Qass— S^ujC — ^ Book:\^/ (^ tA ?■ THE LIFE HENRY WILSON, Republican Candidate for Vice-President, 1872. By J. B. MANN. ILLUSTRATED. BOSTON : JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, (late TICKNOR & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO.,) 124 Tremont Street. 1872. 1872 ^e^v 2oou in fi^c0 1872 iVUTUMN PFBLICATION. iMessivs. Ji>LMKS R. OSGOOD & CO. Announce for publication- during the coming Season, the following New Works: IX ATJGXJSr, The Story of Sibylle. Fioin tlio French of Octave Feuillet. Osgood's Ijl'rary of Novels 8vo. Paper. Tri ceuts; Cloth $1.2.'). Campaign Life of Horace Greeley. By James Parton. Gcr-mrin Edition. :•.•!. «vo. Illii-tratfl. I'aper. ::. cent-: Cloth. 1. 2.1. Campaign Life of Hon. Henry Wilson. By J. B Mann. 1 vol. 8vo. l:;!,-;--:!;..]. ra|»T, ."-> .■.■Mt-i: ('..)tli. .■?! (m. Art Education. Scholastic and Industrial. By Walter Smith, State Director "I .\rt K'luiaiiMii in .NUssariuisett!-. With lUustraiions. Diafframs, and Colored Plates. 1vol. 8vo. Vols. 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C Kitnti, A very, «^» Co., Sterto'.ypert anii Printers, Boslon. PREFACE. THE remarkable career of Henry Wilson would justify a much more elaborate and serious work than would answer the purpose of a political campaign ; and such a work, it is understood, has been undertaken. Although Mr. Wilson is more generally known than almost any public man of the time, and known to have been a long and consistent advocate of certain liberal radical ideas, that, in prac- tical politics, commenced working in this country since he came upon the stage, and which have won their way to a success so grand that they are not to-day found liberal enough for the men who have uniformly opposed them, yet the best informed minds are little aware of the full nature and extent of his labors and influence on behalf of these ideas, or of his interest in, knowledge of, and powerful advocacy of, many other and highly important matters of legislation and public concern. He has been so long in public life, and been such an intense, continuous worker, and so prominent in those causes that have most excited the people, that men have lost sight of labors and acts of his sufiBcient to have made the reputations of scores of public men who might have performed them as a specialty. Notwithstanding his long, able, and consistent career in advocacy of measures and prin- ciples no one dares now to dispute, notwithstanding his large-hearted sympathy with the poor, the oppressed, and the ignorant, and not- withstanding a life of devotion to their interests, there are those who pretend to regard his nomination to the office of Vice-Presi- dent of this republic as anomalous, — the result of a lucky or unlucky Vi PREFACE. accident, — and who -would raise doubts of its fitness. With a view to i)laee within the reach of such the materials for forming a sounder judgment of the man, we have been tempted to give in a plain way the story of his life as it is. It is not claimed that he is faultless ; but his mistakes and errors have never been seriously injurious to the State, to mankind, or to any of the causes in w^hich he has been prominently engaged. He has been emphatically a man of the people ; and, as such, we invite for him an inspection of the record. On the occasion of his silver wedding, Oct. 27, 1865, one of the editors of " The Springfield Republican," (liberal !) who knew him long and well, was constrained to utter the truth in fashion thus : — " A silver wedding claims a silvery verse ; And Wilson well deserves a poet's lay : But I in humbler measure must rehearse How fairly earned the honors of this day. For friendship here puts on more public guise : The man we love has been the people's friend : Not wedded faith more sacred in his eyes Than Truth to champion, and the poor defend." Natick, Mass., Aug. 1, 1872. KKSIDENCE (IK IIKNKV WILSON, NATICK, MASS. LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. CHAPTER I. Birthplace. — Condition of the People. — Apprenticeship. — Early Aspirations and Struggles. — Freedom. H ENRY WILSON" was born on the sixteenth day of February, 1812, in the town of Farmington, N.H., — a small town located in a deep valley through which runs the Cocheco River, a small but rapid stream, that, lower down at Rochester and Dover, af- fords extensive power for manu- facturing-purposes, and from the latter place is navigable to the ocean for small vessels. In 1812, sixty years ago, Farmington was a new country. It had been a pre- cinct of Rochester, and was in- corporated into a town only four- teen years before the birth of Wilson. It is a rough, rocky, broken country ; and even now, a few miles out of the principal village, is still new comparatively ; many of the houses being only the first remove from the log-cabin of the wilderness, — little low building.s with two rooms and four windows, an outer door at one corner, and rough shingling, unpainted, indi- 1 eating moderate resources and the absence of most of the luxuries of modern civilization. In 1812, when it was all new and a wilder- ness, when the village proper was composed of a dozen houses, and the nearest approach to a town was Rochester, eight miles dis- tant, and every thing raised on the land must be hauled to Dover, eighteen miles away, to find a market, the times were neces.sarily hard, money was scarce, and privi- leges were few. The people were poor, worked hard, lived on little ; and only a few of the most in- dustrious, economical, and lucky could expect to amass a fortune large enough to save their children from a life of similar deprivation and drudgery. Winthi'op Colbath, the father of Wilson, was among the poorest of the poor men of this then unde- veloped and poor country. His father and grandfather had been poor men : and brought up as ha was, with the family ideas all LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. associated witli extreme poverty as their only lot ; shut out from the Avorhl of enterprise ; ignorant of what tiie worhl was doing, and how it lived ; deprived of opportu- nity to change his condition l)y the circumstance that the day's wages nuist be used for the day's suste- nance, and the former never able to quite keep its heels from being trodden on by the latter under the best conditions, — there was appar- ently no incentive and no chance to rise in the world ; and to such as he the case was hopeless. He grew up with no thought of much better things than had fallen to the lot of his progenitors. They had seen want all their days ; their best efforts for two generations had failed to conquer the difficulties of the situation ; the most favored people around them were gaining but slowly with all their advan- tages : and the choice lay simply between starving to death and al- most starving to death ; and that was all there was to it. This extreme poverty of the family had its usual effect. It killed hope utterly in the mind of AVinthrop. His every footstep was dogged by necessity. He expect- ed no improvement, and adapted himself to his manifest destin}', trusting to obtain from content- ment that happiness which never could reach him by any probable buj)j)ly for the wants of civilized man. 'J'his dcjgree of jjoverty has ])roljably led to the invention of a current story in relation to the origin of the family, which appears to be without foundation. The onl}' approach to a definite statement concerning this story, which the writer could get at, was this : Mr. Smith Colbath, a second- cousin to Winthrop Colbath, met a distinguished lawyer of tlie State a few years since who knew all about it ; and his story was, that the original Colbath came to this country with an only child, a daughter, in the service of Gov. Wentworth, and remained on the place to take care of it when the governor was driven away by the people. But this story cannot be true. It is entitled to no consideration whatever. Wilson's ancestors, on his father's side, were Scotch- Irish. The}^ came to America from the north of Ireland early in the eighteenth century, and settled at Newington, near Ports- mouth, N. H. Wilson's great- grandfather, James Colbath, grand- son of the first settler, did busi- ness in Portsmouth from 1750 to 1783, when he removed to Mid- dleton, in Strafford County, where he died, in the year 1800, at an advanced age. He left eight chil- dren, — five sons and three daugh- ters. Winthrop, one of his sons, the grandfather of Wilson, settled in Farmington, where he died at a very old age. The maiden name of Henr3''s mother was Witham, also of a i)Oor family, and with general surround- ings similar to the faniilv she nun- LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. ried into : so that, on both his father's and mother's side, there was not much for the poor boy to look back to but the history of hardship, want, and their usual at- tendants and concomitants. Their reputation, however, is simply that of poverty and obscurity, and not of crime; and they struggled to hold their own, but under pecu- liar and aggravating disadvantages. They were people of strong natu- ral powers of mind : and the whole treatment of Wilson by his mother ■ shows a degree of appreciation of his ability remarkably just, and a consistent, persistent effort to have him rise in the world ; which, under the circumstances, proves her to have been a woman of great sense and discretion, and governed by a worthy and generous ambition. Those who knew her well say that Wilson inherits his moral and men- tal characteristics from his mother ; while in stature, and physical form and feature, he bears a striking resemblance to his father. The birthplace of Wilson was on the Rochester road, one mile below the village ; but all traces of the habitation were long ago obliterated. Across the road at the foot of the knoll on which the house stood is an old well, over which is the well-remembered curb and sweep ; but the " oaken buck- et " has yielded its position to a modern tin pail. Four handsome elms adorn the highway on the same side with the well. Soon after the birth of Henry, his father moved to a small house one mile lower down towards Rochester. This house Avas standing twenty- five years ago ; but the depression left by the excavation for the cel- lar, and the slight embankment around it, one or two domestic trees, and a little extra luxuriance of the grass, are all tliat is left to denote that it was ever the site of anybody's house. In the rear, at a few rods' distance, is a meadow watered by the overflow of the river : there is a forest in front ; and far to the north-west, through the upper opening of the valley, Mt. Belknap is a prominent ob- ject against the clear blue sky. It was nearly all forest about the house in Wilson's boyhood. Hen- ry was the eldest of a family of eight boys, who followed each other into the world as rapidly as the course of nature consents, in- creasing the cares and burdens of the struggling couple, and adding to the chances of starvation, which were sufficiently threatening be- fore the advent of each new-comer and competitor. At ten years of age, Henry found an opening for usefulness and hope by being bound to service with jVIi-. Knight, a farmer near by, from whom anoth- er boy had run away for more con- genial employment ; and thus and ever afterwards he became self- supporting. Just prior to this happened one of those little turning events which seem to control and shape the char- acter and career of the individual. LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. While he and another hid about the same size were engaged in a boyish scuffle in the sand-bank by the roadside, Mrs. Eastman, wife of tlie village lawyer, came riding b)% and stopped to reprimand the lads for their foolishness. She asked if they could read ; and the eager manner of Henr}', as he re- plied, im])ressed her very strongl}' that the boy she was reprimanding was above the common ; and at once she promised to give him a book if he would go to her house and get it. He promptly went, obtained the book, and at the same time the privilege of going to Squire East- man's, and reading his whole libra- ry of books and newspapers. This book was a copy of the New Testa- ment. Mrs. Eastman was a sister of Le\'i Woodbury, governor of New Hampshire, Van Buren's sec- retary of the treasury, and justice of the United - States Supreme Court ; and she possessed her full share of the talent of a remarkably talented family. Her first impressions of Henry were confirmed, and more, by a fur- ther acquaintance. She interested her husband in the youth ; and both kept watch of him, encouraged his visits to their house, advised him about books, and loaned them to liim ; and in all suitable ways stim- ulateil his love of knowledge, and gave it proper direction. The son of Hon. N. Eastman, George N., who succeeded to the profession and business of his father, remem- bers how Henr}', when a boy. would come to the office and discuss politics and literature, history, &c., with his father, in a way that only one or two men did ; and his father and mother were alwaj's predicting a distinguished career for him. Mr. Knight was a farmer who had got a start in life, and was doing well ; but thrift in farming at that day implied early rising, immediate attention to the first thing in hand, adherence to the order of business through the. day, strict watch of all the loose ends, and a careful econ- omy of time and money. This was the fashion ; and the importance of it was recognized by him, and never lost sight of. There was work always. When it stormed, there were tools to repair, harness to tog- gle up, corn to shell, threshing to be done, and various other things to keep the hands from loafing or fishing ; and, when the day was over, boys and men were usually tired, and most of them glad to go to bed. It was not the practice of working farmers to light up even- ings to read and talk ; but the blazing logs in the open fire-place gave light enough for so much rec- reation of this kind as the wearied limbs would permit. But Henry had an excellent constitution ; could endure more work than most boys ; and, when the family retired, he would remain behind in the chimney-corner, and read till the last flickering ember gave up the ghost, and no longer could be j)unched into a spasm of combus- tion for his benefit. LIFE OF HENEY WILSON. By the indentures that bound him to the service of Mr. Knight, he was to enjoy the privilege of attending school one month in each year. Think of it, ye gods ! A young man crazy for knowledge, absolutely crazy, and limited to one month of school per year, and such a school ! Will that boy ever be a senator of the United States ? Perhaps. He went the first day of the term ; and the teacher marked for him a lesson in Mun-ay's " Abridgment of English Gram- mar," — a lesson which, at the rate of three per week, would have taken him through the book in about a year. But Mr. Knight construed the contract so as to permit the schooling to be taken when there was least work, snow- storms, and weather too cold for out-door operations ; and hence the next day of his appearance at school was three weeks from the first. Now, many boys would have forgotten their lesson in that time, had they learned it, especially as it was a lesson in Murray, which no boy of ten probably ever under- stood. But not so Henry. Called up to recite, he kept on past the mark, and on, and on, until the thing began to grow tiresome to the teacher, and he had to inquire rather nervously where it was all to end. His astonishment may be imagined when he was informed by the- lad that the whole book was committed, and he could repeat it word for word from beginning to end. For a boy who worked dur- ing all the hours of daylight, and was a stranger to the invention of candles, this is about as good a feat of that kind as is recorded in his- tory, we imagine. And so he went on for eleven years, receiving twenty-six days of instruction in each year, scattered along at un- equal intervals, of the quality of instruction afforded by the period. But his devotion to books and work gave no time for sprees and larks : so the world is deprived of even a single hatchet-story to enliven these pages. Going to school in that way, he could hardly be said to have schoolmates ; and all of them whom we questioned could think of nothing peculiar about him save his devotion to books, and an inveterate disposition to take the part of the " under dog in the fight." No small boy could be walloped by a big boy, when Henry was about, without his tak- ing a hand to restore the equilib- rium. He had a great longing for news- papers : but as this was before the days of reading-rooms and insti- tutes, and the mail came to Farm- ington but once a week, and only a few families took the papers, of which Mr. Knight's was not one, he was obliged to gratify his de- sires in this direction by getting his mother to borrow the weekly " Dover Gazette " of a neighbor after it was a week old, and the new one had come to relieve it from duty ; and he would run- home and read it at night, so as tO' LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. ha»ve it returned immediately to the subscriber. And so he toiled for knowledjj^c, and imbibed it and demofracy actually on the run. Mv. Eastman had sonu' volumes of newspapL-rs carefully filed away in i»L'ri"L't't order, — '' Niles's Regis- ter," and some later Washing- ton pajjcr, — which he devoured; and there were Plutarcirs Lives in his librar}', a memoir of Napoleon, and a biograjjliy of one Henry Wilsun, whose character made such an impression upon the youth, that he resolved to be called by the same name, — a resolve that he carried out on attaining his ma- jority. AVhen about fifteen years of age there appeared in " The Dover Gazette " a sharp criticism of Marshall 's " Life of Wasliington," which was denounced as a bad book for having convinced some one that the Democratic jiarty was in tlie wrong. " The Gazette " was Democratic. Here was a new idea, — the Democratic party in the wrong ! Impossible. But then such a book should be seen. There must be curious things in it, — preposterous probably, and lies maylje, but )^et worth looking at. But liow to get it was the question. There was no copy in Farmington ; and the first penny of the many d(jllars required to buy it had never yet found its way into the pocket or hand of tliis toiling and truth- seeking boy. Alter niiich inijuiry, he heiiid that some marvel of for- tune in Rochester villatre was the owner of this wonderful book : and Rochester was seven miles away ; could only be reached by him on foot, and after the day's work was done. He must go for it and re- turn, making fourteen miles, and then restore it and return, mak- ing twenty-eight miles on foot and in the night. True, he could send by some one for it; but the messenger might not half perform the errand, and he Avould not be sure of it: or it might be stolen from his wagon going or returning ; and such precious freight as a book must not be trusted to chance trav- ellers or careless clod -hoppers who had no idea of the value of books. So there was nothing to do but go for it ; and he went. This was the way knowledge was disseminated, forty-five years ago, among boys born poor and in the country. Is a boy who earned it in that man- ner to be laughed down or sneered down by 3'oung gentlemen in kids, swinging their flexible rattans, and assuming all the graces of learn- ing because of their knowledge of popular drinks and fashionable neck-ties? AVe think not. But Henry stored knowledge away for use ; and at the age of twenty he could give the place of every battle in the Revolution and the war of 1812, the date, the numbers en- gaged, the killi'd, wounded, and prisoners on t-aeh side : so you could not ask him a question relat- ing to these facts that he could not at any timi; answer. With all his cravinu' for knowl- LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". edge, Henry could buy no books. The exigencies of the family pre- vented his father from giving him any spending-money ; and as Mr. Knight made it a principle to spend none, and his contract did not require him to furnish any to the boy, he got none. Once, when there was a holiday, a farmer offered him a cent to dig out a stump that was in the way ; and he took the job with alacrity, it was so exhilarating to be doing business on his own account. The contract proved heavier than he thought it would be, and the whole day was consumed in removing the stump ; but he put it through neverthe- less, and at the close of the day received his pay promptly in cash as stipulated, — the first money he could call his own. It was small pay ; but what matter to a boy that was to become a senator ? He might go to the Capitol round by that stump as well as by any other. It was a beginning, at least ; and the cent earned as that was could not be foolishly squandered. He learned in that day more of pa- tience and self-denial by far than he would had the pay been ten dollars in lieu of ten mills ; and the lesson was more valuable than the dollars ten thousand- fold. And thus he lived and worked and studied until his twenty-first birthday came and set him free. He now engaged work on the farm of Mr. Wingate for some months at nine dollars per month ; and, when that time was up, he sought employment at Great Falls, Dover, Newmarket, and vicinity, at very small pay, willing to work for nine dollars per month, but unable to obtain even that small pittance ; and he a stout, robust, healthy, full-grown man, in the prime of his powers, and afraid of nothing. His compensation for the eleven years' services with Mr. Knight was one yoke of oxen, value un- known, six sheep, and such knowl- edge of farming as Mr. Knight possessed, which, however valu- able, proved insufficient to justify him in writing a book of instruc- tion on the subject for the benefit of mankind. His services with Mr. Wingate yielded some forty- five dollars : so that at twenty-one years and a half he was fairly started with an available capital in cash value of less than a hun- dred and fifty dollars. But he had read more than seven hundred books, and more newspapers than any man in town at that date. He had a remarkable memory, espe- cially for facts and dates ; and, in reading, made a point not only to fix the principal incidents in his mind, but the precise time of their occurrence. This practice im- proved his memory; and afterwards the great stores of facts treasured away in his head, with no very definite purpose other than to possess knowledge, not knowing exactly when or where it might be used, became immensely valua- ble to him, and have made him a 8 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. competitor in debate, that shallow and pretentious men have not been swift to encounter in the United- States Senate or elsewhere. So his worldly capital was not to be de- spised, after all. CHAPTER II. Starling out in Life. — A Tramp to Natick. - iitionism and Labor Ilefurm. — Working. - Ketiun to Natick. SOMEWHERE about the year 1832, rumors reached tlie slow and unprogressive region of Farm- ington, that in Massachusetts there were chances to obtain work at almost fabulous wages ; and a few young men in and near Farming- ton had struck out for this golden land of promise to test the truth of the encouraging reports. Some of these had gone from Ncav Dur- ham to Natick, Mass., there learned the trade of shoeraaking, and early in 1833 had returned and estab- lished the business at home. One day, young Wilson walked over to New Durham for the purpose of forming an engagement to partici- pate in the advantages of this flourishing trade. The managers were very polite, and spoke highly of the prospects of the business, at tiic same time offering to impart a full knowledge of the craft to the adventurer for two years' service as an apprentice. To a young man who had ahead}' served an ap- prenticeshii) of eleven years of the most exacting toil, and wlio had just enjoyed the luxury of wages for a ffW mouths, the prop(jsition - Apprenticeship. — Debating Society. — Abo- - Seeking an Education, &c. — Misfortune. — was appalling ; and he turned his back upon the establishment at New Durham, disappointed, if not discouraged. On his way back, the thought came to him that he might do for himself what these Durham folks had done for them- selves ; and he at once resolved to take up the line of march for Na- tick, and trust to fortune and his own exertions. On the second day of December he packed his scanty wardrobe in a bundle, tied it up with a cotton handkerchief as was the custom, cut a straight hickory stick by the roadside, and started on foot for the promised land, just a hundred miles by the nearest way, every step of which was taken without once turning back or faltering. He passed down through Dover, Salisbury, New- buryport, Lynn field, and Charles- town, to Boston. At Lynnfield he called at the house of a Quaker and asked for a night's lodging. Before retiring he proposed pay- ment in advance, which the good " Friend " was not disposed to ac- ce[)t in advance, as implying a dis- . trust of the honor of his guest ; and LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 9 Wilson was obliged to explain, which he did hy saying he wished to be on his way before the family would be up on the morrow, and would not like to disturb them to settle in the morning. A few years after this he met in the legislature of Massachusetts, as a fellow-member, a son of this Quaker, who remembered the cir- cumstance, because of the pertina- city with which the young pilgrim insisted upon advance payment of his trifling bill. When he ap- proached Charlestown, the sight of Bunker Hill aroused his patriot- ism ; and though very tired, and so foot-sore he could scarcely move, he went a mile out of the way for the sake of standing on the battle- ground of the Revolution, and seeing the spot where the destiny of the world was changed, as he had read in history. Passing through Boston under the shadow of the State House, little dreaming that under its dome he would ever be an actor in any capacity, he threaded his way out to the Neck, and in Roxbury began to inquire the road to Natick. Tiie person of whom he inquired was not per- fect in his geography, and pointed to the Dedham turnpike as the direct road ; and so for ten miles he tramped on in the wrong direc- tion. At Dedham his mistake was corrected ; and he pushed on for Natick, but lost his wa}^ and went by the Upper Falls, Grantville, and West Needham, arriving at the premises now owned and occu- pied by Hon. H. F. Durant, the distinguished lawyer and pliilun- thropist, but then occupied by a shoemaker, whose hands were at work by candle-light, it being nine o'clock in the evening, and very dark. Wilson went into the shop, told the men how he had come from Dedham, was on his way to Natick, and wished to go to that part of the town where he could find M. Luther Hayes, an old Farmington playmate. One of the men knew Mr. Hayes, and informed him that it was five miles to his shop, and he still on the wrong road. This man, Mr. Sabin Felch, procured a lantern, and struck off across fields and woods to the other road, a mile distant, guiding the wanderer to the true way: and about midnight he reached Penni- man's Tavern, on the Worcester turnpike ; and, too tired and lame to go on, he went in and staid the remainder of the night. These details of the journey are given to show the obstacles which, at a date so recent, the young men at that time had to encounter, and with what indomitable pluck and perse- verance they were met and con- quered. They were a part of the education of the man ; and his ex- perience thus acquired taught him the advantage of not shrijiking from difficulties, and not giving up the battle until victory is assured, or defeat unavoidable. The lovers of economy, and they who com- plain of board at hotels where the charges are five dollars per day, 10 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. Avill be -tj^lad to know that the entire personal expenses of young Wilson on this expedition were a dollar and five cents ; and yet there was not, and never was, a stingy Jrop of blood in his veins, as all who know him will abundantly testify. But he was determined to get on in the world ; and, while his mother was suffering for the necessaries of life, it was no time for him to' be spending money for luxuries or articles that he could well enough do without. He must get a start ; and the first cent and the first dollar were essential to the getting of the first thousand. In the morning he found his old Farmington friend, Hayes ; inter- viewed him to ascertain what he knew about shoemaking ; and be- fore night made a contract with one Legro to serve him five months to learn the art and mystery of the craft as then understood and taught in Xatick. So his trifling hun- dred-mile journey had enabled him to see Boston and Bunker Hill ; had saved him a year and seven months' labor demanded l)y the wily New-Durhamites ; and, what was yet a prcjfound secret, had started him on the road to the United-States Senate and the vice- presidency of the great republic. Mr. Legro, to whom he was now apprenticed, was an intelligent and worthy man, but one who held more strongly to the philosophy and practice of contentment as an aid to liapi)iness than the doctrine and practice of exertion. He was a good workman, pleasant, and faithful to his obligations, but ab- solutely in no hurry, and fully determined never to chafe at any defect of speed in the ordinary or any other rate of progress ; and therefore the team of Wilson and Legro did not pull evenly together. At the end of three weeks, Wilson offered terms of dissolution, which were accepted ; and, for the small sura of fifteen dollars, he was once more free, and possessed with some knowledge of the art of shoemak- ing, and more of the arts of shoe- makers, was ready for a new de- parture. He now engaged a good workman to give him instruction by personal, exclusive attention for one month ; Wilson to pay his own board, and the other party to re- ceive the pay for all the shoes both should make. At the end of this month his mechanical education was com- plete ; and ever after he was able to take work on his own account, and received the current price for the goods which were in demand at that time. He now moved into new quarters ; and the good lady where he boarded, years after, spoke very kindly of him, but said he would keep her from sleeping o' nights by the noise of his ever- lasting hammer, which was going all night. He could now earn his board and twenty dollars per month, and more by extra work at night ; which extra was sure to be performed. And still he was not content. The location was two LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON", 11 miles from the post-office and church : it was hardly a settlement, there being in the neighborhood only a half-dozen small shops, and no particular attractions in the way of society or prospective im- provements. Altogether was it inadequate to meet the demands of one in such an intense hurry to get on in the world. The rewards of labor, compared with Farming- ton, were immense : but there seemed to be " room higher up ; " and, in the autumn, Wilson took his earnings, and left for New Hampshire, where he invested them in poultry and other country-prod- uce, which he brought to Boston market, and disposed of at a price which did not more than cover expenses and the original outlay. As he had made a careful calcula- tion of the profits of this specula- tion in advance, the result aston- ished him ; and any glimmerings of fancy that he was destined to be a great merchant were effectually driven from his head by this ex- periment. He now returned to Natick, and engaged board with Deacon Cool- idge, who lived near the centre of the town, where now is a large and thriving village ; but then there were not more than a dozen houses all told. The selection of this house and family was very fortu- nate to Wilson in many ways. The deacon kept the town li- brary in his sitting-room, — a small collection of fifty volumes, perhaps, which had been published a long time, and were all regardiMl as standard books ; though not exact- ly the fifty books Starr King was wont to say contained all that any man need to read. RoUin's " Ancient History," Robertson's "Charles V.," "Life of Charles XH.," " History of the Late War," " Vicar of Wakefield," &c., were the chief works ; and they were read with eagerness and apprecia- tion. The deacon had an excel- lent wife ; and they received him as one of the family, and made him feel entirely at home ; and it was one of those clean, quiet, reg- ular New-England homes that to get into is a good substitute for a fortune. The influences were not only all good, but it secured a passport to the best society the village afforded ; and the young boarder was appreciated by the head of the family, and encouraged in all his efforts at improvement. The family had extensive con- nections in town ; and, later, the in- fluence of all was ardently given to assist him in his political ambi- tion and schemes. In the immedi- ate neighborhood lived a few ladies of great intelligence, and a dozen of young men near his own age, who were given to study, and greatly interested in all questions of moral improvement and the then vital topics of the time. To find so many young compeers with clear heads, correct habits, and honorable ambitions, was a great and agreeable surprise to him : and he had not completed the 12 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. circle of their acquaintance when the tliouL^ht of organizing them into a society for mutual improve- ment suggested itself ; and he immediately began to talk up the scheme, and take measures to secure its accomplishment. The idea was favorably received. A lit- tle finessing secured the use of the district schoolhouse for meetings ; and on the 30th of June, 1835, fourteen 3'oung men assembled there, and formed the Young Men's Debating Society, — the scliool that first gave Mr. Wilson an idea of his powers, and the opportunity and training that ultimately in- sured his entering into public life, and enal)led him to maintain him- self in the positions he filled. His improvement as a speaker was rapid and continuous ; and he very soon, by his ability and application, assumed the undisputed leadership of the society. Many of the de- bates were memorable for the skill and power with which they were conducted, and are mentioned to this day, among the residents of the place, as events in the histo- ry of the period. One of the pe- culiar characteristics of Wilson in these debates was the intensity of his earnestness, lie was active in sucuring the selection of live ques- tions : and, if it fell to his lot to be designated to maintain the side not in accord with his convictions, he would procure a substitute if he could ; failing in that, ask to be ex- cused, or j)ersuade one of the op- position to exchange with iiim, so as not to allow himself to argue against his own convictions. He could get up no feeling on the wrong side ; and without feeling he could make no speech, and was always defeated. The year 1835 was a remarkably bad year for abolitionists. They were mobbed far and wide in Penn- sylvania and other States, and there were few localities where a public speech in favor of their principles would not bring the author's head into close relations with unsavory missiles. But these young men were, Avith about two exceptions, radical abolitionists : and, to the intense disgust of all citizens sup- posed to be in their right minds, they would have the question dis- cussed; and, more aggravating still, they always would manage to have the weight of the argument on the unpopular side. It would come so, and there was no help for it ; and, in the coming so, Wilson was a leading agent. The father of Mrs. Lydia Maria Child was a resident of Natick ; and his distinguished daughter spent much time svith him, taking great interest in the young men, and converting them, to her extreme doctrines. Her in- fluence was potential ; and the next si)ring, when Wilson made his first visit to Washington (a visit he has often described), he saw slavery with a conscience enlightened by the suggestions and arguments of that earnest and distinguished wo- man ; and all his convictions were intensified, and turned into resolves. LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 13 These resolves to oppose slavery to the bitter end he has faithfully kept, and the cause has never once been hazarded or lost sight of dur- ing his whole career. The elevation and improvement of laboring-men was one of the leading topics often under discus- sion at tlie meetings of this society, and among members in their social and casual intercourse. They gave it constant prominence and con- tinued study ; and, as a matter of course, Wilson was an ardent advo- cate of the rights of the workman as against all rival or opposing in- terests. As workmen in Natick and vicinity worked usually by the piece, or could if they chose, a lim- itation of hours by law was not agitated ; and, wages being good, strikes were not thought of. Op- pression there came in other forms, — in political and social ostracism. Standing in society was determined not by a man's merits, judgment, knowledge, and moral worth, but by his acres, stocks, and family. To change this was the problem ; and it was determined to make Natick the first battle-ground, to be extended as circumstances should warrant. But, to gain an advanced standing, obviously the first requisite was to be qualified for it. This was attempted by read- ing, thinking, questioning, debat- ing, writing, and seeking the most cultivated and intelligent society. The next point was moderate self- assertion in public affairs. In New England, town-meeting is public affairs ; and when Wilson and his associates tried their little experi- ment of having the nobodies lead off in town-affairs, instead of follow- ing the somebodies who always had led, there was great consternation in fogydom, and great railing when the experiment succeeded. Since that day, arguments and character have been able to meet dollars and dunces ; and mechanics have had it their own way in town whenever they have acted with sense and dis- cretion. The first move was not for office, but in favor of improve- ments in schools, roads, methods of conducting business, and so on. The young element made itself felt immediatel}^ ; and shortly it was the dominant influence in all public matters of a municipal or political nature, and made Natick one of the leading towns in Middlesex County, giving it a power far beyond its numerical strength, and a weight to which, on the score of property, it was never entitled. During all this time, work was never neglected. Every week a given number of shoes must be turned out, and that number must equal the efforts of the most in- dustrious. If the Debating Society took three hours of the time of an evening, some other evening of the same week must be prolonged three hours. The deacon's dingy shop had lights burning, in winter, till twelve o'clock, or later, most of the time ; and the skaters were tired out and in bed, usually, long before the thumping of Wilson's hammer 14 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. ceased to annoy tlie slumbers of the people in tlu' adjacent lioiise. At the exjiiration of two 3'ears and five months, he had made and re- ceived pay for six thousand pairs of shot's ; and was the possessor of more than seven liundred dollars in cash, all his own earnings. But his piiysical s^'stem had given out ; he raised blood, and there were unmistakable signs of exhaustion which he could no longer ignore : so, accepting the advice of Dr. Kiltredge, he rested two months, and prepared for a term at school. He was now twenty-four years of age, and only ready to begin a school-education ; but, undaunted by nothing, he started for Strafford Academy, N. H., and remained there and at Wolf borough and Con- cord Academies for several terms, teaching district schools in the win- ter. The failure of a friend to whom he had loaned his earnings obliged him to abandon his purpose of perfecting an education ; though a chance friend, Mr. S. Avery, took such an interest in him, that he offered to board him gratis so long as he chose to remain at Wolf- borough and pursue his studies. In 1834 he returned to Natick abso- lutely penniless, and obliged to ask credit for a suit of clothes that he was greatly in need of; but the credit was of short duration, and they were paid for the moment he could earn the money. CHAPTER HI. Manufacturing. — Tolitical Discussions. — Euterin;? upon Politics. — Marriage. — Election to Massachusetts Legislature. SHOE-BUSINESS was now greatly depressed ; work was scarce, and prices so low that Wilson decided to Ijccome his own emplo}^- (?r, and try his hand at manufactur- ing. He pur(;hased leather enough to maku a single case of cheap brogans ; made tlnMii willi his own hands; took them to iioston, and (.'Xchanged them for leather and a small sum ol' cash with thi; liiiu (tf Jonathan l''orl)Ush and C'o., whole- sale dealers on Blackstone Street, and one of the heaviesthouses in the shoe-trade. This operation proved somewhat better than working for a boss ; and, adding a hand to the business on wages, he soon was ready for another trip to Boston with two cases, and tlu' next time with three, until at length more hands were engaged, the stock in- creased, and in li-ss than a year he was nianufaeturing on a consid- erable scale, and adding moder- ately to his worldly goods. Ho LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 15 bought some land, built a shop, I and in 1840 a house on Central Street, not far from his present residence. The Young Men's Society con- tinued its operations ; and Wilson returned to it with increased zeal and enlarged ideas and ambition. At the academies in New Hamp- shire he had met in debate the picked young men whose talents had encouraged them to seek a liberal education ; but in his old associates, the mechanics of Natick, he still found sufficient ability and skill in polemics to make it neces- sary for him to study and exert himself in order to maintain his as- cendency. Indeed, he found them abler, on the whole, than the boys at school. Politics were raging, and these young men were in- tensely political. Late in the fall of 1839, a young man, Mr. Herring, who had recently moved to town, and a flaming Democrat, engaged in an animated talk on politics at the store where the post-office was kept, and where all political men met at mail-time to get their daily papers ; and, finding each had more to say than could be said at such times, Mr. Herring challenged Wil- son to a public discussion of the principles and merits of the two parties, Whig and Democratic. As no proposition could have more completely met Wilson's wishes, it was accepted with unconcealed sat- isfaction and alacrity: the arrange- ments were made at once, and the debate entered upon at the earliest practicable moment. It was largely attended, and immense interest was excited ; it being the first actual political encounter of the kind in this part of the country. Mr. Herring was a man of considerable talent, but not so thoroughly post- ed as his antagonist, and with far less experience in debate : so the result was a discomfiture, which he acknowledged with commendable frankness, and attributed, not to the want of merit in his cause, but to his deficient presentation of it. He proposed, therefore, to substi- tute another party to continue the discussion ; and, this being acceded to, arrangements were made for a meetins: in the Methodist church on the evening of March 20, 1840, between Henry Wilson of Natick for the Whigs, and Joseph Fuller of Framingham, chairman of the county committee, for the Demo- crats, to canvass the merits of the two political organizations. The preliminary excitement was great ; for politics had been increasing in interest, and the nation was stand- ing on the very verge of the great upheaval of 1840, the most memo- rable merely political campaign this country has ever experienced in its whole history. At the appointed time the champions appeared, ready for the great conflict, and excited by the momentous interests sup^- posed to be at stake in the discus- sion. An account of the debate- appeared in " The Boston Atlasy'"'' written by an eye-witness, whichi we give below : — 16 LIFE OF IIENPA' WILSON. Extract fuum a Letter ix "Bos- ton Atlas," dated Mau. 21, 1840. ■•Last eveiiinj^ was tlie appointoJ time; and at an early liour the meeting- house was lilled by the farmers and mechanics of the vicinity, all eager to witness the mighty conflict. "The meeting being called to order, Mr. Fuller rose, and stated there was some misunderstanding between them about the subject; that he had come to discuss the effect of the Sub-Treas- ury Bill upon the currency, wdiile Mr. A\ ilson had come to discuss the cur- rency question in general ; and, this being the case, he did not know exactly what to say. " Mr. Wilson said he had furnished liis opponents with eighteen written charges against the administration ; and, if they did not understand the questiun, it was their own fault. After some desultory remarks, Mr. Fuller said, if Mr. Wilson would go on with his argument, he would reply to his general remarks as far as possible, and to the "Sub-Treasury part at an}' rate. Mr. Wilson then proceeded in a mas- terly speech to demonstrate that the government possessed the powei', and was in duty bound, to furnish the coun- try with a sound and uniform curi-ency ; that all the presidents, from Washing- ton to Van Buri-n. liud acknowledged the power, and actr-d un control of slavery ; and that the Democ- racy, who were responsible for the administration, would be com- pelled to sustain it, or dissolve. Two courses, therefore, were left open to the Whig party : namely, to go counter to slavery, make a direct issue, and attract to its banner the spirit of freedom, of progress, and of the nineteenth century ; or fall back upon the ideas of the dark ages, and run a race with Democracy for the Devil's influence and co-o])i'ration. At this point a third party arose, called the " Liberty party," based on the idiM that any effective op- {)osition to slavery politically must come from the disintegration of the old parlies, and the eombina- LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 25 tion of their materials into the new organization. Wilson thought the body of the Whig party was sound on the question, and that the whole power of its organization could be carried against slavery whenever the test could be directly applied ; and his desire was to work with the mstrument already made, rath- er than try to make a new one. In 1841 he and his old comrades of the Debating Society, and a few other kindred spirits in Natick, held frequent consultations in the shoe-shop of George M. Herring, now of Farmington, N.H., where plans, principles, prospects, and duties were discussed, and the incipient action taken which re- sulted in the movement afterwards known as " the conscience Whig party," of which Charles Francis Adams, Sumner, Phillips, Hoar, Allen, Palfrey, and Wilson were the leaders. This was a small beginning, much like the com- mencement of Wilson's financial schemes when he worked all day for a cent ; but it was a begin- ning, and. came to something in time. It was decided that there- after no men should be chosen delegates to any Whig convention from Natick who were not in active accord with the proposed move- ment ; it was decided to consult with the leading Whigs in all the adjacent towns, and secure their co-operation in the same object as regarded those towns ; it was de- cided among them to write articles for the press in favor of the object, and to secure control of " The Nor- folk-County American," which was in the market, and use its columns to promote the cause ; it was de- cided that the inlluence of the Church should be obtained so far as was proper ; and, finally, it was decided to organize the sentiment of the party in the State by secur- ing the names of such infiuential persons as could be obtained in behalf of some definite course of action. These decisions were all carried out. Rev. Samuel Hunt brought the slavery question into the conference, and secured de- sired action. Another of the ac- tive members of the coterie pur- chased " The American " in 1842, and gave the movement the benefit of its columns ; and this was the first paper in the State prominent- ly devoted to the cause of the con- science Whigs. A paper was drawn up by Mr. Wilson, and circulated for sig- natures, calling a meeting in Boston for consultation and ex- tended effort ; and thus was in- augurated the grand movement which ultimately split the Whig party, created the coalition which made Boutwell governor, and sent Charles Sumner to the United- States Senate. There was a deal of work in it, however ; and, for the succeeding ten years, Wilson was driving it in all possible ways with never-failing energy, and a faith that wavered not for a mo- ment. The church, the caucus, the county and state conventions LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. of the piirty, the press, the stump, tlif House of Representatives, and the Senate, were all turned to aeeount. and marshalled by him to do battle against iniquity. It was all work, this part of it, and work that made no brilliant show ; work that could only be done quietly ; that would not bear vaunting ; for which there were no clapping of hands, banquets, rousing cheers, and applauding criticisms in th^ daily press: but i*. was work that saved the repu- tation of Massachusetts, and work that at last proved the salvation of the country ; for, had Massa- chusetts not kept the banner al- ways flying in the way she did, there would have been no Union £0-day, and consec^uently no peace. It \H not pretended, of course, that other minds in other places were not agitated and earnestly at work to solve the great problem of a nation's freedom. All that is •claimed is, that this organization by Wilson and his immediate as- sociates was the one which set in motion the conscience Whig move- ment ; and that movement pre- vented the entire relapse of the Whig party of the State into the bands of the Lunts, Choates, and Austins, who were allied to the Southern wing of the i)arty, and were engaged in a hot crusade against the antislavery efforts of the time. It was the beginning of tlie movement that made Massa- chusetts th(i head and front of the column of freedom. This might have come in some other way, possibly ; but it is the way it did come, and seems to have been a necessary link in the great chain of events which finally overthrew the iustittition of slavery. At the commencement of this session (184G), Gov. Briggs laid before the legislature some resolu- tions concerning slavery and the action of Massachusetts which had been adopted by the legislature of Georgia. Mr. Wilson promptly moved their reference to a special committee, and offered an order that they be instructed to report a preamble and resolution which should express in fitting terms the hostility of Massachusetts to the institution of slavery. The Whigs and Democrats joined in opposition to this order, but were met by the member from Natick with an argument of great length, and of such force and power that his opponents were glad to tender a compromise in the shape of an amendment, leaving the committee to act without in- structions. As the committee were supposed to be all right, and cer- tain to report i\Ir. Wilson's own views, the compromise was ac- cepted as an easy way to let his opponents down, and save them the mortification of defeat by an open vote on his original motion. In this speech Wilson took the ground that we must destroy slave- ry, or slavery will destroy liberty. We must restore our government to ita original and pristine pui'ity. LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 27 The contest is a glorious one. Let us be cheered by the fact that the bold and daring effort of the slave- power to arrest the progress of free principles has awakened and aroused the nation. That power has won a brilliant victory in tlie acquisition of Texas ; yet it is only one victory in its long series over the constitution and liberties of the country. Other fields are yet to be fought ; and if we are true to the country, freedom, and to humanity, the future has yet a Waterloo in store for the support- ers of this unholy system. He called upon the party to accept these issues, which were vital ; and, if victory came, to hail and improve it ; and, if defeat should be their lot, they would still have the glory of having deserved success. For him- self, he was ready to act with any man or party — Whig, Democrat, Abolitionist, Christian, or Infidel — who would go for the cause of emancipation. But Mr. Wilson was too hasty in his judgment as to the probable action of the committee. Having gained the point of leaving them free, efforts were at once put forth to secure a mild and evasive report, which Avere successful ; and he was compelled to make a minority re- port. In the House, Wilson moved his resolution as a substitute for that of the committee ; and it was carried by a vote of a hundred and forty-one to fifty-three, but was lost in the Senate. The report of the minority was a masterly production, and created a profound sensation in the House and in the State. It set forth, that, by the action of the two houses of Congress, Texas had been blended and indissolubly con- nected with the republic. Every act in its history, from its first in- ception to its final consummation, had been a deep disgrace. The fermenting of discord, the levying of troops, the speculation in lands, the dark intrigues which had been plotted, presented a mass of rot- tenness and corruption. The ob- ject of annexation was confessed to be the extension and perpetua- tion of human bondage. Inspired by that purpose, the South has won one of the most brilliant vic- tories in her long series of victories over the constitution of the coun- try and the liberties of the people. Our Union is not the Union our fathers made. That Union has been trampled beneath the iron heel of the triumphant slave- power. We stand on the threshold of a new Union, which the annexa- tion of a foreign nation has created. A new page is opened in the his- tory of the republic. Already the victorious hand of the slave-power points the way to further acquisi- tions. In this crisis of the country, has Massachusetts nothing to say, nothing to propose, nothing to do? Shall we, indeed, now give up the struggle, confess ourselves vanquished, think all is lost ? Shall Massachusetts, now that an- nexation is accomplished, erase all 28 LIFE OP HENRY WILSON, her solemn protests, shut up as a great mistake the history'- of a fifty- years' struggle against the influ- ences of slavery, and, by quiet sub- mission and a change of policy, obtain the forgiveness of tlie slave- power? or shall she yet trust in justice and tniili, and, ho\\ever the lights of other States may waver, stand herself unfaltering on the lofty eminence she has never 3'et deserted or betrayed, and use free speech, the free press, the free ballot, the freedom of remon- strance, and her other rights and powers, narrow though they be, in such a manner as finally to blot out the greatest disgrace and the most fruitful source of danger which was ever entailed on any nation ? The report closed with the declaration that the experience of sixty years afforded ample evi- dence tliat only by an adherence far more stern than that of our fathers to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and a use far more vigorous than theirs of all the powers of self-preserva- tion and defence which the Consti- tution has secured to the freemen of the Union, will the t nion and our liberties be preserved, and with them the hopes of tlie race fur long years to come. This rejjort of IltMny Wilson, his speeches on the main question, and his i)ersonal exertions to carry the legislature in i'avor of the re- solves, accomplished tin; purpose of the jteople of Natick in return- inir him to the lower brancli of the General Court, gave him the op- portunity to display his powers of leadership on a field worthy and every way adapted to his capacity and his wishes, and saved the cause from a further temporaiy retrocession and defeat. It must be borne in mind that all this was in 1846, or before ; that it was all accomplished before Charles Sum- ner had taken the field as a politi- cian or lecturer, and two years before Horace Mann had opened his powerful batteries upon the advocates of oppression and un- righteousness. Their splendid achievements are not to be depre- ciated, certainly ; but Wilson is an older soldier than either, though younger in years, and was engaged in hot conflict years before they en- listed or took part in the campaign. The succeeding year, and in 1849, he was returned to the House again, and in 1850 to the Senate, of which body he was chosen president, filling the station with the same ability and success that he did all positions into which he was called. When President Fillmore visited Massachusetts, Wilson was chair- man of the committee of welcome, and made the ollicial address ; and performed the same duty when the great Hungarian revolutionist and leader, Kossuth, came to Boston, and received an ovation, that in heartiness, and numbers ])resent, had then never been equalled in the city. The able manner these duties were performed by Wilson LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". 29 was a surprise to many who had looked upon him as a mere politi- cal manager, unable to sustain the dignity of the State on occa- sions of such imposing character. For the session of 1849 he was the Free-soil candidate for speaker ; but, the party being in the minor- ity, he was not elected. During the period we have now passed in this narrative, he was the presid- ing officer at many conventions of the party; was four years chair- man of the State Central Commit- tee, and engineer in general of their principal movements. CHAPTER V. As a Politician. — Candidate for Congress. — Whig Convention. — Bolting. — Free Soil. — Coalition. — Election of Sumner. THE death of John Q,uincy Adams created a vacancy in the Eighth Congressional District of Massachusetts, in 1848, that no man could expect to fill with equal distinction and to the satisfaction of the people ; and yet, on the day before the convention met to make the nomination for his succession, Wilson was ahead of any other candidate. This fact having been pretty well settled, it became ap- parent to the opponents of Mr. Wilson that he could be prevented from receiving the nomination only by one course ; and that was to obtain the consent of Mr. Horace Mann, the Secretary of the Board of Education, to enter the lists against him. Mr. Mann was at the height of his fame as a bril- liant orator, statesman, and philan- thropist ; had long been identified with the institutions which are the glory of Massachusetts ; had a national reputation not surpassed by any living man, and a larger personal acquaintance in the dis- trict than even John Quincy Adams. He was a native of Nor- folk County, which formed the body of the district, but resided then in Newton, the largest of the only five Middlesex towns in the district (Natick being one) ; and of course had only to signify his will- ingness to accept a nomination to obtain it. Some gentlemen of Dedham went to see Mr. Mann the night preceding the nomina- tion, and, after long persuasion, obtained his assurance, that, if nominated, he would not decline ; and so the nomination was ten- dered with much unanimity. Wil- son's strength was so great, notwithstanding the formidable reputation of his competitor, that he was chosen to represent the district in the National Whig Convention then about to assem- ble at Philadelphia to nominate 30 LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. Gen. Taylor for the presidency and to commit suicide, — two pur- poses it succeeded in accomplisli- iui;'. Taylor was elected, it is true, but was succeeded by Fillmore, one of those unfortunate New- York politicians who believe that a con- glomeration of office-seekers, with- out any principles in common, can form an administration, and manage national affairs to the satisfaction of every bod3\ This was attempted : but neither the prestige nor abili- ties of Daniel "Webster and Ed- w\ard Everett could make it a success ; and the party died all the same, as was foreseen by Wilson and Charles Allen. Wilson went to the convention with the clearly- avowed intention of having in- corporated in the platform the first fundamental republican prin- ciple in a form as strong at least as the Wilmot Proviso, which -simply proposed that sla- very should not be farther ex- tended. But the convention Avas unequal to the occasion ; nomi- nated Gen. Taylor, who was not known as a Whig, and who was not committed to any Whig prin- ciples ; and refused to concede any thin'4 to the antislavery sentiment of tlie j)arty. Wilson and Allen bolted, — not much of a bolt, the Wiiigs said : only two uninfluen- tial men from down East in fanati- cal Massachusetts ; that was all. The phick of the men, however, attracted attention ; and either would have gone out alone, had the other remained. The pluck, and the principle which they could not sacrifice, saved the act from contempt ; and, deep down in many hearts that dared not acknowl^edge it, there was a profound feeling of respect for these men which mere dickering politicians never arouse when they break away from their party associations. When Wilson arose and an- nounced his intention not to abide by the action of the convention, there was a wild uproar and howl- ing that would have added to the credit of Bedlam. A delegate from North Carolina secured silence af- ter a while by suggesting tliat the gentleman was injuring no one but himself : not a remarkably' wise observation in view of the fact that Wilson's reputation is Avorld- wide to-day, and that delegate would be unrecognized were his name given. Wilson came home ; wrote an address to his constituents givina; an account of proceedings, and ex- plaining and defending his course in withdrawing from the conven- tion. He justified his action on the ground that the resolutions of the convention Avhich nominated him demanded it, and that he could not do otherwise without violating his own professions, and convictions of duty. He closed by saying, " Bitter denunciations have already been heaped upon me ; yet I see nothing to retract. No hope of political reward, no fear of ridi- cule or denunciation, will deter me from acting up to my convic- LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 31 tions of duty in resisting the ex- tension of slaveiy and the arrogant demands of the slave-power." A few days after Wilson's re- turn home, he was honored by an invitation to meet and confer with the "godlike Daniel" and a few of his particular friends in Boston upon the situation. This was in the olden time ; and those were the daj^s when, in and around Boston, there were people who thought Daniel Webster knew a few things concerning politics and kindred topics. If report be true, Mr. Webster was a man, who, with all his virtues and good sense, had not been in tlie habit of seeking the counsel and advice of the small- potato class of politicians; and he was reputed to have no stomach for humbugs in politics or other things. The sending for Henry Wilson to meet the wise men of the east in conference was cer- tainly an indication that in high quarters our young statesman was not considered altogether a no- body, and that he had attracted the attention of people not much in the habit of looking for objects with a microscope. The conference was held. Mr. Webster was pleased, made the satirical remark that a " North " had been discovered, and seemed gratified with the opening pros- pects. But Webster was getting old ; and the new country, though discovered, was so far off, and so difficult to reach, that he never emigrated thither, and on the 7th of March, four years later, sold his land-warrant for promises to pay that were worthless, and went to protest at maturity. It is not prob- able that at this time Mr. Webster contemplated the possibility of Henry Wilson's representing Mas- sachusetts in the United-States Senate for a period as long as his own, and that he would originate and successfully carry through twenty or thirty important meas- ures to his one. He was consult- ing with a prophet, and didn't know it. The greatest man of his time seeking advice of the shoe- maker, rejecting it, and the latter, by following it, reaching the pedes- tal on which the great man stood ! — what a theme for moralists and poets ! what a lesson for statesmen and politicians ! The Free-soil party was now formed ; Wilson being one of the chief advisers and workers to that end. He was alive with energy, and boiling over with enthusi- asm. Conventions, mass-meetings, school-district gatherings, speeches, consultations, and appeals in writ- ing, were the order of the day ; and he was everywhere and at all points urging on the glorious cause. The little rill started in Capt. Herring's shop was becoming a mighty river. There Avas tre- mendous excitement ; and even those old fellows who could not see any cause for it still felt there was something in motion, — an underground swell that was shak- ing the solid earth, and might end 32 LIFE OF IIEXRY WILSON. in disaster or a gfeneral wreck. Tlieu came the Buffalo Convention, where Wilson was one of the lead- ing spirits, and the nomination of Martin Van liuren and Charles Francis Adams for president and vice-president. The nomination of Van Buren, who was not a pre-eminent anti- slavery man, was effected very much in the same way that Greele}' was nominated at Cincinnati. The convention was captured by the New- York politicians, and fell into such hands that suspicion of its moral purity was excited ; and its champions, instead of striking at the enem}' all the time, were put on the defensive. " The Trib- une " was shocked at the moral degeneracy which could unite with a Democratic faction men like Adams, Sumner, and Wilson, even for the purpose of resisting sla- very. It was abominable ; it was infamous ; it was damnable. Prob- ably no mortal ever suffered such intense pangs at the conduct of others as Greeley did when Gid- dings, Leavitt, and Palfrey shook hands over the shallow chasm with Dix, Tilden, and Van Buren. What would he have felt had Hen- dricks, Voorhees, and John j\Ior- risey, been included ? But (icn. TayliH- was elected; and, as before remarked, the Wliig party, having lost its vital princi- })le, di(Ml, ()!•, what is the same thing, became a mere faction, and from that day went out (jf existence as a political power. 'J'hc movement with Van Buren was not a success in so far as the election was con- cerned ; but it broke the solidity of the Democratic ranks, and taught some lessons in political engineer- ing to Wilson that were valuable, and which he pro})Osed to apply in the future operations against sla- very. In the Democratic party of Massachusetts were a few men of liberal views, progressive ideas, and fine abilities, to whom the iron collars prepared by the Ma- sons and Slidells and Davises of the party for general ever3'-da3'' wear were offensive ; j)rominent among whom were N. P. Banks and George S. Boutwell, two gentle- men, like Wilson, from the ranks, and capable of great things. The Whigs had lost their tem- per, and settled down into a state of dogged and sullen perversity. They wanted to die, and were willing to be kicked to death, but not willing to be j^ushed or pur- suaded into any course that led to resuscitation or hope. The Free- soil party, not being in the major- ity, and not being able to dispel the stupidity that had seized upon the Whigs, was in a position to need allies, and not too proud to accept them. Wilson was for moving on (he enemy's works, and conceivt'd tlic ideaof \\orking into the United-States Senate a man who would l)e able from that ])osi- tion to wake u]) the drowsy na- tion, lie suggested to Banks and Boutwell the feasibility of united operations, to a limited extent, be- LIFE OF HENRY ■WILSON. 33 tween their two parties. Mr. Banks immediately decided that it woidd not be possible to make any arrangement, however honest and disinterested, which would not be so misconstrued and misrepre- sented that it would be defeated. Mr. Boutwell was more cautious, but, on the whole, inclined to the opinion that the experiment could not succeed ; or, at any rate, the risks were too dangerous. But Wilson was aware that the idea was new to them ; and resolved, after they had pondered it a few days, to broach the subject again. In a little time he found the plan was gaining in favor ; and, by care- ful and judicious pressing, it short- ly began to take with the leading men of both the Free-soil and Dem- ocratic parties, and finally devel- oped into what was termed the " coalition," and became successful. The plan was a very simple one : merely to run separate candidates for governor, and unite on mem- bers of the legislature in towns where the two parties, by com- bining, could elect their men. As it required a majority vote to elect the governor, there would be no choice by the people, and the legislature would make the gov- ernor. It was understood from the start that the Free-soil party wanted the United-States senator, and would unite for nothing less ; and it was understood that they wanted Charles Sumner. In order to carry out such an arrangement, it was of the first importance that 3 good men sliould be selected as candidates. Tiie Democrats found in George S. Boutwell the man for the occasion. He was very young to stand as a candidate for guber- natorial honors in the ancient Commonwealth wliere years were thought essential to such a dig- nified station ; but he was an in- trepid debater avIio had won laurels in the House, a cool calculator, free from all nonsense, a man of the people, and without damaging affil- iations. He was nominated, and received the support of his party ; but there was no choice, and so he went to the legislature as one of the constitutional candidates, where, by aid of the Free-soil meml)ers, he was elected governor. Wilson was chosen president of the Sen- ate ; and Banks, speaker of the House : but this was not contem- plated in the original arrangement, and was not a thing that could have been considered until after the legislature had been elected. The Free-soil folks having per- formed their part of the stipulation, and elected Boutwell governor, uow nominated Charles Sumner for senator, and presented him for the suffrages of the Democratic mem- bers of the legislature. To those who are unacquainted with the kinds and quantities of medicines the doctors of the old school were in tlie habit of prescribing for their patients, this would naturally be re- garded as about the heaviest dose a not very sick party could be called upon to swallow. It wouldn't 34 LIFE OP HENRY WILSON. be any thing now : there are indi- cations that it might be agreeable to the Democracy to take a small dose of Sumner. IJiit Democracy in 1851 was not the sick man it is to-tlay : it was strong and robust, and, as a national organization, under control of the slave-power. Its great horror was abolitionism ; and Charles Sumner was, in its esteem, about the most virulent sample of that vile drug that could be produced. The Democrats had secured their governor ; and here was a fine opportunity to hedge, to put country above party, to rise above paltry bargains, and perhaps save the Union, — a thing very much in the Democratic line at that period. Having been paid in ad- vance, it could be done without loss ; and so, when they came to ballot for the senator, the coalition which had been strong enough to elect Boutwell was found not quite strong enough to elect Sumner. And so they balloted and ballot- ed, and then consulted and ballot- ed, and balloted and consulted : and days went by, and there was no choice ; and weeks went by, and still no choice ; and Charles Sumner was not yet a United-States sena- tor. Will he ever be ? That was a great question. For the future fame of Simincr it was ilie great question; and a momentous one it was. Two things were re(|ui- .site at this ininiensely fritieal time, — in(loiiiit;il)le perseverance in the leadership, and absolute integri- ty in tiie leaders, of the Free-soil party. The leader of the party was the president of the Senate, the originator of the coalition, — Henry Wilson. The scheme of the Democrats who did not vote for Sumner was, to dictate the man whom they would vote for ; and he, owing thus his election to them, would find a hook in his nose by which the schemers could control him. It was a dangerous moment ; and the scheme had been concocted by that craftiest of manipulators, Caleb Gushing, who was a member of the House, and never idle, especially when any profound games were waiting to be played. There were various devices sug- gested and canvassed ; but the only one which concerns this biography is that which included Wilson as the prime figure. When they had become weary with repeated vot- ing, and there were hints among the Free-soil men that the case was hopeless, and Sumner was out of the question, the Democrats, who had scattered, sent one of their number to Wilson with the offer, that if Sumner could be with- drawn, and Wilson substituted, there should be an election on the next ballot. The offer was not taken ; and then Caleb came in person, and gave his j)ersonal guar- anty that the snarl shoidd be un- ravelled at once if Wilson would but stand in Stunner's shoes as the senatorial candidate. But Wilson could not be moved. A seat in the Semite was within his grasp : he had but to say the LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 35 word, and take it. He declined, and insisted tliat not a man should think for one moment of voting for any one but Sumner : to do otherwise would demoralize the coalition, and turn it into a jobbing concern for the benefit of individ- uals. Charles Sumner was the nominee. The coalition was not formed for his personal benefit, nor for George S. Boutwell's : it was formed to give Massa- chusetts a State government not under the control of powerful cor- porations, and a senator who could wake up the echoes of free- dom in the Capitol of the nation ; and they must keep voting till doomsday, if need be, to accom- plish this result. The firmness of Wilson saved the day : and, when it was found impossible to move him, one Dem- ocrat changed ; and, on the twenty-sixth ballot, Charles Sum- ner was elected. When the deed was done, people saw how it was done, and how it only could have been done. No one doubted that Wilson elected Sumner; and Mr. Sumner wrote him a letter of thanks, in which he acknowledged, that but for his foresight, consummate skill, and unexampled pertinacity, the elec- tion could not have been effected. Charles Sumner, therefore, as a senatorial gift to the nation, was a present from Henry Wilson; and the Democratic fuglemen who now have such a high appreciation of the value of the gift have a grand opportunity to reward the giver by assisting him to a new position of honor and usefulness. This was the most memorable contest for the senatorship that any State in the Union ever wit- nessed, whether we take into con- sideration the state of parties and their relations to each other, the long severity of the contest, the even balance of the ballotings, or the tremendous results that have ensued. The hopes of Wilson were realized in full. Sumner in the Senate was the right man in the right place. He bombarded the old hulk of slavery with a vigor that told, and damaged it beyond recovery. Sumner had his oppor- tunity, and improved it for his own benefit and for the benefit of the nation ; and he may live to see the day when he will be glad to acknowledge, that, in parting com- pany from the man who first set Inm up in business, he made the grandest mistake of his whole life. 36 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. CHAPTER VI. Constitutional Convention. — Electetl by Two Tow-ns. Prcsideut pro tern. Leadership. — Debates. — Chosen r'F'lHE convention to revise the _L Constitution of Massachu- setts met in Boston May 4, 1858, and made choice of N. P. Banks, Jan., for its presiding officer. It was composed of men of eminent ability from all the leading profes- sions and occupations of life. Men like Jacob Bigelow, Luther V Bell, and Foster Hooper, of the medical profession; George Put- nam, Dr. Blagden, Dr. Braman, Dr. Lothrop, and C. W. Upham, of the clergy ; and nearly all the lawyers of distinction in tlie State, — were among the members. Ru- fus Choate, Sidney Bartlett, B. F. Hallett, B. F. Butler, Peleg Sprague, Marcus Morton, Joel Parker, Otis P. Lord, Simon Green- leaf, Charles Sumner, George S. Hillard, R. H. Dana, and hosts of others, judges, professors, district attorneys, and practitioners, were there, constituting a galax}^ of names that could hardly be matched by any bar in the count ry. Sprague liad been a distinguished member of tlie United -States Senate in till' palmy days of ("lay, Calliouii, Wcifsier, Silas Wright, and Tom Benton ; Choate had ijeen United- States senator, was now attorney- gt-ncral, ami at IIk; height of his fame ; while (jlhers had been chief justices of States, governors, and | candidates of their parties for many years. The ablest merchants and business-men were also there in force, — George B. Upton, George S. Boutwell, James Read, J. T. Stevenson, James M. Beebe, and others ; with political orators of brilliancy like Edward L. Keyes, Anson Burlingame, H. L. Dawes, Charles Allen, N. P. Banks, and mau}^ too numerous to mention. In a convention of such men, no man of inferior abilities would be able to stand a single moment in a leading position ; but Henry Wil- son, the mechanic, the " cobbler " if you will, was not only a member, but was accorded the position to which, as a representative man and an organizing power, he was entitled. He was made chairman of the committee to provide the order of business, with Choate, Dawes, Cushman, Beach, Nayson, Hale, and Aspinwall for colleagues. The splendid parliamentary abilities of N. P. Banks, another mechanic, secured for him the presidency of the convention ; ami its next highest and e(pially-imi)()rtant po- sition was taken b}' Wilson, — a position analogous to the ehair- nianshiji of Ways and Means in the House. There was one peculiarity attending: the election of Wilson LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 37 to the convention. He had been chosen by two towns, Natick and Berlin ; and the circumstances were these : He had been one of the originators of the convention ; was in favor of certain reforms that were desired by the majority of the people ; and his talents and infor- mation were needed in the body. But Natick politically was then so nearly equally divided, that his election was not to be counted upon as certain. To make sure of his being there, the people of Berlin consented to adopt him, they hav- ing the power to elect any one, and he being highly esteemed and respected there. He therefore ac- cepted their offer of a seat, and declined the suffrages of his own townsmen. The night before the election, however, it came to the comprehension of the people of Natick, that, in so distinguished a body as would soon assem- ble, the honor of being repre- sented by a man who must necessarily be a cipher therein was not to be coveted ; and, ral- lying, Wilson was triumphantly nominated in lieu of the other man, and the next day elected, proving that two stools do not necessarily involve a lodgement, to be avoided by the party who mounts them. Wilson went over to Berlin, called the people to- gether, explained to their satisfac- tion, and obtained a unanimous release of his obligation to serve them ; they accepting Gov. Bout- well, who had failed of an election in his own town of Groton. But, at the opening of the convention, Berlin was not represented, the vacancy made by the declination of Wilson not having been filled yet; and one of the longest and ablest debates of the session grew out of this particular case, in which was involved the question of the powers of the legislature and the sovereignty of the people. This debate commenced May 6, and lasted till May 18, during a portion of the sittings ; and was participated in by Hallett, Train, Parker, Allen, Choate, Wil- son, and other leading speakers. The points to-day are not agi- tated, and there is no need to ex- plain them ; but the conclusion of Wilson's speech in reply to Choate will show the different ideas of the two men, and the classes they represented. Mr. Wilson. — "I do not, Mr. President, regret the time con- sumed by this debate. It has been conducted with eminent abil- ity ; and I am quite sure we have more distinct views of the ques- tions so fully and ably discussed that will not be lost to us. Opin- ions have been advanced by gen- tlemen, which, in my judgment, are at war with the whole doctrine of popular sovereignty as defined in oui' constitutions, pronounced b}' our judicial tribunals, understood by our statesmen, and practised by our people, since the sovereign power passed from England to the American people. ' The real, ac- 38 LIFE OF HENRY "WTLSON. tual, livincj sovereignty of the peo- ple is not yet com]nx'hen(led by some men of learninj^ and talent. Tiiey regard it, as Mr. Calhoun regarded the Deelaration of Inde- pendence, as a 'rhetorical flourish.' Our history is marked by what Mr. JMadison calls the ' little, ill-timed scruples ' of men who indulge, un- der the mask of zeal for adhering to ordinary forms, their secret animos- ity' to the substance contended for. " Mr. President, the gentleman from Boston (Mr. Choate), in his brilliant speech the other day, which so delighted us all, implored us to ' spare the rust of the Con- stitution.' I had thought, sir, that our free democratic institu- tions were to be ever new, bright, perennial. I had thought that these institutions were to be ever renewed by the popular intelli- gence ; made to conform to the ever-advancing spirit of the ages, and the wants of the living people. I had thought that the marked fea- ture of our institutions was, that they were ever to be kept free from tlie ' rust of ages,' and to be im- bued with the living, actual life of the people. I would not allow rust to gather upon our constitu- tion of government, but would keep it as luight as when it came from the hands of the statesmen who framed it, and of the i)eople who breathed into it vitality and force." Choate was not fond of glittering things, except his own speeches ; and Wilson was for pol- ishing up occasionally. On the I'Jth of i\Iay, Wilson presented the report of the com- mittee in favor of making single senatorial districts on the basis of pojjulation ; taking the ground distinctly that there was no reason Avhy Lowell should be cut down in the basis because of its ten thou- sand women, or Boston because of its fifty thousand Irishmen and Germans. " Upon political ques- tions there may be differences of opinion ; but upon nineteen-twen- tieths of the questions that come before the legislature, your wo- men, your foreign population, and your persons who cannot vote, have a deep and abiding personal interest." And again, same de- bate : " I am not one of those who expect to advocate the right of women to vote. But one thing is certain : I could not make an argument against it ; and I would like to see the man who could make such an argument. And I go farther: I believe, that, upon most of the questions that concern this commonwealth and this coun- try, they have their influence ; and if thev had also the right to vote, the country would be none the worse governed. The foreign population is engaged in the busi- ness - affairs of life, — in our churches and our schools, in the various pursuits of social life, and in every thing that is consistent with the duties of citizens ; and they inlluence the opinions of their neighbors and friends. Sir, the honorable representative on LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 39 this floor from Boston, if he be worthy of the seat he fills, will pay deference to the sentiments of that portion of the community who cannot vote, as well as that por- tion who can." These sentiments Avere uttered nineteen years ago. On the 27th of May Mr. Wilson made a strong speech against changing elections from the major- ity system to a plurality, asserting that reforms spring from the bosom of the people, who are often check- mated by caucuses and combina- tions of politicians ; and the plural- ity system aids the latter by forcing upon the voters a choice of evils. He declared that many of the evils of popular government in the sev- eral States were directly traceable to the plurality system of elections. On the 28th he spoke again on the question of making aliens in- eligible to the office of governor, and said, " I see no necessity of putting these words, ' citizens of the United States,' into the Consti- tution. I am content that a citizen of Massachusetts shall be govern- or of Massachusetts if the people choose to make him so. According to my understanding of the Consti- tution, a man ivho is not a natural- ized citizen of the State or the Union could be elected governor of this Commonwealth to-day. . . . I care nothing about the place where a man was born : I do not wish to bring the question into this discussion, and I do not like to have such words as 'foreign birth' in- corporated in the Constitution." On the 30th May he spoke against high-sounding titles for State offices, and against a propo- sition to make the lieutenant-gov- ernor the presiding officer of the Senate. On the 7th of June Mr. Wilson distinguished himself by a long and very able argument in favor of the secret ballot, which would enable the poor man to vote with- out being under fear of losing em- ployment in consequence of voting contrary to the wishes of the rich and domineering manufacturer. He quoted the opinions of Grote, Ma- caulay, Cobden, Bright, O'Connell, and other liberal and reform statesmen in Europe, in favor of the scheme, and of the Duke of Wellington, Sir James Graham, and Sir Robert Peel, of the Tories, against it. Referring to the latter, he said, " Sir, we have a class of men in this country who have just such opinions. They always dis- cover we are going to ruin. We have been marching on for sixty years in a course of progress unex- ampled in the history of the world ; and all that time these men have thought that the country was fin- ished and ' fenced in,' and that all progress tended to ruin. Massa- chusetts has had, and now has, her full share of these timid creatures, who have little confidence in, or knowledge of, the people. If these men would mingle more with the masses, they would imbibe some- thing of that spirit of hope and confidence which animates the 40 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. jieople in their oiiwanl march in the career of democratic })roi,a"ess and refurm. ... I trust this con- vention Avill })ut into the Con- stitution of Massacluisetts this fundamental principle ; and I trust they will also put into the Consti- tution the vivd-voce mode of voting for the legislators ; and that while we have secured to the people the right to vote, with no eye upon them but the e3'e of God, free from dictation and intimidation from any quarter, we shall force the representatives to vote in the broad and open light of day." On the 11th of June he was on the floor advocating the abolition of the poll-tax as a ([ualilication for voting. He said, " Men sliould, and they will, pay their poll-taxes, if they are able to do so ; but, if they are not able to, they should not have their rights denied them be- cause they are poor. If a man does not pay his tax, you have the power to arrest him and to imprison him. If he has the means to pay, he will, rather than go to jail ; but if he is poor, if he cannot pay his tax, he ought not to be compelled, or forfeit his rights. Poverty is Ijittcr enough to be borne without disfranchisement. The man of toil wiio lias reared a family, contrib- uted liundrcds of dollars l)y indi- rect taxation to support the gov- ernment, wlio may perhaps have given liis blroved recreant to freedom, I would shiver it to atoms, if I had the power to do it. Chosen to represent Massachusetts in the na- tional councils without the sacrifice of my antislavery opinions, I have acted, and I shall continue to act, up to these opinions." The proposition had been made in the legislature to amend the Constitution by requiring a foreign- er to reside in the country twenty- one years before he should be qualified to vote. To all attempts to sauction that proposition, and all other illiberal measures, Mr. Wilson gave a firm and persistent opposition. " Sir," he said, "the American move- ment is not based upon bigotry, intol- erance, or proscription. If there is any thing of bigotry, intolerance, or proscription, in the American move- ment, if there is any disposition to oppress or degrade the Briton, the Scot, the Celt, the German, or any one of another clime or race, or to deny to them the fullest protection of just and equal laws, it is time such criminal fanaticism was sternly rebuked by the intelligent patriotism of the state and country. I deeply deplore, sir, the adoption of the twenty-one-years amendment. It will weaken the Amer- ican movement at home and in other States, especially in the West, and tend to defeat any modification whatever of the naturalization laws. I warn gen- tlemen who desire the correction of the evils growing out of the abuses of the naturalization laws against the adoption of extreme opinions. I tell you, gentlemen of the council, that this intense Nativism kills ; yes, sir, it kills and is killing us, and, unless it is speedily abandoned, will defeat all the needed reforms the movement was in- augurated to secure, and overwhelm us all in dishonor. Every attempt, by whomsoever made, to interpolate with the American movement any thing inconsistent with the theory of our LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 57 democratic institutions, any thing in- consistent with the idea that ' all men are created equal,' any thing con- trary to the command of God's holy Word, that ' the stranger that dwell- eth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself,' is doing that which will baffle the wise policy which strives to reform existing evils and to guard against future abuses." All efforts for fusion proving un- availing, Mr. Wilson united with others in calling a mass convention, which assembled at Worcester, ef- fected a union, and nominated Julius Rockwell for governor. He entered into the canvass with ear- nestness, and labored zealously in behalf of the nomination thus effected. Although the attempts to ex- clude foreigners from holding office, and to require a residence of twen- ty-one years before voting, had failed, a proposition was carried through the legislature, and sub- mitted to the people in May, 1859, requiring a residence of two years after naturalization. Mr. Wilson, who had opposed the other propo- sitions, opposed this also, because it made " an invidious and offen- sive distinction against men who were born in other lands." To aid in its defeat, he presided at a public meeting in Faneuil Hall, which was addressed by the emi- nent German orator, Carl Schurz. On the 20th of April he addressed a letter to the Hon. Francis Gil- lette of Connecticut in opposition to the measvire, in which he wrote as follows : — " That there are great abuses grow- ing out of the loose administration of the naturalization laws, especially in our large Atlantic cities and towns, all fair-minded men must admit. It has appeared to me that these admitted abuses could be remedied either by the modification or revision of tlie natural- ization laws, or by a reform in their administration ; and I have ever been ready in any practical mode consistent with the equal rights of all men to reform these acknowledged evils. But I have ever declared that I would sup- port no measure, even to reform these abuses, which would in the slightest degrade any man, or class of men ; that I would give to every human being equal rights, — the same equality I would claim for myself or my own son. " Ko power on earth could force me to vote for any proposition which fair- minded and intelligent men felt to be unequal or personally degrading. Never have I supported any measure inconsistent with the equal rights of man ; but, if I had ever unintentionally made such a mistake, I have nothing of that pride of consistency in regard to mere measures which would induce me to continue in the wrong because I had been wrong once. Better be right in the lights of to-day than be con- sistent with the errors of yesterday. "For more than twenty years, I have believed the antislavery cause to be the great cause of our age in Amer- ica, — a cause which overshadowed all other issues, state or national, foreign or domestic. In my political action I have ever endeavored to make it the 58 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON, paranumnt question, and to suliordi- nate all minor issues to this one grand and comprehensive idea. It seems to me that the friends of a cause so vast, so sacred, should ever strive to save it from being burdened by the pressure of temporary interests and local and comparatively immaterial questions. With my comprehension of the tran- scendent magnitude of the issues in- volved in the solution of the slavery question in America, with the lights I have to guide my action, I should feel, if I put a burden on the antislavery cause by pressing the adoption of measures of minor importance, that I was committing a crime ' against mil- lions of hapless bondmen, and should deserve their lasting reproaches, and the rebuke of all true and tried men who were toiling to dethrone that gigantic power which perverts the Na- tional Government to the interests of oppression." This letter evoked a public re- ply from Hon. Amasa Walker, sharply criticising Mr. Wilson's opposition to the amendment. Un- der date of 2d of May, Mr. Wilson answered this letter, justifying his opposition, and vindicating the con- sistency of his action. In this let- ter he said, — " I avowed at all times, while acting with the American organization, my readiness to remedy abuses growing out of the administration of naturalization laws by their revision ; but I at all times announced my determination to vote for no proposition which would be unequal, unjust, or degrading, to any class of men. "■ This was my position then : it is my position now. Then it required me to oppose, and I did oppose, the twenty-one-years proposition, the four- tecn-3'ears proposition, the proposi- tion to make foreign-born citizens ineligible to office, the sending-out of the country men for the misfortune of poverty, and the reading-and-writ- ing amendment : now it requires me to oppose the adoption of a proposition which simply makes a distinction be- tween adopted and native-born citizens of the United States by requiring the adopted citizen to reside in the United States two years before he can exercise the right of suffrage, while it allows the native-born citizen to exercise that right after a residence of one year. I believe that the opinions of Republi- cans outside of Massachusetts upon this proposition approach unanimity. Dur- ing the past five years, I have had some little opportunity to become ac- quainted with the pubUc men of the Republican party from all sections of the country. I have, during those years, travelled in seventeen States, more than forty thousand miles, seen and counselled with the active men of the party, and addressed hundreds of thousands of the people. Few men have had better opportunities to be- come acquainted with leading men, and to know something of the opinions of the people ; and I now say that I do not know a single Republican statesman, or a single Republican paper, or a single man in the rank and file of the Republican party, outside of Massa- chusetts, in favor of the adoption of this amendment." Mr. Wilson was severely cen- sured and sharply denounced for LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. m liis opposition to this measure, these imputations he said, — To "I have no reply to make. Con- scious that I have nothing personally to gain by these avowals of my opin- ions upon this question, and that I am actuated solely by a sincere desire to maintain the equal rights of American citizens, and to advance a cause my heart loves and my judgment ap- proves, I am content to appeal from the impulsive censure of the pres- ent to the sober judgment of the fu- ture." As Mr. Walker predicted in his letter, the people of Massachu- setts ratified the two-j^ears amend- ment by a decisive majority. It, however, remained in the Consti- tution but a brief period, and was stricken therefrom immediately after the opening of the Rebellion ; thus giving the popular indorse- ment to Mr. AVilson's position. CHAPTER VIII. Thirty-third Congress. — Entrance into United-States Senate. — Douglas takes a Hand in a Small Game. — Benjamin F. Hallett to the Rescue on a Question of Veracity. ON the tenth day of February, 1855, Henry Wilson the shoemaker took his seat in the Sen- ate of the United States as the suc- cessor of Edward Everett the professor and diplomat, whose scholarship and oratory were of the highest order, and whose fame the State of Massachusetts had ap- propriated and lovingly cherished as part of her own. The differ- rence between the new and the retiring senator, in opportunity, education, style of thought and expression, and in general politi- cal aims and principles, was one calculated to excite remark ; and if among the scholars who adorn the classic precincts of Cambridge and Boston, or among the pro- found and learned jurists that grace the supreme bench of the State, there were those who had misgivings as to the propriety of the change, it is not matter for wonder. Mr. Everett was a man of highly-polished manners, great talents, and varied acquirements : but by some unaccountable mental eccentricity, or from his inclina- tion to follow rather than lead in the political movements of the time, he had not kept even with the sentiment of the people of the State, and no longer represented their ideas on great questions that were impending ; while Henry Wilson did represent those ideas. The question of propriety has since been settled by Wilson himself ; and Mr. Everett, when he subse- quently put himself in political 60 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. accord with his successor, not onlj'^ indorsed the propriety of the shoe- nuiker's election, but did an act which counted more in saving liis political re})utation than any one act of his whole career. Mr. Wil- son, it is true, was not so polished in manners and scholarship as Everett ; few are : but neither was he deficient in material sena- torial qualities. AVhen Wilson entered the Senate, though Web- ster, Cla}', and Calhoun were no longer there, it was still, as it is to- day, a body of great and distin- guished men. John M. Clayton, Lewis Cass, Stephen A. Douglas, William H. Seward, Hannibal Ham- lin, Charles Sumner, Hamilton Fish, Salmon P. Chase, Mason, Slidell, Hunter, and others, were among the men who were there, and in the prime of their powers and their fame. There was serious work near at hand, as was felt, but iVir more serious as it turned out. Franklin Pierce was president, Jeff. Davis in the cabinet, the Kan- sas question on their hands, and the whole administration, and all its ideas, sympathies, and devices, utterl}'^ at war with the spirit of the age, and utterly incompetent to the exigencies of the hour. It was the time for men like Wilson ; only there were not enough of them. There were good men there to make thrilling sj^eeches on the right side, lint Wil>i)ii was more than a speech-makci' : he was an orgaiiizci' and a woikcr, — a man who could biiiig things to pass. On the 21st of the month he made his dchut as a debater by a short speech announcing his inten- tion to vote for measures proposing to reduce duties on imported articles which enter largely into the consumption of the masses. Two days after, Feb. 23, the real career of Mr. Wilson as a senator of the United States was fairly commenced by a speech characteristic of the man, and which excited general attention, and, in certain quarters, a decided flutter. The occasion of the flut- ter was the introduction to notice of some resolutions on the slavery question, written by ]\Ir. Hallett of Boston, and passed by the Demo- cratic Convention Sept. 19, 1849. These resolutions were written for the local market of the State of Massachusetts, and not for national consumption, and they were fla- vored with sentiments on the sla- ver}- question that had become con- traband . and incendiary in Demo- cratic circles in 1855. The first was in favor of " freedom and free soil wherever man lives throughout God's heritage ; " and two of the others affirmed that slavery could not exist in the Territories without the sanction of Congress, — a doc- trine which recent discoveries in political science had proved falla- cious, and distasteful at Washing- ton. Mr. Hallett being chairman of llie National Democratic Com- mittee at the time these resolutions were written, a great constitutional lawver, and a high Democratic au- LIFE OF HENEY WILSON. 61 thority, their promulgation in the Senate with a full indorsement of soundness by the abolition agita- tor, Wilson, rendered the situation interesting. Mr. Douglas was the first to comprehend the fatal tendenc}'' of the thrust Wilson had made at the vital point, and endeavored to break its force by insinuating that Wilson was a disunionist ; that he had a letter written in Boston praising him, and asserting, that, upon the question of the dissolution of the Union, " he would prove himself a man." It was understood general- ly, that, when Stephen A. Douglas took any one in hand, there was occasion for it ; and at such times the fur might be expected to fly in considerable quantities. In fact, Douglas was a power that many senators preferred to give a wide berth to ; and a new-comer like Wilson, whom it was important to the dominant party to have crushed early, might naturall}^ expect a demonstration from him to mean business. It was a time to try the courage, temper, and self-poise of any man ; and the reply made on the instant was not only pertinent, but so manly and pointed, that Mr. Douglas was constrained to drop the subject, and watch for a more valuable place to make his attack. Wilson said, — " All I have to say is, that I never uttered a word in my life to warrant such an assertion. Sir, I make no pretensions to any peculiar devotion to the Union over other men ; but, if I know myself, I would sacrifice all of life and of hope to maintain and perpetuate the union of these States. From boyhood I have dreamed of a glorious destiny for my country. I have wished to see the flag of the Union wave in peaceful triumph over the North- American continent, over a confederacy of free commonwealths. I have so much faith in democratic ideas, so much confidence in the peo- ple, that I have no fears from the an- nexation of territory and the extension of the boundaries of the republic. " The senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas) has undertaken here to-night to denounce all of us of the North, whom he is pleased to call abolitionists, as disunionists. Now, sir, in my judg- ment, no part of the confederacy is more devoted to the Union than the State I have the honor, in part, to rep- resent. I believe, that, in my State, the opinion in favor of the Union approaches unanimity. We respond with all our hearts to the words of Daniel Webster uttered on this floor more than twenty years ago, '■Liberty and union now and foreoer, one and inseparable.'' But we mean liberty and union. The voting antislavery men of Massachusetts will not be frightened from their advocacy of im- partial liberty by threats, made here or elsewhere, to dissolve the Union. These menaces have no terrors for us. We know that the people will stand by the Union even if slavery should be abolished. . . . " Now, sir, I assure the senators from the South that we of the free States mean to change our policy. I tell you frankly just how we feel, and just what we propose to do. We mean to with- 62 LIFE OF HENEY WILSoN. draw frum tliet^e luxUt; tliat class of public mcu who have betrayed us aud deceived you ; men who have misrepresented us, and not dealt frankly with you. And we intend to send men into these halls wlio will truly represent us, and deal justly with you. We mean, sir, to place in the councils of the nation men who, in the words of Jefterson, ' have sworn on the altar of God eter- nal hostility'- to every kind of o])pres- sion of the mind and body of man.' Yes, sir, we mean to place in the na- tional councils men who cannot be seduced by the blandishments, or de- terred by the threats, of power; men who will fearlessly maintain our prin- ciples. I assure senators from the South that the people of the North entertain for them aud their people no feelings of hostility ; but they widl no longer consent to be misrejn-esented by their own representatives, nor pro- scribed for their fidelity to freedom. This determination of the people of the Xorth has manifested itself during the past few^ months in acts not to be misread by the country. The stem rebuke administered to faithless North- ern representatives, and the annihila- tion of old and powerful political organizations, should teach senators that the days of waning jiower are upon them. This action of the people teaches the lesson, which I hope will be heeded, that political combinations can no longer be successfully made to suppress the sentiments of the peoi)le." 'I'll is style of language and thought was decidedly intere.sting to tlie Senate as then constituted ; and tlie meml^ers sonieliow found lliemselves listening, and taking notes. Mr. Benjamin of Louisiana, an able lawyer and sharp fencer, rose, and acknowledged tliat the remarks of the new senator from Massachusetts were interesting, and desired to put a few questions, the pith of which was, whether Massa- chusetts would return fugitive slaves if the fugitive -slave act was repealed. Wilson promptly replied, that she would perform all her constitutional obligations, in his opinion. Then Mr. Rusk of Texas went at him, and Weller of California. But it was all of no use : he resolutely refused to get confused, or thrown from his bal- ance ; and finished his speech with- out sustaining damage, or perilling the reputation of his State. This speech attracted so much attention, and the speaker escaped the claws of Douglas, Benjamin, Rusk, and Co. so absolutely without injury, that it was thought neces- sary to have something done about it ; and, after an entire 3'ear of consideration, it was decided, that, if they could not squelch him in any other way, they might attempt to prove him a liar. Accordingly, Mr. Hallett carefully concocted a nice little pamphlet, raising against him a question of veracity ; and it was printed in due form, and placed upon the tables of senators, with all j)roper authentication, and as- sumption of responsibility. It is diliicidt now to understand the motives of Mr. Ilallett in arraying himself against Henry Wilson on such a question and in LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. G3 sach a way ; for Mr. Hallett was not a fool, had generous instincts, and knew the man he assailed. In such an encounter there could be but one result, and that the reader will anticipate. Mr. Wilson said, — " There has been placed, Mr. Presi- dent, upon the desks of members of the Senate and House of Representa- tives, a pamphlet prepared by the au- thor of these resolutions (Mr. Benja- min F. Hallett), now the United-States District Attorney for Massachusetts. Upon the titlepage of this pamphlet I find, in huge, staring capitals, these words : — " ' A Question of Veracity for Sena- tor Henry Wilson ! ' Sir, this pam- phlet, with this ' question of veracity for Henry Wilson ' in large capitals upon its titlepage, is made up of extracts from a speech delivered by this government official at an administration meeting in Wilton, N.H., pending the late elec- tion. In this speech Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett has made a gross, wanton, and wholly unprovoked personal assault upon me. I say, sir, this assault is wholly unprovoked ; for I have not, in the Senate or out of the Senate, in referring to or quoting from these resolutions, charged him with incon- sistency, or uttered an unkind or dis- respectful word towards him. "But, sir, Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett has chosen to make this gratuitous per- sonal assault upon me, and to thrust it into this chamber and into the other house. Sir, I shall promptly meet this assault. Mr. Benjamin F. Hal- lett raises 'a question of veracity for Senator Henry Wilson.' ' Senator Henry Wilson' here on the floor of the Senate, on this the twenty-first day of April, 1856, will settle this ' question of veracity,' raised for him by Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett, by demon- strating that Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett has made against me (in the pamphlet I hold in my hand) wholesale charges without the shadow of truth in them. "Sir, Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett charges me with ' deliberate and re- peated perversion' of these resolu- tions; with having 'falsified the rec- ord ; ' with having ' garbled and per- verted' these resolves by 'quoting a single sentence, or a part of a resolu- tion ; ' with having ' twice misquoted them in the Senate;' with having ' quoted detached sentences and half- sentences;' and with 'garbling and separating sentences.' Sir, these charges made by Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett I pronounce utterly and to- tally unfounded, without an element of truth in them. I never, in or out of the Senate, 'misstated' these reso- lutions ; I never ' misquoted ' them ; I never ' perverted ' them ; I never ' quoted detached sentences ' from these resolutions, or 'garbled' them by ' separating sentences.' Sir, I deny in the most emphatic language the truth of these wholesale charges ; and, sir, I feel justified in applying to the author of these charges the language once applied to another by Burke, and to say that ' his charges are false, and he knows them to be false, and I know them to be false, and he knows that I know that he knows them to be false.' " Sir, Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett gra- ciously declares that he will not pro- nounce me ' a fool or a knave ' for 'misquoting these resolutions,' as I ' may never have read them as a whole.' Sir, his gracious condesceu- 64 LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. sion is wholly misplaced. I assure him that my sins, if I have sinned, are not the sins of ignorance. Sir, I saw these resolutions in the hands of Benjamin F. Hallett on the morning of the 19th of September, 1849, in the cars between Boston and Spring- field, and heard him read them to the Hon. Charles C. Hazewell, then asso- ciated with 'The Boston Times,' a gentleman of extraordinary memory and vast historical acquisitions. After he had finished reading these resolves, Mr. Hazewell asked him what ' the Southern Democrats would say to them.' Mr. Benjamin F. Hallett promptly replied, 'I don't care what they say. We have risked every thing for them. They deserted Gen. Cass, and elected Gen. Taylor. They may take care of themselves, and we will take care of ourselves.' Sir, I was present at the convention when they were re- ported by the author : so, sir, I know something of these resolves and their history; and I know, that, when they were penned, he was smarting under the defeat of 1848. He was also look- ing hopefully to a coalition with the Free-soilers in the ensuing State elec- tion. 'The Boston Post' (the office from which the pamphlet comes), edited then and now by Charles G. Greene, navy agent at Boston, on the 21st of September, in indorsing these resolutions (state and national), ex- pressed the opinion that the two mi- nority parties could act together in the jx-udiiig election on State affairs. " J\Ir. lieiijamin F. Hallett charges mc with having quoted 'garbled and disconnected extracts from the resolu- tions ' in my speech of the 23d of February, 1855. He is prudently care- ful, sir, not to quote these ' garbled and disconnected extracts' as quoted by pie in that speech. He did not do so for two reasons, — he did not wish to place them before the readers of this pamphlet ; and, if he had quoted the extract in full from my speech, it would have been seen at once that I had not quoted three 'garbled and disconnected extracts,' but that I had quoted three whole, entire, complete resolutions, each embracing distinct, independent propositions. . . . " And here, sir, I dismiss Mr. Benja- min F. Hallett to 'that sober and sa- gacious judgment of the people ' which he invokes, — a judgment 'which never fails in the end to detect and detest ' the man who makes unfounded accusations, or bears false witness against a political opponent." We give this long extract, not for the purpose of reviving and perpet- uating the unpleasantness of that day, nor for the desire to exult over the triumph of the senator, but to show the spirit that animat- ed the Democ'ratic leaders of the period, and with what antislavery men had to contend. The manner of the reply shows that Wilson was confident in his integrit}^ and in his ability to face the music, and give an account of himself that would not encourage another at- tack of the same character. He was at liome to all comers on ques- tions of veracity, and particularly to Benjamin F. Hallett. At tliis sessicni Mr. Wilson made a speoeli on the tariff in favor of a modification of duties, and said, " I think American labor will be LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 65 best protected by taxing all the necessaries of life lightly, placing the raw materials which enter into our manufactures on the free list, raising revenue upon articles that cojne into competition with our manufactures, and upon the luxu- ries of life which are consumed by the more wealthy classes of society." CHAPTER IX. Thirty-fourth Congress. — Douglas and Wilson on Subduing. — Rusk on Fanaticism. — Brooks Challencos. — Central-American Affairs. BY the middle of April, 1856, the Kansas question had grown into formidable proportions, and was before the Senate for de- bate and consideration. Douglas was on hand with his cunning scheme of popular sovereignty, which he fancied would meet the moderate men of all sections ; but, in order to make it palatable to the advocates of slavery, he de- nounced with all the fierceness and ability at his command the friends of the Wilmot Proviso, calling them " black Republicans " and other op- probrious epithets, and threatened to " subdue them." Wilson took up the gauntlet thus thrown down ; met the great Illi- nois champion with good plain Saxon language, without any dodges or evasions, and in a style calculated to teach him that the present senators of Massachusetts were there for a purpose, and the days of compromises and child's play were approaching an end. Mr. Douglas had made a recon- noissance the year previous to feel the mettle of his antagonist, and had reason to be satisfied that all his own resources would be needed to save the day ; and he prepared for a vigorous conflict. Wilson was not unprepared, and in no mood to retreat. Among other things he said, — " The senator from Illinois may de- nounce us as black Republicans, as abolition agitators, if he thinks such language worthy of the Senate or of himself; but the issue is being made up in the country between the people and the slave propaganda. He told us the other day that he intended to sub- due us, I say to that senator, We accept your issue. Nominate some one of your scarred veterans ; some one who is committed, fully committed, to your policy. You want a candidate that is scarred with your battles. Well, sir, if he goes into the battle of 1856, he will not come out of it with- out scars. You have made the issue : put your chieftains at the head. No man fitter to lead than the honorable senator himself in this contest ; for his position has the merit, at least, of being bold; and I like a bold, brave man 66 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". who stands by liis declarations. Now, I say to senators on tlie other side of the chamber, We will accept your issues. You may sneer at us as abolition agitators. That may have some little effect in some sections in the North, but very little indeed. We have passed beyond that. The people of this country are being educated up to a standard above all these little sneer- ing phrases. We will accept your issue; but yon will not, can not, sub- due us. I tell the honorable senator he may vote us down, but subdue us never. We belong to a race of men that never were subdued ; and, if any- body undertakes that work, he will find he has taken a rather costly con- tract. Subdue us ! subdue us ! Sir, you may vote us down ; but we stand with the fathers. Our cause is the cause of human nature. The star of duty shines upon our pathway ; and we will pursue that pathway, looking back for instructions to the great men who founded the institutions of the re- public, looking up to Him whose ' hand moves the stars and heaves the pulses of the deep.' I tell the senator that this talk about subduing us and con- quering us will not do. Gentlemen, you cannot do it. You may vote us down ; but we shall live to fight another day. (Laughter.) Mr. Douglas, — " He who fiijhts and runs away May live to fight another day." Mr. AViLsox. — "We shall not run away to live : wo .shall live to run. (Laughter.) We shall go into the conflict in the coming contest like the Zouaves at Inkermann, with 'the light of liatth' on our fac(!S.' If we fall, we shall fall to rise again ; for the arm of God is beneath us, and the current of advancing civilization is bearing us onward to assured triumph. " Now, I will tell you what we intend to do. AVe shall stand here and vote to defeat the bill reported by the senator from Illinois, because we believe, by the provisions of that bill, Kansas can be and will be invaded and conquered. We shall vote for the admission of this petition, for the ad- mission of all petitions, from the people of Kansas; we shall vote for the admission of Kansas into this Union as a free State. If we fail, if you vote us down, we shall go to the country with that issue. We shall appeal to the people, to the toiling millions whose heritage is in peril, to come to the rescue of the people of Kansas, strug- gling to preserve their sacred rights. Madness may rule the hour ; the black power, now enthroned in the National Government, may prolong for another Olj'^mpiad its waning influ- ence : but we shall ultimately rescue the republic from the unnatural rule of a slaveholding aristocracy. Before the rising spirit of liberty this domi- nation will go down." The events of the last few years show how much nearer right Wil- son was in his estimate of the course of events than his opponent. Kansas, instead of proving an ally of Democrac}^ became one of its most radical opponents, and helped to drive the nudecontents to des- peration and ruin. On the 19th of December, 1856, Wilson made a strong sjjeecli on the president's message, and allud- ed to Mv. Rusk of Texas, wlio had spuken of Northern fanaticism, and LIFE OF HENRY" WILSON. 67 asked if he supposed the people of the North were so stohd, ignorant, and deluded as to be deceived on a question of such magnitude. Mr. Rusk. — "I do not know that I used the term 'fanaticism ;' but I have frequently spoken of the slavery agi- tation, and I have as frequently ex- pressed the conviction which is on my mind, that all the hue and cry about slavery is raised, not by the people of the North, not by the mechanics, not by the hard-fisted farmers, but by disappointed politicians who desire to get into office on a sectional issue." Mr. Wilson. — "I hope the senator from Texas, and those who act with him, will disabuse their minds right speedily of that idea. Cast your eye over the North : take New England, with her hundred and fifty thou- sand popular majority against your candidate ; take the great State of New York ; take the whole line of Northern States ; and, when you look at them, remember that we have a large plurality in all of them, except in a portion of them included within about forty thousand square miles of territory, and tluit we intend to burn over in the next four years. I allude to Eastern and Central Pennsylvania, Southern Indiana, Southern Illinois, and a small portion of New Jersey. There we mean to discuss the ques- tion, and have it well and clearly de- fined and understood. The rest of the North is ours. If you believe that the people are fanatics, or that their leaders deceive them, remember one thing, — that in 1850 there were in the United States nearly eight hundred thousand free persons above twenty years of age who could not read nor write. Only ninety-four thousand out of this eiglit hundred thousand happen to live in the States which Fremont lias carried. Remember another thing, — that the State of Massachusetts, which you consider so ultra, a people so easily deluded, prints within a few thou- sand and circulates more newspapers within the State than all tlie fifteen Southern States of the Union. Re- member they have more volumes in their public libraries than all the slave States. Remember they give away more money to the Bible and Mission- ary and other benevolent societies every year than the entire slaveholding States ; and they have done so during the last quarter of a century. " I tell you, sir, that the people are ahead of us ; and that is what you fear. You say that they are deceived by us ; and then you turn round, and declare that you cannot rely on our disclaim- ers, because the people will pass be- yond the direction and control of polit- ical leaders. The people understand this question, sir : they know their responsibilities, their powers, and their duties. " The senator from South Carolina (Mr. Butler) boasted of the great con- tentment among the slaves in his sec- tion of the Union. He told us that slaves who had run away were return- ing to their masters, and that this was the best kind of fugitive-slave law. Perhaps the senator is right ; but the events transpiring all over the South hardly sustain the senators declara- tions. I commend to him, whenever he boasts on this floor of the content- ment of the bondman, the words of Edmund Burke : ' He who makes a contented slave makes a degraded G8 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. " Look at the condition of attairs in your section of the Union to-dav. In many places your people think they have found evidences of incipient re- bellions. The supporters of iJuchanan and Fillmore have rivalled each other in misrepresenting the sentiments, prin- ciples, and policy of the supporters of John C. Fremont. The leaders of the Southern Democrac}' have ever^^where denounced the Republican party as a party in favor of emancipation by the exercise of the powers of the Federal Government. The hungry ear of these bondmen drank in these false accusations and unjust reproaches. Your words will be to them a posses- sion forever, exciting hopes that will never die. Go home. Undeceive those whom you have deceived. Do us justice. Place us where we are, and where we intend to stand, — op- posed to slavery everywhere, in favor of its abolition everywhere ; opposed to the domination of the slave-power, but conceding to the people of the slave States their constitutional rights to settle the matter in their own time and in their own way. " Senators desired to know how we should vote on the admission of Kan- sas as a slave-holding State. I answer for myself: If Kansas apjdies for admission as a slave State, I will reply in the words of Caleb Gushing, the law officer of this government. In arguing the question of the admission of Arkansas, he said, speaking in regard to the power of Congress over the subject, — " ' The Constitution confers upon us the discretion to admit new States at will. It limits, in certain respects, our power to act affirmatively; but it does not limit in any respect our discre- tion, on the negative side, of a refusal to admit new States.' " Resting upon this authority of the distinguished legal adviser of the ad- ministration, I will answer your ques- tion, whether I will vote for the admission of Kansas as a slave State, in his words : — "'I do not persuade myself that liberty is an evil, or that slavery is a blessing. When called upon to accord my official sanction to a form of gov- ernment which not merely permits, but expressly perpetuates, slavery, I should be false to all the opinions and princi- ples of my life if I did not j^romptly return a peremptory and emphatic No ! ' " The senator from Texas commends our devotion to the Union. AYe have ever supported the Union ; and I tell you, sir, what we intend to do in re- gard to its support. The senator from Pennsylvania the other day denounced the Barnwell Rhett school of jjoliti- cians. I suppose he thought it safe to attack that little squad of fanatics, as he calls them, in South Carolina. But, sir, we, the Republicans, do not confine our denunciations to that little faction. We denounce your Governor Wises, all your chosen leaders who have threatened to destroy the Union if the fortunes of the election went against them, — the men who have your confidence, — the men who go to Wheatland, and have the ear of your incoming executive. I give j'ou notice to-day, gentlemen, what we intend to do. If the incoming administration sends into this body the nomination of a single man who ever threatened the dissolution of the Union, we intend to camp on this floor, an' and night with an energy and perseveranee tliat wouhl kill out- right many who are regarded as great workers. He collated the facts, and flung them into the face of every senator who attempted to darken counsel, falsify the record, and mislead the people. Mr. Brown attempts to make it appear that the Boston Emigrant-aid So- ciety was at the bottom of certain troubles, that this society was in- stigated by a congressional circular, and that it is abolition interference in that form which stirs \\\) the strife ; and Wilson meets him by showing that the Aid Society was organized several months before the date of the circular. Brown com- plains that the society had a char- ter, with a capital of five million dol- lars, of which only twenty thousand could be used in Massachusetts ; and Wilson shows that the society never organized under that charter at all. Mr. Brown thought there was nothing very wrong in the election of March 30 ; and Wilson replies by showing that there were oidy fourteen hundred residents in the Territory who voted that day ; that seven hundred were free-State men ; and that between eight and nine hundred slave-State votes were cast in the town of Lawi"ence alone by men from Missouri, who went in there for that purjjosc, and went out when the voting was over. To back up some susijicious state- ment, a paper was read, signed l)y one Henry Clay Pate, which Wil- son examines, and tells the senator, that, in eleven lines of it, there are "twelve absolute lies," — as plain language, certainly, as any used by " Truthful James,"' or any other promulgator of information in later times. And now comes up his old idea, so long indulged, and so ardently labored for, — a union of parties with live ideas. " I think there will soon be a general union in the North as there now is in the South : we are fast coming to it. And let me tell the senators on the administration side of this chamber, that if they consummate, if they support, — whether they succeed or not, — the bringing of Kansas into the Union under the Lecompton Constitution, with a knowledge of all these monstrous frauds scattered over the land, comprehended by the whole coun- try, they will do more to unite all honest, liberty-loving. God-fearing men in the North than has been accomplished by any act ever adopted by this government. Your Kansas-Nebraska policy shivered to atoms the great Whig party, which had battled, sometimes suc- cessfully, for power here, under the lead of some of the most accom- plished statesmen of the country. Another party sprang uj), — the American party. It paused, it faltered, and it went down under the general jiidguicnt ol'tlic ]K'()]ile of the free States. The Ucpuhli- can party rose in one year from a few thousand men, and gave at LIFE OP HENRY WILSON. 77 the last presidential election a million three hundred and forty thousand votes. It came much nearer than you wished taking the control of tliis government, of this country. The opinions they entertain, the policy they avow, the sentiments that swell their bosoms, are deepening and spread- ing all over the land. Those opinions and sentiments will unite the Northern people. Those sen- timents and opinions cannot be hemmed in by lines of latitude and longitude. They will jet be adopted by fair-minded and honor- able men everywhere who love their country, who love justice and liberty ; and, whenever anybody shall raise the black flag of slavery and disunion in the South, he will find leaping from the ranks of the people thousands of patriotic men who will stand by the government and defend it." Very much so, Mr. Wilson ; but all do not see it yet. On the 17th of April, 1858, Wil- son made a short speech in favor of postponing action on the Pacific Railway Bill until December, on the ground that the government was in debt, the people were in debt ; and while roads could not pay, or routes like the one from Portland to Montreal, there was no chance of one paying to San Francisco. At the same time he was strongly in favor of the road, and regarded it as a necessity. May 8, 1858, he addressed the Senate upon the death 'of Judge Evans, a member from South Caro- lina, in language of feeling elo- quence appropriate to the occa- sion, closing as follows : " He will soon rest, Mr. President, beneath the soil of his own native State, which he loved so well, and served so faithfully. That State has giv- en to the councils of the republic many not undistinguished sons ; but the sods which will lie on his bosom will press the heart of as pure, as conscientious, as honest a public servant as she ever gave to the service of the nation. Let the people of his native South Caro- lina, let the personal friends who have known him so long and loved him well, let the sorrowing mourn- ers around his now-clouded hearth- stone, be cheered in this hour of affliction with the assurance that we the representatives of sister commonwealths, we his associates and friends in this chamber, will ever revere his name, and cherish his memory with affectionate re- gard." The speech of Mr. Wilson on the fishing bounties. May 12, 1858, was one of the best ever made on that subject. It was earnest, and crowded with facts. He tells them that his constituents have half the vessels, half the capital, and half the number of persons, engaged in the cod -fishery in the country ; that, at the opening of the Revolution, half the im- portations into the country were paid for by the fisheries of Massa- chusetts ; that the policy of Eng- 78 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. land concern i lit;' them ^vas one of the causes of the Revolution ; that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams thought that to foster the fisheries as a nursery of navigation was one of the landmarks of the government of the United States. Mr. Mal- lory of Florida having said that Massachusetts fishermen did not make good sailors and soldiers, Wilson told him that the crew of the old " Constitution," wliieh per- formed such wonders in the war of 1812, came from Essex County, Mass. ; and to lluit war Marble- head, with only tliirteen hundred polls, sent an entire regiment of soldiers. These things from the reading of Squire Eastman's seven hundred books. To those senators from the South who opjiosed bounties to the fishermen because they were a local interest, Wilson said that the whole amount of bounties would not exceed a hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; and yet we paid not less than twelve million dollars annually in duties on su- gar for tlie sole benefit of a few hundred planters in Lousiana, be- sides paying them fifty thousand dollars in the way of seeds ; that the State of Massachusetts paid annually her own postage, and two hundred and fifty-two thousand dol- lars towards the general expenses for postage, while tlie State of Lou- isiana dill not pay lier postage with- in five hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars. And so he went on pouring out facts and figures to show how much Massachusetts did, how little she asked for, and hoAv important tlie fisheries are to the commerce and navy of the na- tion. The John Brown raid is no long- er a source of excitement ; but it is a subject of deep interest, and ever will be. In 1859, however, it was different ; and many persons in and out of Congress had the idea that Brown had done a deed which would forever make his name infamous, and politicall}^ ex- tinguish any public man who was charital)le enough to the old vet- eran to call him crazy. When Con- gress met in December, one of the first moves of the Democrats was to annihilate Wilson by connecting him with the affair; and A. G. Brown came forward prepared to do the work, which seemed easy. To this end he produced a reso lution passed at a public meeting in Natick, Nov. 20, in these words : '•'•Ixcsolvcd^ That it is the right and duty of the slaves to resist their masters, and the right and duty of the people of the North to incite them to resistance, and aid them in it." He charged that Wilson was present at this meet- ing, which was a meeting of his friends ; and desired to know whether he in any mode opposed or resisted its passage. Wilson said he was present at the meeting as a spectator, but took no part, and that probably not more than twenty persons voted on the ques- LIFE OF HENRY WILSON, tion ; that it was well known in Massachusetts that he did not ap- prove of John Brown's raid. He was in favor of free discussion, however ; and often went to meet- ings with whose objects he did not sympathize. Mr. Brown subsided upon this : but the press continued to harp upon it until the rebel raid upon Fort Sumter ; but, since then, John Brown's soul has marched on without serious molestation. On the 25th of January, 1860, Wilson addressed the Senate in an elaborate speech, able, pungent, and, as usual, crowded with facts. In this speech he undertook to show that rebellion was meditated by the South if they failed to carry the election ; and, to sustain liis points, he quoted from 'Southern papers the utterances of public men. One of these, by Senator Iversoii. of Georgia, that gentleman denied ; but his action afterward shows that his denial was of little worth. He admitted, however, that he did say, " Slavery must be maintained in the Union, if pos- sible ; out of it, if necessary ; peaceably if Ave may, forcibly if we must." Wilson thought this declaration incapable of more than one construction ; and he Avent on at great length in a manner that stirred the sensibilities of the Dem- ocratic leaders most profoundly. They were playing a double game ; plotting treason, but doing it in the guise of champions of the Union : and, as Wilson's speech stripped off the mask and exposed their schemes, they feared its effect in the pending election ; and so Mr. Clingman, one of their most eloquent orators, and Jefferson Davis, their ablest statesman, came to the rescue. Mr. Davis, strange to say, was not a disunionist ; he had been misunderstood ; he only meant to leave when the Constitu- tion should be destroyed. In January, 18G0, there was a running debate between Wilson and the two senators from South Carolina in relation to the expul- sion of Mr. Hoar from that State. Chesnut and Hammond alleged that South Carolina enacted the law, which Samuel Hoar, father of Judge Hoar and George F. Hoar, was contesting, because Massachu- setts had excited slaves to insur- rection, or committed some act of aggression : and Wilson showed that the law was enacted in 1820, long before the abolition excite- ment ; that it was held unconsti- tutional by William Wirt, then United - States Attorney-General, and Judge Johnson of South Carolina, of the Supreme Court of the United States. Hammond said he was governor when Mr. Hoar came to Charleston ; that he had known him in Congress as a mild, pleasant old gentleman, and not incendiary at all ; and he took care that he wasn't hurt, and in a friendly way invited him to leave. The aggression of Massa- chusetts consisted in sending him there. Why did she not employ a 80 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. lawyer in Charleston ? Wilson said she did endeavor to ; but no one would undertake the case. The wa}- these senators were driven to the wall compelled the strong men of the South to come to the rescue ; and Jeff. Davis again en- tered the lists, and made a long, able, and interesting speech, in the course of which he quoted and eulogized Caleb Cushing, and de- fended Democracy. On the 10th of April, in reply to Mason of Vir- ginia, who had said the colored people in the North were dete- liorating, Wilson said, " I disagree with the senator from Virginia al- together. In my State we have between eight and nine thousand colored people : and I say here to-day, they are intelligent ; that they universally attend our schools ; they can read and write ; they are industrious ; and I may say, that, in intelligence and personal charac- ter, they are little if any inferior to the average of the population of my State or the country.'' He announced his intention at some future time to present statistics to prove that they were not tending to barljurism ; that they had made progress in the last quarter of a century ; spoke of the thirteen hundred free colored people of A\'ashingt()n as orderly, law-abid- ing, and increasing in intelligence. Mas(jn, in liis reply, made allu- sion to Massachusetts in a way that goes far to exi)lain how utter- ly such men misunderstood things. He said, '' 1 remember very well when I really had the good fortune to be in the State which the hon- orable senator represents, — Mas- sachusetts ; that riding through the beautiful country adjacent to Bos- ton, appropriated to villas, mag- nificent country-seats of hospitable, kind, and generous gentlemen, as far as my intercourse went with them, evincing accumulated wealth displayed in beautiful taste, I was struck with the fact, that, in three out of four of their most beautiful and highly-adorned grounds open- ing upon the public highway, there was not a gate ; and all the pre- serves of flowers and shrubljer}^ and all that which required atten- tion, and to be saved*from depreda- tion, were open to the highways ; and, wherever there was a gate (and the5^were very few), I never saw the gate shut. " I was struck with the fact, and remarked to a gentleman, ' How is this ? No means whatever to keep off the depredations of cattle who are allowed to roam at large ? ' — ' Why,' said he, ' that is not al- lowed ;' and, in all my ride, I never saw even a goat or pig upon the highway anywhere." (Here comes the point of the joke.) '• Well, but," said I, "in my country, and all through the South, the' really poor people pasture their milch- cows on the highways (and very good pasture they get) ; and their other stock I'lin ujjou tlie ]»ul)lic roads, and are not molestcil."" That was Senator Mason's idea of prosperity and a happy condi- LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 81 tion of society, set forth as a con- trast for the benefit of Senator Wilson, who knew all about pov- erty. Just fancy Henry Wilson, or any other Yankee, emigrating to Virginia for the sake of living in a country where pigs and goats obtain free pasture on the public highways ! Poor Mr. Mason could not enjoy his ride with no pigs in sight ! April 12, 1860, Wilson intro- duced an act to grant a million acres of public land to the cities of Washington and Georgetown for a school-fund. The proposi- tion to do any thing for education in the District of Columbia troubled the patiiotism of Jeff. Davis. He called it " a cheap humanity," and lectured the Massachusetts senator soundly. In his reply, Wilson said, " The senator says I had better look in my own neighbor- hood, to my neighbors and friends. I do look to them ; and I say at home and abroad, at all times and on all occasions, wherever I can give a vote to lighten the burdens of a human being, that vote shall be given. I give it at home ; I give it here ; I give it everywhere. It is not the first time we have heard remarks made here about a movement in my State called a ' strike.' Let me tell senators they do not understand it. Men are on a strike in my State and town to- day that own the houses they live in. They are not satisfied with the prices paid ; they want more ; they have a right to demand more ; and I sympathize with them in their efforts to obtain better prices for their work. ... If political partisans, or men who predict the failure of free society, hope to make any thing by the movement of the shoemakers of Massachu- setts, they are destined to be sadly mistaken." And they were mistaken. CHAPTER XL Debate with Senator Hammond. — Mud-sills. IN 1830 Massachusetts and South Carolina met by their represen- tatives on the floor of the Senate in an intellectual and moral encounter that will long be held memorable by the people of the United States. These representatives, Webster and Hayne, were fitly chosen for the parts they had to perform ; and, 6 when the champion of chivalry as- sailed with extraordinary virulence and ability the character and insti- tutions of Massachusetts and New England, he was met and over- thrown by their defender in a strain of eloquence that no orator in this country has ever surpassed. In 1858 these two States were 82 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. agaiii in coiillict on the same thea- tre and the same question in the persons of Wilson anil Hammond ; and we are constrained to sa}', without any hesitation, that Wil- son's defence of Massachusetts is ever}' way admirable, and worthy of a place by the side of the re- nowned effort of Daniel Webster. He does not, it is true, rest the case on the glories of Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill, or attempt to repaint the magnificent work of his great predecessor ; but he is as just, as fervid, and as glow- ing, in setting forth the other and greater achievements of the people in the advancement of the arts and the principles of civilization. Is tlicre any thing much better than this? — " But the senator from Soutli Caro- lina, after crowning Cotton as king, with power to bring England and all the civilized world 'toppling' down into the yawning gulfs of bankruptcy and ruin, complacently tells the Sen- ate and the trembling sulijects of his cotton-king that 'the greatest strength of the South arises from the harmony of her political and social institu- tions ; ' that ' her forms of society are the best in tlie world;' that 'she has an extent of political freedom, com- bined with entire security, seen no- wliere on earth.' The Suiitli, lie tells us, 'is satisfied, harmonious, and jjtos- perousi'and lie asks us if we have 'heard that the ghosts of Mendoza and Tonpiemada are stalking in the streets of our great cities; that the linjuisi- tion is at h:inick it by millions from the stalk of the cotton-plant — that the working- men of Massachusetts, whom gentlemen of the South predicted would be in a state of starvation and insurrection ere this, have on deposit in the savings- banks alone forty-five millions of dollars, — millions more than are de- posited in all the banks of the seven seceding States by merchants, bank- ers, planters, and all classes of their people. " The senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas) ostentatiously assumes to rise above parties and creeds and platforms, up to the level of the occa- sion. I commend his avowed purpose ; but I am constrained to say, after lis- tening to his speeches, that he has hard- ly come up to the promised position. Underneath all his vaunting profes- sions of readiness to ignore party creeds and platforms, and to know nothing but the Union, the senator discloses his eagerness to join in the reconstruction of the broken ranks of the Democracy, and his readiness to avail himself of passing events to achieve the desired object. To that end he is evidently quite ready, per- haps quite anxious, to surrender his ' great principle : ' he cannot, therefore, fully appreciate the motives and action of those who are less facile than himself. "The senator from Illinois brings against us of the Ivcpublican party the accusation, that, after having brought the country to the verge of destruc- tion, we will not accept the (•oni])ro- niise measures of the senator from Kentucky (ISh: Crittenden") ; and are therefore, notwithstanding our profes- sions, not devoted to the perpetuity of the Union. Sir, I do not understand what the senator means b}'- these accu- sations against us of having brought the country to the verge of destruction, and of not being faithful to the Union. We did not at Charleston or Baltimore plot the disruption of the Democratic party as the first step to disunion, nor secretly plot the dismemberment of the confederacy, or the seizure of the government ; we have not been in complicity with secessionists, chaffer- ing for the postponement of rebellion until after the 4th of March ; nor have we sat in councils of the execu- tive, conspiring with plotters of rebel- lions, ruining the credit of the country, converting the war-office into an or- ganization for robbing the public treas- ury, swindling the people, and betraying the country — its forts, arms, arsenals, ships — into the hands of disloyal men. No, sir ; no ! We have violated no \a\v, human or divine ; perfornied no acts not sanctioned by law, hunianity, and religion. " Whatever may be the issue of this wicked, causeless revolt against the government, we are ready to abide the judgment of liberty-loving, law-abid- ing men of the present and of coming ages. " The venerable senator fn^n Ken- tucky (Mr. Crittendes) comes forward with his plan of adjustment : he stands forth as a pacificator, commissioned to compromise and adjust pending issiu'S to give repose to the distracted coun- try. I most cheerfully accord to the senator from Iventucky purity of mo- tive, and ]>atriotic intentions and pur- poses. ^\ iiilu 1 believe every pulsation LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 89 of his heart throbs for the unity and perpetuity of the republic, while I cherish for him sentiments of sincere respect and regard, I am constrained to say, here and now, that his policy has been most fatal to the repose of the country, if not to the integrity of the Union and the authority of the gov- ernment. Whether his task be self- imposed, or whether it be imposed upon him by others, he has stood forth day bj' day, not to sustain the Consti- tution, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws, not to rebuke seditious words and treasonable acts, but to demand the incorporation into the or- ganic law of the nation unrepealable, degrading, and humiliating concessions to the dark spirit of slavery. Had the acknowledged chiefs of secession, or their Northern confederates, put forth these demands for concessions to slave- ry, they would have been promptly and indignantly rejected by the people of the North. Put forth in the hon- ored name of the venerable senator from Kentucky, they have received support enough to encourage the se- cessionists in their demands for con- cessions which can never, no, never, be made by the freemen of the North. The almost certain rejection of these propositions by the North the seces- sionists are using to deceive the people of the South concerning the sentiments of the people of the free States, and to lead them into secession and disunion. The ancient philosopher thought he could move the world if he could find a fulcrum for his lever : the secession- ists seem to act as if they had found a fulcrum for their disunion lever in the proposition of the senator from Kentucky, which, in bitter irony, is called a compromise. . . . " The senator from Kentucky, sec- onded by the senator from Illinois, proposes to incorporate in the Consti- tution a provision that * thk elec- tive FKANCIIISE SHALL KOT BE EX- ercised by any persons of the African race, in whole or in PART.' Why, sir, is this proposition of disfranchisement now made ? Who demands it ? What is to be gained by this disfranchisement of mon whose ancestors possessed the right of suf- frage before the Constitution of the United States came from the hands of its illustrious framers ? . . . " Massachusetts adopted her Consti- tution in 1780, during the war of in- dependence. That Constitution made the slave a freeman ; made persons of the African race citizens, entitled to the elective franchise. This right, secured in the troublous days of the Revolution to persons of the African race by John Adams, Parsons, Lowell, and their noble associates, has been exercised for eighty years. Now, sir^ the senator from Kentucky comes into this chamber, and proj)oses the disfran- chisement and degradation of citizens of Massachusetts, made so by her heroic sires ; and I blush to confess that there are men in that Common- wealth so false and recreant to human rights as to petition Congress to sus- tain this wicked, this monstrous prop- osition of disfranchisement. I know, sir, it is an ungracious task, in these days and in these chambers, to main- tain even the legal rights of a pro- scribed race. I am not insensible to the gibes and jeers, the taunts and misrepresentations, of a corrupted pub- lic opinion ; but I never can, I never will, consent, by word or act, to this crime against freemen. The material 90 LIFE OF HENRY -WILSON. interests of Massachusetts are dear to me; but the rights of lier people are far clearer. Still I tell her apostate sons, who have put their names to these memorials for the disfranchise- ment of her colored men, knowing what they did, that the constitutional rights of the humblest man who treads the soil of the old Puritan Commonwealth are dearer, far dearer, to me, than all those material interests for which they are ready to sacrifice the rights of their fellow-men. " Sir, in the dark days of our weak- ness, the ancestors of the men you would now, i n the days of j'our power, trample beneath your feet, freely gave their blood for the liberties and inde- pendence of America. The leader and first victim of the Boston massacre of the 5th of March, 1770, which so fired the hearts and roused the patriot- ism of the people, was Crispus Attucks, a colored patriot. One of that race mingled his blood with the fallen pa- triots of the 19th of April, 1775 ; and they stood with our heroic sires on the heights of Bunker Hill when the storm of battle clung around and beat upon it. They fought side by side. and shoulder to shoulder, with our fathers ; ' for the right,' says Bancroft in his narration of the work of that day, ' of the free negroes to bear arms in the public defence at that day was as little disputed in New England as their other rights.' When Major Pit- rairn — the leader who opened the murderous fire upon the patriots on the green of Lexington Common — mounted the works on Bunker Hill, crying, 'The day is ours!' he fell mor- tall}'- wounded b}' the unerring shot of Salem, a black soldier. " Hundreds of the ancestors of the men upon whose brows the senator from Kentuck}' would stamp degrada- tion entered the army, and fought with heroic courage on the stricken fields of the Revolution. Some of the most heroic deeds of the war of inde- pendence were performed by black men. A braver regiment than the colored regiment of Rhode Island, led by the gallant Col. Greene, the hero of Red Bank, trod not the battle- fields of the Revolution. Of this black regiment Tristaiu Burges said in the House of Representatives, in 1828, that ' no braver men met the enemy in battle ; ' and Gov. Eustis of Massachusetts, secretary of war under Jefferson, said of them in 1820, 'They discharged their duty with zeal and fidelity. The gallant defence of Red Bank, in which the black regi- ment bore a part, is among the proofs of their valor.' Arnold, in his ad- mirable History of Rhode Island, pays this noble tribute to the conduct of a regiment in the battle of Rhode Island, which Lafayette pronounced 'the best -fought battle of the war:' ' It was in repelling these furious onsets that the newly-raised black rcghneiit, under Col. Greene, distin- guished it.-;elf by deeds of desperate valor. Posted behind a thicket in the valley, they three times drove back the Hessians, who repeatedly charged down the hill to dislodge them ; and so determined were the enemy in these successive charges, that, the day after the battle, the Hessian colonel upon whom this duty had devolved applied to exchange his command, and go to New York, because he dared not lead his regiment again to battle, lest his men should shoot him for having caused them so much loss.' LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 91 "Connecticut, too, raised a battalion of black soldiers ; and Col. Humphrey, attached to the military family of Washington, accepted a command in this corps. The heroic defence of the fort on the heights of Groton by Col. Ledyard and his brave comrades is a glorious page in our history. By their side fought and fell men of this hated race. History records, that, when the works were stormed, the British officer, exasperated by the heroic resistance, inquired, 'Who commands this fort?' — * I once did ; you do now,' answered Ledyard, handing the officer his sword, wdiich was instantly run through his body by the officer. Lambert, a black soldier, avenged this murder of his commander by thrusting his bayonet through the body of the British officer, and then fell pierced by thirty-three bayonet-wounds. Sir, in the great struggle for independence, in tlie war of 1812, on land and sea, the blood of the colored men of New England was freely poured out in vindication of your liberties, rights, and honor; and now you ask us to despoil them of their long-possessed rights. Never, sir, nev- er, by my consent ! In addressing the German working-men of Cincinnati the other day, Mr. Lincoln told them that ' they were all of the great family of men; and, if there is one shackle upon any of them, it would be far better to lift the load from them than to pile ad- ditional loads upon them.' That was the utterance of a Christian statesman. These men you propose to disfranchise forever are all of the great family of men; and, if there are shackles upon them, it would be far better to lift the load from them than to pile additional burdens upon them." CHAPTER XIII. The People of Color. — What Wilson has done for Them. WHAT Henry Wilson has at- tempted and accomplished for the colored race is not likely to be forgotten by them ; but it is due to history that it be stated in a concise form in this volume. On the 4th of December, 1861, after the announcement of the standing committees of the Sen- ate, Mr. Wilson of Massachusetts introduced a resolution, that all laws in force relating to the arrest of fugitives from service, and all laws concerning persons of color, within the District, be referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia ; and that the committee be instructed to consider the expe- diency of abolishing slavery in the District, with compensation to loyal holders of slaves. Mr. Grimes of Iowa was chairman of this com- mittee. In moving the reference of his resolution to this committee, Mr. Wilson expressed the hope that the chairman "would deal promptly with the question." On the 16th of December Mr. LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. "Wilson introduced a bill for the release of certain persons lield to service or labor in the District of C'<^luinbia. The l)ill provided for the immediate emancipation of the slaves, for the payment to their loyal owners of an average sum of three hundred dollars, for the appointment of a commission to assess the sum to be paid, and the appropriation of a million of dol- lars. Mr. Wilson, on the 24th of Feb- ruary, introduced a bill to repeal certain laws and ordinances in the District of Columbia relating to persons of color, and moved its reference to the District Commit- tee. This bill proposed to repeal the acts of Conc^ress extendinof over the District of Columbia i-elating to persons of color, to* annul and abrogate those laws, to repeal the acts giving the cities of Washing- ton and Georgetown authority to pass ordinances relating to persons of color, to abrogate those ordi- nances, and to make persons of color amenable to the same laws to which free white persons are amenable, and to subject them to the same penalties and punish- ments. On the 25th Mr. Wilson ad- dressed the Senate in favor of the liill he had introduced early in the session. '• Tlii.s hill, to give liln'ity to the Loiuluuin," lie .siiid, " deals justly, ay, generously, by the master. The Amer- ican people, whose moral sense has been outraged by slavery and tlu' lilack codes enacted in the interests of slavery in the District of Columbia, whose fame has been soiled and dimmed by the deeds of cruelty perpetrated in their national capital, would stand justified in the forum of nations if they should smite the fetter from the bondman, regardless of the desires or interests of the master. With generous magna- nimity, this bill tenders compensation to the master out of the earnings of the toiling freemen of America. . . . In what age of the world, in what land under the whole heavens, can you find any enactment of equal atrocity to this iniquitous and profligate statute, this ' legal presumption ' that color is evi- dence that man, made in the image of God, is an ' absconding slave ' ? This monstrous doctrine, abhorrent to every manly impulse of the heart, to every Christian sentiment of the soul, to every deduction of human reason, which the refined, humane, and Chris- tian people of America have upheld for two generations, which the corpo- ration of Washington enacted into an imperative ordinance, has borne its legitimate fruits of injustice and in- humanitj', of dishonor and shame. Crimes against man, in the name of this abhorred doctrine, have been an- nually perpetrated in this national capital, which should make the people of America hang their heads in shame before the nations, and in abasement before that l>eing wlio keeps watch and ward over the humblest of the childicn nf men. . . . Here the oath of the blaek man aftbrds no protection whatever to his propert}', to the fruits of his tnil, to tile ]icrsonal rights of liimsell', his wile, his children, or his race. Greedy avarice may withhold LIFE OF HENRY WILSOX. 93 from him the fruits of his toil, or dutch from him his little acquisitions ; the brutal may visit upon him, his wife, his children, insults, indignities, blows; the kidnapper may enter his dwelling, and steal from his hearthstone his loved ones ; the assassin may hover on his track, imperilling his household ; every outrage that the depravity of man can visit upon his brother-man may be perpetrated upon him, upon his family, his race : but his oath upon the evangelists of Almighty God, though his name may be written in the book of life, neither protects him from wrong, nor punishes the wrong-doer. This Christian nation, in solemn mock- ery, enacts that the free black men of America shall not bear testimony in the judicial tribunals of the District of Columbia. Although the black man is thus mute and dumb before the judicial tribunals of the capital of Christian America, his wrongs we have not righted here will go up to a higher tribunal, where the oath of the j)ro- scribed negro is heard, and his story registered by the pen of the recording angel. . . . These colonial statutes of Maryland, re-affirmed by Congress in 1801, these ordinances of Washington and Georgetown, sanctioned in advance by the authority of the Federal Gov- ernment, stand this day unrepealed. Such laws and ordinances should not be permitted longer to insult the rea- son, pervert the moral sense, or offend the taste, of the people of America. Anj^ people mindful of the decencies of life would not longer permit such enactments to linger before the eye of civilized man. Slavery is the prolific mother of those monstrous enactments. Bid slavery disappear from the Dis- trict of Columbia, and it will take along with it this whole brood of brutal, vulgar, and indecent statutes. . . . This bill for tlu; release of persons held to services or labor in the District of Columbia, and the compensation of loyal masters from the treasury of the United States, was prepared after much reflection, and some consultation with others. The committee on the Dis- trict of Columbia in both Houses, to whom it was referred, have agreed to it, with a few amendments calculated to carry out more completely its original purposes and provisions. I trust that the bill as it now stands, after the adoption of the amendments proposed by the senator from Maine (Mr. Morrill), will speedily pass without any material modifications. If it shall become the law of the land, it will blot out slavery forever from the national capital, transform three thousand per- sonal chattels into freemen, obliterate oppressive, odious, and hateful laws and ordinances which press with mer- ciless force upon persons, bond or free, of African descent, and relieve the nation from the responsibilities now pressing upon it. An act of benefi- cence like this will be hailed and applauded by the nations, sanctified by justice, humanity, and religion, by the approving voice of conscience, and by the blessing of Him who bids us ' break every yoke, undo the heavy burden, and let the oppressed go free.' " Affcer considerable discussion, this bill, introduced by Mr. Wilson into the Senate Dec. 10, 1801, passed the Senate April 3, 1802, by a vote of twenty-nine to four- teen. On the 1st of May, 1802, I\lr. 94 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. Wilson moved to substitute for the sixth section of Mr. CoUamer's anien(huent to a bill ijitroduced by Mr. Trumbull in December, 1861, which provided fi»r the freeing of the slaves of rebels, "• That, in any State in which the inhabitants have by the president been heretofore declared in a state of insurrection, the president is required, for the speedy and more effectual sup- jiression of said insurrection, with- in thirty days after the passage of this act, to appoint a day when all persons holden to service in any such State (whose service is by the law of said State due to one who, after the passage of this act, shall levy war or participate in insur- rection against the United States, or give aid to the same) shall be forever free, any law to the con- trary nothwithstanding." In sup- l)ort of this amendment, ]\Ir. Wil- son said, — " I am free to confess that the pro- vision emancipating the slaves of rebels is, witli me, the chief object of .solicitude. I do not expect that we shall realize any large amount of prop- erty b}' any confiscatiou bill that we shall pass. After the conflict, when the Jin of battle has ceased, the hu- mane and kindly and charitable feel- ings of the country and of the world will require us to deal {.gently with the masses of the pcopli- who are engaged in this rebellion. It will be pleaded that wives ami children will suffer for till' crimes of husl)ands and lathers; and such a|>peals will have more or less effect upon the future policy of the government. I5ut, sir, talce from 3'our rebel masters their bondmen, and' from tlie hour you do so until the end of till- World, to ' tlie last syllable of recoixled time,' the judgment of the country and the judgment of the world will sanction the act. . . . Slavery is the great rebel, the giant criminal, the murderer striving with bloody hands to throttle our government and destroy our countr3\ Senators may talk round it, if they please ; they may scold at its agents, and denounce its tools : I care little about its agents or its tools. I think not of Davis and his compeers in crime : I look at the thing itself, — to the great rebel with hands dripping with the blood of my murdered countrymen. I give the criminal no quarter. If I, with the light I have, could utter a word or give a vote to continue for one moment the life of the great rebel that is now striking at the vitals of my country, I should feel that I was a traitor to my native land, and deserved a traitor's doom. . . . While I would not take the lives of many, if any; while I would not take the propert}' of more than the leaders, — I would take the bondman from every rebel on the con- tinent ; and, in doing it, I should have the sanction of my own judgment, the sanction of the enlightened world, the sanction of the coming ages, and the blessing of Almighty God. Every day while the world stands, the act will be approved and applauded by the human heart all over the globe. . . . When slavery is stricken down, they will come back again, and otter their hands, red though they be with the blood of our brethren ; and we shall forgive the past, take them to our bosoms, and bo again one people. But, senators, keep LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 95 slavery ; let it stand ; shrink from duty ; let men whose hands are stained with the blood of our countrymen, whose hearts are disloyal to our coun- try, hold fast to the chains that bind three millions of men in bondage, — and we shall have an enemy to hate us, ready to seize on all fit opportuni- ties to smite down all that we love, and again to raise their disloyal hands against the perpetuity of the republic. Sir, I believe this to be as true as the I holy evangelists of Almighty God ; and nothing but the prejudices of as- sociation on the one side, or timidity on the other, can hold us back from doing the duty we owe to our country in this crisis." On the 6th of May Mr. Wil- son withdrew his amendment to Mr. Collamer's substitute for the original bill, but offered another amendment as a substitute for JMr. Collamer's substitute for the origi- nal bill. Mr. Wilson said, " He (Mr. Collamer) puts it in the dis- cretion of the president. My amendment makes it imperative upon the president to issue his proclamation, immediately after the passage of the act, to fix a day, not more than thirty days after the act is passed, when the slaves of all persons who engage in insurrection or rebellion after they have had the warning of thirty days after the time is fixed, shall be made free." Again he says, " I feel deeply upon this question. The conviction is upon me that this is the path of duty to my country, and that the future peace of the nation requires that this slave interest shall be broken down ; and now is the op- portunity, — an opportunity that only comes to nations once in ages. It comes to us now. Let us hail and improve it." After various amendments the bill passed, leav- ing it discretionary with the president when to issue the proc- lamation. On the 29th of April, 1862, Mr. Wilson moved to amend a bill pro- viding for the education of colored youth in the District of Columbia, introduced b}^ Mr. Grimes of Iowa, by adding as an additional sec- tion, — "That all persons of color in the District of Columbia, or in the corpo- rate limits of the cities of Washington and Georgetown, shall be subject and amenable to the same laws and ordi- nances to which free white persons are or may be subject or amenable ; that they shall be tried for any offences against the laws in the same manner as free white persons are or may be tried for the same offences ; and that, upon being legally convicted of any crime or offence against any law or ordinance, such persons of color shall be liable to the same penalty or pun- ishment, and no other, as would be imposed or inflicted upon free white persons for the same crime or offence ; and all acts, or parts of acts, inconsist- ent with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed." Let us now recapitulate the im- portant measures set on foot by Senator Wilson in this behalf: — 1. He introduced the bill to aboh 9G LIFE OF HENRY WILSON, ish slavery iu the District of Co- Imnliiii, Dec. IG, 18G1, by which three thousand were made free, and all slavery in the District was made illt'y;al in the future. 2. A bill that persons of color iu the District should be treated in law the same as white persons. This bill became a law 21 May, 1862. 3. A bill to amend the act of 1795 concerning the militia, by which the colored men could be enlisted as soldiers, and all slaves made soldiers ; their wives and children to be free if they were slaves of persons in rebellion. Tkis bill became a law July 17, 1862. In the committee of con- ference on the House Enrolment Bill, Mr. Wilson moved that di-aft- ed slaves should be made free on entering the service ; and the motion prevailed. Gen. Palmer of Illinois reported, that, in Keu- tuck}^ twenty thousand were made free by this provision. 4. A bill making the Avives and children of drafted men free ; and this, according to the report of Gen. Palmer, liberated seventy thousand women and children in the State of Kentucky. The num- ber made free in other border States is unknown, but must have been very great. A writer esti- mates the whole number of per- sons made free under the above- named measures at two hundred and fil'ty thousand. o. He moved a section as an : aniendnient to the ApprDpriatiun i Bill of 1864, to give colored sol- diers the same perquisites and pay as white soldiers. 6. He was chairman of the Com- mittee of Conference on the Freed- man's Bureau, and reported the measure. 7. A motion by which land pur- chased by government at tax-sales in South Carolina should be of- fered to freedmen in lots of forty acres at a nominal price to enable them to obtain homesteads. 8. A bill to abolish peonage in New Mexico, to strike the word "white" from the militia - laws, and to prohibit punishment of offences by whipping. 9. A bill to incorporate the Freedmen's Savings Bank. 10. A bill to incorporate How- ard University. 11. A joint resolution, March 7, 1862, to aid Maryland and Dela- ware to abolish slavery. 12. A bill. May 24, 1862, to give colored persons claimed as fugi- tives from servitude the right of trial by jury. On all these various imi)ortaut measures Mr. Wilson spoke with earnestness, and a logic that was unanswerable. He worked early and late to get them in shape to secure their passage. They were passed, and are to-day almost uuaiiiiiiously approved by the jx'O- ple of the country. Surd}- no moTiument could add to the honor of a mail wliosc s]<.ill ami devotion have secured so nuicli to the bene- LIFE OF HENRY WILSOX. 97 fit of the slave, so much to the glory of the country. When, in consequence largely of the efforts of Senator Wilson, the colored race were able to avail themselves of the right of equality before the law, and sent to the United-States Senate one of their own number in the person of H. R. Revels of Mississippi, it was Henry Wilson who had the satis- faction of being selected to pre- sent his credentials, and thus practically to announce, that, in national councils, caste had been abolished. CHAPTER XIV. Military. — As Chairman of Senate Committee on Military Affairs. PRACTICALLY Mr. Wilson succeeded Jeff. Davis as chairman of the Military Commit- tee of the Senate, little military business having been done after Davis left. As Mr. Stanton re- ceived the merited appellation of " the great war secretary " of Mr. Lincoln's administration, there seems little less pertinence in styling Mr. Wilson the " war sena- tor " during the same momentous period. It is doing injustice to no other member of Congress to say that no one else of either House was more active, untiring, and in- fluential, than was the junior sena- tor of Massachusetts. Not only as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs was he officially connected with the military legisla- tion of Congress during those ter- rible years, but the report of its pro- ceedings reveals the fact that he introduced, managed, debated, and carried through the Senate, more 7 important measures than any other member. The same report also shows that he was not only found advocating those advanced ideas of human equality and justice which had marked his previous po- litical history, but tliat he brought to the task of legislating for the new order of things his usual prac- tical sagacity, and sense of equity, which prompted him, while doing- justice to all, to do injustice to none. Immediately after the beginning of hostilities, the president issued his proclamation for an extra ses- sion of Congress. Assembling ac- cording to such invitation, it met at noon on the 4th of July, 1861. On the same day, Mr. Wilson gave notice of his intention to introduce into the Senate the following four bills and one joint resolution : — A bill to authorize the employ- ment of volunteers to aid in en- forcing the laws, &q. 98 LIFE OF HENRY WILSOX. A bill to increase the military es- tablishment of the United States. A bill })rovi(lin<^ for the better organization of the militar}' estab- lishment. A bill for the organization of a vuluuteer militia force, &c. ; and A joint resolution to ratify and confirm certain acts of the presi- dent lor tlie suppression of insur- rection and rebellion. According to the notice given, he introduced these several bills on the Gth to the consideration of the two Houses and the country, and entered at once and vigorously upon the task of preparing and persuading the minds of both for their adoption. The bill for the employment of volunteers encountered differences of opinion, especially on two points, — the number of troops to be called out, and the mode of securing their officering. In the original bill the president was authorized to " ac- cept such numbers as he might deem necessary." An amend- ment was proposed, substituting for these words " five hundred thousand men." Mr. Saulsbury of Delaware, expressing his fears that " the Union could nut be pre- served by the mode contemplated in this bill," moved to sul)stitutc for '' five liiiii(bc(l tliousand nicn " •' two hundred thousand men ; " \vlii('h ^Ii'. Foster of Coiniecticut inliuialcil were '' tou many to nialce peace, and too few to make war." Mr. Wilson moved as an amend- ment, that " the president be au- thorized to accept the services of volunteers in such numbers, not exceeding five hundred thousand men, as he may deem necessary for the purpose " pro])osed, '•'• equal- izing as far as j^racticable the number furnished by the several States." On the second point, that of pro- viding officers for the new troops, there arose at once questions not without their difficulties, on which it was all but inevitable that there should be discrepant opinions and antagonistic claims. To do justice to the regular army, and at the same time to allow the army to do no injustice to the country, to ap- preciate and appropriate for the new service whatever of good the former contained, and at the same time, and for the same reason, not to imperil the latter by giving commands to epauletted incom- petence while withholding them from men in civil life who had both the necessary talent and tact, was not an easy task ; and yet that was the course Mr. Wilson sought to pursue, the policy he attempted to adopt. Upon a motion that the president might select major-gen- erals and brigadier-generals for the regular army, he said, '' There are several officers in the army, of great (lislincrKiii, will) \\i)ul(l make ex- cellent major and brigadier gen- erals. I think, and have thought, that those men ought to be selected in preference to civilians, however eminent they may be in talent and character." Thousih these were his LIFE OP HENRY WILSOX, 99 sentiments, he afterwards offered an amendment, which was accepted, that the " governors of States fur- nishing volunteers under this act shall commission the field, staff, and company officers requisite for the said volunteers." Upon the bill to increase the regular army, a motion was made that no persons should be made major or brigadier generals who had not served ten years, and no person should be colonel, lieuten- ant-colonel, or major, who had not served two years, in the regular army. Mr. Wilson opposed the restriction. While his action on the previous bill had revealed his pur- pose to stand by the regular ar- my, do justice to its members, and regard with respectful deference all proper "regulations," it was ec^ually plain that there were con- siderations paramount even to them. They were the safety of the beleaguered government and of the imperilled nation. There was something more sacred in his eyes than " red tape " and " sen- iority " in the army. Accordingly, after alluding to the fact that " one- half of the officers should be taken from the old army," he pleaded for the policy that would di-aw largely from the recognized abilities and patriotism that shone and burned in the civil walks of life. " Thou- sands of the young men of the coun- try," he said, " from law-schools and colleges, are applying for com- missions ; and the government can select young men of talent and character. There never was a time in the history of the country when men of talent, men of culture, men of experience, men of fortune, were seeking as they are now seek- ing admission into the army." Al- luding to some irregularity that had been complained of, he said, " The object is to get a military force into the field as soon as pos- sible ; and the government is of course compelled by the exigencies of the service, b}' the condition of the countr}^ to do in this case what it has been compelled to do in some other cases, — ' disregard forms and regulations." The object had been, he said, " in departing from the rule of seniority in the appointments, to take officers who were fitted for responsible positions to make the army most effective." Objections having been urged against some features of the bill because of the danger of entailing upon the country a gigantic debt and a " standing army," which, said Mr. Nesmith of Oregon, " no man here Avill live to see smaller," Mr. Wilson expressed his willing- ness to leave that matter to the future. " This country under- stands," he said, " its own inter- ests : and, when this contest is closed, the public burdens will be such that the people will seek all proper ways to reduce their ex- penditures ; and, if there is a man in the army more than they want, they will strike that man's name from the rolls. Believing that the people then will know what they 100 LIFE OF HENKY WILSON. want, what their own interests require, and that they will be just as eouipetent to decide this ques- tion as we are to-day, I choose to leave the question with them." To the bill for the better or- ganization of the military estab- lishment, which, as reported on the 6th, contained eighteen sections, Mr. Wilson, on the 17th, offered an amendment, in the form of a sub- stitute, containing twenty sections. In explanation of its provisions he said, " I have labored night and day for many days and nights to fit and prepare this bill to meet the actual wants of the country ; and, in doing so, I have had to meet the interests, the jealousies, or the prejudices, of men connected with the army of the United States : but, in framing it, I have endeav- ored to be governed wholly by the public interest, and not by the wants and wishes of any particular men in the army or in the depart- ments." The joint resolution to approve and confirm certain acts of the president for suppressing insurrec- tion and rebellion of course excited much opposition, and led to acri- monious debate. In the course of the debate, the action of the gov- ernment in Maryland had been pronounced by one of its senators as " positive, arbitrar}'-, causeless, and wanton op})ression ; " Avhile aiKjilu-r liad askrd .Mi'. ^Vils(lll if lie was " ap[)iised (jf aii}' necessity for the sii.spi-n.-^ion of the writ of hubean covjihh in that State." He replied affirmatively, ex- pressing the conviction that a city which harbored and encouraged the conspirators who fired on the Massachusetts troops, as, obedient to their country's call, they were rallying to " defend the capital," richly deserved such suspension. " If there ever was," he said, " in any portion of the republic, any spot of earth, or any time, when and where the Avrit of habeas cor- pus ought to be suspended, the city of Baltimore is the spot, and the last five weeks the time, for its suspension." Though the war was not inau- gurated to destroy slavery, but to save the Union, it could not but happen that questions would arise in which the former Avould be in- volved, and concerning which the government, however anxious to avoid it, w^ould be compelled to commit itself to some line of policv- The first question that arose relat- ed to the principle that should be recognized in resrard to slaves wdio might escape and take refuge within Union lines. Should they, or should they not, be returned to their owners? There were many in the federal army whose sympa- thies were with the master rather than with the slave, and who were disposed to return the fugitive to his former owner. To meet the case, notice was given in the Sen- ate on the -Ith of December, ISGl, l)y Mr. Wilson, of his pur- pose to introduce a l)ill to pun- ish members of the arni\ I'oi LIFE OF HENEY WILSON. 101 arresting, detaining, or return- ing such fugitives ; and, on the 23d, he actually introduced such a bill. During the discussion which ensued, Mr. Saulsbury of- fered an amendment, making it penal for officers and soldiers to entice slaves from their masters. Mr. Wilson expressed his opposi- tion to the amendment, and " to any legislation protecting, cover- ing, or justifying slavery for loyal or disloyal masters." " What I want to do," he said, " is to put upon the statute-book of this coun- try a prohibition to the officers of the army from arresting, detain- ing, and delivering up persons claimed as fugitives by the use of military power." But simply not to return fugi- tives, it was soon found, failed of meeting both the exigencies of the case and the growing demands of the popular mind. Why these thousands of able - bodied men should not aid in defending and fiCThtino; the battles of the Union was a question that clamored for an answer. Nor was Mr. Wilson slow in reaching the conclusion, that here was an element of power that should not remain unem- ployed, much less be left for the enemy to use. On an amendment to a bill before the Senate concern- ing the militia, that there should be no exemption " on account of color or lineage," Mr. Wilson ex- pressed his admiration at the au- dacity and thoroughness with which the Southern leaders carried forward their Avork of treason, " using every man who could do any thing, no matter how halt or maimed he might be, if he could strike a blow." " We are," he said, " in one of the darkest periods of the contest : and we had better look our position in the face ; meet the responsibilities of the hour ; rise to the demands of the occasion ; pour out our money ; summon our men to the field ; go ourselves, if we can do any good, and overthrow this confederate power, that feels to-day, over its recent magnificent triumphs, that it has already achieved its independence. Bold and decisive action alone, in the cabinet and in the field, can re- trieve our adverse fortunes, and carry our country triumphantly through the perils that threaten to dismember the republic." Subsequently, during the dis- cussion of the measure, Mr. Wil- son reported a bill with fifteen sections relating to this subject. The bill was passed and approved on the 17th of July, 1862 ; and thus was taken one of those strides in the course of justice to others on which the nation entered main- ly in self-defence, — a measure which Senator Saulsbury bitterly denounced as " the most magnifi- cent scheme of emancipation yet proposed." As the war advanced with at best a varied experience of light and shade, successes and reverses, as the army was wasting away, and the "beginning of the end" 102 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON, did not appear, it became evident that tliere oui^lit to be not only more vigor infused into its opera- tions, but something more reliable than the system of voluntary en- listments to supply the waste of numbers, and to give confidence to both the army and the nation. To meet this great want, Mr. Wilson reported, from the Committee on Military Affairs, a bill for calling out and enrolling the national forces, and other purposes, in thir- ty-six sections. In explanation of its provisions Mr. Wilson said, — "Sir, we have endeavored to frame this great measure for the defence of the perilled nation against the blows of armed treason so as to bear as lightly as possible \i])on the toiling masses, and to put the burdens (as far as we could do so) equally upon the more favored of the sons of men. It is im- possible, in this world of inequality, to frame a measure of this character to bear equally upon all conditions of men ; but this bill has been framed in the earnest desire to make its bur- dens fill as gently as possible upon the poor and dependent sons of toil. But it is a high and sacred duty, rest- ing alike upon all the citizens of the republic, upon the sons of toil and misfortune and the more favored few, to labor, to suffer, ay, to die if need be, for the country. Never since the dawn of creation have the men of any age been summoned to the perform- ance of a higher or nobler duty than are the men of this generation in America. The pa.ssage of this great measure will clothe the president with aiiii)li.- autlmrity to suiiuii'in iurth tin- ' sons of the republic to the perform- ance of the high and sacred duty of saving their country now menaced, and the perilled cause of freedom and civilization in America, and of win- ning the lasting gratitude of coming ages, and that enduring renown which follows every duty nobly and bravely done. The enactment of this bill will give confidence to the government, strength to the country, and joy to the worn and weary soldiers of the repub- lic around their camp-fires in the land of the Rebellion." On the question of who should be exempted from the draft, there was quite a divergence of senti- ment. On the motion to exempt the clergy, Mr. Wilson said that he " would not exempt lawyers and clergymen ; " though subse- quently he offered and supported an amendment that " ministers of the gospel, or members of religious denominations, conscientiously op- posed to the bearing of arms, might be considered non-combatants, and be assigned to some other service." During the last session of the Thirty-seventh and in the Thirty- eighth Congress, Wilson introduced and carried through, besides the above-named, — A bill to facilitate the discharge of disabled soldiers. A bill to improve the organiza- tion of cavalry forces. A bill to amend an act for enroll- ing and calling out the national forces. A l)ill to establish a uniform sys- tem of ambulances. LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 103 A bill to increase the pay of sol- diers to sixteen dollars per month. A bill to provide for the exami- nation of officers of the army. A bill to re-organize the quar- termaster's department. A bill to incorporate the Nation- al Academy of Sciences. A joint resolution recommending the appointment of wounded sol- diers to office. In the Thirty-ninth Congress, 1866, Mr. Wilson introduced a bounty bill for the benefit of sol- diers in the war, which failed to pass ; but he was subsequently upon a committee of conference, where he secured an agreement upon the main provisions of the bill reported by him, and they were enacted into the present law. Gen. Scott, at the close of the extra session, 1861, wrote Wilson a warm letter of thanks for his ser- vices, and expressed the opinion that he had done more work at that session than all the chairmen of the military committees for twenty years ; and he did it well. Mr. Cameron too, secretary of war, pronounced his services " in- valuable." But the drafting of bills, and making of speeches, and watching measures on their passage, and taking care of them, is only a frac- tion of the duty of the chairman in time of war. During the four years of conflict, the people went to Washington, many with knap- sacks on their backs, and many others with only carpet-bags ; but. whether with knapsacks or only bags, a great many of them wanted some attention. Privates wanted to be made officers ; officers wanted promotion ; men and officers want- ed furloughs, or had been bothered about their pay or their rations, or had been abused or neglected by somebody ; and they must have the influence of the chairman to get their several cases looked into. Civilians wanted appointments for themselves or their friends in the departments or in the army ; or they wanted soldiers discharged because they were minors or non compos ; or they wanted contracts ; or they had some new patent-gun, or Greek fire, or infernal machine, which would end the war in less time than Gov. Seward predicted, if they could only get the generals or corporals of the army to ex- amine them. These folks came down upon him in swarms, — large numbers of ^nem with business that was legitimate enough and should be attended to, but not officially belonging to him. But nearly everybody knew Wilson : he had made a speech in their town, or brother Charles or broth- er John was personally acquainted with him ; and he had, besides, the reputation of being always ready to take up any case of suffering or hardship. So they were after him day and night, before breakfast and after dinner, on his Avay to the Capitol or to the War Department, at the committee-room, in the corridors, 104 LIFE OF HKNRY WILSON. and everywhere. Aiul then the let- ters, — tlie loni]^. ineL;il)le, nndeci- jtheraljle, recommendatory, com- phiining, soliciting, and condemna- tory, all sorts and kinds, and all to be attended to, acknowledged, and most of them answered, — these things kept Wilson hard at work lonij after midnischt nearly all the O CD ^ time. And 3'et he thought he was not doing enough. We well remem- ber walking with him one even- ing, after the adjournment, in tlie Capitol-grounds, and hearing him say that he was ashamed tliat he was not doing more for the cause, and that lie believed he should go home and raise a regi- ment for the war. A day or two after this, he expressed his firm intention to enter the military service, and started for Massachu- setts, where he raised the Twenty- second Regiment, nine companies of the Twenty-third Regiment, one company of sharpshooters, and two batteries of artillery. He went to Washington with the Twen- ty-second, encamped on Hall's Hill in Virginia, and ultimately resigned the colonelcy to Col. Gove, it being the decided opinion of leading men that he could not be spared from the committee and the Senate. Tlie Twenty-second was a very fine regiment; but, in getting it ready, he spent all his money, and ran in debt a thousand dollars in addition. Many of the soldiers of this regiment and the families of those who never came home have since been in distressed circumstances ; and no case has come to the knowledge of their first commander without meeting a generous response. We can say with certainty, that no soldier in distress has ever asked from AVil- son a contribution that he didn't get, if Wilson had the money. In order to make himself more famil- iar with the wants of the army and the details of the camp, Wil- son joined the staff of Gen. Mc- Clellan. This was the largest staff ever seen in Washington ; and Wilson learned many use- ful thing^s while connected with it, which were of use to him as a senator, and member of commit- tee. CHAPTER XV. Reconstruction. THE Tliirty-ninth Congr- -^-^untry and to mankind that evei which met Dec. 4, 18C5, \ _, , sat. The armies of the Rebellion one of the most important to the | had been crushed ; slavery had LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 105 gone down ; the rebel States which had been living under the confed- erate constitution and laws were — they did not exactly know where : and what to do, and how to do it ; what to enact in order to secure equal rights to all, black and white ; what should be done to prevent another rebellion, without at the same time being harsh and seemingly oppressive to those who had raised the one which had been put down, — these were grave prob- lems. They were much compli- cated by the condition of parties in the North. Had the people of the North been agreed, much of the difficulty of the situation would have been avoided ; for the insur- gents would have seen the full meaning of their defeat, and their submission would have been real, while now it was only pretended. They were conquered physically, but, in spirit and language and purpose, defiant as ever. The Democrats of the North kept alive the hope of a re-action in their favor in some of the States ; and, when that should come, they could, by the aid of the rebel votes, return to power ; and so they encouraged the rebel spirit, and denounced the Republicans as usurpers and ty- rants. The effect of this conduct compelled the Republicans to adopt measures for the protection of the Union-men and freed-men, which otherwise would have been wholly unnecessary ; and hence all the centralization, and all the acts complained of as tyrannical, came as a necessary consequence of the hostile, defiant, and rebellious atti- tude of those who had agreed to accept the situation. History will declare that no rebel — officer, pri- vate, politician, or citizen — who came in and frankly acknowledged his intention to accord to the col- ored race the rights that were acquired by the proclamation, and acted accordingly, has ever been refused full and complete amnesty in letter and spirit, or denied any of the rights or privi- leges, social, moral, or political, that are enjoyed by any of the most favored of the people. The trouble was, they wanted all with- out making this concession ; and whether to grant it or not consti- tutes the principal practical differ- ence in parties to-day. But the slaves were men now ; and, in the absence of any disposition on the part of the dominant white race to do them justice, their rights must be secured by the power that had granted them. The power to grant involves the power and duty to defend ; and in this case that power was the nation, and its prerogatives and responsibilities were now in the hands of the Republican party. Wilson, by the generosity of his nature and by conviction, was in favor of the mildest measures the nature of the case would permit, and grre securitj^; and, in many of b' ..jcbes before and during the llion, was always charitable to the actors, however severely he condemned and denounced the ac- lOG LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. tions. But he did not let liis kindly feelings blind him to the necessity of studying the situation, and adopt- ing such measures as would make plain the meaning of the bloody conflict. So much life and treasure must not be expended merely to get things back where they were in 18G0. It will be impossible to give a full account of his connection with measures during this Congress. A hasty sketch must suffice. In the course of the debate on the Freedmen's Bureau, Mr. Cowan of Pennsylvania, one of those con- servative gentlemen of the Repub- lican party who usually voted with the Democrats, and did all they could to deinoralize the party and defeat its policy, said, " Thank God, we are now rid of slavery ! Let the friends of the negro (and I am one) be satisfied to treat him as he is treated in Pennsylvania, as he is treated in Ohio, as he is treated everywhere where people have maintained their sanity upon the question." This was too much for "Wilson ; and he rejoined, in that pungent, crisp style for which he is distinguished, as follows : — " The senator from Pennsylvania tells us that he is the friend of the negro. What, sir, he the friend of the negro I Why, sir, there has hardly been a proposition before the Senate of the United States for the last five years, looking to the emancipation of the ne- gro and the protection of his rights, thiit that senator lias not sturdily op- pu.scd. He has hardly ever uttered a word upon this floor the tendenc}' of which has not been to degi'ade and be- little a weak and struggling race. He, comes here to-day, and thanks God that they are free, when his vote and his voice for five years, with hardly an ex- ception, have been against making them free. He thanks God, sir, that your work and mine — our work, which has saved a country and emancipated a race — is secured ; while from the word ' go ' to this time ho has made himself the champion of ' how not to do it.' If there be a man on the floor of the American Senate who has tortured the Constitution of the country to find powers to arrest the voice of this na- tion, which was endeavoring to make a race free, the senator from Pennsyl- vania is the man ; and now he comes here and thanks God that a work which he has done his best to arrest, and which we liave carried,, is accomplished. I tell him to-day that we shall carry these other measures, whether he thanks God or not, whether he op- poses them or not." (Laught&r and applause in the galleries.) In reply to -James Guthrie of Kentucky on the Civil-rights Bill, ]Mr. AVilson said, — " The senator tells us that the eman- cipated men ought to have their civil rio-hts; that the black codes fell with slavery : but the senator forgets that at least six of the re-organized States in their new legislatures have passed laws wholly incompatible with the freedom of these freedmen ; and so atrocious are the provisions of these laws, and so persistently are they carried into effect by the local authorities, that Gen. Thomas iu Mississippi, Gen. LIFE OF HEKRY WILSOX. 10- Svrayne in Alabama, Gen. Sickles in South Carolina, and Gen. Terry in Virginia, have issued positive orders forbidding the execution of the black laws that have just been passed. So unjust, so wicked, so incompatible, are these new black laws of the rebel States, made in defiance of the ex- pressed will of the nation, that Lieut. - Gen. Grant has been forced to issue that order which sets aside the black laws of all these rebellious States against the freedmen, and allows no law to be enforced against them that is not enforced equally against white men. "This order issued by Gen. Grant will be respected and obeyed, and en- forced in the rebel States with the mil- itary power of the nation. Southern legislators and people must learn, if they are compelled to learn by the bayonets of the army of the United States, that the civil rights of the freedmen must be and shall be respect- ed ; that these freedmen are as free as their late masters ; that they live under the same laws, shall be tried for their violation in the same manner, and, if found guilty, punished in the same manner and degree. " This measure is called for, because these reconstructed legislatures, in defi- ance of the rights of the freedmen and the will of the nation embodied in the amendment to the Constitution, have enacted laws nearly as iniquitous as the old slave codes that darkened the legislation of other days. The needs of more than four million colored men imperatively call for its enactment. The Constitution authorizes, and the national will demands it. By a series of legislative acts, by executive procla- mations, by military orders, and by the adoption of tbe amendraont to tlie Constitution by the people of tlie Unit- ed States, the gigantic system of hu- man slavery, that darkened the land, controlled the policy and swayed the destinies of the republic, has forever perished. Step by step we have marched right on from one victory to another, with the music of broken * fetters ringing in our ears. None of the series of acts in this beneficent legislation of Congress, none of the proclamations of the executive, none of these military orders protecting riglits secured by law, will ever be revoked or amended by the voice of the American people. There is now. ' No slave beneath that starry flag, — The emblem of the free.' " By the will of the nation, freedom , and free institutions for all, chains and fetters for none, are forever incorporat- ed in the fundamental law of regener- ated and united America. Slave codes and auction-blocks, chains and fetters and bloodhounds, are things of the past; and the chattel stands forth a man, with the rights and powers of the freemen. For the better security of these new-born civil rights, we are now about to pass the greatest and grandest act in this series of acts that have emancipated a race and disinthralled a nation. It will pass, it will go upon the statute-book of the republic, by the voice of the American people ; and there it will remain. From the verdict of Congress in favor of this great measure no appeal will ever be enter- tained by the people of the United States." This was confident and emphat- ic language enough, and grated 1(»S LIFE OP HENRY WILSON. harshly upon the ears of tlie Bour- bons, who were fancying a tremen- dous re-aetion ; but the course of the convention at Baltimore on the 10th of July, 1872, shows hoAv true was the statement, and how well Senator Wilson foresaw and comprehended the nature of the controversy and its results. Cow- an and Hendricks could little im- agine then how laboriously they were working to build up an em- bankment which they would so soon travel to Baltimore to help destroy. We approach now a point where Senator Wilson found it his duty to stand in opposition to Mr. Sum- ner on a question relating to the most judicious method of securing the rights of the colored race. The jf)int committee of fifteen, of Avhich Mr. Fessenden was the head on the part of the Senate, and Thad. Stevens on the part of the Mouse, brought forward a propo- sition to amend the Constitution by submitting to the States a new article : viz. : " Representatives and direct taxes shall be appor- tioned, among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respec- tive numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed ; pro- vided that, whenever the elective franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State on account of race or color, all persons of such race or color shall be excluded from the basis of representation." The purpose of this amendment was to secure suffrage to the freedmen ; but, in order to amend the Consti- tution, the amendment must be framed so that three-fourths of the States will vote for it. As the peo- ple of the States have always had the right to fix the franchise to suit themselves, and were very jealous of any infringement of that right by Congress, it w^as known to a certainty that a proposition to give the elective franchise to the freed- men would not command the ne- cessary three-fourths of the States ; but it was foreseen that every State would desire a full representation, and, to secure it, would allow the colored people to vote in order to have them counted in the basis of representation. The proposition encountered fierce opposition. The Democrats all opposed it because it would secure suffrage to the col- ored people, who, they said, were unfit to vote ; and Mr. Sumner op- posed it because it would commit the government to a principle which would exclude them from voting. The Democrats opposed it because it would help, and Mr. Sumner op- posed it because it would not help, them. Jack Rogers of New Jersey, a leading Democrat, was greatly ex- cited on the subject, and spoke at great length against the article. Mr. Marshall of Illinois, another of the magnates of the party, and friend of Greeley, declared the proposition " wholly untenable, monstrous, absurd, damnable in its provisions, a greater wrong and LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 109 outrage on the black race than any thing that has ever been advocated by otheTs." Mr. Nicholson of Delaware said, " If they (the Re- publicans) shall finally triumph in the mad schemes in which they are engaged, they will succeed in converting that heretofore sacred instrument, reverenced and obeyed till the present dominant party came into power, from a bond of union to a galling yoke of oppres- sion, — a thing to be loathed and despised." The things thus de- nounced were all indorsed at Bal- timore the other day by the Dem- ocratic Convention. Mr. Sumner, however, was the one who set it off in the highest style of condemnatory art. He said, — " It reminds me of that leg of mut- ton served for dinner on the road from Oxford to London, which Dr. Johnson with characteristic energy described as bad as bad could be, ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-dressed. So this com- promise is as bad as bad can be ; and even for its avowed purpose it is un- certain, loose, cracked, and rickety. It is no better than the ' muscipular abor- tion ' sent into the world by the ' partu- rient mountain.' It makes the Consti- tution a well-spring of insupportable tliraldom, and once more Hfts the sluices of blood destined to run until it comes to the horse's bridle. Adopt it, and you put millions of fellow-citizens under the ban of excommunication ; you will hand them over to a new anathema maranatha; you will declare that they have no political rights which white men are bound to respect. Adopt it, and you will cover the country with dishonor. Adopt it, and you will fix a stigma upon the very name of republic. As to the imagination there are moun- tains of light, so are these mountains of darkness ; and this is one of them. It is the very Kohinoor of blackness. Adopt this proposition, and you will be little better than the foul harpies who defiled the feast which was spread. The Constitution is the feast spread for the country ; and you are now hurrying to drop into its text a political obscenity, and to spread on its page a disgusting ordure, ' Defiling all you find, And, parting, leave a loathsome stench behind.' " In reply to these assertions Mr. Wilson said, — " He profoundly regretted to see in- dications that the amendment was doomed to defeat. My heart, my con- science, and my judgment, approve of this amendment ; and I support it without qualification or reservation. I approve of the purpose for which it is introduced. I approve it because I believe it would sweep the loyal States by an immense majority ; that no pub- lic man could stand before the people of the loyal States in opposition to it, or oppose it with any force whatever. I approve it because I believe, if it were put in the Constitution, every black man in America, before five years could pass, would be enfranchised, and weaponed with the ballot for the pro- tection of life, liberty, and property." Referring to the speech of Sum- ner, he said, — "We are told that it is immoral and indecent, an offence to reason and 110 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. couscience. Sir, this measure came into Congress with the sanction of the Committee on Reconstruction, com- posed as it is of men of individual lionor and personal character, and as true to the colored race as any other men here or elsewhere. It comes to the Senate hy an overwhelming vote of the House of Representatives. It is sustained hy ninety-nine out of every hundred journals that brought the present administration into power ; and, were it submitted to the American people, it would, I am quite sure, be sustained by men in the loyal States, who believe that the soldier who fought the battles of the republic is the equal of the traitor who fought against the country. I see no compromise in it, no surrender in it, no defilement of the Constitution in it, no impli- cation that can be drawn from it against the rights or interests of the colored race : on the contrary, I believe the black men from the Potomac to the Rio Grande would go for it, and rejoice to see it adopted. Being incorporated in the Constitution, the practical effect would be tliis, and only this : it would raise up a party in every one of these .States immediately in favor of the en- franchisement of the colored race. That party might be influenced b}' the love of power, by pride, by ambition. These men might begin the contest ; for they would not like to yield the power of their States in Congress : the}' might begin the battle, animated by no high and lofty motives; but, as soon as the di.scussion commijuced, it would aildress -itself to the reason, the heart, and to the conscience, of the p('0[)le. The advocates of negro enfranchisc- nient would themselves speedily grow lip to believe in the justice, equity, and right of giving the ballot to the black man. There would be discussion on every square mile of the rebel States. Apiieals would be made to their pride, their ambition, to their justice, to their love of fair play, to their equity. All the interests and passions, and all the loftier motives that can sway, control, and influence men, would impel them to action. They would co-operate with the friends of freedom thoughout the country. We would give them our influence, our voices, and our aid, iu fighting the battle of enfranchisement. They would have the support and the prayers of the poor black men of the South ; and, before five years had passed away, there would not be a rebel State that did not enfranchise the bonQman." Referring to the policy of " en- lightened Christian States " in re- fusing the right of suffrage to the negro, be said, — " After all the fidelity and heroic conduct of these men, prejudice, party- spirit, and conservatism, and all that is base and mean on earth, combine to deny the right of suflVage to the brave soldier of the republic. God alone can forgive such meanness ; humanity cannot. After what has taken jjlace, is taking place, I cannot hope that the constitutional amendment proposed by the senator from INlaine will receive a majority of three-fourths of the votes of the States : I therefore cannot risk the cause of an emanciijated raceujion it. In the J) resent condition of the nation, we must aim at practical results, not to establish political theories, however beautiful and alluring the}' uniy be." We iniau'iiie that no one can LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. Ill read this sketch of the debate, and the extracts from the speeches, without realizing at once the sin- cerity and the practical wisdom of Mr. Wilson. It was indorsed by the people of Massachusetts, and met the approval of the common sense of the nation. CHAPTER XVI. What a Working-man has done for Working-men. UPON the first entrance of Wilson into public life, he began to advocate measures tend- ing to give employment to work- ing men and women, and to open up to them all the chances for ad- vancement which republican insti- tutions afford. To this end, in the town-meetings of Natick, he joined the party which was in fa- vor of providing better houses for the common schools, apparatus, improved books, furnishing text- books to the children of the poor gratis, better teachers, and longer terms, and that wanted the town to buy a farm and a house for the unfortunate and poor. As has been related, in the legisla- ture his first important step was the presentation of a report in favor of the proper division of labor, and the means to enlarge the opportunities for work and the increase of wages. Farther •on he advocated the extension of the right of suffrage, and opposed the provision which degrades the man by depriving him of his riglit to vote when he has been stripped of his property and his health. He was a strong advocate of a provision to compel all corporations to issue stock in small denomina- tions, so that people of moderate means could invest their hundred or their fifty dollars in any busi- ness, and share in the profits of the water-power or other manufacto- ries. He has been a strong advo- cate of homestead acts, of laws exempting from seizure the poor man's furniture and a portion of his wages, of laws abolishing im- prisonment for debt, laws to open the public lands to actual settlers, and laws to shorten the hours of labor. It will be remembered that Con- gress enacted an eight-hour law for the benefit of the laborers on the public works ; but some of the officers in charge of forts, arsenals, and buildings, immediately reduced the pay of the employees in the same proportion as the reduction of the hours. This aroused the sensibilities of Senator Wilson ; and on the 29th of April, 1869, he wrote a sharp letter to Hon. John 112 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON". A. Rawlins, secretary of war, in wliich he stated the case Avith great abiUty, and showed how that con- struction defeated the intent of the statute. We give the conclu- sion of this letter : — " During the debate, I took occa- siou to say, iu substance, that I should Vote against Mr. Sberman's amend- ment, for the reason that I wished to give the eight-hour movement a fair trial ; that I thought the government employing a few hundred mechanics and laborers could afford to test the eight-hour experiment ; that I was not convinced that toiling men could per- form as much work in eight hours as ten hours, or that they would receive as much pay for eight hours as for ten hours ; but that it might be for tlie ma- terial, intellectual, and moral interests of the masses of the people, whose lot it was to toil for their subsistence, to reiluce the hours of labor ; and, if that reduction would be conducive to the interests of laboring-men and laboring- women, it would be a source of gratih- cation to every benevolent heart and every generous mind. I maintained that capital needed no champion in this country and in this age ; that we were made for something better and something higher in this country tlian to pile up a tliousand millions annu- ally ; that what we wanted to grow in this Christian land was a healthy race of men and women with cultivated heads and hearts and consciences ; that whatever tended to dignify labor or lighten its burdens, to increase its re- wards or.cnlarge its knowledge, should receive their sympathy, and command their support ; that, animated by these bcutiments, I should vote against Mr. Sherman's amendment, and for the bill as it came from the representatives of the people." (Sherman's amendment was, that the rate of wages should be the current rate at the time and place when and where the work was to be done.) "Xo senator suggested that the passage of the bill reducing the liours of labor one-fifth reduced the wages of labor one-fifth : on the contrary, all admitted that it reduced the hours of labor without reducing the rates of wages. Mr. Sherman's amendment was intended to reduce the rate of wages in proportion to the reduction of time. Sixteen senators voted for it to accomplish that avowed pui-pose : twenty-one senators voted against it to defeat the accomplishment of that pur- pose. TliB action of the officers of the government is in direct opposition to the declarations of senators, and in opposition to the vote of the Senate. The recent action of the House of Representatives is an emphatic dec- laration against the construction put upon tho law. I think this action of the House should be an admonition to those officers to revise their opinions, and revoke their orders. " Kespectfullj^ yours, "Hexry Wilsox." In a speech delivered at Faneuil Hall Oct. 14, 1868, he said, — " To provide for the expenses of that Democratic rebellion, the Eepub- lican party were compelled to take the responsibility of arranging a system * of taxation; and they so adjusted that taxation as to make the burden bear as lightly as possihle on the productive interests of the country aud u[)on the LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 113 Morking-men of the country. More than one-half of the duties levied on imports are assessed on wines, bran- dies, silks, velvets, laces, and other articles of luxury, chiefly consumed b3'^ the more wealthy portion of our coun- trymen. The duties imposed on the necessaries of life — upon tea, coffee, sugar, and other articles entering into the consumption of the masses of the people — are made as low as possible ; and discrimination is made in favor of our mechanical and manufacturing in- dustry. " The Republican party spurns this Democratic doctrine of taxing every species of property according to its value. It believes in discriminating in favor of poor, toiling men, and of putting the burden of taxation on ac- cumulated capital and large incomes. In time of war, when the nation need- ed money so much, the Republicans exempted nineteen out of every twenty dollars of the incomes of the people. This was done to relieve the working- men, whose small incomes were re- quired for the support of their fami- lies and the education of their chil- dren. We exempted all incomes un- der six hundred dollars ; and this exemption included the incomes of nearly all the laboring-men, mechanics, and small farmers, of the country. We taxed all incomes from six hundred dollars to five thousand dollars five per cent, and all incomes over five thou- sand dollars ten percent. That was not equal taxation; but it was just taxation ; for it was based on the sound policy of putting the burden upon capital, and taking the burden from labor. Now we have taken the tax from all incomes less than a thou- sand dollars, and we tax all incomes above a thousand dollars five per cent, tlius relieving the working-men and nearl}^ all the mechanics and farmers from taxation on incomes. We Re- publicans intend to stand or fall by this policy, which discriminates in fa- vor of the poor, the mechanics, the small farmers, and the working-men of the country. We serve notice on the Democratic party, on all the sup- porters of this anti-democratic ductviue of the equal taxation of every species of pi'operty according to its value, that we Republicans will never agree to the taxation of the little earnings of working-men at the same rate we tax the incomes of the Stewarts and the Astors, the great corporations and capitalists of the country. We give the Democracy notice that we will never tax sugar, coffee, and tea at the same rates we tax silks and wines and brandies; that we will never tax a gallon of milk as high as we tax a gal- lon of whiskey. We give the Democ- racy notice that we will not tax the tools of the mechanic, the horse of the drayman, the little homes and farms of the poor, and the incomes of work- ing-men needed for the support of them- selves and the support of their house- holds. We Republicans will never consent to the putting of the burdens of the government equally on the small accumulations of the poor and the great capitals and large interests of the country. That is the position of the Republican party ; and it is a position in favor' of the productive interests of the nation and the inter- ests of the working-men: and we Re- publicans mean to stand by it, or fall by it ; live by it, or die by it. Every laboring-man in America, every me- chanic, every farmer, and every busi- 114 LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. iiess-man, who desires to tlevelop the mighty resources of tliis country, and carry it upward and onward in a career of jtower and prosperity, shoukl spit upon and trample upon this dem- ocratic doctrine of equal taxation, which is against labor, and in favor of capital ; against the loyal, and in favor of the disloyal, portions of the laud." During the last session of this Congress, 1872, he made a propo- sition to add two to the number of commissioners to investigate the circumstances of working-people, to obtain statistics and information on the general subject of labor, and to suggest methods for the welfare and piomotion of the masses ; and he interested himself actively in support of the measure. The circumstances of Wilson's early life ; the poverty of his father ; the struggles of his mother to find bread for him and his brood of brothers, and to keep them clothed in decent garments ; his hard la- bors on the farm ; his weary and vain search for employment at only moderate wages ; his association with other young men striving with himself to become respecta- ble and useful in the world under great disadvantages and slight hopes of success ; his study of sla- very, and knowledge of the person- al deprivations and hardships of the colored race, with which he became cognizant in the flush of youth; ami his companionship willi nic- ch.uiics and operatives in mills and ^hops, — iiave all tended to kec}) his thuughls and sympathies with the down-trodden, the poor, and the common people. The prodigious influence of slavery in degrading labor in this country early im- pressed his mind ; and to get rid of that curse and abomination ap- peared to him to be the first and most immediately important step. That has been accomplished ; and the efi^ect of emancipation upon the white race is now becoming per- ceptible: but the long and ardu- ous labors and anxieties and dan- gers of Senator "Wilson in assisting to that consummation can never be properly recounted and under- stood. He has made more than thirteen hundred public speeches, a large majority of which were directly in the interests of the people who are doing the world's weary drudgery and necessary work. You can scarcely take one of his speeches, and open it any- where, that your eye will not see something for the common mass, — encouragement, sympathy, hope, or the defence of their rights, and their claims to manhood and pre- rogatives. The subject is ever u[)permost in his mind, and it comes out on every occasion. He has travelled from one end of the country to the other at all seasons, and many times worked all night for thousands of nights, giving his time, his thoughts, and his earn- ings to the cause of the poor, ab- solutely and without stint. In- stead of studying law, and putting his splendid abilities into the Su- preme Court at the rate of ten LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 115 thousand dollars the single case, as some have done, to place money in his own pocket, he has defended the rights of the country and of humanity without pay in the higher court of public opinion and popular appeal, and devoted, besides, nearly every dollar of his salary as a legisla- tor, and his pay as an author, which has been handsome, to the relief of the soldier and the unfortunate. Always and everywhere has he advocated and demanded equality, and a fair chance and a free field for every son and daughter of the race. And perhaps, after all his efforts and labors and trials and successes in his various schemes for the good of manldnd, his bril- liant example to the youth of America and the world, showing and proving what a poor, obscure, uneducated boy may accomplish when he resolutely takes hold of life in earnest, and perseveringly adheres to a purpose, is the most valuable legacy he will leave to his countrymen. He has assiduously labored to secure for all a chance, and the best chance, to be some- thing ; . he has urged them to try the experiment ; and he has done for himself what he would have them do for themselves. CHAPTER XVH. His "Work in Congress. TO convey an idea of the indus- try, and attention to business, of Senator Wilson, we make a tran- script of his part in the proceedings of two or three sessions. Thirty-ninth Congress. Eeports by Senator Wilson, Nos. 142, 789, 975, 1085, 1134, 1184, 1224, 1238, 1293, 1359, 1498, 1667, 1815, 1867, 1894, 1976, 1992, 1993, 2000. Eesolutions 75, 143, 183,-584, 694, 764, 999. Remarks on the District Suffrage Bill. Remarks on the bill for the admission of Nebraska. Remarks on the bill to protect the na- tional cemeteries. Remarks on the Tariff Bill. Remarks on the bill to amend the act incorporating Orphans' Home. Remarks on Bankrvipt Bill. Remarks on claims in insuiTectionary States. Remarks on the Civil Employes Com- pensation Bill. Remarks on the bill fixing rights of volunteers. Remarks on bill for relief of certain drafted men. Remarks on bill for relief of vagrant children in the District. Remarks on Military Government Bill. Remarks on Military Academy Bill. Remarks on Consular and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill. Remarks on bill to abolish peonage. 116 LIFE OF HENEY WILSON". Eeuuxrks on Louisiana Eeconstruction Bill. Eoniarks on bill to extend rations to certain officers. Eeniarks on bill to facilitate settlement of paymasters' accounts. Eemai'ks on bill to establish Depart- ment of Education. Kemarks on bill to provide compound interest notes. Kemarks on bill relative to courts- martial. Eemarks on bill relative to soldiers' bounties. Eemarks on bill relative to increase of pa}' of armj'-officers. Remarks on Tax Bill. Remarks on bill for admitting Colorado. Remarks on Fortification Bill. Remarks on Naval Aj^propriation Bill. Remarks on Tariff Bill. Remarks on bill relating to brevets. Fortieth Congress. Bill to fix the number of judges of Supreme Court. Bill to amend franchise act District of Columbia. Bill relating to judges of SuiDreme Court. Bill to amend National Currency Act. Bill to amend Tenure-of-office Act. Bill to reduce the army. Bill to re-organize the grades of army- officers. Bill to furnish supplies for Indian Bu- reau. Bill to consolidate infantry regiuients. Bill relating to freedmeu's hospitals. Bill to relieve the .soldiers who sus- taiiii-il Idsscs by disasters to the Kti;aiiiers '" \\'iiiii(.'ld Scott'' and "San Francisco.'' Bill tu reduce the militia in the South. Bill to establish a line of steamers to Europe. Bill to equalize distribution of bank- ing capital. Joint Resolution to drop from the rolls army-officers absent without leave. Joint Resolution to re-appoint Louis Agassiz regent Smithsonian Insti- tution. Joint Resolution donating cannon for a monument to Lincoln. Joint Resolution for an amendment of the Constitution. Joint Resolution for information relat- ing to the fisheries secured by the Alaska purchase. Joint Resolution in reference to estab- lishing a branch of Soldiers' Home on the Pacific coast. Joint Resolution in reference to man- agement of Freednien's Bureau. Joint Resolution for purchase of a col- lection of war-views. Joint Resolution calling for a list of pardons for ofiences against revenue- laws and for counterfeiting. Remarks on president's message. Remarks on bill to restore Indian Bu- reau to War Department. Remarks on resolution for payment of national debt. Remarks on bill concerning militia. Remarks on Pacific Railroad. Remarks on Copper Bill. Remarks on bill to provide for reduc- tion of forces. Remarks on suftrage amendment. Remarks on governments of Virginia and Texas. Remarks on Consular and Diplomatic P. ill. Remarks on Joint Resolution for print- ing medical history of the Rebellion. Remarks on bill for removing disabili- ties. LIFE OF HENRY "WILSON. 117 Remarks on Currency Bill. Remarks on Army Bill. Remarks on bill to fix status of judge- advocates. Remarks on bill relating to general of the army. Remarks on bill relating to additional bounties. Remarks on bill relating to military instructors. Remarks on joint resolution to com- plete Pacific Railway. Remarks on bill to strengthen public credit. Remarks on Legislative Appropriation Bill. Remarks on Post-office Appropriation Bill. Remarks on Civil Appropriation Bill. Remarks on bill relating to pay of committee clerks. The above are in addition to all merely private bills, joint resolu- tions, and remarks thereon, and incidental remarks. Forty-first Congress. Bill to establish lines of steamships. Bill for more equal distribution of cur- rency. Bill for relief of Orlando Brown. Bill relating to freedmen's hospitals. Bill to relinquish the interest of the United States in certain lands on the Pacific to San Francisco. Bill to appoint a commission to ex- amine claims of loyal persons for supplies, &c. Bill to grant two million acres of land for education in the District of Co- lumbia. Bill to remove disabilities from persons engaged in rebellion. Bill relating to Freedmen's Bureau. Bill relating to pensions. Bill relating to freedmen's hospitals. Bill to grant an increase of pension to widows of officers. Bill to remove disabilities of Alex- • ander Rives. Bill for relief of scouts and guides in Alabama. Joint Resolution for sale of arsenal at Bergen Heights. Joint Resolution for sale of Chatta- nooga Rolling- Mill. Joint Resolution donating Lincoln Hospital to Columbia Hospital for women. Joint Resolution relating to retirement of Gen. Heintzelman. Joint Resolution authorizing the sec- retary of war to take charge of cemeteries at Antietam and Gettys- burg. Joint Resolution respecting pay of enlisted men. Joint Resolution for protection of sol- diers and their heirs. Joint Resolution to drop from the rolls certain officers absent without leave. Joint Resolution donating certain con- demned material to the Industrial Home School. Joint Resolution authorizing the presi- dent to make a survey for a ship railway or canal across the Isthmus of Darien. Joint Resolution calling for copy of contracts for ordnance with Norman Wiard. Joint Resolution to define the meaning if the eight-hour law. Remarks on Currency Bill. Remarks on Pacific Railway, and gov- ernment interest therein. Remarks on Resolution for protection of soldiers and their heirs. lis LIFE OF HENEY WILSOX. Eoniarks on rosolutiou relating to bre- vet appointments. Iteniarks on bill for removing dis- abilities. Eemarks on Deficiency Bill. Eemarks on El Paso I'acific Eailroad. Remarks on Resolution concerning pay of Southern senators. CHAPTER XVIII. Conclusion. HENRY WILSON has now been presented to the read- er in his character as a public man and legislator ; and the limits as- signed to this work prevent any extended description of his man}" and important labors in various causes and directions. As an effec- tive campaigner, he has had more experience than any man now living ; and his speeches furnish the statistics and the facts which carry conviction to the minds of the sober, reflecting, honest classes of the country, whose judgment is influential, and whose opinions prevail in the small villages and school-districts of the land. In 1857, in the spring, he went to Kansas, and found the fi-ee-State men desponding, inactive, and pro- posing to stand still, and let the enemy have it all their own way. Wilson saw this would not an- swer ; that there must be action : and the people of the Territory, the free-State men, must organize, and make fight. After many days' labor, he succeeded in converting the leading men to liis views : and lie llien came buck to Massa- chusetts, and, by persevering effort, succeeded in raising funds to carry on the campaign in Kansas ; and by this means the Territory was saved to freedom. As an editor and author, Wilson has achieved an honorable success. In 1848 he purchased " The Boston Republican " to advocate in its columns the measures and princi- ples of the Free-soil party ; but his engagements on the stump, and in his business as a manufacturer, pre- vented him from giving to it close personal attention. The mercan- tile instincts of Boston were then not in harmony with the Free-soil movement ; and hence patronage in the way of advertising was not to be had to any amount. Finan- cially the investment was a failure, and he lost heavily. He has written two volumes on the Antislavery Measures in Con- gress, and one on the Reconstruc- tion Measures, which are valuable and interesting. His principal work, " The History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave-Power in America," is a work of much larger scope and pretensions ; anel the hrst LIFE OF HENRY WILSON. 119 volume, recently published, has re- ceived the highest encomiums of the leading critics in the coun- try. " The Albany Journal," " Bos- ton Traveller," " Boston Globe," " New- York Tribune," and most of the principal newspapers in the large cities, have spoken of it as eminently fair, clear, truthful, in- teresting, well conceived, well ex- ecuted, and a valuable contribution to our literature. It has drawn special letters of approval from W. H. Seward, William Lloyd Garrison, and other distinguished men. In boyhood he saw the lament- able effects of the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage in causing crime, and in keeping the common people in their condition of poverty and degradation; and he early re- solved to abandon their use, and do what he could to persuade others to. He initiated the Con- gressional Temperance Society, and by its agency and influence suc- ceeded, for a time at least, in saving more than one brilliant man of genius from degradation, and their constituents from the dishonor which is brought upon a people through the frailty of represen- tatives addicted to the vice of intemperance. A late disgraceful demonstration at a city in Connec- ticut provokes comparisons from ■which we refrain, as the people of the country — those who imbibe as well as those who do not — are able to judge of the propriety and the importance of having in high office and for rulers those only who can command themselves. The following, which we clip from a newspaper, has been the rounds ; but it is worthy of a continued circulation, and we, forward it on its mission : — Moral Bravery. Twenty years ago a young man went to Washington with a petition to Con- gress from the people of old Massachu- setts. While in that city, he was in- vited to dine with the celebrated John Quincy Adams. Many great men sat at the table. The young man had been poor, and was then only a mechanic in moderate circumstances. During dinner, Mr. Adams said to him, — " Will you take a glass of wine with me, sir ? " The young man was a temperate man ; but the eyes of many greater than himself were upon him. They were all wine-drinkers, and it was no small matter to decline such a request from his venerable host. No wonder the young man was embarrassed ; that he blushed and hesitated. It was a trying moment for him ; but he was a true man. He had real manhood, and he stammered, — " Sii', I never take wine." Nobly said, young man ! Massachu- setts heard that answer, and under- stood it. She saw in Henry Wilson a man that could be trusted ; and she made him one of her senators. To-daj^, as for several years past, he is known as Senator Wilson. God bless him ! May our readers follow his example, and, however and by whomsoever tempted, stick to their principles ! 120 LIFE OF HENRY WILSOX. In 1808 Mr. Wilson united with the Congregational Church, and since then has given much of his time, talents, and money in for- warding the enterprises of the de- nomination and of the Church universal. When Wilson was fairly estab- lished in Natick, he brought his father and mother there, that he might aid them and care for them in their declining years ; and, not- withstanding his incessant labors and engagements, they were never overlooked or neglected. His wife's mother has for years been a member of his family, and speaks of his devotion as in no wise short of a son's in its warmth and con- stancy. While he was in Europe in 1871, visiting the places of in- terest, studying the phases of soci- ety, meeting and conversing with the statesmen and with men of science and letters, he let no week pass without writing to his mother-in-law, now more than eighty years of age, and with no property to lead him to expect any return through the kindly remembrance of a testamentary devise. Among his neighbors there is never a whisper or hint of lack on his .part of personal integrity, neighborly kindness, or faithfulness to the great causes whose cham- pionship he has assumed. That he is ambitious none will deny : but tlie cause of freedom, the welfare of mankind, the eleva- tion of the masses, have never been in the market to be disposed of for the gratification of his per- sonal aspirations ; and the making of money out of his positions has never been even alleged against him. Had he not been ambitious, he would not have succeeded. We do not present Henry Wil- son as a perfect man, for he is in- tensely human ; but as an organiz- er, a peace-maker, a wise counsellor, an efficient legislator, a far-seeing statesman, a dutiful son, and a specimen product of American institutions, we trust the reader will find him in the front rank, and worthy to wear the honors for which he has been designated. J. R. OSGOOD & CO.'S BOOKS IN PRESS. IN OCXOBKR. The Poet at the Breakfast Table. By 0. W. Holmes, 1 vol. r2mo. $2.00. (October 17.) Hints on Household Taste. By Cbarles L. Eastlake. Edited f<»r American Use, by Charles C. Perkins. 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Illustrated in Silhouette by WiNSLOw Homer. 1 vol. 8vo. Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier. Household Edition. Complete, from new plates, •with Portrait. 1 vol. 12mo. $2.00. Uniform with " Household Tennyson." A New Juvenile. By C. A. Stephens, Illustrated. 1 vol. 16rao $L50. RISE AND FALL OF THE SLAVE POWER IN THE UNITED STATEf:. By HENRV AAriT c^-^ In Three Volumes [Vol. II. will be published earb "' ic73. »"<:' Vol. III. early in i: - i SENATOR WILSON'S thorough study of the origin and early growth of the ? this country, and his intimate iiersonal knowledge of the latter stages of i"- culniinated and swiftly fell, admirably qualify him to write its history. He has sc ' without partisan feeling, as it will be regarded by future generations. The first volume r'elates the beginning of Slavery, with the arrival of the shi] at Jamestown, its expansion and development, its aggressive designs and operation: of the government, dnwn to the annexation of Texas in 1845. The second volum< history of the struggle between Slavery and Freedom in Congress, m the States, in the Territo in the press, in the jjulpit, from 1845 t" ^'^^ beginning of the Civil War in 1861. The third vol will recount the overthrow of Slavery by the war, the reconstruction measures, and the en chisement of the colored race. The work, when complete in three volumes, will be a standard history of Slavery, and o gigantic conflict in which it involved the nation and wrought its own destruction. NOTICES OF THE PRESS. •' The present volume, which brings the history down to the admission of Texas as a Slave Mate in 1845, forms an admirable oper-ng of the work, and furnishes an ample pledge of the ex- cellence of its future character. One of the nv>st striking features in the execution ot^ the volume is its conscientious thoroughness of detail. The author has carried his well-known habits ot sedulous industry into the accomplishment of his task. He has evidently shrunk from 110 labor in cjucst of materials for his narrative, or in their orderly and lucid arrangement and exhibition. No minute- ness of detail in the account of legislative i)roceedings. or the action of public bodies, has proved wearisome to his hands, or impairtid the freshness of his spirit. Every significant topic comes in for its due share of notice, and is presented with an exactness of .statement and a clearness of illus- tration which leave nothing to be desired for the perfect "ctimpfwliension of the subject." — ,V'tw- )''>7- Tribune. • It is an invaluable manual of facts concerning the Slave Tower, evincing much research on the part of the author in cases beyond his persimal knowledge, and throughout e.xhibiting a thorough mastery of the subject, and the amplest ability in treating of the details."' — Boston 7 r,tn