go back and attack also the memory of the hero of the battle of New Orleans of 1815. Mr. Wickliffe — Will the gentleman allow me to say a word ? Mr. Dunn — No, sir. I decline to yield. I un- derstand that General Jackson and his white vol- unteers in arms fought side by side at the battle of New Orleans with black men, not in the same companies, perhaps, but on the same field. And, sir, we know that Commodore Perry won his most brilliant victory on Lake Erie by the help of black sailors. We know too that in the Revolutionary War black men were used to fight on our side, and that they were also used to fight on the British side when they could be induced to espouse the cause of our enemies. We have the testimony of Commodore Stringham as to the value of black men in the naval service, and his judgment that it is proper to employ them in such service. You will recollect also the statement of the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens] as to the testi- mony of Captain Woodhull in respect to the black men under his command, commending them for the spirit with which they handled the guns, and for the bravery and gallantry which they displayed in battle. We know, too, that the rebels use this class of persons in every way for accomplishing their purposes in this rebellion ; and when they cannot obtain their services voluntarily they force them, as they did at Yorktown, to take a front place on the ramparts. APPENDIX. 133 Now, sir, I have another object in the employ- ment of these men, and I am willing here to avow it. It is this : we have not only to conquer this rebel country, but we have to hold it after it is con- quered. We have for a time to hold it by force of arms ; and the question arises whether we shall send our men of the North there to perish in South- ern swamps and sickly localities, or whether we shall make use of that population which, from their peculiar physical adaptation, can brave the malaria of that climate like alligators ? If they are ignorant of the use of arms, instruct them in that use. Teach their " hands to war and their fingers to fight." Are they so brutalized that they will not fight for their own liberty ? Shall we receive them and educate them to arms for this purpose, or shall we send our own sons there ? But the gentleman says that the employment of these people will turn this into a barbarous war. Why, sir, is it possible that these people, who for generations have been under the humanizing, civil- izing, christianizing influence of slavery, are still such barbarians that we cannot safely put arms in their hands [laughter] without the commission by them of barbarous outrages upon their beneficent masters ? What has become of the christianizing influence of slavery ? No, sir ; put arms in the hands of these men, and let them, if they will, shoot down the rebels, who would shoot down our brothers, our sons, and our friends. If you do not choose to have your 134 APPENDIX. sons aided by such means, I do choose to have mine. My son was in the battle of Vicksburg, and there, I understand, black men, forced, perhaps, by their masters to take up arms against the cause they love, worked the guns of our enemies. Gen- tlemen rise here and denounce us because we pro- pose to secure every means we can to bring this war to a successful termination. What if white men can put down this rebellion ? Shall we not spare this precious white blood if we can find black men in the South who have a twofold inducement to take part in this contest ? Do you hold the white man of the North at a lower price than the market value of your slaves ? Their blood, the blood of our soldiers now in the field, is dear to our hearts. It is above price. We cannot estimate its value by all the treasures of earth. Now, sir, shall we hesitate in this matter ? We do not hesitate to fire into the forts of the South. We do not hesitate to destroy their ships, and all of their property which may be used against us in this war. We do not hesitate to strike down white men in arms against us. But we must pro- tect slave property, as it is more precious than the blood of our kindred and friends. Is this prop- erty, as it is called, to be held as more precious than the blood which courses in the veins of the noble sons of the North ? The gentleman said — and it is a statement fre- quently made by him — that the money which should have been paid to our soldiers or expended for APPENDIX. 135 their benefit has been employed in feeding and clothing idle and lazy contrabands. I tried at the time to correct him. It is but a few days since that General Meigs, the Quartermaster-General, told me that such was not the case. He author- ized me to say so. Negroes are employed as teamsters and otherwise, and from their pay the government deducts a part, which goes to support those in the contraband camps. He told me also that they want more negro laborers than they can get here. The Navy wants them. The Navy has applied to him for them to serve on our ships-of- war and other vessels as stevedores and for other service, but he cannot furnish them. The gentleman said that the rebels had shot the negro prisoners taken down South. Certainly they have. But these negroes, I suppose, in his estimation, are not men. They are not human beings. They have not the rights of humanity. When the blacks espouse our cause, to help us fight our battles, and when they are taken prison- ers, they are not to be treated as prisoners of war. I want to know whether that is the treatment to which they are to continue to be subjected. I trust that it will never be submitted to. Let us demand that every man who fights for our cause shall be treated as a soldier, no matter whether his skin be white or black, whether he be a freeman or a slave. That is one reason why I am willing to pass this bill in the form desired by the Presi- dent of the United States, so that he shall have no 136 APPENDIX. embarrassment when colored men are enlisted as soldiers, and the other side undertake to treat them contrary to the usages of war ; then should they shoot down the black soldiers, we will make white traitors answer in blood for blood. SPEECH DELIVERED BEFORE THE LADIES' NATIONAL LEAGUE OF ST. LOUIS, MAY 2, 1863. [newspaper report.] Major Dunn, formerly a member of Congress from Indiana, and at present Judge-Advocate for the Department of the Missouri, was introduced by General Curtis. After congratulating the ladies on this manifestation of their devotion to their coun- try, he expressed his doubts whether, two years ago, an audience of either men or women, as large as the present, could have assembled in peace in St. Louis to proclaim their support of our govern- ment. This meeting marked the progress of events, and, he trusted, would prove a blessing to this city, to the State of Missouri, and to our country. He continued : " In the pledge which has just been made you declare that loyalty to your country forms a part of your allegiance to your God. God and your country are worthy to be associated in your loyal de- votion. In what country has woman been so blessed, so happy, as in the United States ? Where has she been so honored, so loved, so cherished ? Where has her influence been so potent and so beneficent ? Is it not a blessed thing for you, ladies, that your 137 138 APPENDIX. lot in this struggle has been cast north of this dis- puted line, and not among the shoeless, stocking- less, almost naked and starving, women of the South?" [Applause.] He said he did not appeal to their sense of duty to sustain their government, in a time like this, as a mere obligation of citizenship, "•Let those," he said, "who have had more difficul- ties of inclination to overcome than you have expe- rienced, go search the Scriptures for light, and by the aid of St. Paul, and learned commentaries, and church creeds, slowly and unwillingly arrive at the distasteful conclusion that it is the duty of a Chris- tian to obey the authority of his government, because St. Paul has said it is our duty to be subservient to the powers that be, as * the powers that be are ordained of God.' We love, honor, and obey our government because it is worthy to be loved, hon- ored, and obeyed. We love our government because it was organized by our patriotic ancestors, estab- lished by their sacrifices of blood and treasure, and has been to our fathers, ourselves, and our children a source of blessings numberless. We honor it for the wisdom of its organization, for the security it gives to civil and religious liberty, for its power, its dignity, its greatness, and its exalted position among the nations of the earth. And we obey our government because we love and honor it, and not out of a slavish obedience to an author- ity we despise. Gratitude is the emotion that swells our hearts when we contemplate our govern- ment. Gratitude to God that He has given us APPENDIX. 139 such a country and such a government, and grati- tude to the patriots who established it, and to the heroes who are now braving the perils of the field to secure to us and to our children the blessings of a government that bloody-handed traitors are struggling to destroy." He asked what one of the ladies present would think, if, on returning home, her husband should meet her and gravely announce to her that he loved her. "The declaration," continued Major Dunn, " might not be either very novel or very startling. But after you were seated, suppose he should proceed to state that he had for a long time been very earnestly considering in regard to his duty to you ; that he had earnestly prayed over the subject, and that he had sought for light by an examination of the Scriptures, the best commentaries thereon, and his Church creed ; and finally he had come to the conclusion that marriage was a relation ordained of God, and in- asmuch as St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Colos- sians, third chapter, nineteenth verse, says ' Hus- bands, love your wives,' and Dr. Clark and other commentators on this text, and particularly Dr. Chalmers, one of the greatest divines of our Church, all unite in their expositions and teach that it is the plain duty of a Christian husband to love his wife, — and the rules of our Church, I find also, prescribe the same duty ; and although I have had great difficulties in making up my mind, and great struggles with my sympathies, inclina- 140 APPENDIX. tion, and affections for a certain black-haired maiden in the South, yet I have finally been com- pelled to the conclusion that it is my duty as a Christian man to love my wife, and therefore 1 love you. [Great laughter.] How much would you give for such a love as that ? Is that the way a loving husband talks to a beloved wife ? Or does not he rather speak to her of the rich treasures of her heart's love which she gave to him in their youth ; of the comfort and consolation she had been to him in their weary pilgrimage through life ; of the children she had nurtured for him ; of their mutual joys and sorrows ; of the tenderness and affection, the love and devotion, which she had always, in health and in sickness, bestowed upon him ? The love of such a husband is not the result of a constrained sense of duty, but the nat- ural growth of a grateful and affectionate heart." He said he did not think the ladies would value any more highly a loyalty that had to be pricked into existence by sharp texts of Scripture than they would a love that had to be created by the same process. He remarked that some in this city who had lately heard the word of the Lord commanding them to go to Nineveh and cry against it, had fol- lowed the bad example of Jonah and taken the Tarshish route. Since the days of Jonah this had been regarded as a route dangerous to navigators. " Mighty tempests infest that sea," said Major Dunn, " shipwrecks are frequent, and great whales APPENDIX. 141 are there. Perhaps, after these modern navigators have met with Jonah's mishap, and the depths have closed about them, and a few more seaweeds have been wrapped about their heads, they will cry from the whale's belly and promise better for the future." [Laughter.] He spoke of the misrepresentations that had been employed to deceive the Southern people ; said that if the Southern States had remained in the Union Mr. Lincoln could not, if he had desired have interfered with the institution of slavery ; that there was already a majority against him in the Senate, with every prospect of a majority in the House of Representatives against him also ; and that if the Southern Senators had retained their seats Mr. Lincoln could not have appointed even a second lieutenant in the army without the consent of an opposition Senate. He said this was not a war upon slavery, but a rebellion brought about by the slave States, and if, in the bloody struggle, slavery perished, let it per- ish, and let those howl over its downfall who had inaugurated the bloody strife. The government had to strike at slavery because slavery was a main support of the rebellion. If the slaves ceased to labor for the rebels, the rebels would have to work for themselves or starve. Take from them their slave labor and their armies must disband. He paid a glowing tribute to those Union men who, in this city, had promptly met and defeated the enemy here. He said that Boston had her 142 APPENDIX. Statue of Hancock, New York of her Hamilton, Philadelphia of her Franklin, and in time to come grateful hands would erect in St. Louis the statues of Lyon, and Blair, and McNeil, and others, who here had been the brave leaders of the people in capturing the traitors of Camp Jackson. [Great applause.] AFTER-DINNER SPEECH DELIVERED AT ST. LOUIS, AT A DINNER GIVEN TO GENERAL GRANT, JANUARY 29, 1864. [newspaper report.] The President announced the first regular toast : "The President of the United States." Music — " The Star-Spangled Banner." Major Dunn, Judge-Advocate of the Department, was called upon to respond. He said the man who had been called to meet the gravest responsibilities of this generation was not long since known as '' A. Lincoln, Esq., Attorney and Counsellor at Law, Springfield, Illinois," but was now known as " A. Lincoln, President of the United States." [Great ap- plause.] " This fact " said he, " exemplifies the sim- plicity and democracy of our form of government. Rulers are not born to us, but selected from the mass of the people. Called as Mr. Lincoln was to assume the executive power of the government at a time of imminent peril to the nation, who shall say he has not done well ? Of course, he has not done all things for the best, for he is human. But who, of all our public men, would have done better ? He who, before his election, had never, perhaps, 143 144 APPENDIX. seen one thousand men in martial array, is now the commander-in-chief of the greatest army on the globe. He who had not before ever set his foot on a man-of-war, now commands a navy of which gun may answer to gun along our whole Atlantic coast. His predecessor, who wandered like a troubled ghost through the great halls of the White House, mumbling to himself that ' Washington was the first and I am the last of the Presidents of the United States,' turned over the government to Mr. Lincoln weak and feeble as traitors could make it ; our little army [a voice — * fifteen thousand '] scattered just where it could not be made available to suppress the rebellion, and our naval force on our Atlantic coast amounting, if I recollect rightly, to just twenty-seven guns. Contrast our feebleness then with our power now, and say whether the President, under whose administration all this change has been accomplished, is not enti- tled to the nation's gratitude. Let those cavil and find fault who will, history and posterity will do justice to the simple virtues, patriotism, and ad- ministrative ability of Abraham Lincoln. [Great applause.] But no one is more ready than Mr. Lincoln to acknowledge his obligations to the American people for the heroic devotion to the Union which they have displayed in this great struggle. He would claim nothing for himself, but give all praise to the people and that brave army of which we have such a galaxy of great com- manders here this evening. [Immense applause.] APPENDIX. 145 When this great rebellion suddenly burst upon our astonished nation we looked around for leaders of our armies. Where were the men accustomed to high command and whose military experience and genius were an assurance of victory ? We knew them not, but men theretofore unknown as great commanders have come forth from the body of our soldiers and people, and now their fame fills the world. [Applause.] We have them here to- night. [Great cheering.] History has already recorded their deeds of imperishable renown, and the muse of history, pen in hand, is sitting in ex- pectation of soon having to record other deeds, which, great as they may be, can scarcely be hoped to exceed in grandeur those already recorded. [Applause.] This is the heroic age of the Repub- lic, and the events of this war will not only be recorded in history, but romance and story, poetry and song, painting and sculpture will unite their powers to make the heroes of this war immortal. [Applause.] He advised those present to preserve their tickets to this feast, for their grandchildren will be proud to know that their grandfathers had had the honor of sitting at the same festive board with the hero of Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. [Greet cheering.] " As I have sat opposite to General Grant this evening and watched his thoughtful face, and remembered his great deeds and the great respon- sibility that now rests upon him, I have prayed to God to give him wisdom and strength in the time 146 APPENDIX. of need. On him more than on any other com- mander now rests the hope of the nation for the victories without which we cannot have peace, [Applause.] He has a larger command than any other general, and those who know him best have greatest faith that he will prove equal to the high trust and never disappoint the hopes of the nation." [Great cheering.] MINORITY REPORT ON THE QUES- TION OF THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY. (made by MR. DUNN IN THE INDIANA LEGISLA- TURE IN 1849.) The undersigned, members of the committee to whom was referred sundry joint resolutions against the extension of slavery, dissent from the report of the majority of said committee ; and in thus dissenting they have thought it due, alike to them- selves and to the subject, to give, in a brief man- ner, some of their reasons for so doing. The joint resolutions reported by the majority of the committee do not assert the power of Con- gress to exclude slavery from the territory in question by legislative enactment, nor do they contain any instruction to our Senators and Rep- resentatives in Congress to favor the exercise of any such power. They simply assert (what no one here denies) that the territory is now free, and that it should remain free, and conclude by recom- mending to our Senators and Representatives to vote for a joint resolution recognizing it to be free, and to use *' all constitutional means " to keep it free. 147 148 APPENDIX, It may be true that slavery does not now exist in this territory, and it may also be true that it never can exist there without the aid of positive law ; but the undersigned ask how long, in the absence of any restriction, would it be before the creation of such positive law ? Congress may declare it to be free, but will the mere resolution keep it so ? This is the question. With no restraint or limitation, the territorial legislature will have the power to legislate on the subject of slavery, as well as upon all other sub- jects. The people then inhabiting this territory will decide for themselves whether the institution of human slavery shall be tolerated among them or not. Every person knows that the soil and climate of a large portion of this territory is adapted to slave labor. If left free to go there with their slaves, it is not difficult to come to the conclusion that they will do so ; nor is it difficult to foresee that when there their interests, as well as their feelings, will prompt them to create the institution to which they were accustomed. This will be the result of the non-interference policy, adopted by the majority of the Committee. Nor in such an event would our Southern brethren be to blame for so doing. They have been accustomed to the institu- tion of slavery, and have been taught to regard it to some extent as a necessary evil, if not morally right. They are, therefore, an unsafe depository of the power of settling the question. That power is very properly vested in Congress. This terri- APPENDIX. 149 tory is national property. It belongs neither to the North, the South, the East nor the West ; and its destiny should not be submitted to the exclusive control of any particular interest or section of the country. Every State in the Union is interested in its prosperity. The rapid increase in the population of this territory, the diffusion of general intelli- gence and liberal principles among its inhabitants, and the adoption by them of humane and liberal laws, will redound alike to the glory of the whole Union ; and no section of the country, or body of the people, should be allowed to engraft upon its institutions principles which, although they might suit their convenience, would be prejudicial to the interests of the Union at large. But it is said that Congress has not the power to exclude slavery from its territory. It appears to us that there is no doubt on this point. This power has been exercised from the days of Wash- ington down to the present time, and has never been doubted, ofificially, by any of the distinguished men who have been called to act upon it. Pro- visions of this character have been incorporated into numerous territorial governments, and the validity of the same remains unquestioned. It is too late fiow to controvert a principle which has been acted upon so often, and with such salu- tary effects. If Congress then has the power, why not recommend its exercise ? The undersigned believe that the only effectual 1 50 APPENDIX. means of excluding slavery from this territory, is to apply to it the principles of the 6th Section of the Ordinance of 1787. Our own State was made free, and kept so, by the adoption of this ordinance. To its benign influence we are indebted for much of our prosperity and greatness. Shall we now repudiate it ? or shall we endorse it ? Are we pre- pared to say, by our refusal to recommend its adoption in this territory, that it has been an injury to us, or that we are unwilling to extend its bene- fits to others ? The undersigned believe that it is due from Indiana, occupying the position that she does in reference to this ordinance, and in view of the end proposed, to promptly endorse it, and recommend its adoption, whenever it may legally be done. In making this recommendation, the undersigned disclaim all intention or desire to interfere with the institution of slavery where it legally exists ; or to inflame or excite the public mind on the subject. But, believing the institution of slavery to be a great moral and political evil, and that its extension into this territory would operate prejudicially to the interests, the honor, and the glory of the Union, they believe it to be the duty of Congress, by prompt and efficient means, to check its further extension. But it may be said that the instruction to our Senators and Representatives to oppose the exten- sion of slavery by "a// constitutional means" is sufficient. The undersigned would prefer some APPENDIX. 151 expression of our views and wishes less equivocal. It in fact amounts to nothing. It imposes no responsibility. It may be construed to suit the views or desires of the person desired to be in- structed. It is our duty to speak out, and to speak in language that cannot be doubted. If no such action is taken by Congress now, it will have to be taken at some future time, when such action may produce more fearful results than to be feared now. Whether a State tolerating slavery would be admitted into the Union or not, the admittance or refusal would alike produce heart-burnings and jealousy between the North and the South, greatly to be deprecated, and which, in the opinion of the undersigned, might be avoided by any authoritative declaration that slavery should not exist there. This course the undersigned believe should be adopted. They, therefore, cannot concur in the report of the majority of the committee ; but recommend the adoption of the joint resolution No. i, intro- duced by Mr. Julian, as a substitute for those reported by the majority of the committee. J. B. Julian, W. M. Dunn, G. W. Blakemore. RESOLUTIONS OF CONDOLENCE OF OFFICIAL BODIES OF WHICH GENERAL DUNN WAS A MEMBER. OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE COLUMBIAN UNIVERSITY. Resolved, by the Board of Trustees of the Colum- bian University, I. That we have received with sorrow the in- telligence of the death of our friend and col- league, General Win. McKee Dunn, and we now express our appreciation of his exalted character as a Christian, his fidelity in every official relation, and his devotion to the interests of the Columbian University. The University has lost a liberal patron, a wise counsellor, and a faithful friend. II. That this city and its people, in his death, have lost a beloved citizen and associate — a man who was inspired by every object designed to promote the prosperity and welfare of his fellow-men — who was filled with sympathy for the suffering and with the most liberal sentiments and purposes to pro- mote the education and training of men, in the school, the university, and the church, for the high- est usefulness in life. III. That we extend our heartfelt sympathies to 152 APPENDIX. 153 the bereaved widow, the children, and relatives of the deceased, and that a copy of these resolutions be sent to them by our Secretary. IV. That we will attend the funeral in a body, and we direct that these resolutions be placed upon the records of the University. PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTION OF THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT SOCIETY. The Washington National Monument Society has learned with profound sorrow of the death of General Wm. McKee Dunn, one of its most honored and useful members, who has gone to his rest after an honorable and well-spent life, during which he has served his country in many important trusts, all of which he has discharged with ability and de- votion to the satisfaction of his countrymen and his government. General Dunn was one of the most earnest workers of the Society, and was regarded by his colleagues with sincere respect and affection. Be it therefore Resolved, That this Society offers to Mrs. Dunn its most earnest and respectful sympathy and the assurance of the deep sorrow with which its members deplore the great bereave- ment and share her grief. Resolved, That the Secretary of the Society be instructed to send a copy of this preamble and resolution to Mrs. Dunn. HoRATio King, Secretary. 154 APPENDIX. MINUTE ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN ALLIANCE OF WASHINGTON CITY. Since the last regular meeting of the Board of Managers of the Presbyterian Alliance of Washing- ton City, General Wm. McKee Dunn, one of its Vice-Presidents and its most active and helpful members, having been called to his reward in heaven, the Board desires to express its apprecia- tion of his character and work. From the very inception of this Alliance, General Dunn gave to it his heartfelt interest, his time, and his gifts. It was at his house that the Committee on " Outlook for Sites " held its first meeting ; and from thence General Dunn sallied forth with the committee on a stormy wintry day to find a suit- able location for a church in the northeastern sec- tion of the city. It was his noble promise of five hundred dollars, in case the remaining required sum was raised for its purchase, which spurred on other givers to complete the sum needed ; and the last public meeting he attended was one held in behalf of the work of this Alliance, at which he made a most telling and admirable address. His name will ever be associated with the organ- ization of the Alliance, and his memory will always be cherished by those who had the privilege of being associated with him. Truly may it be said of him, " He rested from his labors and his works do follow him." APPENDIX. 155 RESOLUTIONS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE NEW YORK AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Resolved, by the Board of Trustees of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, That in the death of the late President of the Board — General Wm. McKee Dunn — we have reason to mourn the loss of one of the most faithful, competent, and agreeable members of the Board — one whose every talent was at the earnest service of the church, and whose kindly voice and manner and Chris- tian wisdom were of constant weight and value in the spiritual and financial welfare of the congre- gation. That his life as citizen, soldier, and Christian was exemplary and high, leaving a bright example to the world, and a just pride in his character to his country, his church, and his family. Resolved, That the Secretary cause these resolu- tions to be entered in the records of the Board, and a copy to be sent to the family. THE END.